Chapter 3 The Land by the Nile

第三章 尼罗河畔的国家

Here - as I promised - History begins.

历史--我答应过你--将从这里开始。

With a when and a where.

以一个"什么时候"和一个"哪里"，

It is 3,100 BC, that is, 5,100 years ago, when, as we believe, a king named Menes was ruling over Egypt.

公元前3100年，也就是5100年前，我们认为那时有一位名叫美尼斯的国王统治着埃及。

If you want to know exactly where Egypt is, I suggest you ask a swallow.

如果你想了解埃及的详细位置，我建议你问一只燕子。

Every autumn, when it gets cold, swallows fly south.

它在每年秋季天气变冷的时候飞往南方。

Over the mountains to Italy, and on across a little stretch of sea, and then they're in Africa, in the part that lies nearest to Europe.

越过群山飞向意大利，然后飞越狭窄的海域，然后它就来到了非洲，来到了非洲的那个离欧洲最近的部分。

Egypt is close by.

那儿的附近处就是埃及。