旅行的藝術(shù):旅行中的特定場所-3

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在家不開心的時候，我常搭上去希思羅機場的火車或機場巴士。在機場2號大樓的觀光走廊上，或者從機場北面跑道一側(cè)的萬麗酒店的頂樓，我觀看飛機連續(xù)不斷地在機場起降，十分暢意。

When feeling sad at home, I have often boarded a train or airport bus and gone to Heathrow, where, from an observation gallery in Terminal 2 or from the top floor of the Renaissance Hotel along the north runway, I have drawn comfort from the sight of the ceaseless landing and take-off of aircraft.

1859年對波德萊爾是艱難的一年，在經(jīng)歷了《惡之花》的審判過后，他和情人詹妮·杜瓦爾的關(guān)系又宣告破裂。他于是到母親的家鄉(xiāng)——翁弗勒爾看望她。他在翁弗勒爾待了兩個月，常在碼頭邊找一個椅子坐下，看各種船只?？?、起航?！澳切└叽髩延^的輪船，平穩(wěn)地停在止水上；還有那些看似充滿夢幻和閑適的輪船，它們難道不是在對我們無聲耳語：我們什么時候開始快樂之旅？”

In the difficult year of 1859, in the aftermath of the Fleurs du mal trial and the breakup with his mistress Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire visited his mother at her home in Honfleur and, for much of his two-month stay, occupied a chair at the quayside, watching vessels docking and departing. 'Those large and beautiful ships, invisibly balanced (hovering) on tranquil waters, those hardy ships that look dreamy and idle, don't they seem to whisper to us in silent tongues: When shall we set sail for happiness?'

從機場的09L/27R區(qū)（就是飛行員所熟悉的北跑道）附近的停車場看去，天空中的波音747飛機起初只是一個耀眼的白色光點，似流星墜向地球。波音747已在空中飛行了12小時。它是拂曉時分從新加坡起飛，飛越了孟加拉灣、德里、阿富汗沙漠和里海，接著，它飛越羅馬尼亞、捷克、德國南部，然后開始平緩降落。降落過程非常平緩，以致很少有乘客感覺到在飛越荷蘭附近灰棕色、波浪翻滾的海面上空時飛機引擎細微的變化。接著飛機沿著泰晤士河飛過倫敦上空，再往北，到哈默史密斯附近，飛機機翼上的阻力板開始展開。飛機開始在阿克斯布里奇上空盤旋，最后在斯勞的上空，調(diào)直方向，對準跑道。從地面看去，白點慢慢變大，成了一個兩層樓高的龐然大物，巨大的機翼下懸著的四只引擎像是它的耳環(huán)。在細雨中，飛機緩緩而近乎莊嚴地迫近機場，機身后成團的雨霧凝結(jié)，像是它拖曳的面紗。飛機的下方便是斯勞的郊區(qū)。時間是下午3時。在獨立的別墅里，有人正在給水壺灌水?？蛷d里，電視機正開著，但聲音關(guān)掉了。墻上有紅色和綠色的光影移動。這就是平常的生活。而在其上方，是一架幾小時前還在飛越里海的飛機。從里海到斯勞，飛機是塵世的一種象征，帶著它飛越過所有地方的風(fēng)塵；它永不停歇的飛行給人們以想象的力量，藉此消解心中的沉滯和幽閉感。還是在早晨，飛機在馬來半島——一個讓人聯(lián)想到番石榴和檀香木的氣息的地方——的上空飛行，而現(xiàn)在，在如此長時間地脫離地面之后，在離地僅數(shù)米的上空，飛機似乎已趨靜止，它的鼻子向上，像是在稍作歇息，然后，它的16個后輪接觸到柏油跑道，掀起一陣煙塵，充分顯示了其速度和重量。

Seen from a car park beside 09L/27R, as the north runway is known to pilots, the 747 appears at first as a small brilliant white light, a star dropping towards earth. It has been in the air for twelve hours. It took off from Singapore at dawn. It flew over the Bay of Bengal, Delhi, the Afghan desert and the Caspian Sea. It traced a course over Romania, the Czech Republic and southern Germany, before beginning its descent, so gently that few passengers would have noticed a change of tone in the engines, above the grey-brown, turbulent waters off the Dutch coast. It followed the Thames over London, turned north near Hammersmith (where the flaps began to unfold), pivoted over Uxbridge and straightened course over Slough. From the ground, the white light gradually takes shape as a vast two-storeyed body with four engines suspended like earrings beneath implausibly long wings. In the light rain, clouds of water form a veil behind the plane on its matronly progress towards the airfield. Beneath it are the suburbs of Slough. It is three in the afternoon. In detached villas, kettles are being filled. A television is on in a living room with the sound switched off. Green and red shadows move silently across walls. The everyday. And above Slough is a plane that a few hours ago was flying over the Caspian Sea. Caspian Sea-Slough: the plane a symbol of worldliness, carrying within itself a trace of all the lands it has crossed; its eternal mobility offering an imaginative counterweight to feelings of stagnation and confinement. This morning the plane was over the Malay peninsula, a place-name in which there linger the smells of guava and sandalwood. And now, a few metres above the earth which it has avoided for so long, the plane appears motionless, its nose raised upwards, seeming to pause before its sixteen rear wheels meet the tarmac with a blast of smoke that makes manifest its speed and weight.

