The wind buffets you from every angle.

风从四面八方刮来。

And when the storm finally moves away,leaving in its place a clear, still, starlit night,

当随后雷雨逐渐消散，寂静、明澈的星夜终于来临时，

you can hardly remember where thosethunderclouds were, let alone which thunderclap belonged to which flash oflightning.

你将难以述说，哪里到处都是雷雨云，哪个闪电引来了哪个雷声。

The time I am now going to tell you aboutwas like that.

我现在要讲述的时期与这有极相似之处。

It was then that a storm broke that sweptaway the whole, vast Roman empire.

当时历史的雷雨爆发了，它摧毁了罗马帝国。

We have already heard its rumblings: theywere the movements of the Germanic tribes at the frontiers, the incursions ofthe Cimbri and the Teutones,

雷声我们已经听到了：那是边境地区日耳曼人的迁徙，西姆布赖人和条顿人(均为古代日耳曼民族之支系)的入侵，

and the campaigns led by Caesar, Augustus,Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and many others in their efforts to keep those tribesout of the empire.

凯撒、奥古斯都、图拉真、马库斯.奥里利厄斯和许多别的人为了阻止日耳曼部落入侵罗马帝国而不得不对他们进行的战争。

But now the storm had come. It had startedat the other end of the world – almostas far away as the wall built by the Chinese emperor Shih Huang-ti, the enemyof history.

但是现在暴风雨来了。它开始于辽阔的远方，几乎在历史的敌人秦始皇的长城脚下。

No longer able to mount their raids onChina, Asiatic hordes from the steppes had turned westwards in search of newlands to plunder.

自从亚洲的草原游牧部落不再能够掠夺中国，他们便向西迁徙，到那里去掠夺。