[未谷晨读]林语堂笔下的北平之美:北平林语堂
不一样的晨读美文，尽在有道词典；主播未谷，用英音为你唤醒新的一天。
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Moment in Peking
京华烟云（节选）
作者：林语堂
译者：张振玉
图片来源：视觉中国
It was now deep winter. Winter in Peking in insurpassable, unless indeed it is surpassed by the other seasons in that blessed city. For Peking is a city clearly marked by seasons, each perfect in its own way and each different from the others.
现在是穷冬苦寒，北京的冬季真是无与伦比，也许这个福地的其他月分，可以与之比肩。因为在北京，四季非常分明，每一季皆有其极美之处，其极美之处又互相差异之特色。
In that city, man lives in civilization and yet in nature, where the maximum comforts of the city and the beauties of rural life are perfectly blended and preserved, where, as in the ideal city, man finds both simulation for his mind and repose for his soul. What great spirit organized this pattern of life so that here at last the ideal of human living should be realized?
在北京，人生活在文化之中，却同时又生活在大自然之内，城市生活极高度之舒适与园林生活之美，融合为一体，保存而未失，犹如在有理想的城市，头脑思想得到刺激，心灵情绪得到宁静。到底是什么神灵之手构成这种方式的生活，使人间最理想的生活得以在此实现了呢？
True, Peking is naturally beautiful, with its lakes and parks inside the city and its girdle of the transparent blue Jade River and its skirt of the purple Western Hills outside. The sky also helps: if the sky were not such a clear deep blue, the water of the Jade Spring could not be such a transparent jade green, nor the slopes of the Western Hills such rich lavender and purple.
千真万确，北京自然就美，城内点缀着湖泊公园，城外环绕着清澈的玉泉河，远处有紫色的西山耸立于云端。天空的颜色也功劳不小。天空若不是那么晶莹深蓝，玉泉河的水就不会那么清澈翠绿，西山的山腰就不会有那么浓艳的淡紫。
True, also, the city was planned by a master architect as no other city was ever planned on this earth, with a peadth of human spirit, an understanding of sublimity and grandeur and the amenities of domestic living, paralleled nowhere else. But Peking as a human creation was not the work of any one, rather the joint product of generations of men who had the instinct for beautiful living.
设计这个城市的是个巧夺天工的巨匠，造出的这个城市，普天之下，地球之上，没有别的城市可与比拟。既富有人文的精神，又富有崇高华严的气质与家居生活的舒适。人间地上，岂有他处可以与之分庭抗礼？北京城之为人类的创造，并非一人之功，是集数代生来就深知生活之美的人所共同创造的。
Climate, topography, history, folk customs, architecture, and the arts combined to make it the city that it is. The human element in the life of Peking is the great thing. The unmistakable poise and leisurely accent of the speech of a Pekinese boy, girl, man or woman is sufficient evidence of this human culture and this geniality of lie. An accent is but the spiritual voice of a whole people.
天气、地理、历史、民风、建筑、艺术，众美俱备，集合而使之成为今日之美。在北京城的生活上，人的因素最为重要。北京的男女老幼说话的腔调上，都显而易见的平静安闲，就足以证明此种人文与生活的舒适愉快。因为说话的腔调儿，就是全民精神上的声音。
注：《京华烟云》是林语堂旅居巴黎时，于1938年8月至1939年8月间用英文写就的长篇小说，英文书名为《Moment in Peking》，讲述了北平曾、姚、牛三大家族从1901年义和团运动到抗日战争三十多年间的悲欢离合和恩怨情仇，并在其中安插了袁世凯篡国、张勋复辟、直奉大战、军阀割据、五四运动、三一八惨案、“语丝派”与“现代评论派”笔战、青年“左倾”、二战爆发，全景式展现了现代中国社会风云变幻的历史风貌。
据说林语堂原本打算将《红楼梦》译作英文介绍给西方读者，因故未能译成，此后决定仿照《红楼梦》的结构写一部长篇小说，于是写出了《京华烟云》。上面这段文字节选自小说第十二章“北京城人间福地 富贵家神仙生活”，重点对北京城的描写。可以看出不管是中文版还是英文版，文笔都是栩栩如生浑然天成，体现了文学大家细腻饱满的笔触。
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