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Books & Arts
Skiing滑雪
The white stuff
白雪皑皑
Jan 8th 2009
From The Economist print edition
“TO SKI, however well or poorly, is a reminder—whatever one may for a long time have suspected—that one is alive, and that living is tremendous fun. There isn’t any other game to compare with it in the world.” So wrote James Riddell after winning the Kandahar Ski Club’s Inferno downhill race in Mürren, Switzerland, in 1929. Riddell went on to become the father of modern ski journalism. Charlie English is his heir in more ways than one.
“无论身体健康还是欠佳，滑雪去，这是一个提示（不管一个人长时间有什么可怀疑的）——你还活着，而且活着是极其有趣的。世界上没有任何其它运动可与滑雪相媲美。”这是詹姆斯•瑞德１９２９年在瑞士米伦赢得坎大哈滑雪俱乐部“地狱杯”速降滑雪赛后所写的。瑞德以后成了现代滑雪报刊业的创始人。查理•英格力士在很多方面是他的后继者。
Mr English, an associate editor of the Guardian, is a polymath who wears his learning lightly. His book is a cracking read that deserves to be by the bedside of every keen skier or snowboarder. Indeed, it is the phenomenon of snow, as much as skiing—or boarding, which he prefers—that fascinates him.
英格力士先生是《卫报》的副编辑，是一位略显才华的博学者。他的书非常出色，值得每一个滑雪爱好者或运动员放在床边常翻。实际上，下雪对他的吸引力如同滑雪一样（或者是他更喜欢的坐飞机）。
He began skiing as a child in the Cairngorm mountains, in central Scotland, and even remembers taking home a Thermos flask of snow as a souvenir. While researching this book Mr English makes a moving return to the Cairngorms, even camping out alone there in the snow. But he also travels more widely, to Washington state to try to ascertain whether Paradise or Mount Baker has the highest annual snowfall in the world, and among the Inuits where he learns to build igloos. In Vienna he goes in search of Bruegel’s “The Hunters in the Snow”, which he believes to be “the fairest portrait of winter” ever painted.
他从小就开始在苏格兰中部的黑水晶山脉（凯恩戈姆山脉）滑雪，甚至记得曾将一暖壶雪带回家作为纪念。在探究写作这本书时，他回到了黑水晶山，甚至在雪中独自露营。而且，他还做了更广泛的旅行，去华盛顿州试图探明是否天堂山或贝克山有世界上最厚的年降雪，在因纽特人中间学习建筑艺阁庐（圆顶雪屋）。在维也纳他去寻找伯鲁盖尔的“雪中猎人”，他认为那是人们曾经画过的“最美的雪的肖像”。
He describes his (failed) attempt to complete the Haute Route, one of the world’s most renowned ski-mountaineering itineraries from Chamonix to Zermatt. Along the way he became afraid and lost his nerve. At the same time his relationship with his French guide, Philippe, became fraught, especially when the guide challenged him: “I think you are dead while you are alive. More and more I think society is made up of people like you. You take risk unconsciously. When you are in the town, or driving your car, you take risk but you don’t think about it. Now you are with me, and this is a conscious risk, you say you will not take it. But if you do not come, you will feel bad. Will you take it?”
他描述他的（失败的）试图完成“华美路线”的努力，这是一条从夏蒙尼到泽马特的世界上最著名的滑雪登山路线之一。在途中，他变得恐惧并失去了勇气。同时他与其法国向导菲利普的关系变得充满忧虑，特别是当这位向导向他提出质疑时：“我认为你死了，虽然你还活着。我越来越觉得社会就是由象你这样的人组成的。你无意识地去冒险。当你在城里时，或开车时，你是在冒险，但你并不思考它。现在你和我在一起，这是一个有意识的冒险，你说你不这么认为。但是如果你不来，你将感觉更糟。你接受吗？”
Mr English hears what he has to say, but opts out all the same. Many off-piste skiers will identify with this situation. This is a well-rounded work by a well-rounded, if snow-obsessed, writer. But then, there are worse obsessions.
英格力士先生害怕听到自己不得不说的话，但是他依然决定退出。很多非场地滑雪者会认同这种情形。这是由一位成熟的、即使是被雪迷住的作者写的一部丰满多姿的作品。不过，这里还有更严重的痴迷。
The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall
By Charlie English
Portobello Books; 280 pages; £14.99
Buy it at
Amazon.com
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发表于 2010-4-29 04:13
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