英國語文第六冊(雙語):大馬士革與倫敦（一）(3)

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British cities spread out, as it were indefinitely, into the country, in the way of parks, gardens, summer-houses, gentlemen's seats, and smiling villages. It is not so in the East. The city is within the walls, and all without is garden as at Damascus, or desert as at Jerusalem. Single houses are, in any country, the proof of the supremacy of law as well as of the respectability and independence of labour. Life and property have not attained perfect security in the East: a pistol, or rather a musket, was presented at my breast, within half a mile of Damascus, in broad daylight!

英國的城市以公園、花園、避暑別墅、俱樂部、美好鄉(xiāng)村的方式由市中心向鄉(xiāng)下無限延伸。而東方則不同，在東方城市被包圍在城墻內，城墻外則全是花園，比如大馬士革；或者全是沙漠，比如耶路撒冷。在西方任何國家，獨棟住房都是法律至上以及勞動者社會地位和獨立的象征。在東方，生命和財產(chǎn)安全還沒有得到保障：一把手槍，確切說是一把步槍，在光天化日之下明晃晃地亮在我的胸前，而這里離大馬士革僅不到半英里。

These noble gardens have no inhabitants; nor do any fine cottages, tasteful houses, or princely palaces, adorn this fertile region. Within the city you are safe; —without are dogs, insecurity of property, and the liability of being shot. The whole population, therefore, live either in cities or in villages, except in such regions as Beirout, where European influence and power prevail. There, you have gardens and single houses, much after the English fashion.

這些高大上的花園里無人居住，也沒有漂亮別墅、雅致住宅或者豪華宮殿來裝飾這片富饒的土地。在這個城市里你是安全的；——不會有狗吠聲，不會發(fā)生入室盜竊，也不會出現(xiàn)槍擊事件。除了像貝魯特這種受歐洲影響、歐洲勢利掌權的地方外，人們都住在城市或者鄉(xiāng)村里。在那兒，你會有花園和獨棟房屋，英倫風十足。

But place a Damascene at Charing Cross, or at Cheapside, and what do you think would amaze him most? The number of vehicles, undoubtedly. He would say, "When will this stream of cars, cabs, coaches, carriages, omnibuses of every shape and size, have an end? Are the people mad? Can they not take their time?"

不過，如果讓一個大馬士革人置身于倫敦的斯特蘭德十字路口或者齊普賽大街，你知道什么會讓他最驚訝嗎？毫無疑問是汽車的數(shù)量。他會說，“這些排著長隊的汽車、出租車、長途汽車、四輪馬車、公共汽車什么時候是個頭呢？這些人都瘋了嗎？他們就不能快點兒嗎？”

But had the oriental nations of antiquity no wheel-carriages? They had; the Jews and the Egyptians had them, the Greeks and the Romans had them, and perhaps they may exist in some parts of the East to the present time.

難道這些東方古國還沒有四輪馬車嗎？他們有；猶太人和埃及人已經(jīng)有了，希臘人和羅馬人也有，或許東方的某些地區(qū)在此之前就已經(jīng)有了。