旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅷ 對美的擁有-2

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在與美邂逅的那一刻，我們會(huì)有一種強(qiáng)烈的沖動(dòng)，就是一種握住它不放的渴望：將它占為己有，并使它成為自己生命中舉足輕重的一部分。我們有一種迫切地表達(dá)的欲望：“我曾在這里，我看見了它，它對我很重要?！?

A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is the desire to hold on to it: to possess it and give it weight in our lives. There is an urge to say, 'I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.'

但是美是短暫的，它常常在那些我們無緣再見之地被發(fā)現(xiàn)，或者是在一定的季節(jié)、光線及天氣情況下才能形成的難逢之景。那么，面對飄浮的列車、哈爾瓦式的磚塊或英國的山谷時(shí)，我們?nèi)绾尾拍芫o緊把握其中的美呢？

But beauty is fugitive, it is frequently found in places to which we may never return or else it results from a rare conjunction of season, light and weather. How then to possess it, how to hold on to the floating train, the halva-like bricks or the English valley?

照相機(jī)提供了一種選擇。拍照可以稍稍滿足那種擁有的渴望，這種渴望是被一個(gè)地方的美麗所激起的；我們對將要失去一幅珍貴的圖景的焦慮，會(huì)隨著快門的每一次閃動(dòng)而逐漸消失。也許我們還可以嘗試著讓自己完全置身于一個(gè)美麗的地方，希望通過讓自己更加接近于這地方而使它們在我們心中留下更深刻的印象。在亞歷山大港，站在龐培石柱前，我們可以將自己的名字刻在花崗巖上，就像福樓拜那個(gè)來自桑德蘭的朋友湯普遜（“只要你看到了龐培柱，你必然就會(huì)看見‘湯普遜’的字樣；自然，你就會(huì)聯(lián)想到湯普遜其人。這白癡已成了紀(jì)念柱的一部分，并使自己同龐培柱一起萬世留名?！邪装V差不多都有桑德蘭的湯普遜這德性?！保?。一種更加合適的方式也許是買一些紀(jì)念品——一個(gè)碗，一個(gè)涂漆的盒子或者一雙拖鞋（福樓拜曾在開羅買了3塊地毯），用以提醒我們已經(jīng)失去的東西，就像是我們從分離的愛人那兒剪下的一縷發(fā)絲。

The camera provides one option. Taking photographs can assuage the itch for possession sparked by the beauty of a place; our anxiety about losing a precious scene can decline with every click of the shutter. Or else we can try to imprint ourselves physically on a place of beauty, perhaps hoping to render it more present in us by making ourselves more present in it. In Alexandria, standing before Pompey's Pillar, we could try to carve our name in the granite, to follow the example of Flaubert's friend Thompson from Sunderland ('You can't see the Pillar without seeing the name of Thompson, and consequently, without thinking of Thompson. This cretin has become part of the monument and perpetuates himself along with it … All imbeciles are more or less Thompsons from Sunderland'). A more modest step might be to buy something-a bowl, a lacquered box or a pair of sandals (Flaubert acquired three carpets in Cairo)-to be reminded of what we have lost, like a lock of hair that we cut from a departing lover's mane.