文、譯 / 林巍

城市的溫度

文、譯 / 林巍1

The Warmth of a City

每個(gè)城市都是有溫度2一般譯成temperature、hotness、heat等，但這里主要是指人情冷暖，故亦用warmth、warmness等。的，這指的當(dāng)然不是自然氣候，而是一種人文感覺(jué)。

Every city, in fact, can be felt by its warmth—not in terms of its natural climate but its human touch.

[2]我到過(guò)世界上許多城市。初來(lái)乍到，新城市對(duì)我是陌生的，我對(duì)這地方也是陌生人。一來(lái)二往3字面意思為One to two to the ground，如“一來(lái)二往地，他們相愛(ài)了”（One to two to the ground, they fell in love）,還有 in the course of contacts。這里主要講的是人與人的交往，故用了social intercourse。，慢慢熟悉起來(lái)，主要是通過(guò)人與人的交往。所以我覺(jué)得，最能體現(xiàn)一個(gè)城市人文溫度的，是這城市里的人對(duì)于陌生人的態(tài)度。

[2] Personally, I have visited many cities in the world. On my first arrival, the new place and I are mutually alien to one another. We gradually become acquainted after getting down to business through social intercourse. In my view, the attitude towards strangers that the people have in the city thus mirrors its warmth.

[3]二十多年前，我初到澳大利亞的黃金海岸，在街上拿出地圖，尋找地方，便有位長(zhǎng)者主動(dòng)過(guò)來(lái)，問(wèn)我是否迷路了、需要幫助不？那時(shí)，對(duì)于經(jīng)過(guò)“文化大革命”、有著階級(jí)意識(shí)的我，感到又驚又喜4通俗的譯法，還有be surprised but glad、be both surprised and delighted、have mixed feelings of surprise and joy、“half frightened, half pleased”等。。后來(lái)，在那里住下了，類(lèi)似的事情多了，也便習(xí)以為常，如路上散步，對(duì)面來(lái)人，無(wú)論認(rèn)識(shí)與否，都問(wèn)候一句。一天晚上，我在便道上騎車(chē)5通常譯成ride a bike、cycle、bicycling等，但澳大利亞人的俗語(yǔ)是 push bike。，一年輕女子喊了一聲“帶我一段”，便竄上了我自行車(chē)的后座。帶著一身香水味，她告訴我剛參加完聚會(huì)，陰差陽(yáng)錯(cuò)，沒(méi)趕上車(chē)。我們一路還聊了會(huì)兒，又過(guò)了一段，她蹦下了車(chē)，道了一句：“謝謝，拜拜！”這時(shí)，我已經(jīng)沒(méi)了驚喜，有的倒是一種莫名的“被信任”感。

[3] About two decades ago, I arrived in the Gold Coast, Australia. Searching for a place on a map in the street, I was approached by an elderly man who asked“How are you? Are you lost? How can I help you?” which really impressed and warmed me, as a survivor of the “cultural revolution” where the consciousness of“class struggle” had overwhelmed common sense. I later became used to thecourtesy and friendliness of the people after residing in the city, where people normally greet each other on the road during their strolls. One night, as I was pushing my bike on the sidewalk, a young lady shouted to me: “Carry me please” and then jumped onto the back seat of my bicycle. With a gust of strong perfume, she told me that she had just joined a party and for some reason had been left out. While we had a little chat, she got where she wanted and hopped off my bike with “Thanks, Bye!” At that moment, I had a sense as much of pleasant surprise as of “being trusted”.

[4]還是在澳洲，我朋友的孩子與他的師傅要去悉尼參加跆拳道比賽，倆人為省路費(fèi)，便試著在路邊伸手搭車(chē)。一小伙子停下了，得知是同路，便讓他們上來(lái)；由他倆輪流開(kāi)車(chē)，自己躺在后座睡覺(jué)去了。八個(gè)多小時(shí)后，到了，車(chē)主醒了，于是互相道謝，各奔東西。這事若在中國(guó)，簡(jiǎn)直是6一般可為 simply、just、as it were no less than、nothing short of、nothing less than等，此處用rivaling，是一種更強(qiáng)烈的對(duì)比。類(lèi)似的，如：The Ming Dynasty was in fact not bad, in a sense rivaling any other great countries in the world during that time.（明朝其實(shí)還是不錯(cuò)的，簡(jiǎn)直可以與當(dāng)時(shí)世界上的任何一個(gè)國(guó)家媲美。）天方夜譚了。

[4] Still in Australia, a son of a friend of mine who, with his master attempting to participate in a Taekwondo contest in Sydney, decided to hitch their way to there in order to save some money, so they went out onto the road to start thumbing. A young man stopped, luckily he was also going to Sydney, and so he let them in and even allowed them to drive while he went to sleep on the back seat. About eight hours later, they arrived and he woke up. Saying thanks to each other, they went their separate ways. Had this story set in China, it would be seen as something rivaling the Arabian Nights.

