I shudder when I think of the calamities of our time. For twenty years the blood of Romans has been shed daily between Constantinople and the Alps. Scythia, Thrace, Macedon, Thessaly, Dacia, Achaea, Epirus — all these regions have been sacked and pillaged by Goths and Alans, Huns and Vandals. How many noble and virtuous women have been made the sport1 of these beasts! Churches have been overthrown, horses stalled in the holy places, the bones of the saints dug up and scattered.
Indeed, the Roman world is falling; yet we still hold up our heads instead of bowing them. The East, indeed, seemed to be free from these perils; but now, in the year just past, the wolves of the North have been let loose from their remotest fastnesses, and have overrun great provinces. They have laid siege to Antioch, and invested cities that were once the capitals of no mean2 states.
Non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum,
Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas,
Omnia poenarum percurrere nomine possim.*
Well may we be unhappy, for it is our sins that have made the barbarians strong; as in the days of Hezekiah, so today is God using the fury of the barbarians to execute His fierce anger. Rome’s army, once the lord of the world, trembles today at sight of the foe.
Who will hereafter believe that Rome has to fight now within her own borders, not for glory but for life? and, as the poet Lucan says, “If Rome be weak, where shall strength be found?”
And now a dreadful rumor has come to hand.3 Rome has been besieged, and its citizens have been forced to buy off their lives with gold. My voice cleaves to my throat; sobs choke my utterance. The city which had taken the whole world captive is itself taken. Famine too has done its awful work.
The world sinks into ruin; all things are perishing save our sins; these alone flourish. The great city is swallowed up in one vast conflagration; everywhere Romans are in exile.
Who could believe it? Who could believe that Rome, built up through the ages by the conquest of the world, had fallen; that the mother of nations had become their tomb? Who could imagine that the proud city, with its careless security and its boundless wealth, is brought so low that her children are outcasts and beggars? We cannot indeed help them; all we can do is sympathize with them, and mingle our tears with theirs.
shudder v. 不寒而栗
calamities n. 灾难
Constantinople 古代土耳其首都，今名伊斯坦布尔 (Istanbul)
Scythia...Epirus 古罗马帝国的各个部分，相当于现代意大利南部、希腊、巴尔干半岛、土耳其等地部分地区
sack v. 掠夺
pillage v. 蹂躏
Goths 日耳曼人的一支
Alans 古代高加索以东地区民族
Huns 匈奴人
Vandals 东日耳曼族
stall v. 放置
peril n. 危险
fastness n. 据点
overrun v. 侵占
siege n. 围困
Antioch 小亚细亚古城，在今土耳其境内
invest [旧] v. 包围，封锁
mean adj. 细小的；卑微的
＊这里的拉丁文原文出自罗马诗人维吉尔 (Virgil, 70-19 BC) 所作的史诗《埃涅阿斯记》(Aeneid) 第四卷625至627行。
Hezekiah 犹太国王 (715-687 BC)
hereafter adv. 此后
Lucan 罗马诗人 (39-65 AD)
besiege v. 围困
cleave v. 黏着
utterance n. 话语
captive n. 被俘者
famine n. 饥馑
perish v. 灭亡
conflagration n. 大火灾
in exile 流离失所
mingle v. 混在其中
中译 圣杰罗姆致友人书
想到我们这个时代的种种灾难，真令人不寒而栗。二十年来，从君士坦丁堡到阿尔卑斯山之间，每天都在流着罗马人的鲜血。塞西亚、色雷斯、马其顿、塞萨利、达西亚、厄基亚、伊庇鲁——所有这些地区都遭到哥德人、亚兰人、匈奴和汪达尔人的蹂躏和掠夺。多少高贵纯洁的女子成了这班禽兽的玩物！他们摧毁教堂，把圣殿当马厩，翻掘圣徒的坟墓，抛散其骸骨。
罗马人的天下的确在土崩瓦解，然而我们不但不垂头丧气，却依然趾高气扬。不错，东方以前似乎没有受到这种威胁，然而如今，一年以来，北方的豺狼从遥远的关塞破门而出，蹂躏了许多大省份。他们包围了安提阿和其他曾是泱泱大国首都的城市。
“如果我有一百根舌头，一百张嘴巴，洪钟般的声音，也数不尽他们的罪恶，一一道出他们的刑罚。”