四级翻译茶里茶气

堪称“全国第六感等级考试”的大学英语四六级考试今天又又又开考啦。这次四级翻译考了铁观音、龙井茶、普洱茶。为什么不考奶茶？

借（cèng）此（gè）机（rè）会（diǎn），我们当然是来看看茶的起源那些事儿咯。

无注释原文：

The opium-fuelled history of Chinese tea

FindChinaInfo

The history of tea is closely connected to the trade in opium during a particularly dark chapter of England’s colonial past.

During the 18th and 19th century, the British were importing large amounts of tea from China. They wanted to trade with other goods but the Chinese did not want to trade, preferring to just be paid in cash for their tea shipments, explains Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: A History of Tea from East to West.

It was this historical aspect that first captured Hohenegger’s interest, leading to a career of researching the history of tea. She also curates a museum show about tea culture and the history of tea for the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

◉ Drawn to tea through opium

China was an old culture with an inventive technology and Hohenegger says that the Chinese didn't need anything from the British. This disparity led to a serious trade imbalance between the two countries, which the English wanted to rectify.

“The English started looking for an item they could sell into China that would fix this trade imbalance and this item, believe it or not, was opium. They were not the first ones to do this. The Dutch did it too, but the English were the ones who turned a fairly small business into a huge drug empire. They started setting up opium plantations and processing plants in Northern India and they were shipping the opium to China through independent traders. It became a huge, huge business.”

While tea may not have been the direct cause of the resulting Opium Wars, it was definitely the trigger for the trade imbalance that fuelled it. “In the larger historical context at the time, this was when you could characterise China as a waning empire. It was an empire that had lost touch with the rest of the world. The Chinese kept thinking they were the centre of the world when all sorts of other things were happening in Europe.”

“At the time, the English had become the most powerful economic and military power in the world. The English were in expansionary colonial mode and were not used to being told no. The Chinese, on the other hand, thought of the English as mere little merchants who were supposed to kowtow in front of the Emperor. They were definitely on a collision course.”

It was her initial interest in the dark history of Chinese tea, particularly in the Opium Wars, that set Hohenegger on her pursuit of the full interesting story, including just how people first discovered tea.

◉  A brief history of tea

“The origins of tea as an agricultural crop are definitely Chinese. As a crop, it is at least 2,000 years old. By some accounts, it is even 3,000 years old or more,” speculates Beatrice Hohenegger.

She recounts a famous Chinese legend about the beginnings of tea. “According to the legend, Shennong, one of the mythical fathers of Chinese civilization, was, among other things, a herbalist. One afternoon, his servant was boiling water because they already knew that only boiled water was safe for drinking. The wind blew some leaves into this water and the water coloured.”

“Because Shennong was always experimenting with different kinds of herbs, he thought he would try this concoction. He liked it, found it refreshing and interesting and decided it was a good beverage to give to his people. That's the beginning of tea.”

◉  The journey to the west

Tea probably spread first to the Middle East from Arab traders who traded over the land routes, Hohenegger surmises. “What really made a difference and brought tea to the European countries was the beginning of maritime trade in the 1500s and the beginning of the 1600s. The first official import of tea from China into Europe is by the Dutch in 1610. The Portuguese were the first to enter China, and they probably brought tea first, but it went unrecorded.”

The Europeans were not searching for tea, though. “These maritime traders did not know what tea was. They went for spices such as nutmeg and mace, for silk and these kinds of profitable commodities. They brought tea first almost as an afterthought. There are funny stories about how tea was used when people didn't know what it was and how they were supposed to prepare it,” Hohenegger recounts.

One such story was about a Portuguese sailor who brought tea leaves home to his mother. “The mother did not know what it was. The sailor left the house and the mother boiled the tea and served the actual leaves to her guests. They certainly didn't like it.”

