使館樓01——柬埔寨大使館！

使館樓01——柬埔寨大使館！

Who would expect the Embassy of Cambodia？Nobody. Nobody could have expected it，or be expecting it. It's a surprise，to us all. The Embassy of Cambodia！

誰(shuí)能料到會(huì)有什么柬埔寨大使館？沒(méi)有人。過(guò)去不會(huì)有人想得到，現(xiàn)在也不會(huì)有。在我們大家眼里，這就是個(gè)意外。柬埔寨大使館！

Next door to the embassy is a health centre.On the other side，a row of private residences，most of them belonging to wealthy Arabs （or so we，the people of Willesden，contend）. They tend to have Corinthian pillars on either side of their front doors，and—it's widely believed—swimming pools out the back. The embassy，by contrast，is not very grand. It is only a four-or five-bedroom north London suburban villa，built at some point in the 1930s，surrounded by a red-brick wall，about eight feet high. And back and forth，cresting this wall horizontally，flies a shuttlecock. They are playing badminton in the Embassy of Cambodia. Pock，smash. Pock，smash.

大使館隔壁有一家健身中心。另一側(cè)是一排私宅，多半都是富庶的阿拉伯人（反正我們這些住在威爾斯登的人都是這么說(shuō)的）。他們的大門(mén)兩邊通常會(huì)豎著科林斯柱，后院還有——反正大家都相信有——游泳池。相形之下，使館樓也顯不出什么氣派。那只不過(guò)是一棟位于倫敦北部郊區(qū)的別墅，四五個(gè)臥室，建于一九三〇年代，四周?chē)擞⒊吒叩募t磚墻。在這堵墻頂上，不時(shí)有一只羽毛球飛來(lái)飛去。他們?cè)诩砥艺笫桂^里打羽毛球。擊球，扣殺[1]。擊球，扣殺。

The only real sign that the embassy is an embassy at all is the little brass plaque on the door （which reads：‘THE EMBASSY OF CAMBODIA’） and the national flag of Cambodia （we assume that's what it is—what else could it be？） flying from the red-tiled roof. Some say，‘Oh，but it has a high wall around it，and this is what signifies that it is not a private residence，like the other houses on the street，but rather an embassy.’ The people who say so are foolish. Many of the private houses have high walls，quite as high as the Embassy of Cambodia—but they are not embassies.

惟一能說(shuō)明大使館果真是大使館的，是大門(mén)上的一塊小銅牌（上面寫(xiě)著：“柬埔寨大使館”），還有飄揚(yáng)在紅瓦屋頂上的柬埔寨國(guó)旗（我們猜想那是他們的國(guó)旗——難道還會(huì)是別的不成？）有人說(shuō)，“哦，不過(guò)好歹這房子四面有高墻，這就說(shuō)明它跟街上其他房子不一樣，不是私宅，而是一座大使館。”說(shuō)這話的人可真蠢。明明很多私宅也圍著高墻，跟柬埔寨大使館一樣高——可它們不是大使館。