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They were just as concerned about housing the dead as the living.
而他们对地宫的关注 绝不逊于生前的寓所
The mausoleum at Maes Howe, a couple of miles from Skara Brae,
在斯卡拉布雷数英里外的麦豪石室
seems no more than a swelling on the grassy landscape.
看上去不过是青草间一处隆起地块
This is, as it were, a British pyramid and in keeping with our taste for understatement,
其实它堪称不列颠之金字塔 其含蓄与我们的审美情趣不谋而合
it reserves all its impact for the interior.
将所有华美尽藏于室内
Imagine them open once more.
试想将这墓穴再次打开
A detail from a village given the job of pulling back the stone seals,
一个村民受雇 进入将石门封死
lugging the body through the low opening in the earth.
匍匐穿进这条深入的地洞
Up 36 feet of narrow, tight-fitting passageway,
一条长达三十六英尺狭窄
lit only once a year by the rays of the winter solstice.
并只有在每年冬至才会沐浴日光的通道
A death canal, constriction, smelling of the underworld.
一条紧窄并弥漫着阴森气息的冥界之路
Finally the passageway opens up to this stupendous,high-vaulted masonry chamber.
最终 这条通道将我们引向了这巨大的 穹窿形石室
Some tombs would have been elaborately decorated with carvings in the form of circles or spirals,
一些装饰华美的陵墓 被雕刻上圆圈或是螺旋的形状
like waves or the breeze-pushed clouds.
犹如波浪 又如清风掠过的云海一般
Others would have had neat little stone stores or cubicles where the bodies would be laid out on shelves.
另一些则附有精巧的小型石室 便于死者的遗体存放于搁架之上
