時光流過威尼斯Time Passes Venice
No other city in the world stirs the imagination quite like Venice. For over six centuries, this tiny republic set down in a muddy 1)lagoon at the head of the Adriatic Sea, was a global super power. Comprising some 100 low lying islands linked together by a 2)labyrinthine network of canals, Venice stands today untouched by time like some magical kingdom on the water.
再沒有一座城市能像威尼斯一樣如此引人遐想。超過六個世紀的時間過去了，這個小小的共和國就坐落在亞得里亞海出海口一個渾濁的瀉湖上，卻在全球叱吒風雲。威尼斯由大約一百個低窪島嶼組成，被錯綜複雜的運河網絡串聯起來。然而歲月並未在威尼斯留下痕跡，時至今日，它依然是個水上魔幻王國。The origins of Venice go back to the breakup of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Hoping to escape successive waves of hostile 3)barbarian invaders sweeping down from the north, villages and townspeople from the mainland sought refuge on the islands of the Venetian Lagoon. The move to the lagoon was 4)fortuitous, and in time, the settlement began to grow in size and stature. With no 5)hinterland and surrounded on all sides by water, there was very little that these early Venetians could do but to take to the sea. By the ninth century, Venetian merchant adventures had established themselves as major players in a 6)lucrative trade between East and West. And Venice, now a flourishing city, had taken on a shape and form that has little changed until today.
威尼斯的歷史應該可以追溯至羅馬帝國衰亡，也就是公元五、六世紀的時候。爲了躲避來自北方一浪接一浪兇狠野蠻人的入侵，內陸村鎮的居民唯有遷到威尼斯瀉湖的島嶼避難。遷居瀉湖其實只是個偶然，但隨着時間的推移，定居者們的社羣壯大，地位日隆。這裏不與內陸相接，又四面環水，所以早期的威尼斯人只能向海外尋求發展。到了九世紀，威尼斯商人們已在東西方的繁榮貿易中爲自己闖出了一片天。而威尼斯現在也是一片繁華，只是形貌至今都沒什麼改變。The undisputed heart of Venice has always been St. Mark’s Square. Since the earliest days, this has been the city’s principal gathering place, where festivals were held and official ceremonies, including public executions, took place. Today, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.
毫無爭議的是，聖馬可廣場一直都是威尼斯的中心地帶。一開始，這裏就是全市的主要聚集場所，節日慶典、官方儀式，包括處決都在這裏舉行。如今，這裏更是威尼斯數一數二的旅遊名勝。
The Venetians knew the key to their success was their naval power. So they 7)embarked on a project of 8)colossal scale that would enable them to expand their ship-building capacity. The result was the largest industrial complex of the mediaeval era, The Arsenal of Venice. By the mid 14th century, the Arsenal covered some 110 acres, representing over 15% of the entire city area. Here, hidden behind fortified walls, the republic built and maintained its 9)galleons, the ships that made up its navy and much of its commercial fleet. At its height, The Arsenal employed 16,000 workers and could turn out one galley a day. This was construction on an industrial scale and indeed it wouldn’t be matched again in Europe until the advent of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
威尼斯人知道他們成功的關鍵在於海軍實力。爲了擴充自己的造船能力，他們開展了規模龐大的建設計劃。由此誕生了中世紀最大型的工業建築——威尼斯的阿森納造船廠。到了14世紀中期，阿森納造船廠佔地110英畝，佔全市面積的15%。在這高牆壁壘之內，威尼斯共和國在這裏建造並維修自己的大型帆船，這些船供威尼斯海軍和大部分商隊使用。發展最鼎盛的時候，阿森納造船廠員工達到一萬六千人，並且可以在一日內造出一艘大型帆船，船廠以工業化規模生產，在歐洲冠絕一時，直到18世紀末期發生工業革命才被趕超。The Rialto Market, centrally located along the eastern bank of the Grand Canal, sells some of the freshest fruit, vegetables and fish in the city. But for centuries, it was the 10)epicenter of Venetian commercial life. Merchant ships returning from the markets of the east, laden with silks, spices and other exotic commodities, would dock here to unload and dispose of their precious 11)cargoes.
裏阿爾託市場位於大運河東岸的中心地帶，出售新鮮果蔬與海鮮。幾百年來這裏都是威尼斯商貿活動的中心。由東方商市回來的商船，滿載絲綢、香料和其他舶來商品，會停靠在這兒，卸下珍貴的貨物並出售。Colonization of the Americas and the success of trade routes to the East that 12)circumnavigated Africa all challenged Venetian commercial supremacy. The republic was fast becoming an irrelevant 13)anachronism. The decline of Venice reached its lowest point in 1796 when the city surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte. The Venetian Republic was no more.
美洲的殖民化，再加上繞行非洲的東方海上商道的開通，都在挑戰威尼斯的商貿霸主地位。威尼斯共和國很快與時代脫節，實力旁落。該市在1796年向拿破崙·波拿巴投降，至此，威尼斯的衰落跌至谷底。威尼斯共和國就此滅亡。Sitting here in Sr. Mark’s Square, once famously described by Napoleon as the “finest drawing room in Europe,” one is surrounded on all sides by evidence of Venice’s past glory. And for me at least, modern day Venice is always pervaded by a slight sense of melancholy, a sense of faded splendor, of irredeemable loss. A city that grew fabulously wealthy on its trade with the East, jealously defended by a formidable navy, now has to rely on a new kind of import: the foreign tourist. For all I know, they brings as much revenues as silks and spices ever did.
坐在曾被拿破崙形容爲“歐洲最華美客廳”的聖馬可廣場，四處可見威尼斯往昔輝煌的痕跡。至少在我眼中，現在的威尼斯總是瀰漫着一種淡淡的哀愁，光華褪色的悵然和無力挽回的失落。這個當初憑藉着與東方通商而富甲天下的城市，曾經擁有強大的海軍嚴密防衛，而現在卻要依賴新的引進品營生：遊客。就我所知道的，他們帶來的收益未必遜於過去的絲綢和香料。Venice is a city that can not change, must not change, if it is not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The golden egg, of course, being the lucrative tourist trade. But this is not to suggest that Venice is some 14)stagnant backwater out of touch with modern times. With typical Venetian 15)pragmatism, the city has cashed in on its architectural legacy and rich artistic past to reinvent itself as a contemporary capital of the arts. Venice is not a living museum, nor are its citizens 16)superannuated fossils. Rather, they are modern Italians living modern Italian lives. They just happen to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And who in their right mind is gonna change that?
威尼斯是個不能改變的城市，一定不要改變，否則就是殺死下金蛋的鵝。金蛋當然是指收益豐厚的旅遊業。但這並不代表威尼斯是一潭死水，與時代完全脫節。帶着威尼斯人典型的務實作風，這個城市懂得善於利用自己的建築遺產和厚實的藝術根基，讓自己變身爲當代藝術都會。威尼斯並不是一座活人博物館，威尼斯的居民也不是活化石。他們是現代意大利人，過的是現代意大利人的生活，只不過他們碰巧生活在這個世界上最美麗的城市之一里。如此美事，哪個腦筋正常的人想去改變？
