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1、 THE LIBIDO FOR THE UGLY1、 On a Winter day some years ago, coming out of Pittsburgh on one of the expresses of the Pennsylvania Railroad, I rolled eastward for an hour through the coal and steel towns of Westmoreland county. 几年前的一个冬日，我乘坐宾夕法尼亚铁路公司的一班快车离开匹兹堡，向东行驶一小时，穿越了威斯特摩兰县的煤城和钢都。It was familiar gro
2、und; boy and man, I had been through it often before. But somehow I had never quite sensed its appalling desolation. 这是我熟悉的地方，无论是童年时期还是成年时期，我常常经过这一带。但以前我从来没有感到这地方荒凉得这么可怕。Here was the very heart of industrial America, the center of its most lucrative and characteristic activity, the boast and pride o
3、f the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth-and here was a scene so dreadfully hideous so intolerably bleak and forlorn that it reduced the whole aspiration of man to a macabre and depressing joke. 这儿正是工业化美国的心脏，是其最赚钱、最典型活动的中心，世界上最富裕、最伟大的国家的自豪和骄傲然而这儿的景象却又丑陋得这样可怕，凄凉悲惨得这么令人无法忍受，以致人的抱负和壮志在这儿成了令
4、人毛骨悚然的、令人沮丧的笑料。Here was wealth beyond computation, almost beyond imagination-and here were human habitations so abominable令人憎恶的 that they would have disgraced a race of alley cats. 这儿的财富多得无法计算，简直都无法想象也是在这儿，人们的居住条件又是如此之糟，连那些流浪街头的野猫也为之害羞。2、 I am not speaking of mere filth. One expects steel towns to b
5、e dirty. 我说的不仅仅是脏。钢铁城镇的脏是人们意料之中的事。What I allude to is the unbroken and agonizing ugliness, the sheer revoltingmonstrousness of every house in sight. 我指的是所看到的房子没有一幢不是丑陋得令人难受，畸形古怪得让人作呕的。From East Liberty to Greensburg, a distance of twenty-five miles, there was not one in sight from the train that did
6、 not insult and lacerate the eye. 从东自由镇到格林斯堡，在这全长25英里的路上，从火车上看去，没有一幢房子不让人看了感到眼睛不舒服和难受。Some were so bad, and they were among the most pretentiouschurches, stores, warehouses, and the likethat they were downright startling; one blinked before them as one blinks before a man with his face shot away. 有的
7、房子糟糕得吓人，但这些房子竟然还是一些最重要的建筑教堂、商店、仓库等。人们惊愕地看着这些房子，就像是看见一个脸给子弹崩掉的人一样。A few linger in memory, horrible even there: a crazy little church just west of Jeannette, set like a dormer-window on the side of a bare, leprous hill; 的留在记忆里，甚至回忆起来也是可怕的：珍尼特西面的一所样子稀奇古怪的小教堂，就像一扇老虎窗贴在一面光秃秃的、似有麻风散鳞的山坡上；the headquarters
8、of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at another forlorn town, a steel stadium like a huge rat-trap somewhere further down the line. 参加过国外战争的退伍军人总部，设在珍尼特过去不远的另一个凄凉的小镇上。有沿铁路线向东不远处的一座钢架，就像一个巨大的捕鼠器。But most of all I recall the general effectof hideousness without a break. There was not a single decent house
9、within eyerange from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the Greensburg yards. There was not one that was not misshapen, and there was not one that was not shabby. 但我回忆里出现的 三要还是一个总的印象连绵不断的丑陋。从匹兹堡到格林斯 堡火车调车场，放眼望去，没有一幢像样的房子。没有一幢不是歪歪扭扭的，没有一幢不是破破烂烂的。3、 The country itself is not uncomely despite the grime of the e
10、ndless mills. 尽管到处是林立的工厂，遍地弥漫着烟尘，这一地区的自然 霉仟并不差。It is, in form, a narrow river valley, with deep gullies running up into the hills. It is thickly settled, but not noticeably overcrowded. There is still plenty of room for building, even in the larger towns, and there are very few solid blocks. Nearly
11、every house, big and little, has space on all four sides. 就地形而论，这儿是一条狭窄的河谷，其中流淌着一道道发源自山间的深溪。这儿的人口虽然稠密，但并无过分拥挤的 迹象，即使在一些较大的城镇中，建筑方面也还大有发展的余地。这儿很少见到有高密度排列的建筑楼群，几乎每一幢房屋，无论 大小，其四周都还有剩余的空地。Obviously, if there were architects of any professional sense or dignity in the region, they would have perfected a
12、chalet to hug the hillsidesa chalet with a high-pitched root to throw off the heavy Winter snows, but still essentially a low and clinging building, wider than it was tall.显然，如果这一地区有几个稍有职业责任感或荣誉感的建筑师的话，他们准会紧依山坡建造一些美观雅致的瑞士式山地小木屋一种有着便于冬季排除积雪的陡坡屋顶，宽度大于高度，依山而建的低矮的小木屋。 But what have they done? They have
13、taken as their model a brick set on end .This they have converted into a thing of dingy clapboards, with a narrow, low-pitched roof. And the whole they have set upon thin, preposterous brick piers.可是，他们实际上是怎么做的呢?他们把直立的砖块作为造房的模式，造出了一种用肮脏的护墙板围成的不伦不类的房屋，屋顶又窄又平，而且整个地安放在一些单薄的、奇形怪状的砖垛上。 By the hundreds an
14、d thousands these abominable houses cover the bare hillsides, like gravestones in some gigantic and decaying cemetery on their deep sides they are three, four and even five stories high; on their low sides they bury themselves swinishly in the mud. 这种丑陋不堪的房屋成百上千地遍布于一个个光秃秃的山坡上，就像是一些墓碑竖立在广阔荒凉的坟场上。这些房屋
15、高的一侧约有三四层，甚至五层楼高，而低的一侧看去却像一群埋在烂泥潭里的猪猡。Not a fifth of them are perpendicular. They lean this way and that, hanging on to their bases precariously. And one and all they are streaked in grime, with dead and eczematous patches of paint peeping through the streaks.垂直式的房屋不到五分之一，大部分房屋都是那样东倒西歪，摇摇欲坠地固定在地基上。每
16、幢房屋上都积有一道道的尘垢印痕，而那一道道 垢痕的间隙中，还隐隐约约露出一些像湿疹痂一样的油漆斑痕。4、 Now and then there is a house of brick. But what brick! When it is new it is the color of a fried egg. When it has taken on the patina of the mills it is the color of an egg long past all hope or caring. 偶尔也可以看到一幢砖房，可那叫什么砖啊!新建的时候，它的颜色像油煎鸡蛋，然而一经工厂排放出来的烟尘熏染，蒙上一层绿锈时，它的颜色便像那早已无人问津的臭蛋一样。Was it necessary to adopt that shocking color? No more than it was necessary to set all of the hou
