中国出版集团、中译出版社“外国人写作中国计划”丛书之中、英文版《罗宾博士看陕西》
胡宗锋和（英）罗宾·吉尔班克中、英文版《罗宾博士看陕西》在第二十四届国际图书博览会上发布
Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes
罗宾博士看陕西
Qingming in Baoji
清明在宝鸡
April 2012
（英） 罗宾·吉尔班克
佛骨圣地--法门寺
秦岭主峰--太白山
In the half-razed alleys between thetemple and the nunnery we dodged tat and rubble. All the way Liz made me ruefulfor having not accompanied her here twelve months earlier when she and the twoexchange students from Bordeaux whom she befriended had filled whole memorycards with images of the old terraces. Condemned buildings bore thefreshly-stenciled character chai (“teardown”) as impassively as rows of refrigerated carcasses sport butcher’s dyemarks.
在庙与庵中间那条被拆了一半的小巷里，我们绕着碎石和瓦块。一路上，白丽诗一直在抱怨我，嫌我没有在一年前就陪她和两个从波尔多来的交换生朋友到这里来，她们的记忆里充满了对这个古塬的印象。被封了的楼上都有一个新喷涂的“拆”字，那字冷漠得如同动物被宰杀后，冰冻起来时身上的标记。
宝鸡城貌-高新区
A moot point was that I had not beenthere to witness the residents queuing to extract water from the communalpumps, each carrying designated plastic (formerly ivory) tokens. This was oneof those touchstones which helped outsiders to gauge the unequal pace ofdevelopment between East and West. My maternal grandmother, born in 1913, hadgrown up believing that her family was somewhat upper-crust because they didnot have to rely upon public sanitation. Her mother was not compelled to ambledown with the other housewives to fill pails at “Jerry Lane” (named, one cansuppose, after the jerry cans they carried) or stand in line at the creamerypump. This may have saved Gran’s life, thus vouchsafing my own. In the hiatusbetween the Boer War and the Great War our home village in the East Ridingexperienced a disturbing spike in infant mortality. The cause, which wentunacknowledged at the time, was the suspected contamination of the water tablewith seepage from the neighbourhood privies.
一个悬而未决的问题是，我还没有看见这儿的人排着队，每个人都拿着塑料牌子（以前是象牙的）到公共水房去打水。这是外人判断东部和西部发展不平衡的试金石之一。我外婆出生于1913年，她长大的时候相信自己家是上流阶层，因为家里人不用公共卫生设施。她的妈妈用不着和其它的家庭主妇一样，到“杰里巷”用桶去提水（大家可以猜出叫“杰里巷”是因为她们手里的桶名），或是排着队等着领牛奶。这也许救了我爷爷的命，于是我也就跟着沾光了。在“布尔战争”和第一次世界大战之间的那段日子里，我老家东赖丁村（东赖丁East Riding英国英格兰东北部约克郡的旧地区，现为亨伯赛德郡的一部分——译者注）的婴儿死亡率很高，其原因（当时还不知道）人们怀疑就是因为附近的厕所渗水，污染了地下水源。
How much pestilence had of late lurkedbeneath the streets of eastern Xi’an is anybody’s guess. I am reliably informedthat as recently as the 1980s, it was a daily event to see crowds ofcross-legged householders waiting to use the over-burdened and almost alwaysblocked, public latrines. Husbands would stand in proxy for their wives andvice versa with breakfast or dinner often being rustled up in the time it tookto for their turn to come around.
西安东边街道下的藏污纳垢超出人们的猜测，根据我的可靠消息，直到二十世纪八十年代，每天的一道街景就是成群的当地居民夹着腿，等着使用已经超负荷，而且几乎是被堵塞了的公共厕所。有丈夫给妻子排队的，也有妻子给丈夫排队的，常常是该大家一起吃早饭和晚饭时才轮到自己。
宝鸡城貌-金渭湖
Longer-engrained traditions are stillpalpable in the vicinity of the East Gate. The proximity of the Taoist Templeand Buddhist Nunnery mean that a slew of religious paraphernalia is on sale.Notwithstanding her own secular inclinations, Liz had managed to accrue asizeable collection of votive papers during her trips around rural France andthe Mediterranean. Now in China, she turned her attentions to so-called “hellmoney” and other replica items which were burnt for the sake of the dead. Faux banknotes are a convenient take onan age-old custom. In the past, people would laboriously pat coins againstplain joss paper to leave behind the impress of the money. Once set alight, thevalue of the original currency would be supernaturally transferred to thepockets of loved ones who might be facing costly penalties in the undergroundcourt or difu. This explains why“hell notes” closely resemble authentic notes save for the fact that theydisplay astronomical denominations such as 250 000 or 1 million yuan. ChairmanMao’s portrait features on some, as on the genuine article. Otherwise, theybear the image and signature of the Jade Emperor, believed in Taoism to presideover the underworld.
在西安东门附近，一些根深蒂固的传统显然依旧在延续。道教寺院和佛寺的红火意味着大量的宗教物品热销。虽然白丽诗不信教，但她却在法国和地中海周围的乡下旅游时收集了好多祈愿信。到了中国，她的兴趣转向了所谓的“冥币”和其它一些为逝者焚烧的仿制品。焚烧携带方便的“冥币”是一个古老的习俗，以前人们会费力的用硬币压在祭祀的纸上留下钱印。这些“钱”被烧了以后，就会被转给自己逝去的亲人，从而使其好面对“阴曹地府”昂贵的费用。故“冥币” 特别像真钱，只是面值乃天文数字，有二十五万和百万大钞。有的“冥币” 和真钱一样有毛主席的头像，有的则印的是在道教里主宰地府的“玉皇大帝”的头像和签名。
In the present instance, the ancientinjunction to observe filial duty to one’s ancestors was suffused withtwenty-first century consumerist values. The Xi’an stalls stocked currency aswell as clothes and accoutrements with which to kit out the dead. Liz fawnedover several dainty pairs of slippers which were so neatly-proportioned thatthe cardboard may well have been cut according to a shoemaker’s templates. On takingthem back to her apartment and performing a more detailed inspection withtweezers, she discovered that the uppers were crafted from cigarette cartons.The gaudy metallic burgundy and gold exteriors just peeped through the tiniestcracks in the lining.
