大女孩-个人计划

1. New York is a city of things unnoticed. It is a city with cats sleeping
under parked cars, two stone armadillos crawling up St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, and thousands of ants creeping on top of the Empire State
Building. The ants probably were carried there by winds or birds, but
nobody is sure; nobody in New York knows any more about the ants than
they do about the panhandler who takes taxis to the Bowery; or the
dapper man who picks trash out of Sixth Avenue trash cans; or the
medium in the West Seventies who claims, ‘I’m clairvoyant, clairaudient
and clairsensuous.’aaaaa
纽约拥有 众多不为人注意的事物。在这个城市有猫睡在停泊的车下，
两只犰狳攀上圣帕特里克教堂，还有成千的蚂 蚁爬上帝国大厦的楼
顶。那些蚂蚁或许是被风或者鸟带上去的，可谁也说不准。在纽约没
有人了 解蚂蚁，就像他们不知道那个乞丐去保利 区乞讨时乘的是出
租车；还有那个衣冠楚楚的家伙专门在第 6 大街从垃圾筒里捡垃圾；
还有西 70 街的那位灵媒宣称：“我无所不见、无所不闻、无所不觉。”
2. New York is a city for eccentrics and a center for odd bits of
information. New Yorkers blink twenty-eight times a minute, but forty
when tense. Most popcorn chewers at Yankee Stadium stop chewing
momentarily just before the pitch. Gumchewers on Macy's escalators stop
chewing momentarily just before they, get off —— to concentrate on the
last step. Coins, paper clips, ball-point pens, and little girls' pocketbooks
are found by work-men when they clean the sea lions' pool at the Bronx

Zoo.
纽约是一个古怪者的天堂，是奇事异闻的中心。纽约人每分钟眨 28
次眼睛，但在感到紧张时则眨 40 次。在扬基体育馆， 嚼爆米花的
观众们在投球前大多会 暂时停止咀嚼。在美茜百货店的自动扶梯上，
吃口香糖的人们也会在下最后一级时暂时停止 咀嚼。布朗克斯动物
园的工人们在清理海狮池则捞出硬币、回形针、圆珠笔和小姑娘的小
皮夹。
3. A Park Avenue doorman has parts of three bullets in his head ——
there since World War I. Several young gypsy daughters, influenced by
television and literacy, are running away from home because they don't
want to grow up and become fortune-tellers. Each month a hundred
pounds of hair are delivered to Louis Feder on 545 Fifth Avenue, where
blond hairpieces are made from German women's hair; brunette
hairpieces from Italian women's hair; but no hairpieces from American
women's hair which, says Mr. Feder, is weak from too frequent rinses and
permanents.
帕克街一位门房的脑袋里有 3 颗子弹的碎片——它们从第一次世界
大战起就留在那里了。还有几个年轻的吉普赛人的女儿 受了电视和
文化的影响，她们生怕长大，生怕会变成算命的，于是离家出走。每
个月，有 100 磅头发运到第五大街 545 号的路 易斯·费达的店里。
在那儿，德国女人的头发用来做金 色假发，意大利女人的头发用来做
棕色假发。但是，从来不用美国女人的头发做假发，因为费达先生说，

美国女人洗头太勤，烫发太多，因此发质太弱。
4. Some of New York's best informed men are elevator operators, who
rarely talk, but always Listen —— like doormen. Sardi's doormen listen
to the comments made by Broadway's first-nighters walking by after the
last act. They listen closely. They listen carefully. Within ten minutes they
can tell you which shows will flop and which will be hits.
在纽约，消息最灵通的要算电梯操作工了。和门房一样，他们说话不多，但时常注意听。每当百老汇某场戏剧的首演结束，莎尔蒂剧院的
门房就会聆听散场观众路过时的 对话。他们听得很关注，听得很仔细。
十分钟内他们就能告诉你哪出戏会失败， 哪出戏将走红。
5. On Broadway each evening a big, dark, 1948 Rolls-Royce pulls into
Forty-sixth Street —— and out hop two little ladies armed with Bibles
and signs reading,
stand on the corner screaming at the multitudes of Broadway sinners,
sometimes until three a.m., when their chauffeur in the Rolls picks them
up and drives them back to Westchester.
在百老汇， 每天傍晚都会有一辆黑色的 1948 年的大劳斯劳埃斯轿
车开进第 56 街——从车里跳出来两位小个子女士， 手持《圣经》
和标语，标语上写着：“遭神咒的必亡。”两位女 士接着站在街角，朝
着百老汇的芸芸罪人们叫喊，有时直到凌晨 3 点。 这时司机会开着
那辆劳斯劳埃斯来接她们，将她们送回威斯切斯特。
6. By this time Fifth Avenue is deserted by all but a few strolling

