作品导读:《旅行的艺术》是英国作家阿兰·德波顿的作品。本书用一种质感、细腻、随意的语言,尽量把大感觉化解成小感觉,把理性的结论隐藏在几乎看不见的地方,让人觉得也可能根本没有这种结论。这样的文字,有着一种感性的征服力。作者借灵魂与自己所遇环境的种种对话,在各种冲撞中揭示了旅行的深层意义。那么,让我们跟随阿兰·德波顿开始一场充满鲜活色彩的完美的旅行吧~~

开篇:On Anticipation 对旅行的期待

But now the park was foreign once more, the grass a forbidding arena in the incessant rain. Any sadness I might have felt, any suspicion that happiness or understanding was unattainable, seemed to find ready encouragement in the sodden dark-red brick buildings and low skies tinged orange by city's street-lights.
但现在,眼前的公园再次变得陌生,连绵的阴雨中,草地已无从涉足。此时,任何的哀愁,任何得不到快乐和理解的担忧,似乎都能在那些暗红色砖石外墙、浸得透湿的建筑,以及城市街灯映照下略泛橙色的低沉的夜空中找到佐证。
 
注释:
forbidding:adj. 可怕的, 令人难亲近的, 令人生畏的(这可不是动词forbid的ing形式哦~)
incessant:adj. 不停的, 不断的  incessant rain:连绵阴雨
encouragement:n. 在这里引申译为佐证,证明
sodden:adj. 浸透的, 浸润的, 浸湿的
tinge:v. (较淡地)着色于, 染
 
Nothing was as I had imagined - surprising only if one considers what I had imagined. In the preceding weeks, the thought of the island had circled exclusively around three immobile mental images, assembled during the reading of a brochure and an airline timetable. The first was of a beach with a palm tree against the setting sun. The second was of a hotel bungalow with a view through French doors into a room decorated with wooden floors and white bedlinen. And the third was of an azure sky.
一切都和想象相异——相形于我的想象,这里的一切简直就让我吃惊。在这之前的几周里,只要想到巴巴多斯岛,萦绕脑际的不外乎三种恒定的意象,它们是我在阅读一本相关的宣传册和航空时刻表时开始构想并凝固成型的:其一是夕阳下挺立着棕榈树的海滩;其二是一处别墅式的酒店,从落地窗看过去,是铺着木质地板、有着洁白的亚麻床罩的房间;其三呢,则是湛蓝无云的天空。
 
注释
immobile:adj. 不动的, 不变的, 静止的
against:perp. 以...为背景, 与...对比, 与...对照
setting sun:夕阳, 残阳(千万不要从字面意思理解,那可就错了...)
French doors :(法式)玻璃落地门,也就是落地窗(French window)的意思
azure:adj. 天蓝色的, 蔚蓝的, 无云的, 晴空的
 
The present might be compared to a long-winded film from which memory and anticipation select photographic highlights. Of my nine-and-a-half-hour flight to the island, active memory retained only six or seven static images. Just one survives today: the in-flight tray. Of my experience at the airport, only an image of the passport line remained accessible. My layers of experience settled into a compact and well-defined narrative: I became a man who had flown in from London and checked into his hotel.
现实生活正像是缠绕在一起的长长的胶卷,我们的回忆和期待只不过是选择其中的精彩片段。在我飞往巴巴多斯岛长达九个半小时的旅程中,保存下来的记忆只不过六七个静止的画面。今天仍然留存的画面,便是飞行过程中支在座位上的小餐板。我在机场所有的经历,记忆中留存下来的也不过是手持护照等候审查入关的长长的队伍。我的各种经历已经压缩成一种清晰无误的叙述:我成了一位从伦敦飞来此岛并入住岛上酒店的旅客。
 
注释:
long-winded:adj. 冗长的
film:n. 胶卷, 胶片(这里可不是电影滴意思哦~)
highlight:n. 最好(或最精彩、最激动人心)的部份
static:adj. 静止的, 静态的, 停滞的
narrative:n. 叙述, 讲述