國家地理:一次翻越世界屋脊的歷史性旅行(3)

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The Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan is one of the remotest inhabited landscapes on Earth. An extension of Badakhshan Province, it juts some 200 miles between Tajikistan and Pakistan to touch the ice-capped ramparts of western China. Drawn by Russia and Britain as a buffer zone to separate their Asian empires in the 19th century, the corridor -- marooned by rugged geography, geopolitics, and time -- endures as a forgotten appendage of Afghanistan. About 17,000 farmers and nomads still live in its medieval pastures and rock-walled hamlets. It was my exit ramp to South Asia.

阿富汗瓦罕走廊是地球上最偏遠的有人居住的地方，是巴達赫尚省突出的一塊地方，在塔吉克斯坦與巴基斯坦之間只有大約200英里長的狹長地帶，東面就是中國西部冰雪覆蓋的森嚴壁壘。這條走廊于19世紀由俄羅斯和英國繪制以作為他們帝國的勢力在亞洲的隔離緩沖帶。瓦罕走廊受崎嶇的地理、地緣政治和時代所限制，一直成了阿富汗一個被遺忘的地方，仍然有大約17000名農(nóng)民和游牧民住在這里的中世紀似的牧場與用石頭圍起的村子里。這里是我去南亞的必經(jīng)之地。

We crossed the Tajikistan border at Ishkashim. Sixteen years had elapsed since I had trodden Afghanistan's dust as a war correspondent. It wasn't the land I remembered.

我們在伊什卡希姆通過了塔吉克斯坦的邊界。自從我作為一名戰(zhàn)地記者踩過阿富汗的塵土以來，已經(jīng)16年過去了。這并非我記得的那塊土地。

My Afghan memories cartwheeled among armed men in Hilux pickup trucks and the concussions of 500-pound bombs dropped by American B-52s. Walking through the war, I had stepped unconsciously around the domes of silence that always encased the newly dead. By contrast, the Wakhan corridor -- poor, utterly isolated, and shielded from violence by the Hindu Kush -- seemed an oasis of peace. We hiked unafraid through fields of ripe wheat where men drove teams of oxen in circles, threshing sheaves in biblical fashion. Antique waterwheels milled their flour. The local Wakhi farmers were easygoing Ismailis, and the women went about unveiled. The farmers stacked the magnificent horns of wild Marco Polo sheep at sacred springs. Snow leopards, not militants, patrolled the snow peaks. Nobody carried guns. It was rural Afghanistan as it should be.

我的阿富汗記憶只有海拉克斯皮卡里的武裝分子和美國B-52扔下的500磅大炸彈。在戰(zhàn)地行走的時候，我曾經(jīng)不知不覺就繞過了常常掩埋新死者的死寂的墳丘。相比之下，瓦罕走廊似乎是一塊和平的綠洲，盡管貧窮、與世隔絕，也因興都庫什山的阻隔而免遭暴力。我們毫無畏懼地穿越成熟的麥田，當?shù)啬腥藗儓允刂爬系拇螓湻绞?，趕著牛在那里一圈圈地走，古老的水車磨著面粉。瓦罕的農(nóng)民是隨和的伊斯瑪儀派，婦女們進出拋頭露面，農(nóng)夫們在神圣的泉水邊堆放著野生馬可波羅綿羊的巨大羊角，雪豹（并非指激進分子）在雪峰上游走，沒人帶著槍。這本是阿富汗鄉(xiāng)下該有的樣子。

"We're in our glory times," said Dervish Ali, a sheepherder whose homestead clung like a swallow's nest to a steep riverbank. "In the 1990s we couldn't even afford tea. Now life is good."

牧羊人德爾維?！ぐ⒗镎f：“這是我們的輝煌時代，1990年代，我們甚至連茶葉都買不起?，F(xiàn)在生活好多了?！彼业姆孔酉裱嘧痈C一樣緊貼在陡峭的河岸上。