Susan著 小哭译
在我开始研究匹兹堡之前，我自信满满地以为会找到许多历史上有趣的地方去参观。我爸爸只计划了一个粗略的匹兹堡观光游，所以我确信我能制定一个更令人激动的匹兹堡城市观光游。然而……现在，我不确定了。我在网上浏览了挺长一段时间了，所有我能找到的景点都是门票不便宜的（但是很酷）博物馆和乏味的动物园及水族馆（我说乏味，是因为你在任何地方都可以参观动物园或水族馆，所以在匹兹堡去参观这些就很蠢）之类。我开始想，我爸爸的主意不错——只是开车经过匹兹堡，然后简单地游览一下城市。不管怎么样，我还是想谈谈位于匹兹堡的一个非常有趣儿的地方，虽然可能要花不少钱。
床垫工厂艺术博物馆
这个地方实际上是一个博物馆，它与床垫制造没有一点关系。它得名于所在大楼座落的位置——一个前斯特恩斯&福斯特公司的床垫仓库。当那个地方成为一个博物馆后，负责人做了一些调研，发现每个人都将那里叫做床垫工厂，于是他们决定，就将博物馆命名为“床垫工厂”好了。这太有创意了！我真是喜欢这个名字，又短又有特色，还容易记。
床垫工厂是一个当代艺术博物馆。“当代”是“现代”的同意词，但是根据艺术家的观点，当代艺术和现代艺术是不同的。对于未受过训练的参观者（如我），我指不出来它们的区别。我所知道的全部就是那是在现阶段被发明的一种艺术。我不是艺术博物馆的狂热粉丝，但是这个博物馆确实相当酷。它的展览不是仅仅挂在墙上的一些图片和绘画。它们是你可以走进去的那种实实在在的展览！
床垫工厂将其永久性的展览融进了它的建筑风格里，并将永久地保存在那里。那有一些很酷的展厅，大小尺寸如房间一般，视角独特，特征鲜明。例如：无穷点镜像（见图）。它是一个小房间，里面有几个（塑料的？大理石的？我不确定）人的雕像，地面上排列着一些红橙色的点点，这些点点的大小从手掌大小到比头还大的都有。仅有这些并不酷，事实上，真正酷的，是房间的墙上全是镜子！房间的墙实际上就是由镜子构成的！因此产生了房间可以延伸到很远很远的效果，同时也产生了点点的数量多到无穷（这就是名字的得来）的效果。太酷了，对吗？！所以，当你走进到小房间里站好、将镜子门关上时，就会觉得你正站在一个被点和雕像充满着的巨大的大厅里！
这个艺术家在其它的地方也做了几个别的无穷点镜像的房间，各自有着不同的主题（看上面有更多黄色的那个图片）。我无法想像站在这样的一个房间里会像什么。太酷了！创造这些镜像的艺术家，靠做这件事儿来对付她在图案和重复方面的幻觉。她说她有时会产生随机的幻觉，而创建这些超现实的展览可以帮助她复制那些幻觉。真是太不可思议了。
床垫工厂还有其它的展览，比如充满了身体部件（塑料的）的恐怖房间。脑袋躺在家俱上面，胳膊和脚吊在墙上……令人毛骨悚然。那还有一个这样的房间，挂满了吊在从天棚垂下来的丝线上、用筷子和橡皮筋制成的怪诞的几何形状。每当看到这些照片，我都有一种去摇一摇它们的冲动，想看看会发生什么。当然，我不能，因为那些形状远在匹兹堡，离芝加哥还有500英里的距离呢。
我不确定在匹兹堡参观什么特色的地方好。这个床垫工厂的门票是15美元。还有卡内基艺术博物馆看起来也很有趣儿，它比床垫工厂更大更专业，但是门票也很贵。还有动物园和水上公园，可是所有的这些都有不少的花费。所以现在，我已经决定，让爸爸去出在匹兹堡参观的方案吧。
继续。既然匹兹堡提供不了多少可写的东西，我就去研究费城好了。费城可是有太多好玩的地方去参观了。其中最重要的是——独立钟。虽然只是一个钟会很枯燥，但那是一个很重要的景点，因为它太著名了。还有，了解了独立钟背后的故事后，这个钟看起来已经一点也不枯燥了！
独立钟
独立钟的起源跟任何一口老钟一样。它是铸铁的，被安放在现今被称为独立大厅（在宾夕法尼亚州，费城）的教堂的塔尖儿上，用来提醒公众有通告发布什么的。有一天，有人想测试一下钟的声音，就“呯”的敲了一下。结果，伴随着第一次敲击而来的，是它开裂了。太差劲儿了。
