关于雾都的描写（大文豪们会怎样描写今天的雾霾）

60年前，伦敦曾是今天的北京。

浓烟滚滚的烟囱、雾气弥漫的泰晤士河、若隐若现的伦敦大桥，人们纷纷戴着口罩，在街上摸索着前行。

1952年12月5日，仍是雾霾弥漫的普通一天。但就从这天开始，伦敦市民忽然感到呼吸困难、眼睛刺痛，发生哮喘、咳嗽……

短短几天时间，英国4000人突然离世，超过10万人感染呼吸道疾病，数周后又有几千人死亡，共计死亡1万2千多人。

其实，伦敦雾都的名声由来已久，从维多利亚时代的文学作品中开始，这座城市就早已与迷雾相伴。

文学艺术都是现实的投射，在等霾散去的日子里，我们不妨来读一读当年的英国作家们笔下的雾霾，遥想一下当年的雾都景象。

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大文豪狄更斯的笔下随处可见对雾的描写。那种阴郁、暗沉的氛围一直笼罩在他的作品中，如今读来，更有代入感。

正如《卫报》所说：

You can almost feel the clammy, tactile greasiness of the vapour as you read the opening passage of Bleak House(1853). In his last finished novel,Our Mutual Friend(1865), he defines the city by its fog.

当你读《荒凉山庄》（1853年）开篇的时候，你可能感受到那种水汽的阴湿和触觉上的油腻感。而在他最后写完的小说《我们共同的朋友》中，他用雾定义了这个城市。

我们先来看一段《我们共同的朋友》（Our Mutual Friend）中对雾霾的描写。虎哥为我们带来了精彩讲解。

讲解人：在下林伯虎（微信ID：tigerge2016）

It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither.

这一天，伦敦有雾，这场雾浓重而阴沉。有生命的伦敦眼睛刺痛，肺部郁闷，眨着眼睛，喘息着，憋得透不过气来；没有生命的伦敦是一个浑身煤炱的幽灵，上帝故意使它拿不定主意，到底是让人看见好，还是不让人看见好，结果是整个儿都模模糊糊，既看得见也看不见。

foggy['fɒgɪ] adj. 有雾的

animate [ˈænɪmət] adj.有生命的

smart[smɑːt] v. (使)刺痛

irritated['iriteitid] adj. (身体一部分因刺激而)疼痛的

wheeze [hwi:z] v. 喘息

inanimate[ɪn'ænɪmət] adj. 无生命的；无生气的

sooty['sʊtɪ]adj. 乌黑的；煤烟熏黑的

spectre['spektə]n. 幽灵

Gaslights flared in the shops with a haggard and unblest air, as knowing themselves to be night- creatures that had no business abroad under the sun; while the sun itself when it was for a few moments dimly indicated through circling eddies of fog, showed as if it had gone out and were collapsing flat and cold.

家家店铺里的煤气灯闪闪摇曳，一副凄凉而晦气的样子，仿佛知道他们自己是一群夜游之物，光天化日下的事情是与他们不相干的；而太阳本身，当它在移动着的雾气涡流之中暗淡地显露片刻时，那样子仿佛它已经熄灭，正在彻底崩溃。

flare[fleə]：v. 闪光

haggard ['hægəd]：a. 憔悴的

eddy ['edi]：n. 旋涡

Even in the surrounding country it was a foggy day, but there the fog was grey, whereas in London it was, at about the boundary line, dark yellow, and a little within it brown, and then browner, and then browner, until at the heart of the City-- which call Saint Mary Axe--it was rusty-black.

甚至在伦敦四周的乡村里，这也是一个大雾天，不过，那儿的雾是灰色的，而在伦敦，在城市边沿一带的地方，雾是深黄色的，靠里一点儿，是棕色的，再靠里一点儿，棕色再深一些，再靠里，又再深一些，直到商业区的中心地带——这儿叫做圣玛丽·爱克斯——雾是赭黑色的。

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狄更斯在《荒凉山庄》（Bleak House）的开篇，也描绘了浓雾笼罩下的伦敦街头景象，生动的描述，一秒钟将你代入一个死气沉沉、浓雾笼罩的世界。

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.

到处都弥漫着浓雾。浓雾飘荡在河上游的绿色小岛和草地上；浓雾翻滚在河下游一排一排的船只间，翻滚在这个大而脏的城市的河边污染物间。

Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats.

