本文作者不詳，選自于陳忠誠選編的《法律英語五十篇》，屬于典型的非文學(xué)翻譯。法律翻譯是非文學(xué)翻譯的重要分支，要求內(nèi)容緊密，語言精確，特別強調(diào)忠實于原文，不改變句子結(jié)構(gòu)，以十分準(zhǔn)確和簡練的語言來傳達原意。

As recently as the early 1960s, the phrase "environmental law" would probably have produced little more than a puzzled look, even from many lawyers.

早在六十年代初，甚至連許多律師接觸到“環(huán)保法”這個詞兒，大半也只會感到納悶而已。

Such issues as clean air, pure water and freedom from noise pollution were not important public concern.

當(dāng)時，諸如空氣清新、水質(zhì)潔凈、無噪聲污染之類的問題，都不是公眾怎么了不起的關(guān)切所在。

There were, of course, numerous state and some federal laws intended to protect America's rivers and streams from excessive industrial pollution and to guard wildlife from the depredations of man.

當(dāng)然，已經(jīng)有了許多州法和一些聯(lián)邦法，其立法意圖是保護美國的江河，使之免受過分的工業(yè)污染并保護野生生物不受人類的掠奪。

But these regulations were generally ignored.

可是對這些規(guī)定，人們一般都置之不理。

With enforcement power dispersed among many federal, state and local agencies, most of which were seriously undermanned, and with noncompliance penalties so slight as to have little more than harassment value,there were few incentives to obey the laws.

由于執(zhí)法的權(quán)力分散在許許多多的聯(lián)邦、州和地方等三級機關(guān)（而這些機關(guān)大多人手嚴(yán)重不足），也由于因違法而科處的罰款微不足道（從而只有惱人心煩的意義），人們就缺乏服從法律的勁頭了。

Indeed, many environmental statutes were so little publicized and so vaguely worded that their existence was hardly known and their meaning was scarcely understood.

說真的，許多環(huán)境法的宣傳工作之薄弱與措詞之含糊，讓人簡直不知道有環(huán)境法，而環(huán)境法的意義也就無人了解了。

Then, in 1962, came a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

不久以后，在1962年雷切爾?卡森所著、名為《沉默的春天》一書同世了。

A powerful indictment of America's disregard of ecology, Silent Spring was aimed chiefly at the wholesale use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT.

〈沉默的春天》有力地控訴了美國之忽視生態(tài)，它主要是針對大規(guī)模使用農(nóng)藥一特別是滴滴涕。

In 1965 a court action took place that ranks in environmental importance with the publication of Silent Spring.

1965年又發(fā)生了一件訴訟，其對環(huán)境之重要意義，不亞于《沉默的春天》的出版。

That was the reversal by a court of appeals of a Federal Power Commission decision to grant a license for a Consolidated Edison power plant at Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River in New York.

某上訴法院駁回了聯(lián)邦電力委員會關(guān)于向紐約哈得遜河畔施多姆金山愛迪生聯(lián)合發(fā)電廠頒發(fā)許可的決定。

The court ordered new proceedings that were to "include as a basic concern the preservation of natural beauty and of national historic shrines".

該法院命重新處理該案并“以保護自然美和歷史名勝為基本注意事項”。

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