譯/陳韋廷
The American team that played a brutal version of polo at the World Nomad Games does not expect the sport to get picked up by the Olympics any time soon.
在世界遊牧民族運動會中參加殘酷版馬球賽的美國隊，預期這項運動不會很快被挑選為奧運比賽項目。
Why not?
為何不會呢？
"We use a dead goat," said Scott A. Zimmerman, a team co-captain.
美國隊共同隊長之一史考特．齊默曼說：「我們使用了一隻死羊。」
The game of kok-boru, with its headless goat carcass, was the main attraction at the weeklong international sports competition held this month in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan.
這項為期一周的國際體育賽事本月在吉爾吉斯的喬爾蓬阿塔舉行，使用無頭山羊屍體的馬背叼羊比賽是主要的看點。
Other highlights included bone tossing, hunting with eagles and 17 types of wrestling, including bare-chested horseback wrestling, where the weaker competitor often clings desperately to the animal's head as spectators roar in anticipation of him hitting the dirt.
其他看點包括擲骨、以老鷹狩獵以及17種各式摔跤，包括袒胸露背在馬背上摔跤，而在這種摔跤中，實力較弱的選手常拚命抱住馬頭，觀眾則大聲鼓噪，看準他會跌落地上。
The organizers hope to resurrect nomadic traditions, especially those of Central Asia, whose cultures were pushed toward extinction by decades of Soviet collectivization and then globalization.
籌辦者希望恢復遊牧傳統，尤其是中亞地區的游牧傳統，數十年的蘇聯集體化統治以及其後的全球化，已把當地文化推向滅絕。
While many top-flight athletes competed, qualifying for an event was easy: Basically anybody who signed up online could play. The bulk of the Czech Republic delegation, for example, was a group of male friends who fished around for an easy sport.
雖然有許多頂尖運動員參加比賽，參賽資格卻很容易取得，基本上，任何在網路上報名的人都可以參賽，例如捷克共和國代表團大部分成員是群男性朋友，他們四處打探以找個難度不高的運動項目。
They discovered ordo, or bone tossing, which involves eight players using a chunk of cow bone to dislodge 2-inch pieces of sheep bone from a large dirt circle. (It's a lot harder than it sounds.) They could not, however, find the right bone bits in the Czech Republic with which to practice.
他們發現了ordo，也就是擲骨，即8名玩家使用一塊牛骨從一個大的土圈中將2英吋長的羊骨移出。（實際上比聽起來困難許多）不過，他們在捷克共和國卻找不到合適的骨頭來練習。
So how did they learn to play? They just thought about it, mostly, admitted the Czechs, who went home without any medals.
那麼他們是如何學會玩的呢？ 未抱回任何獎牌的這些捷克人承認，他們只能全憑想像。
The outdoor events took place in two stunning venues — a hippodrome built for the Games on a high-altitude saline lake surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Tian Shan mountain range, and the vast meadows of a sweeping mountain gorge, where some 1,000 yurts were erected.
這些戶外項目在兩個令人嘆為觀止的場地舉行，一個是為了運動會而建在高海拔鹹水湖、由天山山脈參差山峰圍繞的競技場，另一個則是廣大高山峽谷中的遼闊草地，草地上並搭起了約1000個圓頂帳篷。
With archers clopping by on horses, and the smoky aroma of grilling meat, the meadow site evoked a nomadic encampment from a bygone era.
弓箭手騎著馬，加上烤肉散發出煙燻香氣，這片草地讓人想起了往昔的遊牧營地。
After 72 years spent under Communist domination — and more than two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union — Kyrgyzstan and its neighbors are still trying to define themselves.
在共產黨統治下72年、蘇聯解體20多年後，吉爾吉斯及其鄰國仍在致力自我定位。
"We want to revive our historical identity," said Kanat Amankulov, Kyrgyzstan's minister for youth and sports.
吉爾吉斯青年暨體育部部長卡納特．阿曼庫洛夫說：「我們想要尋回我們的歷史身分。」
The Games also seek to create a kind of Brand Kyrgyzstan, attracting tourists to an impoverished, landlocked, predominantly Muslim nation of about 6 million people.
這項運動會還試圖打造一種吉爾吉斯品牌，以吸引遊客前來這個人口約600萬、絕大多數國民為穆斯林的貧困內陸國家。
The emphasis on nomadic traditions casts Kyrgyzstan as part of a grander Turkic civilization, and perhaps equally important, helps counter the growing strength here of the intolerant Wahhabi strain of Islam imported by clerics educated in Saudi Arabia.
強調遊牧傳統可將吉爾吉斯塑造成偉大突厥文明的一部分。而也許同樣重要的是，這有助於抗衡伊斯蘭瓦哈比教派日漸增長的勢力，這個比較偏執的教派是由在沙烏地阿拉伯受教育的神職人員所傳入。