[5]十幾年前，我到了臺(tái)灣的高雄，上機(jī)場(chǎng)大巴，司機(jī)旁邊的收費(fèi)箱上寫(xiě)著“十八臺(tái)幣”，我摸遍全身沒(méi)有零錢(qián)，這時(shí)后面一男士將一大把硬幣放了進(jìn)去，說(shuō)：“這是給你的。每個(gè)人在外都會(huì)遇到這種情況?！蔽液退夭幌嘧R(shí)?。∩宪?chē)后，他告訴我：他是一家工廠老板，姓徐，在大陸東莞有投資；聽(tīng)我是大陸口音，故有親切感7似乎是intimacy、cordial feeling、af fi nity、affability等，但此處更多的意思是引起了對(duì)方的注意和好感，故用了had appealed to…。。我們后來(lái)一直保持聯(lián)系，直到我手機(jī)丟了，找不到他的號(hào)碼，甚是遺憾。

[5] A little over ten years ago, I visited Kaohsiung in Taiwan, China. When I entered the airport bus, I saw a ticket box marked “18 TW Yuan” beside the driver. Apart from big notes there was nowhere I could find the right fare from all my pockets then. Suddenly a handful coins was put into the box by a man behind me, “All yours. Everyone may encounter such embarrassment in a new place,” he said. But we were strangers! While we were seated, he told me that he was the boss of a factory, surnamed Xu, and he had also invested heavily in Dongguan in the Chinese mainland. My Beijing accent had appealed to him, and we kept in touch for quite some time until my cellphone was lost, unfortunately.

[6]原來(lái)以為，市場(chǎng)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)達(dá)的地方，會(huì)人情冷漠，因?yàn)槿藗冎皇亲非罄?，匆匆忙忙，無(wú)暇顧及他人。后來(lái)發(fā)現(xiàn)錯(cuò)了，二者其實(shí)沒(méi)有必然關(guān)系。在香港這樣高度商業(yè)化的社會(huì)，人們也會(huì)很熱情;有次問(wèn)路，一位女士竟然陪我走過(guò)了橋之后，又轉(zhuǎn)身回去趕路了。

[6] It was thought that as a market economy develops people tend to be more apathetic since they all rush for pro fi ts which leaves little time for caring for others. The facts have proved that is incorrect, for the two are not necessarily related. Hong Kong, for example, is a highly commercialized city, where people can still be very considerate. One day, a lady accompanied me across a bridge to fi nd a route I was looking for, and then went back along her own way.

[7]多年的經(jīng)歷，使我似乎悟出8最直白的是come to realize…、have leant that … ，此處用了to strike me，語(yǔ)氣強(qiáng)烈一些。了一個(gè)規(guī)律：一個(gè)地方，在一定文明程度上，當(dāng)人們的素質(zhì)（不是種族）越相近（水平越相當(dāng)），人們?cè)缴倩ハ嗵岱?，越容易互相信任，因而?duì)陌生人的態(tài)度也會(huì)越好。這里有兩個(gè)條件，一是到達(dá)一定高度，一是高度的接近性。

[7] Having gone through these years, a regular pattern seems to strike me: wher-ever a place, when the quality of its citizens (whatever its races) has reached a certain level of civilization rather evenly (at an approximate level), people tend to take less precautions against but more easily trust one another, and a friendlier attitude towards strangers can be expected. For which two key points have to be met: a certain level and certain approximation of their overall quality.

[8]德國(guó)的美因茨，是個(gè)不大的城市，我在那里住的不長(zhǎng)，但每天走同樣的路，坐類(lèi)似的車(chē)，有著各種形式的友好互動(dòng)，與到訪的地方和人們熟悉了起來(lái)，臨走時(shí)竟然有了一種惜別舊友的感覺(jué)。

[8] During my short stay in Mainz, a little city in Germany, I commuted roughly the same route and communed with similar people and places every day, we became acquainted through various friendly interactions. On my day of departure, I somehow felt like I was bidding farewell to an old friend.

[9]在國(guó)外生活了十余年之后，回到國(guó)內(nèi)，意外地感到“防范意識(shí)”最高的地方居然9一般是unexpectedly、actually、go so far as to、to one’s surprise、have the impudence to 等，為了強(qiáng)調(diào)地點(diǎn)（竟然是自己的母國(guó)），故用了is actually nowhere but here。是中國(guó)。

老師、家長(zhǎng)不斷地告誡孩子們不要和陌生人說(shuō)話、更不能跟陌生人走，而拐賣(mài)兒童、欺騙長(zhǎng)者、老人摔倒了沒(méi)人敢扶或摔倒了的老人訛詐攙扶者等，也遠(yuǎn)非奇聞，而跟陌生人打招呼更難免會(huì)被認(rèn)為是“腦殘”了，于是給人總的感覺(jué)是“偏冷”。一次，在車(chē)站，我向一位學(xué)生樣的女孩問(wèn)路，她一頭把臉扭了過(guò)去，不再理我。想了想，也正常，孩子們也只有這樣，似乎才會(huì)更安全。

