Westminster Abbey is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world and one of London's key tourist sites. Built by Edward the Confessor in 1040, it has been the site of royal coronations since 1066. Anyone who watched the late Queen Elizabeth II's funeral will have seen its elegant gothic exterior and magnificent vaulted ceilings, while visitors will have walked by the graves and memorials of illustrious artists and writers, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters.
威斯敏斯特教堂是世界上最著名的宗教建筑之一，也是伦敦的主要旅游景点之一。它由Edward the Confessor于1040年建造，自1066年以来一直是皇家加冕仪式的场所。任何看过已故女王伊丽莎白二世葬礼的人都会看到它优雅的哥特式外观和壮丽的拱形天花板，而游客们则能看到杰出艺术家和作家的墓地和纪念碑，包括杰弗里·乔叟、托马斯·哈代、鲁道夫·吉卜林、莎士比亚和勃朗特姐妹。
And this year, in the run up to the coronation of Britain's latest king, Charles III, visitors are paying particular attention to the Coronation Chair, the seat on which English monarchs have been crowned since 1308.
而今年，在英国最新国王查尔斯三世加冕之前，这个自1308年来作为英国君主加冕的加冕椅获得的关注度更高了。
"You can find it behind glass in St George's Chapel, just near the Great West Doors of the Abbey beside a portrait of Richard II seated there," said Sue King, a Blue Badge tourist guide for London and the Abbey. "What you see is an old brown wooden chair, but there are accounts of how it was painted with images of kings, foliage and birds, gilded and fitted with precious stones. It's probably the oldest piece of furniture still in use in England."
“它就位于圣乔治教堂的玻璃后面，就在大西门旁边的理查二世的肖像旁边，”伦敦和教堂的蓝标导游Sue King说道。“你看到的是一把古老的棕色木椅，但有记载称它曾经涂有国王、树叶和鸟类的图案，镀金并配有宝石。这可能是英格兰仍在使用的最古老的家具。”
Despite its age, the chair is only part of the coronation story. Underneath the seat, along with a few initials carved by naughty schoolboys from Westminster School, is a wooden platform. This was designed by King Edward I to house the Coronation Stone, a sacred rock with mysterious origins that he brought from Scotland in 1296.
尽管这把椅子有着悠久的历史，但它仅仅是加冕仪式故事的一部分。在座位下面，除了一些由威斯敏斯特学校淘气的学生刻下的首字母缩写之外，还有一个木制平台。这是由爱德华一世国王设计的，用来容纳加冕石，他于1296年从苏格兰带回了这块起源神秘的神圣石头。
The platform is currently empty – but before the coronation on 6 May, the stone will be brought from Edinburgh Castle (where it's housed alongside the Scottish Crown Jewels) to the Abbey when Charles III is crowned king of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
目前，这个平台是空的——但在5月6日加冕仪式之前，加冕石将从爱丁堡城堡（与苏格兰皇冠珠宝一起）被带到威斯敏斯特教堂，届时查尔斯三世将被加冕为英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰的国王。
The Coronation Stone – also known as the Stone of Scone or Stone of Destiny – is an ancient symbol of Scottish sovereignty with links to Ireland and Spain, stolen by the English and even associated with biblical lore.
加冕石，也被称为斯科恩之石或命运之石，是苏格兰主权的古老象征，与爱尔兰和西班牙有联系，被英格兰抢夺走，甚至与圣经传说有关联。
However, while it has a long (and controversial) history, it actually looks like a fairly unremarkable rock: a rectangular slab of pinkish sandstone the size of a small suitcase that weighs around 152kg. Its only decoration is a roughly incised cross. At each end, iron rings are fitted. No one is quite sure when they were attached or whether their purpose was to make the stone easier to move or to chain it in place. And that's just one of many mysteries surrounding the stone.
然而，尽管它有着悠久（并具有争议性）的历史，它实际上看起来像一块相当不起眼的石头：一个粉红色砂岩矩形石板，大小约为一个小手提箱，重约152公斤。它唯一的装饰是一个粗略的十字架。在每个端点上，都安装了铁环。没有人确切知道它们是何时安装的，或者它们的目的是使石头更容易移动，还是将其锁在原地。这只是围绕石头的众多谜团之一。
According to legend, it was the same stone used by the biblical figure Jacob (the father of the Israelites) as a pillow in Bethel when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven. From here, one of Jacob's sons is said to have taken it to Egypt, from where it travelled to Spain and later to Ireland when the Spanish king's son, Simon Brech, invaded the island in 700 BCE.
根据传说，这是圣经人物Jacob（以色列人之父）在伯特利使用的同一块石头，当时他在那里做梦看到一架通向天堂的梯子。从这里，Jacob的一个儿子据说将它带到了埃及，然后在西班牙和爱尔兰之间旅行，当时西班牙国王的儿子Simon Brech在公元前700年入侵了该岛。
There it was placed on the sacred Hill of Tara near Skryne in County Meath and named the Lia Fail, or "speaking stone", because it was said to groan aloud if the claimant was of royal blood but remained silent if he was a pretender.
