環球之旅:美國西部的文化和金融中心——舊金山

San Francisco, open your Golden Gate, sang the girl in the theatre. She never finished her song. The date was 18th April, 1906. The earth shook and the roof suddenly divided, buildings crashed to the ground and people rushed out into the streets. The dreadful earthquake destroyed the city that had grown up when men discovered gold in the deserts of California. But today the streets of San Francisco stretch over more than forty steep hills, rising like huge cliffs above the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“舊金山，敞開你的金門吧!”劇院裏的那位歌女演唱道。她沒有唱完她的歌。這一天是1906年4月18日，大地震動，屋頂突然分裂，高樓大廈轟然坍倒，人們紛紛從屋裏逃出，衝上街頭。在加利福尼亞州沙漠裏發現金礦後成長起來的這座城市，就這樣被可怕的地震摧毀了。但時至今日，舊金山的街道四處延伸；遍佈四十多座陡峭的小山，那些小山像懸崖峭壁般高聳於太平洋藍色的海域之上。

The best way to see this splendid city, where Spanish people were the first to make their homes, is to take one of the old cable cars which run along the nine main avenues. Fares are cheap; they have not risen, I'm told, for almost a hundred years.

要遊覽這座西班牙人最早在此落戶的燦爛的城市，最好的辦法是乘坐穿越九條主要大街的舊式纜車。纜車取費低廉，據說近百年來一直沒漲過價。

You leave the palm trees in Union Square --- the heart of San Francisco --- and from the shop signs and the faces around you, you will notice that in the city live people from many nations --- Austrians, Italians,Chinese and others --- giving each part a special character. More Chinese live in China Town than in any other part of the world outside China. Here, with Chinese restaurants, Chinese post-boxes, and even odd telephone-boxes that look like pagodas, it is easy to feel you are in China itself.

聯合廣場是舊金山的中心，如果你離開廣場的棕櫚樹，你就會根據店鋪的招牌和周圍人們的臉龐，注意到這座城市裏居住着來自許多國家的人——奧地利人、意大利人、中國人和其他國家的人——這就使每一地段呈現出各自的特色。有許多中國人住在唐人街，其人數比中國本土之外世界其他任何地方的華人都多。這裏有中國風味的餐館、中國式的郵筒，甚至還有形如寶塔的奇異的電話亭。這種情況使你很容易感到彷彿是置身於中國境內了。

Fisherman's Wharf, a place all foreigners want to see, is at the end of the ride. You get out, pause perhaps to help the other travellers to swing the cable car on its turntable (a city custom), and then set out to find a table in one of the gay little restaurants beside the harbour. As you enjoy the fresh Pacific sea food you can admire the bright red paint of the Golden Gate Bridge in the harbour and watch the traffic crossing beneath the tall towers on its way to the pretty village of Tiberon. When you've finished your meal, you may decide to take aboat-trip around the bay to look at the sights. You can stare, for example, at the famous, now empty, prison of Alcatraz. Then why not go to the fishing village of Sansalito --- a little like London's Chelsea or New York's Greenwich Village --- to see people painting and to look at their pictures. You will be able to enjoy a view of the city from the sea and take pleasure in the soft red and blue Spanish-type houses shining in the bright Pacific light. If you have time you might like to go by bus to Carmel, a hundred miles south of San Francisco, where you will discover a wild and wonderful coast with high cliffs.

國外遊客都想訪問一下纜車的終點站——漁民之埠。車抵終點站，你下車後，也可能會暫時停步，遵照當地的風俗，幫助其他遊客推動轉車臺上的纜車，使之掉頭轉向，然後移步到碼頭旁邊的一家裝飾華麗的小飯館裏找一個座位坐下。當你品嚐太平洋的海鮮時，你可以觀賞海港裏漆着鮮紅顏色的金門大橋，觀看林立的高塔下通往美麗的村莊“蒂伯龍”的交通線上絡繹不絕的車輛。餐後，你可能決定乘坐遊艇繞着海灣觀賞風景。比如你可以凝視遐邇聞名但現已空無一人的阿爾卡特拉茲監獄。接着，你何不去遊玩一下桑薩利托漁村呢?那裏有點像倫敦的切爾西區，也有些象紐約的格林威治村。有些人在漁村裏繪畫，你不妨去看看，觀賞一下他們的作品。那時你還可以從海上遠眺市容，飽覽在太平洋上明媚的陽光照耀下閃閃發光的色調柔和、紅藍色的西班牙式房屋。如果有時間，你也許還想坐公共汽車前往舊金山以南一百英里的卡梅爾。在那裏你會發現一片峭壁高聳、荒涼但引人入勝的海岸。

Although the people of San Francisco prefer riding to walking, you may like to climb up the steep streets. Handrails are provided so that you can pull yourself up. You can enjoy the splendid shops, the view from Telegraph Hill, the houses with fountains and garden: You can also look at the Stage Coach, a familiar sight from Western films, which is in the window of the Wells Fargo Bank in Montgomery Street, near the business centre of the city.

