It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

既是太平盛世，也是乱世纷争；既是智慧的时代，也是愚昧的时代；既是信仰的纪元，也是怀疑的纪元；既是光明的季节，也是黑暗的季节；既是希望的春天，也是绝望的冬天。

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

我们面前应有尽有，我们面前一无所有。我们都直奔天堂，我们都背道而驰——总之，那个时代与当下如此相似，以至于一些最喧嚣的权威人士坚持认为，无论是好是坏，都只能用最高级的比较来加以评判。

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.

英格兰王位上坐着一个大下巴的国王和一张平淡无奇的王后；法兰西王位上则坐着一个大下巴的国王和一张美丽动人的王后。

In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.

在这两个国家里，掌管国家粮仓的权贵们都清清楚楚地意识到，世间万物都已尘埃落定，再无变数。

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.

那是1775年的主的年份。

Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this.

正如当下一样，精神启示在那个黄金时代也曾降临英格兰。

Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.

南科特夫人最近刚度过了她二十五岁的福寿之年，据此前卫军中一位预言士兵所言，伦敦与威斯敏斯特即将被吞噬，这一壮观景象即将上演。

Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs.

就连科克巷的幽灵，也不过是在十多年前敲响警钟，宣告它的使命完成。如今，今年那些灵异事件（似乎缺乏原创性）又在重复着同样的预言。

Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

不久前，英格兰王室和人民从美国的英国臣民大会那里收到了世俗层面的信息。说来奇怪，这些信息对人类的重要性，远超科克巷幽灵以往传递的任何预言。

France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it.

法国在精神事务上总体而言不如其拥有盾牌与三叉戟的姐妹国那么幸运，却顺顺当当地走下坡路——印钞票，然后把钱花个精光。

Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.

在基督教牧师的教导下，法国人还热衷于一些人道主义壮举，比如判处一名青年割手、用钳子扯舌、活活烧死，只因他在雨中未能跪拜路过他身前约五六十米的肮脏僧侣队伍。

It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history.

当那名受害者被处决时，法国和挪威的森林里很可能已有树木在生长，而这些树木早已被命运之匠标记，将被砍伐制成某种可移动的框架，里面装着麻袋和刀具，这在历史上堪称恐怖的象征。

It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.

巴黎周边那些重农区的农舍里，或许就停放着那些被死亡之神选定为革命运送工具的简陋马车。这些马车当日或许还躲在雨中，身上溅满乡间泥土，被猪拱着，被家禽栖息。

But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.

但那位匠人和那位农夫虽日夜劳作，却始终保持沉默。没有人听见他们悄无声息地忙碌着——若有人怀疑他们醒着，那就是无神论和叛国行为了。

In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting.

在英格兰，几乎没有足够的秩序和保护值得民族自豪。

Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers’ warehouses for security;

首都每晚都有武装抢劫和拦路打劫事件发生。家庭被公开警告，若不将家具搬入家具仓库保管，就不要出城。

the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of “the Captain,” gallantly shot him through the head and rode away;

黑暗中的拦路强盗在光天化日之下竟是城中商人，当被认出身份并遭拦截时，他会以"队长"的身份从容地开枪射杀对方，然后扬长而去。

the mail was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, “in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:” after which the mail was robbed in peace;

邮递队遭七名劫匪伏击，卫兵击毙三人，却因弹药告罄被剩余四人反杀；最终邮递队被洗劫一空。

that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue;

伦敦市长这位显赫人物竟被一名拦路强盗劫持，劫匪当着市长随行人员的面将其洗劫一空。

prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball;

伦敦监狱的囚犯与狱警展开搏斗，执法人员竟向他们发射装满霰弹和子弹的霰弹枪。

thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles’s, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way.

宫廷客厅里，贵族领主的钻石十字架被窃。火枪手们进入圣吉尔斯区搜查违禁品，结果暴民向火枪手开火，火枪手反击暴民——所有这些事件都被视为稀松平常。

In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition;

在这乱象之中，刽子手始终忙碌不已，却始终无所作为。

now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer’s boy of sixpence.

时而将形形色色的罪犯成排吊死，时而处决周二抓获的周六作案的入室盗窃犯，时而在纽盖特监狱集体焚烧罪犯，时而在威斯敏斯特大厅门口焚烧宣传册。今日处决穷凶极恶的杀人犯，明日又绞死偷走农民孩子六便士的小偷。

All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.

所有这些骇人听闻的事件，以及千千万万类似的暴行，都发生在1775年这平凡而又动荡的年份里。

Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand.

在伐木工人和农民们默默劳作的同时，那两个大嘴巴和两个面容平凡却又自视高贵的人物，正趾高气扬地行使着他们的神圣权利。

Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures—the creatures of this chronicle among the rest—along the roads that lay before them.

1775年，无数权贵与芸芸众生——包括这部编年史中提到的那些人——都在各自的人生道路上跌跌撞撞。