“When the sailor came back, he asked his mother about the tea. Told that the guests did not like what they were served, the sailor asked what his mother did to the water. The mother, all aghast, replied, 'The water? Why in the world would I save the water when the stuff itself was so dreadful? I threw it away, of course!'”

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

The opium-fuelled history of Chinese tea

FindChinaInfo

The history of tea is closely connected to the trade in opium during a particularly dark chapter of England's colonial past.

茶的历史与英国殖民历史中特别黑暗的时期中的鸦片贸易密切相关。

表示“鸦片”，英文解释为“a drug made from the seeds of a poppy (= red flower) that is used to control pain or to help people sleep. It can make a person who takes it want more of it and is sometimes used by people as an illegal drug for pleasure”。

表示“殖民地的；殖民主义的”，英文解释为“relating to a colony or colonialism”举个🌰：

Turkey was once an important colonial power.

土耳其曾是一个显赫的殖民强国。

During the 18th and 19th century, the British were importing large amounts of tea from China. They wanted to trade with other goods but the Chinese did not want to trade, preferring to just be paid in cash for their tea shipments, explains Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: A History of Tea from East to West.

在18和19世纪，英国人从中国进口了大量的茶叶。他们想用其他商品进行贸易，但中国人不想进行贸易，宁愿只是用现金支付他们的茶叶运输，《玉液：从东方到西方的茶叶历史》（Liquid Jade: A History of Tea from East to West）的作者比阿特丽斯·霍亨尼格（Beatrice Hohenegger）解释说。

表示“进口”，英文解释为“to buy or bring in products from another country”举个🌰：

We import a large number of cars from Japan.

我们从日本进口大量的汽车。

反义词：

📍export表示“出口；输出”，英文解释为“to send goods to another country for sale”。

It was this historical aspect that first captured Hohenegger's interest, leading to a career of researching the history of tea. She also curates a museum show about tea culture and the history of tea for the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

正是历史方面首先吸引了霍亨尼格的兴趣，促成了她研究茶叶历史的职业生涯。她还为洛杉矶加利福尼亚大学（UCLA）的福勒文化历史博物馆策划了一个关于茶文化和茶叶历史的博物馆展览。

表示“组织”，英文解释为“If an exhibition is curated by someone, they organize it.”举个🌰：

The exhibition has been curated by the artist Bernard Luthi.

展览会是由艺术家伯纳德·卢西组织的。

◉ Drawn to tea through opium 通过鸦片被茶吸引

China was an old culture with an inventive technology and Hohenegger says that the Chinese didn't need anything from the British. This disparity led to a serious trade imbalance between the two countries, which the English wanted to rectify.

中国拥有创造性技术的古老文明，霍亨尼格说，中国人不需要英国人的任何东西。这种差距导致了两国之间严重的贸易不平衡，英国人想纠正这种情况。

disparity /dɪˈspærɪtɪ/表示“（尤指不公正的）不同，差异”，英文解释为“a difference between two or more things, especially an unfair one”，如：a disparity between the rates of pay for men and women 男性与女性在工资水平上的差异。

相反的：

📍parity表示“（尤指薪金、权利或权力的）相同，相等，同等”，英文解释为“the state of being equal, especially having equal pay, rights, or power”举个🌰：

Women workers are demanding parity with their male colleagues.

女职工在要求与男同事享有同等的待遇。

parity还可以指两个不同国家的货币单位的“平价，等价”(equality between the units of money from two diffe-rent countries）；

📍2019年「妇女节」联合国秘书长发表讲话时，就提到：

📍在2018年政府工作报告中，居民收入增长和经济增长基本同步；就处理为：Basic parity in personal income growth and economic growth.

rectify表示“矫正；改正”，英文解释为“If you rectify something that is wrong, you change it so that it becomes correct or satisfactory.”如：rectify any errors/mistakes，举个🌰：

I did my best to rectify the situation, but the damage was already done.