在一條平行的跑道上，一架A340正起飛開往紐約。在斯泰恩斯水庫的上空，飛機收起了阻力板和機底的輪子，因為在接下來的8小時穿云越海的飛行時間、3000英里的飛行距離里，飛機用不上它們，直到飛行至長灘一排排白色長條板平房的上方，飛機準備降落時才再度用得上它們。從飛機渦輪風(fēng)扇發(fā)動機排出的熱霧里，可以看見別的整裝待發(fā)的飛機。放眼整個機場，到處可見正在移動的飛機，在灰色的地平線的陪襯下，它們多彩的后翼如同帆船賽場上林立的船帆。

On a parallel runway, an A340 ascends for New York and, over the Staines reservoir, retracts its flaps and wheels, which it won't require again until the descent over the white clapboard houses of Long Beach, 3,000 miles and eight hours of sea-and-cloud away. Visible through the heat haze of turbofans, other planes wait to start their journeys. All across the airfield, planes are on the move, their fins a confusion of colours against the grey horizon, like sails at a regatta.

機場3號候機廳的背面，沿著其由玻璃和鋼架結(jié)構(gòu)建成的外墻，停著4架巨型客機。從機身上的標志判斷，可知它們來自不同的地方：加拿大、巴西、巴基斯坦和韓國。在起飛前的幾個小時里，它們機翼的間隔才不過幾米，但隨后，它們將開始各自的旅程，迎著平流層的風(fēng)飛向各自的目的地。同船泊靠碼頭時的情形相似，飛機降落后，一場優(yōu)美的舞蹈也就開始了。卡車溜到機腹下方；黑色的油管牢牢地接到機翼上；機場舷梯的方形橡膠接口連到機艙出口；貨艙門打開了，卸下有些磨損的鋁制貨箱，貨箱里裝載的可能是幾天前還懸掛在熱帶果樹枝頭的水果，或者是幾天前還生長在高原峽谷里的蔬菜；兩個穿制服的工作人員在飛機的一個引擎旁架好了梯子，他們打開引擎罩，里面全是復(fù)雜的電線和鋼管；毛毯和枕頭從前艙卸下了飛機；乘客們開始走下飛機，對他們而言，這個普通的英國的下午將會有些超自然的意味。

Along the glass and steel back of Terminal 3 rest four giants, whose liveries indicate a varied provenance: Canada, Brazil, Pakistan, Korea. For a few hours, their wing-tips will lie only a few metres apart, until each set begins another journey into the stratospheric winds. As every ship turns into a gate, a choreographed dance begins. Trucks slip to the underbelly, black fuel hoses are fastened to the wings, a gangway bends its rectangular rubber lips over the fuselage. The doors of the holds are opened to disgorge battered aluminium cargo crates, perhaps containing fruit that only a few days ago hung from the branches of tropical trees or vegetables that had their roots in the soil of high silent valleys. Two men in overalls set up a small ladder next to one engine and open its casing to reveal an intricate terrain of wires and small steel pipes. Sheets and pillows are lowered from the front of one cabin. Passengers disembark for whom this ordinary English afternoon will have a supernatural tinge.

在機場，最引人注目的東西莫過于機場大廳天花板下懸著的一排排電視屏，上面顯示著進出港的飛機航班的情況；這些顯示屏，不曾有美感上的考量，放在整齊劃一的罩盒里，屏上顯示的文字版式呆滯乏味，卻能使人興奮，觸發(fā)想象力。東京、阿姆斯特丹、伊斯坦布爾；華沙、西雅圖、里約熱內(nèi)盧。這些顯示屏能引發(fā)人們詩意的共鳴，一如詹姆斯·喬伊斯 [3] 的《尤利西斯》的最后一行：“的里雅斯特、蘇黎世、巴黎?！辈粌H明晰地記錄了小說《尤利西斯》的寫作地點，同樣重要的是，它揭示了隱藏在這一行文字背后大都會精神的象征。源于這些顯示屏的，是持續(xù)不斷的召喚，有時還伴隨有電視屏上光標不安分的閃爍，似乎在昭示，我們既有的生活多么容易被改變：假設(shè)我們走過一條通道，登上飛機，那么數(shù)小時后，我們將置身于一個全然陌生的地方，在那里，沒有人知道我們的名字。下午3點，正是我們困乏和絕望之際，如果我們能擺脫困乏和絕望的掌控，并堅信總會有一架飛機帶著我們飛向某一個地方，就像是波德萊爾所謂的“任何地方！任何地方！”，或者是的里雅斯特、蘇黎世、巴黎，那該是多么快意的事情！

Nowhere is the appeal of the airport more concentrated than in the television screens which hang in rows from terminal ceilings announcing the departure and arrival of flights and whose absence of aesthetic self-consciousness, whose workmanlike casing and pedestrian typefaces, do nothing to disguise their emotional charge or imaginative allure.Tokyo,Amsterdam,Istanbul. Warsaw,Seattle, Rio. The screens bear all the poetic resonance of the last line of James Joyce's Ulysses : at once a record of where the novel was written and, no less importantly, a symbol of the cosmopolitan spirit behind its composition:'Trieste, Zurich, Paris.' The constant calls of the screens, some accompanied by the impatient pulsing of a cursor, suggest with what ease our seemingly entrenched lives might be altered, were we to walk down a corridor and on to a craft that in a few hours would land us in a place of which we had no memories and where no one knew our names. How pleasant to hold in mind, through the crevasses of our moods, at three in the afternoon when lassitude and despair threaten, that there is always a plane taking off for somewhere, for Baudelaire's 'Anywhere! Anywhere!': Trieste, Zurich, Paris.