QUANELIN

The Hottest Sex Show In Paris: The Library


巴黎圖書館 最辣春宮秀


By Elaine Sciolino
A teaser in the closed Croix Rouge train station in Paris for the show “Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret” can provide commuters a fleeting glimpse of erotic engravings lighted up in shocking pink.

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By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: January 16, 2008


PARIS – The lighting is bordello red, but the librarians insist that their X-rated exhibition is serious.
燈色是妓女戶那種紅，巴黎圖書館館員卻堅稱，他們辦的限制級展覽很正經。


A museumgoer peeks inside one of the exhibits. No one under 16 is admitted.

“Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret,” which opened at the National Library here last month, offers a look at its secret archive of erotic art, putting on display more than 350 sexually explicit literary works, manuscripts, engravings, lithographs, photographs, film clips, even calling cards and cardboard pop-ups.
「圖書館內的地獄，秘藏的性慾」展上個月在巴黎國家圖書館揭幕，讓外界得以一窺館藏的情慾藝術秘密檔案，共展出350多件露骨描繪情慾的文學作品、手稿、木刻版畫、石版畫、照片、電影片段，甚至有應召女郎的名片和讓人從裡面蹦出來的摺疊紙箱。


Visitors to the library can listen to a modern-day recording of an 18th-century “dialogue” during sex (simultaneous orgasms included) and watch a six-minute excerpt from a black-and-white silent pornography film made in 1921 (one man, two women, intriguing lingerie).
圖書館訪客可以聽一段18世紀性愛「對話」（同步收錄性高潮）的現代錄音版，並看一段1921年攝製的黑白色情默片的六分鐘選播（1男，2女，性感內衣）。


The handwritten manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s novel “Les Infortunes de la Vertu” (“The Misfortunes of Virtue”) is under glass here, as are 17th-century French engravings of “erotic postures”; English “flagellation novels” exported to France in the late 19th century; Man Ray photographs; and a police report from 1900 that compiles the addresses of Paris’s houses of prostitution and what they charged.
薩德小說《貞女厄運》的手稿隔著玻璃在館內展出，以及17世紀的法國「浮世繪春宮」木刻版畫；19世紀後期出口到法國的英國「性虐待小說」；曼雷的照片；1900年的警方報告，彙編巴黎紅燈戶的地址及各家的收費標準。


Sadism, masochism, bestiality, inflated genitalia and the most imaginative sexual fantasies and athletic poses are given their due. To avoid complaints that a publicly supported institution is corrupting the country’s youth, no one under 16 is admitted.
性虐待狂、被虐狂、人獸交、誇張的性器官，以及最具想像力的性狂想，都占有一席之地。為了避免公家機關教壞囝仔大小的批評，16歲以下不得進場。


“In an era where sexual images are a product for popular consumption, the library has decided to lift the veil on this world of imagination and fantasy,” Bruno Racine, the library director, said in an interview. “The library is a very serious institution, and the project was done with gravity. But we also perhaps are different from what you think – and there is humor here too.”
「在這個性慾影像已是大眾消費商品的時代，本館決定揭開想像與奇幻世界的面紗」，館長布魯諾．瑞辛受訪表示。「圖書館是非常嚴肅正經的地方，本展也十分莊重。但我們和各位所想的或許有些出入，其中不乏幽默感。」


Until now, the only outsiders allowed to view the vast erotica collection of about 2,000 works were legitimate researchers. Certainly the public has responded. The exhibition is one of the most popular in years. It takes an hour to get in.
在此之前，唯一獲准觀看近兩千件龐大情色館藏的外人是師出有名的研究學者。如今一般大眾反應自然也很熱烈。這項展覽是近年人氣最旺的展覽之一。得排一小時的隊才進得去。


The items, on display through March 22, are drawn from a permanent collection created in the 1830s when the library isolated works considered “contrary to good morals.” They were put in a locked section and given the name L’Enfer – hell. Many pieces have been consigned there over the years by the police.
展覽3月22日結束，展品出自1830年代成立的永久館藏系列，當時館方將被視為「違反善良道德」的作品隔離，放在一個封鎖區，還取名「禁書區」（地獄）。許多被發落到這裡的作品來自警方經年累月的查扣品。


The exhibition comes at a time when France is struggling with a variety of societal issues: the limits of privacy for its public figures, censorship and the definition of good taste. A one-day scholarly conference at the library about the exhibition included a debate on the meaning of modern-day censorship.
展出適逢法國努力解決各種社會議題的時刻：公眾人物隱私權的界限，送審制度和優良品味的定義。在圖書館舉辦有關展覽的一天學術會議，包括一場當代審檢制度意義的辯論。


Paris seems proud of the library show. The Paris metro system constructed an advertising teaser for it on its No. 10 line. Commuters passing by the closed Croix Rouge station get the most fleeting of glimpses of erotic engravings lighted up in shocking pink and partly hidden behind fluttering black curtain strips.
巴黎似以這場圖書館大展為榮。巴黎地鐵在第10號線為展覽製作一個廣告來吊胃口。通勤族經過已經封閉的紅十字站時，能有最完整的驚鴻一瞥，看見情色版畫被打上桃紅色的燈光，在飄揚的黑色簾條後面若隱若現。


The newspaper Le Monde has run ads for the show (with a shocking-pink X) on its front page. The literary review Le Magazine Littéraire devoted its December cover to the subject, with scholarly essays on sex and aging, the last taboo of pedophilia and whether excessive public display of sex has made it boring.
「世界報」在頭版刊出展覽廣告（有個觸目驚心的桃紅色X字）。書評《文學雜誌》12月號封面專題報導全是這次展覽，內頁另有學術論文探討性與老化、最後的禁忌戀童癖，以及將性過度公開是否已經把性變得乏味等議題。


Still, with France’s tough laws against pornography and one of the most aggressive law-enforcement campaigns against child pornography in Europe, the library has taken care to avoid falling afoul of the law, like Henry-Claude Cousseau, director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Mr. Cousseau is facing charges of exhibiting works of “a violent pornographic nature,” in a modern-art exhibition in a Bordeaux museum in 2000. One painting depicted a young girl, wearing heavy makeup, in a bath; a video showed a girl in a graphic masturbation scene. If convicted, Mr. Cousseau faces a fine of $110,000 and up to three years in prison.
不過，法國有嚴刑峻法對付色情刊物及影片，其嚴打兒童春宮作品的力道在歐洲又數一數二，國家圖書館已小心不要違法，以免落得巴黎法國國立高等美術學院院長柯索那種下場。柯索2000年在波爾多一間美術館的現代藝術展中，展示具有「高度色情性質」的作品遭到起訴。一幅畫描繪一名濃妝豔抹的年輕女孩在洗澡；一段視訊出現一名女孩逼真的自慰畫面。如果定罪，柯索將面臨11萬美元的罰金和最高三年的牢獄之災。


A wall display of vintage advertisements for prostitutes. “There is humor here too,” said Bruno Racine, the library director.

The library show is not the only one in Paris with sexually explicit material. An animated film that includes sexual intercourse and violence was being screened at “Sots Art – Political Art in Russia Since 1972,” at the Maison Rouge museum and gallery near the Place de la Bastille. There are no posted warnings, but a lot of very curious children.
圖書館的展覽並非巴黎唯一露骨性愛內容的展覽。一部包括性交和暴力的動畫片，最近在「俄國普普藝術風：1972年以來的俄國政治性藝術」展中播放，地點是巴士底廣場附近的紅屋美術館與藝廊。沒有張貼警語，倒是有許多好奇的孩童。


“Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret” runs through March 22 at the National Library of France, Site François-Mitterrand, Quai François-Mauriac, 13th Arrondissement, www.bnf.fr.


