The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere — Page 5

征服过程中所采用的战术，以及征服者随后的行为，都忠实地体现了西班牙人古老的本性。

The tactics employed in the conquest and the subsequent behavior of the conquerors were true to the old Spanish nature,

一位玛丽女王统治时期说话直率的英国人，曾对这种本性作过极为简洁的描述——那时卡斯蒂利亚的战吼响彻全球，甚至险些笼罩那座"权杖之岛"，

so succinctly characterized by a plain-spoken Englishman of Mary's reign, when the war-cry of Castile encircled the globe and even hovered ominously near the "sceptered isle,"

那时权力的陶醉使人的性格如此鲜明地暴露出来：

when in the intoxication of power character stands out so sharply defined:

「他们极为精明老练，能够凭借智慧，在一段时间内约束和驾驭自己的本性，使自己的行事方式迎合他们乐于结交之人的习俗；

"They be verye wyse and politicke, and can, thorowe ther wysdome, reform and brydell theyr owne natures for a tyme, and applye ther conditions to the manners of those men with whom they meddell gladlye by friendshippe;

他们那险恶的本性，人们直到沦于其统治之下才能知晓；

whose mischievous maners a man shall never know untyll he come under ther subjection;

但到那时，他便会将其看得清清楚楚、感受得真真切切：

but then shall he parfectlye parceve and fele them:

因为在尚未达到目的之前，他们惯于虚情假意；一旦目的得逞，便施以压迫与暴政，其程度之甚，举世无出其右。」

for in dissimulations untyll they have ther purposes, and afterwards in oppression and tyrannye, when they can obtain them, they do exceed all other nations upon the earthe."

在这种精神的驱使下，凭借长期与摩尔人征战所磨砺出的无畏勇气与狂热激情，

In the working out of this spirit, with all the indomitable courage and fanatical ardor derived from the long contests with the Moors,

他们将当地土著民众压服，但所施加的枷锁，尚不及他们套在美洲土著人身上的那般令人难以忍受，

they reduced the native peoples to submission, but still not to the galling yoke which they fastened upon the aborigines of America,

那沉重的枷锁，使一个拉斯·卡萨斯的光辉在一群皮萨罗之流中得以熠熠生辉。

to make one Las Casas shine amid the horde of Pizarros.