1、Lesson 7 Journey Upthe Nile (Excerpt 1)1. Egypt, wrote the Greek historian Hecataeus, is the gift of the Nile. No other country is so dependent on a single lifeline. Egypts very soil was born in the Niles annual flood; with the flood came the life-giving mud that made Egypt the granary of the ancien

2、t world. And as rain fell in the Ethiopian highlands and the snows melted in the Mountains of the Moon, the river was everlastingly renewed.沿尼羅河而上（節選1）希臘歷史學家赫卡泰奧斯 寫道：埃及是尼羅河贈送 的禮物。再沒有什么國家 對單一生命線如此依靠。 埃及的土壤都是由尼羅河 每年的洪水沖上來的。洪 水帶來了泥土，萬物得以 生長，使埃及成了古代世 界的糧倉。埃塞俄比亞高 原上的的雨水和月亮山上 融化的積雪，為尼羅河提 供了無窮無盡的水源。2. This

3、 is the best place on earth,” said Ahmed, an Egyptian fellah, or farmer, I encountered in the Nile Delta, that incredibly fertile 8,500-square-mile triangle between Cairo and the Mediterranean coast. The delta and the narrow Nile Valley to the south make up only 3 percent of Egypts land but are home

4、 to 96 percent of her population. Here nearly 48 million people live in an area only slightly larger than Maryland. The rest of Egypt “這是世界上最好的地 方，”阿赫邁德對我說。 他是我在尼羅河三角洲遇 見的一位農民（當地人管 農民叫“夫埃拉”）。從開 羅到地中海之間的這塊八 千五百平方公里的三角地 帶，土壤異常肥沃。三角 洲到南邊狹窄的尼羅河谷 只占埃及領土的百分之 三，卻有百分之九十六的 人口住在那里。這塊土地 比美國馬里蘭州略大一點 兒，住著大約四千八百萬

5、 人口。剩下的地方都是沙 漠。is desert.3. Truly Allah hasblessed us,” Ahmedexclaimed piously. Soil,water, sun 一 we can growanything!”“真主可真的是保佑我們 ?。　卑⒑者~德虔誠的說 道?！爸灰型?，水，和 陽光 我們種什么都 行！4. In the gathering duskAhmed and his fivecompanions had invited meto join them. Their galabiasand turbans stained by thesweat and di

6、rt of a longdays work, they sat in frontof a wayside shop, enjoyingthree of the best things inlife along the Nile 一 tea,conversation, and the water在傍晚的聚會上，阿赫邁 德和五個同伴早就約我一 起玩兒。經過一天的勞作， 他們的袍子和頭巾沾滿了 汗水和泥土。這時他們坐 在路邊一家商店的門口， 享受著尼羅河沿岸人們生 活中最大的三件樂事喝茶、聊天、抽水煙。在 附近一條水渠旁，驢子背 上馱著剛割的苜蓿，等著 主人牽它們回家，時而發 出急促的嘶叫聲，和澆地

7、 用的水泵不斷發出的突突pipe. At the edge of a nearby canal, donkeys laden with freshly harvested alfalfa, waited for their masters to lead them home, braying a fretful counterpoint to the steady thud of an irrigation pump.5. All this suggested ancient harmonies. Yet the Nile has been changed by modern man in w

8、ays not yet fully understood. In 1971 engineers and workers completed the Aswan High Dam, nearly 600 miles upriver from Cairo toward聲交織在一起。所有的一切使人感到古代 的和諧。而現代的人們， 以自己并不完全理解的方 式改變著尼羅河。1971年， 工程師和工人們建成了阿 斯旺高壩。這座高壩在從 開羅沿尼羅河向蘇丹邊境 走去，大約六百英里的地 方。這是自修建金字塔以 來最大的公共工程了。過 去給農民帶來災難的水旱 災害，現在不再發生了。work tothe grea

9、test public work to化，工業也用上了水壩發 出的電力?；?，工業也用上了水壩發 出的電力。the Sudanese frontier. It is埃及的農業也發生了變但這也帶來了負面影響。6. But there have been但這也帶來了負面影響。洛塞河是尼羅河入海處的be undertaken in Egypt since the Pyramids. The devastating floods and droughts that imposed a recurrent tax of suffering on the fellahip no longer occur.