等等！但是什么都没有丢！两个本地的创始人，约翰.岶斯和约翰.斯顿，提出来重铸这口钟。他们没有经验，可能还犯了一个错误，因为几乎一个世纪之后，这个钟又裂了。这次开裂大概发生于1817-1845年间吧，没有人确切地知道是什么时候或者具体是怎么开裂的。我猜是有人敲了它一下，它就又裂了。关于它是怎么裂的，有很多的故事，但是没有一个故事能够拿出来确凿的证据。这个钟后来被收起来了，之后又被当做独立的象征给拿出来展览了。1948年，它的监护权转到了政府手中，随之而来的还有独立大厅和其它的一些殖民特色的建筑物。后来，国家政府将其做为国家公园管理处的一部分，从那以后，事情就变了。它成为了一个著名的浏览胜地，也是独立纪念国家历史公园的一部分。
独立钟因为讲故事高手为了令人兴奋而编造的那些好玩儿的传说而闻名。其中一个故事说，1776年7月4日，一个人坐在独立大厅的一口钟（假设是独立钟）旁边，不知道国会会不会宣布独立。过了一会儿，来了一个送信的男孩，告诉他去敲钟（假设意味着独立宣言被签署了）。这明显是一个虚构的故事，有背于大众普遍接受的说法——在独立宣言签署时，独立钟并没有敲响。独立钟只是在向公众宣布通告的时候才会响，而7月4号签署独立宣言的消息，当时并没有马上向公众宣布，事实上， 这一消息是在7月8日才宣布的。所以一般都认为，独立钟是8日才敲响的，除非它那会坏了响不了。这个独立钟跟其它的钟没什么两样儿，就是后面有一些更有趣儿的故事而已。因为人们为独立钟杜撰了很多有趣儿的故事，所以就使它变得很出名了。
这个钟让我感兴趣的地方是裂纹。这实际上是一个长裂纹，从边缘直到到顶部。然而，大而宽的部分只上到了一半儿的地方，剩下的，只是钟的内部一个极微小的细纹。还有，让我惊奇的是它这么多年竟然能够在底座上待得好好，没有剥落下来。了解了这么多关于独立钟的故事后，我现在确实很想去参观它了。
费城还有其它一些地方非常地酷，值得一游，象是独立大厅和历史上的费城中心。噢，还有一个非常酷的博物馆叫作“请摸我”。与不能摸的规矩相反，这个儿童博物馆邀请孩子们去摸，和展览互动。我真的很想带我的小弟弟去那儿，但是对于非会员，一岁以上的门票就要16美元。而观看独立钟则是免费的，所以还是看独立钟挺好。还有一个个人的原因让我想去看独立钟——这里也是我最喜欢的一个电影“国宝”的拍摄的现场。“国宝”真是一部了不起的电影，顺便说一下，我强烈地推荐它。
现在我很期待这趟旅行，如能参观所有这些精彩的地方，那真是太棒了！
【小哭介绍背景】翻译这篇文章的时间也比我预计的要长！译着译着，我就把独立钟写成自由钟了，怎么回事呢？上网一查，原来这钟就是有两个名字的!!都对，都行。 怪不得我觉得哪个都似乎正确呢！那个独立大厅，网上也有译成“独立宫”的，我怎么觉得“宫”字挺别扭呢？
挺喜欢Susan介绍的“床垫工厂”，她这人对有创意的东西特别地欣赏，要不是翻译她的文章，我还真的没有这么细细地体会过她的感受呢。翻译之前，我一点也没有想到过翻译过程会加深我对Susan的了解，但是，确实加深了不少。现在还没有翻译完，我都想写一篇翻译感言了。
Susan文章中提到的匹兹堡和费城，都让我不由自主地想起了心桥。出发第一天，上路两个半小时后，在南弯机场取行李处和心桥相见！那粉丝见偶像的感觉呀，伴随着心桥对粉丝飘飘长发的夸奖，真是美上了天。Susan很快地就把她的暑假文集拿出来给心桥过目，当然收获了心桥的大大夸奖！同时收获的还有心桥送给Susan的一件件爱心小礼物！过后心桥强烈建议，先翻译Susan作文中的学校部分，但是我坚持把这个系列译完。另一个强烈的建议，就是让小哭马上换文轩的头像！说是没有反映出来本人的真实面目：）其实“小哭”只是我的小名，是我小时候爱哭时得的外号，现在的我和哭没啥关系，我是一个相当开朗的人。
很快地我们就离开了机场，继续东行，当晚入住匹兹堡，电脑中当天照片的文件夹的名字是“见心桥+匹兹堡”，所以，心桥就被我跟匹兹堡联系上了，哈哈～～～～
