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本文的描述性语言运用非常出色，配上优美的声音，营造出了一座梦幻空中花园的氛围，适合读者反复听读。
The air was filled with mist and a great star was seen descending from the sky and Alexander fell into his eternal sleep. So runs the legend. He had died at the very heart of the ancient East, Babylon; built by the gods, the city of a thousand dreaming 1)spires, the city of the Tower of Babel and the 2)exile of the Jews. Babylon of 3)Belshazzar and his 4)wicked feast. The city, too, of the mysterious, 5)elusive Hanging Gardens, which—so the Greeks who wrote upon the wonders tell us—were the gardens of 6)Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, with fields so high the plowmen passed above your head and great high trees, whose hanging roots were watered by the misty 7)spray of playing fountains.
What on earth, then, was this wonder of the world? Well, most of the Greeks who wrote about the Hanging Gardens had never been to Babylon. They knew, though, of the wondrous gardens of the East, the gardens that the Persian Kings called paradise. And so they simply seemed to have put the two together and made for us a dream of gardens far away in distant Babylon, the grandest, most exotic things in all the Orient.
What was it, though, that had inspired this special vision of a garden hanging in the air? The answer is the 8)humble farms of ancient Greece, where hanging fields—or more properly translated, 9)terraced fields (strips of land on hillsides)—was a usual way of growing crops.
Olives and wheat and lovely wine and lots of good cheese from sheep and goats; it’s the classic Mediterranean diet. And it was invented, or at least developed, in ancient Greece from about a thousand BC and that 10)protein-rich diet actually became the powerhouse that fueled the great flowering of Greek culture. It was a completely new sort of diet. The older civilisations had been by rivers with rich 11)silt beside them, lots of lovely water and a tremendous diversity of crops. There’s none of that in Greece, of course. It was hard land, hard soil, and although the takings were good, it wasn’t a very diverse existence. So when these brave, tough guys went to the East, they were absolutely astonished by what they saw. They were astonished by the softness of the landscape and by the richness of the crops, by the 12)apricots and cherries that were growing that you could just pick off the trees, and by the incredible richness of the people themselves too. And when they returned to Greece they carried this extraordinary dream of paradise, which after all, is only the Persian word for garden, straight back into the West and it’s remained there ever since.
The Greeks said that the Hanging Gardens were built to please a homesick Persian 13)concubine, an imitation of the mountains of her homeland on the flat plain of Iraq. It is filled with all sorts of trees and looks exactly like a mountain country. The several parts of it lies one on another and resemble a theatre. It’s thickly planted and the trees’ broad leaves nearly touch each other and make delightful show. Waters 14)gush forth from high fountains, sink down to the ground and are forced up again in twists and 15)spirals, rushing and 16)swirling through the pipes. Bountiful moisture bathes the tree roots, and the soil is 17)perpetually moist. Such was the dream of paradise, the dream of 18)Philo of Byzantium, in the third century before Christ.
