旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅷ 對(duì)美的擁有-1

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很多地方，我們?nèi)ミ^了，但卻只是走馬觀花，或者不以為意；然而，它們之中，偶爾也會(huì)有幾個(gè)地方非常特別，給我們強(qiáng)烈的震撼，迫著我們?nèi)プ⒁馑鼈?。這些地方共有著一種特質(zhì)，可以用“美”這個(gè)籠統(tǒng)的字來概括。這種品質(zhì)并不見得是指漂亮，也不意味著它包涵任何旅游手冊(cè)所描繪的美麗景點(diǎn)的特征。求助于語(yǔ)言或許是另一種表達(dá)我們對(duì)一個(gè)地方的喜愛的方式。

Among all the places we go to but don't look at properly or which leave us indifferent, a few occasionally stand out with an impact that overwhelms us and forces us to take heed. They possess a quality that might clumsily be called beauty. This may not involve prettiness or any of the obvious features that guidebooks associate with beauty spots. Recourse to the word might just be another way of saying that we like a place.

在我的旅途中有許多美麗的東西。在馬德里，距離我所住的旅館幾個(gè)街區(qū)的地方，有一塊荒廢的空地，周邊是公寓式的建筑物和一個(gè)大型的帶有洗車間的橙色加油站。一天晚上，在黑暗中，一列長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的、造型優(yōu)美、幾乎空無一人的列車在距離加油站屋頂幾米的上方經(jīng)過，與公寓中間樓層擦肩而過。列車行駛的高架軌道在黑夜里難以辨析，所以列車看上去像是飄浮在半空中，加之列車新潮的造型和從窗戶玻璃散發(fā)出的蒼白如幽靈般的綠光，它看上去更像一項(xiàng)杰出的技術(shù)成就。公寓里，人們?cè)诳措娨暬蚴窃趶N房里忙碌；同時(shí)，車廂里零零星星的乘客，有的凝視窗外的城市，有的則在看報(bào)紙：這是一次前往塞維爾或是科爾多瓦的旅程的開始，這次旅程將在洗碗機(jī)停止旋轉(zhuǎn)或是電視機(jī)陷入安靜之后很久才會(huì)結(jié)束。乘客和公寓里居住的人很少會(huì)注意到彼此，他們的生活沿著永不相交的直線向前發(fā)展，除了在一個(gè)短暫的時(shí)刻，同時(shí)進(jìn)入一個(gè)觀察者的眼里，而這個(gè)觀察者是為了逃避旅館里的哀傷氛圍而出來散步的。

There was much beauty on my travels. In Madrid, a few blocks from my hotel there lay a patch of waste ground bordered by apartment buildings and a large orange-coloured petrol station with a car wash. One evening, in the darkness, a long, sleek, almost empty train passed several metres above the roof of the station and wended its way between the middle floors of the apartment buildings. With its viaduct lost in the night, the train appeared to float above the earth, a technological feat that looked more plausible given the train's futuristic shape and the pale ghostly green light emanating from its windows. Inside their apartments, people were watching television or moving around the kitchen; meanwhile, dispersed through the carriages, the few passengers stared out at the city or read newspapers: the start of a journey to Seville or Cordoba that would end long after the dishwashers had reached the end of their cycles and the televisions fallen silent. The passengers and apartment dwellers paid little attention to one another, their lives ran along lines that would never meet, except for a brief moment in the retina of an observer who had taken a walk to escape a sad hotel room.

在阿姆斯特丹，一扇木門后面的庭院里，有一堵老舊的磚墻，盡管沿著運(yùn)河刮來冷風(fēng)，讓人的眼睛極不舒適，幾欲流淚，但這堵墻，在微弱的早春陽(yáng)光中慢慢暖和起來。我將雙手從口袋里伸出，讓它們順著磚塊粗糙而凹凸不平的表面滑過。磚塊似乎很輕，而且易碎。我有一種想親吻它們的沖動(dòng)，想去更加親近地感受一種質(zhì)地，這種質(zhì)地讓我想起了浮石，還有來自一家黎巴嫩食品店的哈爾瓦（芝麻蜜餅）。

In Amsterdam, in a courtyard behind a wooden door, there was an old brick wall which, despite a tear-inducing wind blowing along the canals, had slowly heated itself up in a fragile early spring sun. I took my hands from my pockets and ran them along the bricks' gnarled and pitted surface. They seemed light and ready to crumble. I had an impulse to kiss them, to feel more closely a texture that reminded me of blocks of pumice or halva from a Lebanese delicatessen.

在巴巴多斯的東海岸，我眺望一片深紫色的大海，它延綿著，一路暢行至非洲海岸。我所在的小島突然顯得小而柔弱，它那由野生的粉色花朵和雜亂的樹木構(gòu)成的夸張植被，似乎是對(duì)大海的森然和單調(diào)的抗議。我還記得湖區(qū)凡人旅館窗外晨光中的景色：由柔軟的志留紀(jì)巖石構(gòu)成的山丘被嫩綠色的草所覆蓋，草面上縈繞著一層霧。丘陵起伏，像是一只巨獸的背脊，這只巨獸已經(jīng)躺下睡熟，或許隨時(shí)有可能醒來，站起來有幾英里高，它可以像甩掉它綠色毛氈茄克上的絨毛一樣震落橡樹和灌木。

In Barbados, on the eastern shore, I had looked out across a dark-violet sea that continued unhindered to the coasts of Africa. The island had suddenly seemed small and vulnerable and its theatrical vegetation of wild pink flowers and shaggy trees a touching protest against the sober monotony of the sea. In the Lake District, I remembered the view at dawn from our window in the Mortal Man Inn: hills of soft Silurian rock covered in fine green grass above which a layer of mist was hovering. The hills undulated as though they formed part of the backbone of a giant beast that had lain down to sleep and might at any point awake and stand up several miles high, shaking off oak trees and hedgerows like pieces of fluff caught on its felt green jacket.