【外文翻寫／中英對照閱讀新聞】

What is Valentine's Day, and how did it start?

什麼是情人節？它又是如何開始的？

編譯︱   中文一 陳怡彣

原文：http://goo.gl/vwgg03(CNN)

Valentine's Day, or St Valentine's Day, is celebrated every year on 14 February.

每年2月14日慶祝的──情人節，或是聖瓦倫丁節

It's the day when people show their affection for another person or people by sending cards, flowers or chocolates with messages of love.

這是人們對他人傾訴情感，寄出帶著愛意的卡片、花束或巧克力的日子。

And traditionally on Valentine's Day in a leap year - every four years - women can propose marriage to their partner!

而傳統的情人節則出現在閏年，每四年，女孩們可以主動向自己的另一伴求婚。

Who was St Valentine?

誰是聖瓦倫丁？

The day gets its name from a famous saint, but there are several stories of who he was.

「Valentine’s Day」這天的名字來自一位著名的聖徒，但是「他」到底是誰則有幾種不同的說法。

The popular belief about St Valentine is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century AD.

最廣為人相信的說法是，聖瓦倫丁是一位公元三世紀的羅馬牧師。

Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he thought married men were bad soldiers. Valentine felt this was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.

當時的皇帝克勞迪斯二世認為已婚的男人無法成為優秀的士兵，因此下令禁止婚姻。聖瓦倫丁為此感到不平，便打破命令，私自為戀人們證婚。

When Claudius found out, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.

當克勞迪斯發現此事之後，便將瓦倫丁囚禁並處死。

There, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed "from your Valentine".

在牢獄中，他與獄卒的女兒墜入愛河，當他在2月14日即將被處死時，他寄出他的情書，上頭簽著──from your Valentine。

How did Valentine's Day start?

情人節是怎麼開始的？

Valentine's Day is a very old tradition, thought to have originated from a Roman festival.

情人節是一個非常老的傳統，被認為源自於一個羅馬節日。

The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February, officially the start of their springtime.

羅馬人在二月中旬有一個節日稱為牧神節，正式來說是春天初臨的日子。

It's thought that as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box. They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd get married.

在慶祝活動中，男孩們從一只箱子中抽出女孩的名字，在這一天他們將會扮演男女朋友，有時甚至可以促成一段良緣。

Later on, the church wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to remember St Valentine too.

之後，教會希望把這個節日變成基督教慶祝活動，並決定同時以此紀念聖瓦倫丁。

Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used by people to express their feelings to those they loved.

最後，聖瓦倫丁的名字開始被人們用來對愛人傾訴情意。