insomniacs, some cruising cabdrivers, and a group of sophisticated
females who stand in store windows all night and day wearing cold,
perfect smiles. Like sentries they line Fifth Avenue —— these window
mannequins who gaze onto the quiet street with tilted heads and pointed
toes and long rubber fingers reaching for cigarettes that aren't there.
此时，第 5 大街已是了无人迹．只有几个失眠的人在闲逛，和几辆
出租车在游弋。还有一些 神情肃然的女性，整天整夜肃立在商店橱窗
内，脸上挂着冷漠、完美的笑容。她们像哨兵似的，沿着第 5 大街
排列着——这些橱窗模特儿，凝视着静谧的街头，搔首弄姿。她们有
着修长的脚趾，长 长的橡皮手指向前伸着，仿佛想接那根本不存在的
香烟。
7. At five a.m., Manhattan is a town of tired trumpet players and
homeward-bound bartenders. Pigeons control Park Avenue and strut
unchallenged in the middle of the street. This is Manhattan's mellowest
hour. Most night people are out of sight —— but the day people have not
yet appeared. Truck drivers and cabs are alert, yet they do not disturb the
mood. They do not disturb the abandoned Rockefeller Center, or the
motionless night watchmen in the Fulton Fish Market, or the gas-station
attendant sleeping next to Sloppy Louie's with the radio on.
早上 5 点，曼哈顿属于那些疲惫的小号吹奏手和回家的酒吧侍应。
鸽子占据了帕克大街。它们走在马路的中央， 如入无人之境。这是曼
哈顿最美好的时刻。过夜生活的人大多已经销声匿迹——而白天工作

的人则尚未出门。卡车和出租车司机们保持着警觉，但他们并不惊扰
此时的气氛。他们不惊扰 寂寥的洛克菲勒中心，以及福尔顿鱼市场那
一动不动的看门人，以及开着收音机，自己倚在斯洛比·路易 快餐店
边上睡着了的加油站服务员。
8. At five a.m., the Broadway regulars either have gone home or to
all-night coffee shops where, under the glaring light, you see their
whiskers and wear. And on Fifty-first Street a radio press car is parked at
the curb with a photographer who has nothing to do. So he just sits there
for a few nights, looks through the windshield and soon becomes a keen
observer of life after midnight.
早上 5 点，百老汇的常客们不是回家了，就是在通宵咖啡馆里。在
咖 啡馆眩目的灯光下，看得见男人的胡须和女人的脂粉。 在第 5 大
街，一辆无线电采访车停在路边。 车内的摄影记者百无聊赖。他只是
连着几夜坐在车内，望着挡风玻璃外的一切。很快，他饶有兴味地观< br>察起午夜后的夜生活来。
9. one says, is filled with wise guys and with
kids coming out of the Astor Hotel in white dinner jackets —— kids who
drive to dances in their fathers' cars. You also see cleaning ladies going
home, always wearing kerchiefs. By two a.m. some of the drinkers are
getting out of hand, and this is the hour for bar fights. At three a.m. the
last show is over, in the nightclubs, and most of the tourists and
out-of-town buyers are back in hotels. And small-time comedians are

