Loving and Hating New York原文及译文.docx

Loving and Hating New York亦爱亦恨话纽约Thomas Griffith托马斯格里菲斯Those ad campaigns celebrating the Big Apple, those T-shirts with a heart design proclaiming “I love New York,“ are signs, pathetic in their desperation, of how the mighty has fallen. New York City used to leave the bragging to others, for bragging was "bush" Being unique, the biggest and the best, New York didn't have to assert how special it was.那些歌颂“大苹果”的广告宣传活动，那些印有心形图案带“我 爱纽约”字样的T恤衫，像是绝望中发出的一声悲怅，只能显示纽约 这个非凡之城正日趋走向没落。纽约过去从不自吹自擂，因为自夸本 身就表明你是“二流角色”。作为美国最大而且最好的城市，纽约是 独一无二的，也就没有必要宣称自己是如何与众不同了。It isn't the top anymore, at least if the top is measured by who begets the styles and sets the trends. Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with American politics. Once it was the nation's undisputed fashion authority, but it too long resisted the incoming casual style and lost its monopoly. No longer so looked up to or copied, New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing American trends, a place to escape Common Denominator Land.然而，今日的纽约已不再处于顶尖位置了，如果顶尖位置是由开创时尚、领导潮流方面的标准来衡量的话。当今，就像往往跟不上美 国政治前进的步伐一样，纽约往往同美国人的生活情趣不同步调。它 曾经是美国公认的时尚权威，却由于长期抵制日渐流行的休闲服饰而 丧失了其垄断地位。纽约已不再是众望所归、纷起效仿的对象了，如 今它甚至已成为美国流行时尚的抵制者，已成为摆脱全国清一色的单 调局面的一隅逃遁之地而自鸣自得。Its deficiencies as a pacesetter are more and more evident. A dozen other cities have buildings more inspired architecturally than any built in New York City in the past twenty years. The giant Manhattan television studios where Toscanini's NBC Symphony once played now sit empty most of the time, while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood, and the Johnny Carson show live, preempt the airways from California. Tin Pan Alley has moved to Nashville and Hollywood. Vegas casinos routinely pay heavy sums to singers and entertainers whom no nightspot in Manhattan can afford to hire. In sports, the bigger superdomes, the more exciting teams, the most enthusiastic fans, are often found elsewhere.纽约已无力保持先导地位这一点已是愈发明显了。有十多座其他 城市的一些建筑物很富建筑灵感，超过了纽约在近二十年来兴建的任 何一幢建筑物。曾是托斯卡尼尼全国广播公司交响乐团演出场所的巨 大的曼哈顿电视演播厅现在经常是空无一人，而由好莱坞大批量炮制 的情景喜剧和约翰尼卡森节目的实况转播却占满了加尼福尼亚的广 播电视发送频道。流行歌曲创作发行中心也从纽约的沿潘胡同转移到 了纳什维尔和好莱坞。拉斯维加斯的娱乐城定期付给歌手和艺员的高 薪是曼哈顿任何一家夜总会都无力支付的。而体育运动方面，那些规 模较大的体育馆、更振奋人心的球队以及最狂热的球迷们，也往往出 现在纽约以外的地方。New York was never a good convention city - being regarded as unfriendly, unsafe, overcrowded, and expensive - but it is making something of a comeback as a tourist attraction. Even so, most Americans would probably rate New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington, or Disneyland higher. A dozen other cities, including my hometown of Seattle, are widely considered better cities to live in.纽约向来都不是集会的好场所因为人们普遍认为那里不太友 善，不太安全，人口拥挤，而且物价高昂但现在它似乎正在重新 变回旅游胜地。即便如此，绝大多数美国人可能会对新奥尔良、旧金 山、华盛顿或迪斯尼乐园等地给予更高的评价。另外还有其他十余座 城市，包括我的家乡西雅图在内，往往被认为比纽约更适于居住。Why, then, do many Europeans call New York their favorite city? They take more readily than do most Americans to its cosmopolitan complexities, its surviving, aloof, European standards, its alien mixtures. Perhaps some of these Europeans are reassured by the sight, on the twin fashion avenues of Madison and Fifth, of all those familiar international names - the jewelers, shoe stores, and designer shops that exist to flatter and bilk the frivolous rich. But no; what most excites Europeans is the city's charged , nervous atmosphere, its vulgar dynamism .那么，为什么有许多欧洲人称纽约是他们心目中最喜爱的城市呢？ 与大多数美国人相比，他们更懂得欣赏纽约这个国际大都市里光怪陆 离，喜欢它那留存至今的欧洲社会准则以及外来民族的多元文化。也 许其中的一些欧洲人是因为看到眼前的景象而感到心里踏实：在麦迪 逊大街和第五大街这两条双胞胎市的繁华大街上的那些熟悉的国际 名牌商号那些专为迎合和欺骗那些轻浮浅薄的有钱人而存在的 珠宝店、鞋店和服装设计店。然而，这并不是真正的原因，最令欧洲 人激动不已的却是这个城市的那种情绪饱满的紧张气氛，那种庸俗的 动态活力。New York is about energy, contention, and striving. And since it contains its share of articulate losers, it is also about mockery, the put- down 5 the loser's shrug ("whaddya gonna do?"). It is about constant battles for subway seats, for a cabdriver's or a clerk's or a waiter's attention, for a foothold , a chance, a better address, a larger billing. To win in New York is to be uneasy; to lose is to live in jostling proximity to the frustrated majority.纽约充满了活力、竞争和奋斗。纽约也生活着一批能说会道的失 意者，因此，它也就充满了挖苦奚落和失意者的耸肩(你说该怎么 办？)。纽约到处是无休无止的斗争为了地铁上的座位，为了弓I 起一个的土司机、一个办事员或一个侍者的注意，为了一个立足之地， 为了一次机会，为了一个更好的住所，为了一个在演员表位置上更为突出的名字，什么都可以用来争。在纽约，成功也就意味着你将终日 惶惶不安；失败也就意味着你得和大多数心灰意冷的人一起挤攘度日。New York was never Mecca to me. And though I have lived there more than half my life, you won't find me wearing an "I Love New York" T-shirt. But all in all, I can t think of many places in the world I'd rather live. If s not easy to define why.我从不认为纽约是我心目中的麦加圣地。尽管我在那儿生活了大 半辈子，你甭想看到我穿上一件印有“我爱纽约”的文化衫。但总的 来说，我倒真想不出这世界上还有哪几个地方我更想去居住的。至于 原因嘛，我自己也说不出个所以然来。8 Nature's pleasures are much qualified in New York . You never see a star-filled sky; the city's bright glow arrogantly obscures the heavens. Sunsets can be spectacular: oranges and reds tinting the sky over the Jersey meadows and gaudily reflected in a thousand windows on Manhattan's jagged skyline. Nature constantly yields to man in New York: witness those fragile sidewalk trees gamely struggling against encroaching cement and petrol fumes. Central Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted designed as lungs for the city's poor, is in places grassless and filled with trash, no longer pristine yet lively with the noise and vivacity of people, largely youths, blacks, and Puerto Ricans, enjoying themselves. On park benches sit older people, mostly white, looking displaced. It has become less a tranquil park than an untidy carnival.