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.

　　老兵们劝我别去找。他们宁愿相信二战期间他们所开凿的、始于印度陡峭的帕特开山、经由缅甸的热带雨林、最后通往中国的那条道路已经不存在了。他们宁愿相信那已有60年历史、狭窄崎岖的两车道公路，已经被时间、山崩、雨林季风和沼泽湿地所湮灭。