世界小史 第28章:彩色畫(huà)像

Next to these brightly colored paintings you often see lots of tiny pictures of all sorts of things,

在這一排排彩色畫(huà)像的旁邊，你往往會(huì)看到許多畫(huà)著各種各樣的東西的小畫(huà)像，

such as owls and little people, flags, flowers, tents, beetles and vases, together withzigzag lines and spirals, all jumbled up together.

比如貓頭鷹、小人、旗子、花、帳篷、甲蟲(chóng)和花瓶，被鋸齒形線(xiàn)和螺旋線(xiàn)連接，互相緊密并排。

Whatever can they be?

這會(huì)是什么呢?

They aren't pictures, they are hieroglyphs - or 'sacred signs' - the Egyptian form of writing.

它們不是圖畫(huà)，它們是象形文字--或"神圣的符號(hào)"--古埃及人的書(shū)寫(xiě)形式。

The Egyptians were immensely proud of their writing - indeed, they were almost in aweof it.

埃及人為他們的文字感到非常自豪--確實(shí)，他們幾乎敬畏它。

And of all professions, that of scribe was the most highly esteemed.

在所有行業(yè)中，書(shū)寫(xiě)員是最最受尊重的。