在今天，对祖先的孝敬带有二十一世纪浓厚的消费观念。西安的小摊上不仅有“冥币”，而且有仿造的衣服和其它准备孝敬给逝者的东西。白丽诗看好的是几双精美的拖鞋，做工很精巧，肯定是根据鞋匠的模型做成的。等回到住的地方，用镊子夹着仔细一看，她发现鞋帮是用烟盒做的，透过那些华丽的金属红和黄色外饰，还能看到小小的缝隙。
宝鸡城貌-石鼓吉金
My own eyes were taken by two objects.The first was a kind of selection box sealed in cellophane, which includedimitation personal effects from Fendi sunglassesto credit cards and an EmporioArmani wallet. Foreign newspapers had been awash of late with storiesabout the high demand for combustible cardboard I-phones, with shoppers in thesouth of China apparently being willing to part with hundreds of reminbi in order to endow theirforbears with the latest smart technology. This box only contained a common orgarden Nokia – not so badgiven that it cost ten yuan (equivalent to £ 1). The best prize was yet to comeas the shopkeeper waved a big silver oblong under my nose. Behold, an Apple Notebook precisely captured inthree dimensions. The box was exactly to scale and, delight beyond delights,once an adhesive tab was removed it fell open to reveal a monitor and keyboard.
有两样东西吸引住了我的目光，一个是用玻璃纸封着的礼品盒，里面包括假的“芬迪”太阳镜，信用卡和“阿玛尼”钱包。外国的媒体报道说近来用硬纸盒做的“苹果”手机很抢手，这显然是因为南方的一些人愿意花几百元人民币让自己的先人领略最新的智能科技。另一个盒子里有一个普通的“诺基亚”手机，只卖十元（相当于一英镑）很不错。好东西还在后面，店家在我的鼻子下摇晃着一个长方形的银色盒子。看啊！那可是一模一样的立体“苹果平板电脑”，让人更惊喜的是，打开胶带，里面还有显示屏和键盘。
Our talk thereafter was full of cynicalbanter along the lines of “if granny got confused about how to use the landlineat home would her spirit really feel blessed to be sent a bluetooth?” Weconcluded that as with so many other modernized rituals, ostentatious showhad come to override the original motive of filial piety. Unbeknown to us, suchsarcasm was already part and parcel of the debate over the adulteration of thiscustom. When I shared our jokes with a colleague, his response was: “Sure,granny can have a Bluetooth, and an I-phone and an Apple Mac, if she wants one. Now that Steve Jobs has passed over tothe other side he’s busier than ever demonstrating how to use thesetechnologies to dead Chinese grandparents!”
我们的谈话随之充满了嘲讽的玩笑，涉及的话题有“要是老奶奶不会用屋里的固定电话，送个‘蓝牙’她的魂真的会开心吗？”大家最后的结论是，这么多的现代化玩意和扎眼的排场反而是失去了孝道的原本动机。我们不知道，对风俗中这种赝品的风凉话早就有了。当我把这个笑话讲给我的一个同事后，他的反应是：“要是想要，老奶奶当然可以有‘蓝牙’、‘苹果’手机和电脑了，现在乔布斯已经去了彼岸，他更忙了，忙着给中国故去的老爷爷和老奶奶演示怎样使用这些高科技”。
The purchased paper items sat around inour homes. Not long afterwards, fell the annual Qingming Festival, the springholiday when it is customary to show reverence to one’s ancestors. The titlecan be translated as “bright and clear” or “perfect brightness,” though thepowers that be prefer the more descriptive name of “Tomb-sweeping Day.” Qingmingperhaps dates back more than two millennia and was elevated in importance bythe Tang Emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712-56 AD). Discomfited by the extravagantyear-round festivities with which the wealthy of Chang’an saluted the deeds oftheir forebears, he issued an edict requesting that citizens restrict thecommemoration of the long-since departed to the fifteenth day after the SpringEquinox. To reinforce his point, Xuanzong turned to Confucius whose Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) had already served for almostone thousand years as the main source for validating reverence to one’s elders.After consulting his leading scholars about the correct interpretation of thesage’s words, the emperor penned a new preface in which he condemned“presumptuous and fallacious” memorials. He, moreover, stressed how he hoped to“administer the country with the principle of universal respect and love” – aplea to take his commands as being in the best interest for maintaining civilorder. Xuanzong personally inscribed the preface into a slab so that futuregenerations could take heed of these teachings. At present, the stele stands inForest of Stone Tablets on the site of the former Confucian temple inside theSouth Gate of Xi’an. His sentiments have had a far more virile afterlife thanhe could have ever envisaged. Rubbings of the Classic of Filial Piety stele are a hugely popular touristsouvenir in the adjacent market at Shuyuanmen.
买回来的纸制品就堆在我们的屋子里，不久就是每年一度的“清明节” 了。
这个春天的假日习俗是祭奠祖先。“清明”的意思就是“清洁而明净”或“特别敞亮”，而更为形象的叫法应为“扫墓日”。“清明节”已有两千多年的历史，而得到重视则是在唐玄宗的时候。当时每年的节假日很多，长安的富贵人家为祭奠祖先而发愁，唐玄宗颁布政令，将民众对已故先祖的祭奠定在“春分”后的第十五天。为了使自己的政令更有说服力，唐玄宗依据的是孔子的思想，儒家的《孝经》当时作为孝敬长者的主要法则已经有近千年的历史。唐玄宗诏令对圣人所言“宜令诸儒并访后进达解者，质定奏闻”，并亲做《孝经序》，在序中谴责“异端起而大义乖”，强调“庶几广爱刑于四海”，呼吁“以孝理天下”。玄宗还亲自隶书，刻序于碑，以便“庶几有补于将来”。现在，“石台孝经”依旧屹立在西安南门里边的碑林博物馆里，该博物馆的原址是孔庙。玄宗的思想对后人的影响比他在世时大得多，“石台孝经”的拓片在附近的书院门市场是特受人青睐的旅游纪念品。
宝鸡市凤县东河桥村
Qingming has never merely been anaustere occasion dedicated to the public expression of filial piety. Thanks toan artist based in the Henan city of Kaifeng – possibly Zhang Zeduan – thebustle of the holiday just before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty (1127AD) has been preserved. The scene of people crammed with pea-like heads ontothe bridge in Along the River duringthe Qingming Festival is one of those images which are instantlyfamiliar to non-Chinese even if they are not able to recall the title or theartist’s name. It features on embroideries, canvas fans, and now evenmouse-mats. To be accurate, the bridge is but a tiny section of a sprawlingpanorama. The scroll onto which Master Zhang painted measures an unwieldy 25centimetres wide by 5.25 metres long. The only way to take in the elongatedwhole is to roll out one small portion of the paper at a time. This way theviewer gains an impression of how the preparations for Qingming provoked agreat deal of mobility and exchange. The scenes range from the city centre,with its decidedly mercantile complexion, to the bucolic. Farmers practicetheir rites in earnest. Taking a brief break from their cycle of toil, it isthey who realize the most how they are in a prime position to observe theblossoms and the bright and clear weather of the season.