關鍵字句


巴黎擁有舉世聞名的瘋馬、紅磨坊和麗都三大名秀，本文標題卻說巴黎最火辣的春宮秀（the hottest sex show）在圖書館，而且是國家圖書館，展場燈光還是紅燈區妓院門口的那種紅（bordello red）。


翻譯往往涉及語言文化差異，展覽名稱即為一例。Hell at the Library，望文生義，可以衍生出「萬惡淫為首」、「色字頭上一把刀」等和「地獄」有關的聯想，還正好和後面秘藏的情慾（Eros in Secret）押韻。


根據大導演奇士勞斯基遺留劇本拍攝的電影叫做L'Enfer，英譯片名是The Hell，中文取了個《奇士勞斯基之地獄》。與法文enfer對應的英文是inferno，源於義大利文，也是但丁《神曲》（The Divine Comedy）其中一篇的篇名。


終究得回歸原文來判斷。經查，enfer在法文字典裡大概有七種意義，前六種都和英文理解的hell差不多，包括罪惡、詛咒、折磨，但是最後一個解釋出現玄機：這個字和圖書館連用的時候，意指存放禁書的區域（section with books forbidden to the public）。翻譯的關卡至此豁然貫通。


性慾（eros）大寫時是希臘神話中的愛神名，同羅馬神話的邱比特（Cupid），國片「幫幫我愛神」的英文片名就用了Eros。Erotica意指描繪情慾的文學藝術作品，流行音樂天后瑪丹娜1992年發行的專輯就取了這個名字。

In Japan, Purists Fret at the Rise of the Cellphone Novel

Japan’s younger generation came of age with the cellphone, and created its own popular culture by tapping thumbs on keypads.

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By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: January 20, 2008


日本純文學界愁對手機小說崛起



TOKYO – Until recently, cellphone novels – composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens – had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, “The Tale of Genji,” a millennium ago.
直到最近，手機小說在日本一直被貶為次文類，在這一千年前產生世上第一部小說「源氏物語」的國度裡一文不值。手機小說是年輕女孩熟練地舞動她們靈巧的拇指在手機鍵盤上寫作，書迷在手機的小小螢幕上閱讀的小說形式。


Then in December, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.
接著在去年12月，年終暢銷書榜顯示，以書籍形式出版的手機小說，不僅滲透到主流市場，還稱霸市場。


Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off a debate.
在去年十大暢銷小說中，有五部原本是手機小說，大部分是以簡短句子寫的愛情故事，這是手機簡訊的特色，但沒有太多傳統小說中的情節和角色發展。尤有甚者，前三名竟然全由初試啼聲的手機小說家包了，引發辯論。


“Will cellphone novels kill ‘the author’?” a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue. Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature.
著名文學期刊「文學界」在一月號的封面故事問道：「手機小說會殺死『作者』嗎？」書迷稱讚這些小說是新文學類型，由閱讀習慣多半是看漫畫書的世代創造和消費。批評者說，以手機小說差勁的文學素質，這類小說稱霸市場，將加速日本文學的沒落。


Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are making the kind of sales that most more experienced novelists only dream of.
姑不論手機小說家文學才情如何，她們的銷售成績確是大多數更有經驗的小說家夢寐以求的。


Rin, 21, tapped out a novel on her cellphone that sold 400,000 copies in hardcover.

One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote “If You” over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or in free moments, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a Web site for would-be authors.
一位手機小說明星，筆名「凜」的21歲年輕女子，在高三時以六個月時間寫了「如果你」這部小說。她在去打工的通勤路上或閒暇時，把小說段落輸入手機，並上傳到為明日之星作家設的網站上。


Rin wrote her novel while commuting to her part-time job.

After cellphone readers voted her novel No. 1 in one ranking, her story of the tragic love between two childhood friends was turned into a 142-page hardcover book last year. It sold 400,000 copies and became the No. 5 best-selling novel of 2007, according to a closely watched list by Tohan, a major book distributor.
在手機讀者票選她的小說為一項排行榜的第一名後，她敘述兩個兒時玩伴之間的悲劇愛情故事，去年變成一本142頁的精裝書。根據大出版公司東販備受矚目的排行榜，這本書銷售40萬冊，成為2007年暢銷小說第五名。


“My mother didn’t even know that I was writing a novel,” said Rin, who, like many cellphone novelists, goes by only one name.
「凜」說：「我母親甚至不知道我在寫小說。」她和許多手機小說家一樣，只用單名。


“So at first when I told her, well, I’m coming out with a novel, she was like, what? She didn’t believe it until it came out and appeared in bookstores,” she added. The cellphone novel was born in 2000 after a home-page-making Web site, Maho noi-rando, realized that many users were writing novels on their blogs; it allowed users to upload works in progress and readers to comment, creating the serialized cellphone novel. But the number of users uploading novels began booming only two to three years ago, and the number of novels listed on the site reached one million in December.
她接著說：「因此當初我告訴她，我要出一本小說時，她的反應是，什麼？她不相信，直到書出版了，擺在書店裡。」在一家製作首頁的網站「魔法島」網站知道許多用戶正在他們的部落格上寫小說後，手機小說於2000年誕生；該網站讓用戶上傳正在進行中的作品，並讓讀者評論、創作連載的手機小說。但用戶上傳小說的數量在兩三年前才開始暴增，去年12月列在該網站的小說數量達到一百萬部。


A year ago, one of Starts Publishing’s young cellphone stars, Chaco, gave up her phone even though she could compose much faster with it by tapping with her thumb.
一年前，Starts出版公司的年輕手機小說明星Chaco已放棄用手機寫作，即便她用拇指在手機上按鍵寫作速度要快得多。


“Because of writing on the cellphone, her nail had cut into the flesh and became bloodied,” said Shigeru Matsushima, an editor at Starts. “Since she’s switched to a computer, her vocabulary’s gotten richer and her sentences have also grown longer.”
Starts編輯松島茂說：「由於在手機上寫小說，她的指甲陷入肉裡，變得血肉模糊，後來她改用電腦寫作，她的字彙變豐富了，句子也變長了。」

Plant Hunter Finds Cures, And Riches


採藥者找到解藥和財富


Cesar Rosales with a herbal product in Lima, Peru, meant to purify the liver. Such remedies in Peru often date back thousands of years. Below, a traditional method is used to shake dirt from a batch of a popular root vegetable, maca.

By ANDREW DOWNIE
Published: January 1, 2008



NINACACA, Peru – High in the Peruvian Andes, a shaman rubs a fluffy white rabbit all over Chris Kilham’s body, murmuring in Quechua, the language of these barren plains. Then she slits the animal’s throat and lets the blood run into a tiny grave.
在祕魯安地斯山脈的高地，一名巫醫用一隻白兔摩擦克里斯‧齊爾漢的身體，口中喃喃唸著這片不毛之地的語言，蓋丘亞（印地安原住民的一支）語。接著她劃開白兔的脖子，讓血流入一個小墓穴裡。


A Medicine Hunter in Peru

To Mr. Kilham, the offering – an appeal to the gods for a bountiful harvest of maca, a local tuber – is just another day at the office.
對齊爾漢來說，向神明獻祭祈求當地的塊莖作物蠻哥豐收，只是例行公事。


Mr. Kilham, an ethnobotanist from Massachusetts who calls himself the Medicine Hunter, has scoured remote jungles and highlands for three decades for plants, oils and extracts that can heal. He has eaten bees and scorpions in China, fired blowguns with Amazonian natives, and learned traditional war dances from Pacific Islanders.
來自麻塞諸塞州的民族植物學家齊爾漢自稱是藥物獵人，已經在偏遠的叢林及高地遍尋具療效的植物、植物油及萃取物達30年。他在中國吃過蜂和蠍子，和亞馬遜原住民一起用過吹箭，跟太平洋島嶼種族學過傳統戰舞。


But behind the colorful tales lies the prospect of money, lots of money – for Western pharmaceutical companies, impoverished indigenous tribes and Mr. Kilham. All told, natural plant substances generate more than $75 billion in sales each year for the pharmaceutical industry, according to a study by the European Commission.
但是，在這些多采多姿的故事背後，對西方製藥公司、貧困的原住民和齊爾漢來說，隱藏著錢途，大好錢途。根據歐盟執委會的一項調查，天然植物提煉出的藥物每年總計為製藥廠帶來750億美元以上的營業額。


Although the efficacy of some of the products the herbal ingredients go into is hotly debated, their popularity is not in doubt.
雖然用了這些草本成分的部分藥物效力引起激辯，其受歡迎的程度則毋庸置疑。


Thirty-six percent of adults in the United States use some form of what experts call complementary and alternative medicine, according to a 2004 study published by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
隸屬美國國家衛生研究院的輔助與另類療法研究中心，2004年發表過一項調查，顯示全美有36%的成人使用專家所稱的輔助藥物或另類藥物。


Mr. Kilham believes multinational drug companies underutilize the medicinal properties in plants. They pack pills with artificial compounds and sell them at inflated prices, he says. He wants Westerners to use the pure plant medicines that indigenous peoples have used for thousands of years.
齊爾漢認為跨國藥商並未充分利用植物的醫療特性。他說，藥商以人工化合物裝填藥丸，然後再以高價賣出。他要讓西方人使用原住民已經用了幾千年的純正草藥。


