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This is Orkney to live here is to know the importance of the sun.
这是奥克尼，住在这里的人对太阳的重要性了然于心
In the summer the days are long and full of light.
夏季时，这里的白昼漫长明亮
In December it's a different story.
但到了12月就完全变了样
It's midwinter.
现在时值隆冬
It's about 11 in the morning and it's still not light completely.
已经上午十一点了，天还只是濛濛亮
There's a strong wind coming in off the Atlantic.
大西洋上吹来阵阵强风
And it's cold and it's wet and
天气又冷又湿
that's pretty much typical of this time of the year up here.
这里每年一到这个时节，就会这样
Yet despite the cold,in the stone age,
尽管寒冷，五千年前的石器时代
5000 years ago a civilisation thrived here.
曾有文明在这里兴盛发展
The island is covered in the remains of their society.
岛上遍布那个社会留下来的遗迹
The ruins are full of mystery.
废墟弥漫着神秘的气息
We know little about the people who lived here.
我们对住在这里的人所知甚少
But they did leave evidence of the important role
但由他们留下的线索可以判断
the sun played in their lives.
太阳在他们生活中所扮演的重要角色
MaesHowe - a thousand years older than the pyramids
年代比金字塔还早一千年的梅萧韦古墓葬
is one of finest examples of stone age architecture.
是最杰出的石器时代建筑典范之一
On entering MaesHowe you have to crouch right down
进梅萧韦古墓葬时，得要拱背弯腰
and you're confronted with a passage
眼前的通道
which seems to actually go on and on and on,
似乎没完没了
slightly, feel an impression of going uphill, up a slope.
你有种走上坡路的感觉
And coming through clearly another doorway.
穿过另一道门
Suddenly the whole thing opens out into the most amazing chamber.
然后眼前豁然开朗，看到一座惊人的石室
This alone is probably the highest and largest enclosed space
这可能是新石器时代，奥克尼人看过
the Neolithic Orkadians would have experienced.
最大、最高的室内空间
When it was excavated,
十九世纪
when it was first entered back in the 19th century the clay floor
这里刚被人发现的时候，这里的黏土地板上
was littered with broken pieces of human skull.
布满了人类颅骨的碎片
This is a place of the dead.
这是个属于死者的地方
This is a house of the dead.
是亡灵之屋
Most of the time the occupants of
墓穴中的死者多半处于
the tomb were left in complete darkness.
伸手不见五指的黑暗中
Then at sunset on the Winter Solstice
但是到了冬至…
the shortest day of the year
即一年中最短的一天在落日时分
something amazing happens.
会发生一件惊人的事
The light of the setting sun shines straight up
落日的余晖射进入口隧道
the entrance tunnel and illuminates the interior.
照亮墓穴内部
Well the significance is that it's marking
其重要性是标示了一年中
the shortest time of the year,
白昼最短、日照最少的一天
with the least light,and from that point on,
从这天开始
slowly and gradually,the light is going to increase,
日照会渐渐增加
the days are going to grow longer.
白昼会越来越长
So what's happening here,is that the dead,
也就是说他们在一年中
the ancestors, are being awoken on that shortest day.
白昼最短的一天，唤醒往生的祖先
