英国文化：英格兰湖区 牧羊人过着令人着迷的生活

　　牧羊人詹姆斯·理班克斯是湖区最新几代放牧人中的一员，他已经出版了一本书，在推特(Twitter)上有45000个粉丝，大家都被他每天用相机被拍下的纯粹自然美景迷住了。下面他给我们介绍了他每天的生活，以及为什么他的记录能吸引这么多人。

　　People have farmed sheep and cattle in the English uplands for 4-5,000 years - it is a culture as old as the pyramids.

　　在英格兰的高地上，人们牧羊牧牛的历史已经长达四、五千年了，这是一种跟金字塔一样久远的文化。

　　The Lake District fells are mostly "common land" - with legal grazing rights held by the graziers (the landlord often has no grazing rights). I have always been involved in the family farm and have worked with the sheep since I was very small with my grandfather. Today we farm about 600 sheep.

　　湖区的高地大都是公共用地，放牧权由放牧人持有(地主通常没有放牧权)。自我小时候起，我就一直和我爷爷在自家的牧场里一起放羊。如今，我们有差不多600只羊。

　　I started tweeting about three years ago, initially³ as an experiment to see if anyone was interested. It quickly became clear that they were in large numbers. I have written poems and journalism⁴ for more than 15 years, and realised that this was a good way to be creative with pictures and words about our way of life. We now have 44,000 followers and some recent video clips of our puppies were viewed 600,000 times.

　　我大约从3年前开始发推特，一开始只是想看看有没有人感兴趣。很快我们就发现很多人都很喜欢。我有15年的写诗和做新闻的经验，我发现用图片和文字记录我们的生活方式很有新意。我们现在有44000个粉丝，最近我们家小狗的一些视频短片已经有60万次播放量了。

　　The Lake District is the UK's nominated site for World Heritage status in 2016-17 - its unique pastoral farming system is a key part of its historic significance. It is one of the world's most amazing surviving historic farming landscapes.

　　湖区是英国境内入选2016-17年世界文化遗产提名的地方，它独特的畜牧系统是给这个地方赋予历史性意义的关键。那里有世界上现存的最令人叹为观止的畜牧景观。

英国文化：英格兰湖区 牧羊人过着令人着迷的生活

　　The children's author Beatrix Potter left 15 farms and 4,000 acres in her will to the National Trust and specified⁵ the need to protect and sustain the traditional Herdwick farming system. The trust owns many thousands of sheep in its landlord's flocks and they are taken on by the tenants⁶ of their farms.

　　儿童文学作家比阿特丽克斯·波特在她的遗嘱里给National Trust(旨在保护英国最具历史价值和自然美的土地与建筑的组织)赠与了15个牧场和4000英亩的土地，并指明要用于保护和维持传统的赫德威克畜牧系统。在地主的牧场里，这个组织拥有数千只绵羊，它们由牧场的承包人照管。

　Herdwick sheep are native to the Lake District. There are about 50,000 breeding females, but the number is declining due to environmental schemes - 95% of them live in a 20-mile radius⁷ of each other. They are classed as "at risk" because of the threats to them.

　　赫德威克绵羊是湖区本地的品种。仍能繁育的雌性绵羊大约有5万只，但是由于政府开发地产导致环境破坏，这个数字正在减少，它们中95%都相互隔着20英里的距离。由于种种威胁，它们已经被列为濒危物种。

　　Herdwick sheep are "hefted", which means they hold without fences to a place on the fell, or hill or mountain, because they are taught a sense of belonging by their mothers in their first summer. This stretches back countless⁸ centuries and has never been broken.

　　赫德威克绵羊是很“恋家”的。也就是说，在高地或者山上，不用篱笆圈起来它们都会自己待在某一块地方，因为在它们出生后的第一个夏天，母羊会教它们不要离开属于它们的地方。这种现象已经有好几个世纪的历史了，而且从未被打破过。

　　DNA⁹ analysis suggests that Herdwick sheep really did come by boat with the Vikings a thousand or more years ago. Their closest relatives live far to the north.

　　DNA分析表明，赫德威克绵羊确实是一千多年前由维京人船运带来的。与它们血缘关系最近的物种都生活在遥远的北方。

英国文化：英格兰湖区 牧羊人过着令人着迷的生活

　　Because flocks graze the fells together a system of lug¹⁰ (ear) and smit (body) marks has evolved to identify the sheep, and these are captured in the Lake District Shepherd's Guide which has been published for more than 200 years. Similar systems exist forreindeer herders in Norway and Sweden.

　　因为不同的羊群会一起在高地上吃草，所以牧羊人有一套耳朵和身体的标识系统来区分不同的羊群，这种方法被记录在了200多年前出版的《湖区牧羊指南》里。挪威和瑞典的驯鹿牧人也用着类似的系统。

　　The average income of a Lake District fell farmer is ?8,500, according to figures from Newcastle University. Lambs are sold for a quarter of their real price in 1970.

　　根据纽卡斯尔大学的数据，湖区高地农场主的平均收入是8500英镑。在1970年，羊的售价仅是它真正价值的四分之一。

　　It is a tough way to make a living.

　　他们的生活十分艰难。

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