世界小史 第3章:檔案館

It's like a bottomless well. Does all this looking down make you dizzy?

它就像一個無底的深井。從上往下看，你會頭暈目眩嗎?

It does me. So let's light a scrap of paper, and drop it down into that well.

我會的。那么讓我們點燃一張紙片扔下去吧。

It will fall slowly, deeper and deeper.

它會慢慢落下去，越落越深。

And as it burns it will light up the sides of the well.

燃燒的時候它會照亮井壁。

Can you see it? It's going down and down.

你能看到它嗎?它將會繼續(xù)往下落。

Now it's so far down, it's like a tiny star in the dark depths.

現在它已經落到很遠的地方，就像黑暗深處的一顆小星星。

It's getting smaller and smaller ... and now it's gone.

它越來越小…… 現在它消失了。

Our memory is like that burning scrap of paper.

我們的記憶就像那燃燒的紙片。

We use it to light up the past.

我們用它來照亮過去。

First of all our own, then we ask old people to tell us what they remember.

首先是我們的過去，然后我們請老人們講述他們記憶中的東西。

After that we look for letters written by people who are already dead.

此后我們尋找死去的人們寫的文字。

And in this way we light our way back.

用這種辦法我們照亮了回去的路途。

There are buildings that are just for storing old scraps of paper that people once wrote on–they are called archives.

有一些專門為收藏人們曾經在上面寫字的紙片的房子——它們被稱作檔案館。

In them you can find letters written hundreds of years ago.

你可以在里面找到幾百年前寫的文字。

In an archive, I once found a letter which just said:

在一個檔案里館里，我曾經找到一封信：

"Dear mommy, yesterday we ate some lovely truffles, love from William."

“親愛的媽咪，我昨天吃了一些可愛的松露。愛你的威廉。”

William was a little Italian prince who lived 400 years ago.

威廉是一位生活在400年前的意大利小王子。

Truffles are a special sort of mushroom.

松露是一種特殊的蘑菇。