它被放置在米斯郡斯克里内附近的塔拉山上，并被命名为Lia Fail，或“有声石头”，因为据说如果声称者具有王室血统，它会发出哀叫声，但如果他是冒名顶替者，它则保持沉默。
"There are a number of Lia Fail in ancient Irish history," said Dr David Hume, an Ulster Scots historian, journalist and broadcaster. "In 496 CE, a stone was in the possession of King Fergus Mór mac Eirc who ruled Dalriada, a kingdom that spanned the Irish Sea and incorporated parts of Western Scotland."
“在古代爱尔兰历史上有许多Lia Fail，”Ulster Scots历史学家、记者和广播员David Hume博士说道。“在496年，一块石头在弗格斯·莫尔·马克·埃里克（Fergus Mór mac Eirc）的手中，他统治着Dalriada，这是一个横跨爱尔兰海并包含西部苏格兰部分的王国。”
According to Hume, the story goes that Fergus took the Lia Fail stone from Ireland to Scotland when he moved his royal seat to Dunnadd in Argyll in 498 CE. However, it's uncertain just how much of the story is true. The main evidence for it is in the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 CE, signed by the Scottish nobles in an appeal to the Pope to recognise Scottish independence, which mentions an "honour" passing through the Mediterranean Sea and coming from Israel.
据休姆表示，据说弗格斯在公元498年将Lia Fail石头从爱尔兰带到了苏格兰，当时他将王室的宝座搬到了阿盖尔的邓纳德。然而，这个故事的真实程度还不确定。它的主要证据在于1320年的阿布罗斯宣言（Scottish Declaration of Arbroath），由苏格兰贵族签署，向教皇呼吁承认苏格兰独立，其中提到了一个“荣誉”，通过地中海传来，并来自以色列。
Whatever the truth, we know that the stone was taken to Scone Abbey in Perthshire after Kenneth I – who united the Scots and Pictish kingdoms and is known as the first King of Scotland – moved his capital from Western Scotland to Scone in around 840 CE. This "Stone of Destiny" was used for centuries in the coronation ceremonies of Scottish monarchs.
无论真相如何，可以确定的是这块石头在肯尼斯一世将首都从西部苏格兰迁至斯康后，被带到了珀斯郡的斯康修道院。接下来的数个世纪，这块“命运之石”都被用于苏格兰君主的加冕典礼。
But following his victory at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296, England's King Edward I marched north, seized the stone from Scone Abbey and had it fitted into the base of a specially crafted wooden Coronation Chair on which English – and later British – monarchs have been crowned inside London's Westminster Abbey ever since.
但在1296年邓巴战役的胜利后，英格兰国王爱德华一世北上，从斯康修道院夺走了这块石头，并将其镶嵌在一把特制的木制加冕椅底座上，自那以后，英国和后来的英国君主救在伦敦的威斯敏斯特教堂内加冕。
However, even this history remains disputed.
然而，即使这段历史仍有争议。
There is a rumour that the monks at Scone Palace actually hid the real stone in the River Tay and tricked the English troops into taking a substitute. In addition, geologists have proven that the stone seized by Edward I was quarried in the vicinity of Scone rather than in biblical Judea. It's likely that a more ancient stone was used to crown the kings of Ireland, and this was probably brought first to Antrim from Tara and then to Scotland by King Fergus, but sometime after that it was replaced by the present stone that was quarried close to Scone.
有传言称，斯康宫的修道士实际上将真正的石头藏在泰河中，并欺骗英国部队拿走了替代品。此外，地质学家证明，爱德华一世夺取的石头是在斯康附近采石场采出的，而不是在圣经中的犹太地区。很可能更古老的石头曾用于加冕爱尔兰国王，这可能是由国王弗格斯首先从塔拉带到安特里姆，然后在此之后被现有的在斯康附近采出的石头所取代。
However, no one has ever found the hidden stone and, even though Scotland was not yet part of a United Kingdom, the stone that Edward took symbolically gave the future English kings dominion over Scotland. Because of this, the present stone's physical representation of the seat of monarchy has, over the years, made it a target for political activists.
不过，那块隐藏的石头到现在都没被人发现，尽管苏格兰还没有成为联合王国的一部分，但爱德华夺取的石头象征着未来的英国国王统治苏格兰。因此，现在这块石头作为君主制度的物理象征，多年来一直是政治活动家攻击的目标。
In 1914, suffragettes detonated a bomb under the chair. During World War Two, concerns about German bombing led to the stone being secretly buried under Westminster Abbey, while the Coronation Chair was moved to Gloucester Cathedral until the war was over.