criticizing big-time comedians in Hanson's Drugstore. At four a.m., after
the bars close, you see the drunks come out —— and also the pimps and
prostitutes, who take advantage of drunks. At five a.m., though, it is
mostly quiet. New York is an entirely different city at five a.m.
“早上 1 点，”他说，“百老汇到处是 些聪明人，还有不少小伙子穿
着白色的礼服从埃斯特宾馆出来——这些小伙子是开着父亲的车来
跳舞的。你还可以看见回家的清洁女工，她们总是头戴头巾。到 2 点
时，有些饮酒的人开始失去控制。这是酒吧 殴斗的时刻。3 点，夜
总会最后一场演出结束 了。这时，大多数游客以及外地来的购物者们
已经回到了酒店里。在汉森药房里， 默默无闻的喜剧演员会对喜剧
明星们大加抨击。4 点，酒吧打烊了，你看得见醉汉们走出来，还有
拉皮条的和妓女们占醉汉的便宜。然而，到了早上 5 点，一切大多
静寂下来。凌晨 5 点的纽约成了一个完全不同的城市。
10. At six a.m., the early workers begin to push up from the subways. The
traffic begins to move down Broadway like a river. And Mrs. Mary
Woody jumps out of bed, dashes to her office and phones dozens of
sleepy New Yorkers to say in a cheerful voice, rarely appreciated:
morning. Time to get twenty years, as an operator of Western
Union's Wake-Up Service, Mrs. Woody has gotten millions out of bed.
早上 6 点，早起的工人们开 始从地铁里拥挤着走上来。车辆人群如
河流般流淌在百老汇。而玛丽·伍迪太太则从床上跳起来，冲进办 公
室，给几十位睡意朦胧的纽约人打电话。她那欢快的嗓音很少得到人

们的赞赏 ：“早上好。该起床啦。”二十年来，伍迪太太是西部联合电
信公司唤醒服务的服务员。她已经将几百万 人叫醒起床。
11. By seven a.m., a floridly robust little man, looking very Parisian in a
blue beret and turtleneck sweater, moves in a hurried step along Park
Avenue visiting his wealthy lady friends —— making certain that each is
given a brisk, before-breakfast rubdown. The uniformed doormen greet
him warmly and call him either
a ladies' masseur extraordinaire. He never reveals the names of his
customers, but most of them are middle-aged and rich. He visits each of
them in their apartments, and has special keys to their bedrooms; he is
often the first man they see in the morning, and they lie in bed waiting for
him.
早晨 7 点，一个穿着花哨、身材敦实的小个子男人步履匆忙地走在
帕克大街上。他戴一顶蓝色贝雷帽，穿一件高 领毛线衣， 看起来像
个巴黎人。他正赶去造访那几位有钱的女性友人——他保证每一位都
能在 早餐前轻快地接受一次按摩。身着制服的门房们热情地向他打招
呼。他们要么管他叫“比兹”，要么叫“ 麦克”，因为他的名字是比兹·麦
凯，是一位专为女性按摩的按摩师。他从不透露客户的姓名。她们大< br>多是些有钱的中年女性。他逐一来到她们的寓所中。他有特殊的钥匙，
能够进入她们的卧室。他常 常是她们早上见的第一个男人。她们就躺
在床上，等着他。
12. The doormen that Biz passes each morning are generally an obliging,

endlessly articulate group of sidewalk diplomats who list among their
friends some of Manhattan's most powerful men, most beautiful women
and snootiest poodles. More often than not, the doormen are big, slightly
Gothic in design, and the possessors of eyes sharp enough to spot big
tippers a block away in the year's thickest fog. Some East Side doormen
are as proud as grandees, and their uniforms, heavily festooned, seem to
come from the same tailor who outfitted Marshal Tito.
比兹每天早上走过的那些 门房，通常是一群彬彬有礼、滔滔不绝的人。
他们是门口路边的外交家。曼哈顿最有势力的男人、 最漂 亮的女人，
还有最势利的哈巴狗都被他们视作朋友。门房常常个子高高的，举止
显得有点哥特式 风格。他们有一双敏锐的眼睛，能够透过一年中最浓
的雾，看到远在一个街区以外的地方谁给小费最阔绰 。一些西区的门
房就像西班牙大公一样倨傲， 而他们的制服缀满花饰，简直就好像
是为 铁托元帅 制衣的同一个裁缝制作的。
13. Shortly after seven- thirty each morning hundreds of people are lined
along Forty-second Street waiting for the eight a.m. opening of the ten
movie houses that stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder between Times
Square and Eighth Avenue. Who are these people who go to the movies at
eight a.m.? They are the city's insomniacs, night watchmen, and people
who can't go home, do not want to go home, or have no home. They are
derelicts, homosexuals, cops, hacks, truck drivers, cleaning ladies and
restaurant men who have worked all night. They are also alcoholics who