我竭尽全力去挽回局面，但损害已经造成了。

“The English started looking for an item they could sell into China that would fix this trade imbalance and this item, believe it or not, was opium. They were not the first ones to do this. The Dutch did it too, but the English were the ones who turned a fairly small business into a huge drug empire. They started setting up opium plantations and processing plants in Northern India and they were shipping the opium to China through independent traders. It became a huge, huge business.”

“英国人开始寻找一种他们可以卖给中国的物品，以解决这种贸易不平衡，这个物品，信不信由你，就是鸦片。他们并不是第一个这样做的人。荷兰人也做过，但正是英国人把一个相当小的生意变成了巨大的毒品帝国。他们开始在印度北部建立鸦片种植园和加工厂，并通过独立贸易商将鸦片运往中国。这成了一个巨大的，巨大的生意。”

表示“（尤指热带的）种植园”，英文解释为“a large farm, especially in a hot part of the world, on which a particular type of crop is grown”。

熟词僻义，作名词，表示“工厂；电厂”，英文解释为“A plant is a factory or a place where power is produced.”

While tea may not have been the direct cause of the resulting Opium Wars, it was definitely the trigger for the trade imbalance that fuelled it. “In the larger historical context at the time, this was when you could characterise China as a waning empire. It was an empire that had lost touch with the rest of the world. The Chinese kept thinking they were the centre of the world when all sorts of other things were happening in Europe.”

虽然茶叶可能不是导致鸦片战争的直接原因，但它绝对是助长贸易不平衡的导火线。“在当时更大的历史背景下，这时你可以把中国描述为一个衰落的帝国。这是一个与世界其他地区失去联系的帝国。中国人一直认为他们是世界的中心，而欧洲正在发生各种其他事情。”

昨天摩尔庄园为啥这么火啊？文章标题就是'Mole's World' game fuels nostalgia among China's young adults，表示“加剧；增加；加强；刺激；激起”，英文解释为“To fuel a situation means to make it become worse or more intense.”如：to fuel speculation/rumours/fears 引起猜测/谣传/恐惧，举个🌰：

The result will inevitably fuel speculation about his future.

该结果将不可避免地加剧人们对他的前途的猜测。

wane /weɪn/作动词，表示“衰减；减弱”，英文解释为“to become weaker in strength or influence”举个🌰：

By the late 70s the band's popularity was beginning to wane.

上世纪70年代末，这支乐队的人气开始下滑。

“At the time, the English had become the most powerful economic and military power in the world. The English were in expansionary colonial mode and were not used to being told no. The Chinese, on the other hand, thought of the English as mere little merchants who were supposed to kowtow in front of the Emperor. They were definitely on a collision course.”

“当时，英国已经成为世界上最强大的经济和军事力量。英国人正处于扩张性的殖民模式，不习惯被人拒绝。另一方面，中国人认为英国人仅仅是小商人，应该在皇帝面前磕头。两国的冲突在所难免。”

merchant /ˈmɜːtʃənt/ 表示“商人；批发商；（尤指）进出口批发商”，英文解释为“a person who buys and sells goods in large quantities, especially one who imports and exports goods”如：builders' merchants (= who sell supplies to the building trade) 建材批发商。

表示“磕头，叩头；卑躬屈膝，唯命是从”，英文解释为“to show too much respect to someone in authority, always doing what you are told and changing what you do in order to please them”

📍Kowtow, which is borrowed from kau tau in Cantonese Chinese (koutou in Mandarin), is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. In Sinospheric culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It was widely used to show reverence for one's elders, superiors, and especially the Emperor, as well as for religious and cultural objects of worship. In modern times, usage of the kowtow has been reduced. （Wikipedia）

表示“必然导致冲突；势必发生冲突”，英文解释为“If two or more people or groups are on a collision course, they are doing or saying things that are certain to cause a serious disagreement or fight between them.”举个🌰：

All attempts at diplomacy have broken down and the two states now appear to be on a collision course.