1914年，妇女选举权主义者在椅子下面放了一颗炸弹。二战期间，对德国轰炸的担忧导致这块石头被秘密埋在威斯敏斯特教堂下，而加冕椅则被移到格洛斯特大教堂，直到战争结束。
But not long after they were returned, a group of Scottish Nationalist students broke into the Abbey on Christmas Eve 1950. They removed the stone, which broke in the process (probably due to damage caused by the suffragette bomb) and hid it until it had been repaired. Four months later it was placed on the high altar at the ruined Arbroath Abbey – a building long associated with Scottish independence.
但是不久之后，一群苏格兰民族主义学生在1950年的圣诞前夕闯入了教堂。他们取走了石头，在过程中石头破裂了（也可能是被妇女选举权主义者炸弹造成了损坏），并将其藏起来直到修复完毕。四个月后，它被放置在与苏格兰独立长期相关的阿布罗斯修道院的高坛上。
It was a spectacular stunt, and although the stone was returned to Westminster, the students were never charged and calls for Scottish independence continued to grow. In 1996, then British prime minister, John Major, tried to silence these calls with a curious PR move, announcing the stone would be returned to Scotland on the proviso that it would be brought back to Westminster for use in further coronations.
这是一次壮观的恶作剧，虽然这块石头被归还给了威斯敏斯特教堂，但学生们从未被起诉，对苏格兰独立的呼声继续增长。1996年，时任英国首相约翰·梅杰通过一项奇特的公关行动试图压制这些呼声，宣布石头将被归还给苏格兰，前提是它将被带回威斯敏斯特用于未来的加冕典礼。
Granting permission for this to happen was only half the battle. Removing the stone itself was an arduous task.
获得了允许只能算是任务完成了一半。移动这块石头本身还是一项艰巨的任务。
"When the Stone was returned to Scotland in 1996, the process of removing it from the chair required great care to ensure both were protected throughout," explained Kathy Richmond, head of Collections & Applied Conservation at Historic Environment Scotland. The slow and carefully planned operation of lifting the Stone out of the Coronation Chair took a significant amount of time, with collection and conservation specialists working into the early hours.
"当1996年这块石头被归还到苏格兰时，从椅子上取下它的过程需要极其小心，以确保椅子和石头都不会受损，"苏格兰历史环境遗产组织的收藏和应用保护主管Kathy Richmond解释道。收集和保护专家们花费了大量时间，直到凌晨才完成了从加冕椅上取下这块石头的缓慢和仔细规划的操作。
This same procedure will be repeated later this year, when the stone is brought to London for the crowning of King Charles. Once the stone is laid under the Coronation Chair, they will be moved from their place by the West Door to the Coronation Theatre, an area in the middle of Westminster Abbey at the centre of the lines of the cross on which the abbey is constructed. Historically this area was decorated with bright wall paintings. Today its most striking feature is a bold medieval mosaic floor known as the Cosmati pavement.
今年晚些时候，当这块石头被带到伦敦为查尔斯国王加冕时，将会重复这个过程。一旦这块石头被放在加冕椅下，它们将从西门口移到加冕剧院，即位于威斯敏斯特教堂中心的十字架线中心的区域。历史上，这个区域装饰有鲜艳的壁画。如今，它最引人注目的特点是一个被称为Cosmati地面的大胆中世纪马赛克地板。
"Here the king will be anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury," said King. "For this private part of the ceremony, a canopy is placed over the chair by four Knights of the Garter. The then-king will be handed the Sword of Offering (which he hands back) and then the Sovereign Sceptre and Golden Orb before he is finally crowned with Edward's Crown."
"在这里，国王将接受坎特伯雷大主教加冕，"国王说。 "对于仪式的这个私人部分，四名加特尔骑士会在椅子上方放置一个华盖。然后，当时的国王会拿到献上之剑（他会把它递回去），然后是君主权杖和金球，最后他会戴上爱德华王冠加冕。"
These items of coronation regalia are the heart of the Crown Jewels collection on display at the Tower of London. But current visitors to the Tower will not see quite as much as usual. The crown is being resized to fit King Charles III, and many other items will be borrowed to be worn by other members of the royal family.
这些加冕珍宝是伦敦塔展出的皇冠珠宝收藏的重点。但是当前参观伦敦塔的游客将看不到很多东西。皇冠正为查尔斯三世国王调整大小，许多其他珠宝也将被借给其他王室成员佩戴。
The Abbey will also be closed to the public in the days leading up to 6 May – as will Edinburgh Castle when the Stone of Destiny is removed. Given the stone's history and significance, the exact details of when and how it will be transported are a closely guarded secret.
教堂在5月6日前的几天也将对公众关闭 - 爱丁堡城堡在命运之石被移除时也将关闭。鉴于这块石头的历史和重要性，何时以及如何运输的确切细节则将被严格保密。
By Lizzie Enfield, BBC Travel
