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打印
"That is not here, sir," he said in English. "The mayor expects you tonight for dinner with other foreigners on the restaurant boat. See? This is where it is.” He sketched a little map for me on the back of my invitation.
“不是這兒，先生，”他用英語說道。“市長邀請您今天晚上同其他外賓一起在水上餐廳赴宴。您看，就是這兒。”他邊說邊為我在請柬背面勾劃出了一張簡略的示意圖。
Thanks to his map, I was able to find a taxi driver who could take me straight to the canal embankment , where a sort of barge with a roof like one on a Japanese house was moored. The Japanese build their traditional houses on boats when land becomes too expensive. The rather arresting spectacle of little old Japan adrift amid beige concrete skyscrapers is the very symbol of the incessant struggle between the kimono and the miniskirt.
幸虧有了他畫的圖，我才找到一輛出租車把我直接送到了運河堤岸，那兒停泊著一艘頂篷頗像一般日本房屋屋頂的大游艇。由于地價過于昂貴，日本人便把傳統日本式房屋建到了船上。漂浮在水面上的舊式日本小屋夾在一座座灰黃色摩天大樓之間，這一引人注目的景觀正象征著和服與超短裙之間持續不斷的斗爭。
At the door to the restaurant, a stunning, porcelain-faced woman in traditional costume asked me to remove my shoes. This done, I entered one of the low-ceilinged rooms of the little floating house, treading cautiously on the soft matting and experiencing a twinge of embarrassment at the prospect of meeting the mayor of Hiroshima in my socks.
在水上餐廳的門口，一位身著和服、面色如玉、風姿綽約的迎賓女郎告訴我要脫鞋進屋。于是我便脫下鞋子，走進這座水上小屋里的一個低矮的房間，躡手躡腳地踏在柔軟的榻榻米地席上，因想到要這樣穿著襪子去見廣島市長而感到十分困窘不安。
He was a tall, thin man, sad-eyed and serious. Quite unexpectedly, the strange emotion which had overwhelmed me at the station returned, and I was again crushed by the thought that I now stood on the site of the first atomic bombardment, where thousands upon thousands of people had been slain in one second, where thousands upon thousands of others had lingered on to die in slow agony.
市長是位瘦高個兒的男人，目光憂郁，神情嚴肅。出人意料的是，剛到廣島車站時襲擾著我的那種異樣的憂傷情緒竟在這時重新襲上心頭，我的心情又難受起來，因為我又一次意識到自己置身于曾遭受第一顆原子彈轟擊的現場。這兒曾有成千上萬的生命頃刻之間即遭毀滅，還有成千上萬的人在痛苦的煎熬中慢慢死去。