雖然舊金山人喜歡乘車代步，可是你也許會喜歡爬上坡度很大的街道。你可以抓住欄杆攀登，欣賞那些絢麗多彩的店鋪，從電報山上眺望美景，飽覽帶有噴泉和花園的住宅。你還可以去看看陳列在韋爾斯法戈銀行櫥窗裏的、在西部電影裏常見的驛站馬車，這家銀行座落在靠近城市商業中心的蒙哥馬利大街。

I expect you'll notice that all over the city the cars are left with their wheels turned towards the side walk so that they can't roll away. Wherever you walk you'll find it hard to lose yourself. At most of the important crossings there is a plan of the streets (Lombard Street; Ohio Street; Market Street; and so on)cut into the stone of the sidewalk so that you can look down and see where you are.
　
　　我想你會注意到，全市的汽車在停靠時爲了防止滑動，車輪總是向着人行道的。還有，你無論走到哪裏，都不容易迷路。在大多數的主要交叉路口，都有一幅街道(朗巴德街、俄亥俄街、市場街等等)的詳圖刻在人行道的石頭上。只要你低頭看一下，就知道自己所在的位置了。

After so much walking you may feel tired and sticky and ready for a swim. There is often a thick morning mist from the sea in summer, but the weather can be very hot. Yet nobody swims in the Pacific. It is too risky. There are miles and miles of smooth hard sand, empty because of sharks --- those dreadful big man-eating fish --- and the high and dangerous waves of the sea. So take a street car from the city centre to the wonderful swimming pool on the edge of the ocean. Afterwards you can go to the neighbouring r, while you wait to catch a street car returning to your hotel, you may even see the sign “Doggy Diner” --- a restaurant for dogs!

長時間走動之後，你可能感到疲倦，很不舒服，想要游泳。這裏的夏季清晨，海上往往吹來濃霧，但氣候可能十分炎熱。然而，誰也不敢在太平洋裏游泳。那樣太危險了。海邊有連綿許多英里長的平坦堅硬的沙灘，渺無人跡，因爲那裏有吃人的兇猛可怕的大鯊魚，還有海上捲起的洶涌巨浪。所以你還是從中心乘電車到太平洋岸邊出色的游泳池去吧。嗣後，你可以逛一下附近的動物園。接着，在你等候電車回旅舍的時候，還可能會看到“狗飯店”的招牌——一家專門爲狗服務的餐館!?

But what about meals for people? As in most of the big cities, the restaurants offer delicious food from almost every country. You could have dinner in Chinatown and then, on the way back to your hotel, catch the last cable car after midnight: it's not unusual for passengers who arrive late to have to hang on to the sides of the last car for the whole journey.

可是供應旅客的飯菜是什麼呢?這裏的餐館和大多數大城市的餐館一樣，幾乎世界各國的美味佳餚應有盡有。你不妨在唐人街就餐，飯後趕午夜以後的末班纜車返回旅舍，晚到的乘客常常不得不抓着末班纜車的車側走完全程。

On Sundays parents often take their children to look at the strange trees in the pretty Japanese Tea Garden in the huge spaces of Golden Gate Park.

每逢星期天，家長們往往帶着孩子去參觀金門公園佔很大面積的美麗的日本茶場，觀賞茶場裏那些稀奇古怪的樹木。

With its hot sun and gay night life, San Francisco is a fine place to live in or to visit. It is the most European of all American cities and you'll be sure to grow fond of it instantly. So tell yourself in the words of a song from the last century, “San Francisco, here I come!”
　　
　　舊金山白天驕陽當空，夜生活熱鬧繁華，是個適宜於居住和旅遊的好地方。它是美國所有城市中最富歐洲色彩的一個城市，你肯定是會很快就喜愛它的。因此請你默唸十九世紀一首歌曲中這樣的詞句吧：“舊金山，我到你的身邊來了!”