旅行的藝術(shù):回歸 Ⅸ 習(xí)慣-4

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不幸的是，德·梅伊斯特開拓性的旅行方式，就像他的飛行器，并沒有更深更遠(yuǎn)的影響。

Unfortunately, De Maistre's own pioneering journey, rather like his flying machine, did not fly very far.

故事的開始部分很不錯(cuò)。德·梅伊斯特鎖上門，換上他的粉紅色和藍(lán)色相間的睡衣褲。沒有了行李的累贅，他徑直走向沙發(fā)，這是房間里最大的家具。他的旅行已經(jīng)將他從慣常的無(wú)精打采中喚醒，他以旅人之眼注視沙發(fā)，并重新發(fā)現(xiàn)了它的一些特質(zhì)。他贊嘆它高雅的支腳，回想起他偎依在靠墊上的愉快時(shí)光，幻想著他一生中的愛情和事業(yè)上的晉升。他從沙發(fā)的角度打量自己的床，又一次從一名旅行者（觀看事物）的角度出發(fā)，學(xué)會(huì)了欣賞這件復(fù)雜的家具。他為自己在床上度過(guò)的香甜夜晚感到感激，而他的床單和睡衣幾乎總是搭配得很好，這也讓他感到驕傲。“我建議每一個(gè)人如果可以的話，讓他自己換上粉紅的睡衣和白色的床單，”他寫道，因?yàn)檫@些色調(diào)能給容易驚醒的人帶來(lái)寧?kù)o和愉悅的幻想。

The story begins well. De Maistre locks his door and changes into his pink and blue pyjamas. Without the need for luggage, he travels to the sofa, the largest piece of furniture in the room. His journey having shaken him from his usual lethargy, he looks at it through fresh eyes and rediscovers some of its qualities. He admires the elegance of its feet and remembers the pleasant hours he has spent cradled in its cushions, dreaming of love and advancement in his career. From his sofa, De Maistre spies his bed. Once again, from a traveller's vantage point, he learns to appreciate this complex piece of furniture. He feels grateful for the nights he has spent in it and takes pride that his sheets almost match his pyjamas. 'I advise every man who can to get himself pink and white bedlinen,' he writes, for these are colours to induce calm and pleasant reveries in the fragile sleeper.

但是，德·梅伊斯特接下來(lái)的描述則有可能被指為偏離了主旨。他開始陷入冗長(zhǎng)的題外話，他開始談他的狗，羅西尼；他的愛人，珍尼；和他忠實(shí)的仆人，約安那提。對(duì)室內(nèi)旅行的獨(dú)特之處深感興趣的讀者這時(shí)可能會(huì)把書合上，并覺得有點(diǎn)被背叛的感覺。

But thereafter De Maistre may be accused of losing sight of the overall purpose of his endeavour. He becomes mired in long and wearing digressions about his dog, Rosinne, his sweetheart, Jenny, and his faithful servant, Joannetti. Travellers in search of a specific report on room-travel risk closing Journey around My Bedroom feeling a little betrayed.

然而，德·梅伊斯特的作品來(lái)源于一種深厚而具有暗示性的洞察力：即我們從旅行中獲取的樂趣或許更多地取決于我們旅行時(shí)的心境，而不是我們旅行的目的地本身。如果我們可以將一種游山玩水的心境帶入我們自己的居所，那么我們或許會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些地方的有趣程度不亞于洪堡的南美之旅中所經(jīng)過(guò)的高山和蝴蝶漫舞的叢林。

And yet De Maistre's work springs from a profound and suggestive insight: that the pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to. If only we could apply a travelling mindset to our own locales, we might find these places becoming no less interesting than the high mountain passes and butterfly-filled jungles of Humboldt's South America.

那么，什么是旅行的心境？感受力或許是它最主要的特征。我們懷著謙卑的態(tài)度接近新的地方。對(duì)于什么是有趣的東西，我們不帶任何成見。我們也許會(huì)讓當(dāng)?shù)厝烁械讲唤?。因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)隈R路上或狹窄的街道上，欣賞那些他們認(rèn)為有些奇怪的小細(xì)節(jié)。我們冒著被車輛撞倒的危險(xiǎn)是因?yàn)槲覀優(yōu)橐蛔ㄖ奈蓓敾蚴强淘趬ι系念}字所吸引。我們發(fā)覺一間超市或是理發(fā)店不同尋常地迷人。我們用很長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間思索著一份菜單的設(shè)計(jì)或是晚間新聞里主持人的服裝。我們敏銳地感覺到被覆蓋于現(xiàn)今之下的層層歷史，并記筆記和拍照。

What, then, is a travelling mindset? Receptivity might be said to be its chief characteristic. We approach new places with humility. We carry with us no rigid ideas about what is interesting. We irritate locals because we stand on traffic islands and in narrow streets and admire what they take to be strange small details. We risk getting run over because we are intrigued by the roof of a government building or an inscription on a wall. We find a supermarket or hairdresser's unusually fascinating. We dwell at length on the layout of a menu or the clothes of the presenters on the evening news. We are alive to the layers of history beneath the present and take notes and photographs.

作者的臥室

另一方面，家，使我們?cè)谄诖懈苡X到安定感。由于在那里居住了很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間，我們確信這附近不再會(huì)有什么有趣的東西。我們無(wú)法想象，在一個(gè)我們已經(jīng)居住了10年或者更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的地方，還能發(fā)現(xiàn)什么新的東西。因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)缫蚜?xí)慣了一切，因而對(duì)其視若無(wú)睹。

Home, on the other hand, finds us more settled in our expectations. We feel assured that we have discovered everything interesting about a neighbourhood, primarily by virtue of having lived there a long time. It seems inconceivable that there could be anything new to find in a place which we have been living in for a decade or more. We have become habituated and therefore blind.

德·梅伊斯特試圖將我們從被動(dòng)狀態(tài)中喚醒。在他關(guān)于室內(nèi)旅行的第二部作品《臥室夜游》中，他走到窗前，抬頭凝望夜空。天空的美景讓他感觸良多，為什么以前不懂得欣賞這樣的尋常景色：“現(xiàn)今能從這宏偉的景致中感到快樂的人真是太少了！天空對(duì)于困倦的人們來(lái)說(shuō)毫無(wú)意義！對(duì)于那些出來(lái)散步或是擠出劇場(chǎng)的人群來(lái)說(shuō)，抬頭望一會(huì)兒，贊嘆在他們頭頂閃爍的星群，會(huì)讓他們損失什么呢？”一般沒有這樣做的原因是因?yàn)樗麄儚那皬奈催@樣做過(guò)。大家都習(xí)慣了，認(rèn)為這個(gè)世界本來(lái)就很無(wú)聊——于是，生活正如他們所預(yù)期的一樣無(wú)趣。

De Maistre tried to shake us from our passivity. In his second volume of room-travel, Nocturnal Expedition around My Bedroom , he went to his window and looked up at the night sky. Its beauty made him frustrated that such ordinary scenes were not more generally appreciated: 'How few people are right now taking delight in this sublime spectacle which the sky lays on uselessly for dozing humanity! What would it cost those who are out for a walk or crowding out of the theatre, to look up for a moment and admire the brilliant constellations which gleam above their heads?' The reason they weren't looking was that they had never done so before. They had fallen into the habit of considering their universe to be boring-and it had duly fallen into line with their expectations.