在薄雾弥漫的天空中，一颗巨星陨落了，亚历山大大帝自此长眠。至少传说是如此描述的。他卒于古代东方的正中心巴比伦——诸神所建之国，由千座梦幻般的高塔组成，也是巴别塔和犹太人被驱逐之城。巴比伦以伯沙撒王和他的凶宴而闻名，也是神秘莫测的空中花园之城。据古希腊人对这个奇迹的记载，空中花园是尼布甲尼撒二世宫殿中的御花园，园中的田地远高于地面，犁地人在你头上走过，高大树木的悬根由跳跃的喷泉洒出的薄雾浇灌。
那么，这座世界奇迹到底是什么？其实，大多数著述空中花园的希腊人从未涉足巴比伦。他们只听说过东方有一座神奇的花园，古代波斯国王称之为天堂。于是希腊人就把两者拼凑在一起，为我们编造了一座在遥远巴比伦的梦幻花园，一个东方最宏伟、最具异国风情的奇迹。
然而，究竟是什么激发了人们对空中花园的特殊幻象呢？答案是古希腊的几亩薄田，在那里悬空田——更准确地说应该是“梯田”（山坡上的条形土地）——是一种常见的种植方式。
橄榄、小麦、美酒和大量的绵羊及山羊奶做成的奶酪是地中海地区典型的日常饮食。大约在公元前一千多年以前，古希腊人发明了（至少是发展了）这种饮食。这些富含蛋白质的饮食为希腊文化的灿烂辉煌提供了强大的动力。这是一种全新的日常饮食。而此前的古老文明都是建立在大河岸边由淤泥滋润的肥沃土地上，拥有丰富的水资源和种类繁多的农作物。希腊却没有这么好的条件。在希腊到处都是坚地硬土，尽管庄稼收成颇丰，但种类却并不多。无怪乎这些勇敢、坚忍的希腊人来到东方的时候，不禁惊讶于眼前所见。他们惊讶于土地的柔软和农作物的丰盛，惊讶于随手可摘的杏子和樱桃，而且也惊讶于当地人们自身的多样性。当他们返回希腊故里的时候，还留恋着这个非凡的天堂美梦。在波斯语里面，“天堂”只不过是花园的意思。希腊人把这个词带回了西方，一直存留至今。
古希腊人说，空中花园的建造是为了取悦一位思乡的波斯王妃，于是在平坦的伊拉克平原上模仿建造出她家乡的山脉。园中遍布各种树木，无异于一座山中之国。有些地方层层相叠，宛如剧院一般。树木栽种密集，枝叶扶疏，宽阔的树叶紧致成荫，令人心旷神怡。泉水由高高的喷泉中涌出，渗入地面，然后又扭曲旋转着被喷起，通过引水道中奔流旋转。充足的湿气滋润着树木的根部，土壤永远保持着湿润。这就是天堂之梦，公元前三世纪拜占庭的斐罗之梦。
翻译：Oliver
本文的描述性语言运用非常出色，配上优美的声音，营造出了一座梦幻空中花园的氛围，适合读者反复听读。
The air was filled with mist and a great star was seen descending from the sky and Alexander fell into his eternal sleep. So runs the legend. He had died at the very heart of the ancient East, Babylon; built by the gods, the city of a thousand dreaming 1)spires, the city of the Tower of Babel and the 2)exile of the Jews. Babylon of 3)Belshazzar and his 4)wicked feast. The city, too, of the mysterious, 5)elusive Hanging Gardens, which—so the Greeks who wrote upon the wonders tell us—were the gardens of 6)Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, with fields so high the plowmen passed above your head and great high trees, whose hanging roots were watered by the misty 7)spray of playing fountains.
What on earth, then, was this wonder of the world? Well, most of the Greeks who wrote about the Hanging Gardens had never been to Babylon. They knew, though, of the wondrous gardens of the East, the gardens that the Persian Kings called paradise. And so they simply seemed to have put the two together and made for us a dream of gardens far away in distant Babylon, the grandest, most exotic things in all the Orient.
What was it, though, that had inspired this special vision of a garden hanging in the air? The answer is the 8)humble farms of ancient Greece, where hanging fields—or more properly translated, 9)terraced fields (strips of land on hillsides)—was a usual way of growing crops.
Olives and wheat and lovely wine and lots of good cheese from sheep and goats; it’s the classic Mediterranean diet. And it was invented, or at least developed, in ancient Greece from about a thousand BC and that 10)protein-rich diet actually became the powerhouse that fueled the great flowering of Greek culture. It was a completely new sort of diet. The older civilisations had been by rivers with rich 11)silt beside them, lots of lovely water and a tremendous diversity of crops. There’s none of that in Greece, of course. It was hard land, hard soil, and although the takings were good, it wasn’t a very diverse existence. So when these brave, tough guys went to the East, they were absolutely astonished by what they saw. They were astonished by the softness of the landscape and by the richness of the crops, by the 12)apricots and cherries that were growing that you could just pick off the trees, and by the incredible richness of the people themselves too. And when they returned to Greece they carried this extraordinary dream of paradise, which after all, is only the Persian word for garden, straight back into the West and it’s remained there ever since.
