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Moment in Peking
京華煙雲（節選）
作者：林語堂
譯者：張振玉
圖片來源：視覺中國
It was now deep winter. Winter in Peking in insurpassable, unless indeed it is surpassed by the other seasons in that blessed city. For Peking is a city clearly marked by seasons, each perfect in its own way and each different from the others.
現在是窮冬苦寒，北京的冬季真是無與倫比，也許這個福地的其他月分，可以與之比肩。因為在北京，四季非常分明，每壹季皆有其極美之處，其極美之處又互相差異之特色。
In that city, man lives in civilization and yet in nature, where the maximum comforts of the city and the beauties of rural life are perfectly blended and preserved, where, as in the ideal city, man finds both simulation for his mind and repose for his soul. What great spirit organized this pattern of life so that here at last the ideal of human living should be realized?
在北京，人生活在文化之中，卻同時又生活在大自然之內，城市生活極高度之舒適與園林生活之美，融合為壹體，保存而未失，猶如在有理想的城市，頭腦思想得到刺激，心靈情緒得到寧靜。到底是什麽神靈之手構成這種方式的生活，使人間最理想的生活得以在此實現了呢？
True, Peking is naturally beautiful, with its lakes and parks inside the city and its girdle of the transparent blue Jade River and its skirt of the purple Western Hills outside. The sky also helps: if the sky were not such a clear deep blue, the water of the Jade Spring could not be such a transparent jade green, nor the slopes of the Western Hills such rich lavender and purple.
千真萬確，北京自然就美，城內點綴著湖泊公園，城外環繞著清澈的玉泉河，遠處有紫色的西山聳立於雲端。天空的顏色也功勞不小。天空若不是那麽晶瑩深藍，玉泉河的水就不會那麽清澈翠綠，西山的山腰就不會有那麽濃艷的淡紫。
True, also, the city was planned by a master architect as no other city was ever planned on this earth, with a peadth of human spirit, an understanding of sublimity and grandeur and the amenities of domestic living, paralleled nowhere else. But Peking as a human creation was not the work of any one, rather the joint product of generations of men who had the instinct for beautiful living.
設計這個城市的是個巧奪天工的巨匠，造出的這個城市，普天之下，地球之上，沒有別的城市可與比擬。既富有人文的精神，又富有崇高華嚴的氣質與家居生活的舒適。人間地上，豈有他處可以與之分庭抗禮？北京城之為人類的創造，並非壹人之功，是集數代生來就深知生活之美的人所***同創造的。
Climate, topography, history, folk customs, architecture, and the arts combined to make it the city that it is. The human element in the life of Peking is the great thing. The unmistakable poise and leisurely accent of the speech of a Pekinese boy, girl, man or woman is sufficient evidence of this human culture and this geniality of lie. An accent is but the spiritual voice of a whole people.
天氣、地理、歷史、民風、建築、藝術，眾美俱備，集合而使之成為今日之美。在北京城的生活上，人的因素最為重要。北京的男女老幼說話的腔調上，都顯而易見的平靜安閑，就足以證明此種人文與生活的舒適愉快。因為說話的腔調兒，就是全民精神上的聲音。
註：《京華煙雲》是林語堂旅居巴黎時，於1938年8月至1939年8月間用英文寫就的長篇小說，英文書名為《Moment in Peking》，講述了北平曾、姚、牛三大家族從1901年義和團運動到抗日戰爭三十多年間的悲歡離合和恩怨情仇，並在其中安插了袁世凱篡國、張勛復辟、直奉大戰、軍閥割據、五四運動、三壹八慘案、“語絲派”與“現代評論派”筆戰、青年“左傾”、二戰爆發，全景式展現了現代中國社會風雲變幻的歷史風貌。
據說林語堂原本打算將《紅樓夢》譯作英文介紹給西方讀者，因故未能譯成，此後決定仿照《紅樓夢》的結構寫壹部長篇小說，於是寫出了《京華煙雲》。上面這段文字節選自小說第十二章“北京城人間福地 富貴家神仙生活”，重點對北京城的描寫。可以看出不管是中文版還是英文版，文筆都是栩栩如生渾然天成，體現了文學大家細膩飽滿的筆觸。
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