英國語文第六冊(雙語):大馬士革與倫敦（二）(4)

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Men of letters there are at present none, and the highest of their sciences is the knowledge of grammar. When I lived in Damascus, some wit (the first thing of the kind known) uttered a pun or squib reflecting on the corpulency of the pasha, and he was banished for it! The old observation of the caliph, as he fired the Alexandrian library, holds true in the East still—"If the books agree with the Koran, they are useless; if they oppose it, they are pernicious; and in both cases they are unnecessary."

大馬士革目前為止還沒有出現(xiàn)學(xué)者，他們最高端的學(xué)科就是語法知識。我住在那兒的時(shí)候，有一個(gè)聰明的家伙（第一次聽說這種事情）說了一句雙關(guān)語來嘲諷一個(gè)大官的肥胖，之后他便因此而被流放！哈里發(fā)（伊斯蘭教主）在放火燒掉亞歷山大圖書館的時(shí)候說過一句至今止都被東方人認(rèn)為是真理的話：和《古蘭經(jīng)》一致的書都是無用之書；和《古蘭經(jīng)》相悖的書都是有害之書；所以，我們有《古蘭經(jīng)》就夠了。

"But has not Damascus one hundred thousand inhabitants?" says the traveller. "Where are their newspapers, spreading light and knowledge through a portion of the sixty millions who use the noble Arabic language? Take me to the office of some Oriental Sun, Times, Globe, or Morning Chronicle"

“可大馬士革不是有十多萬的民眾嗎？”一名游客問道。“他們的報(bào)紙呢，在六千萬個(gè)使用高貴的阿拉伯語的部分人群中傳播光明和知識的報(bào)紙呢？帶我去《東方太陽報(bào)》、《時(shí)報(bào)》、《環(huán)球報(bào)》、或者《晨報(bào)》的辦公室吧?！?/p>

There is no such thing. Even in Constantinople there is only one newspaper, and the one half of it is in Turkish, and the other in French! Tyranny and superstition, like two monstrous mill-stones, rest upon and compress the energies of the oriental nations; even Greece, the fountain of science and literary and mental activity, was for a time blotted from the rank of nations, and the inquisitive character of its people all but annihilated by the stern rule of the Turks…

這里沒有這種辦公室。就算在君士坦丁堡也就只有一家報(bào)紙，并且有一半的報(bào)紙用的是土耳其語，另一半則用的法語！專制和迷信就像兩塊巨石壓制著東方國家的活力；甚至是希臘——科學(xué)、文學(xué)和精神活動迸發(fā)的源泉之地，也曾一度受到過此等國家的不良影響，導(dǎo)致希臘民眾的探索精神在土耳其的統(tǒng)治下消失殆盡……

But there is another great difference between the general appearance of London and of Damascus, namely, in the eastern city you see not the bright, joyous countenance of woman—she is deeply veiled. In Egypt she is enveloped from head to foot in a dark, and in Syria in a white sheet, which effectually obliterates all traces of shape, absolutely equalizes to the eye all ranks, ages, and conditions, and suggests to the beholder the idea of a company of ghosts……

除此之外，倫敦和大馬士革在整體上還有一個(gè)很大的不同之處，那就是，在東方城市里看不到婦女們臉上的輕快和歡笑——這些都被掩藏在了面紗之下——埃及的女人們從頭到腳都用黑紗包裹，敘利亞的女人們則用的白布，這些白布徹底遮住了她們的身材，使得別人無法分辨她們的身份、年齡和條件，在旁人看來簡直就是一群幽靈……