paragraph 01
There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana. A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or ‘art’ as the Hobbits preferred to call it. All that could be discovered about it in antiquity was put together by Meriadoc Brandybuck (later Master of Buckland), and since he and the tobacco of the Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows, his remarks in the introduction to his Herblore of the Shire may be quoted.
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谈起老一辈霍比特人的话，还有一个惊人的习惯不都不提起: 他们通过粘土质或木制的烟斗吸烟。烟是一种他们叫做烟叶的药草做成的，这种药草可能是花烟草的变种。这个特殊习惯的起源已经变成了一个巨大的谜题，霍比特人把这种习惯称之为“艺术”。所有这些能找到的蛛丝马迹被梅里雅达克·布兰迪巴克（雄鹿地之主）汇集起来，因为他还有来自南部夏尔的烟草在随后历史上扮演了重要的角色，他在《夏尔烟草录》的入门中的注记在下文中也许会被引用。
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pipe-weed 烟草
introduction to 入门
paragraph 02
‘This,’ he says, ’is the one art that we can certainly claim to be our own invention. When Hobbits first began to smoke is not known, all the legends and family histories take it for granted; for ages folk in the Shire smoked various herbs, some fouler, some sweeter. But all accounts agree that Tobold Hornblower of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew the true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim the Second, about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning. The best home-grown still comes from that district, especially the varieties now known as Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star.
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他说：“这是一门我们可以明确宣称是自己发明的伟大的艺术。霍比特人第一次抽烟的时间已经不可考证了，所有的传说和家族口耳相传的故事都将抽烟视为理所当然的事。夏尔一些上了年纪的人抽过了很多不同的烟草，一些气味大一些，一些甜一些。但是所有的记录都认为在埃森格林二代时期（约夏尔历1070年），南部夏尔长底区的托波尔德·霍恩布罗尔第一次在他的花园中培育出了真正的烟草。最好的家庭制作的烟草仍然来自那个地区，特别是一些众所周知的平种，包括长底区烟叶，老托比还有南部之星”
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take it for granted 视为理所当然
paragraph 03
’How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day he would not tell. He knew much about herbs, but he was no traveller. It is said that in his youth he went often to Bree, though he certainly never went further from the Shire than that. It is thus quite possible that he learned of this plant in Bree, where now, at any rate, it grows well on the south slopes of the hill. The Bree-hobbits claim to have been the first actual smokers of the pipe-weed. They claim, of course, to have done everything before the people of the Shire, whom they refer to as “colonists”; but in this case their claim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was from Bree that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in the recent centuries among Dwarves and such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to and fro through that ancient road-meeting. The home and centre of the an is thus to be found in the old inn of Bree, The Prancing Pony, that has been kept by the family of Butterbur from time beyond record.
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老托比怎么来到这片土地上已经没有确切的的记录了，直到他死的那天也没有说出来。即使他不是一个旅行家，他也对烟草知之甚多。据说在他年轻的时候，他经常前往布里，即使他确定没有离开过夏尔。所以他很有可能是在布里学会了种植烟草，现在无论如何，这些烟草在山南的坡上长的很好。布里的霍比特人宣称是他们首先开始吸的烟草。当然，他们也宣称在其他事情上也比其他夏尔的霍比特人领先，他们更喜欢称自己为开拓者。但是在吸烟上面，我认为他们的说法更有可能是真的。抽这些烟草的艺术确实是从布里开始，在矮人和其他诸如游侠、巫师和流浪者的种族之间流传开来，并且现在依然在传统的路会上面传来传去。因此这个场所还有这些人的核心依然可以在布里的老客栈跃马旅店中找到。有记录以来，跃马旅店就是由巴博特一家经营的。
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refer to 参考，指的是
spread in 在..中传开
paragraph 04
‘All the same, observations that I have made on my own many journeys south have convinced me that the weed itself is not native to our parts of the world, but came northward from the lower Anduin, whither it was, I suspect, originally brought over Sea by the Men of Westernesse. It grows abundantly in Gondor, and there is richer and larger than in the North, where it is never found wild, and flourishes only in warm sheltered places like Longbottom. The Men of Gondor call it sweet galenas, and esteem it only for the fragrance of its flowers. From that land it must have been carried up the Greenway during the long centuries between the coming of Elendil and our own day. But even the D®nedain of Gondor allow us this credit: Hobbits first put it into pipes. Not even the Wizards first thought of that before we did. Though one Wizard that I knew took up the art long ago, and became as skilful in it as in all other things that he put his mind to.’
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尽管如此，在我数次南下的旅程中逐渐相信了一个事实，这些品种的原产地并不在我们这里，而是从安度因的南部传下来的。这些种类在刚铎生长着很多，而且在南部也更肥硕。南部从来没有野生的品种被发现，它们只在像夏尔长底区一样温暖的房间中繁茂的生长着。刚铎的人把这个种类称为格里纳，而且只是因为它花朵的香味而喜欢。在伊伦迪尔和我们到来之间的数个世纪，这个种类一定是从绿道被运来了布里。但是即使刚铎的都尼丹人也允许我们拥有这样的荣誉:霍比特人第一次把这个种类用作烟草。即使在我们之前，巫师们早已这样做了。从一个巫师那里，我知道他很久之前就学会了这项艺术，而且就像他关注的其他事情一样变成了行家。
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native to 原产于
All the same 尽管如此
put his mind to 把心思放在什么上面