[9] After more than a decade of living overseas, I returned to my hometown and surprisingly found that the most highly alert place, in terms of self-guarded consciousness, is actually nowhere but here, China, where teachers and parents constantly remind children not to talk to and go with strangers, because cases of this kind are hardly news to people anymore: children-trafficking, cheating the elderly or ignoring them when they have fallen down, even extorting kind people and so on. Not to mention greeting strangers—the greeter is definitely to be mocked as a “brain-damaged guy”. One day, when I enquired from a girl student about a place at a bus-station, she decisively turned aside her head, refusing to say a word. Understandably, for it is only in this way that Chinese students can feel safe.

[10]當(dāng)然，任何地方，個(gè)別的例外總是有的。譬如，在日本的京都，一次我請(qǐng)一位女士幫我照相，她明確表示拒絕，扭頭走了（也許是有什么特殊原因），但我并不覺(jué)得那里是個(gè)冷漠的地方，因我同時(shí)得到了許多其他人的幫助。所以，就多數(shù)人而言，還是可以有一種總體的感覺(jué)。

[10] Certainly, there are always exceptions in any places. In Japan’s Kyoto, for example, a lady bluntly declined my request to take a photo of me, she just simply ran away (perhaps due to some untold reason). However, it did not disappoint me at all since at the same time I was offered plenty of kind helps from all sorts of people in the city. In a way, you can always get the general feeling of a place by the people you meet on most occasions.

[11]我想，一個(gè)地方，經(jīng)濟(jì)再發(fā)達(dá)，設(shè)施再先進(jìn)，如果給人 (特別是陌生人)的感覺(jué)是冷冷冰冰，甚至是防不勝防，恐怕也不能算是文明之地。

[11] In my opinion, no matter how developed and advanced its economy and infrastructure are, if in general a place presents itself with a cold and indifferent face to people, especially to strangers, even keeping them highly alert not to be cheated all the time, can perhaps hardly be classi fi ed as a land of civilization.

[12]其實(shí)，廣義而言，每個(gè)人，即便生活在自己的家鄉(xiāng)，也是生活在陌生人的世界：我們吃陌生人制作的糧食，住陌生人建造的房子，得到陌生人傳播的信息，乘坐陌生人駕駛的公交車(chē)，接受陌生人的教育，受到陌生警察的保護(hù)等等。所以，對(duì)待陌生人的態(tài)度，恰恰是一個(gè)地方人們整體素質(zhì)的最自然的外在表現(xiàn)。

[12] Generally speaking, for all of us, including those living in their homeland, our wellbeing is in fact dependent on numerous strangers: the food we eat, the building we live in, the news we get, the public transport we use, the education we receive, the protection we acquire from the police and so on—are all provided by people unknown to us,living and dead. In this sense, people’s attitude towards strangers in a place naturally re fl ects their overall quality.

[13]從文化根源上講，西方發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家大都信仰基督教，而中國(guó)的主流傳統(tǒng)文化是儒學(xué)。耶穌和孔子的共同點(diǎn)是利他主義者；面臨饑荒，他們都會(huì)把干糧分給他人，但耶穌會(huì)不分親疏地給，孔子則要講究名分，這就是區(qū)別。儒家的“推己及人10還有許多譯法，如consider others in one’s own place、do as one would be done by others、do unto others as you would have them do unto you、extend one’s own feelings to others、judge others as you would like to be judged by them、place oneself in another’s place、treat other people as you would yourself等?！笔怯袟l件的，因而如何處理公共空間11最直接的似乎是 public space，但這里講的實(shí)際是處理這類(lèi)的事，故用了public affairs。、對(duì)待陌生人，是中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化中的一個(gè)薄弱環(huán)節(jié), 而改革開(kāi)放后單純對(duì)物質(zhì)的追求和信仰理想的淡薄，更使得問(wèn)題嚴(yán)重了。 □

1博士，暨南大學(xué)翻譯學(xué)院特聘教授。

[13] Tracing back, the cultural roots of Christianity and Confucianism, which underpin the developed countries in the West and the mainstream traditional Chinese culture respectively, may be responsible for the differences as well. Confronted with famines, for example, while Jesus distributed food indiscriminately, Confucius would identify different statuses before handing out provisions. Since the Confucian doctrine of“devolving our own thought to others”is conditional, the theory of traditional Chinese culture concerning public affairs and strangers has thus been poorly established and the pursuit of materialistic goals and the weakening of faith since the “opening-up and reform” have only made the problem worse.