旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅳ 好奇心-9

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洪堡的興奮證明了向這個世界提出恰當(dāng)問題的重要性。因為由此我們可以看出，討厭蒼蠅與不辭辛勞攀登高峰以研究地理和植物，這兩者之間的天壤之別。

Humboldt's excitement testifies to the importance of having the right question to ask of the world. It may mean the difference between irritation with a fly and a run down the mountain to begin work on an Essai sur la géographie des plantes.

然而不幸的是，多數(shù)的景物不會讓游客產(chǎn)生質(zhì)疑，他們也因此失去了他們應(yīng)得的刺激和情趣。這些景物往往平淡無奇，不給人任何聯(lián)想；即便偶爾給人聯(lián)想，這種聯(lián)想也只是錯誤的聯(lián)想。在交通阻塞頻繁的圣弗朗西斯科大街的街尾，是圣弗朗西斯科大公教堂，和它相關(guān)聯(lián)的東西太多了，但是卻絲毫未能引發(fā)我的好奇。

Unfortunately for the traveller, most objects don't come affixed with the question that will generate the excitement they deserve. There is usually nothing fixed to them at all, or if there is it tends to be the wrong thing. There was a lot fixed to the Iglesia de San Francisco El Grande, which stood at the end of the long traffic-choked Carrera de San Francisco-but it hardly helped me to be curious about it.

除了建于18世紀的圣安東尼和圣柏納蒂諾小教堂外，教堂墻上和天花板上都飾有19世紀的濕壁畫和其他畫作。北側(cè)的第一座小教堂是圣柏納蒂諾小教堂，其墻壁的中央畫的是：來自喜耶納的圣柏納蒂諾，在阿拉貢王面前傳教之情景。這幅畫的作者為年輕時的戈雅 [16] 。在教堂圣器收藏室和牧師會禮堂內(nèi)擺設(shè)的16世紀靠背座椅，來自寶拉爾修道院，這是一個靠近塞哥維亞的加爾都西會修道院。

The walls and ceilings of the church are decorated with 19C frescoes and paintings except those in the chapels of saints Anthony and Bernadino which date from the 18C. The Capilla de San Bernardino, the first chapel on the north side, contains in the centre of the wall a St Bernardino of Siena preaching before the King of Aragon (1781), painted by Goya as a young man. The 16C stalls in the sacristy and chapter-house come from the Cartuja de El Paular, the Carthusian monastery near Segovia.

我們未能從這份資料中尋找到足以引起好奇感的任何線索，正如同洪堡在山上見到的蒼蠅一樣，事實資料本身是不會說話的。如果一位游客會對“教堂墻上和天花板上都飾有19世紀的濕壁畫和其他畫作”產(chǎn)生親切感（而不是因心虛而屈從），他必定能夠把乏味如蒼蠅一樣的事實資料與大問題聯(lián)系起來，這也正是其好奇心的落腳處。

The information gave no hint as to how curiosity might arise. It was as mute as the fly on Humboldt's mountain. If a traveller was to feel personally involved with (rather than guiltily obedient towards) the 'walls and ceilings of the church … decorated with 19C frescoes and paintings ', he would have to be able to connect these facts-as boring as a fly-to one of the large, blunt questions to which genuine curiosity must be anchored.

對于洪堡而言，關(guān)鍵的問題是：“為什么大自然會出現(xiàn)地域性的差異？”而站在圣弗朗西斯科大公教堂前面的人，心中想到的問題則可能是：“為什么人們覺得有必要建教堂？”或者甚至?xí)柕溃?ldquo;為什么我們崇拜上帝？”這樣天真的問題可能引發(fā)一連串的好奇和進一步的質(zhì)疑，例如：“為什么各處的教堂都不一樣？”“教堂的主要建筑風(fēng)格是什么？”“教堂的主要建筑師是誰？他們?yōu)楹稳〉贸晒Γ?rdquo;惟有經(jīng)歷好奇心的漫長演化，看到莎巴提尼設(shè)計的具新古典形式外觀的大教堂，才會覺得欣喜，而不會陷入無聊、沮喪。

