巴黎其實沒那麼美好的十個原因(上)
Ah, Paris. It's one of the most fawned over cities in the world. Everybody likes to talk about Paris, and some travel to the extreme edges (and beyond) of their thesaurus just to find words to describe it. However, is there any other, darker side? There are a lot of cities that have great culture and become popular travel destinations, but they all have their warts and flaws, too. Paris is no exception.
巴黎作爲全球享譽過度的城市之一，總是能引來熱議。人們絞盡腦汁試圖用合適的詞來形容它的美好。然而，它當真如此完美無瑕嗎？許多城市因爲自身博大精深的文化而成爲了旅遊勝地，但它們也存在瑕疵，巴黎也不例外。Glamour
10.魅力So, how exactly did Paris gain its status of celebrity in the first place? The Capital City of France is a state of mind more than a city; everybody wants to go to Paris. Oscar Wilde once famously said, "when good Americans die, they go to Paris". It is a beautiful city, but it's like a good yet slightly monotone Hollywood actor that somehow makes more money than other, more expressive actors do. The glamour is almost entirely fabricated. Paris has had one of the most astonishing marketing makeovers in the history of the world.
那麼最初，巴黎是如何獲得這一美譽的呢？它在法國人民心中所代表的意義絕不僅止於一座首都那麼簡單。對於這座人們心馳神往的城市，英國大文豪奧斯卡·王爾德曾說過："當美國的好人死了,他們就去巴黎。"的確，巴黎是一座美麗的城市，但它就像演藝圈中一位富有表現力的好萊塢演員一樣，確實比其他演員更吸金，可它的美卻過於單調乏味，幾乎是人們刻意製造出來的。歷史上的巴黎曾有過一次華麗的大轉身。
Up until 19th century, it was a slum, with widespread famine and plague. Then in a few decades, it became the international capital of style and desire. It was almost completely rebuilt after WWII, and while the poverty may be gone (or at least hidden), some of the decay is still there. Paris is a founding member of the 5-star club. Whichever survey or report you're looking at, Paris is always up there in the top five cities in the world in terms of wealth, competitiveness, global power, and economic power. This is the brochure. The truth is that it isn't that big, it's not very clean and, excuse the crudeness, it's full of…
19世紀以前，巴黎是一個飢餓與瘟疫肆行的貧民窟。幾十年後，它搖身一變,成了引領國際潮流的慾望之都。二戰後的巴黎幾乎被重新修建，雖然原本的貧窮似乎已經無跡可尋（或者只是被掩蓋在華麗的外表下），但戰後衰敗之相還在。巴黎是五星級俱樂部創建成員之一，所有你閱讀的調查報告都會顯示，就財力、競爭力、全球影響力以及經濟實力而言，它始終穩居前五名。但它們都有失偏頗，真實的巴黎並沒有宣傳中所描寫的那麼富裕、整潔和文明，它其實滿是……Clochards
9.流浪漢
Okay, this is a sensible matter. Big cities can be cruel and it's easy to fall and harder to get back on track. Nevertheless, clochards are literally everywhere in Paris. They never write that in brochures, but Paris is overflowing with the homeless. The French term is Clochard, but don't let that sweeten the pill for you. If you associate the French capital city with romance and art and if your favorite foreign expression is Belle Epoque, the sight of some of these unlucky souls will be even more brutal. An innocent light glows in their eyes as they ask for a dime or, as often as not, alcohol. They're everywhere.
這是一個敏感話題。大城市的現實總是殘酷的，它很容易衰落並且難以回到正軌。毫不誇張地說，巴黎到處都是無家可歸的流浪漢，但這一點卻不會被納入宣傳巴黎的小冊子裏。Clochard(流浪漢)是一個法語單詞，可別因此就美化了這個詞。如果你由這個詞聯想到的是充滿藝術氣息與浪漫風情的法國巴黎，如果你最喜歡的外語表達是Belle Epoque，那麼其中一些流浪漢的不幸遭遇將會變得更加不堪入目。他們的眼眸中滿是無助，怯怯地乞討着一毛錢，或是想要一點酒。另外，他們無處不在。On the mini roundabout as you walk to Montmartre, on the floor in front of the bank where you want to withdraw some cash to have a coffee. They'll be there too. Sometimes, you see them lying on the concrete of a traffic island. Some have no carton boxes to lie on, so they lie down on the big sewer grates that interrupt the cobblestone here and there; the air that comes out of the grates is warm because it comes from the sewers. Clochards literally camp on them with tents. It is a very desperate, very sad, and severely underreported sight.
