乌鸢啄人肠(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
乌鸢啄人肠
in 1462 the forces of the ottoman sultan mehmed Ⅱ were approaching the capital of their enemy, vlad dracul, when they encountered a scene of horror. stretching for more than a mile were thousands of sharpened stakes on which were impaled the bodies of turkish prisoners, who had been left to die there. the bodies were in various stages of decomposition, and the stench was indescribable. as the turks moved closer, clouds of ravens and other birds of prey rose up from the corpses they had been pecking. so appalling was the sight that even the ferocious mehmed was shaken and called off the invasion.
in1462theforcesoftheottomansultanmehmedwereapproachingthecapitaloftheirenemy,vladdracul,whentheyencounteredasceneofhorror.stretchingformorethanamilewerethousandsofsharpenedstakesonwhichwereimpaledthebodiesofturkishprisoners,whohadbeenlefttodiethere.thebodieswereinvariousstagesofdecomposition,andthestenchwasindescribable.astheturksmovedcloser,cloudsofravensandotherbirdsofpreyroseupfromthecorpsestheyhadbeenpecking.soappallingwasthesightthateventheferociousmehmedwasshakenandcalledofftheinvasion.

一四六二年，土耳其苏丹王穆罕默德二世率军进犯对手弗拉德．德古的首都，路上看到恐怖的一幕：几千条削尖的长桩绵延一英里以上，桩上都插土耳其俘虏的尸体。那些俘虏是被插在桩上慢慢死去的，尸体已先后腐烂，恶臭莫名。乌鸦和其他猛禽正啄食腐尸，见土耳其大军走近，纷纷飞起，蔽日遮天，场面之恐怖，连凶悍的穆罕默德都胆寒心骇，下令回师。
【解说】拙栏说过吸血鬼dracula的名字来自dracul，原因看本文就应明白。李白《战城南》「乌鸢啄人肠，衔飞上挂枯树枝」的情景，也没有dracul所为那样恐怖。
bird/beast（animal）/fishofprey是「食肉鸟?兽?鱼」。prey（猎物）这个字颇为奇怪，可以冠以a，却不可加s，例如：thetwogirlsfell(a)preytotheswindler（两个女孩上了那骗子的当）。留意「两个女孩」也可说aprey。