國(guó)家地理:一次翻越世界屋脊的歷史性旅行(6)
Irshad Pass rises 16,335 feet above sea level. We finally reached it at sunset. Paley ventured a feeble victory dance. I gulped air so thin and metallic it cut my lungs like razor blades. Gales had scoured the summit to raw bedrock. Without shelter or firewood, it was a hazardous place to camp. But we had little choice. A bitter dark was rising fast from the deep valleys. We unpacked our donkeys with difficulty -- the ropes were stiff as rebar -- and pounded our tent stakes into iron-cold earth. My frozen pants never thawed, not even inside my sleeping bag. I staggered out into the howling night only once, to wrap the donkeys in fluttering tarps. The animals' black eyes shone back accusingly in the white bore of my headlamp. I couldn't look at them.
伊爾沙德山口海拔16355英尺。我們?cè)谔?yáng)東山的時(shí)候終于到達(dá)了山口，佩利冒險(xiǎn)無(wú)力地跳了一會(huì)蹩腳的勝利之舞。我們大口喘氣，鋼刀似的空氣像刀片一樣劃痛我的肺。大風(fēng)已經(jīng)把這座頂峰抹成光禿禿的巖床。沒有庇護(hù)所，也沒有點(diǎn)火的柴，這是個(gè)危險(xiǎn)的宿營(yíng)地。但我們沒有別的選擇。一股嚴(yán)寒刺骨的黑云從深谷里快速升起。我們吃力地卸掉驢子，那繩子像鋼筋一樣堅(jiān)硬，然后把帳篷樁打進(jìn)冰冷的鐵板一樣的地面。我那凍得硬繃繃的褲子沒有解凍過(guò)，即使在睡袋里也沒有解凍。我在狂風(fēng)咆哮的夜里只搖搖晃晃地出去了一次，為的是把驢子裹獵獵飄動(dòng)的油布里。驢子黑黑的眼睛責(zé)難地映回我頭燈的白光，我不敢看著它們。
Plainclothes Pakistani security forces confronted us the next night while we camped at the eastern end of the Hindu Kush. We had notified the government of our plan to enter Pakistan via Irshad. We carried valid visas issued in advance. But the officers, armed with AK-47s, insisted we had trespassed into a restricted zone. They drove us to the frontier town of Gilgit. In detention there, I overheard Paley, curled on his cot, parroting in his emphatic Norman accent the lines from a film playing on his hidden mobile phone: "An eye for an eye only ends up making zee whole world blind."
第二天晚上我們?cè)谂d都庫(kù)什東端宿營(yíng)時(shí)，遇到了巴基斯坦便衣安全部隊(duì)。我們?cè)?jīng)向政府通報(bào)我們經(jīng)由伊爾沙德山口進(jìn)入巴基斯坦，也攜帶了預(yù)先辦好的有效簽證。但這些軍官用 AK47 對(duì)著我們，堅(jiān)持我們擅自進(jìn)入了禁區(qū)。他們把我們趕到了邊陲小鎮(zhèn)吉爾吉特。拘留在那里的時(shí)候，我無(wú)意中聽到蜷縮在簡(jiǎn)易床上的佩利用明顯的諾曼底口音機(jī)械地模仿他隱藏的移動(dòng)電話播放的電影臺(tái)詞：“以眼還眼，結(jié)果只會(huì)使這整個(gè)世界都失明。”
"Matthieu," I whispered, "are you watching Gandhi in an intelligence agency safe house?"
“馬蒂厄，”我低聲道，“你在情報(bào)機(jī)關(guān)的安全室里看甘地嗎？”
