旅行的藝術(shù):對旅行的期待-8

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除了荷蘭之行和未成行的英國之旅，德埃桑迪斯再也沒有打算過到國外旅行。他就呆在他的小別墅里，讓自己置身于各式各樣的事物之中，這些東西讓他很容易就享受旅行的精髓。他在墻上掛著各種彩色圖片，上面標(biāo)示著外國的城市、博物館、酒店和開往瓦爾帕萊索或普賴特河的班輪，儼然是旅行社的宣傳櫥窗。在他臥室的墻上，貼滿了框框條條，都是大的船運公司的班輪時刻表。他在一個水缸里養(yǎng)了些水草，還買來一只小帆船，一些船用的索具以及小的海員模型……藉著它們，他能體驗到遠(yuǎn)航的最大樂趣，卻免去了航海中可能出現(xiàn)的任何不適。德埃桑迪斯用于斯曼的話表述自己的結(jié)論：“想象能使我們平凡的現(xiàn)實生活變得遠(yuǎn)比其本身豐富多彩。”在任何地方，實際的經(jīng)歷往往是，我們所想見到的 總是在我們所能見到的 現(xiàn)實場景中變得平庸和黯淡，因為我們焦慮將來而不能專注于現(xiàn)在，而且我們對美的欣賞還受制于復(fù)雜的物質(zhì)需要和心理欲求。

After Holland and his abortive visit to England, Des Esseintes did not attempt another journey abroad. He remained in his villa and surrounded himself with a series of objects which facilitated the finest aspect of travel, its anticipation. He had coloured prints hung on his walls, like those in travel agents' windows, showing foreign cities, museums, hotels and steamers bound for Valparaiso or the River Plate. He had the itineraries of the major shipping companies framed and lined his bedroom with them. He filled an aquarium with seaweed, bought a sail, some rigging and a pot of tar and, with their help, was able to experience the most pleasant aspects of a long sea voyage without any of its inconveniences. Des Esseintes concluded, in Huysmans's words, that 'the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience'. Actual experience where what we have come to see is always diluted in what we could see anywhere, where we are drawn away from the present by an anxious future and where our appreciation of aesthetic elements remains at the mercy of perplexing physical and psychological demands.

我還是拋開了德埃桑迪斯的干擾而出外旅行。盡管如此，有時候，我也和他一樣，覺得最好的旅行莫過于呆在家里，一邊悠閑地翻著英國航空公司用圣經(jīng)紙印刷的世界航班時刻表，一邊在想象的國度里飛翔、遨游。

I travelled in spite of Des Esseintes. And yet there were times when I too felt there might be no finer journeys than those provoked in the imagination by staying at home slowly turning the Bible-paper pages of the British Airways Worldwide Timetable.