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The Maya and their language lived on
瑪雅人和他們的語言流傳了下來
but far away from the stone monuments of their ancestors.
但是與他們祖先在石刻上的模樣相去甚遠
All that remained to say that beneath the forest canopy
在郁郁蔥蔥的森林里唯一昭顯出
there was the civilisation,
這里曾有過一個文明的地方
were the summits of the platform pyramids,
就是一座座平頂金字塔的塔頂了
but only the wheeling birds
但只有盤旋的飛鳥
and the howler monkeys scrambling to the tops of trees
和攀到樹頂嘯叫的猴子
would have seen that.
曾經見過
All civilisations want what they can't have--
所有的文明都渴望一件不可及之事
the conquest of time.
征服時間
They build higher and grander to escape mortality.
他們建造更高更宏大的建筑以逃避消亡的命運
It never works.
但從未成功過
There's always an ending.
萬物皆有終結
Cities with their markets, temples, palaces and tombs
城市連帶著它們的市場 寺廟 宮殿和墳墓
are simply abandoned
最終被遺棄
and that great leveller, Mother Nature, closes in,
然后一視同仁的 偉大的自然母親便降臨了
strangling the place with vegetation,
植被將其覆蓋
covering it with desert sand.
黃沙將掩埋
It might seem, then, that it's all for nothing,
看起來所有這些都是無用功
but that's entirely wrong.
但是這就大錯特錯了