所有的外交努力都失败了，现在两国发生冲突似乎在所难免。

It was her initial interest in the dark history of Chinese tea, particularly in the Opium Wars, that set Hohenegger on her pursuit of the full interesting story, including just how people first discovered tea.

正是她最初对中国茶叶的黑暗历史感兴趣，特别是在鸦片战争中，使霍亨尼格开始追求完整有趣的故事，包括人们最初是如何发现茶叶的。

◉ A brief history of tea 茶的简要历史

“The origins of tea as an agricultural crop are definitely Chinese. As a crop, it is at least 2,000 years old. By some accounts, it is even 3,000 years old or more,” speculates Beatrice Hohenegger.

“茶叶作为一种农业作物，其起源肯定是中国的。作为一种作物，它至少有2000年的历史。根据一些说法，它甚至有3000年或更久的历史。”比阿特丽斯·霍亨尼格推测。

表示“推测；猜测；推断”，英文解释为“to form an opinion about sth without knowing all the details or facts”举个🌰：

We all speculated about the reasons for her resignation.

我们大家都推测过她辞职的原因。

📺美剧《24小时》（24 Hours）中的台词提到：I wouldn't want to speculate at this time, 这次我不想妄加揣测。

She recounts a famous Chinese legend about the beginnings of tea. “According to the legend, Shennong, one of the mythical fathers of Chinese civilization, was, among other things, a herbalist. One afternoon, his servant was boiling water because they already knew that only boiled water was safe for drinking. The wind blew some leaves into this water and the water coloured.”

她讲述了一个关于茶叶起源的著名中国传说。“根据这个传说，中国文明的神话之父之一神农氏，是一位种草药师。一天下午，他的仆人正在烧水，因为他们已经知道，只有烧开的水才可以安全饮用。风把一些树叶吹到这水里，水就变色了。”

表示“讲述；叙述；描述”，英文解释为“to describe how something happened, or to tell a story  ”举个🌰：

He recounted his adventures since he had left home.

他讲述了离家以后的很多奇遇。

📍recount早在《摩登情爱》：良莠不齐但时显魅力一文中出现过，A flashback-driven episode starring Dev Patel and Catherine Keener, in which the two leads recount stories of love and regret, is ultimately more effective. 在由戴夫·帕特尔（Dev Patel）和凯瑟琳·基纳（Catherine Keener）主演的倒叙一集中，两个主角讲述了爱与遗憾的故事，最终效果更好。

1）表示“传说；传奇故事”，英文解释为“a story from ancient times about people and events, that may or may not be true; this type of story”；

2）表示“（尤指某领域中的）传奇人物”，英文解释为“a very famous person, especially in a particular field, who is admired by other people”，如：a jazz/tennis legend 爵士乐/网球的传奇人物。

表示“药草种植者；药草商”，英文解释为“a person who grows or sells herbs for use as medicine”。

“Because Shennong was always experimenting with different kinds of herbs, he thought he would try this concoction. He liked it, found it refreshing and interesting and decided it was a good beverage to give to his people. That's the beginning of tea.”

“因为神农氏一直在试验不同种类的草药，他想，他要尝试这种调制方法。他很喜欢，觉得清爽有趣，并决定把它作为一种不错的饮品献给百姓。这就是茶的起源。”

表示“（古怪或少见的）混合物，调合物，调配品（尤指饮料或药物）”，英文解释为“a strange or unusual mixture of things, especially drinks or medicines”如：a concoction of cream and rum 奶油和朗姆酒调制的怪味饮料。

表示“饮料”，英文解释为“Beverages are drinks.”如：alcoholic beverages 含酒精的饮料。

◉ The journey to the west 通往西方之旅

Tea probably spread first to the Middle East from Arab traders who traded over the land routes, Hohenegger surmises. “What really made a difference and brought tea to the European countries was the beginning of maritime trade in the 1500s and the beginning of the 1600s. The first official import of tea from China into Europe is by the Dutch in 1610. The Portuguese were the first to enter China, and they probably brought tea first, but it went unrecorded.”