“清明节”并不只是一个公开转达孝心的神圣时刻，感谢河南开封的画家张择端，他给人们留下了北宋灭亡前“清明节”时的热闹场面。“清明上河图”里桥上拥挤的豆人景象，既是对于那些想不起画家姓甚名谁和画名的外国人来说也是很熟悉的。在刺绣和折扇、现在甚至是在鼠标垫上都有这幅大作的影子。确切的说，桥不过是这幅全景画的一个细节。张大师的这幅庞大的画卷宽25厘米，长5米，惟一欣赏长卷全景的办法是一次展开一小部分。这样，人们就可以看到清明时节的准备工作和繁荣景象。其画面从显然是商业中心的城内一直画到宁静的田园，画中的农夫有的在为禾苗浇水施肥，有的正在干活中间小憩，只有这些人知道他们拥有“赏花”和享受“清明”得天独厚的地位。
In the Communist era, the government haswatched the proceedings at Qingming with a degree of twitchiness. Officially,the festival was removed from the calendar after 1949, being blacklisted as ahangover from the Old China, replete with its superstitions and feudalism.Evidently, the desire to revive it never fully faded away. The now-streamlinedQingming (reinstated as a holiday as of 2008) has a broad grassroots following.Country families might gather to share stories about deceased parents andgrandparents and to troop out to the cemetery to clean headstones, laying outfruit, incense sticks and alcoholic beverages on the graves. Yellow ribbonstied to sticks inserted in the earth form talismans to ward off any wickedspirits which may be abroad in the burial ground.
在中国共产党领导的时期，政府对“清明”的活动有所改变，1949年以后的官方日历上取消了这个节日，觉得这是旧中国遗留下来的带有封建迷信的陋俗。恢复“清明”的愿望显然从未完全消失，现在合理的“清明节”（从2008年起被恢复为法定假日）具有广泛的草根基础。乡下的家人会聚在一起，回忆已故的爷爷和奶奶或父母亲的轶事，结伴去上坟。他们会把墓碑搽干净，在坟头供奉水果，插香并上酒，把拴着黄布条的木棍插在地里当符，好赶走墓地里的恶鬼。
宝鸡市凤县永生村
Our choice to have a Tomb-sweepingvacation in Baoji turned out to be serendipitous. Thelargest commemorations endorsed by the provincial government are held atthe Mausoleums of two of the progenitors of the Han race, namely that of theYellow Emperor, near Yan’an and that of the Yan Emperor in Baoji. The formerincluded a cast of thousands and was played out for the benefit of theGovernor, his entourage and the serried ranks of the media. As for Baoji, theproceedings no doubt aspired to a Cecil B. de Mille-stylegrandiloquence, yet came off with a paff of small-town inferiority.
我们选择到宝鸡去度“清明” 纯属偶然。 省政府要在两位华夏先祖，即延安附近的黄帝陵和宝鸡的炎帝陵前举行盛大的祭奠仪式。参加黄帝陵祭奠仪式的有上万人，包括省长和不同级别的官员以及众多大大小小的媒体。就宝鸡而言，整个活动毫无疑问是很有好莱坞著名导演塞西尔·B·戴米尔式的大手笔（塞西尔·B·戴米尔Cecil B. de Mille，好莱坞早期大牌导演和制片人，善于营造大场面——译者注），但毕竟还是有城市小的不利因素。
Baoji (literally “the treasure of thechicken”) is to all intents and purposes a second-tier city, less than twohours from Xi’an on the coach. It is bisected by the partially dried-up westernreaches of the Wei River and the pattern of urban settlement forms a kind offigure-of-eight. The city was jolted into modernity in 1938 when following thefall of Hankow to the Japanese invaders much industry and commerce fled alongthe Belgian-built Lunghai railroad, ending up at its terminus in westernGuanzhong. The American photojournalist Harrison Forman (1904-78) called Baojia “bustling little boomtown with a frontier atmosphere” and observed how itssecluded geography proved peculiarly amenable to maintaining manufacturingunderground:-
宝鸡（直译就是宝贵的鸡）实际上就是一个二线城市，距西安不到两个小时的车程，中间隔着的是部分河床已经干涸的渭河西段，城市的的坐落是八字形。1938年，在汉口被日本侵略者攻占后，许多厂家和商家沿着比利时人修建的陇海铁路逃到铁路的终点关中西部，使这个城市一下子迈进了现代化。美国摄影记者哈里森﹒福尔曼称宝鸡是一个“带有前沿气氛、热闹的新兴小城市”，（哈里森·福尔曼Harrison Forman是一名美国记者，1944年夏，他冲破重重阻碍，从国民党控制下的重庆一路北上，到达延安及中国共产党领导的华北抗日根据地进行战地采访，向全世界真实报道了抗战圣地延安，报道了模范抗日根据地陕甘宁边区及艰苦卓绝、英勇抗日的八路军，写下了轰动中外的《红色中国报道》Report from RedChina，此书后来被译为《北行漫记》——译者注）他还注意到这儿的隐蔽地里位置被证明特别适合开展地下制造业：
… the Foh Sing mills, one ofthe largest in China, had moved to Paochi and set up its machinery in hugecaves dug so deep into the cliffs that, though they had been repeatedly bombed,not so much as a spindle had been jarred. Four thousand people work in thesecaves, which are well lighted and well ventilated and look like freshlywhitewashed subway tunnels.
(HarrisonForman, Report from Red China, pp.3-4).
……中国最大的纺织厂申新纱厂内迁到了宝鸡，把机器安装在悬崖上又大又深的窑洞里，虽然屡遭轰炸，但却连纺锭都没有发生过震动。有四千人在这些窑洞里工作，这里的照明和通风设施很好，看上去像刚刚粉刷过的地铁隧道。
——引自哈里森﹒福尔曼《红色中国报道》第3-4页
水韵江南 七彩凤县
Baoji duly became the testing ground for the new industrialcooperatives, established with the aids of foreign ChinaHands to compensate for the decimation of native industry during theJapanese onslaught. If Yan’an was the ideological heartland for the Chineserevolution, Baoji was the workshop of the Chinese resistance. A cooperativewould, according to Helen Foster Snow have a minimum quorum of seven members ina shared field of craft, with the average consisting of 15 to 20 persons andthe maximum 80 (Snow, Chinabuilds for Democracy: Thestory of the Industrial Co-operative movement in China, p. 6). An appointedchairman supported by a committee of directors would oversee the acquisitionand administration of the start-up loan, with repayments and running costsbeing deducted equitably from the salaries of members. No single person waspermitted to hold more than a twenty per cent share in their cooperative.
