纪录片《文明》 第39期 创世纪的第二个瞬间（39）（在线收听）

The Maya and their language lived on

玛雅人和他们的语言流传了下来

but far away from the stone monuments of their ancestors.

但是与他们祖先在石刻上的模样相去甚远

All that remained to say that beneath the forest canopy

在郁郁葱葱的森林里唯一昭显出

there was the civilisation,

这里曾有过一个文明的地方

were the summits of the platform pyramids,

就是一座座平顶金字塔的塔顶了

but only the wheeling birds

但只有盘旋的飞鸟

and the howler monkeys scrambling to the tops of trees

和攀到树顶啸叫的猴子

would have seen that.

曾经见过

All civilisations want what they can't have--

所有的文明都渴望一件不可及之事

the conquest of time.

征服时间

They build higher and grander to escape mortality.

他们建造更高更宏大的建筑以逃避消亡的命运

It never works.

但从未成功过

There's always an ending.

万物皆有终结

Cities with their markets, temples, palaces and tombs

城市连带着它们的市场 寺庙 宫殿和坟墓

are simply abandoned

最终被遗弃

and that great leveller, Mother Nature, closes in,

然后一视同仁的 伟大的自然母亲便降临了

strangling the place with vegetation,

植被将其覆盖

covering it with desert sand.

黄沙将掩埋

It might seem, then, that it's all for nothing,

看起来所有这些都是无用功

but that's entirely wrong.

但是这就大错特错了