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Louis may have lost a war,
路易虽然吃了败仗
but he was still the absolute ruler of France.
但仍旧是法国至高无上的统治者
And when the criticism of him became too much to bear,
当对他的批判变得无法忍受时
he came up with a suitably absolutist response.
他开始了必要的专制对策
Even the first Encyclopaedia in the French language,
即使是法语的第一百科全书
one of the great intellectual achievements of the age,
那个时代最伟大的智力成就
went on to the bonfire.
也被一把火烧成灰烬
Unfortunately, Louis XV was, by nature,
很不幸 路易十五本性多疑
suspicious of anything he saw as unorthodox,
眼里揉不下任何沙子
and as a consequence,
结果就是
he just didn't associate himself
他与法国洋溢着的
with this great outpouring of French culture and knowledge.
文化和知识氛围格格不入
Louis was still close to Madame Pompadour,
路易仍然与蓬帕杜夫人很亲密
who tried to change his mind.
而她也试图让他改变心意
At a dinner party one evening in Versailles,
一晚在凡尔赛共进晚宴的时候
a Duke said, "What is gunpowder made of?"
有个公爵说 "火药是怎么造成的"
And Madame de Pompadour seized the moment, and said,
蓬帕杜夫人抓住机会说道
It's true, we don't know what gunpowder is.
真的 我们还不知道火药怎么做的呢
What a pity it is that your Majesty, in his wisdom,
陛下 百科全书充满着智慧
You've banned the encyclopaedia,
而您禁止了它 多遗憾啊
Otherwise we could have looked in the encyclopaedia
否则我们还可以从书中找出
And found out what gunpowder is constituted from.
火药的成分
So, they sent for a copy of the banned encyclopaedia,
因此他们把被禁的百科全书送了过来
which, of course, the King had in his private library,
当然了 国王的私人图书管还有库藏
and they spent the rest of the evening reading articles
晚宴过后整晚他们都在看百科全书中的
from the encyclopaedia,
相关文章
and of course, he was intrigued by this,
毫无疑问 他被迷住了
and this was supposed to be
这也是此书重新
one of the reasons why he had it reinstated.
开始流通的原因之一
