国家地理:一次翻越世界屋脊的历史性旅行(2)
"She makes me feel old," complained photographer Matthieu Paley after we had trudged by on the dirt road built by the Soviets.
我们涉水过河上了苏联修的土路，摄影师马蒂厄·佩利抱怨道：“她使我觉得自己老迈来临。”
Paley was voluble and earthy, a French Zorba. He was joining me for a rare foot crossing of Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor, a forgotten redoubt tucked high behind the mountain walls of the Hindu Kush. In the mornings he performed yoga on the road to soothe a tricky back. Expanded font settings on my laptop were my own concessions to middle age. But I didn't feel old. Not at all. Walking the Earth makes you a child again. By the time I eventually reach Tierra del Fuego, my destination six or seven years away, I will be newborn.
佩利是个很健谈且朴实的法国卓巴。他和我一起进行穿越阿富汗瓦罕走廊的罕见徒步行走，那是隐藏在高高的兴都库什山脉下面的一个防御堡垒。许多个早晨，他在路练习瑜珈以减轻北部的酸痛。我扩大笔记本电脑上的字体设置是承认自己已经人到中年，但我并不觉得老了，根本没有感觉。行走全球让我又成为了一个孩子。等我最终到达火地岛（我6到7年路程的目的地）时，我将得到重生。
I glanced back.
我回头暼了一眼。
Paley was doing a Wakhi dance now -- paddling his arms and shimmying his hips along the desolate banks of the Panj. Across the glacial currents in Afghanistan, a few delighted Wakhi shepherds in dirt-brown shalwar kameezes gathered to mimic his moves. Everyone dances in Afghanistan. During the war, in the early 2000s, I had danced into Kabul with a column of Northern Alliance troops, two-stepping behind a T-55 tank to avoid land mines: a combat conga line. I remember how one fighter broke ranks to pillage a farmhouse. A booby trap blew off his feet with a dull pop. This was a long time ago. It was before I began truly to walk, back when I was a million or more years old.
佩利当时也正在跳一种瓦罕舞蹈--沿荒凉的喷赤河岸，挥舞着胳膊，扭动着屁股。冰冷的河水对面，几个穿土褐色宽松长罩衫的瓦罕牧羊人聚在一起模仿他的动作。阿富汗人人都跳着舞。战争期间，2000年代初期，我曾随一支北约军队跳进了喀布尔，跟在一辆T-55坦克后面两步远以避开地雷阵：一种战争康加舞带。我记得一名战士是如何离队去抢掠一家农舍的，一枚诡雷沉闷地嘭的一声炸掉了他的脚。那是很久以前的事了，那是在我开始真正地行走之前，我要回到100多万年以前去。
