双语·美文 | 没有空调的夏天

这几天，北京开始持续高温，

让人一下子尝到了夏天的滋味。

无风时，闷热的空气仿佛凝固了一般，

让人觉得透不过气；

有风时，你也并不会感到凉爽，

反而觉得热浪频频袭来……

面对初夏时节这不够“友好”的高温天气，

东方君只想待在室内吹空调，

从而躲避屋外那似要将人熔化的烈日。

幸好，我们还有空调。

在这项便利的发明出现以前，

夏日又是怎样的一番景象呢？

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今天的文章选自'Before Air-conditioning'（《没有空调的夏天》），作者为美国著名剧作家阿瑟·米勒(Arthur Miller, 1915~2005)。原文和译文刊登于《新东方英语》杂志。

习惯了空调制冷的我们已经很难再体会炎炎夏日那种让人无处躲藏、寝食难安的热了。而在空调出现之前，人们为抵抗高温曾想出各种办法，那些画面如今已成为很多人遥远的回忆。时光倒流80年，在空调出现之前，盛夏时节的纽约城别有一番景象，让我们一起感受一下吧。

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There were still elevated trains then, along Second, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Avenues, and many of the cars were wooden, with windows that opened. Broadway had open trolleys (有轨电车) with no side walls, in which you at least caught the breeze, hot though it was, so that desperate people, unable to endure their apartments, would simply pay a nickel and ride around aimlessly for a couple of hours to cool off. As for Coney Island on weekends, block after block of beach was so jammed with people that it was barely possible to find a space to sit or to put down your book or your hot dog.

那时的纽约还有高架列车，沿着第二、第三、第六和第九大道行驶，很多车厢都是木制的，车窗大开。百老汇大街上有一种没有侧壁的有轨电车，尽管天气炎热，你在上面至少还能吹吹小风。于是那些热得要命、在公寓里实在待不下去的人就花上五分钱，坐在电车里漫无目的地转上几个小时，凉快一下。至于科尼岛，一到周末，大片大片的海滩上人满为患，很难找个坐的地方，也别提什么看书或吃热狗的地方了。

My first direct contact with an air-conditioner came only in the sixties, when I was living in the Chelsea Hotel. The so-called management sent up a machine on casters (小脚轮) which rather aimlessly cooled and sometimes heated the air, relying, as it did, on pitchers of water that one had to pour into it. On the initial filling, it would spray water all over the room, so one had to face it toward the bathroom rather than the bed.

直到20世纪60年代在切尔西酒店住宿时，我才第一次直接接触空调。所谓的管理人员送来一台装有小脚轮的机器，它的制冷相当随意，有时还会制热，这要看你往里面加多少壶水。初次加满水时，机器会把水溅得房间里到处都是，所以人们只得把它摆得面朝浴室而不是床。

A South African gentleman once told me that New York in August was hotter than any place he knew in Africa, yet people here dressed for a northern city. He had wanted to wear shorts but feared that he would be arrested for indecent exposure.

一位来自南非的绅士曾对我说，8月的纽约比他知道的非洲的任何地方都热，但这里的人们却一副北方城市的装扮。他一度想穿短裤，却又担心有伤风化被抓。

High heat created irrational solutions: linen suits that collapsed into deep wrinkles when one bent an arm or a knee, and men’s straw hats as stiff as matzohs (无酵饼，犹太人逾越节时吃的一种硬面饼), which, like some kind of hard yellow flower, bloomed annually all over the city on a certain sacred date—June 1st or so. Those hats dug deep pink creases around men’s foreheads, and the wrinkled suits, which were supposedly cooler, had to be pulled down and up and sidewise to make room for the body within.

高温催生了非理性的解决办法：身着亚麻料的衣服，弯臂或屈膝时衣服上会出现很深的折痕；男人们头戴像无酵饼一样硬的草帽，就像一种刺眼的黄花，在每年某个神圣的日子——6月1日前后——开遍纽约城。那些帽子会在男人们的额头上压出一道道肉红色的痕迹，而那些据说能让人凉快一点的满是折痕的衣服，却得上上下下、左左右右地拉扯，才能给里面的身体腾出空间。

The city in summer floated in a daze that moved otherwise sensible people to repeat endlessly the brainless greeting “Hot enough for ya? Ha-ha!” It was like the final joke before the meltdown of the world in a pool of sweat.

在夏天，这座城市漂浮在一片恍惚中，使得以往理智的人们也不断重复这样一句没头没脑的问候：“热得够你受的吧？哈哈！”这仿佛是在世界淹没于一汪汗水之前人们开的最后一个玩笑。