旅行的唯一方法是步行(2)

　　The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes.In our hurry to get from one place to another,we failed to see anything on the way.Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world-or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way.When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows.Car drivers,in particular,are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on:they never want to stop.Is it the lure of the great motorways,or what?And as for sea travel,it hardly deserves mention.It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song:"I joined the navy to see the world,and what did I see?I saw the sea."The typical twentieth-century traveller is the man who always says "I've been there."You mention the remotest,most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado,Kabul,Irkutsk and someone is bound to say "I've been there"-meaning,"I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else."

[注釋]

1. bird's－eye view：鳥瞰

2.blur：使……模糊不清

[譯文]

　　未來的歷史書還會記載說，我們的眼睛也棄置不用了。在急 急忙忙從一個地方趕往另一個地方的路上，我們什么都沒看到。 航空旅行可以使你鳥瞰世界——要是機翼恰好擋住了你的視線， 你就看得更少了。當你乘汽車或火車旅行的時候，模糊不清的鄉 村景象不停地映在車窗玻璃上。尤其是汽車司機，他們的頭腦永 遠都被“向前，向前”的沖動占據著：他們從來都不要停下來。到 底是由于漂亮車道的誘惑，還是別的什么？至于海上旅行，簡直 不值一提。有一首老歌的歌詞對海上旅行是一個完美的概括：‘哦 加入海軍去看世界，我看到了什么？我看見了大海。”最典型的 四世紀旅行者總是說“我已經去過那兒了”。你提到世界上最遙 遠、最引人遇思的地名，比如埃爾多拉多、喀布爾、伊爾庫茨克， 準有人說“我去過那兒”——意思是：“我在去另外一個地方的路 上，以100英里的時速路過那兒。”