-
中华文化英文讲系列
p>
有着
800
多年建都史的北京城具有丰富的
市井文化,
从老百姓居住的胡同、四合院,到民间杂耍、斗蛐蛐儿、养
< br>金鱼、遛鸟儿、鸽子哨,都同皇家文化一道,构成了北京悠
久的历史文化传统。随
着国际交往的不断加深,很多来北京
的外国朋友已不再局限于游览恢弘的故宫、天坛、长
城等经
典景区,他们还愿意去胡同走走,坐坐人力三轮车,徜徉于
市井民风中,感受最接地气的老北京文化。还有一些常驻北
京工作、学习的外国朋友,
也喜欢在周末和节假日出来走走
逛逛,体味北京的风土人情。那么,如何用英语跟老外聊
聊
北京的民风民韵,让他们乘兴而来、满意而归呢?今儿个我
们
就先来了解一下北京的胡同,学习介绍胡同的英语表达吧!
我们现
在通常所说的社区(
community
)其实在老北京
人那里早就有了,那就是“胡同”
。关于“胡同”的英文表
达,有两种处理方法:一种是直接音译为
hutong
< br>(英文中
一般将
hutong
视
为单复数同形,
因此下面英文部分中复数形
式的
hutong
也没有加
s
)<
/p>
,了解中国文化的老外也都可以理
解;
还
有一种方法就是采用英文中的对应词
alley
,
alley
在
《柯
林斯高阶
英汉双解学习词典》
中的英文释义如下:
“
An alley is
a narrow passage or
street with buildings or walls on both
sides.
”虽然
alley
不足以
表达“胡同”的意思,但是对于初
来中国、对中国文化不甚了解的外国人来说,
alley
这个词可
能更容易理解。
北京的胡同起源于元朝。
通常认为,
“胡同”
p>
一词最早来源于蒙古语,意思是“水井”
,因为那时候人们
的水源多是水井,生活的区域就是以水井为中心的。
< br>在向
外国朋友介绍胡同的概况时,可以参考下面这段英文表达。
< br>
Beijing has a community of
alleys
,
or
“
hutong
”
in
Chinese. These are the
centuries-old
,
tree-lined alleyways that
are the true heartbeat of this unique
city and a real-life link to
its
fascinating past. The alleys go back almost 800
years to the
Yuan Dynasty and are in
fact a Mongol invention. After Genghis
Khan
’
s
(成吉思汗)
unruly
hordes reduced Beijing to
rubble
,
the
capital was redesigned with these narrow alleyways
crisscrossing the city. In
fact
,
the word
p>
“
hutong
”
comes from
the Mongolian
word for
“
well
,
p>
”
as people living
in that period
inhabited areas around
wells which were their source of water.
By the Qing Dynasty there were
2
,
000
hutong
,
and by
the
1950s that figure had almost
trebled.
(
Based on
BBC
:
Old
Beijing at Its Timeless
Best
)
胡同的生活相比于现代化的城市生
活有很多独特之处。
闹中取静是胡同的一个显著特点――胡同地处城市中心,却
没有集市和街道的喧哗。这是因为胡同一般比较狭窄,没有
现代化交通工
具带来的噪音,多是黄包车走街串巷。但是,
这并不是说胡同里是死一般的沉寂,来来往
往的小贩叫卖声
仍然让胡同散发出生活的气息和生机。当然,城市现代化逐
渐侵蚀了古老的胡同。现在,即使是在留存下来的胡同中,
也免不了听到私家
汽车的鸣笛声和马达声。
需要说明的是,在旧时,胡同里的主要交通工具并不是
我们现在常看到的三轮脚踏车,
而是黄包车。
在英文里,
“黄
包车”一词是
rick
shaw
,源于日语,在《柯林斯高阶英汉双
解学习词典》
p>
的英文释义如下:
“
A rickshaw
is a simple vehicle
that is used in
Asia for carrying passengers. Some rickshaws are
pulled by a man who walks or runs in fr
ont.
”旧时胡同里的黄
包车对应的就是该释义的后一句话。
上文所述的胡同的特
点可以用英文表
达如下。
In the old
days
,
life in the
hutong remained peaceful and
provided
an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Although located
downtown
,
the
hutong were free from the
noise of
traffic
,
as they
were too narrow to bear much.
Instead
,
rickshaws went up and down and
hawkers
’
shouts
greeted the
whole neighborhood.
The
modern life style
,
however
,
has gradually broken
the
tranquility as private cars have rushed into the
hutong and
the shouts of hawkers have
disappeared as modern grocers and
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