13第二章前言（国庆节休更一周，节后全面开启第二章精彩内容，敬请期待！）

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"Theotherambassadors大使warn me offamines饥荒,extortions勒索,conspiracies阴谋, or else they inform me ofnewlydiscoveredturquoise绿松石mines, advantageous prices in marten貂furs, suggestions for supplyingdamascened镶嵌金银blades刀. And you?" the Great Khan asked Polo, "youreturnfrom lands equally distant andyou can tell me only the thoughts that come to a man who sits on his doorstep ateveningto enjoy the cool air. What is the use, then, of all your traveling?"

一些使者提醒我这一路上饥馑遍地，到处都是敲诈勒索和阴谋诡计，或者告诉我他们新发现的绿松石和貂皮的价格很优惠，还有人提出供应大马士革刀的建议。而你呢?”大汗问马可波罗，“你从同样遥远的地方回来，你却只告诉我一个傍晚时分坐在家门口在乘凉的人的想法。那么，你的旅行有什么用呢?”

"It is evening. We are seated on the steps of your palace. There is a slight breeze," Marco Polo answered. "Whatevercountry乡下my words may evoke唤起around you, you will see it from such avantagepoint, even if instead of the palace there is avillageon pilings桩and the breeze carries thestench恶臭of a muddy泥泞estuary河湾."

“傍晚时分，我们坐在你的宫殿台阶上。此时有微风拂过。”马可波罗回答。“我的话会唤起你对大地的想象，站在这里，你会看到它，即使不是宫殿，而是河岸边那些木桩上的村庄，微风中带着泥泞河湾里潮腐的气息。”

"My gaze is that of a man meditating沉思、冥想, lost in thought -- I admit it. But yours? You cross archipelagoes群岛, tundras苔原, mountain ranges. You would do as well never moving from here."

“”我承认，我是一个沉思冥想的人，可你呢？你走遍列岛、穿过苔原、翻越千山。却不见得比足不出户的人更强。”

The Venetian knew that when Kublai became vexed恼火with him, the emperor wanted to follow more clearly aprivate train of thought思路;so Marco's answers andobjectionstook their place in a discourse话语already proceeding进行on its own, in the Great Khan's head. That is to say, between the two of them it did not matter whether questions and solutions were uttered说出aloud or whether each of the two went on pondering沉思in silence. In fact, they were silent, their eyes half-closed, reclining斜靠on cushions垫子, swaying摇摆in hammocks吊床, smoking long amber琥珀色pipes烟斗. 

威尼斯人知道，当忽必烈对他感到恼火时，是想更清晰的跟上他的思路；因此马可波罗的答复不知不觉的已在大汗的头脑中占据了一席之地。这就是说，在他们两人之间，不管是大声讨论或无言沉思，都无关紧要。事实上，他们沉默着，半闭着眼，斜靠在吊床的垫子上摇晃着，嘴里还叼着琥珀色的长烟斗。

Marco Polo imagined answering (or Kublai Khan imagined his answer) that the more one was lost in unfamiliar陌生quarters of distant遥远的cities, the more one understood the other cities he had crossed to arrive there; and he retraced回顾the stages of his journeys, and he came to know the port from which he had set sail, and the familiar places of his youth, and the surroundings of home, and a little square of Venice where he gamboled蹦蹦跳跳as a child. At this point Kublai Khan interrupted打断him or imagined interrupting him, or Marco Polo imagined himself interrupted, with a question such as: "You advance always with your head turned back?" or"Is what you see always behind you?" or rather, "Does your journey take place only in the past?"

马可波罗想象着回答（或者忽必烈想象着他的回答）一个人越是迷失在遥远城市的陌生角落，就越是了解为到达该处所经过的其他城市；他回顾旅程的各个阶段，开始认识他起航的港口，他年轻时熟悉的地方，家附近的环境，以及他在威尼斯度过欢快童年的一个小广场。这时，忽必烈打断了他，或者想象着打断他，或者马可波罗想象着自己被打断，问了一个问题，比如：“你前行时总回头看吗？”或者“你看到的东西总是在你身后吗？”或者更确切地说，“你的旅程只发生在过去吗？”

All this so that Marco Polo could explain or imagine explaining or be imagined explaining or succeed finally in explaining to himself that what he sought寻求was always something lying ahead, and even if it was a matter of the past it was a past that changed gradually逐渐as he advanced on his journey, because the traveler's past changes according to the route路线he has followed: not the immediate目前的past, that is, to which each day that goes by adds a day, but the more remote遥远的past. Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had:the foreignness异物性of what you no longer are or no longer possess拥有lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed无主的places.

所有这些都使马可波罗能够解释或想象解释或被想象解释或最终成功地向自己解释，他所追求的总是前方的某个东西，即使是过去的事情，也是随着他在旅途中的前进而逐渐改变的过去，因为旅行者的过去是根据他所走的路线而改变的：也就是说，不是每过一天就增加一天的最近的过去，而是更遥远的过去。到达每一个新的城市，旅行者都会再次发现一段他不知道自己经历过的过去：你不再是或不再拥有的东西，在无主异域等待着你。

Marco enters a city; he sees someone in a square living a life or an instant that could be his; he could now be in that man's place, if he had stopped in time, long ago; or if, long ago, at a crossroads, instead of taking one road he had taken the opposite one, and after long wandering徘徊he had come to be in the place of that man in that square. By now, from that real or hypothetical假设的past of his, he is excluded排除; he cannot stop; he must go on to another city, where another of his pasts awaits等待him, or something perhaps that had been a possible future of his and is now someone else's present. Futures not achieved实现are only branches分支of the past: dead branches.

马可进入一座城市；他看到一个人在广场上过着可能属于他的生活或瞬间；如果他在很久以前及时停下来的话，他现在可以代替那个人了；或者，很久以前，在一个十字路口，他没有走一条路，而是走了另一条路，在漫长的徘徊之后，他取代了在广场上那个人。到目前为止，不管是真实还是假想的过去，他被排除在外了；他停不下来；他必须去另一个城市，在那里，他的另一个过去在等待着他，或者可能是他的未来，现在是别人的现在。未实现的未来只是过去的枝杈：枯掉的枝杈。

"Journeys to relive重温your past?" was the Khan's question at this point, a question which could also have been formulated确切表达: "Journeys to recover恢复、追回your future?"

“重温过去的旅程？”这是可汗在此时提出的问题，这个问题也可以被表述为：“重获未来的旅程？”

And Marco's answer was: "Elsewhere异国之旅is a negative mirror. The traveler recognizes the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have."

马可的回答是：“异国之旅是一面负面镜。旅行者认识到了自己拥有的是那么少，发现了他没有也永远不会拥有的是那么多。”