繪◎也圓

I met a young Australian girl last week who was backpacking through Europe for the first time in her life. I gave her directions to the train station. She was heading up to Slovenia, just to check it out. When I heard her plans, I was stricken with such a dumb spasm①of jealousy②, thinking, I want to go to Slovenia! How come I never get to travel anywhere?

Now, to the innocent eye it might appear that I already am traveling. And longing to travel while you are already traveling is, I admit, a kind of greedy madness. But the fact that this girl asked directions from me (clearly, in her mind, a civilian③) suggests that I am not technically④traveling in Rome, but living here.However temporary⑤it may be, I am a civilian.When I ran into the girl, in fact, I was just on my way to pay my electricity bill⑥, which is not something travelers worry about. Traveling-to-aplace energy and living-in-a-place energy are two fundamentally⑦different energies, and something about meeting this Australian girl on her way to Slovenia just gave me such an idea to hit the road.

And that's why I called my friend Sofie and said,"Let's go down to Naples for the day and eat some pizza!"

Immediately, just a few hours later, we are on the train, and then- like magic- we are there. I instantly love Naples. Wild, raucous, noisy, dirty Naples. An anthill inside a rabbit warren, with all the exoticism of a Middle Eastern bazaar and a touch of New Orleans voodoo.A tripped-out, dangerous and cheerful nuthouse. My friend Wade came to Naples in the 1970s and was mugged... in a museum. The city is all decorated with the laundry that hangs from every window and dangles across every street; everybody's freshwashed undershirts and brassieres flapping in the wind. There is not a street in Naples in which some tough little kid in shorts and mismatched socks is not screaming up from the sidewalk to some other tough kid on a rooftop nearby. Nor is there a building in this town that doesn't have at least one crooked old woman seated at her window, peering suspiciously down at the activity below.

上個(gè)星期我遇上一位澳大利亞姑娘，背著背包從事她有生以來的頭一次歐洲之旅。我為她指點(diǎn)去火車站的路。她正要前往斯洛文尼亞游覽。我聽到她談及她的計(jì)劃時(shí)，心中一陣妒忌，心想：“我也想去斯洛文尼亞！為什么我從沒去任何地方旅行？”

以簡單的眼光來看，我已正在旅行。已經(jīng)在旅行的時(shí)候渴望旅行，我承認(rèn)是一種貪婪的瘋狂行為。但這名女孩向我問路（顯然，在她心目中，我是羅馬市民）的事實(shí)說明，實(shí)際上我并非在羅馬旅行，而是在羅馬定居。無論時(shí)間多么短暫，我都是市民了。事實(shí)上，碰上這位姑娘時(shí)，我正要去付電費(fèi)，這可不是旅人擔(dān)心的事情?！霸谀车芈眯小钡木汀霸谀车囟ň印钡木Γ歉静煌木?，遇上這位即將前往斯洛文尼亞的姑娘，引發(fā)了我上路的念頭。

于是我打電話給蘇菲，說：“我們今天往南去那不勒斯吃比薩餅吧。”

才幾個(gè)小時(shí)后，我們立即搭上火車，而后——像變魔術(shù)似的——我們到了那不勒斯。我立即愛上那不勒斯?？穹拧⒋潭?、嘈雜、骯臟的那不勒斯。兔子窩里的蟻冢，混雜中東市集的異國情調(diào)，以及新奧爾良的巫毒魅力。古怪、危險(xiǎn)、興高采烈的瘋?cè)嗽?。我的朋友韋德在20世紀(jì)70年代到過那不勒斯，遭人襲擊搶劫……在博物館里。洗好的衣物晾在每一扇窗口，懸蕩在每一條街上，裝點(diǎn)這座城市。那不勒斯的每條街都看得見身穿短褲、襪子不相配的狠小子，向人行道上朝鄰近屋頂?shù)牧硪粋€(gè)狠小子高聲叫喊。每一棟建筑物至少有一位佝僂老婦坐在窗邊，狐疑地凝視底下進(jìn)行的活動(dòng)。

——《美食祈禱和戀愛》

① spasm 英 ['sp?z(?)m] 美 ['sp?z?m]

n. [臨床] 痙攣；抽搐；一陣發(fā)作

② jealousy 英 ['d?el?s?] 美 ['d??l?si] n. 嫉妒；猜忌；戒備③ civilian 英 [s?'v?lj(?)n] 美 [s?'v?l??n]

adj. 民用的；百姓的，平民的n. 平民，百姓

④ technically 英 ['tekn?kl?] 美 ['t?kn?kli]

adv. 技術(shù)上；專門地；學(xué)術(shù)上；工藝上

⑤ temporary 英 ['temp(?)r?r?] 美 ['temp?reri]adj. 暫時(shí)的，臨時(shí)的n. 臨時(shí)工，臨時(shí)雇員

⑥electricity bill 電費(fèi)

⑦ fundamentally 英 [f?nd?'ment?l?]

美 [,f?nd?'m?nt?li] adv. 根本地，從根本上；基礎(chǔ)地