旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅳ 好奇心-3

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我在馬德里的探索之旅最終確定由一位女仆來負責接待。她曾3次提著一籃的清潔劑和一把掃帚闖進我的房里，見我縮進被單里，她還用夸張的嗓門喊道：“喂！對不起了！”臨走前把門甩上之際，她還刻意用手上的東西撞擊大門，發(fā)出很大的聲響。由于我不想第4次經(jīng)歷此種遭遇，便換上衣服，在旅館餐室叫了熱巧克力飲料和一碟奶酪條，然后前往旅行指南稱為“舊馬德里”的地方：

It was a maid who was ultimately responsible for my voyage of exploration around Madrid. Three times she burst into my room with a broom and basket of cleaning fluids and, at the sight of a huddled shape in the sheets, exclaimed with theatrical alarm, 'ìHolà! Perdone', before leaving again, taking care to let her utensils collide loudly with the door as she slammed it. Because I did not wish to encounter this apparition a fourth time, I dressed, ordered a hot chocolate and a plate of batter sticks in the hotel bar and made my way to a part of town identified by one of my guidebooks as 'Old Madrid':

我站在卡瑞塔斯街和“太陽門”的交叉處一角。這里隱約構(gòu)成一個半月形區(qū)域，有座卡洛斯三世（Carlos Ⅲ, 1759—1788）騎馬的塑像。這天陽光明媚，有許多旅客一面照相，一面聽導游的講解。我則越發(fā)焦急地想知道自己在這里應(yīng)該做些什么、想些什么。

When Felipe II chose Madrid as his capital in 1561, it was a small Castilian town with a population of barely 20,000. In the following years, it was to grow into the nerve centre of a mighty empire. Narrow streets with houses and medieval churches began to grow up behind the old Moorish fortress, which was later replaced by a Gothic palace and eventually by the present-day Bourbon palace, the Palacio Real. The 16th century city is known as the 'Madrid de los Austrias' after the Habsburg dynasty. At this time, monasteries were endowed and churches and palaces were built. In the 17th century, the Plaza Mayor was added and the Puerta del Sol became the spiritual and geographical heart of Spain.

1561年，菲利普二世把馬德里定為他的首都時，它只是卡斯提爾高原上的小鎮(zhèn)，人口不過20000。馬德里在接下來的幾年里，發(fā)展成為一個強大帝國的樞紐。在摩爾式要塞的后方，出現(xiàn)了狹窄的街道，街道兩旁建起了房子和中世紀風格的教堂。要塞后來被哥特式的宮殿取代，最后才成為今天我們見到的波旁王朝式宮殿——皇家宮殿（Palacio Real）。這座城市因16世紀哈普斯堡王朝的統(tǒng)治而被稱為“奧地利人統(tǒng)治時期的馬德里”。這段時間，修道院受到資助，教堂和宮殿也建了起來。到了17世紀，增添了“大廣場”（Plaza Mayor），而“太陽門”（Puerta del Sol）也成為西班牙的宗教和地理中心。

I stood on the corner of the Calle de Carretas and the Puerta del Sol, an undistinguished half-moon-shaped junction, in the middle of which Carlos III (1759—88) sat astride a horse. It was a sunny day and crowds of tourists were stopping to take photographs and listen to guides. And I wondered, with mounting anxiety, what I was to do here, what I was to think.