2019年经济学人 印度阶梯井(4)

 

Meanwhile, the trust also turned to the adjacent, huge gardens belonging to Humayun’s tomb, a Mughal building of even more breathtaking beauty than the Taj Mahal. The lush grounds are covered in tanks and wells that the trust is restoring. With Ratish Nanda, the AKTC’s enthusiastic head in India, this correspondent recently descended¹ to the bottom of a baoli that was being cleared of centuries of rubble² and sludge, bucket by laborious³ bucket. Two weeks later, water was starting to gush⁴ in. One find, covered over by the British, is a 16th-century well built not to capture water, but to ensure it flows back into the underlying⁵ aquifer⁶. Mr Nanda says the restoration work has helped raise the area’s water table by several metres.

与此同时，信托基金还转向了毗邻的巨大花园，属于呼玛雍陵墓，一座比泰姬陵更美得惊人的莫卧儿王朝建筑。郁郁葱葱的土地上布满了基金会正在恢复的水槽和水井。最近，本文记者和基金会在印度热情的带头人哈提斯·南达一起，来到一个baoli的底部，人们正在一桶一桶地费清理数百年的瓦砾和污泥。两周后，水开始涌进来。英国人发现一处16世纪建造的井，不是为了取水，而是为了确保水能流回地下含水层。南达表示，修复工作帮助该地区的地下水位提高了几米。

Next door, in Sunder⁷ Nursery, the trust has converted 90 acres (36 hectares) of abandoned land into the sooty capital’s first new park in years, laid out as a classical Persian garden. Again, tanks and wells are an essential component⁸. “Delhi needed a refuge,” says Mr Nanda. The gardens have become one of the most popular spots for the city’s families and lovers. The AKTC is now taking on the most ambitious project yet: a 106-acre site in Hyderabad, where seven stepwells were built by the Qutb Shabi dynasty in ornate, white-plastered granite⁹. As became clear during the restoration, they were linked by underground channels that also connect to aquifers¹⁰.

在毗邻的Sunder Nursery，该信托基金已将90英亩(36公顷)的废弃土地改造成这座被煤烟笼罩的首都数年来的第一个新公园，规划为一座古典波斯花园。“德里需要一个避难所，”南达表示。这些花园已经成为这座城市最受家庭和情侣欢迎的景点之一。基金会目前正在进行迄今为止最具雄心的项目:在海德拉巴占地106英亩的土地上，库特布沙比王朝在华丽的白色石膏花岗岩上建造了7口阶梯井。很明显，在修复期间，它们通过接连着地下通道相连，地下通道也连接着含水层。

Some of the obstacles to this effort are not physical but political. To help pay for its conservation work, the trust seeks donations from Indian companies. Yet supporters of the Hindu-nationalist government of Narendra Modi, the prime minister, dislike the idea of a body headed by the Aga Khan, an Islamic leader, being involved in Indian cultural work; besides, the Hindutva agenda is to expunge¹¹ Mughal influence from Indian life, as if it were an alien, Muslim carbuncle rather than an intrinsic part of the country’s inheritance. They are said to have been leaning on companies not to donate. That arid¹² worldview is refuted by the joyful¹³ families picnicking in Sunder Nursery, and the devotion of pilgrims at Nizamuddin baoli.

而该活动遇到的障碍不是物质上的，而是政治上的。为了帮助支付保护工作的费用，该基金会寻求印度公司的捐款。然而，印度总理纳伦德拉?莫迪领导的印度教民族主义政府的支持者不喜欢由伊斯兰领袖阿迦汗领导的机构参与印度文化工作；此外，Hindutva的议程是要从印度生活中抹去莫卧儿王朝的影响，就好像它是一种外来的穆斯林红玉，而不是这个国家遗产的固有部分。据说他们一直要求公司不要捐款。那些在桑德尔托儿所野餐的快乐家庭，以及在尼扎穆丁保利朝圣的虔诚信徒，都驳斥了这种枯燥的世界观。

1 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

2 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

3 laborious   

adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅

参考例句：

• They had the laborious task of cutting down the huge tree.他们接受了伐大树的艰苦工作。
• Ants and bees are laborious insects.蚂蚁与蜜蜂是勤劳的昆虫。

4 gush   

v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发

参考例句：

• There was a gush of blood from the wound.血从伤口流出。
• There was a gush of blood as the arrow was pulled out from the arm.当从手臂上拔出箭来时，一股鲜血涌了出来。

5 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

6 aquifer   

n.含水土层

参考例句：

• An aquifer is a water-bearing rock stratum such as sandstone and chalk.地下蓄水层是一些有水的岩石层，如沙岩和白垩岩。
• The wine region's first water came from an ancient aquifer.用来灌溉这个地区葡萄园的第一批水来自古老的地下蓄水层。

7 sunder   

v.分开；隔离；n.分离，分开

参考例句：

• Lightning tore the tree in sunder.闪电把树劈成两半。
• Nothing can sunder our friendship.什么也不能破坏我们的友谊。

8 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

9 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

10 aquifers   

n.地下蓄水层，砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
• Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30％。 来自辞典例句

11 expunge   

v.除去，删掉

参考例句：

• He could not expunge the incident from his memory.他无法忘掉这件事。
• Remember that you can expunge anything you find undesirable.记住，你可以除去任何你发现令你讨厌的东西。

12 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。

13 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。