The Greeks said that the Hanging Gardens were built to please a homesick Persian 13)concubine, an imitation of the mountains of her homeland on the flat plain of Iraq. It is filled with all sorts of trees and looks exactly like a mountain country. The several parts of it lies one on another and resemble a theatre. It’s thickly planted and the trees’ broad leaves nearly touch each other and make delightful show. Waters 14)gush forth from high fountains, sink down to the ground and are forced up again in twists and 15)spirals, rushing and 16)swirling through the pipes. Bountiful moisture bathes the tree roots, and the soil is 17)perpetually moist. Such was the dream of paradise, the dream of 18)Philo of Byzantium, in the third century before Christ.
在薄雾弥漫的天空中，一颗巨星陨落了，亚历山大大帝自此长眠。至少传说是如此描述的。他卒于古代东方的正中心巴比伦——诸神所建之国，由千座梦幻般的高塔组成，也是巴别塔和犹太人被驱逐之城。巴比伦以伯沙撒王和他的凶宴而闻名，也是神秘莫测的空中花园之城。据古希腊人对这个奇迹的记载，空中花园是尼布甲尼撒二世宫殿中的御花园，园中的田地远高于地面，犁地人在你头上走过，高大树木的悬根由跳跃的喷泉洒出的薄雾浇灌。
那么，这座世界奇迹到底是什么？其实，大多数著述空中花园的希腊人从未涉足巴比伦。他们只听说过东方有一座神奇的花园，古代波斯国王称之为天堂。于是希腊人就把两者拼凑在一起，为我们编造了一座在遥远巴比伦的梦幻花园，一个东方最宏伟、最具异国风情的奇迹。
然而，究竟是什么激发了人们对空中花园的特殊幻象呢？答案是古希腊的几亩薄田，在那里悬空田——更准确地说应该是“梯田”（山坡上的条形土地）——是一种常见的种植方式。
橄榄、小麦、美酒和大量的绵羊及山羊奶做成的奶酪是地中海地区典型的日常饮食。大约在公元前一千多年以前，古希腊人发明了（至少是发展了）这种饮食。这些富含蛋白质的饮食为希腊文化的灿烂辉煌提供了强大的动力。这是一种全新的日常饮食。而此前的古老文明都是建立在大河岸边由淤泥滋润的肥沃土地上，拥有丰富的水资源和种类繁多的农作物。希腊却没有这么好的条件。在希腊到处都是坚地硬土，尽管庄稼收成颇丰，但种类却并不多。无怪乎这些勇敢、坚忍的希腊人来到东方的时候，不禁惊讶于眼前所见。他们惊讶于土地的柔软和农作物的丰盛，惊讶于随手可摘的杏子和樱桃，而且也惊讶于当地人们自身的多样性。当他们返回希腊故里的时候，还留恋着这个非凡的天堂美梦。在波斯语里面，“天堂”只不过是花园的意思。希腊人把这个词带回了西方，一直存留至今。
古希腊人说，空中花园的建造是为了取悦一位思乡的波斯王妃，于是在平坦的伊拉克平原上模仿建造出她家乡的山脉。园中遍布各种树木，无异于一座山中之国。有些地方层层相叠，宛如剧院一般。树木栽种密集，枝叶扶疏，宽阔的树叶紧致成荫，令人心旷神怡。泉水由高高的喷泉中涌出，渗入地面，然后又扭曲旋转着被喷起，通过引水道中奔流旋转。充足的湿气滋润着树木的根部，土壤永远保持着湿润。这就是天堂之梦，公元前三世纪拜占庭的斐罗之梦。
翻译：Oliver