在国外“中国通”人士的援助下，为了弥补日本侵略对中国本土工业的毁坏，宝鸡当时被建成了新“工业合作社”的实验区。（工业合作社industrial cooperatives，简称“工合” ，工合运动是抗日战争时期，国内爱国人士和海外同情支持中国革命的海外友人共同建立的，专门用于提供军事物资和民用物资的组织，在抗日战争期间曾发挥了重大的作用——译者注）如果说延安是中国革命的思想中心，那么宝鸡就是中国抗日的车间。根据海伦·福斯特·斯诺所言：
一个“工业合作社”最少要有七名手艺相同的工人，一般是有十五到二十人，最多不超过八十人。
——引自海伦·福斯特·斯诺 著《中国为民主奠基——中国工合史》第6页
董事会的董事长负责监管申请和管理创业贷款，
宝鸡市太白县黄凤山村
As a grassroots movement (albeit one initiated from above) which sought tosidestep the twin snares of capitalist exploitation and imperialism “Indusco”has become deftly plaited into the annals of modern Chinese history. The truesituation in Baoji was observed in 1941 by the American Graham Paynewhose Two Kinds of Time (soon to beavailable in a masterful Chinese translation by Liu Danling of Xi’an JiaotongUniversity) contains an uncommonly candid look at one of the “Indusco”founders, the New Zealander Rewi Alley. Whenever he was in town Alley, with histhick auburn mane, massive stature and Roman nose, was greeted, much to hisamusement, as a virtual deity. His oft-repeated speeches were lapped up as though they were extemporizedand Payne witnessed money from the rope-making co-operative beingmisappropriated for cosmetic purposes such as whitewashing walls to impress theKiwi benefactor. Given the cumbersome administrative structure of the co-opsand the preponderance of semi-skilled operatives over trained masters, supplygenerally fell short of demand. Significantly while the co-ops treated childworkers more leniently than private sweatshops and provided a rallying symbolfor the Chinese populace, Payne noted that even in Baoji their impact on tradewas limited. He estimated that for every three stores selling exclusively“Indusco” goods there were in the region of one hundred retailing wares fromprivate factories with a higher level of mechanization. Even Alley himself castdoubt upon whether this was how to effectively consolidate an industrial basefor what would become the New China. He was quoted as saying “‘We’re trying todo it at the wrong time. We are a thousand years too early for the officialsand a thousand years too late for the people”’ (Payne,Two Times of Time, Chapter 8).
作为一项回避资本主义和帝国主义双重剥削的民间运动，“工合”已经被自然而然的写进了中国现代史。1941年，美国人格雷厄姆·佩恩（Graham Payne）见识了宝鸡的真实情况。在他的大作《两种时间观》（Two Kinds of Time）中，对“工合”的创始人之一，新西兰人路易·艾黎（Rewi Alley）的真实描述鲜为人知。路易·艾黎身材高大、高鼻梁、一头浓密的褐发，在城里不论到何处，让其惊讶的是人们像神一样在敬仰他。他的话即便是信口而出，人们也会乐意当真。佩恩曾经看到拧绳子的工合合作社滥用挣来的钱，如为了取悦这位新西兰恩人，装饰门面把墙刷白。由于“工合”的管理难，技术不熟练的工人比熟练的师傅多，往往是需大于供。更有意义的是，“工合”对童工比压榨血汗的私人作坊宽松，从而成了中国民众团结的象征。佩恩注意到即便是在宝鸡，这些对当地的贸易影响也是有限的。他估计一个地区有三家专营“工合”产品的商店，就会有一百家其它工艺更好的私人厂家的零售店。就连路易·艾黎本人也开始怀疑自己的做法能否有效的为将来的新中国夯实工业基础，他说：
我们的努力不合时宜，对于官方来说是早了一千年，而对于民众来说又是晚了一千年。
——引自格雷厄姆·佩恩著《》第8章
For a time Baoji must also have served as something of a pit of vice. TheEnglish humanitarian George Hogg (1915-45), who assisted Rewi Alley in settingup a school for orphans in nearby Feng County, and later chaperoned them tosafety in Gansu before succumbing to tetanus after an accident playingbasketball viewed the makeshift settlements with unbelief. He estimated thatperhaps two thousand prostitutes and the innkeepers who owned them were amongthe rail-borne refugees from what is now Wuhan (George Hogg, I See a New China, Chapter 3). One mustwonder if “the treasure of the chicken” (宝鸡) did not find itselfderided as “the treasure of the hookers” (宝妓). The influx did not end there as “[b]arely had theoriginal refugee situation been relieved, when the heavy bombings of Sian(Xi’an) created a fresh tidal wave, that carried Paochi’s (Baoji’s) populationswiftly over the 50,000 mark and left a fresh layer of human flotsam beside therailway.” Neither Liz nor I could discern any sign of that past infamy while onour trip. Far from it. We trawled for an hour or more to find middle-of-the-roadovernight lodgings and were confounded by countless downtown blocks in whichthere was little else save for business-class hotels decked out with all thetawdry glitz of upscale KTV venues. Having deposited our bags at the ‘East isRed’ guesthouse we made a beeline for the attractions at the far end of town.The bronze museum, famed across western China, had recently been relocated froma modest temple annex to a great columbine structure.
宝鸡曾经一度沦为藏污纳垢之地。英国人文学者乔治﹒何克（George Hogg）曾协助路易·艾黎在附近的凤县创办了一所孤儿学校。在因打篮球时受伤得破伤风去世前，为了安全他把学生护送到了甘肃。他对当时宝鸡这个临时定居点的看法让人难以置信，据他估计沿铁路从今天的武汉逃难来的人群中有大约两千名妓女（见乔治﹒何克著《我看到了一个新的中国》第8章），人们不禁会诧异“宝鸡”是否变成了“宝妓”。逃难的人流不止这些，“第一批逃难的人还没有安置好，对西安的轰炸又带来了一场新的逃难波浪。宝鸡的人口迅速超过了五万，铁路边上留下的是又一批尸体”。在这次旅行中，我和白丽诗没有看到任何过去不雅事件的痕迹，一丝儿也没有。我们走了一个多小时，想找一家普通的旅社过夜。市中心的楼群无数，但让我们困惑的是除了商务酒店及其闪烁着俗气灯光的高档KTV场所外，别的几乎没有。在把行李放在“东方红”宾馆后，我们便径直去了城里远处一个吸引人的地方。闻名西部的青铜器博物馆最近刚刚从原来的旧址搬到了旁边宏伟的鼎
型建筑。
A tiered hillsidesculpture park had been laid out in order to lull visitors into a sense ofresplendent awe before they encountered the treasure troves on exhibition.Somewhere down the line something had gone a little awry. In among the immaturebrush and scrub stereo speakers ineptly disguised as rocks pumped out ona loop the latest hits of Adele and other torch singers. To thestrains of ‘Rolling in the deep’ and ‘We should have had itall,’ we were exhorted to imagine the hilly region as being formerlyhome to a cradle of culture known as “Chencang.”
