英國語文第六冊(cè)(雙語):大馬士革與倫敦（一）(2)

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For the greater part of the year the climate renders little or no fire necessary; and the little that is used is not from coal, but from wood or charcoal. The rooms have neither chimneys nor fire-places, and, except for the preparation of the supper, fire is rarely required during the course of the day. Hence the oriental city is not encircled with a graceful wreath of smoke, to remind you either of an ungenial clime or of the progress of mechanical genius.

因?yàn)闅夂蛟?，這里的人們一年里很少用火；就算要用火，他們也是用木材或者木炭、而不是用煤炭生火。這里的房屋內(nèi)既沒有煙囪也沒有壁爐，因?yàn)橐惶炖锶藗兂藴?zhǔn)備晚餐，其他時(shí)間幾乎不用火。而這座東方城市也因此沒有被優(yōu)美的煙圈環(huán)抱在懷，所以并不會(huì)讓人感覺不宜居或者機(jī)械化氣息太重。

But approach the city. All seems very still and quiet. Is it an enchanted capital, whose inhabitants have been turned into stone or brass? No; but the streets are not paved; there are no wheel-carriages of any kind; the shoes, more like foot-gloves than shoes, have no nails; no cotton-mills lift up their voice in the streets; —all those noisy triumphs of mechanical genius, in the way of forging, spinning, weaving, beetling, which are so frequent among us, are unknown in Damascus. The Easterns hold on their old course steadily, and yield to no seductions of novelty: the water-pump was invented in Alexandria, but the Alexandrians still prefer the ancient well and bucket.

而當(dāng)你走近這座城市，你會(huì)感覺似乎一切都是靜止的，四下布滿寧靜。難道這是一座被施了術(shù)的城市？難道這里的居民都被變成了石頭和黃銅？不；這里沒有鋪平的街道；沒有各種帶著輪子的車輛；那鞋，與其說是鞋，不如說是套在了腳上的手套，因?yàn)闆]有釘鞋底；街頭沒有轟鳴的紡織廠；——所有那些我們已經(jīng)司空見慣的機(jī)械噪音——鍛造聲、紡紗聲、織布聲和撞擊聲，在這里都聽不到。這里的東方人固執(zhí)地延續(xù)著祖輩們傳承下來的生活方式，對(duì)新興事物視而不見：（就像）在亞歷山大發(fā)明出來的抽水機(jī)卻被亞歷山大人拋棄，他們還是最鐘愛古老的水井和水桶。

But if the ear is not saluted with the roar and turbulence of mills, forges, and mechanical operations, Damascus has its own peculiar sounds, not less various and interesting in their way. The streets are filled with innumerable dogs, lean, lazy, and hungry-like; mules, donkeys, camels, dromedaries, meet and mingle in those narrow streets, and impress both the eye and the ear of the traveller with a pure and perfect idea of Orientalism.

沒有被面粉廠、鍛造廠和機(jī)器運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)出的轟鳴聲和嘈雜聲充斥著的大馬士革，卻有著屬于自己的迥異而又充滿趣味的獨(dú)特聲音。街道上盡是餓著肚子的狗兒們懶散無力的哀怨聲；狹窄的巷子里有騾子、驢子、駱駝和單峰駝的叫聲相互交織、此起彼伏，把純正濃厚的東方韻味展現(xiàn)得活靈活現(xiàn)，讓過往游客們的耳目煥然一新。