are waiting at eight a.m. to pay forty cents for a soft seat and to sleep in
the dark smoky theatre. And yet, aside from being smoky, each of the
Times Square's theatres has a special quality, or lack of quality, about it.
At the Victory Theatre one finds horror films, while at the Times Square
Theatre they feature only cowboy films. There are first-run films for forty
cents at the Lyric, while at the Selwyn there are always second-run films
for thirty cents. But if you go to the Apollo Theatre you will see, in
addition to foreign films, people in the lobby talking with their hands.
These are deaf-and-dumb movie fans who patronize the Apollo because
they read the subtitles. The Apollo probably has the biggest
deaf-and-dumb movie audience in the world.
7 点半才过一会儿，几百个人就在 42 街排着队，等候 8 点钟电影
院开门。在时代广场和第 8 大街之间，10 家电影院几乎比肩接踵地
排列着。这些 8 点钟就去看电影的是什么人呢？他们是这个城市中
失眠的人、夜间值班工，还有那些不能回家、不想回家，或者无家可
归的人。他们中有整夜干活的穷人、 同性恋者、警察、出租车司机、
卡车司机、清洁女工和餐馆工人。其中还有酗酒者，他们到 8 点就
等着，付 4 毛钱，换一个柔软的座位，在暗暗的烟雾腾腾的电影院
里睡上一觉。但是， 除了烟雾缭绕之外，时代广场的剧院还有一大特
质，或者，也可以说它们没有特质。在胜利剧院，人们可 以看恐怖片，
而在时代广场剧院则只上映牛仔片。莱利克影院花 4 毛钱可以看首
映片，而在赛而温影院总是放映旧片，票价 3 毛。如果到阿波罗剧

院，那么， 除了外国电影外，你还能看到大厅里用手说话的人们。
这些是聋哑的影迷，他们常来阿波罗剧院，因为在这里他们可以看电
影字幕。阿波罗剧院可能拥 有世界上最多的聋哑电影观众。
14. New York is a city of 38,000 cabdrivers, 10,000 bus drivers, but only
one chauffeur who has a chauffeur. The wealthy chauffeur can be seen
driving up Fifth Avenue each morning, and his name is Roosevelt
Zanders. He earns $$100,000 a year, is a gentleman of impeccable taste
and, although he owns a $$23,000 Rolls-Royce, does not scorn his friends
who own Bentleys. For $$150 a day, s will drive anyone
anywhere in his big, silver Rolls. Diplomats patronize him, models pose
next to him, and each day he receives cables from around the world
urging that he be waiting at Idlewild, on the docks, or outside the Plaza
Hotel. Sometimes at night, however, he is too tired to drive anymore. So
Bob Clarke, his chauffeur, takes over and s relaxes in the back.
纽约有 38，000 名出租车司机、10，000 名公共汽车司机，还有一
位有自己的私人司机的私人司机。每天早上，人们可以看见这位有钱
的司机在第 5 大街上驱车。他的名字是罗斯福·赞德斯。他一年挣
10，000 美元，是一位趣味上无可挑剔的绅士。 而且，尽管拥有一
辆价值 23，000 美元的劳斯莱斯，可他并不看不起那些开本特利车
的朋友们。一天 150 美元，赞德斯先生就能用他 那辆银色的大劳斯
莱斯车，将任何人送往任何地方。外交官们常常聘请他，模特儿们在
他身边搔 首弄姿。每天他都接到世界各地发来的电报，要他在爱德华