雾笼罩着艾塞克斯的沼泽，悬浮在肯德郡的高地。雾窜进运煤船的厨房，躺在帆桁上，盘旋在大船的索具间，雾低垂在大平底船和小舟的舷边。

Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little prentice boy on deck.

雾钻进了格林威治区那些靠养老金过活、待在病房火炉边费劲喘气的老人的眼睛和喉咙里；雾溜进密闭舱室里愤怒的船长下午抽的那袋烟的烟管和烟斗里；雾也残忍地折磨着那站在甲板上瑟瑟发抖的小学徒的手指和脚趾。

Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.

那些偶然从桥上走过的人们，目光穿过栏杆，窥探着浓雾朦胧的天空；他们被迷雾包围着，仿佛乘着气球，漂在湿漉漉的云雾中。

（翻译参考：张生庭/张宝林译本）

creep：v.爬行，蔓延

hover：v.盘旋，徘徊

droop：v.下垂，凋萎

wheeze：v. 喘息，呼哧呼哧地响

pinch：v. 捏/拧/挤/夹痛，是痛苦

peep：v.偷看，窥视

hang：v.悬挂

prentice：n.学徒

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再来欣赏一下《雾都孤儿》（Oliver Twist）中的一段环境描写，寥寥数笔，既交代了周围浓雾笼罩下的环境，又用雾衬托出了人物心理。

The night was dark and foggy. The lights in the shops could scarecely struggle through the heavy mist, which thickened every moment and shrouded the streets and houses in gloom; rendering the strange place still stranger in Oliver's eyes; and making his uncertainty the more dismal and depressing.

夜色一片漆黑，大雾弥漫。店铺里的灯光几乎穿不过越来越厚重的雾气，街道和房屋全都包裹在一片昏暗阴沉之中，这使得这个陌生的地方在奥立弗眼里变得更加神秘莫测，他忐忑不安的心情也越来越阴郁沮丧。

shroud：v.笼罩，覆盖

gloom：n.昏暗，忧郁

render：v.使成为，使变得

dismal：adj.沉郁的，忧郁的

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维多利亚时代的伦敦浓雾催生了大量侦探和悬疑小说，实在不奇怪。在厚重阴冷的大雾中，街上的行人像鬼魅一样，转眼不见。这简直是一切肮脏勾当和犯罪活动的天然掩护。

在柯南·道尔的《福尔摩斯探案集》中，浓雾的神秘气氛已成为犯罪活动的标配。《布鲁斯—帕廷顿计划》（The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans）的开篇，福尔摩斯就看着大雾弥漫的都市，埋怨着伦敦的犯罪分子不会利用机会制造谋杀案。

‘The London criminal is certainly a dull fellow,’ said he in the querulous voice of the sportsman whose game has failed him. ‘Look out of this window, Watson. See how the figures loom up, are dimly seen, and then blend once more into the cloud-bank. The thief or the murderer could roam London on such a day as the tiger does the jungle, unseen until he pounces, and then evident only to his victim.’

“伦敦的罪犯实在差劲，”福尔摩斯发着牢骚，好像一个在比赛中失意的运动员。“华生，你看窗外，人影隐隐约约地出现，又溶入浓雾之中。在这样的天气，盗贼和杀人犯可以在伦敦随意游逛，就象老虎在丛林里一样隐而不见，直到他发起攻击，猛扑过去。最后，只有受害者才能看清他的面目。”

querulous ['kweruləs]：adj. 暴躁的；抱怨的

"There have," said I, "been numerous petty thefts."

“小偷还是很多的。”我说。

Holmes snorted his contempt.

福尔摩斯轻蔑地哼了一声。

"This great and sombre stage is set for something more worthy than that," said he. "It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal."

“这个阴沉的大舞台是为比这个更重要的事情设置的，”他说，“我不是个罪犯，这真是这个社会的万幸。”

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雾霾、气候灾难等主题也开始渗入19世纪的科幻小说中。罗伯特·巴尔 《伦敦的末日》（The Doom of London）就是一例。

Fogs were so common in London, especially in winter, that no particular attention was paid to them. They were merely looked upon as inconvenient annoyances, interrupting traffic and prejudicial to health, but I doubt if anyone thought it possible for a fog to become one vast smothering mattress pressed down upon a whole metropolis, extinguishing life as if the city suffered from hopeless hydrophobia.