“People in the U.S. are more cranked up on pharmaceutical drugs than any other culture in the world today,” Mr. Kilham said. “I want people using safer medicine. And that means plant medicine.”
「美國人現在藥品的用量比世界上其他國家都要多。」齊爾漢說。「我希望人們使用比較安全的藥物，意思就是草藥。」


Easy going and earnest, Mr. Kilham, 55, can identify unusual plants by their Latin names and he proudly regales the uninitiated on their individual properties.
現年55歲的齊爾漢，為人隨和且誠摯，能說出罕見植物的拉丁文名稱，並且十分自豪且爽快地向外行人介紹植物的特性。


Shortly after leaving Lima on a trip taking French businessmen to the Peruvian Andes, he stopped the van and enthusiastically explained how the tropane alkaloids in a dusty plant he spotted by the side of the road are used by ophthalmologists to dilate pupils for eye examinations.
齊爾漢帶著一些法國商人前往祕魯境內的安地斯山區，離開利馬沒多久，他停下休旅車，興奮地指著他在路邊認出的一株布滿塵土的植物解釋道，眼科醫師在檢查患者眼睛時，就是用這種植物所含的顛茄烷生物鹼來放大瞳孔。


Such properties are often well known by indigenous peoples. So-called bioprospectors can make their fortunes by bringing those advantages to the attention of companies who identify the plant’s active compound and use it as a base ingredient for new products that they patent.
原住民通常對這些特質知之甚詳。所謂的生物探勘者藉由介紹這些優點給製藥公司而賺大錢，藥廠找出植物的有效化合物，用來當作新專利藥物的基礎成分。


Some 62 percent of all cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration come from such discoveries, according to a study by the United Nations University, a scholarly institution affiliated with the United Nations.
根據聯合國旗下學術機構「聯合國大學」的調查，美國聯邦食品藥物管理局核准的抗癌藥物，約有62%來自上述發現。


In Peru, Mr. Kilham is betting on maca, a small root vegetable that grows here in the central highlands – “a turnip that packs a punch,” he says, adding “it imparts energy, sex drive and stamina like nothing else.”
齊爾漢押寶在生長在秘魯中央高地的小型根莖作物「蠻哥」，他說是「讓人猛又有力的蕪菁」，他接著補上一句：「提供精力、性慾和持久力的功效無可比擬。」


That view is supported by studies carried out at the International Potato Center, a Lima-based research center that is internationally financed and staffed. Studies there show maca improves stamina, reduces the risk of prostate cancer and increases the motility, volume and quality of sperm. Some peer reviewed studies published in the journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology backed up those findings.
設在利馬的研究中心「國際馬鈴薯中心」的研究證實此一觀點，該中心的資金和人員來自多個國家。中心所做的研究調查顯示，蠻哥能改善持久力，降低罹患攝護腺癌的風險，提升精蟲的活動力、數量和品質。經同儕評核後刊登在《生殖生物學及內分泌學》期刊的一些論文，證實了調查結果。


Photographs by Jennifer Szymaszek for The New York Times

Sofia Herrera, left, a shaman, performing a harvest ritual with Chris Kilham, center, his wife, Zoe Helene, and others.

For centuries, maca has been a revered crop in this austerely beautiful region northeast of Lima. Inca warriors ate it before going into battle. Later, Peruvians used it to pay taxes to Spanish conquistadors.
幾個世紀以來，在利馬東北部這個簡樸優美的地區，蠻哥一直是受到敬畏的作物，印加戰士打仗前先吃蠻哥。後來，秘魯人用蠻哥來支付西班牙征服者的賦稅。


Today, locals consume it boiled alongside dried vicuña meat in soups; or diced with carrots, peas and cauliflowers in salads. Maca flour is used to make sponge cake. Flavored with chocolate, it is made into maca puffs. Villagers offer visitors maca drinks and maca juice; airports sell maca toffees.
如今，當地人將蠻哥和駱馬肉乾一起煮湯來享用，或者和胡蘿蔔、豌豆、花椰菜一起切丁做沙拉。用巧克力調味，可製成蠻哥泡芙。村民提供蠻哥酒、蠻哥果汁給觀光客，機場販售蠻哥太妃糖。


Mr. Kilham first heard about the tuber in 1996. Two years later, he went to Peru to find out more. There he formed a partnership with Sergio Cam, a Peruvian entrepreneur who invested much of the money he made as a construction worker in California from 1984 to 1999 to start Chakarunas Trading.
齊爾漢在1996年首次得知有蠻哥的存在。2年後，他到秘魯去進一步搜尋。他在當地和秘魯創業家賽吉歐‧坎姆成為合夥人，對方將自己從1984到1999年在加州當建築工人的所得大部分用來投資，成立了Chakarunas貿易公司。


Today, Chakarunas organizes local growers to sell their maca to the French firm Naturex, which extracts it into concentrate to Enzymatic Therapy, a Wisconsin-based company that makes and markets the finished maca products.
現在，Chakarunas組織當地的種植者，一起將蠻哥賣給法國Naturex公司，Naturex將蠻哥萃取出濃縮精華，再賣給設在威斯康辛的「酵素療法」，一間生產並行銷蠻哥成品的公司。


Thanks to the health supplements boom, both companies have grown, with Naturex’s revenues topping $125 million in 2007 and Enzymatic Therapy’s surpassing $80 million. Enzymatic Therapy sells $200,000 worth of maca-based products each month, said the company’s chief executive Randy Rose.
拜營養補給品的熱潮所賜，兩家公司都欣欣向榮，Naturex在2007年的營收超過1.25億美元，「酵素療法」則超過8,000萬美元。公司執行長藍迪‧羅斯表示，「酵素療法」每個月可賣出價值20萬美元的蠻哥產品。


Mr. Kilham says he earns around $200,000 each year in retainers, and sales are so buoyant he expects to make “in the mid-six figures” in royalties next year.
齊爾漢表示每年大約可賺進20萬美元的酬金，銷售量高漲，讓他預期來年可收到「六位數中間（譯註：50萬）」的權利金。


Mr. Kilham insists he is not in the business simply for financial gain. His motivation comes from promoting herbal medicines and helping traditional communities, he said.
齊爾漢堅稱從事這一行並非純粹為了賺錢。他說，自己的動機來自推廣草藥和幫助當地社區居民。


“I have financial security and don’t need to make money from this,” he said. “I believe trade is the best way to get good medicines to the public, to help the environment and to help indigenous people.”
「我的財務狀況穩定，不必靠這個來賺錢。」他說。「我相信貿易是將好藥提供給大眾，幫助環境和原住民的最佳方式。」

Imperiled Attractions Draw Tours of Doom


瀕臨危險景點吸引末日觀光客


The Antarctic, which many adventure travelers think is threatened by global warming.

By ALLEN SALKIN
Published: December 16, 2007


PACK YOUR BAGS Mount Kilimanjaro’s glaciers are melting, incentive to some travelers to book a trip there sooner than later.

QUITO, Ecuador – Dennis and Stacie Woods, a married couple from Seattle, choose their vacation destinations based on what they fear is fated to destruction.
來自西雅圖的夫婦丹尼斯和史黛西‧伍茲專挑他們擔心注定要毀滅的地點度假。


This month it was a camping and kayaking trip around the Galápagos Islands. Last year, it was a stay at a remote lodge in the Amazon, and before that, an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro.
這個月是在加拉巴哥群島一帶露營和划愛斯基摩划子。去年是去住亞馬遜河流域一間偏遠的小木屋，在那之前是登上吉力馬札羅山。


“We wanted to see the islands this year,” Mr. Woods, a lawyer, said recently in a hotel lobby here, “because we figured they’re only going to get worse.”
擔任律師的伍茲最近在厄瓜多爾基多市一間旅館的大廳說：「今年我們想看這個群島，因為我們認為這些島的狀況只會惡化。」


The visit to the Amazon was “to try to see it in its natural state before it was turned into a cattle ranch or logged or burned to the ground,” Mr. Woods said. Kilimanjaro was about seeing the sunrise on the highest peak in Africa before the ice cap melts, as some forecasters say it will within the next dozen years.
伍茲說，遊覽亞馬遜河是「想在當地變成養牛場或被濫伐，或被燒得精光之前，欣賞它的自然風貌」。登吉力馬札羅山是要在冰帽融化前在非洲最高峰的山頂看日出，部分預言家說冰帽會在未來幾十年內融化。


