The peaks of the Zagros mountain range are still dusted with snow. Long, twisting roads draw lines over the valleys and slopes here in western Iran. They are ancient paths, trodden by feet and hooves for thousands of years in the ever repeating movement of migration.
扎格羅斯山脈的山峰仍然覆蓋著冰雪。長長的、蜿蜒曲折的道路,在這伊朗西部的山谷和山坡上迂回前進。那是古老的遷徙路線,在不斷重復的遷徙活動中被腳踩蹄踏了數千年。
These days cars and rented trucks, rather than horses, bring the remaining Iranian nomads and their flocks to their summer pastures high up in the Iranian highlands near the city of Chelgard. Instead of making daylong hikes for news to the long-abandoned nomadic communication center, local Bakhtiari tribe members carry cell phones and complain about bad reception.
現在,小車和出租的卡車(而不再是馬匹)載著剩下的伊朗游牧民和他們的牲畜遷徙到高處于Chelgard市附近伊朗高原里的夏季牧場。當地的巴赫蒂亞里部落成員已不必為了新聞信息走上一整天去那個長期荒廢的游牧民通信中心,而是帶著手機,只是抱怨信號不好。
Iran's nomads have been making the same migration for millennia. In spring they headed for the cooler pastures of the Zagros, where grass for their flocks of sheep and goats was abundant. At the end of autumn they would return to Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan Province, their animals strong and well fed to make it through the winter.
伊朗游牧民數千年來一直在進行同樣的遷徙。春天,他們朝扎格羅斯較冷的牧場走,那兒的草場對他們的綿羊和山羊來說很富饒。秋末,他們會返回伊朗石油豐富的胡齊斯坦省,他們的牲畜強壯而喂養(yǎng)良好以便安全過冬。
Iran's more than one million nomads have long resisted modernity through the isolation that comes with their lifestyle. Deep traditions and patriarchy also have kept change out. But the combination of persistent drought, dust storms that turn the skies orange, widespread urbanization, mobile internet, and the spread of higher education has made their numbers dwindle. The elderly couples still setting up their tents on the flanks of the Zagros admit that they might be the final chapter in the history of one of the largest remaining nomadic communities on Earth.
伊朗的100多萬游牧民長期以來通過與他們的生活方式隔離來抵制現代的東西。深厚的傳統(tǒng)和父權制度也一直在改變。但是,持續(xù)的干旱、使天空變橙色的沙塵暴、普遍的城市化、移動互聯網以及高等教育的普及,這一切加在一起使他們的人數日漸減少。年老的夫婦仍在扎格羅斯山脈兩側搭起帳篷,承認他們可能是地球上現存最大的游牧社區(qū)之一的歷史的最后一章。