盟軍忍受疾病、季風和日軍的襲擊，築起了這條臭名昭著的1800公裏長的補給線。這條路目前仍蜿蜒穿越在三個國家——也留在了老兵們的記憶裏。
the old soldiers urge me not to go looking. they"d prefer to think that the road they hacked across india"s steep patkai range and down through the jungles of burma to china during world war ii is gone. that its two stringy lanes—now six decades old—have been devoured by time and landslides, jungle monsoons and swampy earth.
老兵們勸我別去找。他們寧願相信二戰期間他們所開鑿的、始于印度陡峭的帕特開山、經由緬甸的熱帶雨林、最後通往中國的那條道路已經不存在了。他們寧願相信那已有60年歷史、狹窄崎嶇的兩車道公路，已經被時間、山崩、雨林季風和沼澤濕地所湮滅。
but right now, step after step, i"m crossing a steel bridge near the northeastern indian village of jairampur: a dilapidated span the old soldiers laid above the muddy khatang nalla in early 1943, the first true bridge of the burma road"s 1,100-mile (1,800 kilometer) length.
可是現在，我正一步一步地越過印度東北jairampur村附近地一個鐵橋：這座已經荒廢了的橋是老兵們于1943年初，在泥濘的khatang nalla河上架設的，這也是全長1800公裏的滇緬公路的第一座真正的橋。
i leave the bridge"s far end, walking between walls of rain forest that rise like green tapestries a hundred feet high. as i walk, i"m thinking of mitchell opas, now 86, who served as a u.s. army medic during world war ii and whom i"ve interviewed at reunions from massachusetts to texas. "if that road"s still there," opas has instructed me, his finger pointed in my direction for emphasis, "then you send pictures of it."
我走出了橋的盡頭，走入了拔地而起的重重雨林，像是走在百英尺高的綠色掛毯之間。我一邊走一邊想著現年86歲的mitchell opas，他在二戰期間是美軍義務人員，我在從麻省到德州的各類老兵聚會上數次採訪過他。“如果那條路還在的話，”opas用手指著我，加強語氣說：“那你就寄些他的照片回來。”
up the pavement ahead of me, dogs doze in the sun as children run back and forth across the otherwise empty road"s chipped asphalt. two hundred yards farther along, a wood-planked district police station encircled by razor wire sits off the road"s left shoulder. when i begin to pass it by, a green-uniformed sentry—his assault rifle slung across his belly—lifts his weapon. using the gun"s black barrel, he motions me inside the front gate. "please," he suggests, "come inside."
在我前方的路面上，狗在陽光下打盹，孩子們則在柏油已經碎裂的空曠道路上跑來跑去，除了他們之外四下無人。再往前200碼的左邊路肩上，是四周圍用有刺鐵絲圍起的地方警察局。當我準備通過時，一名肚子前斜掛著突擊步槍，身穿綠色製服的哨兵舉起武器，用黑色的槍管示意我從前門進去。
i"m led to the commander"s office, where i"m offered a handshake and a chair. the commander is an imposing man in his 40s named g. k. grung, his olive uniform festooned with flashing gold stars. seated behind a wooden desk, he examines my passport and visa. he"s especially interested in my restricted area permit, the paper authorizing me to travel the final 18 miles (28 kilometers) of road inside india"s otherwise off-limits state of arunachal pradesh. here in arunachal"s jungle, the road crests a 3,727-foot (1,135-meter) mountain notch called pangsau pass, which constitutes india"s hotly defended border with myanmar, the nation formerly known as burma.
我被引入指揮官的辦公司，他跟我握了手，請我坐下。年過40的指揮官名叫g. k. grung，頗有威嚴，橄欖色製服上掛滿閃閃發亮的金星。他坐在木桌後，先檢查了我的護照和簽證。他對我的“禁區通行證”特別感興趣，這個檔案授權我行走此路段的最後28公裏，這段路位于印度的禁區arunachal pradesh。公路在arunachal的叢林中直上1136公尺高的pangsau隘口(在印度語中的意思為“地獄隘口”)。這裏位于印度和緬甸激烈爭議的邊界上。
commander grung looks up. "i"m sorry," he says, "but we have been issued new orders about the road to pangsau pass. no visitors are allowed past this point. unfortunately, this means you." he smiles, then taps his desk with his right forefinger. "there is significant rebel activity here at the moment. the jungles are something of a no-man"s-land. we cannot assure your security. therefore, you cannot proceed."
grung指揮官抬起頭。“很抱歉，”他說：“我們已經接到關于通往pangsau隘口路段的新指示。所有訪客都禁止通過此處。很不幸，這也包括你。”他微微一笑，然後用右手食指輕敲桌面。“目前在地叛軍活動十分猖獗，叢林已經是戰爭的前線了。我們無法保證你的安全，因此，你不能再往前了。”
i smile back. this is how my journey along the burma road begins: with recollections of old soldiers and a warning backed by machine guns as i get close to india"s touchy frontier.