浓雾于伦敦实在太稀松平常，尤其在冬天，没有人特意留心它。人们只会嫌它碍事烦人，干扰交通，不利健康，但我怀疑没有人会把雾看做一个窒息的巨型床垫，压盖住整个都市，闷死生命，让这个城市像患了恐水症一般绝望地挣扎消亡。

prejudicial [,predʒu'diʃəl]：a. 不利的；有害的

metropolis [mɪ'trɒp(ə)lɪs]：n. 大都市

hydrophobia [,haidrəu'fəubjə]：n. 恐水症；狂犬病

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小说家罗伯特·史蒂文森（Robert Louis Stevenson）在他的科幻小说代表作《化身博士》（The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde）中，也曾用雾霾来营造气氛。

在他眼中，被雾霾笼罩的伦敦就像是一个噩梦之城：

It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of the season. A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled apours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr. Utterson beheld a marvelous number of degrees and hues of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would be a glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths. The dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing glimpses...seemed, in the lawyer's eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare.

已经到了上午九点钟，那天恰好下了这一季的第一场雾，天空像张可可色的帘幕。只有风在不停地冲击着，用力吹开这厚重的浓雾。所以，当马车由一条街拐向另一条街时，厄塔森的眼前出现了各种色调的阴郁的晨光。有的地方一片漆黑，就像深夜一般；有的地方却是浓重鲜艳的棕红色，就像透过烟雾的熊熊火光；有的地方雾气正被风吹散，一抹惨淡的阳光正穿过螺旋的空档散到地面上。在这光怪陆离的光线下，索荷区……在律师眼中，看起来好像是一个噩梦之城。

pall: n. 盖棺材的罩布

rout: v. 击溃

hue: n. 色调

conflagration: n. 大火

haggard: adj. 憔悴的

wreath: n. 花圈，圈状物

扑朔迷离的伦敦城仿佛在怒吼：

The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town's life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind.

浓厚的雾塞满这个城市里的每个角落，灯光仿佛扑朔迷离的红宝石。这座城市的生活穿越了笼罩大地的云层，沿自己的轨迹前行着，发出像风的怒吼一样的声音。

（翻译参考：杨冬译本）

carbuncle: n. 红宝石

muffle: n. 包裹物

smother: n. 窒息

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也许是伦敦雾霾实在太严重，M.P. Shiel 1901年出版的科幻小说《紫云》（The Purple Cloud）竟想象出一个毒雾导致的世界末日，地球上最后仅剩主角一个人在茫茫毒雾中寻找人类……

我们来看看其中的一段描写：

As I rose, I fell flat: and what I did thereafter I did in a state of existence whose acts, to the waking mind, appear unreal as dream. I must at once, I think, have been conscious that here was the cause of the destruction of mankind; that it still surrounded its own neighbourhood with poisonous fumes; and that I was approaching it. I must have somehow crawled, or dragged myself forward.

我刚站起来又倒下了，然后我做的一切对于一颗清醒的大脑来说，都像梦一样不真实。我觉得，我必须赶紧清醒地意识到，这就是人类毁灭的原因；毒雾仍包围着这里，我离它正越来越近。我肯定是连爬带滚地逃了出来。

fume: n.（难闻且常有害的） 烟气

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英国现代派先锋诗人T·S·艾略特23岁时刚到英国之际，写过一首《普鲁弗洛克的情歌》（The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock）。诗歌描写诗人在黄昏穿过大街，去参加一个宴会。

在路上看到那可怕的黄色大雾后，对于工业城市发展极度不满的诗人写下了这样一首诗（节选）：

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

黄色的雾在窗玻璃上擦着它的背，

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

黄色的烟在窗玻璃上擦着它的嘴，

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

把它的舌头舐进黄昏的角落，

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

徘徊在快要干涸的水坑上；

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

让跌下烟囱的烟灰落上它的背，

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

它溜下台阶，忽地纵身跳跃，

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

看到这是一个温柔的十月的夜，

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

于是便在房子附近蜷伏起来安睡。

（查良铮译）

muzzle: n. 枪口，动物的鼻口

soot: n. 煤烟

编辑：祝兴媛 唐晓敏 左卓

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