10、Egyptian agriculture has been transformed, and industry is benefiting from power generated by the dam.negativeeffects also. 一個支流，我站在河口的Standing on a sandy beach沙灘上看到一個小鎮，感到迷感不解。這仿佛是一這仿佛是一個被人遺棄的小鎮，一片個被人遺棄的小鎮，一片at the mouth of the Rosettabranch of the Nile, I was puzzled by what seemed a ghost town -

11、a sad vista of crumbling buildings, smashed windows, and broken wires dangling from utility poles. One house teetered drunkenly, half in, half out of the sea.7. Last summer, people stayed in those rooms - this was a summer resort,” said a voice behind me. The speaker was a young EgyptiannamedMuhamma

12、d, member of a team from Alexandria that 蕭條的景象，房子瀕于倒 塌，窗戶破碎，斷了的電 線掛在電線桿上。有一所 房子好像喝醉了的人一樣 搖搖晃晃，一半泡在海里， 一半在陸上?！叭ツ晗奶?，那所房子還 有人住，這是一個避暑勝 地，”在我身后有人這樣 說道。說話的是一位埃及 青年，名叫穆罕默德，他 是一個考察隊的隊員，是 專門從亞歷山大港到這個 荒蕪的村莊來考察沿海地 區水土流失情況的?！昂?水越來越往里邊來，”穆 罕默德說。他指著坐落在 had come to this abandoned village to study coastal erosion.

13、 Now the sea is moving in,” Muhammad said. He pointed to a lighthouse perched on a tiny island a couple of miles offshore: That lighthouse used to be on land. About six years ago it became an island. Day by day the sea is eating the land 一 the dam has stopped the sediment of the Nile from replenishi

14、ng the shoreline.”8. As we chatted, a brightly painted sardine 離海岸幾英里的小島上的 一座燈塔說：“那燈塔本 來是在陸地上的。大約在 六年前它成為了一個小 島。海水一天天的沖刷著 陸地一一大壩已經使尼羅 河的沉積物不能沉積下來 加固海岸線?！蔽覀冋诹闹灰娨粭l 顏色鮮艷的畫著沙丁魚船 拋錨了。船長上了岸和我 boat dropped anchor. The captain came ashore and joined our conversation. Before they started the High Dam 25 y

15、ears ago,” he said, the Nile mud had a lot of food in it, and so the sardines gathered near the mouth of the river to feed. Now there is no mud, and no food for the fish 一 theyve left us.”9. If all this can happen in 25 years, what will happen after 50 years, or 100 or 200?” asked 們聊天。他說“25年前， 在他們修建

16、大壩之前，尼 羅河的泥沙里面有很多可 吃的東西，所以沙丁魚就 聚集在河口找食吃?，F在 泥沙沒有了，魚沒有吃的 了，也就不來了?！薄叭绻f25年就發生這么 多的變化，50年、100年、 200年之后又會怎樣 呢？ ”穆罕默德問道。Muhammad.Tombs and temples ofancient Egypt follow theNile well into Sudan.Driving southward fromCairo into the valley, Ientered a landscape thatowed little to the presentera. For the nex

17、t 1,800miles the thin blue ribbon ofthe Nile, flowing slowlynorth, unwound over brownsoil and green fields, someonly a few yards wide,others as broad as an Iowacornfield. At the edge of thefields rising in dramatichills or stretching flat to the尼羅河沿岸直到蘇丹鏡內 很遠的在方，到處可見古 埃及的墳墓和寺廟。我從 開羅驅車南行，進入尼羅 河谷，這里的景

18、色還沒有 受到多少現代的影響。從 這里可往前800英里，尼羅 河像一條細細的藍色絲帶 緩緩的流向北方，沿途穿 過棕色的土地和綠色的田 野。這里的田地窄的不過 幾碼，寬的則趕得上美國 愛荷華州的玉米田。田地 外邊是寸草不生的棕色沙 漠，有的地方突然隆起像 是小山，有的地方則平平 地伸向地平線。horizon, lay the brownbarren deserts.I had the illusion that I was driving through one immensely long, narrow farm. The villages and towns were usually pe

