纪录片《南太平洋》 第143期 奇异岛屿（19）（在线收听）

The great-grandparents of these dancers were cannibals.

这些舞者的祖先是食人族

Life on an isolated Pacific island is eternally poised on a knife-edge.

在与世隔绝的太平洋岛屿上生命常常前途未卜

Nowhere is this more apparent than on the single most remote island in the Pacific...

没什么地方比这个太平洋中最偏僻的孤岛更为明显的

Easter Island. This tiny speck of land has an extraordinary story to tell,

复活节岛。这块弹丸之地是特别要讲述的故事

with new twists turning up still to this day.

新的转折至今才出现

Just 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, Easter Island rises like a fortress from the waves,

只有13哩长7哩宽，复活节岛犹如一座城堡从海面上耸起

surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean in every direction.

四周是一往无际的大海

People first arrived here less than 1,000 years ago.

人类首次到达这里不足1千年

Most of what we know about their civilisation

我们最想了解他们的文明

can only be pieced together from the relics that remain.

只有从他们遗留下来的残迹中拼凑起来

It is a strange and desolate place.

这是一片陌生而荒凉的地方

The most striking features in this bleak and windswept landscape

阴冷又寒风凛冽的景色中最显著的特征

are the hundreds of giant stone statues, known as moai,

是数百座叫摩艾的石像

thought to be carved in the likeness of chiefs or ancestors.

雕刻着貌似酋长或族长之类