在游客见到宝贵的展览前，为了让人感受其辉煌，前面的山坡被建成了一个分层的雕塑公园。山坡下的东西有点怪异，未长高的灌木丛中，被设计成岩石一样的立体喇叭，有些不合拍的循环播放着英国当代著名流行歌星阿黛尔·阿德金斯和其它感伤歌手的最新劲歌。在阿黛尔《辗转于深渊》和《 我们本该拥有一切》的旋律中，我们想象起了这块山地，这儿以前是陈仓文化的摇篮。
As far as the provincial tourist board was concerned, there was a clarionagenda. Whereas the prime pull for Xi’an has long been itsassociation with the First Emperor and the Terracotta Army, Baoji now tries totrump up its status as the heartland of the Duchy of Zhou from the eleventhcentury BC. The Zhou tribes eventually consolidated themselves into a Dynastybased in the Wei River Valley. Amongst their achievements, inherited andperfected the Shang technique for casting bronze. These days, scarcely a monthgoes by without a new tomb from the first or second millennium BC being unearthedaround Baoji and yielding masterworks of metal-ware. The museum gives pride ofplace to the characteristic da keding, （Big Grams Tripod）a three-legged cooking vessel singledout by the Zhou for its aesthetic properties.
对于陕西省的旅游来说，这是一个号角式的项目。西安的主要吸引力早就与与秦始皇和其“兵马俑”联系在一起了。宝鸡现在就是想把这里打造成公元前十一世纪周公的故里，以此来提高自己的地位。周人部落以渭河为基础建立了周朝，其成就之一就是继承和完善了商的青铜铸造技术。现在在宝鸡周围，几乎每个月都有从公元前一两千年的古墓中出土的青铜器。博物馆的的镇馆之宝是“大克鼎”， 底部三足，乃周人烹饪食物的精美器具。
Written histories and popular culture have endowed the Zhou with a ratherambivalent reputation. According to the Marxist view of history prevalent inthe second half of the twentieth century, the Dukes of Zhou can be creditedwith having vanquished the “slave society” of the Shang, introducing in itsstead a system akin to the later feudalism of medieval Europe. The Book of Han: Geography (Hanshu: Dilizhi) records that anyone in possession ofmore than 50 li of land was entitled to a status greater than that ofbeing a “dependent,” namely: “the king governs one thousand li,the duke and marquis govern 100 li, the viscount governs 70 li,the baron governs 50 li.” In that context, material goods formed one part of thetrappings of power. A bronze ding wasnot just a utensil for eating out of. Words scratched into its surface couldrecord the deeds of the owner or his forebears, and the number of ding possessed had to corresponddirectly to the rank of the holder. TheRites of Zhou says that the king was permitted to hold nine ding, vassals seven, ministers five, andordinary officials three. The flipside to this creation of classes is that theZhou tribes did not do away with all vestiges of primitivism. In the upperechelons of society, human sacrifice was still acceptable. A wife or concubinewould count it as a privilege to be buried alive as her husband’s chattel inhis funerary barrow. The Baoji Bronze Museum hits this point home with itsreplica cross-sections of graves, juxtaposing metalwares, trinkets and humanfemurs.
有记载的历史和大众文化使周人的声誉颇为矛盾。如果用二十世纪后半期流行的马克思主义历史观来看，可以说是周公废除了商朝的“奴隶社会”，并建立了类似后来中世纪欧洲的一套制度。《汉书·地理志》中对领地的记载是：“子、男五十里，不满为附庸。”而“公、侯百里，伯七十里。”在这种情况下，有形的物质就成了一种权利的象征。青铜鼎不仅仅是一件烹饪器皿，刻在其上面的铭文记录的是主人或其先祖的功绩。拥有鼎的数量和个人的身份直接相关，《周礼》言“王九鼎、诸侯七鼎、卿大夫五鼎、士三鼎”。这种等级的另一面说明周人并没有完全废除原始社会的一切，而在上流社会依旧有活人殉葬。妻妾在丈夫的葬礼上作为其财产殉葬被认为是一种荣耀，宝鸡的青铜器博物馆里就有复制的墓冢断面，里面有金属器皿、小装饰品和人的大腿骨。
Grislier, if not always substantiated, stories have long besmirched thereputation of the Zhou. Wen (who reigned 1099-1050 BC) is hailed as the firstKing of Zhou, yet it was in actuality his second son Wu who won the decisivevictory at the Battle of Muye in 1046 BC, which vanquished the Shang as apolitical and military force. Why Wen was not succeeded by his elder son, BoyiKao, is a bone of contention. Two early historical accounts imply that he waspassed over because the Zhou did not practice primogeniture. The much laterMing Dynasty Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yangyi) spins a yarn which hasshades of Shakespeare’s TitusAndronicus. It states that the last King of the Shang kept a concubinenamed Da Ji, who was purportedly possessed by the spirit of a wicked vixen.When her master captured his arch-enemy King Wen of Zhou and kept him underhouse arrest, she exploited the occasion of a filial visit to work her wickedwiles. Boyi Kao instantly became infatuated with her, and Da Ji responded byfalsely accusing him of molestation. The vengeful King of the Shang condemnedhim to a painful death and then had his flesh minced up and baked in pies. Whenthe pastries were served to his imprisoned father, he ate them, knowing that heshould accept the disgrace of his profligate son. This in spite of thefact that he was a master of divination, being credited as the originalarranger of the Eight Trigrams into the Sixty-four Hexagrams of the I-Ching. Upon leaving prison Wenregurgitated the meat pies and the filling was reconstituted into a trio ofwhite rabbits which became the servants of the moon goddess Chang’e.
虽然没有被证实，有些更为可怕的传说一直在沾污周人的名声。周文王是周朝的奠基者，而实际上是他的第二个儿子周武王在公元前1046年的“牧野之战” 中取得了决定性的胜利，消灭了商。为何周文王的长子伯邑考没有继位是有争论的。有两部早期的历史记录暗示伯邑考被废王位是因为周朝实行的不是长子继承权。后来明朝《封神演义》中的故事有点像莎士比亚《泰特斯·安德洛尼克斯》中的情节。
商朝最后一位国王有个妃子名叫妲己，她是个邪恶的狐狸精。在商朝的大敌周文王被抓获并被软禁时，她利用这个机会，佯装关心实施起了奸计。伯邑考一下子便迷上了她，妲己随后就告他非礼了自己。纣王为了报复，残酷的处伯邑考醢刑，并将用其肉做的饼送给其父姬昌食用。狱中的文王接到肉饼吃了，他知道为了不检点的儿子，自己活该接受这耻辱。周文王是占卜大师，将原来的八卦演绎为《易经》中的六十四卦。出狱的时候，他吐出了肉饼，肉饼化为了三只白兔，成了月亮女神嫦娥的仆人。
All manner of further lurid fictions have been attributed to the Zhouroyal family. Some allege that they were the original practitioners of thenotorious “death by one thousand” cuts or lingchi, which almost certainly does not predate the eighteenthcentury AD. Within the mainstream of Chinese history Wen of Zhou came to beadmired as a martial and visionary hero. His victories are praised by numerouslyrics in The Book of Odes (Shijing) and the Emperor Gaozu (born LiuBang) (reigned 202-195 BC), the founder of the Han Dynasty bestowed upon him the posthumous title of “the Greatest of All Kings.” Hemay not have unified the greater Chinese state as Qin Shihuang did, butsemantically the origins of the nation could be as ancient as the Western Zhou.A ritual wine vessel, or hezhong,excavated at Jiacun Town, Chenchun District, Baoji in 1963 is incised with 122 characters.Among them is the earliest known instance of the expression “Middle Kingdom” orZhongguo.
