Like any out-of-the-way place, the Napo River in the Ecuadorian jungle seems real enough when you are there, even,central. Out of the way of what? I was sitting on a stump at the edge of a bankside palm-thatch village, in the middle of thenight, on the headwaters of the Amazon. Out of the way of human life, tenderness, or the glance of heaven?
如同所有僻远之地,当你身临其境时,厄瓜多尔丛林深处的纳波河就显得那么真实,甚至有中心要地的感觉。那么僻远之地远离什么呢?夜半时分,在亚马逊河的源头,我坐在一个树墩上, 身后是傍水的棕榈叶作屋顶的小村落。远离人类活动,远离脉脉温情。或者说远离天堂的扫视。
A nightjar in deep-leaved shadow called three long notes, and hushed. The men with me talked softly: three North
Americans, four Ecuadorians who were showing us the jungle. We were holding cool drinks and idly watching a hand-sized
tarantula seize moths that came to the lone bulb on the generator shed beside us.
-只欧夜鹰在密密的树叶间发出三声长啼,旋即静默无声。和我一起的那些男人轻声交谈着: 3个北美人,4个为我们在丛林中带路的厄瓜多尔人。我们手里拿着清凉的饮料,悠闲地看着一只有 手那么大小的狼蛛捕捉纷纷扑向我们身旁发电机棚屋上一个灯泡的飞虫。