本文作者罗伯特・卡普托，美国《国家地理》杂志的摄影记者。本文选自于美国《国家地理》杂志，由庄绎传翻译。本文属于写实的写作手法，既有文学的对话和描写，也有非文学的阐述，所以翻译时需要注意句子的结构和用词的方法。

Egypt, wrote the Greek historian Hecataeus, is the gift of the Nile.

希腊历史学家赫卡泰奥斯写道:埃及是尼罗河送来的礼物。

No other country is so dependent on a single lifeline.

任何别的国家都没有这样依赖着唯一的一条生命线。

Egypt's very soil was born in the Nile's annual flood with the flood came the life-giving mud that made Egypt the granary of the ancient world.

就连埃及的土地也是尼罗河每年泛滥而带来的。河水泛滥带来了泥沙，万物得以生长，埃及就这样成了古代世界的粮仓。

And as rain fell in the Ethiopian highlands and the snows melted in the Mountains of the Moon, the river was everlastingly renewed.

埃塞俄比亚高原上的雨水，和月亮山上融化的积雪，为尼罗河提供了无穷无尽的水源。

"This is the best place on earth," said Ahmed, an Egyptian fellah, or farmer, I encountered in the Nile Delta, that incredibly fertile 8,500-square-mile triangle between Cairo and the Mediterranean coast.

“这是世界上最好的地方。”阿赫迈德对我说。他是我在尼罗河三角洲遇见的一位农民(当地人管农民叫“夫埃拉”)。从开罗到地中海之间这块8500平方英里的三角地带，土地异常肥沃。

The delta and the narrow Nile Valley to the south make up only three percent of Egypt's land but are home to ninety-six percent of her population.

三角洲和南边狭窄的尼罗河河谷只占埃及土地的百分之三，却有百分之九十六的人口住在这里。

Here nearly 48 million people live in an area only slightly larger than Maryland.

将近4800万人生活的这块地方只比美国马里兰州略大一点。

The rest of Egypt is desert.

埃及其余的地方全是沙漠。

"Truly Allah has blessed us," Ahmed exclaimed piously. "Soil, water, sun--we can grow anything!"

“真主可真是保佑我们哪，”阿赫迈德虔诚地说道，“我们有土地，有水，有阳光一种什么都行啊!”

In the gathering dusk Ahmed and his five companions had invited me to join them.

天色渐渐暗了下来，阿赫迈德和五个一起干活的人早就约我去和他们玩儿。

Their galabias and turbans stained by the sweat and dirt of a long day's work, they sat in front of a wayside shop, enjoying three of the best things in life along the Nile--tea, conversation, and the water pipe.

他们干了一天活儿，袍子和头巾上又是汗，又是土。这时候，他们坐在路旁一家商店门口，享受尼罗河沿岸人们生活里的三件最大的乐事一一喝茶、聊天、抽水烟。

At the edge of a nearby canal, donkeys laden with freshly harvested alfalfa waited for their masters to lead them home, braying a fretful counterpoint to the steady thud of an irrigation pump.

在附近的一条水渠旁，驴子背上驮着刚割的苜蓿，等着主人牵它们回家去，一面发出一阵阵急促的叫声，和浇地的水泵不断发出的突突声交织在一起。

All this suggested ancient harmonies.

这一切让人感到古代的和谐气氛。

Yet the Nile has been changed by modern man in ways not yet fully understood.

而现代的人却让尼罗河发生了变化，不过就连他们自己也不完全了解尼罗河改变的方式。

In 1971 engineers and workers completed the Aswan High Dam, nearly 600 miles upriver from Cairo toward the Sudanese frontier.

1971年，技术人员和工人建成了阿斯旺高坝，这座水坝在从开罗沿尼罗河向苏丹边境走去将近六百英里远的地方。

It is the greatest public work to be undertaken in Egypt since the Pyramids.

这是埃及自从修建金字塔以来进行的一项最大的公共工程。