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Living at the edge of the desert
住在沙漠邊緣
You don’t need a humanistic education in order to become a herdsman.
要成為一個牧人，你不需要接受人文主義的教育。
Tending camels is a humble occupation, not at all well suited to hypersensitive individuals, such as myself,
照料駱駝是一份微賤的工作，一點也不適合高度敏感的人，比如我自己。
camels are quite arrogant beasts, only too ready to try and humiliate those who care for them, for example, by spitting at them.
駱駝是很高傲的野獸，隨時準備好試圖羞辱照顧它們的人，比如朝他們吐唾沫。
As a herdman, there is no need to hypothesise on the meaning of life, what you do need, though, is a well-balanced nature, plus a fair amount of humility, living at the edge of the desert presents a great many hurdles to economic survival, clearly, herding camels must be one of the most difficult forms of animal husbandry.
作為牧人，沒有必要假設生命的意義。然而，你確實需要平衡的天性，再加上一定程度的謙卑。住在沙漠邊緣給經濟的維持造成很多障礙。顯然，放牧駱駝肯定是畜牧業中最困難的行當之一。
Still, camels are well-adapted to life around the desert, they drink lots of water when they find it and store it in their humps, for when conditions are more precarious,
盡管如此，駱駝很適應沙漠的生活。它們發現水時會喝很多，并且貯藏在駝峰里，以防遇到更危險的情況。
likewise, they do not have much of a problem with the sand storms that rage like hurricanes in springtime, hurling clouds of dust and clods of earth over long distances, hustling anyone in their path to look for shelter,
同樣，春天像颶風一樣肆慮的沙塵暴對它們來說也算不上什么問題，沙塵暴把灰塵和土塊投擲到很遠的地方，粗野地推搡那些正在找庇護所的人。
the howling of the wind alone is enough to hypnotise humans and animals alike.
大風的咆哮聲就足以把人和動物都催眠了。
New breeds of hybrid grains have been developed that thrive under conditions that are less than humid, these grains are easy to husk, while the husks themselves can be used as fodder for the camels,
新品種的雜交谷物已經研制出來，能在不太潮濕的環境下茂密生長。這些谷物很容易去殼。外殼可以作為駱駝的飼料。
that leaves the problem of personal hygiene.
剩下的問題就是個人衛生。
How do you keep yourself clean and healthy in conditions of such severe shortage of humidity, let alone in the middle of a dust storm?
如何讓自己在這種嚴重缺少濕氣的條件下保持清潔健康呢，更何況在沙塵暴中呢？
Living at the edge of the desert is tough, to say the least.
至少可以這么說，住在沙漠邊緣是艱苦的，
My hypothesis is that I would not last longer than a week under such conditions of hardship.
我的假設是我在這種艱苦的條件下，只能堅持不超過一個星期的時間。