當你走到蒙馬特的小型環行交叉口，想去銀行取點現金買杯咖啡時，在銀行的門口便能看見他們的身影。有時候你也能看見他們直接躺在交通島的水泥地上。有些人因爲沒有可以墊的紙板箱，便直接躺在用來防止鵝卵石掉入下水道的格柵上，所以從格柵裏出來的都是熱氣。流浪漢們把它們當成了自己的住所，然而他們如此絕望和落魄的生活卻極少得到社會的關注與報道。's No Longer Uniquely Grand
8.巴黎不再舉世無雙
Paris is beautiful. Thing is, many other European cities are beautiful. Rome is beautiful, London is vibrant, Tallinn is interesting, Barcelona is amusing, and Amsterdam is entertaining. Hold on, there's more. Copenhagen is clean and tidy, there's incredible art in Florence, and glamour? Stockholm and Antwerp are catching up quickly. If you want a gorgeous city, check out Prague. That's it in the photo above. This is the harsh and pragmatic reality of the world in the 21st century. The world is there for anyone to see. Everything is more expensive these days except, in many cases, for travel.
誠然，巴黎美不勝收，但事實上歐洲許多城市也毫不遜色。羅馬令人着迷，倫敦活力無限，塔林趣味盎然，巴塞羅那令人驚豔，阿姆斯特丹引人入勝……等一下，這還遠沒有完奧！哥本哈根乾淨整潔，纖塵不染；佛羅倫薩魅力無窮，令人驚歎的藝術品隨處可見；而斯德哥爾摩和安特衛普也不甘人後，正奮起直追。如果你憧憬一個絢爛而美麗的城市，那就去看看布拉格吧！上面就是它的照片奧！世界這麼大，誰都能去看看。畢竟在這個時代，雖然很多時候我們身邊的一切事物都越來越昂貴了，但旅遊卻反而越來越便宜了。The European Union may be in a financial turmoil and a political mishmash, but it's made Europe more accessible. Amazing countries like Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary would've been difficult to visit just 30 or 40 years ago, yet if you go today you'll find nice people willing to try to speak your language or at least English to you, willing to show you their cities and wanting you to visit their monuments and eat in their restaurants and shop in their malls. It becomes more and more difficult to justify a a wildly overpriced cup of coffee in Paris, when you can have an amazing espresso in Budapest for a fifth the price.
歐盟可能帶來了一定程度的經濟動盪和政治混亂，但也使得歐洲不再遙不可及。三四十年前，想去斯洛文尼亞、克羅地亞和匈牙利等這些神奇的國度旅行，簡直難於上青天。但如今再去這些國家，你會發現熱情好客的當地人最次也能跟你用英語交流，甚至可能會講你的母語！他們迫不及待地想要向你介紹他們的城市、帶你去參觀名勝古蹟、去當地餐廳體驗特色美食以及去商場購物。當你在布達佩斯僅用五分之一的價格就能喝到一杯很棒的咖啡時，說服自己爲巴黎那貴得離譜的咖啡買單就變得越來越難了。Language Barrier
7.語言障礙
There are opinions and assumptions, and there are clinical, undisputable facts. Fact: most of the world speaks English, and not by chance. It's a simple language to understand and there's no nonsense in the English language. Even though it may be difficult to master, mostly due to complicated and countless phrasal verbs and a wide vocabulary, English is very easy to use at a basic level, since it has fewer tenses and conjugations than most other languages in the world (for example, it's one of the few languages with out a distinct future tense).