Next on their list: the Arctic before the ice is gone.
他們旅遊單上的下一站：冰融前的北極。


The Woodses are part of a travel trend that Ken Shapiro, the editor in chief of TravelAge West, a magazine for travel agents, calls “the Tourism of Doom.”
伍茲夫婦趕上的這種旅遊趨勢，旅行社產業雜誌「西方旅遊年代」總編輯肯恩‧夏皮洛稱之為「末日觀光」。


“It’s not just about going to an exotic place,” Mr. Shapiro said. “It’s about going someplace they expect will be gone in a generation.”
夏皮洛說：「這不只是去個富有異國風味的地方，而是去一個他們預期會在一個世代內消失的地方。」


From the tropics to the ice fields, doom is big business. Quark Expeditions, a leader in arctic travel, doubled capacity for its 2008 season of trips to the northern and southernmost reaches of the planet. Travel agents report clients are increasingly requesting trips to see the melting glaciers of Patagonia, the threatened coral of the Great Barrier Reef, and the eroding atolls of the Maldives, Mr. Shapiro said.
從熱帶到冰原，末日觀光是大商機。極地旅遊業龍頭「夸克探險」公司，已把2008年前往地球最北和最南端旅遊季的接客量加倍。夏皮洛說，旅行社報告說，愈來愈多顧客要求去看巴塔哥尼亞正在融化的冰河、大堡礁受到威脅的珊瑚，以及馬爾地夫被侵蝕的環礁。


This is all a ruse, said John Stetson, a spokesman for the Will Steger Foundation, an environmental education organization in Minnesota. “Eco-tourism is more of a term for the marketer,” he said.
明尼蘇達州的環境教育組織「威爾史丹格」基金會發言人約翰‧史代特森說，這全是促銷策略，他說：「生態旅遊是促銷業者喊出來的名詞。」


“Many people want to do what’s right, so when something is marketed as the right thing, they tend to do that,” he said.
他說：「許多人想要做對的事，因此如果把某件事包裝成對的事去促銷，這些人就樂得去做。」


But, he says, traveling by jet to see the icebergs contributes to global warming, which makes the icebergs melt faster. “It’s hard to fault somebody who wants to see something before it disappears, but it’s unfortunate that in their pursuit of doing that, they contribute to the problem,” he said.
不過，他說，搭噴射機去看冰山，會助長全球暖化，使冰山更快融化。他說：「某人想在某樣東西消失前去看一眼，也難怪他，但很不幸，他們這麼做的過程卻使問題惡化了。」


Even the sinking of the Antarctic cruise ship Explorer, which hit an iceberg in November, has not cooled interest. Other Antarctic tour operators say they have received frantic calls asking for last-minute berths from those who had been scheduled to take future Explorer voyages. Since most trips are already full, would-be paying customers are being turned away.
連南極郵輪「探險號」11月撞上一座冰山後沉沒，都沒有使這股熱潮冷卻下來。其他南極旅遊業者說，他們接到原本預定參加「探險號」未來遊程的旅客焦急的電話，要求在最後一刻訂艙位。由於大部分遊程都已客滿，只好拒絕這些想要付錢的顧客。


What these travelers are chasing may be a modern-day version of an old human impulse – to behold an untrammeled frontier. Except this time around, instead of being the first to climb a mountain or behold a glacier-fed lake, voyagers like the Woodses are eager to be the ones to see things last.
這些旅人追尋的，也許是人類想要一覽無拘無束疆域的古老衝動的現代版本。只不過這一次剛好相反，不是成為第一個登上一座山或看到冰河流入湖泊的人，而是像伍茲夫婦這樣的旅人，渴望成為最後一個看到的人。


Almost all these trips are marketed as environmentally aware and eco-sensitive – they are, after all, a grand tour of the devastating effects of global warming. But the travel industry, some environmentalists say, is preying on the frenzy. This kind of travel, they argue, is hardly green. It’s greedy, requiring airplanes and boats as well as new hotels.
幾乎所有這些遊程都打著注重環保和生態的名義促銷，畢竟這些遊程是遊覽全球暖化毀滅性影響的「壯遊」。但一些環保人士說，旅遊業利用這股熱潮賺取暴利，他們認為，這樣的旅遊幾乎不可能環保。這是貪心的行為，需要飛機和船隻，還有新的旅館。


However well intentioned, these trip takers may hasten the destruction of the very places they are trying to see.
無論立意有多麼良善，這些遊客可能加速毀滅他們想要觀光的地方。


But the environmental debate is hardly settled. What is clear is that appealing to the human ego remains a terrific sales tool for almost any product.
不過這場環保論戰難有定論。可以確定的是，迎合人類自我中心的虛榮感，仍舊是促銷商品的絕佳手法，幾乎無往不利。


“Doom tourism has been with us for a long time indeed,” Jonathan Raban, the travel writer, said by phone from Seattle, his home. “It’s about the world being spoiled and the impulse of the tourist industry to sell us on getting there before it is too late, before other people spoil it.
旅遊作家強納森‧拉班在西雅圖家中接受電話訪問說：「末日旅遊業確實已存在很長時間。賣點是世界正遭受破壞，旅遊業向我們推銷在別人糟蹋前捷足先登的欲望衝動，以免為時已晚。」


“I’m thinking of the opening up of the West by the railroads aided by unforgivable painters like Albert Bierstadt, who sold that idyllic version of the pristine West populated only by deer and their fauns and picturesque Indians. There was a rush from the East to get there one step before the miners, who were going to spoil it, and before other tourists started trampling it.”
「我聯想到以鐵路開拓美國西部，就是受到像亞伯特‧比奧斯塔這樣不可原諒的畫家的推波助瀾，他賣的是描繪西部原始景色的風景畫，那裡只有鹿和牠們的牧神，還有栩栩如生的印地安人。東部人一窩蜂搶著比礦工早一步到那裡，反正礦工遲早會破壞環境，更要搶在其他觀光客開始踐踏前到達。」


Back then, the images were of geysers and antelope-dotted Rocky Mountain sunsets. Now the worried traveler, motivated by promotional Web sites showing images of smiling natives in face paint and flocks of colorful exotic birds, hastens to the vulnerable Amazon. Not that this tourist will be living without comfort: bamboo-floored lodges await, where hot showers come courtesy of solar power and toucans can be viewed from laddered observation towers.
回想當年的景象是間歇噴泉以及羚羊點綴其間的落磯山夕照。如今憂心忡忡的旅人趕往易遭破壞的亞馬遜流域，吸引他們的是宣傳網站上臉部彩繪、帶著微笑的原住民，以及一群群五顏六色的珍禽異鳥照片。這並不表示觀光客的生活會不舒適：鋪了竹地板的小屋等候大駕光臨，屋裡有太陽能發電的熱水澡，並可以從備有梯子的觀測塔上欣賞巨嘴鳥。


At hundreds of dollars or more a night, people do want hot water and other comforts.
每晚房價要好幾百美元甚至更高，房客的確想要熱水和其他享受。


In November, Travel & Leisure magazine came out with a “responsible travel” issue and listed on its cover “13 guilt-free travel deals,” No. 5 being an Inkaterra Rain Forest package. For $497 a person, it included a three-night stay in a cabana on stilts, an excursion to the hotel’s private ecological reserve, a boat trip to a native farm and a 30-minute massage at the hotel spa.
《旅遊與休閒》雜誌11月推出「責任旅遊」特刊，在封面列出「13 種沒有罪惡感的旅遊方式」，第5名是Inkaterra飯店雨林套裝遊程。每人收費497美元，包含在高架的小屋住三晚，遊覽飯店的私人生態保留地，搭船遊原住民農莊，以及在飯店的水療室享受30分鐘按摩。


A “Green Serengeti package” in Tanzania started at $836 a night per person, with all drinks “excluding Champagne.”
坦尚尼亞的「綠色塞倫蓋提套裝遊程」以每人每晚836美元起跳，飲料無限暢飲，「香檳除外」。


In a way, these earnest expeditions say much about how the very idea of adventure has changed. Once naturalists like Darwin made sense of a wild world. Explorers like Lewis and Clark sought to map what seemed limitless wilderness. Adventurers like Livingstone and Scott sought to conquer the earth’s natural challenges and sometimes died trying.
在某方面，這些真切熱烈的遊山玩水，揭露出冒險的意圖已經有何改變。過去像達爾文這樣的自然主義者是去認識了解野生世界。路易斯和克拉克之類的探險家想要為看似無垠的荒野繪製地圖。像李文斯頓和史考特這樣的冒險家試圖征服地球上的大自然挑戰，有時奮不顧身。