茶叶可能首先从在陆路上进行贸易的阿拉伯商人那里传播到中东，霍亨尼格猜测。“真正产生影响并将茶叶带到欧洲国家的是15世纪和16世纪初的海上贸易的开始。荷兰人在1610年第一次正式从中国进口茶叶到欧洲。葡萄牙人是第一个进入中国的人，他们可能首先带了茶叶，但没有记录。”

surmise /səːˈmaɪz/ 表示“推测，猜测，臆测”，英文解释为“to guess something, without having much or any proof”举个🌰：

The police surmise (that) the robbers have fled the country.

据警方推测，抢劫犯已经逃离了这个国家。

The Europeans were not searching for tea, though. “These maritime traders did not know what tea was. They went for spices such as nutmeg and mace, for silk and these kinds of profitable commodities. They brought tea first almost as an afterthought. There are funny stories about how tea was used when people didn't know what it was and how they were supposed to prepare it,” Hohenegger recounts.

不过，欧洲人并不是在寻找茶叶。“这些海上商人不知道什么是茶。他们去寻找香料，如肉豆蔻，寻找丝绸以及有利可图的商品。他们几乎是在事后才把茶叶带走。当人们不知道茶是什么以及应该如何喝的时候，就会有一些关于他们是如何使用茶的趣事，”霍亨尼格叙述道。

表示“（调味）香料”，英文解释为“a substance made from a plant, used to give a special flavour to food”。

肉豆蔻（Myristica fragrans），又名肉蔻、肉果、玉果、麻醉果，是一种重要的香料、药用植物。生长于热带地区的常绿植物，常见于东南亚、澳洲及加勒比海地区，尤以印度尼西亚和格林纳达产量最大。

肉豆蔻的果实是肉豆蔻（nutmeg；肉豆蔻的种子）和肉豆蔻皮（mace；肉豆蔻的假种皮）的来源，二者都是常见的香料，用于食品、菜肴的调味，前者可制作香精油。肉豆蔻含有肉豆蔻醚（myristicin），能够产生兴奋及致幻作用。如服用过量，可产生幻觉甚至昏迷现象。

表示“事后想法；事后添加的事物”，英文解释为“an idea, thought, or plan that was not originally intended but is thought of at a later time”举个🌰：

She only asked me to her party as an afterthought.

她原本没有请我去参加她的聚会，只是后来才想起来的。

One such story was about a Portuguese sailor who brought tea leaves home to his mother. “The mother did not know what it was. The sailor left the house and the mother boiled the tea and served the actual leaves to her guests. They certainly didn't like it.”

其中一个故事是关于一个葡萄牙水手把茶叶带回家给他母亲。“母亲不知道这是什么。水手离开了家，母亲煮了茶，并把真正的茶叶端给她的客人。客人当然不喜欢茶叶。”

“When the sailor came back, he asked his mother about the tea. Told that the guests did not like what they were served, the sailor asked what his mother did to the water. The mother, all aghast, replied, 'The water? Why in the world would I save the water when the stuff itself was so dreadful? I threw it away, of course!'”

当水手回来时，他向母亲询问茶的情况。水手被告知客人不喜欢吃的东西，他问他母亲对茶水做了什么。母亲大吃一惊，回答说：‘水？我为什么要留着那些水，那水太差了吧？我当然是把它倒掉了！’"

aghast /əˈɡɑːst, əˈgæst/ 表示“吓呆的，惊骇的”，英文解释为“suddenly filled with strong feelings of shock and worry”举个🌰：

He looked at her aghast.

他惊恐地看着她。

表示“可怕的；糟糕的；惊人的”，英文解释为“very bad, of very low quality, or shocking and very sad”举个🌰：

The food was bad and the service was dreadful.

食物很差劲，服务也很糟糕。

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