世界上多數國家都說英語絕非偶然。不僅有觀點和假設這樣認爲，更有一些經過考證的、無可辯駁的證據都能證明這一事實。英語簡單易懂且沒有廢話。儘管龐大的詞彙量和數不勝數又複雜多變的動詞短語使得英語難以掌握，但要是隻用英語做一些簡單的交流就很容易，因爲英語裏的時態和動詞變化比世界上其他語言裏的都要少（舉例來說，英語是少數幾門沒有特殊將來時態的語言之一）。These days you can go to Štúrovo, which is a very pretty town in Slovakia near the border with Hungary, order an espresso in a random bar, and the barman will speak some English to you. You can go to Kaunas in Lithuania, a former USSR member, buy a local soccer jersey and the shop assistant will speak some English to you. Go to Paris, and you're probably not getting anything but French and, if you're really lucky, condescension. Some will actually make a point and speak French if they understand you're a foreigner and you can't speak the language out of spite. Some say it's because they value their national identity, some say it's because Parisians are the sort of people who would put a tortoise on its back for fun.
如今你可以去什圖羅沃——一個非常漂亮的小鎮，隸屬斯洛伐克，靠近斯洛伐克與匈牙利邊境——隨便找一家酒吧坐下，點上一杯咖啡，酒保一定會跟你講上幾句英語。你也可以到位於立陶宛的考納斯去買當地的足球服，商店的售貨員也一定會用英語跟你交流。但在巴黎，除去一堆聽不懂的法語，你將一無所獲，要是你足夠"走運"，還能見識到法國人的傲慢無禮。有些人得知你是外國人且不會說法語時，反而故意使壞說法語，讓你聽得雲裏霧裏。有些人講法語是因爲他們珍視自己的民族特質，而有些人如此，僅僅是因爲巴黎人就是喜歡欺生，並以此爲樂。ybody is Rushing, but Nothing Gets Done
6.往來行人俱匆匆，怎料實乃事無成
There are 35 working hours in the Parisian week, and workers appear to spend the remaining 133 doing nothing. Ah, they're good. They are masters at doing nothing. They do it very well. Montmartre is an urban labyrinth of bars and hangouts. A concert of clinking teaspoons, hysterical laughter, and coffee. The streets are an adagio of sounds. This is all very good but there are drawbacks.
在巴黎，人們每週工作35小時，剩下的133小時都無所事事。啊，其實巴黎人很優秀——他們可是無所事事的箇中好手，這是他們的長項。蒙馬特區是一座酒吧和住所交錯的迷宮，伴隨着咖啡撲鼻的香氣和茶匙叮咚作響的聲音，人們在這裏狂歡作樂，放聲大笑，真真是場音樂盛會。這一切自有它的閃光點，但也有其缺點。Paris is laid back and relaxed to the point of laziness. In most restaurants, for instance, waiters are like geological strata, in the sense that you have to wait eons for one to show up and assist you. Then the whole process of getting a table and actually ordering food begins, and you'll feel your own hair grow. Paris can have a spectacularly slow service and yet everybody is always in a hurry. You'll see cars parking on mini roundabouts and running red lights and on the sidewalk, and as often as not, people will simply walk into you. Everybody's in a hurry except the people you're supposed to meet. They'll be late, of course.
巴黎輕鬆悠閒的表面下其實瀰漫着怠惰的氣息。比方說，在巴黎的大多數餐廳裏，等服務員來爲你服務要等上好久，那速度簡直和地質層的運動速度有得一拼。然後找到座位坐下，開始點餐，整個過程無比漫長，你都能感受到自己的頭髮長長了。巴黎的服務速度異常緩慢，但人們卻又都是一副匆匆忙忙的樣子。你總能看到車輛停在小型環形交叉口，或者闖紅燈，有的甚至還停在人行道上，你走在路上還時常會被匆匆的行人撞到。每個人都在趕時間，除了和你有約的人，毫無疑問他們會遲到。翻譯:李聞昱 審校：Aileen 來源:前十網