离开华盛顿后，我们去费城参观。这是心桥曾经奋斗过的地方，没有办法不联系上心桥了。不过，我们的时间有限，除了参观了一个收费的博物馆，就是参观一下免费的独立钟了。关于钟的介绍，我觉得Susan小文已经没少写了，足够了。发现Susan这几篇文章的写作风格，跟我的桥梁文化科普系列有得一拼，很科普的调子呢？要是她三十岁的时候再去写这种文章，估计比小哭我得强老了鼻子去了吧（东北话）？
初读Susan这篇文章的时候，我就记得她老是说参观要买门票要花钱，没有钱买票什么的。唉，真是难为她了。穷养、富养，她小的时候我们也富养过她，现在不得不穷养她了。要说变化，也是有的。她以前在国内上学从来不曾珍惜过文具。刚上一年级的时候，每天五根铅笔上学，放学能拿回来一半就不错了，我就不明白日复一日，那么多的铅笔都哪去了?! 后来听她说，天天跟同桌比赛掰铅笔，看谁劲儿大掰的多！现在多好，她再提花钱多的要求，要想一想才行了。我毫不怀疑有一天她自己挣钱了，会赶紧爽一把。可是，从小养成不乱花钱的习惯，总不是什么坏事儿。初来美国时，她跟心桥家的老二类似，钱包里有钱就得花掉，绝对是和钱有仇，理由还很充分：钱不花，那要钱干什么呢?!现在她养成了另一个习惯，一到要花钱的时候，马上问：“多少钱？贵不贵？妈妈你有没有这么多钱？”挺好。
我小时候家里也挺穷的，上学的时候也没有多少零用钱。结婚后也特别地穷，两个博士苦了好几年才熬到上班经济独立。不想翻身得太快了，后来的高消费让我自己都惊讶于人是多么地难以抗拒物质上的享受。但是，不管在外面享受过什么，我从来也没有忘记过曾经清贫的生活。所以，等到在美国当起了全职主妇，靠着老公给教授打工挣的工资养着四口之家、而国内的信用卡也全部过期了之时，因为没拿到绿卡还不想回国的情况下，那种再次面对经济超级拮据的日子，我也过得无畏无惧。当时，最能安慰自己的是一个网友跟我说的一句话：你再穷再苦，也可以在家照顾孩子，也没有不得不到外面去端盘子，你的日子没你以为的苦！所以，后来在万维上看那些回忆录，特别地关注那些出国从端盘子干起的生活。心想，在美国重操旧业是没多少可能了，有朝一日，实在不行，就出去端盘子吧。先把端盘子的行情在网上踩好！春山如笑的“老牛和他的妻”，我一直在跟读，就是想，要是重新开始，我得弄点餐馆打工的经验再去付诸行动才行啊！
附上英文原文：
Before I started my research about Pittsburgh, I was confident that I would find lots of historically interesting places to visit. My dad only planned a general Pittsburgh tour, and I was sure that I would be able to plan a way more exciting tour of that city. However…… now, I’m not so sure. I browsed around online for a long time, and all I’ve been able to find are expensive (but cool) museums and boring zoos and aquariums (I say boring, because you can visit a zoo or aquarium anywhere, so it’s stupid to visit them in Pittsburgh). I’m starting to think that my dad has the right idea, with just driving around Pittsburgh and touring the city in general. However, I would still like to talk about one place in Pittsburgh that is especially interesting, though it may cost a lot.