Over the last half-century, backpackers and other adventurers took a gentler route, beating new paths across Asia, South America and other locales – only to realize years later that some paths had been clear-cut into highways fit for Holiday Inns. There are popular ice cream stores in Katmandu, and a strip of five-star hotels in Goa, India.
過去半世紀，背包客和其他冒險家採取較溫和的路線，在亞洲、南美洲和其他地方另闢蹊徑，幾年後才發現一些小路已被闢建成適合假日飯店進駐的交通要道。加德滿都有多家冰淇淋店，印度的果亞有一條五星級飯店林立的大街。


“From where I sit,” said Nancy Novogrod, the editor of Travel & Leisure, “traveling to Mongolia now is almost cliché. Last summer, it seemed like everybody was going to Mongolia. The bar keeps getting higher.”
《旅遊與休閒》雜誌編輯南茜‧諾沃葛拉德說：「從我所在的地方去蒙古旅行，如今已是老生常談。今年夏天時，好像人人都要去蒙古。探險旅行的門檻愈來愈高。」

Forest Loss in Sumatra Promises a ‘Carbon Bomb’


蘇門答臘森林去了 「二氧化碳炸彈」來了



Ed Wray/Associated Press
A burned stump from a once dense forest stands in a field being cleared for a palm oil plantation in Sumber, Indonesia.

By PETER GELLING
Published: December 6, 2007



KUALA CENAKU, Indonesia – Here on the island of Sumatra are some of the world’s fastest-disappearing forests.
全球消失最快的森林，部分就在蘇門答臘島上。

A look at this vast wasteland of charred stumps and dried-out peat makes the fight to save Indonesia’s forests seem nearly impossible.
只消看看這片廣大荒地上的焦黑樹墩和乾涸泥煤，就會覺得印尼的森林幾乎無法挽救。

The Impact of Logging

“What can we possibly do to stop this?” said Pak Helman, 28, a villager here in Riau Province, surveying the scene from his leaking wooden longboat. “I feel lost. I feel abandoned.”
印尼廖內省吉仙納庫村的28歲村民帕克‧海爾曼從有隙縫的木製大艇上察看現場景象，他說：「我們如何阻止得了此事？我覺得失落，感覺茫然無依。」

Pulp and paper companies have descended on Riau.

In recent years, dozens of pulp and paper companies have descended on Riau, which is roughly the size of Switzerland, snatching up generous government concessions to log and establish palm oil plantations. The results have caused villagers to feel panic.
近年來，數十家紙漿和紙品業者擁入面積約與瑞士同大的廖內，從政府取得條件寬鬆的特許權，砍伐林木，闢建以生產棕櫚油為目的的棕櫚園。結果造成當地村民恐慌。

Cutting timber from forests like the one in Kuala Cenaku, Indonesia, accounts for 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Only five years ago, Mr. Helman said, he earned nearly $100 a week catching shrimp. Now, he said, logging has poisoned the rivers snaking through the heart of Riau, and he is lucky to find enough shrimp to earn $5 a month.
海爾曼說，僅僅5年前，捕蝦還能讓他每周賺進將近100美元。他說現在伐木使得蜿蜒穿越廖內心臟地帶的河流受到毒物汙染，他一個月捕的蝦子能賣到5美元，就算幸運了。


Responding to global demand for palm oil, which is used in cooking and cosmetics and, lately, in an increasingly popular biodiesel, companies have been claiming any land they can.
鑑於全球對棕櫚油需求殷切，業者竭盡所能取得土地。棕櫚油可以用於烹調、製造化妝品，以及近來日益風行的生質柴油。


Fortunately, from Mr. Helman’s point of view, the issue of Riau’s disappearing forests has become a global one. He is now a volunteer for Greenpeace, which has established a camp in his village to monitor what it calls an impending Indonesian “carbon bomb.”
從海爾曼的觀點來看，廖內森林消失的問題成了全球性議題，可算是不幸中的大幸。他現在是環保組織「綠色和平」的義工。綠色和平在他居住的村落設立據點，監測被該組織稱為即將出現的印尼「二氧化碳炸彈」。


Deforestation, during which carbon stored in trees is released into the atmosphere, now accounts for 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to scientists. And Indonesia releases more carbon dioxide through deforestation than any other country.
科學家指出，砍伐森林的過程中，會造成儲存在樹木內的二氧化碳釋出到大氣層中，目前全球20%的溫室效應氣體排放肇因於此。印尼砍伐森林所釋出的二氧化碳比任何國家都多。


Within Indonesia, the situation is most critical in Riau. In the past 10 years, nearly 60 percent of the province’s forests have been logged, burned and pulped, according to Jikalahari, a local environmental group.
在印尼國內，廖內的情況最危急。當地環保團體「吉卡拉哈里」表示，過去10年來，該省將近60%的森林遭到砍伐、焚燒和被拿去製作紙漿。


“This is very serious – the world needs to act now,” said Susanto Kurniawan, a coordinator for Jikalahari who regularly makes the arduous trip into the forest from the nearby city of Pekanbaru, passing long lines of trucks carting palm oil and wood. “In a few years it will be too late.”
「吉卡拉哈里」連絡人蘇山托‧庫爾尼萬說：「這問題非常嚴重，世人現在就得採取行動。」庫爾尼萬經常從附近的北干巴魯市展開深入森林的艱困之旅，沿途經過大排長龍的卡車，上面裝載棕櫚油和木頭。他說：「再耽誤幾年，就來不及了。」


The rate of this deforestation is rising as oil prices reach new highs, leading more industries to turn to biodiesel made from palm oil, which, in theory, is earth-friendly. But its use is causing more harm than good, environmental groups say, because companies slash and burn huge swaths of trees to make way for palm oil plantations.
油價創新高，更多行業轉而採用以棕櫚油製成的生質柴油，森林砍伐速率也因而加快。生質柴油在理論上對地球較環保。不過環保團體指出，使用生質柴油弊多於利，因為業者為闢建植棕櫚人造林，砍伐且焚燒大量樹木。


Even more significant, the burning and drying of Riau’s carbon-rich peat-lands, also to make way for palm oil plantations, releases about 1.6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, according to Greenpeace officials.
更重要的是，根據綠色和平組織幹部指出，同樣為了種植棕櫚油人造林而焚燒廖內富含碳的泥煤地，並使之乾燥，一年會釋出約16億公頓的溫室效應氣體。


But it is also in Riau that a new global strategy for conserving forests in developing countries might begin. A small area of Riau’s remaining forest will become a test case if an international carbon-trading plan called REDD is adopted.
不過，保護開發中國家森林的新全球性策略也可能在廖內展開。名為REDD的國際性二氧化碳交易計畫若能夠通過，廖內殘存的一小塊森林區將變成實驗案例。


REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, essentially would involve payments by wealthy countries to developing countries for every hectare of forest they do not cut down.
REDD即是「減少來自森林砍伐與林地退化的溫室效應氣體排放」的簡稱，內容涉及富有國家付錢向開發中國家購買每公頃未砍伐林地消耗的二氧化碳量。


Indonesia, caught between its own financial interest in the palm oil industry and the growing international demands for conservation, has been promoting the carbon-trading plan for months.
印尼夾在自身棕櫚油工業所帶來的財務利益，與國際間日益高漲的保護森林聲浪之間，推廣這個二氧化碳交易計畫已有數月之久。


But there are plenty of skeptics, who doubt it will be possible to measure just how much carbon is being conserved – and who question whether the lands involved can be protected from illegal logging and corruption.
不過，有許多人對此持懷疑態度，他們懷疑能否量出到底節約了多少二氧化碳，以及參與這項計畫的土地能否逃脫盜伐和貪汙的魔掌。


But Mr. Helman has been ferrying a steady stream of foreign environmentalists and journalists in and out of the forest in recent weeks as the global climate talks took place on Bali.
不過在世界氣候變遷會議假峇里島舉行之際，海爾曼數周來不斷載運川流不息的外國環保人士和記者進出這片林地。


“I am so thankful for the recent attention,” he said. “At times it seems too late. But I see some hope now.”
他說：「外界近來的關注令我欣慰。有時這似乎來得太晚。不過我現在看到一些希望。」

If the Shoe Fits, Wear It. If Not, Design One.
鞋合腳則穿，不合就自己設計


Robert Klemm, who has 60 pairs of shoes in his own collection, went to the Steve Madden Web site to design the gingham pumps that his girlfriend, Kate Feehan, is wearing.

