旅行的艺术(节选一).docVIP

旅行的艺术(节选一) 　　The Art of Travel(《旅行的艺术》)是小编最近阅读到的绝佳的英文文学作品,其作者是去年11月号CR选摘的The Architecture of Happiness(《幸福的建筑》)一书的作者――“英伦才子”Alain de Botton(阿兰?德波顿)。这本书之所以能引起我的强烈共鸣,全因我也是个心怀“游遍世界”梦想的旅行爱好者,也经历着下文提到的“对旅行的期待幻灭”等种种烦心的问题。令我记忆忧新的是2007年夏天江南游的七天里,我每晚都躺在旅店陌生的床上细数这一天里的种种失落,感叹着――一切怎么都和书里、电视里、宣传册上描述的不同,左看右看,那些都不过是一座座和广州长得太过相似的现代化城市……我知道我需要一些指点,去更好地展开往后的每一段旅途,直到遇上这本书,我对旅行才有了更深的感悟。 　　好书当然要细细品味,尽管文字难度不低,但绝对值得“啃”!小编将会在CR上分两期(本期以及8月号)刊登这本书的部分精彩内容,欢迎大家关注哦! 　　――Lavender 　　 　　Chapter One: Departure 　　I On Anticipation 　　 　　If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest―in all its 1)ardour and paradoxes―than our travels. They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside the constraints of work and the struggle for survival. Yet rarely are they considered to present philosophical problems―that is, issues requiring thought beyond the practical. We are2)inundated with advice on where to travel to; we hear little of why and how we should go―though the art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what the Greek philosophers beautifully termed “eudaimonia”, or “human flourishing”. 　　 　　One question revolves around the relationship between the anticipation of travel and its reality. I came upon a copy of 3)J.-K. Huysmans’s novel A Rebours, published in 1884, whose 4)effete and5)misanthropic hero, the 6)aristocratic 7)Duc des Esseintes, anticipated a journey to London and offered in the process an extravagantly pessimistic analysis of the difference between what we imagine of a place and what can occur when we reach it. 　　 　　Huysmans recounts that the Duc des Esseintes lived alone in a vast villa on the outskirts of Paris. He rarely went anywhere to avoid what he took to be the ugliness and stupidity of others. One afternoon in his youth,