Times-in-Chinese

考试临近 新年的前三天断网  慢慢补上~

'I watched Saddam die'
'萨达姆在我面前死去'
Marie Colvin
 
THE knock on the door came just before 6am. Saddam Hussein’s executioners were disguised with black balaclavas.
早上6点，敲门声恰好响起。每一个萨达姆－侯赛因死刑的执行者都用黑色的高帽蒙住自己的面部。

He spent his last minutes yesterday in the sordid bowel s of Iraqi military intelligence headquarters, once home to his own torturers and killers.
他的最后一刻是在一个肮脏的伊拉克军事指挥部里面度过的，此前这里曾关押、折磨过他自己的犯人。

Just as the dawn call to prayer was beginning over the city, he was led, shambling in leg irons, to the scaffold to pay the price for his crimes against the Iraqi people.
就当全城的信徒开始作早拜课时，脚戴镣铐、步伐蹒跚的他被领向绞刑架。他对伊拉克人民犯下的罪行让他付出了这样的代价。

“We took him to the gallows room and he looked like he wondered what was going on,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government’s national security adviser, who saw him die. “He looked at the gallows not believing what was going to happen.”
”我们把他领到绞刑室，然后他看起来象在奇怪发生了什么，“伊拉克政府国家安全顾问Mowaffak Rubaie说道，”他看了看绞刑架不相信将要发生的这一切。“Mowaffak目睹了萨达姆被处死的一幕。

As the world reacted with mixed jubilation and condemnation to the hanging, Rubaie revealed that the deposed dictator muttered as he was taken to his death: “Do not be afraid; it is where we all go.”
对于萨达姆被处以死刑，舆论界混合了谴责和庆祝两种截然相反的态度。Mowaffalk透露道这位被废弃的独裁者在死前喃喃自语，”不要害怕。我们都要去那儿的。“

Rubaie was among the 15 people in the ill-lit room that was Saddam’s last sight on earth. The former Iraqi dictator showed no remorse, said Rubaie, speaking by telephone from Baghdad.
他是昨晚那场绞刑的15位目击者之一。他从巴格达接通的电话中说，萨达姆没有表现出任何懊悔。”

“He was respected throughout before and after the execution. We followed rigorously international and Islamic standards.”
"整个过程中他自始自终都受到尊敬，我们严格地遵循了国际惯例和伊斯兰习俗。"

After the dramas of Friday night, when Iraqi officials said Saddam’s death was imminent but his lawyers tried to stay his execution with an appeal to a United States court, his fate was set early yesterday.
在周五的喜剧般的事件后，萨达姆的律师向美国法院提起诉讼以延缓死刑，但是他的命运在昨天早晨尘埃落定。伊拉克的官员是于周五晚上向外界宣称萨达姆的死期已经临近的。

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, had signed the death warrant before going to celebrate his son’s wedding, and the presidential council had endorsed it.
在参加儿子的婚礼庆典前，伊拉克首相Nouri已经在萨达姆的死刑批准书上签字，之后总统的顾问班子认可了这一批准。

The American jailers who had custody of Saddam were ordered to surrender him to the Iraqi government. They offered him tranquillisers but Saddam refused. “We received physical custody of Saddam Hussein around 5.30am from the coalition forces, and we took over and he became ours,” said Rubaie.
之前负责看守萨达姆的美国士兵受命交出了萨达姆,他们为萨达姆准备了镇静剂而被拒绝了。”早上5点半左右,联军将萨达姆转交于我们,由我们负责看管.""Rubaie发言称。

As US troops stood guard outside, Saddam was first led to a sparse and unheated holding room in the bowels of the headquarters of Iraqi military intelligence. It would not have been lost on him that his own security forces had tortured and killed many people in the same grim building. Saddam was left for about half an hour to contemplate his fate. Iraqi law provides that a condemned man be allowed a final cigarette and a meal before his execution.
萨达姆首先被领进一个位于伊拉克军事指挥部内部的房间内，美军军队看守着这个空旷的、没有暖气的房间。萨达姆应该没有忘记这个房间中曾关押过许多与他的政权为敌的人，许多人在这里被拷打，甚至被杀。在受刑前，萨达姆被允许获得半小时的时间，来冥思、回顾自己的一生。根据伊拉克的法律，他被获准得到一根香烟和一顿饱食。

“He was handcuffed and we took him and sat him down,” said Rubaie. “There was a judge, a deputy general, deputy minister of justice, deputy minister of interior, a couple of other ministers, myself and a doctor.” After formalities they took him through “a huge file” of documents detailing his trial for crimes against humanity.
”他的手被铐上，然后我们把他带进来，让他坐下。“Rubaie说，”房间里有主审法官，军人代表，司法部长，内阁大臣，以及其他几位部长，我和一位医生。“在正式手续完成之后，他们向萨达姆展示了一系列繁复长冗的文档，文件详细陈述了他反人类的罪行。

“The judge took him through the conviction. He was silent until he saw a video camera, and then began shouting slogans such as ‘God is great’. He started his rhetoric: ‘Long live Islam, down with Persia’, down with this and that. He started shouting his head off.” Rubaie made a last gesture of mercy. “His handcuffs were a little bit tight, and hurt him, and I instructed the guards to loosen them.”
”法官向他展示了定罪的整个程序。他开始保持安静，知道他看见一个摄像机，然后他开始喊比如’上帝是万能的‘之类的口号。他开始了他的伶俐口齿，‘伊斯兰万岁！打倒波斯！’然后是打倒这打倒那的。“Rubaie做了最后一个仁慈的手势。"他的手铐有点紧,然后他被弄疼了,我就让警卫松了松铐子.“

The formalities over, the four masked executioners stepped forward. Short, tubby and dressed in leather jackets, they looked more like Al-Qaeda killers in an amateur terrorist video than those responsible for carrying out the sentence of death on a former head of state. Even though Saddam had shrunk in stature since the days of his pomp, he towered over them.
一系列程序都结束了，四个蒙面的刽子手向前迈了几步。他们身着紧身的桶装夹克，作为这位前总统最后一段路的送行者，他们不专业的样子看起来似乎更像业余的绑架分子拍摄的Al-Qaeda杀手模样。虽然萨达姆比起自己辉煌时刻的身材有些萎缩，他此时仍然像座塔般凌驾于这几个刽子手之上。

He had dressed for death in clothes sewn by his personal Turkish tailor: black trousers, shined black shoes, a starched white shirt, black pullover and a black wool overcoat that protected him against the deep chill of his remaining minutes in the execution suite. His hair was dyed his signature black, but he had heavy bags under his eyes.
他身着死刑服，而这套服装是他那来自土耳其的私人裁缝所制：黑色的裤子，黑色铮亮的皮鞋，硬挺的白衬衫，黑色的套衫和一件黑色的羊毛大衣。衣物可以帮助他抵御一下受刑过程中的瑟瑟寒意。他的头发染成黑色，但是他有着很深的眼袋。

PS:Physical custody不好翻译，直译为身体上的保管...很奇怪为什么原文那么突出萨达姆本人"身体"的转交,猜想,大概是为了和"法律"上的转交有所区分。
shout one's head off...喊得摇头晃脑？
说一个人有眼袋要说 you have  heavy bags under your eyes.