By Elizabeth Olson
Published: December 2, 2007

Even for the most dedicated shopper, finding just the right pair of shoes can be elusive. A store-to-store search ─ whether on the Web or at the mail ─ can take hours. Shoppers may think they've found the perfect pair, only to be stymied by a problem with fit, style or color.
即使最用心的買家，找雙合腳的鞋可也不容易。店一間一間地找，不管在網站還是商場，都可以花上好幾個鐘頭。買主句許認為已經找到最完美的鞋，結果卻有合不合腳、款式或顏色的問題作梗。


It's not that retailers don't try, as the huge shoe sections in department stores and Web sites like Zappos and Shoes.com, attest. But for those with very individual or exacting tastes ─ and with money to spare ─ some Internet retailers offer design-it-yourself options in footwear. Customization is more common with athletic shoes, but fashion footwear is beginning to catch up.
不是說零售業者不努力，這點百貨公司龐大的賣鞋部門和Zappos與Shoes.com的網站可以證明。但是對於那些品味非常獨特或要求很高，又花得起錢的人，某些網路零售業者提供自己設計鞋款的選項。量身打造運動鞋更為普遍，但時尚鞋類也開始急起直追。


Cale Valdez, a college student in Huntington, California, went to vans.com to find a memorale look for his wedding last month. He designed some red and black canvas slip-ons, which cost $40 a pair, for the wedding party, including matching lace-ups for his father-in-law.
加州杭廷頓的大學生卡列‧瓦德斯想為自己的婚禮找一套值得回憶的行頭，上個月找上vans.com網站。他為婚宴設計了一些紅色和黑色的休閒帆布鞋，每雙40美元，包括給老丈人配一隻綁帶鞋。


Nikeid.com, which attracts almost as many women as men, has customers who order undreds of pairs. The hip-hop disc jockey known as Clark Kent, of Brooklyn, has designed 350 pairs of shoes on the site, including his favorite, a pair of purple, black and teal Air Force 1's, which cost him about $275.
吸引男女性顧客人數幾乎一樣多的Nikeid.com，有訂製好幾百雙鞋子的顧客。布魯克林的嘻哈樂DJ克拉克‧肯特已經在這個網站設計了350雙鞋，包括他的最愛，一雙紫、黑、藍綠色空軍一號球鞋，花了他大約275美元。


"The biggest attraction is the ability to shock,"he said. "You want a pair that people notice so they ask you：'Where did you get those?'"
「最吸引人的地方是可以讓別人驚豔，」他說：「你想要有雙旁人注意到之後會間：『你這在哪兒買的？』」


While customized sneakers are available on many athletic shoe Web sites, fashion shoes are harder, although not impossible, to find.
在許多運動鞋網站都能找到量身訂製的球鞋，时尚鞋比較難找，但也還不至於說找不到。


For women who are willing to spend a large sum, there is Tupli, started three years ago.
願意花大錢的女性，不妨考慮三年前成立的Tupli。


"This is ideal for the woman who can imagine the perfect shoe but can't find it," said Kathy Myczowski, 34. She went into the individual shoe design business with Tamara Chubinidze, 26, who is from the Republic of Georgia, where such shoemaking is more prevalent and where Tupli's shoes are made.
「這對腦海中有完美鞋樣卻遍尋不著的女性很理想，」34歲的凱西‧麥佐夫斯基說。她和來自喬治亞共和國的塔馬拉‧裘比尼茲(26歲)一起進入設計個人鞋這一行，Tupli的鞋就是在個人設計鞋業更為盛行的喬治亞製造。


Clients can browse tupli.com for ideas and then send in their measurements, or be measured personally in New York. Tupli's clients ─ who include the actress Susan Sarandon ─ have choice of leather and suede, as well as embellishments like rhinestones and personal logos.
客戶可以瀏覽Tupli.com網站找靈感，再寄送個人尺寸，或親自在紐約量腳。Tupli的客戶，包括女星蘇珊莎蘭登，可以選擇皮革和麂皮，以及水鑽之類的裝飾和個人標誌。


Prices for Tupli footwear (a name derived from the Russian word for shoe) start at a hefty $750 for shoes and $1,450 for boots, and customers must wait six to eight weeks for them.
Tupli(名稱源於俄文的「鞋」)的鞋價從750美元高價起跳，靴子要1450美元，客戶必須等六到八周才能拿到貨。


Those who want a less expensive made-to-order shoe that won't take as long to arrive can turn to Stevemadden.com.
想要比較便宜的訂製鞋，又不願等這麼久的人，可以找Stevemadden.com。

If you don’t like the shoes you find in the stores, you can go to a Web site like Stevemadden.com and choose your own color, pattern, style and size.

Steven Madden, founder of the company, says more than 100,000 pairsof design-your-own shoes have been sold through the site, where the prices range from $90 to $170.
公司創辦人史提夫‧梅登表示，網站已賣出逾10萬隻個人訂製鞋，售價從90美元到170美元。


To Mary . Johnson, 22, online design is about owning something unique.On Stevemadden.com,she designed some bailet flats in a purple shade and trimmed them in red.
對22歲的瑪莉‧強森來說，線上設計是要擁有某些獨特的東西。在Stevemadden.com網站上，她設計了一些紫色底滾紅邊的芭蕾平底娃娃鞋。


"This is something you make yourself," she said, "instead of settling for what's out there."
「這是你自己做的東西，」她說：「而不是將就現成的東西。」

Glenn Gould, the Artist and the Industry


鋼琴家顧爾德與他的相關產業


By Bernard Holland


When Glenn Gould died in 1982, a victim of a stroke at the unseemly age of 50, his red-hot reputation had calmed to a simmer. Gould, a sufferer from extreme stage fright but a winner in the stock market, had quit performing in public 18 years earlier, using the proceeds of his financial ventures to soften the burdens of early retirement. Much of his time later was spent with television projects in his native Toronto.
葛倫‧顧爾德1982年50歲死於中風時，他當紅時期如日中天的名氣已冷落。有嚴重舞台恐懼症的顧爾德是股市大贏家，在去世之前18年就不再公開演出，用他金融投資的獲利減輕提早退休的負擔。他退休後大部分時間都花在家鄉多倫多的電視節目上。


In death, Gould came to life. Music business operatives appeared suddenly and in hordes, claiming hitherto unnoticed intimacy with the great pianist and eager to share their experiences.
顧爾德死後又活躍起來。音樂事業經營者成群結隊出現，宣稱和這位偉大的鋼琴家有迄今仍不為人知的交情，並渴望與人分享他們的經驗。


Maybe they belonged to the tens of thousands who were present at the infamous premiere of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” or the opening night of “My Fair Lady.” The less privileged had to fall back on the newly spruced-up Gould recordings rushed into re-release.
也許他們是惡名昭彰的史特拉汶斯基「春之祭」首演或「窈窕淑女」首演夜的幾萬名觀眾之一。比較沒有特權的則要靠一窩蜂重新發行的全新包裝顧爾德唱片。


Brisk business was done over his body, and it hasn’t stopped yet. A cleaned-up version of his career-making 1955 recording of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations appeared this year and is now prominently on sale. Just recently I received a published photo album filled with childhood memorabilia. What’s next: the Glenn Gould coloring book?
大賺顧爾德死人錢的生意興隆，而且沒有停止跡象。顧爾德1955年錄製的成名作—巴赫的「郭德堡」變奏曲整理版今年出現在市場上，現在擺在顯眼的銷售位置。最近我還收到一本印刷的照片簿，裡面滿是顧爾德的童年記事。接下來是什麼：顧爾德的塗色本？


No one before or since has had the dexterity to make such transparent child’s play of Bach’s severest contrapuntal puzzles. That he played these pieces at such blinding speeds was not necessarily because he should have; I think he just wanted us to know that he could. To his great credit, Gould’s playing never complicated the simple. It is easy to decorate naked melody, extraordinarily difficult to keep its simplicity intact.
顧爾德把巴赫最嚴格的對位演奏得如此純真，他的純熟技巧空前絕後。他以令人眼花撩亂的速度彈奏這些曲子，未必因為他必須如此；我認為他只是要我們知道他做得到。顧爾德最值得讚賞的，是他的演奏從未把簡單的曲子複雜化。要裝飾無修飾的旋律很容易，要完全保持它的簡單卻極困難。


