旅游英語(yǔ)：麗江 美不勝收的人間仙境

Deep in the far northwest of China’s Yunnan Pro-vince lies an ancient town.

The inhabitants of this remote region are primarily Naxi (Narshi), the descendants of Tibetan nomads. This is immediately recognizable as their faces are rather oblong-shaped and their skin is tanned and weathered from the extremes of temperature experienced at an altitude of 3,000 metres. Their kinship system is matriarchal making the women visible on the streets of the ancient town as they attend to daily activities and chores.

When I left Kunming for Dali I had two days maximum to spare. Dali was nice, with fantastic mountain-scapes and incredibly picturesque scenery, yet it seemed to be lacking something. Its innocence had gone, a resistance to Western and modern ways had not succeeded — it lacked isolation. I had heard of, and had seen a documentary on Lijiang before I left for China but I did not think I could get there because I was already covering such a large distance in a mere two weeks. As the urge to make the six hour bus trip between Dali and Lijiang grew, I found through inquisition that it was possible to fly back from Lijiang to Kunming, therefore saving 24 hours of bone-jarring bus time. This clinched it for me!

在中國(guó)云南省的西南部，座落著一個(gè)古老的小鎮(zhèn)。

這個(gè)偏遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)的居民，最初是納西族，他們是藏族游牧部落的后代。這一點(diǎn)通過(guò)他們方形的臉龐和皮膚就能夠判斷出來(lái)，他們的皮膚受到海拔3,000米的溫度的影響，變成棕褐色，并且飽經(jīng)風(fēng)霜。他們還屬于母系社會(huì)，在這個(gè)古鎮(zhèn)的路上可以看到婦女參加日?；顒?dòng)和處理家務(wù)雜事。

離開昆明去大理時(shí)，我最多有兩天時(shí)間。大理非常美，有奇異的山脈和美不勝收的風(fēng)景。但是，它好像缺少些什么。它的那種純潔已經(jīng)沒有了，對(duì)西方和現(xiàn)代生活方式的對(duì)抗沒有得到延續(xù)，從而缺少一種隔絕感。來(lái)中國(guó)之前，我曾經(jīng)聽說(shuō)并讀過(guò)一篇關(guān)于麗江的文章，但我沒想到自己能夠來(lái)這里，因?yàn)檫@一周我已經(jīng)走了很遠(yuǎn)的距離。然而從大理乘六個(gè)小時(shí)的車到麗江的想法不斷萌生，我發(fā)現(xiàn)可以從麗江飛回昆明，這樣可以節(jié)省24個(gè)小時(shí)顛簸的乘車時(shí)間。因此，我就決定來(lái)了麗江。

Lijiang is half new town and half old town. The new town is simply another dusty Chinese city, the old town is where backpackers congregate and the increasingly ubiquitous tour passes. The old town sits quite apart from the new, with no cars, trucks, nor motorbikes, and only the occasional pushbike is led through the old town’s stony pedestrian streets.

Yellow Hill Section is the name of the side of the mountain on which the town rests, and directly opposite this at 5,500 metres, just 30 kilometres away, is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Its stunning peak is annually snow-covered and on a clear blue-sky day, like the day I arrived, you can’t help but think that you have died and gone to heaven.

As you make it past the entrance of Lijiang’s old town, you immediately get an overwhelming feeling of historical significance as your eyes absorb the 1,000 year-old cobbled streets and the ancient wooden and stone houses. As you watch the minority culture of the Naxi pass-by with produce and babies strapped to the women’s backs, their dress is completely traditional and each one’s face tells a thousand stories.

麗江是一個(gè)半新半舊的小城。新城只不過(guò)是另外一個(gè)塵土飛揚(yáng)的中國(guó)小城，而古城里則聚集了各種背包旅行的人，游客團(tuán)隨處可見，且日益增多。古城與新城截然分開，這里沒有汽車、卡車，甚至也沒有摩托車，只是偶爾有自行車行進(jìn)在這個(gè)古鎮(zhèn)的石頭路上。

黃山區(qū)是由黃山得名，小城就座落在這座山上，正對(duì)面大約5,500米，30公里的地方，就是玉龍雪山。山頂常年積雪，如果能遇到像我來(lái)時(shí)這樣蔚藍(lán)的天空，你禁不住會(huì)以為自己已經(jīng)升天，來(lái)到了天堂。

走進(jìn)麗江古城，映入眼簾的是有千年歷史的鵝卵石街道和古老的木制或石頭結(jié)構(gòu)的房子，這時(shí)你會(huì)感覺到這里深厚的歷史底蘊(yùn)。你會(huì)看到納西族人背上背著農(nóng)產(chǎn)品或孩子，穿著傳統(tǒng)的服飾，每個(gè)人臉上都仿佛蘊(yùn)含著千萬(wàn)個(gè)故事。

The Naxi women wear blue blouses and trousers covered by blue or black aprons. The T-shaped traditional cape not only stops the wicker basket always worn on the back from chaffing, but also symbolizes the heavens. Day and night are represented by the light and dark halves of the cape; seven embroidered circles symbolize the stars. Two larger circles, one on each shoulder, are there to depict the eyes of a frog, which until the 15th Century was an important God to the Naxi. With the decline in animist beliefs the frog’s eyes fell out of fashion, but the Naxi still call the cape by its original name: frog-eye goatskin.

The Naxi also created a written language over 1,000 years ago using an extraordinary system of pictographs, or Naxi hieroglyphics. The most famous Naxi text is the Dongba classic. The Creation and ancient copies of it and other texts can still be found in Lijiang. There are also some copies in the archives of United States universities. Dongba were Naxi shamans who were the caretakers of the written language and mediators between the Naxi themselves and the spirit world.