19、rched on the edge, so as not to waste arable soil and because there was a need, before the High Dam tamed the Nile, to live beyond the reach of the annual floods. The road followed the我感到仿佛是開車穿過一 個狹窄而極長的農場。大 小村鎮一般都處在田地邊 上，這是為了不浪費耕地， 同時也是因為用高壩控制 尼羅河水之前，有必要住 得遠一點，以躲避每年發 生的洪水。公路是順著尼 羅河修筑的，有的過莊稼 地，有時像是劃

20、的一條黑 線，將莊稼與沙漠截然分 離。course of the Nile, nowpassing through the fields,now drawing a black lineseparating them from the desert.At El Awamia, just south of Luxor, I watched farmers harvest sugarcane. A village elder, Amin Ibrahim, invited me into his house and gave me a cheerier view of the effects of

21、the Aswan High Dam than I had heard before. Before the dam we were obsessed with the flood - would it be too high or too low? said Amin. Like all the generations of my family back to the pharaohs, I used to plant my 就在勒克索南面的愛阿瓦 米亞，我看到農民們在收 獲甘蔗。阿明伊布哈依姆 邀請我到他家并講述了阿 斯旺高壩的景況比我 以前聽到的更令人激動的 場面。阿明說：還沒有修 壩的

22、時候，我們老是惦記 著洪水今年的洪水會 太大呢？還是比較小呢？ 從法老之輩開始，我們祖 祖輩輩種莊稼，但從來不 知道是否能有收成。現在 我們再不用擔心了，因為 我們知道利用水，并知道 水量的多少，我們第年可 收三季莊稼。家家戶戶都 有電。在澆灌田地方面， 消耗已經代替桔槔。過去crops and never know if I would harvest. Now there is no fear; we know there will be water, and how much there will be. And we can get three crops a year instead

23、 of one. There is electricity in our houses and to run pumps, so we do not have to work the shaduf. We used to go to the house of a rich man to hear the radio. Now, since we grow crops all year, we buy our own radios and even televisions.”我們常到富有人家聽收音 機，現在自從我們一年到 頭都能種植莊稼，我們買 了自己的收音機，甚至電 視機。”Judicious

24、ly,Amin坦白地說，阿明承認修壩也有不好的一面，“土地比conceded that there was過去更貧瘠，因為過去有another, less happy, side to尼羅河帶來的泥沙使土地肥沃，現在卻沒有了那種the story: The land is泥沙。我們不得不花費很poorer, because the mud多錢來買化肥。即使這樣，that used to come with the莊稼還是減產?！盢ile flood has stopped. We must use fertilizers that cost a lot of money. Even so, t

25、hecrops are less.”他領我穿過他家附近的田He led me through fields地，地面上覆蓋著鹽堿，near his house. The ground現在不像以前了，河水不was encrusted with salt.泛濫，鹽分就沖不走了?！盩he flood does not carry阿明解釋道。過去，尼羅 河的洪水每年為沿岸的田away the salt as before,”地帶來二千噸的淤泥。當Amin explained. The annual洪水即時，浸入土壤的水flood of the Nile used to排出內部鹽分，并把鹽分deposit

26、 as much as 20帶到地中海。這也是一種 大自然循環和凈化系統。million tons of silt on the fields along the river. As the flood receded, the water draining through the soil leached out the salts and carried them off the Mediterranean. It was a naturalsystem ofreplenishmentandcleansing. Today this treasury of silt is trapped

27、behind the dam, and there is no effective drainage system.現在寶貴的泥沙被水壩擋 住了，卻沒有除鹽的有效 辦法。(from National Geographic Magazine)Notes:A. the gift of the Nile譯作尼羅河送來的禮物”富有歷史滄桑感，語言生動形象。B.為使譯文通順易懂，把插入語處理成主句形 式，其余部分作其賓語從句。was born是一個形象性的說法，如譯作“出生”則行文不通。為保存原文語言的生動形象，譯作“帶來”。3. A.本句為倒裝句；B. the life-giving mud譯作萬物得

