英国语文第六册(双语):大马士革与伦敦（一）(3)
British cities spread out, as it were indefinitely, into the country, in the way of parks, gardens, summer-houses, gentlemen's seats, and smiling villages. It is not so in the East. The city is within the walls, and all without is garden as at Damascus, or desert as at Jerusalem. Single houses are, in any country, the proof of the supremacy of law as well as of the respectability and independence of labour. Life and property have not attained perfect security in the East: a pistol, or rather a musket, was presented at my breast, within half a mile of Damascus, in broad daylight!
英国的城市以公园、花园、避暑别墅、俱乐部、美好乡村的方式由市中心向乡下无限延伸。而东方则不同，在东方城市被包围在城墙内，城墙外则全是花园，比如大马士革；或者全是沙漠，比如耶路撒冷。在西方任何国家，独栋住房都是法律至上以及劳动者社会地位和独立的象征。在东方，生命和财产安全还没有得到保障：一把手枪，确切说是一把步枪，在光天化日之下明晃晃地亮在我的胸前，而这里离大马士革仅不到半英里。
These noble gardens have no inhabitants; nor do any fine cottages, tasteful houses, or princely palaces, adorn this fertile region. Within the city you are safe; —without are dogs, insecurity of property, and the liability of being shot. The whole population, therefore, live either in cities or in villages, except in such regions as Beirout, where European influence and power prevail. There, you have gardens and single houses, much after the English fashion.
这些高大上的花园里无人居住，也没有漂亮别墅、雅致住宅或者豪华宫殿来装饰这片富饶的土地。在这个城市里你是安全的；——不会有狗吠声，不会发生入室盗窃，也不会出现枪击事件。除了像贝鲁特这种受欧洲影响、欧洲势利掌权的地方外，人们都住在城市或者乡村里。在那儿，你会有花园和独栋房屋，英伦风十足。
But place a Damascene at Charing Cross, or at Cheapside, and what do you think would amaze him most? The number of vehicles, undoubtedly. He would say, "When will this stream of cars, cabs, coaches, carriages, omnibuses of every shape and size, have an end? Are the people mad? Can they not take their time?"
不过，如果让一个大马士革人置身于伦敦的斯特兰德十字路口或者齐普赛大街，你知道什么会让他最惊讶吗？毫无疑问是汽车的数量。他会说，“这些排着长队的汽车、出租车、长途汽车、四轮马车、公共汽车什么时候是个头呢？这些人都疯了吗？他们就不能快点儿吗？”
But had the oriental nations of antiquity no wheel-carriages? They had; the Jews and the Egyptians had them, the Greeks and the Romans had them, and perhaps they may exist in some parts of the East to the present time.
难道这些东方古国还没有四轮马车吗？他们有；犹太人和埃及人已经有了，希腊人和罗马人也有，或许东方的某些地区在此之前就已经有了。
