散文佳作108篇 第72期:Han Suyin's China 韓素音筆下的中國

韓素音筆下的中國

China: her size roughly that of Canada or the United States. Her population one billion onehundred million, 22 per cent of the planet's human beings.

中國面積大致相當(dāng)于加拿大或美國，人口11億，占全球人口的22%.

China: very young, 60 per cent of the Chinese under 25 years of age. Very old, millennia ofaccumulated and still potent history, pride of remembered greatness motivating her marchtowards the new technological era which is changing the world, and changing her.

中國非常年輕，60%的中國人年齡在25歲以下。中國又非常古老，具有數(shù)千年累積起來、現(xiàn)仍具有強(qiáng)大影響的歷史，對(duì)往昔文明鼎盛的自豪激勵(lì)著她邁步走向新技術(shù)時(shí)代。這個(gè)時(shí)代正在改變世界，改變中國。

China: her history not unitary, but made up of many histories; as she is made up of manydifferent peoples, altogether 56 nations. Yet she is a oneness, coherent, whole. THE GREATWITHIN.

中國的歷史并不是一部單一的歷史，而是由許多部歷史組成，因?yàn)橹袊怯稍S多不同的民族組成的——總共有56個(gè)民族。然而她卻是一個(gè)緊密完整的統(tǒng)一體。真是一個(gè)偉大的、自成一統(tǒng)的國家。

There is a China of the plains, easily travelled, a tourist delight. Here are the wealthiest, themost advanced metropolises: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou...fertilealluviallowlands which seem vast, yet are less than 15 per cent of her total territory. AndChina's arable, cultivable acres make up only seven per cent of the world's total acreage. Onthis she feeds almost a quarter of the world's people. A prodigious achievement!

中國的一部分地區(qū)是平原，旅行便利，為游覽勝地。這里有最富庶、最先進(jìn)的大都市：北京、天津、上海、南京、廣州……肥沃的沖積平原似乎廣闊無邊，而實(shí)際還不到總領(lǐng)土的15%。中國的耕地面積只占世界耕地總面積的7%。她憑這么少的耕地卻養(yǎng)活幾乎占世界人口四分之一的人，真是一個(gè)了不起的成就!

This China of the plains stretches from Manchuria to Hong Kong; most of it lies eastwards, witheasy access to the ocean. Here both urban and rural areas have greatly profited from therecent economic reforms. Most of the foreign investments, the special economic zones, the newindustrial plants,are sited here. Here are the skills, the manpower, the markets, thecommunication network. Most of the universities are also here, and more than 80 percent ofthe population. Prosperity is evident-over 60 per cent of new houses in the villages, over 20per cent of families with television installed in the last ten years, large new apartment houses forurban dwellers, modem hotels...

中國平原地區(qū)從滿洲里一直延伸到香港，多半位于東部，臨近海洋。新近的經(jīng)濟(jì)改革使這里城鄉(xiāng)地區(qū)都受惠匪淺。多數(shù)外資企業(yè)、經(jīng)濟(jì)特區(qū)、新興工廠都在這一地區(qū)。這里擁有先進(jìn)的技術(shù)、充足的人力、廣大的市場(chǎng)和發(fā)達(dá)的交通網(wǎng)絡(luò)。多數(shù)大學(xué)也在這里，還有這個(gè)國家。80%以上的人口。繁榮景象是顯而易見的——農(nóng)村60%以上的房屋是新建的，20%以上的家庭在過去十年中添置了電視機(jī)，城市居民住上了寬敞的新公寓，還有現(xiàn)代化的旅館……

But there is the other China, 85 per cent of the total surface of the land. This China is not easilyvisited, for communication is still a problem. It stretches in an immense bow fiom North toSouth, and in it live, besides the "typical" Chinese, who call themselves the Hans, fifty-oddother races or ethnic groups called "national minorities". These hark back to China's verybeginning. With them the Hans both warred and traded; co-existed, intermarried ostracized, fornearly 5,000 years.

