【微智慧】走近英伦，智慧看伦敦

London: the Coolest City in the World

For much of its history, innumerable epigrams have been coined about London by both her enthusiasts and detractors. The great 18th-century writer and wit Samuel Johnson said that a man who is tired of London is tired of life. Oliver Wendell Holmes11 said, “No person can be said to know London. The most that anyone canclaim is that he knows something of it.” Simply stated, London is one of the most interesting places on earth. There is no other place like it in its agglomeration of architectural sins and sudden intervention of almost ruralsights, in its medley of styles, in its mixture of the green loveliness of parks and the modern gleam of neon. Thankfully, the old London of Queen Anneand Georgian architecture can still be discovered under the hasty routine of later additions.
对伦敦的大部分历史，人们褒贬不一，也留下了不计其数的传世警句。18世纪伟大的作家和才子塞缪尔·约翰逊曾经说过，一个对伦敦厌倦的人是一个对生活厌倦的人。奥利弗·温德尔·霍姆斯则说：“没人能称得上了解伦敦，充其量只能说他对伦敦略知一二”。简单地说，伦敦是世界上最富情趣的地方之一。没有其他地方像伦敦那样，在败笔的建筑群中突然加入乡村景致，在绿色可爱的公园里出现时尚的霓虹灯光，各种风格混杂一起。令人欣慰的是，在快速的城市扩建中，还能找到有着安妮女王和乔治国王时期建筑的古老伦敦。
Today, that sense of modernity is stronger than ever. Everyone is talking about swinging-againLondon. It is still, as Vanity Fair proclaimed, “the coolest, hottest city inthe world.” Millennium fever left its trophies -- a panoply of new buildings.The boom economy of the mid-'90s helped the city's art, style, fashion, anddining scenes make headlines around the world. London's chefs have become superstars; its fashion designers have conquered Paris; avant-garde artists have made waves; the city's raging after-hours scene is packed; and the the atercontinues its tradition of radical, shocking productions, which barely seem toturn most hairs. Even Shakespeare embraces cool: the Bard's own, reborn Globe-- the fabled “wooden O” -- is functioning brilliantly on the bank of theThames just 200 yards from where it stood in the 16th century; when the troupehere presented Two Gentlemen of Verona, cast members were costumed in Ray-Bansun glasses and sneakers.
而今，伦敦的现代感比以往更加强烈。人人都在说伦敦的再次新潮。今天伦敦仍是《名利场》中所说的“世上最冷酷而又最热情的城市”。“千年热”给伦敦留下的纪念品就是气派的新建筑，90年代中期繁荣的经济使伦敦的艺术、风格、时装以及饮食文化成为世界重要新闻。伦敦的厨师成了超级明星；伦敦的时装设计师征服了巴黎；超前的艺术家兴风作浪；流行的夜场演出挤满了人；剧院仍保持传统，上演激进的惊世作品，但观众却几乎没有人为之震惊。即使是莎翁也乐意接受这样超酷的创意：重建的莎士比亚“环球剧院”，也就是著名的“WoodenO”坐落在泰晤士河畔，距离其在16世纪的原址仅200码，经营得很好；剧团在这里上演《维洛那二绅士》的时候，演员们戴着“雷朋”墨镜，穿着旅游鞋。