The Mattress Factory Art Museum
This place is actually an art museum, and it has nothing to do with mattress making. It got its name from the building it is located in: a former Stearns & Foster mattress warehouse. When that place became a museum, the museum directors did some research, and found out that everyone calls it the mattress factory, so they decided to just make the name be “The Mattress Factory”. That’s pretty creative! I really like the name, because it’s short and unique, and easily remembered.
The Mattress Factory is a contemporary art museum. “Contemporary” is a synonym for “modern”, but according to art specialists, contemporary art and modern art are different. To the untrained observers (like me), I haven’t been able to figure out the difference. All I know is that it’s a type of art that was invented during this present time period. I’m not a big fan of art museums, but this museum is pretty cool. Its exhibits are not just pictures and painting hanging on the walls. They’re actual exhibits you can walk into!
The permanent exhibits at the Mattress Factory are built into its architecture, and will remain there forever. They are big, room-sized exhibits that feature really cool and unique views. Example: the Infinity Dots Mirrored (see picture). It’s a small room with a few (plastic? Marble? I’m not sure) statues of people in it, covered by reddish orange dots ranging from the size of your palm to bigger than your head. That’s not the cool part, though. The cool part is, the walls are covered with mirrors. Actually, the walls are made out of mirrors! That creates the effect that the room goes on forever, and also the effect that there are infinity dots (thus the name). So cool, right?! So, when you go and stand in the small room and close the mirrored door, it feels like you’re standing in a HUGE hall that is covered with dots and statues!
The artist who did this also did a few other Infinity Dots Mirrored rooms at other places, with different themes (see the other, more yellow picture above).I can’t imagine what it would be like to stand in one of those rooms. So cool! The artist who created these did it as a way to deal with her obsession with patterns and repetition. She said that she sometimes would get random hallucinations, and creating these surreal exhibits helped her cope with that. It’s pretty amazing.
There are other exhibits in the mattress factory, such as a scary room full of body parts (plastic). Heads lying around on the furniture, arms and feet hanging on the walls… it’s creepy. There’s also this other room that has weird geometric shapes made out of chopsticks and rubber bands, dangling from strings from the ceiling. Every time I see that picture, I have the irresistible urge to swing them and see what happens. Of course, I can’t, since those shapes are way out in Pittsburgh, while I’m 500 miles away in Chicago.
I’m not sure what specific places are good to visit in Pittsburgh. The Mattress Factory cost about $ 15 to get into. There’s this Carnegie Museum of Art that look interesting, and is way bigger and more professional than the Mattress Factory, but it also has a very expensive ticket price. There are zoos and water parks, but all of those cost a lot too, so now, I’ve decided I’ll just leave the Pittsburgh planning to my dad!
Moving on. Since Pittsburgh didn’t offer many opportunities for me to write about, I moved on to search about Philadelphia. There were much more fun places to visit in Philadelphia. The most important: The Liberty Bell. Though just a bell might be boring, it’s an important place to visit because it’s so famous. Also, after learning about the story behind the bell, it doesn’t seem as boring anymore!
The Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell started out like any old bell. It was casted, it was mounted on the steeple of what is now known as Independence Hall (In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) to alert the public to announcements, and one day, it was struck by a clapper to test the sound of the bell. And, upon that first strike, it cracked. Pretty lame.
Wait! But all is not lost! Two local founders, John Pass and John Stow, offered to recast the bell. They were inexperienced, and probably made a mistake, because almost a century later, the bell cracked again. Sometime around 1817-1845, nobody knows exactly when or how. My guess is that someone struck it and it cracked again. There are many stories about how it was cracked, but none of them have solid evidence supporting them. The bell was them stored away, and then brought back out again for display to the public as a symbol of liberty. In 1948, its custody got transferred to the government, along with Independence hall and some other colonial buildings. Later, the national government made it part of the National Park Service, and things progressed from there, until it became a famous tourist attraction and a part of the Independence National Historical Park.