In the “serious” music usually associated with him – Bach, Beethoven and Mozart – Gould was happy to visit outrage on received wisdom. Yet he played Grieg and Brahms with docile acceptance of tradition.
在演奏經常和顧爾德連在一起的「嚴肅」音樂時，像是巴赫、貝多芬和莫札特，他樂於顛覆公認的技法。但他演奏葛利格和布拉姆斯時，則溫順地接受傳統。


Tales of his personal oddities were a thriving spinoff industry. There was Gould bundled up for blizzard conditions in tropical summer heat. His inhibitions about touching or being touched in later years limited human contact.
有關他個人怪癖的軼事是極有賣點的衍生產業。他曾在熱帶夏天高溫下，把自己包得像在大風雪天一般。他生前最後幾年避免觸碰他人或被觸碰，限制了他與人的接觸。


The Gould legacy is of great value if we put it in the right place. He is the most interesting Bach player in memory, but when taken as a model of how Bach should sound, he is a catastrophe.
我們若把顧爾德留給後世的遺產放在正確位置，它有極高價值。他是記憶中演奏巴赫最有趣的演奏家，但把他當成巴赫音樂應該如何的典範，他是個大災難。


With Angela Hewitt’s recent presentation of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” at Zankel Hall still in the ears, I have been going back to the Gould recordings of these preludes and fugues on Sony Classical. At a number of moments, Bach is brilliantly served. Gould’s intelligent use of astonishing muscular control in the C sharp and E flat fugues of Book 1 gives separate personalities to two and three voices in simultaneous conversation, this on a modern piano constructed to make individual notes sound uniform rather than distinctive.
安琪拉‧休伊特最近在卡內基音樂廳內桑凱爾廳演奏的巴赫平均律鋼琴曲仍在耳邊繚繞，我已回頭聽新力古典樂輯中顧爾德的這些前奏曲和賦格曲。在某些時候，他把巴赫詮釋得極巧妙。在平均律鋼琴曲第一冊的升C調和降E調賦格曲中，顧爾德聰明地利用驚人的肌肉掌控，賦予同時對話的兩三個聲音不同的個性，他是在現代鋼琴上演奏，而現代鋼琴的建構是讓個別音符聽起來統一，不是有區別性。


There are similar if occasional satisfactions. The rest is a series of assaults. They behave like satires, discreet lampoons of how everybody but Glenn Gould plays Bach. You hear a brilliant adolescent insulting his elders.
演奏中有類似的滿足，就算只是偶爾出現。其餘則是一連串攻擊，作風像諷刺作品，謹慎的諷刺顧爾德以外的人如何演奏巴赫。你聽到一個聰明的青少年汙辱他的長輩。


Gould’s concepts can be horrifying, like ice water thrown in the face, but they are always fascinating. The famous C major Prelude of Book 1 makes a simple request for flowing arpeggios; Gould chops the phrases into half-legato, half-staccato. The C sharp Prelude and E minor Fugue from Book 1 are made ridiculously fast, and these are just two examples of show-off acceleration.
顧爾德的觀念十分駭人，像冰水潑在臉上，但總是令人著迷。第一冊中著名的降C大調前奏曲簡單的要求流動的琶音；顧爾德把樂句切成半連奏、半斷奏。第一冊的升C調前奏曲和E小調賦格曲以快得離譜的速度彈奏，這只是炫耀加速度的兩個例子。


Revolutionaries get our attention, and often for the better, but whom would you want running New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or Che Guevara? But keep the Gould recordings close by; they keep us stirred up. No matter how you do it, he said, I’ll do it differently.
革命家引起我們注意，而且經常是為了變得更好，但你希望誰來治理紐約市，是彭博還是切‧格瓦拉？但請把顧爾德的唱片放在身邊；這些音樂讓我們熱血沸騰。他說，不管你怎麼演奏，我都會用不同的方式來演奏。

Farmers Say Time Is Right for Biotech Beets


種植基改甜菜 農民指時機成熟


By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: November 27, 2007


Each growing season, like many other sugar beet farmers bedeviled by weeds, Robert Green repeatedly and painstakingly applies herbicides in a process he compares to treating cancer with chemotherapy.
每逢耕作季節，羅伯特‧葛林一如為雜草所苦的其他許多甜菜農，一再辛苦使用除草劑，他把這個過程比做用化療治癌症。

Robert Green will plant the modified sugar beets on his farm in North Dakota next spring.


In his right hand, Duane Grant holds a genetically engineered sugar beet, next to a conventional beet. Once refined, the sugar from each would be the same, sucrose.

“You give small doses of products that might harm the crop, but it harms the weeds a little more,” said Mr. Green, who plants about 360 hectares in beets in St. Thomas, North Dakota.
葛林說：「噴灑少量除草劑，可能傷害農作物，但傷害雜草多一點。」他在北達科他州聖湯瑪斯種了約360公頃甜菜。


But next spring, for the first time, Mr. Green intends to plant beets genetically engineered to withstand Monsanto’s powerful Roundup herbicide. The Roundup will destroy the weeds but leave his crop unscathed, potentially saving him thousands of dollars in tractor fuel and labor.
但明年春天，葛林首次打算改種基因改造甜菜，這種甜菜耐得住孟山都公司的強力除草劑Roundup。Roundup會摧毀雜草，但不致傷害作物，可望幫他省下數千美元牽引機燃料費和勞力。


For Mr. Green and many other beet farmers, it is technology too long delayed. And the engineered beets could clear the way for the eventual planting of other biotech crops like wheat, rice and potatoes, which were also stalled.
對葛林和其他許多甜菜農，那是姍姍來遲的科技。基改甜菜可為未來種植小麥、稻米、馬鈴薯等其他生物科技作物鋪路，那些基改作物也擱置了很久。


Seven years ago, beet breeders were on the verge of introducing Roundup-resistant seeds. But they had to pull back after sugar-using food companies like Hershey and Mars, fearing consumer resistance, balked at the idea of biotech beets. Now, sensing that those concerns have subsided, many processors have cleared their growers to plant the Roundup-resistant beets next spring.
七年前，甜菜育種業者準備引進抗Roundup的種子。但因賀喜、瑪氏等使用糖的食品公司擔心消費者抗拒，對種植生技甜菜的想法猶豫不前，育種業者只好打退堂鼓。現在，他們發覺那些關切已平息，很多加工業者已同意旗下甜菜農明春種植抗除草劑Roundup的甜菜。


It would be the first new type of genetically engineered food crop widely grown since the 1990s, when biotech soybeans, corn and a few other crops entered the market.
這將是1990年代生技黃豆、玉米和其他少數作物進入市場以來，第一個廣泛種植的新基改食用作物。


“Basically, we have not run into resistance,” said David Berg, president of American Crystal Sugar, the nation’s largest sugar beet processor. “We really think that consumer attitudes have come to accept food from biotechnology.”
「基本上，我們沒有遇到阻力，」全美最大甜菜加工業者「美國冰糖公司」總裁大衛‧柏格說：「我們真的認為，消費者的態度已經能夠接受生技食品。」


A Kellogg spokeswoman, Kris Charles, said her company “would not have any issues” buying such sugar for products sold in the United States, where she said “most consumers are not concerned about biotech.”
家樂氏公司發言人克莉絲‧查爾斯說，她的公司買這種糖來製作在美國銷售的產品，「不會有任何問題」。她說，美國「多數消費者不在意生物科技」。


Both Hershey and Mars declined to comment. When it comes to genetically modified crops, there is a reason to keep the introduction of them out of the public eye – to avoid protests. Some opponents of biotechnology are only now getting notice that the sugar beets have been resurrected.
賀喜和瑪氏兩公司都拒絕置評。只要涉及基改作物，為了避免抗議，大有理由不讓民眾知道引進這種作物。有些反對生物科技的人士直到現在才注意到基改甜菜已經敗部復活。


“When I first saw this I said, ‘No, it can’t be,’” said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. “I thought we had already dealt with this.”
「第一次看到這個時，我說：『不對，不可能。』」全美有機消費者協會主任羅尼‧卡明茲說：「我還以為我們已經搞定這件事。」


His organization issued a call to arms and thousands of identical e-mail messages were sent to Mr. Berg at American Crystal Sugar warning that “profit margins of your company and its supporting farmers” would be hurt by consumer resistance.
他的組織號召準備戰鬥，成千上萬內容相同的電子郵件寄給美國冰糖公司的柏格，電郵警告說，「貴公司的獲利率和協力農民」將因消費者抗拒而受到損害。


