英國語文第六冊(雙語):開羅和埃及金字塔(1)

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LESSON 30 Cairo and the pyramids

第三十課 開羅和埃及金字塔

The best view of Cairo and its vicinity is obtained from the Citadel, which commands the whole city. It is thus described by Dean Stanley: "The town is a vast expanse of brown, broken only by occasional interludes of palms and sycamores, and by countless minarets. About half a dozen large buildings, mosques or palaces, also emerge. On each side rise shapeless mounds; —those on the east covered with tents, and, dimly seen beyond, the browner line of the desert; those on the west, the sites of Old Cairo, of the Roman fortress of Babylon, and of Fostat, where Amrou first pitched his tent, deserted since the time of Sal'adin. Beyond is the silver line of the Nile; and then, rising in three successive groups, above the delicate green plain which sweeps along nearly to the foot of the African hills, the Pyramids of Abu'sir, Saka'rah, and Ghi'zeh—these last being 'The Pyramids,' and the nearest. There is something very striking in their total disconnection with Cairo. They stand alone on the edge of that green valewhich is Egypt.

從城堡上放眼望去，開羅及其四周最美的景色盡收眼底。院長斯坦利也因此這樣描述它：這個小鎮(zhèn)是一片廣闊的褐色土地，點綴著星星點點的棕櫚樹和梧桐樹、以及無數(shù)尖塔。能夠看到的大型建筑、清真寺以及宮殿大概有六座。兩邊是形狀各異的土丘，東邊的土丘上覆蓋著帳篷，依稀可以看到遠處褐色的沙漠線；西邊的土丘是古開羅遺址、羅馬巴比倫堡壘遺址、以及福斯達，即阿姆魯?shù)谝淮未顜づ竦牡胤?，那里自薩爾阿丁時代起就已無人居住了。遠處是尼羅河那銀色的海岸線。再遠處三大建筑接連凸起，分別是胡夫金字塔、卡烏拉金字塔、以及哈佛拉金字塔，它們坐落在幾乎一路延伸到非洲山腳下那暖綠色的平原之上，并最終組成了“埃及金字塔”。然而它們和開羅卻無任何聯(lián)系，這點很讓人震驚。它們就那樣孤零零地站在那片綠色山谷的邊緣，而那片綠色山谷就是埃及。

There is no intermingling, as in ancient and modern Rome. It is as if you looked out on Stonehenge from London, or as if the Colis'um stood far away in the depths of the Campagna. Cairo is not 'the ghost of the dead Egyptian empire,' nor anything like it. Cairo itself leaves a deep feeling, that, whatever there was of greatness or wisdom in those remote ages and those gigantic monuments, is now the inheritance, not of the East, but of the West. The Nile, as it glides between the tombs of the Pharaohs and the city of the Caliphs, is indeed a boundary between two worlds."

古羅馬和現(xiàn)代羅馬的結(jié)合是獨一無二的。就好像從倫敦向外眺望巨石陣，或者好像是巨石陣聳立在遙遠的平原深處。開羅并不是“死去的埃及帝國的幽靈”，也絲毫不像它。開羅本身給人的感覺很深刻，你會想到那些遙遠的年代和那些龐大的歷史遺跡無論有多么偉大、無論凝結(jié)了多少智慧，現(xiàn)在都不是東方遺產(chǎn)，而是西方遺產(chǎn)。因為尼羅河在法老的墳墓和哈里發(fā)城市之間流淌，所以它確實是兩個世界的分界線。