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Many of you will recognise the resounding opening music of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey-Richard Strauss's symphonic poem,Thus Spake Zarathustra'-but these days most of us are pretty unsure about what Zarathustra actually did speak, or even who he was. Which is perhaps surprising, because Zarathustra, or, as he is more widely known, Zoroaster, was the founder of one of the great religions of the world. For centuries, along with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it was one of the four dominant faiths of the Middle East. It was the oldest of the four, the first of all the text-based religions, and it profoundly influenced the other three.
你们很多人都对电影《2001太空漫游》中被使用的这段开场音乐非常熟悉,这是出自理查德施特劳斯的交响诗《查拉图斯特拉如是说》，但极少有人知道查拉图斯特拉究竟说过什么，甚至不知道他到底是谁。这恐怕有点让人吃惊，因为他曾创立了世界上最伟大的宗教之一，并有一个更为人熟知的名字—琐罗亚斯特。数百年来，琐罗亚斯特教与天主教、基督教、伊斯兰教并列中东四大宗教，而且是其中最古老的，是第一个将教义用文字记录下来的宗教，对其余三大宗教有着极为深远的影响。
There are still significant Zoroastrian communities all over the world, especially in the religion's homeland, Iran. Indeed, the Islamic Republic today guarantees reserved seats in its parliament for Jews, Christians-and Zoroastrians. In the Iran of two thousand years ago, Zoroastrianism was the state religion of what was then the Middle Eastern superpower.
如今全世界仍有许多琐罗亚斯特教徒的社群，尤其是在它的发源地伊朗。事实上，今天的伊朗伊斯兰共和国仍保证在国会中为犹太教徒、基督徒与琐罗亚斯特教徒保留特别席位。而在2000年前，伊朗是中东地区的强国，祆教是其国教。
My object today is a dramatic visualisation of power and faith in that Iranian empire. It's a silver dish from the fourth century, and it shows the king apparently out hunting-but in fact, he's keeping the world safe from chaos.
本文将要介绍的是一个来自公元4世纪的银盘，它略显夸张地表现出伊朗帝国的势力与信仰，盘上的国王狩猎图蕴含着国王维护世界稳定之意。
