Lesson 7 Damascus and London (2)

第七课 大马士革与伦敦（二）

London and most large western cities are very often surmounted by clouds of smoke, owing to the coldness of the climate and the great consumption of coal.

伦敦和大多数西方大城市通常都被烟雾笼罩着，那是因为天气寒冷和大量燃烧煤炭的原因。

The sky over Damascus appears as bright and serene as elsewhere. For the greater part of the year the climate renders little or no fire necessary; and the little that is used is not from coal, but from wood or charcoal. The rooms have neither chimneys nor fire-places, and, except for the preparation of the supper, fire is rarely required during the course of the day.

大马士革的天空同其他地方一样明亮，一样平静。在一年的大部分时间里，这里的气候使得这里的人们几乎不需要生火取暖，即使需要少量的生火取暖，这里的人们也不烧煤炭，而是烧木柴和木炭。房屋内没有烟囱和壁炉，除了做饭外，这里的人们几乎不需要生火。

Hence the oriental city is not encircled with a graceful wreath of smoke, to remind you either of an ungenial clime or of the progress of mechanical genius.

所以，这座东方城市并没有“优雅的”烟雾花冠环绕，而那花冠令你想起令人不快的气候，或者机械怪物。

But approach the city. All seems very still and quiet.

不过，走进这座城市，一切似乎都是静止的，平静的。

Is it an enchanted capital, whose inhabitants have been turned into stone or brass?

难道这座城市被施了魔法，这里的居民都变成了石头或者铜器？

No; but the streets are not paved; there are no wheel-carriages of any kind; the shoes, more like foot-gloves than shoes, have no nails; no cotton-mills lift up their voice in the streets; —all those noisy triumphs of mechanical genius, in the way of forging, spinning, weaving, beetling, which are so frequent among us, are unknown in Damascus.

没有。不过，这里没有铺平的街道，也没有任何带轮的车辆。人们穿得鞋子没有鞋钉，与其说是鞋子，倒不如说是轻便套鞋。在大街上，听不见纺织厂发出的噪声，——所有那些代表机械工业成功的声音，我们经常听到的锻造声、纺纱声、织布声和撞击声，在大马士革却是听不到的。

The Easterns hold on their old course steadily, and yield to no seductions of novelty: the water-pump was invented in Alexandria, but the Alexandrians still prefer the ancient well and bucket.

东方人延续着他们古老而又稳固的生活方式，面对新奇事物的诱惑却不动摇：抽水机是在亚历山大大帝的时代发明的，而亚历山大人却还是喜欢古老的水井和水桶。

But if the ear is not saluted with the roar and turbulence of mills, forges, and mechanical operations, Damascus has its own peculiar sounds, not less various and interesting in their way.

在大马士革，你听不到从面粉厂、锻造厂和运转的机器发出的轰鸣声和嘈杂声。大马士革有其独特的声音，多样而有趣。

The streets are filled with innumerable dogs, lean, lazy, and hungry-like; mules, donkeys, camels, dromedaries, meet and mingle in those narrow streets, and impress both the eye and the ear of the traveller with a pure and perfect idea of Orientalism.

在大街小巷，到处都能听到犬吠声，懒散而又无力，就好像没有吃饱似得；骡子、驴子、骆驼和单峰驼的嘶鸣声此起彼伏，交织在一起，给过往的游客一种耳目一新、纯碎东方风格的感觉。