各种各样有关周王室耸人听闻的传说很多，有人说声名狼藉的“千刀万剐” 和“凌迟”就是始于周。但在中国历史的主流中，周文王一直被尊为是有远见的军事家，《诗经》中描述其功绩的诗篇很多。汉朝开国皇帝汉高祖刘邦言“盖闻王者莫高于周文”。周文王虽然没有像秦始皇那样统一中国，但从字面上讲，这个国家的起源是在古西周。1963年，宝鸡陈仓区贾村镇出土的酒器“何尊”内底铸有铭文12行，122字，其中有“中国”一词最早的文字记载。
Standing as the lodestarfor the civilization of the Western Zhou, the Duke of Zhou Temple (Zhougong Miao) sprawls across a 620 000square metre site in the northwest of Qishan County, six kilometres south ofthe Lantau Peak. Its special topographical aspect is alluded to in a meter fromThe Book of Songs, which celebratesthe “volume o wind from the south” (有卷者阿，飘风自南). Local avers hold thatthe tribes of Zhou apprized the space highly, fostering it as a sacred spot forritual and music. As most ensuing dynasties added their own augmentations, theveracity of these legends stood unproven until modern archaeological teamsrecovered specimens of incised tortoise shells dating from the Shang Dynasty.Of more pertinent redoubt were 1500 metres of rammed earth walls of probableZhou provenance together with contemporaneous tombs.
作为西周文明的一颗璀璨的明星，周公庙占地面积62万平方米，位于岐山城西北六公里处的凤凰山南麓。《诗经》中对其独特的地里位置描述是 “有卷者阿，飘风自南”。当地人认为周氏部落很重视此地，视其为礼乐圣地。后世各朝大都有所扩建，但其传奇直到现代的考古队在此发现了商朝的甲骨文残片，1500余米的夯土城墙和西周的高等级墓葬群后才得到了确证。
The main temple buildingsare comparatively “recent,” being consecrated in 618 AD during the early throesof the Tang Dynasty. Where else but in China could a fourteen centuries oldconstruction warrant such an epithet as “recent”? For a couple of hours theshrines can be gainfully perused as a smorgasbord of the folk beliefs thatmolded the nation. Some blandishments, such as the jade Buddha, belong to theepoch long after the fall of the Zhou when “foreign” religions were imported toChina and domesticated. Devotees agile enough to negotiate the skiddy contoursof his well-trodden grotto are encouraged to stroke the deity and slippetitions for healing or intercession into his bodily clefts. The “echo tablet”may, meanwhile, be gently rapped until it resonates.
周公庙的主要建筑相对来说“近代”一些，是在唐武德元年（公元618年）创建的。除了中国，在哪里还会有一千四百年前的建筑被冠上“近代”的头衔呢？用两个小时参观神殿，收获颇丰，使人对这个国家的各种民间信仰有了一个充分的认识。有些哄人的东西如玉石爷，是西周灭亡后，一些“外国”的宗教被介绍进来并被本地化以后的产物。迷信的人会敏捷的越过被人踩得很光滑的洞穴通道去摸玉石爷，因为有用手抚摸玉石爷，可治百病的传说。而那里的“回音碑”，轻轻一敲就有共鸣。
The mythical origins ofthe Zhou Royal Family are on display also. According to the legendary pedigree,the dukes of Zhou could claim decent from Houji, the “God of Millet.” In theXia Dynasty around the same time as Yu the Great is said to have rescued theChinese interior from regular catastrophes by introducing drainage channels anddredging the Yellow River, Houji recognized that society could advance to aless precarious level if countrymen and women cultivated grain in an orderlyfashion rather than foraging for food in the wilderness. He applied histheories of agricultural to gourds, beans, and the future staple of nearly halfof the global population, rice. Ode 245 of the Book of Songs describes his institution of a spring rite ofsacrifice involving
some hull (grain); sometake it from mortar;
some sift it , some treadit.
It is rattling in thedishes;
It is distilled, and thesteam floats about.
We consult, we observe therites of purification;
We take southernwood andoffer it with the fat;
We sacrifice a ram t theSpirit of the path;
We offer roast flesh andbroiled---
And thus introduce thecoming year,
At his Qishan shrine,mercifully, no ovine offerings are available for purchase and devotees mustcontent themselves with lighting joss and appreciating the trifoliate orangetrees and other arboreal specimens.
庙中也陈列着周王室的族谱，根据传说周公是“谷神”后稷的后裔。在夏朝，也就是在大禹通过疏导，治理黄河救民于苦难的时候，后稷认识到根据时令“教人稼穑”，而不是在野外觅食就会使社会进步。他随将种植葫芦、大豆和后来全球有一半人为主食的水稻技术运用到了农业生产上。《诗经》中的“大雅”第245首描述了他在春天的祭祀：
或舂或揄，或簸或蹂。释之叟叟，烝之浮浮。
载谋载惟。取萧祭脂，取羝以軷，载燔载烈，以兴嗣岁。
在岐山的后稷殿里，仁慈的是买不到祭祀的羊，祭拜的人可以看到他的塑像，欣赏北方的枳和其它树种。
Paying tribute to Houji’smother Jiang Yuan gives the visitor much more food for thought. In spite ofthere being many tales about her spasmodically dumping her infant son in allkinds of perilous situations (his original name was Qi, meaning “the abandonedone”) the miraculous circumstances behind his conception have earned for her thestatus of a fertility goddess in Chinese folklore.Contradicting Sima Qian’s narrative in the Records of the Grand Historian,whereby she was straightforwardly the first consort of the Emperor Ku and boreHouji by normal procreation there is the astounding claim made in Ode 245, alsoknown as Birth of Our People:-
参观后稷母亲的姜嫄殿给人更多的是精神食粮。 虽然后稷的母亲几次将他“弃而不养”， （故其名为“弃”，就是被遗弃的意思）但他几次大难不死，而姜嫄奇生后稷的传说让世人尊称她为圣母。司马迁在《史记》中说，姜嫄是帝喾的元妃，后稷乃其自然受孕而生，但《诗经·大雅·生民》中云：
The first birth ofour people, Was from Jiang Yuan. How did she give birth to [our] people?
She had presented a pure offering and sacrificed,
That her childlessness might be taken away.
