【精英翻譯】的部落格

Paris of the Orient ── Ho Chi Minh City   胡志明市──光芒四射的外資新樂園

精英翻譯社轉自http://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0059/256268/web/

Although it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976, Vietnam's economic heart is still commonly referred to as Saigon by residents and tourists. The fishing village from which the city emerged was inhabited by Khmers for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Vietnamese. By the 17th century, the interlopers outnumbered the natives to such an extent that the latter were in no position to prevent the establishment of an official Vietnamese administration in 1698. The Vietnamese were to get a taste of their own medicine with the establishment of French control of southern Vietnam by 1862. It wasn't until the mid-1940s that a serious threat to French rule began in the form of a guerrilla campaign led by the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.

儘管在一九七六年被重新命名為胡志明市，越南的經濟中心仍普遍被居民和遊客稱為西貢。這座城市最早是個漁村，在越南人到來之前，高棉人在此居住了數百年之久。到了十七世紀，外來者的人數遠遠超過原住民，以致後者無力阻擋一六九八年所成立的越南官方政府。然而越南人也因為法國在一八六二年控制南越而嘗到苦果。法國的統治直到一九四○年代中期才開始受到重大威脅，也就是共產革命家胡志明所領導的游擊戰。

With the defeat of the French in 1954, Vietnam was partitioned, with Ho's forces controlling Hanoi and the North and an American-backed regime holding sway in Saigon. Fearful of the spread of communism in the region, the Americans were soon themselves embroiled in one of the most notorious conflicts of the 20th century. The American War, as it is known to locals, did not end until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The dramatic airlift of U.S. personnel and South Vietnamese refugees was the biggest such evacuation in history. Although their leader had died in 1969, the victorious North Vietnamese forces commemorated him with the new name for the city.

隨著法國在一九五四年戰敗，越南一分為二，胡志明的勢力控制了河內與北越，美國支持的政權則掌控著西貢。由於害怕共產主義在此區擴散開來，美國很快就捲入廿世紀最惡名昭彰的一場衝突。當地人稱為「美國戰爭」的越戰，直到一九七五年才隨著「西貢陷落」而結束。美國以飛機撤離本國人員和南越難民的戲劇性做法，是史上規模最大的撤離行動。北越領導人雖在一九六九年去世，但獲勝的北越勢力後來將西貢改名為胡志明市以紀念他。