纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 022塔哈尔卡的人面狮身像(7)

For Africans, the Nile has never been just an Egyptian river, and it's claimed as fiercely by the Sudanese now as it was in the time of Taharqo.

对非洲人来说，尼罗河从来便不是一条只属于埃及的河流。如今的苏丹政府与当年的塔哈尔卡一样坚持着这一点。

Here's the Sudanese-born political commentator, Zeinab Badawi:

出生于苏丹的政治评论员泽纳布巴达维认为，这才是这两个事实上非常相近的民族之间冲突不醸的原因：

"Ideologically, I wouldn't say that there are any huge differences between the Sudanese and the Egyptian governments certainly, and there is a huge affinity between the people.

我不认为苏丹政府与埃及政府在理念上有什么巨大分歧，两国人民之间的关系也很密切。

I think that the biggest source of friction and potential tension between Egypt and Sudan has been in the Nile, and how the waters of the Nile are used.

苏丹与埃及政治紧张与冲突的最根本原因在于尼罗河，以及尼罗河水的使用。

The feeling that a lot of northern Sudanese might have is that the Nile actually in a sense runs much more through Sudan than it does through Egypt.

大部分北苏丹人认为尼罗河流经苏丹的旦域远多于埃及。

Sudan is the biggest country in Africa.

苏丹是非洲最大的国家。

It's the tenth biggest in the world, the size of western Europe.

国土面积在世界上排名第十，大小相当于西欧。

It is the land of the Nile, and maybe there is a kind of brotherly resentment by the northern Sudanese that the Egyptians have in a sense claimed the Nile as their own, whereas the Sudanese in a sense feel they are the proper custodians of the Nile, because after all, most of its journey is through the territory of Sudan."

它是尼罗河流域的土地，埃及人宣称尼罗河属于埃及让苏丹人有一种兄弟阋墙的感受。因为苏丹人在某种意义上认为自己才是尼罗河真正的守护者，毕竟，它的流域大部分都在苏丹。

Zeinab Badawi's words perhaps make it clear why the union of Egypt and Sudan just under three thousand years ago was easier to achieve in the sculpted form of Taharqo's sphinx, than in the unstable world of practical politics.

也许这能解释为什么三千年前，苏丹与埃及的联合更容易在雕像中体现，而难以在政治动荡的现实世界实现。

Recovering the story of Kush has been one of the great achievements of recent archaeology, showing how an energetic people on the edge of a great empire were able to conquer it and appropriate its traditions.

对库施历史的重现是近期考古工作的巨大成就之一，表现了生活在伟大帝国边缘的活跃人群是如何征服帝国，并对当地的旧传统加以利用的。

It's a familiar pattern in the story of empires, and it's one that was taking place somewhere else at almost exactly the same time-in China-and that's where we'll be going in the next programme.

而几乎与此同时，类似的故事也在另一个地方上演，那就是中国，我们下一节物品的来源地。