但是中國還有另外一部分，占國土總面積的85%。中國的這一部分出入不便，因?yàn)榻煌ㄈ匀皇且粋€(gè)問題。它由北向南伸展，構(gòu)成一個(gè)巨大的弓形，其中除了自稱漢族的“典型”中國人之外，還居住著另外五十幾個(gè)民族或種族，稱為“少數(shù)民族”。這些少數(shù)民族早在中國形成之初就已存在。將近5，000年間，漢族和少數(shù)民族既有戰(zhàn)爭又有貿(mào)易，或與之共存，或與之通婚，或相互排斥。

This other China has many mountain ranges, thousand kilometre long chains stretching fromwest to east dividing the land into enclosed plateaus and basins whose rivers never reach anysea. It has many deserts; more than a million square kilometres of deserts-almost 15 per centof her total area of nine million six hundred thousand square kilometres. It has immensegrasslands and steppes, oases and salt lakes, jungles and troughs lower than the Dead SeamPalestine.

中國的這一部分有許多山脈，一座又一座綿亙千里，由西向東伸展，把土地分隔成一個(gè)個(gè)山巒環(huán)抱的高原和盆地，其中河流一向不通大海。這里有許多沙漠，沙漠面積有一百多萬平方公里——幾乎占國土總面積960萬平方公里的15%。還有一望無際的草地和大草原，有綠洲和鹽湖，有叢林和比巴勒斯坦死海還低的地槽。

This China we must lcnow in order really to know China. It is this conglomerate of manynations, mosaic of peoples, languages and customs, which shaped Chinese culture as we knowit today and it is in developing and modernising this area that her future lies.

我們要真正了解中國，就必須了解中國的這一地區(qū)。正是這個(gè)不同民族、語言、風(fēng)俗薈萃的多民族聚集體，才形成了今天我們所知道的中國文化。中國的未來就在于這一地區(qū)的發(fā)展和現(xiàn)代化。

North, Northwest, Southwest...for administraave purposes, this other China,nearly seven millionout of the nearly ten million square kilometres of the land,is conveniently divided into regions,each one holding several provinces. I have walked, ridden,jeeped, explored this China severaltimes in the course of the last three decades. I have leamt the local names of mountains,rivers,deserts; for everything here has two names, the Han Chinese name, and the name (ornames) given by the national minorities which inhabit the area.

中國的這一地區(qū)在將近1，000萬平方公里的國土中占了近700萬平方公里，為了行政管理方便劃分為華北、西北、西南……等幾個(gè)區(qū)域，每個(gè)區(qū)域各擁有若干省份。在過去30年中，我曾數(shù)次徒步、騎馬或乘吉普車考察過中國的這個(gè)地區(qū)。我學(xué)到了不少山脈、河流、沙漠的本地名稱，因?yàn)檫@里所有的東西都有兩個(gè)名稱，一個(gè)是漢名，，另一個(gè)是居住在當(dāng)?shù)氐纳贁?shù)民族給起的名稱。

Mountains: the majestic Altai, whence came thudding on thick-legged Mongol ponies so manynomad hordes. The Bogden or Heaven's mountain, sitting in vast skirts of their own crumbledstone. From their slopes flow streams feeding the oases strung along the rim of inlanddeserts. The Kunlun and the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Himalayas-here Mount Everest isiknown as Chomolungma.

山脈：有巍峨的阿爾泰山，當(dāng)初不知有多少游牧部落在那邊登上腿腳粗壯的蒙古馬，轟隆隆一路奔來;有博格多山，又稱天山，坐落在山崩地裂造成的廣闊地段，從山坡上淌下條條溪流，源源注入內(nèi)地沙漠邊緣上的一連串綠洲之中;還有昆侖山脈和喀喇昆侖山脈、帕米承山脈和喜馬拉雅山脈——這里把埃非爾士峰叫做珠穆朗瑪峰。

Deserts: the stone deserts of the Gobi and the Ordos, the Tanguli and Kurban Tungu and thedreadful Taklamakan.

沙漠：有戈壁灘和鄂爾多斯沙石灘，有騰格里沙漠和古爾班通古特沙漠，還有那令人生畏的塔克拉瑪干沙漠。

Plateaus and basins: Dzungaria and Tarim and Tsaidam, and the Roof of the World, theimmense plateau of Tibet.

高原和盆地：有準(zhǔn)噶爾盆地和塔里木盆地，有柴達(dá)木盆地，還有“世界屋脊”——遼闊的西藏高原。