馬可·波羅

張祖平

Marco Polo was born in around 1254 in a wealthy Venetian1 merchant2 family. Polos father and uncle， Niccolò and Maffeo Polo， were jewel merchants.

In 1260， they left Venice to travel to the Black Sea， moving onwards to central Asia and joining a diplomatic3 mission to the court of Kublai Khan4， the Mongol5 ruler of China. Khan asked the Polo brothers to return to Europe and persuade the pope to send scholars to explain Christianity to him. They arrived back in Venice in 1269.

In 1271， they set off again， accompanied by two missionaries6 and Marco， and in 1275 reached Khans court. For the next 17 years the Polos lived in the emperors lands. Little is known of these years， but Marco Polo was obviously popular with the Mongol ruler and was sent on various diplomatic missions which gave him the opportunity to see many parts of China.

Around 1292， the Polos offered to accompany a Mongol princess who was to marry Arghun Khan in Persia7. The party sailed from a southern Chinese port. After leaving the princess in Iran， the Polos travelled overland to Constantinople8 and then to Venice， arriving home in 1295. Marco became involved in a conflict9 between Venice and Genoa10 and in 1298 was captured in prison. In prison， his stories attracted the attention of a writer from Italy， Rustichello， who began to write them down. The resulting book was extremely popular and was translated into many languages which is well known as the Travels of Marco Polo.

After Polo was released he returned to Venice， where he remained for the rest of his life. He died on 8 January 1324.

大約在1254年，馬可·波羅出生在一個富有的威尼斯商人家庭。馬可·波羅的父親尼克洛·波羅，叔叔馬菲奧·波羅都是珠寶商。

1260年，他們離開威尼斯去黑海旅行，一直走到了中亞，并加入了一個外交使團，前往蒙古忽必烈汗統治下的中國。可汗要求波羅兄弟回到歐洲勸說教皇派學者向他解釋基督教。1269年，他們回到了威尼斯。

1271年，他們同兩個傳教士一起，再次出發，并于1275年到達了可汗的宮廷。馬可·波羅一行在可汗的國土上住了17年，這17年少有人知，但馬可·波羅顯然很受這個蒙古統治者歡迎，他被委以各種外交使命，有機會訪問中國的很多地方。

大約在1292年，馬可·波羅一行主動陪同一個即將嫁給波斯阿魯渾汗的蒙古公主。隊伍從中國南部的一個港口出發。把公主留在伊朗以后，波羅一行由陸路長途跋涉來到君士坦丁堡，然后在1295年回到家鄉威尼斯。1298年，馬可·波羅卷入了威尼斯和熱那亞之間的一場沖突，并被抓捕關進了獄中。在牢房里，他的故事引起了一個來自意大利的名叫魯斯蒂凱羅的作家的注意。這個作家開始把這些故事寫下來。該書非常受歡迎，被翻譯成了多種語言，這就是眾所周知的《馬可·波羅游記》。

馬可·波羅在被釋放后回到了威尼斯。他在那里度過了余生，在1324年1月8日去世。

Notes：

1. Venetian [ ] adj. 威尼斯的；威尼斯人的 n. 威尼斯人

2. merchant [ ] n. 商人 3. diplomatic [ ] adj. 外交的；外交上的

4. Kublai Khan n. 忽必烈（中國元朝皇帝）

5. Mongol [ ] n. 蒙古人，蒙古語 6. missionary [ ] n. 傳教士

7. Persia [ ] n. 波斯（西南亞國家，現稱伊朗）

8. Constantinople [ ] n. 君士坦丁堡（土耳其港市，現稱……