George Yeo 網路自強號

《中英對照讀新聞》Va. man plants flag, claims African country, calling it ’Kingdom of North Sudan’ 維吉尼亞州男子插旗建立非洲國 名為「北蘇丹王國」

自由時報 ◎張沛元 2014-09-12

Jeremiah Heaton was playing with his daughter in their Abingdon, Va., home last winter when she asked whether she could be a real princess.

去年冬天，耶利米．希頓在位於維吉尼亞州艾賓頓的自宅與女兒玩耍時，女兒問他，她能否成為真正的公主。

Heaton, a father of three who works in the mining industry, didn’t want to make any false promises to Emily, then 6, who was "big on being a princess." But he still said yes.

有3個小孩、任職礦業的希頓，不想對當時6歲、「真的很想當公主」的艾蜜莉，許下虛假的承諾，但他還是答應女兒了。

Within months, Heaton was journeying through the desolate southern stretches of Egypt and into an unclaimed 800-square-mile patch of arid desert.

用好幾個月的時間，希頓穿過埃及南部的廣袤荒地，來到一塊面積800平方英里的無主不毛沙漠。

There, on June 16 - Emily’s seventh birthday - he planted a blue flag with four stars and a crown on a rocky hill. The area, a sandy expanse sitting along the Sudanese border, morphed from what locals call Bir Tawil into what Heaton and his family call the "Kingdom of North Sudan."

6月16日，也就是艾蜜莉7歲生日當天，他在那塊土地的一座石丘上，插上一面有4個星星與1個皇冠圖案的藍色旗幟。這塊沿著蘇丹邊界的廣闊沙地，就此從當地人口中的比爾泰維勒，搖身一變成為希頓及其家人所稱的「北蘇丹王國」。

There, Heaton is the self-described king and Emily is his princess.

希頓在此自立為王，艾蜜莉就是他的公主。

"I wanted to show my kids I will literally go to the ends of the earth to make their wishes and dreams come true," Heaton said.

「我要讓我的孩子們知道，我真的會拚了老命實現他們的希望與夢想，」希頓說。

新聞辭典

be big on something：慣用語，非正式用法，非常喜歡某物。例句：I’m not very big on hip hop music.（我並不是很喜歡嘻哈音樂。）

literally：副詞，按照字面地；實在地。

go to the ends of the earth：慣用語，竭盡所能／想盡辦法達成某事，通常後加to do something。例句：Most parents in Taiwan would go to the ends of the earth to make sure their children have access to higher education.（大多數台灣家長會想盡辦法讓子女接受高等教育。）