旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅵ 壯闊-1

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由于非常向往沙漠，而美國西部的照片（小片風(fēng)滾草被風(fēng)卷起，在草地上翻騰）和偉大沙漠的名字如美國加州的莫哈韋沙漠、非洲的卡拉哈里沙漠、新疆的塔克拉瑪干沙漠和蒙古的戈壁又強(qiáng)烈地吸引了我，于是我搭乘包機(jī)前往以色列勝地埃拉特，準(zhǔn)備到西奈沙漠漫游一番。在飛機(jī)上，我同鄰座一名澳大利亞女子談天，她正準(zhǔn)備到埃拉特的希爾頓酒店當(dāng)泳池救生員。在飛行途中，我閱讀的是帕斯卡爾 [1] 的文章：

Long partial to deserts, drawn to photographs of the American West (bits of tumbleweed blowing across a wasteland) and to the names of the great deserts (Mojave, Kalahari, Taklamakan, Gobi), I booked a charter flight to the Israeli resort of Eilat and went to wander in the Sinai. On the plane journey over, I talked to a young Australian woman beside me who was taking up a job as a lifeguard at the Eilat Hilton-and I read Pascal:

當(dāng)我想到……我占有的這個小小的空間正要被無垠的空間吞噬，然而對無垠的空間，我一無所知，連這空間也不知道我的存在，這個念頭讓我驚恐，我也驚訝于自己出現(xiàn)在此空間而非彼空間：我有什么理由出現(xiàn)在此地而非彼地，有什么理由出現(xiàn)在此時而非彼時？是誰讓我置身于此？

When I consider … the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me ［'l'infinie immensité des espaces que j'ignore et qui m'ignorent'］, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here?

帕斯卡爾：《沉思錄》

Pascal, Pensées, 68

華茲華斯鼓勵我們到各地旅游，以體驗(yàn)真情，滋潤靈魂。我前往沙漠是為了讓自己感悟到一種渺小。

Wordsworth had urged us to travel through landscapes to feel emotions that would benefit our souls. I set out for the desert in order to be made to feel small.

阿爾伯特·比茲塔特：《落基山脈蘭德斯峰》，1863年

就像被酒店的看門侍者輕視，或者被英雄的成就比下去一樣，“渺小”通常不是一種讓人愉快的感覺。不過，還有另外一種令人滿足又能讓自己感覺渺小的方式，那就是在以下畫作面前觀畫：比茲塔特 [2] 的《落基山脈蘭德斯峰》（1863年）、盧泰爾堡 [3] 的《阿爾卑斯山雪崩》（1803年），或者弗里德里希 [4] 的《呂根島的白堊峭壁》（1818年）。畫中這些荒蕪、無垠的空間帶給我們的是什么呢？

It is usually unpleasant to be made to feel small-by doormen in hotels or by comparison with the achievements of heroes. But there may be another and more satisfying way to feel diminished. There are intimations of it in front of Rocky Mountains, 'Lander's Peak'(1863) by Albert Bierstadt, in front of An Avalanche in the Alps (1803) by Philip James de Loutherbourg or the Chalk Cliffs in Rügen (1810) by Caspar David Friedrich. What do such barren, overwhelming spaces bring us?