The bell became famous through stories and tales told by master storyteller that were, for all their excitement and fun, fake. One such story told of a man sitting by a bell in Independence Hall (assumed to be the Liberty bell) on July 4th, 1776, wondering whether congress would ever declare independence. Then, a messenger boy came up and told him to ring the bell (assumed to signify that the Declaration of Independence was signed). That was a fictional story, and contrary to the popular belief, the Liberty Bell was not rang at the signing of the Declaration. It was only rang for public announcement, and the signing of the Declaration on July Fourth was not announced to the public. However, it was publicly read on July 8th, and it is generally assumed the bell was rang then, unless it was broken and unable to be rang. The Liberty Bell was like any other bell, it just had a more interesting story behind it, and lot of fake interesting stories about it, so it became famous.
Something that interests me about the bell is the crack. It’s actually a long crack, from the rim to the top. However, the big, wide part only reaches halfway up, and for the rest, it’s just a small tiny line on the inside of the bell. Still, it amazes me that it has survived for all these years without crumbling off its stand. After learning the story behind the bell, I really want to visit it now!
There are other places in Philadelphia that would be cool to visit, like the Independence Hall, and the Historic Philadelphia center. Oh, and there’s this really cool museum called the “Please Touch Museum”. Instead of a no-touching rule, this Children’s Museum invites kids to touch and interact with its exhibits. I really want to bring my brother there, but it cost $16 dollars for non-members over the age of one. Seeing the Liberty Bell is free, so it’s a really good place to visit. I also want to visit it for personal reasons: it’s one of the places where they filmed one of my favorite movies, National Treasure. It’s a great movie, by the way, and I highly recommend it.
I’m looking forward to this trip, it's going to be amazing visiting all these wonderful places!
| 雨林 (2013-09-11 22:26:10) |
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谢谢Susan和她的妈妈，让我们分享到女儿和母亲双方对人生的体验。 |
| 周小哭 (2013-09-11 23:32:00) |
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雨林，我初步对这个系列的文章做了一个小小的调查，从目前反馈回来的信息来看：家有高中生的妈妈对这个系列最不感兴趣；家有初中生的一般，家有小学生或者更小孩子的妈妈们，可能是最主要的读者群：）基本上就是三十岁出头的年纪。正好我有一些学生和前同事在这个年龄段，他们也都经常挂在QQ上，所以从他们反馈回来的信息，让我觉得非常有必要把这个系列翻译完，而且背景介绍部分还可以再多写一点。 其实最近我一直在猜想，不小的点击率 ，极少的留言，是什么现象。现在我觉得，应该是国内一些家长在看，而文轩上的文友不太有兴趣。等把这个系列做完，好好规划一下，重新把Susan在新浪的博客捡起来，也许大量的读者在那里。 不过，自从发文开始，就有雨林等文友的陪伴，这对我每天坚持去做这件事，是个不小的鼓励。希望我能够在过程中调准方向，写出有价值的东西来。 再次谢谢雨林！ |
| 周小哭 (2013-09-11 23:32:51) |
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这个留言不能删除，我都不知道说什么好了。嗯，第三部分终于译完了。明天可以开始第四部分了。 |
| 心桥 (2013-09-18 05:35:58) |
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感谢 Susan 细腻入微而且角度独特的记录，更感动小哭感人的背景介绍。相信家庭环境对 Susan 成长的影响，不管贫富，都是她生命的一部分，以她的思考能力，一定会辩证地看待。我很看好她的思维方式，您大可不必操心。 费城那段让我看得倍感亲切，自己在美国最早的四年，真正在学校心理学领域学习成长的四年。最让我怀念的是那些当年真心帮助支持过我的老师和同学。费城市内其实犯罪率高，很多地方也破旧不堪，但因为那些老师同学，永远让我觉得亲切，有对家的留恋。 |
| 周小哭 (2013-09-18 05:59:41) |
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这篇终于迎来了心桥！嗯，非常理解你对费城的感觉，如同我们对摩顿的感情！我们在费城没有呆够。不论是纽约、费城还是华盛顿，都值得Susan长大了再去重游。等到那时，如今她写过的小文，会令她倍感亲切的。 |