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egypt-第18部分

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enormous waterway; lost as it was in the sands; by…and…by regulated

its course: it became the Nile; and with untiring patience set itself

to the proper task of river; which in this accursed zone might well

have seemed an impossible one。 First it had to round all the blocks of

granite scattered in its way in the high plains of Nubia; and then;

and more especially; to deposit; little by little; successive layers

of mud; to form a living artery; to create; as it were; a long green

ribbon in the midst of this infinite domain of death。



How long ago is it since the work of the great river began? There is

something fearful in the thought。 During the 5000 years of which we

have any knowledge the incessant deposit of mud has scarcely widened

this strip of inhabited Egypt; which at the most ancient period of

history was almost as it is to…day。 And as for the granite blocks on

the plains of Nubia; how many thousands of years did it need to roll

them and to polish them thus? In the times of the Pharaohs they

already had their present rounded forms; worn smooth by the friction

of the water; and the hieroglyphic inscriptions on their surfaces are

not perceptibly effaced; though they have suffered the periodical

inundation of the summer for some forty or fifty centuries!



It was an exceptional country; this valley of the Nile; marvellous and

unique; fertile without rain; watered according to its need by the

great river; without the help of any cloud。 It knew not the dull days

and the humidity under which we suffer; but kept always the changeless

sky of the immense surrounding deserts; which exhaled no vapour that

might dim the horizon。 It was this eternal splendour of its light; no

doubt; and this easiness of life; which brought forth here the first

fruits of human thought。 This same Nile; after having so patiently

created the soil of Egypt; became also the father of that people;

which led the way for all otherslike those early branches that one

sees in spring; which shoot first from the stem; and sometimes die

before the summer。 It nursed that people; whose least vestiges we

discover to…day with surprise and wonder; a people who; in the very

dawn; in the midst of the original barbarity; conceived magnificently

the infinite and the divine; who placed with such certainty and

grandeur the first architectural lines; from which afterwards our

architecture was to be derived; who laid the bases of art; of science;

and of all knowledge。



Later on; when this beautiful flower of humanity was faded; the Nile;

flowing always in the midst of its deserts; seems to have had for

mission; during nearly two thousand years; the maintenance on its

banks of a kind of immobility and desuetude; which was in a way a

homage of respect for these stupendous relics。 While the sand was

burying the ruins of the temples and the battered faces of the

colossi; nothing changed under this sky of changeless blue。 The same

cultivation proceeded on the banks as in the oldest ages; the same

boats; with the same sails; went up and down the thread of water; the

same songs kept time to the eternal human toil。 The race of fellahs;

the unconscious guardian of a prodigious past; slept on without desire

of change; and almost without suffering。 And time passed for Egypt in

a great peace of sunlight and of death。



But to…day the foreigners are masters here; and have wakened the old

Nilewakened to enslave it。 In less than twenty years they have

disfigured its valley; which until then had preserved itself like a

sanctuary。 They have silenced its cataracts; captured its precious

water by dams; to pour it afar off on plains that are become like

marshes and already sully with their mists the crystal clearness of

the sky。 The ancient rigging no longer suffices to water the land

under cultivation。 Machines worked by steam; which draw the water more

quickly; commence to rise along the banks; side by side with new

factories。 Soon there will scarcely be a river more dishonoured than

this; by iron chimneys and thick; black smoke。 And it is happening

apace; this exploitation of the Nilehastily; greedily; as in a hunt

for spoils。 And thus all its beauty disappears; for its monotonous

course; through regions endless alike; won us only by its calm and its

old…world mystery。



Poor Nile of the prodigies! One feels sometimes still its departing

charm; stray corners of it remain intact。 There are days of

transcendent clearness; incomparable evenings; when one may still

forget the ugliness and the smoke。 But the classic expedition by

dahabiya; the ascent of the river from Cairo to Nubia; will soon have

ceased to be worth making。



Ordinarily this voyage is made in the winter; so that the traveller

may follow the course of the sun as it makes its escape towards the

southern hemisphere。 The water then is low and the valley parched。

Leaving the cosmopolitan town of modern Cairo; the iron bridges; and

the pretentious hotels; with their flaunting inscriptions; it imparts

a sense of sudden peacefulness to pass along the large and rapid

waters of this river; between the curtains of palm…trees on the banks;

borne by a dahabiya where one is master and; if one likes; may be

alone。



At first; for a day or two; the great haunting triangles of the

pyramids seem to follow you; those of Dashur and that of Sakkarah

succeeding to those of Gizeh。 For a long time the horizon is disturbed

by their gigantic silhouettes。 As we recede from them; and they

disengage themselves better from neighbouring things; they seem; as

happens in the case of mountains; to grow higher。 And when they have

finally disappeared; we have still to ascend slowly and by stages some

six hundred miles of river before we reach the first cataract。 Our way

lies through monotonous desert regions where the hours and days are

marked chiefly by the variations of the wonderful light。 Except for

the phantasmagoria of the mornings and evenings; there is no

outstanding feature on these dull…coloured banks; where may be seen;

with never a change at all; the humble pastoral life of the fellahs。

The sun is burning; the starlit nights clear and cold。 A withering

wind; which blows almost without ceasing from the north; makes you

shiver as soon as the twilight falls。



One may travel for league after league along this slimy water and make

head for days and weeks against its currentwhich glides

everlastingly past the dahabiya; in little hurrying waveswithout

seeing this warm; fecundating river; compared with which our rivers of

France are mere negligible streams; either diminish or increase or

hasten。 And on the right and left of us as we pass are unfolded

indefinitely the two parallel chains of barren limestone; which

imprison so narrowly the Egypt of the harvests: on the west that of

the Libyan desert; which every morning the first rays of the sun tint

with a rosy coral that nothing seems to dull; and in the east that of

the desert of Arabia; which never fails in the evening to retain the

light of the setting sun; and looks then like a mournful girdle of

glowing embers。 Sometimes the two parallel walls sheer off and give

more room to the green fields; to the woods of palm…trees; and the

little oases; separated by streaks of golden sand。 Sometimes they

approach so closely to the Nile that habitable Egypt is no wider than

some two or three poor fields of corn; lying right on the water's

edge; behind which the dead stones and the dead sands commence at

once。 And sometimes; even; the desert chain closes in so as to

overhang the river with its reddish…white cliffs; which no rain ever

comes to freshen; and in which; at different heights; gape the square

holes leading to the habitations of the mummies。 These mountains;

which in the distance look so beautiful in their rose…colour; and

make; as it were; interminable back…cloths to all that happens on the

river banks; were perforated; during some 5000 years; for the

introduction of sarcophagi and now they swarm with old dead bodies。



And all that passes on the banks; indeed; changes as little as the

background。



First there is that gesture; supple and superb; but always the same;

of the women in their long black robes who come without ceasing to

fill their long…necked jars and carry them away balanced on their

veiled heads。 Then the flocks which shepherds; draped in mourning;

bring to the river to drink; goats and sheep and asses all mixed up

together。 And then the buffaloes; massive and mud…coloured; who

descend calmly to bathe。 And; finally; the great labour of the

watering: the traditional noria; turned by a little bull with bandaged

eyes and; above all; the shaduf; worked by men whose naked bodies

stream with the cold water。



The shadufs follow one another sometimes as far as the eye can see。 It

is strange to watch the movementconfused in the distanceof all

these long rods which pump the water without cea
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