我也報以微笑。這就是我的滇緬公路之旅的序幕：有老兵們的回憶;也有在接近印度敏感前線時，荷槍實彈的軍人給我的警告。◆
for about 75 cents a day—three-quarters of what men make—women in ledo, india, carry coal to railway cars. the city"s rail line made it the terminus of one of the most controversial and ambitious engineering feats of world war ii: the building of a military supply road through burma, then held by the japanese. the allied forces who built the road were plagued by monsoons, disease, and enemy fire.
印度利多(ledo)的女人把煤扛到火車上，一天工資約75美分——男人所得的三分之一。正因為利多擁有鐵路網線，才使這個城市成為二戰中最具爭議和野心的工程壯舉的終點站：穿越日軍佔領的緬甸，建築一條軍事補給線路。建造此路的盟軍軍民也因此飽受季風、疾病和敵軍炮火所苦。
weighed down by human cargo, a truck barrels across a bridge on the old burma road. another driver wasn"t as lucky, permanently parking his truck in the creek. in water-logged burma, now known as myanmar, world war ii crews built dozens of bridges, while under constant attack by the japanese. chinese nationalist leader chiang kai-shek estimated the road would be finished in a few months. it took two years.
一輛卡車載滿了人，駛過老滇緬公路的橋。另一位駕駛員就沒這麽幸運，他的車永遠地陷在了溪溝裏。僅在緬甸這個水鄉澤國，二戰的軍民們在日軍不斷攻擊的情況下還是建了幾十座橋。中國國民黨領袖蔣介石曾估計隻要幾個月時間就可以築好滇緬公路，結果它花了兩年。
women harvesting rice make for a peaceful scene in myanmar"s mogaung valley—a sharp contrast to 1944 when u.s. and chinese troops passed through on their way to a bloody battle with the japanese at myitkyina. the japanese were finally vanquished after a ten-week siege that took more than 2,000 lives, including 972 chinese. despite china"s losses along the road, gen. joseph "vinegar joe" stilwell, the u.s. commander in asia, criticized chiang kai-shek throughout the war for not fighting the japanese more aggressively. as it turned out, chiang was as worried about communist insurgents under mao zedong as he was about the japanese army.
婦女在緬甸的孟拱河谷割稻，構成了一幅平和的畫面。這和1944年中美軍隊穿越此處，前往密支那和日軍浴血奮戰的情景形成強烈的對比。日軍在遭到長達十周的包圍後，終于在此戰役中敗北。這場戰事奪去了2000多條生命，其中有972名中國人。盡管中國方面沿路損失慘重，可美軍的亞洲指揮官史迪威將軍還是抨擊蔣介石，指責他沒有採取更積極的態度抵抗日軍。如我們現在所知，這是因為蔣在對抗日本人時，還要分心擔憂毛澤東領導下的共產黨軍隊。
beneath fluttering red banners chinese students practice for a memorial ceremony at the battlefield of songshan, or pine tree mountain. in the summer of 1944 the allies battled thousands of japanese who had commandeered the mountain"s strategic heights. chinese troops pressed their assault for nearly three months before they took control of the summit. by then some 1,300 japanese and more than 7,600 chinese lay dead.
在飄逸的紅旗下，中國的學生正在松山的這處戰場遺址排練紀念儀式。在1944年的夏天，日軍控製了這座山的製高點，盟軍則對其發起進攻。中國軍隊持續進行了三個月的苦戰，才攻克下峰頂。而那時，已經有約1300名日軍和超過7600名國軍喪身此間。
compared with most citizens of impoverished myanmar, a woman cradling her newborn in shingbwiyang is doing well thanks to the recent discovery of gold nearby. her home may be made of tarpaulin, but her husband"s jewelry business is flourishing, bringing in such luxuries as a tv set, a vcr, and a motorcycle. the country"s economy has long been hampered by a series of repressive and often brutal military regimes that have ruled the nation since 1962. with valuable timber and mineral resources such as petroleum, tin, copper, and gemstones, myanmar could be described as the poorest rich country in the world.
與大部分貧困的緬甸人民相比，這個新背洋(shingbwiyang)的抱著嬰兒的女子過得相當不錯，這多虧了附近最近發現的金礦。她家雖然還是用放水布搭起來的，但她丈夫的珠寶生意卻日益興隆，給家裏帶進了電視機、錄像機和機車等奢侈品。因為1962年以來在緬甸掌權的殘暴而專製的軍人政府，這個國家的經濟長期一直都未能起色。緬甸擁有貴重的木材，還有如石油、錫、銅和寶石等礦藏資源，可以稱得上是世界上最富饒的窮國。