In Harlem (Excerpt)记游哈林区（节选）

【导读】蒋彝先生（1903—1977）一生极富传奇色彩。他曾于上世纪二三十年代在国内执教、从戎、出仕；而立之年，自费赴英游学，先后任教于英国的伦敦大学东方学院和美国的哥伦比亚大学、哈佛大学等。他曾自号 The Silent Traveller，撰写了一系列英文游记，在英语世界的游记文学中享有盛誉。蒋彝先生才高德馨，毕生以在国际传播弘扬中华文化为己任，晚年叶落归根，回到中国。2019年6月，牛津南荒原路（Southmoor Road）28号立起一块“蓝色牌匾”（Blue Plaque）以纪念他对中英两国文化的贡献。这使他成为继老舍、孙中山之后第三个获此殊荣的华人。

选篇摘自蒋彝先生1950年出版的游记The Silent Traveller in New York（《纽约画记》）第20篇“In Harlem”。文中通过对 Harlem 一词的谈论隐晦表达了该地的特殊性，也描摹出一个跨文化旅行者对所到之处从陌生到理解的奇妙过程。文章对哈林区街上人物着装风格、地铁站“艳遇”及西班牙餐厅里歌舞声色的描写生动传神，传递出鲜明的纽约文化气息。篇首引用的中国古诗文和由三道菜先后触发的对中国往事的回忆，反映出蒋彝先生始终不变的中国情怀。

“Men rarely reach one hundred years， yet always worry over things for a thousand，” wrote Li Po1 twelve hundred years ago. Do not his words apply equally to life to-day？ Very few of us ever achieve one hundred years of life， yet most of us behave as if we expected to live for a thousand. Perhaps people in New York do enjoy longer life than people in China， if one makes the comparison in terms of how much can be done in the same length of time. In New York I found myself doing a year’s work in a couple of days and taking a month’s pleasure in a few hours. When I visited Harlem on the evening of Easter Monday， I did in less than five hours more than I should have believed possible.

“生年不满百，常怀千岁忧。”一千二百年前的李白如此写道。这句诗不也同样适用于今天的生活吗？很少人能活到一百岁，然而多数人却表现得想活一千岁。如果从相同时间能做事情的多少来比较，纽约人或许真比中国人活得更长一些。在纽约，我发现自己几天里做了一年的工作，而几个小时能享受到一个月的乐趣。复活节后的周一晚上，我去哈林区游玩，不到五个小时，所做事情之多是我原本不能想象的。

I had been in America for several weeks before I discovered that the name Harlem was that of a part of Manhattan Island. It conveyed nothing special to me， as I have not the habit of attaching information to names. In fact， I had already silently travelled through the district both by day and in the evening， without realizing it. When I mentioned this casually to my new acquaintances， they said that I ought to be careful. Harlem then began to mean something to me. The name must surely come from Haarlem in Holland， but although Dutch relics are said to abound in New York， I saw none in Harlem. Perhaps I did not sufficiently know what to look for. Many of the houses have an almost uniform design. Shops and places of entertainment are practically identical with those in other parts of Manhattan， yet they struck me as different. On a Sunday morning I saw many folk， young and old， wearing what was obviously their best clothes， the men with fresh pink or red roses in their buttonholes. On another occasion I saw a long procession of men on their way to church， some in tail-coats， again with roses in their buttonholes， and beautifully-brushed black silk top hats. I liked those sights.

来美国几周后，我才发现原来“哈林区”是曼哈顿岛的一处地名。我不惯于望名生义，所以它对我倒也没什么特别的含义。事实上，不知不觉间，我已静默地游经这个地方，白天和夜晚都来过。当我和几个新结识的朋友不经意聊起这事，他们都告诉我要当心。“哈林区”于是对我有了一些含义。这个名字几乎可以肯定来自荷兰的哈勒姆镇。然而，虽然人们说荷兰人的遗迹在纽约比比皆是，但在哈林区我却从未见过。或许，对于所寻之物，我还不够了解。许多房屋设计得几乎一模一样。商店和娱乐场所与曼哈顿其他地方别无二致，但我总感到有些不同。一个周日的早晨，我看见老老少少许多人，明显穿着他们最好的衣服，男士们上衣钮扣孔里别着鲜艳的粉玫瑰或红玫瑰。还有一次，我看见一些男的排成长队往教堂走去，有的身着燕尾服，钮扣孔里同样别着玫瑰，头戴精美拉绒的黑色丝质高顶礼帽。我喜欢这样的画面。

Mr. William Allen asked me to meet him in the hall of the Grand Central Terminal in the evening of Easter Monday. I mingled with the crowds of non-silent travellers and red-caps， and was just being pushed into the arms of one of the gentler sex wearing an umbrella-like headgear which waved almost like a fan to cool me， when Mr. Allen dashed up exclaiming how sorry he was to be late; and indeed the big market underneath the subway line near one end of the Park Avenue， which he particularly wanted me to see， was closed when we got there. Mr. Allen was relieved when I told him I had visited this market the day before. There was not a soul to be seen outside and we had to rely for transport on our two pairs of legs. It was the quietest quarter I had encountered that day in New York. The twilight was throwing bluish-tints on the houses and streets， and I could not see clearly the places of interest Mr. Allen pointed out.

威廉·艾伦先生让我在复活节后的周一晚上到纽约大中央车站的大厅与他会面。我混在喧闹的旅客和车站搬运工中间，眼看就要被人流推到一个红粉丽人的怀里，只见她头戴伞样的帽子，摇曳之际，那帽子活像一把为我降温的扇子。就在这时，艾伦先生突然冲到我面前，大声地为他的迟到道歉。果不其然，当我们走到那个他特别想我看看的大市场——就在靠近公园大道一端的地铁下面，那里已经打烊了。我告诉艾伦先生，前一天我已经看过这个市场，他这才感觉好受些。外面的街上一个人影也没有，我们两人只能靠自己的双腿作为交通工具。这是那天我在纽约路过的最安静的街区。暮色把房屋和街道染上了一层黛蓝，使我分辨不清艾伦先生指给我的那些名胜。

He was interested in everything exotic， so we entered the Royal Restaurant， at the north end of Fifth Avenue. I remembered having enjoyed Spanish cooking in a Spanish restaurant in Soho， London， but on those occasions I could read the menu and converse with the manager and waiters in English： here the menu was printed in Spanish and the waiter， with his squarish face， jet-black hair and tiny black moustache， spoke only Spanish. Mr. Allen began to talk to him and ordered the dishes. Before the food was ready， he told me about the quaint arrangements inside this restaurant. “Here is South America，” he said， “here is Mexico， the Argentine， Spain. Why do people want to spend a lot of money going to Mexico or the Argentine when they have these countries right here？” He seemed genuinely distressed at what he considered the obtuseness of his fellow New Yorkers， and talked on like a waterfall. The only thing I asked was why the restaurant should be called Royal， but that he did not seem to know.