IKEA
宜家

by John Kuti
约翰•库迪


Our journey started in a minibus to Lomonosov underground station. In the open area behind the station we could see about 30 people waiting for a bus to the IKEA shop. This bus is unusual for two reasons – it is free, and it is one of very the few buses in the city that has a timetable.
我们的旅程始于一辆前往罗蒙罗索夫（Lomonosov）地铁站的面包车。在车站后方的户外空地上，可以看到大约三十来个人正在等待着去宜家的公车。这辆公车有两个不寻常之处：一、它是免费的；二、它是这个城市中为数不多的有着发车时刻表的公车之一。


We got onto the bus and it drove over the bridge across the River Neva and out of the city. One passenger had her dog with her. We saw the big yellow letters IKEA on a blue background from far away, they are on a sign which is higher than the trees. The same design is on the side of the building, a very big blue box with a car park all around it. We got out of the bus and walked along a special route to the entrance with a roof over it. We went into the shop through a big door that turned like a wheel. About ten people can walk inside one section of the wheel. IKEA shops are very popular everywhere in the world, and they are made to serve very large numbers of people.
我们上了这辆公车后，它载着我们驶过了涅瓦河大桥奔向了市外。有位乘客还带着一条狗乘车。我们可以遥望到远方宜家的户外广告牌，那个广告牌高高矗立在群树之上，蓝色的背景牌烘衬出了IKEA这四个大大的黄色字母。同样的图案也显现在了宜家商场的高楼一侧，而商场整体就像一个四周被停车场环绕的蓝色大盒子。我们下车后穿过了一条被遮阳顶罩住的特殊通道来到了入口处。入口处的大门可以像方向盘一样旋转，每个旋转截面大约可以同时容下十个顾客。宜家商场的确风靡全球，它们服务的顾客可是多到数不清。


Most places in Russia have a cloakroom where you can leave your coat. On this day there were too many people, so only children could leave their coats. I had a rucksack and they said that I should leave this in the cloakroom and carry my coat. If you have a child aged 3 to 6 you can leave him or her in a play room…usually for 2 hours or just one hour on busy days. They give parents a piece of paper with the time of collection written on it so that they don’t forget. I don’t know what people with dogs do.
俄罗斯的大部分商场都有衣帽间以便顾客存放衣物。而今天宜家因为顾客太多，所以只能让孩子们存放衣物。我随身背了一个帆布包，工作人员则让我把帆布包放在衣帽间而将自己的衣服随身带着。如果有顾客带着3到6岁的孩子前来，他们可以把孩子留在儿童游戏室自由嬉戏。一般遇上比较忙的工作日只能让孩子在游戏室里呆上一两个小时。工作人员会给父母们一张纸，上面写着要来接孩子的时间，以免有的父母忘了这事。至于那些带狗的顾客，我就不知道他们会忙些个什么了。


The first place we went was up the stairs to the café. Here everything is self-service. You take a tray and ask people to serve you food, for example traditional Swedish meat-balls. If you want coffee, tea or a fizzy drink you pay for a cup and afterwards you fill it from a machine. While you eat and drink you can study the catalogue. They say that 160 million copies of the catalogue are printed all round the world – where I live, they delivered a copy to each flat. People who want to buy a lot of things can take a big yellow plastic bag to put them in. There are also different sorts of trolley. One has a seat for a small child and a place to hang the big yellow bag.
我们首先光顾的是咖啡厅，这里一切都是自助式的。你可以拿着个托盘让服务员给你夹食物，例如瑞典肉球。但是如果你需要咖啡、茶或者汽水的话，那么你就得自掏腰包，不过当你喝完一杯后你可以自己去饮料机那边免费续杯。喝着饮料时研究下商品手册则是必不可少的了。据工作人员介绍，宜家在全球有1.6亿份产品手册。在我们来的这间宜家，产品手册每层都会有供应。如果有人需要狂购一次，那么可以领取一个黄色大塑料袋来装战利品。当然，商场还有各种手推车，每个手推车都有一个可以让孩子坐的小座位，以及可以挂黄色大袋子的设计。


The area next to the café is for special offers. Then, there are a lot of pictures in frames and mirrors. After that, you come to a place where there are different rooms which you can walk into and sit down in. When you know what you want to buy, you have to look at the code on the price tag. This code tells you the place on the ground floor where you should go to collect the pack with the parts you want inside it. All Ikea furniture is in cardboard boxes and you have to put the parts together when you get home.
咖啡厅旁边是特价优惠区，在那有很多用框裱好的图片和镜子。再往旁边点的地方有着很多不同的单间，顾客可以走到单间里坐坐。当你想好要买什么的时候，你需要看一下价格标牌上的编码。宜家的底层会有很多的箱子，而这些编码可以告诉你，你想要的产品是在哪个箱子里面。宜家家具都是装在纸板盒里面的，所以当你回家的时候可得需要把家具各个部分都给带齐了。


One of the main problems of life in Russia is the small amount of living space that people have in their flats. It is very unusual for a family to have a room that nobody sleeps in. So the idea of a “living room” or a “sitting room”, as we call it in English, is a bit different. Most people have a room with a sofa-bed that they open out in the evening to sleep on. I think it’s quite a good idea for Russian flats to have the bed on tall legs with enough space for a sofa under it. You can buy one in IKEA for about £200. On my visit to IKEA I didn’t buy anything because I live in a rented flat with lots of furniture in it. I just like looking.
在俄罗斯生活有一个很大的问题，那就是人们公寓的生活空间都比较小。在俄罗斯很少看到有哪户人家会闲置出一个没人睡觉的房间。所以在俄罗斯人概念中的“客厅”或者“起居室”，和这两个英文单词的字面意思会有稍稍的区别。很多人家都会有一个房间，里面放着一个沙发床，每到夜晚就可以开打沙发床睡觉。而我认为俄罗斯的公寓配上个高腿的床真是绝妙的主意，这样就可以在床底预留出足够的空间放沙发了。像这样的床你花上200英镑就可以在宜家买到。我此次的宜家之旅并没有购置什么东西，因为我自己住在一个有很多家具的出租房里。我来到宜家就是喜欢随便看看。