张祖平

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，马可·波罗出生在一个富有的威尼斯商人家庭。马可·波罗的父亲尼克洛·波罗，叔叔马菲奥·波罗都是珠宝商。

1260年，他们离开威尼斯去黑海旅行，一直走到了中亚，并加入了一个外交使团，前往蒙古忽必烈汗统治下的中国。可汗要求波罗兄弟回到欧洲劝说教皇派学者向他解释基督教。1269年，他们回到了威尼斯。

1271年，他们同两个传教士一起，再次出发，并于1275年到达了可汗的宫廷。马可·波罗一行在可汗的国土上住了17年，这17年少有人知，但马可·波罗显然很受这个蒙古统治者欢迎，他被委以各种外交使命，有机会访问中国的很多地方。

大约在1292年，马可·波罗一行主动陪同一个即将嫁给波斯阿鲁浑汗的蒙古公主。队伍从中国南部的一个港口出发。把公主留在伊朗以后，波罗一行由陆路长途跋涉来到君士坦丁堡，然后在1295年回到家乡威尼斯。1298年，马可·波罗卷入了威尼斯和热那亚之间的一场冲突，并被抓捕关进了狱中。在牢房里，他的故事引起了一个来自意大利的名叫鲁斯蒂凯罗的作家的注意。这个作家开始把这些故事写下来。该书非常受欢迎，被翻译成了多种语言，这就是众所周知的《马可·波罗游记》。

马可·波罗在被释放后回到了威尼斯。他在那里度过了余生，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（中国元朝皇帝）

5. Mongol [ ] n. 蒙古人，蒙古语 6. missionary [ ] n. 传教士

7. Persia [ ] n. 波斯（西南亚国家，现称伊朗）

8. Constantinople [ ] n. 君士坦丁堡（土耳其港市，现称伊斯坦布尔）

9. conflict [ ] n. 冲突

10. Genoa [ ] n. 热那亚（意大利西北部港市）endprint