The town itself, let us admit, is ugly. It has a smug, placid air and you need time to discover what it is that makes it different from so many business centers in other parts of the world. How to conjure up a picture, for instance, of a town without pigeons, without any trees or gardens, where you never hear the beat of wings or the rustle of leaves—a thoroughly negative place, in short? The seasons are discriminated only in the sky. All that tells you of spring’s coming is the feel of the air, or the baskets of flowers brought in from the suburbs by peddlers; it’s a spring cried in the market-places. During the summer the sun bakes the houses bone-dry, sprinkles our walls with grayish dust, and you have no option but to survive those days of fire indoors, behind closed shutters. In autumn, on the other hand, we have deluges of mud. Only winter brings really pleasant weather.

Perhaps the easiest way of making a town’s acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die. In our little town (is this, one wonders, an effect of the climate?) all three are done on much the same lines, with the same feverish yet casual air. The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, “doing business.” Naturally they don’t eschew such simpler pleasures as sea-bathing, going to the pictures. But, very sensibly, they reserve these pastimes for Saturday afternoons and Sundays and employ the rest of the week in making money, as much as possible. In the evening, on leaving the office, they forgather, at an hour that never varies, in the cafe’ s, stroll the same boulevard, or take the air on their balconies. The passions of the young are violent and short-lived; the vices of older men seldom range beyond an addiction to bowling, to banquets and socials, or clubs where large sums change hands on the fall of a card.

參考譯文

讓我們承認(rèn)那個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)的丑陋吧。它的氣氛做作、平靜，而且，你需要花時(shí)間去發(fā)現(xiàn)，它為何與世界其他地方的許多商業(yè)中心有所不同。你如何能想象這樣的一種景致，例如，一個(gè)沒有鴿子，沒有任何樹木或花園的小鎮(zhèn)，在這里，聽不見鳥兒振翅或樹葉的沙沙聲——簡(jiǎn)而言之，這是一個(gè)完全相反的地方。在這里季節(jié)只能依靠天空來辨別。春天的來臨也只能通過空氣的感覺，或是由小販從郊區(qū)帶來的一籃籃花兒來感知，春天在市場(chǎng)被叫賣著。在夏天里，房子被太陽烘得干透，灰色的塵埃布滿了墻壁，你別無選擇，只有躲在à上的百葉窗后，在室內(nèi)逃避那些炙熱的日子。秋天則泥沙泛濫。只有冬季帶來真正愉悅的氣候。

也許，了解一個(gè)城鎮(zhèn)最簡(jiǎn)單的方法，是了解它的市民如何工作，如何戀愛和如何死亡。在我們的小鎮(zhèn)上（不知是否受了天氣的影響？）這三件事在同樣灼熱難耐卻已司空見慣的空氣中，以極為相同的方式完成。實(shí)際上，每個(gè)人都覺得無聊，便投入到各自愛好的培養(yǎng)中。我們的市民都努力工作，但唯一的目標(biāo)是發(fā)財(cái)。他們最主要的興趣是商業(yè)，而生活之首要目的，就如他們自己所說的，是“做生意”。自然，他們也免不了一些像海浴、看電影等簡(jiǎn)單的娛樂。但是，他們非常明智地把這些消遣留到周六下午與周日，而其他時(shí)間卻盡可能地用來賺錢。黃昏，他們離開辦公室后，會(huì)在固定的時(shí)間里聚集在咖啡館，在相同的林蔭大道上散步，或是在陽臺(tái)上透透氣。年輕人的熱情強(qiáng)烈但為時(shí)不長(zhǎng)，年長(zhǎng)者的不良嗜好很少超出沉溺于保齡球、宴會(huì)和社交的范圍，或者是沉湎于那種打出一張牌，就能賺大筆錢的俱樂部。