Mr. Berg said he still believed that most consumers would accept biotech crops. Mr. Cummins, however, said he would next try to persuade consumers to pressure food companies to boycott the sugar.
柏格說， 他仍然認為，大多數消費者會接受生技作物。但卡明茲說，他接下來會努力說服消費者對食品公司施壓，要他們抵制這種糖。


The genetically engineered seeds will cost at least twice as much as conventional seeds. But Duane Grant, who grows about 2,000 hectares of sugar beets in Rupert, Idaho, said the extra seed outlays would be offset by other savings. He said his annual herbicide costs would drop to $90 a hectare, from $180, and he would no longer have to hire migrant workers to pull weeds by hand.
基改種子的成本至少是傳統種子的兩倍。但在愛達荷州魯伯特種了大約2,000公頃甜菜的杜恩．葛蘭特說，種子的額外花費會因其他方面省錢而抵銷。他表示，他每年花在除草劑上的費用將從每公頃180美元降到90美元，他也不再需要雇用外勞來拔除雜草。


Mr. Grant, who was designated by the national beet growers’ association as its spokesman on this issue, also said Roundup would have to be sprayed only two or three times during the spring-to-fall growing season, while the existing herbicides must be sprayed five times or more.
獲美國甜菜種植者協會指派為基改作物問題發言人的葛蘭特還說，在春天到秋天的種植季，Roundup只須噴灑兩三次，現有的除草劑卻至少要噴灑五次。


Beets account for about half the United States’s sugar supply, with the rest coming from sugar cane. The sugar from beets and cane, generally considered interchangeable, is used in candies, cereals, cakes and numerous other products.
甜菜占美國糖供應量的大約一半，另一半來自甘蔗。甜菜和甘蔗製造的糖公認可以互換，用在糖果、穀片、糕餅和其他很多產品上。


When genetically engineered versions of soybeans and corn – as well as cotton and canola – were introduced in the mid-1990s, farmers quickly adopted them. But opposition to genetically engineered crops then took hold, particularly in Europe. Food companies, fearing protests or loss of customers, pressured farmers not to grow the crops.
基改黃豆、玉米及棉花、油菜在1990年代中期引進時，農民迅速採用。但當時反對基改作物的觀念根深柢固，尤其是歐洲。食品公司擔心民眾抗議或失去消費者，施壓迫使農民不種這些作物。


Alan G. Dexter, a sugar beet specialist at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota, said that in a survey he conducted, 57 percent of beet growers cited weeds as their biggest problem. “The sugar beet growers are going to adopt this technology immediately,” he said.
北達科他州立大學及明尼蘇達大學甜菜專家艾倫．戴克塞特說，在他所做的一項調查中，57%的甜菜農指出，雜草是他們最大的問題。他說：「甜菜種植者將立刻採用這種科技。」

Hobbies Are Rich in Psychic Rewards
培養嗜好 提升工作表現
By EILENE ZIMMERMAN
Published: December 2, 200

Q. Between work and family, you have little time or energy left for hobbies. Without them, though, life feels mundane. What can you do about it?
問：工作家庭兩頭忙，找不出時間或餘力培養嗜好。但無嗜好令人俗。該怎麼辦？


A. Make time for them because those moments can change your mood and your mind-set.
答：盡量挪出時間培養嗜好。因為那些時刻，可以改變一個人的情緒和心態。


When people do things that make them feel good, like a hobby, it activates an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens that controls how we feel about life, said Dr. S. Ausim Azizi, chairman of the department of neurology at Temple University’s School of Medicine in Philadelphia who studies brain activity and cell signaling. Activities you enjoy also stimulate the brain’s septal zone – its “feel good” area – and that makes you feel happy, said Dr. Azizi.
專門研究人腦活動與細胞訊號的費城天普大學醫學院神經學系主任奧辛‧阿濟齊博士說，當你在做心情愉快的事，例如培養業餘嗜好時，會啟動控制我們生活感受，人腦中稱為「阿肯柏氏核」的區域。阿濟齊說，人們從事喜歡的活動也會激活人腦「中隔區」，亦即「感覺美好」區，讓人感到快樂。


Q. Are hobbies good for you?
問：嗜好對人有什麼好處嗎？


A. Yes, and in many ways. Hobbies can enhance your creativity, help you think more clearly and sharpen your focus, said Carol Kauffman, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School. “When you’re really engaged in a hobby you love, you lose your sense of time and enter what’s called a flow state, and that restores your mind and energy,” she said. In a flow state, you are submerged in an experience, requiring a high level of concentration. Research shows strong correlations between flow states and peak performance, she said.
答：是的，而且是多方面的。哈佛醫學院臨床助理教授卡洛‧考夫曼說，嗜好可增強創造力，讓人思考更清晰，注意力更集中。她說：「當人們真的沈浸於自己喜愛的嗜好中時，會喪失時間感，進入所謂流暢狀態，進而恢復腦力與體力。」處於流暢狀態時，人們會一頭栽進需要高度專注的經驗中。她說，研究結果顯示，流暢狀態與顛峰表現兩者密不可分。


Being in that heightened state of concentration raises the levels of neurotransmitters in your brain that keep you focused and interested in what you’re doing and that energize you, said Dr. Gabriela Corá, a psychiatrist who is managing partner of the Florida Neuroscience Center and president of Executive Health and Wealth Institute, an executive coaching firm in Miami.
精神病學家賈布芮拉‧柯拉博士說，高度專注狀態，可提高人腦神經傳導物質的濃度，讓人集中注意力，並對所做的事感興趣，讓人精神百倍。柯拉為「佛羅里達神經學中心」管理合夥人，以及邁阿密高階主管培訓公司「高階主管健康與財富研究所」總裁。


“Making time for enjoyable activities stimulates parts of the brain associated with creative and positive thinking. You become emotionally and intellectually more motivated,” she said.
她說：「騰出時間，做樂在其中的活動，可刺激人腦中與創意及正面思考相關的區域。在感性和知性上，動機變得更強烈。」


Hobbies also enhance self-esteem and self-confidence, said Michelle P. Maidenberg, a psychotherapist and business coach in New York. “When people rely only on their role at work to foster self-esteem, that alone cannot typically fulfill their needs,” she said.
紐約心理治療師兼企業教練米雪‧梅登柏格說，嗜好也可提高自尊與自信。她說：「當人們只靠工作角色培養自尊時，一般而言，光靠這點，無法滿足他們的需求。」


Q. Can a hobby make you better at your job?
問：培養嗜好可讓職場表現更出色？


A. Yes, because doing something you enjoy can help you think more creatively and give you confidence. Ms. Kauffman said a hobby could even help prepare you for a difficult meeting, making you more sure of yourself and energetic. “Let’s say you are passionate about opera. Google your favorite opera piece and listen for five or six minutes,” she said. “That positive emotion builds your cognitive and social skills. If you follow your bliss for a little while, it really gives you a surge of energy.”
答：是的，因為做自己愛做的事，可幫助思考更有創意，並讓人充滿自信。考夫曼女士說，嗜好甚至可幫助人們為難搞的會議做好準備，讓你更有信心、精力充沛。她說：「比方說你很迷歌劇。用Google搜尋你喜歡的歌劇曲目，聽個五、六分鐘。這種正面情緒有助於建立認知與社交技巧。如能延續這種幸福感一陣子，就能真的大幅振作精神。」


Challenging hobbies may inspire ideas that will help you at work – leading, for example, to a new approach to making presentations, solving problems. “Any time you take a break from routine, you develop new ways of thinking,” said Gail McMeekin, a psychotherapist and owner of Creative Success, a career coaching company in Boston.
帶有挑戰性的嗜好能激發點子，而這些點子在職場上可幫上忙，例如，讓人找到作簡報與解決問題的新方向。心理治療師與波士頓生涯教練公司「創造力的成功」經營者蓋兒‧麥米金說：「每當你從例行工作抽空休息，都會發展出新的思考方式。」


Q. How can you tell if your hobby is something you should pursue professionally?
問：怎麼知道嗜好是否可以發展成事業？


A. The tipping point is reached when you are far more interested in your hobby than your job and when work feels like a waste of time, Ms. McMeekin said.
答: 麥米金說，關鍵點在你對業餘嗜好的興趣遠大於工作時，以及覺得工作是浪費時間之際。


“You have to do some market research first and make sure you could earn a living doing your hobby. You also take the risk that making your hobby your career will take all the fun out of it,” she said.
她說：「你必須先做點市調，確定能靠嗜好謀生。你同時也在冒險，當嗜好變成事業時，所有的樂趣也跟著消失。」