She then trod on a toe-print made by God, and was moved,
In the large place where she rested.
She became pregnant; she dwelt retired;
She gave birth to, and nourished [a son],
Who was Hou-ji.
(translated by James Legge).
厥初生民，时维姜嫄。生民如何？克禋克祀，
以弗无子。履帝武敏歆，攸介攸止，载震载夙。
载生载育，时维后稷。
The barren woman purportedly prostratedherself where the god of the sky, Shangdi, had walked and consequently foundthat she was with child. Extending hope to modern day mothers who face pressureto fall pregnant, the temple dedicated to Jiang Yuan presents a supernaturalalternative to IVF or surrogacy. For just 20 yuan one can purchase a miniatureclay effigy of a child with a bean-like head and painted queue, wrap a lengthof red wool around its neck and then place it on the altar while making anincantation to Jiang Yuan. From their tendency to recoil so swiftly from thecrowd that they risk snapping a stiletto one can easily identify whichwell-dressed women tourists are government employees. Perhaps fearful that somesupernatural energy will pulse in their direction causing a pregnancy inviolation of the state family planning laws they dare not genuflect in thesight of Houji’s mother.
据说姜嫄生稷是“履大人之迹而有娠”，这倒给现代有生育压力的母亲带来了希望。周公庙的姜嫄殿成了人们代孕和试管受精外的一个迷信选择，只要掏20块钱，就可以买一个留着彩色辫子，头很小的泥娃娃，给泥娃娃的脖子上栓一根红绳，放在供桌上，同时对着姜嫄念经就行。从有些穿着考究的女游客急于离开人群的样子，人们可以看出她们是政府的工作人员。也许害怕超自然的力量会使自己怀孕，从而违反国家的计划生育政策，她们不敢跪拜后稷的母亲。
The puce-complexionedclay babies which cluster on the table like a day-glow recreation ofthe Terracotta Army are difficult to resist as show-and-tellsouvenirs. However, the custodians of the shrine brusquely refuse to let thembe purchased by unmarried men who want to take them home. Could it be that theylive in fear of that age-old cliché the uncouth foreigner getting a Chinesegirl “in trouble”? The vendors on the concourse outside the site are much moreobliging, retailing three infants for ten yuan with no guarantee of magic!
褐色皮肤的泥娃娃排列在桌子上，像在日头下玩耍的“兵马俑”，是很有炫耀价值的纪念品。然而殿里的工作人员坦率的拒绝未婚的人买泥娃娃，他们是不是依旧相信老话，野蛮的外国人会让中国姑娘“吃亏”？外面广场上的小贩到是更好说话，10块钱卖给了我三个，还不用念经。
Downtown Baoji does not have the mythic allure of the Duke of Zhou Temple.Nevertheless, its re-branding is further evinced throughthe omnipresent use of the character for “Zhou” in municipal spaces.The once venerable People’s Park had been divested of its peonies and bambooand made over as a sculpture walk to inform people about the deep cultural pedigreeof the Wei region. Even the bottle-green information signs which line the grassverges are crafted to imitate the character “Zhou.” Their mangled “Chinglish”injunctions such as “Your behavior makes the flowers blossom all the time,”“The green grass cannot support your treading” and “Please hold your hand forthe livings saplings” come off as being simultaneously charming and perturbing.
宝鸡市区没有周公庙那神话般的吸引力，不过重塑品牌的意识使城里到处都有“周”字。以前庄重的“人民公园”移走了牡丹和竹林，代之而起的是雕塑步行街，给人们展示的是深厚的周礼文化。就连草坪边上深绿色的告示牌也被精心制作成了“周”字的形状。告示牌上的“中式英语”有: “鲜花常在， 看你举止” “小草青青，足下留情”、“小树在长勿动手”等既让人觉得可爱，又让人感到不是滋味。
The following morning we received our own taste of small-town hospitalityas we paced across the road from the hotel to inspect the approach to thetemple shrine of the Yan Emperor, where the Qingming parade would soon be inthe offing. A brood of local seniors crowded around a couple of amateurcalligraphers as they decorated the pavement with sponge-tipped markers dippedin water. Their spiky productions were quite likely taken from the one hundreddifferent ways of writing the character for “dragon” (long). An old scholars’ puzzle, the ideograms often gavethe semblance of pointing horns, pernicious talons, and billows of nasal smoke.The main portion of the festivities involved flag-carrying middle schoolstudents marching across the park in canary yellow robes worn over theirday-to-day Metersbonwe or Jeanswest clobber.Whatever esoteric rituals might have been executed beyond that was kept hiddenout of sight at the summit of the distant hill upon which the shrine to Yan washoused.
第二天早晨，在从宾馆去炎帝祠的路上，我们亲身感受到了小城人民的好客。在那里将举行清明祭奠仪式，一群当地的老人围着一两位业余书法家，看人家用海绵做的大毛笔头，蘸着水在人行道上写字。书法家的大字写的是有一百多种形状的“龙”字，让人迷惑不解的是，这个表意文字带有尖角、可怕的爪子和冒烟的鼻孔。活动的一个主要内容是中学生在他（她）们整天穿着的“美特斯·邦威”或“真维斯”衣服上套上一件黄袍，举旗走过广场。不论仪式有多么怪异，而炎帝陵却坐落在远处看不见的山顶上。
Crestfallen at our exclusion, Liz was at painsto ingratiate herself with the locals. Borrowing a brush, she daubed “Baoji,”“Xi’an” and “Shaanxi” on the ground in her finest “grass script.” The seniorsgrinned and gasped with a few snapping pictures. A small gaggle, swelled tobeing a press, and then a crocodile of people, with several security officers breaking away from their beats to inspect our passportsand tickets, making sure that our popularity had nothing to do with untowardfactors. Thankfully, we did not crop up on that evening’s news.
被排除在外我们很丧气，白丽诗在想法和当地人套近乎。她借了一把毛笔，用她那漂亮的草书在地上写下了“宝鸡”、“西安”和“陕西”等字。那些老年人呵呵笑着，急着照相。笑声大了，然后是一群人和几个安保人员走过来检查我们的护照和门票，并确定我们受欢迎没有什么麻烦事。还好，我们没有出现在当晚的新闻里。
All that brouhaha aside, Baoji presented one rare spot ofcircumspection. On the evening of Qingming itself the streets werevirtually empty. Silence reigned, except for the clatter of Mahjong tiles inthe after-hours restaurants. In the windows of the low-rise tenements were thesparse reflections of glowing candle wicks, forming feint nebulae together withthe phosphorescent insect rings a little way above.