28、以生長的 泥土”。原文中as引導一個狀語從句，主句是被動語 態形式。翻譯時，用從句中的主語“雨水”和“積雪，作整個句子的主語，并且整個句子譯 作主動語態形式，這樣較符合漢語表達習慣。everlastingly renewed的字面意思為不斷得到 更新”，不過根據上下文，還是譯作-為尼羅河） 提供了無窮無盡的水源”較順當。but are home to 96% of her population” 按字面為“卻是96%的人口的家”。譯作“卻有96%的人 口住在這里”，更符合漢語表達習慣。make up組成，在此處可譯為“占”。6. A. Allah指真主“安拉”。B.soil, water, s

29、un為了強調這三者對作物生長的 重要性，采用名詞并列形式，翻譯時可把主語 和謂語補上“我們擁有土地、水和陽光”。in the gathering dusk這是一個形象性的說法，漢語譯不出來，譯作“天色漸漸暗了下來”。A. galabia袍子；turban頭巾，此二者都為穆斯林教徒用物；注意句中獨立結構、伴隨狀語；譯文的第二句句首加上這時候”，使前后聯 系更緊密；原文用三個名詞 tea, conversation and the water pipe代指三件事情，翻譯時采用增譯法增 加動詞喝茶、聊天、抽水煙”。canal引申為“水渠” ；fretful煩燥的；acounterpoint to s

30、omething 在這里是比喻用法，意 為“和形成對比”、“和交織在一 起”。ancientharmonies字面意思是古代的和諧”，通過上文可以看出此處描寫的是一種生活氣氛， 因此可以增譯為“古代的和諧氣氛”。為免行文艱澀，語意模糊，把原文中狀語in waysnot yet fully understood用增譯法處理成一個分 句，放在后面。A. fellahin是fellah的復數形式；tax在此意為“負擔”、“重負”、“影響”，不能譯作“稅。B.根據原文時態的應用，譯文中恰當地添加了“過 去”和“現在”兩詞。standing后面是一個很長的狀語，譯文將其拆成分句處理，句子比較好安排。 g

31、host town 意為廢棄的城鎮 ”，a sad vista of . 是ghost town的同位語，a sad vista of后跟的名 詞都被譯作一個一個分句，這樣更符合漢語表 達習慣。vista意為“深景”、“遠景”。teetereddrunkenly是一種擬人的說法，描述房屋像人喝醉一樣搖搖晃晃，一半在海里面，一半 在岸上。a team根據上下文意為 考察隊；同位語及that- 定語從句皆拆譯為漢語分句。(the sea is) eating the land 須對動詞 eat 引申翻譯 為沖刷一般過去時的時間狀語從句轉譯成進行中的并 行動作。Tombs and temples o

32、f ancient Egypt follow the Nile well into Sudan.本句若按字面譯作古埃及的墳墓和廟宇沿尼羅河 伸入蘇丹境內很遠則行文不通，也令人費解。把原句 主語轉換成賓語翻譯更好：尼羅河沿岸直到蘇丹境內很遠的地方，到處可見古埃及的墳墓和廟宇。Driving southward from Cairo into the valley, I entered a landscape that owed little to the present era.譯A：注意主十句的翻譯句式。定語從句部分可 譯為：幾乎沒有受到現代社會的影響。譯B：駕車從開羅往南行至尼羅河谷，映人眼

33、簾 的是一番與現代截然不同的景色。Forthe next 1,800 miles the thin blue ribbon of the Nile, flowing slowly north, unwound over brown soil and green fields, some only a few yards wide, others as broad as an Iowa cornfield.A. the thin blue ribbon是一種比喻的說法，描述 尼羅河像一條細細的藍絲帶。B. flowing slowly south現在健忘短語作狀語，處 理成并列動詞。譯A：從這里可往前一千八百英里，尼羅河像一 條細細的藍色絲帶，緩緩流向北方，沿途穿過棕色的 土地和綠色的田野，這田地窄的不過幾碼，寬的則趕 上美國依阿華州的玉米地。譯B：藍色土帶般的尼羅河綿延1800英里，在棕 色的土地和綠色的田野間緩緩向北流去。田地有的僅 幾碼寬，有的則如依阿華州的玉米地那么寬。At the edge of the fields, rising in dramatic hills or stretching flat to the horizon, lay the