08城市与记忆四

Cities and Memory 4.

城市与记忆4

Beyond six rivers and three mountain ranges范围 rises Zora, a city that no one, having seen it, can forget. But not because, like other memorable值得记忆的 cities, it leaves an unusual image in your recollections.Zora has the quality of remaining in your memory point by point, in its succession of streets, of houses along the streets, and of doors and windows in the houses, though nothing in them possesses a special beauty or rarity稀有.

在六条河流和三座山脉之外矗立着佐拉城，一座任何人一见就不会忘记的城市。但这并不是因为，它像其他值得记忆的城市一样，给你留下不同寻常的印象。而是具有一种特质，在它连续的街道、沿街的房屋以及房屋的门窗中，尽管其中没有任何事物特别美丽或稀有，却能一点一滴地留在你记忆中。

Zora's secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns图案 following one another as in amusical score乐谱 where not a note can be altered [ˈɔːltərd]改动 or displaced替代.

佐拉的秘密在于，你的目光掠过一个又一个的画面，就像乐谱中音符一样，没有任何一个可以被改动或替换。

The man who knows by heart how Zora is made, if he is unable to sleep at night, can imagine he is walking along the streets and he remembers the order by which the copper clock follows the barber's理发店striped[straɪpt]有条纹的awning[ˈɔːnɪŋ]雨棚, then the fountain with nine jets [dʒets]喷嘴, the astronomer's[əˈstrɑːnəmər]天文学家的glass tower, the melon西瓜vendor's [ˈvendər] 小贩kiosk [ˈkiːɑːsk]小亭子, the statue of the hermit[ˈhɜːrmɪt]隐士and the lion, the Turkish bath, the café at the corner, the alley that leads to the harbor [ˈhɑrbər]港口.

一个熟悉佐拉情况的人，如果在晚上无法入睡，他可以想象自己正在街上行走，并依次记起铜钟、理发店的条纹雨篷，然后是九眼喷泉，天文馆的玻璃塔，卖瓜的小亭，隐士与雄狮的雕像，土耳其浴室，街角的咖啡馆，和通往港口的小巷。

This city which cannot be expunged[ɪkˈspʌndʒd]抹去 from the mind is like an armature [ˈɑːrmətʃər]盔甲, a honeycomb [ˈhʌnikoʊm]蜂巢 in whose cells细胞、小房间 each of us can place the things he wants to remember: names of famous men, virtues, numbers, vegetable and mineral[ˈmɪnərəl]矿物classifications[ˌklæsəfəˈkeɪʃənz]分类, dates of battles战役, constellations [ˌkɑnstəˈleɪʃənz]星座, parts of speech.Between each idea and each point of the itinerary [aɪˈtɪnəreri]行程 an affinity [əˈfɪnəti]密切关系or a contrast明显差异 can be established建立, serving as animmediate aid紧急援助 to memory. So the world's learned men are those who have memorized Zora.

这座无法从脑海中抹去的城市，就像一套盔甲、一个蜂巢，有许多凹陷可以贮存每个人想铭记的东西：名人的姓名、美德、数字、蔬菜和矿物的分类、战役的日期、星座、言论。在每个意念和转折点之间，可以建立一种相似或对比的关系，直接帮助我们记忆。因此，世界上最有学问的人，就是那些将佐拉深深印入脑海的人。

But in vain徒劳 I set out to visit the city: forced to remain motionless[ˈmoʊʃnləs]静止 and always the same, in order to be more easily remembered, Zora has languished [ˈlæŋɡwɪʃt]变得衰弱, disintegrated [dɪsˈɪntɪɡreɪtɪd]瓦解、崩溃, disappeared. The earth has forgotten her.

然而，当我欲走访这座城市，却已惘然：为了更容易被人记住，佐拉被迫静止并始终保持原样，于是便萧条了，瓦解了，消失了。大地已经将她遗忘了。