除了这点动静，宝鸡是个罕见的地方。清明节的当天晚上，街道上实际上是空荡荡的。四周一片寂静，只有打烊后餐馆里的麻将声。不高的公寓窗户里闪烁着烛光，在人头顶不远处，貌似淡淡的星云中夹杂着有磷光的虫鸣。
We strolled around the blocks, finding still further white-gloved officerswaving their arms about. This time they were guiding old grandmas to safehavens on the paved rim of the traffic island. There they squatted down beforealready-appointed braziers. Some I think were actually fiberglass reproductionsof the three-legged ding.Pressing their hands together, as if in incantation, each lady would make herown genuflecting gesture before introducing sheets of imitation paper money tothe flames inside the vessel. A few were consumed immediately. Others fellaslant, with half slipping away onto the sidewalk. As the breeze billowed andthe flames were nourished, swirls paper becoming ash were released into theatmosphere, fanning flakes in our direction.
我们在街上走着，仍旧有带着白手套的警察在挥舞着手臂。都这个时候了，他们是在指引安全岛边上的老奶奶平安回家吧！她们跪在被指定好的火盆前，有的火盆我看实际上很像玻璃纤维做的“三足鼎”。在把“纸钱”放到鼎里的火以前，每个老太太都是跪下，双手合一好像是在念经。有的“纸钱”立即被烧完了，有的掉在了旁边，飘到了人行道上。风一吹，火更旺了，纸化成了灰飞到了空中，有些灰烬朝我们这个方向飘来。
Liz looked on bemused: “I can’t for the life of me get the hang oforganized religion,” she said. “My grandmother in Arnhem was vaguely Lutheran.We kids would be trotted out for christenings, Easter and Christmas andsuch-like. That was the way in the 1950s. I can’t imagine that even if she didbelieve in life after death she would have wanted any of us to go in for thisbowing and scraping and offering up alms for her immortal soul.” “It feels abit like Guy Fawkes’s Night,” I added, “but everyone seems so sullen. Nofireworks and no toffees for the kids.” “Well, if they do believe in the greatbeyond, these old folks are staring into the abyss from which none of them mayreturn. Don’t you think so?” Yes, I could relate to that sentiment, but onlymanage to offer a joke in return “it’s further off for me than you. Touchwood.” My mouth was not, however, in consort with my mind. The spectacle ofincinerating banknotes made me think back to Granddad (weigong) at the end of his life. As the Alzheimer’sdisease ravaged his sense of reason he could no longer accept that anythingthat was not a “copper” or a “silver” coin amounted to “real money.” Gran wouldcome back from the summerhouse or the privy to find the remnants of theirpension heaped in smoking mounds about the hearth. The only explanation sheever got was that it was time to get rid of all these “out-of-date supermarketcoupons” and “worthless receipts.” Evidently, she was not one to be gulled asupon her death, eight years after her husband’s, my mother finally retrievedthe one and only key to the pantry cupboard located to the side of her armchair.She was to discover no less than two hundred five pound notes bound withelastic bands and squirrelled away from grandfather’s senile machinations.
白丽诗看着这一切感到很困惑，“我这辈子无论如何也无法理解有组织的宗教，” 她说：“我在阿纳姆的奶奶大概信的是路德教，我们家的孩子也出去受洗，过复活节和圣诞节等，但那都是二十世纪五十年代的事了。我无法想象，即使我奶奶相信死后有来生，她也不想让我们点头哈腰的祭奠她不朽的灵魂。”“我觉得这有点像‘篝火之夜’，” 我说：“不过就是大家都很严肃，没有篝火，也没有给孩子们的太妃糖。” “好啦，要是她们确实相信有来世，那这些年长的老乡就是在凝望她们一去就不再复返的深渊。你觉得呢？”（“篝火之夜” Bonfire Night又叫“盖伊·福克斯之夜”Guy Fawkes Night，在英国已有400多年的历史。人们最初庆祝这一节日是为了维护对宗教和国家的忠诚，这是一个政治性节日，1605年，罗马天主教徒盖伊·福克斯及其同伙因为不满国王詹姆士一世的新教徒政策，企图炸死国王，并炸毁议会大厦。他们成功地将36桶黑火药运进了议会大厦的地窖，准备在11月5日采取行动。然而，这个“黑火药阴谋”Gunpowder Plot被揭发，国王和大臣幸免于难，盖伊及其同党被以叛国罪处死。盖伊·福克斯最终在1606年1月被处以叛国罪中的极刑——绞刑、取内脏加上车裂，他的尸体被分送英伦三岛的四个地区示众，警告民间图谋不轨者会遭到相同的下场。英国民众便燃起篝火，庆祝胜利。从此以后，英国就形成了庆祝“篝火之夜”的传统——译者注）是啊，我也有这种感觉，但我只能开个玩笑了：“深渊距我远，离你近。呸，摸木头。”我的话实在是心口不一啊！烧“纸钱”让我想起了我外公去世前的情景。由于患了老年痴呆症，思维混乱，他觉得除了“铜”和“银”的硬币，其它的都不是真钱。外婆出去一下或是上趟厕所，回来就发现攒下来的退休金在壁炉旁边一堆一堆的在冒烟。她得到的惟一解释是：这些“过时了的商场购物卷”和“没用的发票”早该就销毁了。显然，她是不好哄的。在我外公去世八年后她临终的时候，我妈妈才从我外婆的手里拿到了她的躺椅边上藏宝箱的钥匙。我妈妈发现箱子里有不到二百五十镑用橡皮筋扎着的钱，都是从我外公那儿哄来的。
“Cold enough for snow, eh?” Liz nowbrushed a dusty covering of paper from the shoulder of my jacket. “Maybe,” Ianswered, “you know however much I loathe James Joyce, at times like this Icannot help but think back to the finale of The Dead.” What we cram for one A-level English exam takes us alifetime to forget:-
“冷的该下雪了吧？”白丽诗拂去落在我衣服肩上的灰尘。“也许吧，”我说：“你知道我不喜欢詹姆斯·乔伊斯，但我时不时会不由自主的想起他《死者》的结尾。”（詹姆斯·乔伊斯James Joyce 1882-1941），爱尔兰作家、诗人，二十世纪最伟大的作家之一，后现代文学的奠基者之一，其作品及“意识流”思想对世界文坛影响巨大。主要作品有短篇小说集《都柏林人》，自传体小说《青年艺术家的自画像》和长篇小说《尤利西斯》。《死者》是其早期作品《都柏林人》中的压卷之作——译者注）中学时为了考试死记硬背的东西一辈子都忘不了啊！
He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, fallingagainst the lamplight. […] His soul swooned slowly as he as he heard the snowfalling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent oftheir last end, upon all the living and the dead.
他睡眼朦胧地望着雪花，银色的、暗暗的雪花，在灯光下飘落……他的灵魂缓缓地昏睡了，听着雪花轻盈地穿过宇宙，绵绵落下，如同最终的结局那样，飘散到所有的生者和死者身上。
And then we slept.
后来我们就睡觉了。
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