第一章 时代

那是一个最美好的时代，那是一个最糟糕的时代；那是一个智慧的年头，那是一个愚昧的年头；那是一个信仰的时期，那是一个怀疑的时期；那是一个光明的季节，那是一个黑暗的季节；那是一个希望的春天，那是一个失望的冬天；人们面前应有尽有，人们面前一无所有；人们正踏上天堂之路，人们正走向地狱之门。--简而言之，那时跟现在非常相像，某些最喧嚣的权威坚持要用形容词的最高级来形容它。说它好，是最高级的；说它不好，也是最高级的。

Chapter  I  The Period

      It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

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In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting.

英格兰几乎没有秩序和保障，难以为民族自夸提供佐证。

 France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it.

 法兰西的灵异事物大体不如她那以盾和三叉戟为标志的姐妹那么受宠。法兰西正在一个劲儿地往坡下滑，印制着钞票，使用着钞票。

 All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair laces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the rest--along the roads that lay before them.

 诸如此类的抑或还能加上一千桩类似的事件，如此这般在可爱的古老的一千七百七十五年相继发生，层出不穷。在这些事件包围之中，“樵夫”和“农民”仍然悄悄地干着活，而那两位大下巴和另外两张平常的和姣好的面孔却都威风凛凛，专横地运用着他们神授的君权。一干七百七十五年就是像这样表现出了它的伟大，也把成干上万的小人物带上了他们前面的路。