Journey Up the Nile (Excerpt 2)  沿尼罗河而上（节选2）

 

1.Tombs and temples of ancient Egypt follow（很不好译，是形象的说法，译文无法保留原文形象，处理为“到处可以见到...") the Nile well into Sudan. Driving southward and from 1. Cairo into the valley, I entered a landscape that owed little to the present ear(owe...to ...= there was hardly anything that showed the influence of the present era). For the next 1800 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 low cornfield. At the edge of the fields, rising in dramatic hills or stretching flat to the horizon, lay the brown barren deserts.（倒装句）

尼罗河沿岸直到苏丹境内，到处可以看到古埃及的坟墓和寺庙。我从开罗驱车南行，进入了尼罗河河谷，这里的景色还没有受到多少现代的影响。从这里再往前1800米，尼罗河就象一条细细的蓝色的丝带，缓缓向北流去，沿途穿棕色的土地和绿色的田地，这些田地窄的不过几英尺，宽的则赶上美国依阿华州的玉米田。田地外边是寸草不生的棕色沙漠，有的地方突然隆起来象小山，有的地方则平平地伸向地平线。

2. I had the illusion（本意“错觉”“幻觉”，但这里都不合适，意译） that I was driving through one immensely long, narrow farm. The villages and towns were usually perched 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 （错译）the annual floods.（注意内部衔接） The road followed the course of the Nile, now(now... now... 有时...,有时）passing through the fields, now drawing a black line separating them from the desert.  我有种幻觉，觉得自己行驶在一个极长且窄的农场里。村落和小镇通常坐落在尼罗河的边缘地区，一方面不会浪费这些肥沃的土壤；另一方面，大坝建成前，人们需要躲避每年一次的洪水。公路是沿着尼罗河的流向修建的，尼罗河流经田野（理解错误），而公路在田野和沙漠之间划线一条界线。

参考：

我感到仿佛是在开车穿过一个狭窄而极长的农场。大小村镇一般都处在边上，这是为了不浪费耕地，同时也因为用高坝控制尼罗河之前，有必要住得远一点，以躲避每年发生的洪水。公路是顺着尼罗河修的，有时穿过山地，有时像是划的一条黑线，这边是庄稼，那边是沙漠（这里如果译成“把庄稼和沙漠分开”不如译成“这边是......, 那边是... ...)。

3. At El Awamia, just south of Luxor（可以合句）, 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 the Aswan High Dam than I had heard before. “

Before the dam we wereobsessed with the flood—would it be too high or too low?” said Amin.（提到前面）“Like all the generations of my family back to the pharaohs, I used to plant my 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. 

大坝修建前，我们总是担心洪水，不知道它是太高，还是太低。“阿明说道。”从法老时代开始，我们祖祖辈辈都在这里种庄稼，我过去和他们一样，不知道会不会有收获。现在，我们我不需要担心了；我们知道肯定会有水，会有多少水。

√他说：“还没修坝的时候，我们老惦记着洪水，——今年的洪水会太大呢，还是会太小呢？我过去种庄稼，从来不知道能不能收。我的祖辈以至古代的法老也都是这样。（句序发生变化，表达比较简洁）现在不用害怕了，我们知道一定会有水，也知道会有多少水。

我们每年可以收三季庄稼，而不是一季。我们的房子里通了电，还有电发动泵，这样我们就不需要用水桶挑水了。我们以前去有钱人家里听收音机。现在，我们全年种庄稼，我们买了自己的收音机，甚至还买了电视机。”

4. Judiciously, Amin conceded that there was another, less happy, side to the story: “The land is poorer, because the mud that used to come with the Nile flood has stopped. We must use fertilizers that cost a lot of money. Even so, the crops are less.”

不过，阿明很清楚地表示，事情还有另一面，就没那么让人开心了，”地更差了，过去尼罗河的洪水会带来肥沃的土壤，不过现在已经没有了。我们得用肥料，花好多钱。即便如此，庄稼也少了很多。“

√ 不过阿明也看得很清楚，他承认这件事还有另外一面，不那么好的一面。他说，“土地更差了，因为过去尼罗河一泛滥就带来泥沙，可现在没有了。我们不得不用 化肥，而化肥是很贵的。即便这样，庄稼还是不如以前大得多。”

5. He led me through(lead through  引入；带领） fields near his house. The ground was encrusted(=covered) with salt. “The flood does not carry away the salt as before（如何处理比较符合中文逻辑）,” Amin explained. The annual flood of the Nile used to deposit as much as 20 million tons of silt on the fields along the river.（断开处理） As the flood receded, the water draining through the soil leached out the salts and carried them off to the Mediterranean. It was a natural system of replenishment and cleaning. Today this treasury of silt is trapped behind the dam, and there is no effective drainage system. 

他带着我去看房屋周围的田地。土壤表面有一层盐粒。”以前洪水会冲走盐粒，现在已经没有了。“阿明解释道。尼罗河每年一次的洪水以前在沿岸田地留下高达两千万吨的淤泥。洪水退去，带走了土壤里的盐粒，一直流入地中海。这是一个天然的补充和清洁系统。如今，宝贵的淤泥被大坝挡住，有效的排水系统也不复存在了。

参考：他带我在他家附近的庄稼地里走了走。只见地面上结了一层盐。“现在不像以前了，河水不再泛滥，盐分就冲不走了。”他对我解释说。过去每年尼罗河泛滥，可以给沿岸的农田留下细沙两千万吨。河水退去的时候，就把土壤里的盐分冲走，冲到地中海里去。那是自然形成的一个补充土壤和清除盐分（添词）的体系。现在，宝贵的泥沙被水坝挡住了，却没有除盐的有效办法。