英國語文第六冊(雙語):尼羅河流域(3)

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The English traveller in Egypt is generally willing to getaway from Alexandria as soon as he can, and that for sanitary reasons. Cairo is distant some hundred miles, and the route thither lies either along the famous canal made by order of Mehemet Ali in 1819-20, or along the railway, which has brought the city of Saladin within a few hours of the coast.

出于衛(wèi)生方面的考慮，在埃及旅行的英國人都想盡快逃離亞歷山大城。亞歷山大城距離開羅有幾百英里，去那兒的話可以走1819至1820年由穆罕默德·阿里修建的運河路線，亦或走那條將薩拉丁城和海岸之間的距離縮短至幾小時路程的鐵路路線。

On approaching Cairo by way of the Nile, the Pyramids are first seen from a point in the river, here about a mile in width, near the separation of the two great branches which form the delta of Lower Egypt, about ninety miles from their outlets at the coast. Standing on the western bank of the river, on a platform elevated some fifty feet above the surrounding level, they form most striking and suggestive objects, even when viewed from a great distance.

經(jīng)由尼羅河靠近開羅時，人們在河上的某個位置首先看到的便是金字塔。金字塔寬約一英里，位于形成下埃及三角洲的兩大支流的分離處附近，離出口約九十英里，矗立在河西岸的一個高出周圍約50英尺的平臺上，即使從很遠(yuǎn)的距離望過去也極其地引人注目且令人浮想聯(lián)翩。

In the neighbourhood of the Pyramids are the ruins of Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, and the residence of the Pharaohs at the time of the exodus of the Jews. "For miles," says Dean Stanley, "you walk through layers of bones and skulls and mummy swathings, extending from the sand, and deep down in shaft-like mummy-pits; and among these mummy-pits are vast galleries filled with mummies of ibises, in red jars, which are being gradually despoiled. Lastly, there are long galleries, only recently discovered, hewn in the rock, and opening from time to time—say every fifty yards—into high arched vaults, under each of which stands the most magnificent black marble sarcophagus that can be conceived—a chamber rather than a coffin—smooth, and sculptured within and without; grander by far than even the granite sarcophagi of the Theban kings—how much grander than any human sepulchres anywhere else; and all for the successive corpses of the bull Apis!"

金字塔旁是孟菲斯廢墟，那里是下埃及的古都，也是猶太人出埃及時期法老的住所。迪恩·斯坦利說，“幾英里吧，你會穿過一層層的骨頭、頭骨和木乃伊，它們從沙子里延伸出來，然后深入到像豎井一樣的木乃伊坑里。木乃伊坑之間是一些巨大的陳列室，陳列室里全是裝在紅色罐子里的朱鷺木乃伊，而這些罐子已經(jīng)被逐漸掠奪一空。還有一些近期才被發(fā)掘的長長的陳列室，人們破開巖石，將其逐漸打開，每五十碼便能看見一個高高的拱頂，每個拱頂下面都有一具極其華麗的黑色大理石棺材，而比起棺材它們更像是房間，很光滑，內(nèi)外都有雕刻。它們甚至比底比斯國王的花崗巖石棺還要壯觀，比任何地方、任何人的棺材都要壯觀，而所有的這些石棺材都是為了存放一個又一個的神牛的尸體！”