納西族婦女穿的是藍(lán)色的上衣和褲子，外面是藍(lán)色或黑色的圍裙。T字形的傳統(tǒng)斗篷，不僅可以使背上的柳條籃不至于漏，而且它還代表著天。白天和黑夜在斗篷上，由亮點(diǎn)和暗點(diǎn)表示。七個(gè)繡的圓環(huán)代表星星。在兩邊肩膀上各有一個(gè)大的圓環(huán)，用于表示青蛙的眼睛。青蛙自15世紀(jì)開始，便成為納西族最偉大的神明。隨著有神論的衰落，青蛙的眼睛已經(jīng)不再流行，但是納西族人依然稱他們的斗篷為：青蛙眼睛山羊皮。

納西族在1,000多年前就創(chuàng)造了書面語(yǔ)言。他們使用一種特殊的象形文字，或者叫做納西象形文字。最著名的納西文獻(xiàn)是《東巴經(jīng)》。這一文獻(xiàn)以及其他文獻(xiàn)的原創(chuàng)版本和古版本在麗江依然能夠見到。在美國(guó)大學(xué)的檔案室也有一些副本。東巴是納西的巫師，他們是當(dāng)時(shí)書面語(yǔ)言的管理者，也是納西族人與神靈世界的中保。

I met a modern day Dongba by the name of Yang Mingyi from Lower Yellow Hill Section in Lijiang’s old town’s residential area. A man who is somewhere between 80 and 90 years of age and who is a ball of energy and exuberance as he energetically shows foreign guests his collection of translations of Naxi poetry and propheticism, which has all made him something of a star in Lijiang. He gave me a transcript of his account of the 1996 February earthquake that damaged a significant part of Lijiang’s old town.

The transcript is written in Chinese, Naxi and English. On the Richter Scale the quake measured a whopping 7.2 yet Yang Mingyi writes, “earthquakes cannot push down Lijiang. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain still rises above the clouds. The United Nations have approved and evaluated the rebuilding of Lijiang, such an ancient town with its historic buildings and culture, it’s rare in the world”, signed Yang Mingyi, Naxi Race. The Naxi pictographs tell most simply and, in part, vaguely, the story of the earthquake. Nevertheless, Yang Mingyi is a master of language, whose wisdom will be lost as modern times encroach on a culture once so pure.

我遇到過(guò)一位現(xiàn)代的東巴，他的名字叫楊明毅，來(lái)自黃山區(qū)麗江古城的居民區(qū)。他約有八九十歲了，但精神依舊飽滿，身體很健康。他興致勃勃地向外國(guó)游客展示了自己收藏的納西詩(shī)歌和預(yù)言的翻譯文本，這已經(jīng)使他成為麗江的名人了。他送給我一份他對(duì)1996年2月地震的記錄的副本。那場(chǎng)地震破壞了麗江古城的大部分。

這個(gè)副本分別由漢語(yǔ)、納西語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)所寫成。盡管地震的強(qiáng)度達(dá)到了里克特震級(jí)7.2級(jí)，但是楊明毅寫道：“地震無(wú)法毀掉麗江。玉龍雪山依然直插云霄。聯(lián)合國(guó)已經(jīng)批準(zhǔn)了麗江的重建工作，并對(duì)其進(jìn)行了估量。麗江這樣一個(gè)擁有眾多歷史建筑和悠久文化的古城在世界上都是非常罕見的。”署名為納西族楊明毅。納西族的象形文字非常簡(jiǎn)單地對(duì)地震經(jīng)過(guò)做了大概的部分?jǐn)⑹?。然而，楊明毅是一位語(yǔ)言大師，隨著現(xiàn)代社會(huì)對(duì)純正的傳統(tǒng)文化的蠶食，他的智慧也將被淹沒。

The ancient town of Lijiang is a most wonderful sight. As you wake in the morning it is all quiet bar the chatter of two Naxi women, or perhaps it’s the morning market I can hear coming to life? Breaking the peacefulness, all of which stands in great contrast to many other places in China where you wake to the traffic, the fumes, and the continual honking of car horns.

As you wander from your guesthouse you dream of a time long before as the history of the streets, the trickle of the water in the moat, and the ancient houses and walls together envelope you. With the morning mist rising, and as sparkles of sunlight push the cold, crisp mountain air away you could truly believe that peace is at hand.

It was with great regret that so soon my time was up, and there was never a place during my travels that I wished I could have stayed longer than the ancient Naxi town of Lijiang.

麗江古城是最著名的名勝。當(dāng)你清晨醒來(lái)的時(shí)候，外面一片寂靜，只有納西婦女的談話聲，或是早市開始忙活了。而在中國(guó)其他地方，當(dāng)你醒來(lái)時(shí)，打破寂靜的往往是那些嘈雜的人群、難聞的氣味，以及汽車不停的喇叭聲。

當(dāng)你走出旅館，漫步在街上的時(shí)候，街道的歷史氣味，護(hù)城河流水的聲音，還有周圍的房屋和城墻一齊向你撲來(lái)，使你感覺仿佛回到了從前。隨著晨霧慢慢升起，陽(yáng)光驅(qū)走了寒冷，清爽的山間空氣，使你能夠真正感覺到平靜就在身邊。

真希望時(shí)間能夠過(guò)得慢一點(diǎn)。在我的旅途中，除了納西族的麗江古城，還沒有一個(gè)地方能使我留連忘返。