世界小史 第31章:书卷

They wrote on long strips of this papyrus, which were then rolled up into scrolls.

他们写在这种莎草纸的长条片上，然后卷成书卷。

A whole heap of these scrolls has survived.

一大堆这样的书卷被保存下来了。

And when we read them we discover just how wise and clever those ancient Egyptians really were.

当我们看的时候我们发现古埃及人是多么睿智和聪明啊。

Would you like to hear a saying written more than 5,000 years ago?

你想听一听5000多年前一个人记下来的一句格言吗?

But you must listen and think about it carefully:

但你得留点神并好好思考一下：

Wise words are rarer than emeralds, yet they come from the mouths of poor slave girls who turn the millstones.

智慧的言语比绿色的宝石还稀罕，即使它们出自转磨盘的女婢之口。

Because the Egyptians were so wise and so powerful their empire lasted for a very long time.

由于埃及人十分睿智和强大有力，所以他们的王国存在了很久。

Longer than any empire the world has ever known: nearly 3,000 years.

比迄今所知道的的世界上的任何一个王国更长久，几乎长达3000年之久。

And they took just as much care as they did with their corpses, when they preserved them from rotting away,

一如他们小心保存尸体使它们不致毁坏，

in preserving all their ancient traditions over the centuries.

他们也严格保持了古老的风俗习惯达数千年之久。

Their priests made quite sure that no son did anything his father had not done before him.

他们的教士们严格监管，不让子孙们做任何祖先们没有做过的事。

To them, everything old was sacred.

他们把一切旧的事物奉为神圣。