For Humboldt, the question had been, 'Why are there regional variations in nature?' For the person standing before the Iglesia de San Francisco El Grande, a question might be, 'Why have people felt the need to build churches?' or even, 'Why do we worship God?' From such a naïve starting point, a chain of curiosity would have the chance to grow, involving questions like, 'Why are churches different in different places?', 'What have been the main styles of churches?' and 'Who were the main architects and why did they achieve success?' Only through such a slow evolution of curiosity could a traveller stand a chance of greeting the news that the church's vast neo-classical façade was by Sabatini with anything other than boredom or despair.

旅行的一個危險是，我們還沒有積累和具備所需要的接受能力就迫不及待地去觀光，而造成時機錯誤。正如缺乏一條鏈子將珠子串成項鏈一樣，我們所接納的新訊息會變得毫無價值，并且散亂無章。

A danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain.

出自洪堡的《赤道地區(qū)的地理與植物》和龐普蘭德的《安地斯山地區(qū)圖解》，1799—1803年

圣弗朗西斯科大公教堂

這種危險因為地理原因而進一步加劇。同座城市中的建筑物或紀念碑可能不過咫尺之遙，然而鑒賞它們所需具備的能力卻有天淵之別。我們到一個或許不再重游的地方觀光，覺得自己有必要接二連三地觀賞一系列景物，然而這些景物，除了地理位置相近，別無其他聯(lián)系可言。實際上，要求人們對各個景物都有適當(dāng)?shù)牧私馐欠浅＠щy的，因為不同的鑒賞能力是很難在同一個人身上找到的。我們受到感召，對一條街上的哥特式建筑風(fēng)格產(chǎn)生興趣，接著我們的注意力又得迅速轉(zhuǎn)向伊特魯斯坎的古物。

The risk is compounded by geography: the way that cities contain buildings or monuments that are only a few feet apart in space, but leagues apart in terms of what would be required to appreciate them. Having made a journey to a place we may never revisit, we feel obliged to admire a sequence of things without any connection to one another besides a geographic one, a proper understanding of which would require qualities unlikely to be found in the same person. We are asked to be curious about Gothic architecture on one street and then promptly Etruscan archaeology on the next.

到馬德里觀光的游客不得不對皇家宮殿產(chǎn)生興趣。這座18世紀的皇族居所因為其奢華的洛可可中國風(fēng)格 [17] 宮室而聞名，它出自那不勒斯設(shè)計師加斯帕里尼之手。然而不到一會兒，我們的視線又不得不轉(zhuǎn)向蘇菲婭王后藝術(shù)中心，這座用石灰粉飾的建筑專門收藏20世紀的藝術(shù)作品，鎮(zhèn)館之寶是畢加索的畫作《古爾尼卡》。然而，照情理看，一位想對18世紀皇家建筑風(fēng)格有更深層了解的游客在觀賞皇家宮殿后，應(yīng)該前往布拉格或圣彼得堡的宮殿參觀，而不是美術(shù)館。

The visitor to Madrid is asked to be interested in both the Palacio Real, an eighteenth-century royal residence famed for its chambers decorated with lavish rococo chinoiserie by the Neapolitan designer Gasparini, and-a few moments later-the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, a whitewashed gallery devoted to twentieth-century art, whose highlight is Picasso's Guernica . Yet the natural progression for someone deepening their appreciation of eighteenth-century royal architecture would be to ignore the gallery and head for the royal palaces of Prague and St Petersburg instead.

旅游因為表面的地理邏輯扭曲了我們的好奇心，這好比大學(xué)課程的指定教科書只看其厚度，而不問其主題一樣。

Travel twists our curiosity according to a superficial geographical logic, as superficial as if a university course were to prescribe books according to their size rather than subject matter.