发布时间 : 星期五 文章007《经济学家》读译参考之七：博斯普更新完毕开始阅读e6464114866fb84ae45c8d32
《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
TEXT 7
Bridge across the Bosporus Feb 23rd 2006
From The Economist print edition
MORE than 80 years after being ★supplanted[1] by the Turkish republic, the Ottoman empire will not die. Bloodshed in the Balkans; Arab and Kurdish nationalism across the Middle East; ★Turcophobia[2] in Armenia; （1）all are echoes of a dynasty that survived for 600 years▲ and whose dominions e____ ① ____ from the Danube through the Levant to Algiers. Few historians have dared compress the story of this extraordinary enterprise into a single volume. “Osman's Dream” shows why.
Osman led one of several Turcoman tribes, of Central Asian descent, that were competing for control of Anatolia at the beginning of the 14th century. (The dream in question was interpreted to mean that Osman would found an imperial house; （2）“Ottoman” is the European corruption of his name▲). By the mid-16th century, Osman's descendants had killed off the Byzantine Empire and t____ ② ____ its capital, Constantinople (renamed Istanbul), into the world's greatest mosque city. They also had control of the Muslim holy places, Mecca and Medina, in Arabia.
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
The empire's expansion was driven in part by Islamic notions of a just war against the ★infidel[3], but the Ottomans were also notable for their relative tolerance. Jews fleeing the ★Spanish inquisition[4] were welcomed to Istanbul. Christian converts became key figures in the bureaucracy, armed forces and the ★harem[5]. Even at the empire's peak, however, the tide of history was turning in Europe's f__ ③ .___ Challenged by the Europeans' intellectual and military ★prowess[6], hampered by the fiscal ineptitude of its leaders, and powerless to suppress the petty nationalisms that infected its Balkan possessions, （3）the empire began to unravel—at times abruptly, at others imperceptibly. ▲
With her doctorate in the ★fiendishly[7] complex discipline of Ottoman studies, （4）Ms Finkel is ideally placed to make sense of this. ▲But “Osman's Dream” leaves one with the impression that the author's scholarship—she includes a 30-page bibliography—could have been put to better use. Her apparent desire to record every event of significance sometimes r___ ④ ___ in a dispiriting succession of military campaigns and diplomatic intrigues; （5）one would have preferred a ★pruning[8] of the ★thicket[9] of events and more discussion of what it all means.▲
(6)The author offers glimpses of a more satisfying book. ▲She includes a suggestive aside on the blending of French and Persian inspirations in the Ottoman palace-building of the early 18th century—as good an emblem for the empire's strained multiculturalism as you could wish for. There are ★tantalising[10]
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
allusions to both the fascination and the repulsion which animated the later Ottomans' ★ambivalence[11] t___ ⑤ ___ Europe. And one wishes that (7)Ms Finkel had developed her intriguing defence of the empire in the 19th century, “multi-confessional, geographically incoherent and economically backward”▲, in the face of demands, on the part of ★impertinent[12] Europeans, that it reform internally.
The limitations of Ms Finkel's approach are most apparent in her ★perfunctory[13] treatment of the empire's final, ★tumultuous[14] years. She deals no more than cursorily with the Armenian massacres during the first world war, preferring to observe that scholarship has suffered from the highly-charged contemporary d___ ⑥ ___ over whether the killings constitute genocide. This point would have made a worthwhile ★footnote[15].(8) As a substitute for an account of what happened, it is a ★cop-out[16].▲
★★★NOTES★★★ [1]supplant：vt.取代，排挤
如：The word processor has largely supplanted electric typewriters. Word处理程序已很大程度上取代了电动打字机。
It is my view that the new historical disciplines complement rather than supplant traditional history.我认为这些新的历史学科对传统历史学起到了补充而非排挤作用。
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
▲近义词辨析▲
replace， supplant， supersede
这些动词在用来指把某人或某物辞退或搬走并用他人或他物代替他、她或它时具可比性。
? Replace是指成为或提供代替他人或他物的物或人的相等物或替换物， 尤其是对已经丢失、耗尽、用竭或被辞退：
“A conspiracy was carefully engineered to replace the Directory by three Consuls” (H.G. Wells).
“细心策划密谋以三个执政官取代督政府” (H.G,威尔斯）。
“I succeed him [Benjamin Franklin, as envoy to France] ; no one could replace him” (Thomas Jefferson).
“我接替他［本杰明?富兰克林，作为派往法国的特使］；没有人能够取代他” （托马斯?杰弗逊）。
? Supplant通常指用阴谋诡计或卑鄙的手段来取代他人的位置：
“The rivaling poor Jones, and supplanting him in her affections, added another spur to his pursuit” (Henry Fielding). “对抗的可怜的琼斯，以及用她的影响取代他的位置的举动进一步刺激了他的追求” （亨利?费尔汀）。
? Supersede 是指用另一个被认为更优秀、更有价值、更有用或者更年轻的人或物代替某人或某物：
“In our island the Latin appears never to have superseded the old Gaelic speech” (Macaulay). “在我们的岛上古老的盖尔语似乎永远被拉丁语所取代” （麦考
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