尔德机场、码头，或者广场酒 店外等候。但有时，到了晚上，他太累
了，开不动车了。于是他的私人司机，鲍伯·克拉克便接手开车， 而
赞德斯先生则在车后座休息。
15. New York is a town of 3,000 bootblacks whose brushes and rhythmic
rag-snaps can be heard up and down Manhattan from midmorning to
midnight. They dodge cops, survive rianstorms, and thrive in the Empire
State Building as Well as on the Staten Island Ferry. They usually wear
dirty shoes.
纽约有 3，000 名擦鞋匠。从上午到午夜，在曼哈顿，四处都能听见
他们的鞋刷声和那有节奏的抖拉擦鞋布 的声音。他们躲避警察，历经
风雨，在帝国大厦以及斯塔顿岛摆渡船上生意兴隆。他们穿的鞋常常
是很脏的。
16. New York is a city of headless men who sit obscurely in subway
booths all day and night selling tokens to people in a hurry. Each
Weekday more than 4,500,000 riders pass these money changers who
seem to have neither heads, faces, nor personalities —— only fingers.
Except when giving directions, their vocabulary consists largely of three
words: “How many, please ?”
纽约有一些看不见脑袋的人。他们隐晦地整天整夜坐在地 铁售票处，
向行色匆匆的人们出售车票。每个工作日，4，500， 000 名旅客在
这些看 上去没头、没脸、没有个性、而只看得见手指的换钱者前面走
过。除非指路，他们所说的话大多只有 4 个字： “请问几张”

17. In New York there are 200 chestnut vendors, and they average $$25 on
a good day peddling soft, warm chestnuts. Like many vendors, the
chestnut men do not own their own rigs —— they borrow or rent them
from pushcart makers such as David Amerman.
在纽约，有 200 名卖炒栗子的商贩。生意好的日子，他们靠叫卖又
软又热的栗子，每天能挣 25 美元。和许多沿街商贩一样，这 些卖
栗子并不拥有自己的推车——他们的推车是从像戴维·埃默曼那样 的
制车商那儿借来或租来。
18. Mr. Amerman, with offices opposite a defunct public bath-house on
the Lower East Side, is New York's master builder of pushcarts. His
father and grandfather before him were push-cart makers, and the family
has long been a household word among the city's most discriminating
junkmen, fruit vendors and hot- dog peddlers.
埃默曼先生的办公室位于低部东区一所废弃的公共浴室对面。他是纽约的推车制作高手。在他之前，他的父亲和祖父都是推车制造商。在
这座城市最为挑剔的捡垃圾的、 卖水果和卖热狗的人的心目里，他的
家族是一个家喻户晓的名字。
19. In New York there are 500 mediums, ranging from semi- trance to
trance to deep--trance types. Most of them live in New York's West
Seventies and Eighties, and on Sundays some of these blocks are
communicating with the dead, vibrating to trumpets, and solving all
problems.

纽约有 500 个灵媒，种类有半附体、附体和深度附体不一。他们大
多住在纽约的西 70 街和 80 街。每逢星期天，这里有几个街区便和
死者沟通，号声震天动地，所有疑难问题也迎刃而解。
20. The Manhattan Telephone Directory has 776,300 names, of which
3,316 are Smith, 2,835 are Brown, 2,444 are Williams, 2,070 are Cohen
—— and one is Mike Krasilovsky. Anyone who doubts this last fact has
only to look at the top of page 876, where, in large black letters, is this
sign:
曼哈顿电话号码簿上有 776，300 个名字，其中有 3，316 个史密斯、
2，835 个布朗、2，444 个威廉、2，070 个科恩——另 外还有一个
麦克·克拉斯洛夫斯基。如果有人怀疑这最后一点，只要看一看第 876
页页首处，用大号黑体字印出的这句话：“天下只有一个麦克·克拉
斯洛夫斯基。斯特林区 3 --1990”。
21. In New York the Fifth Avenue Lingerie shop is on Madison Avenue;
the Madison Pet Shop is on Lexington Avenue; the Park Avenue Florist is
on Madison Avenue, and the Lexington Hand Laundry is on Third Avenue.
New York is the home of 120 pawnbrokers and it is where Bishop Sheen's
brother, Dr. Sheen, shares an office with one Dr. Bishop.
在纽约，第 5 大街女内衣商店坐落在麦迪逊街，而麦迪逊宠物店位
于莱克星顿街；帕克街花店是在麦迪逊街；莱克星顿 手洗店则又是在
第 3 大街。纽约有 120 家当铺。在纽约，毕晓普·希恩的兄弟，希
恩医生和一位毕晓普医生在一个办公室上班。

22. New York is a town of thirty tattooists where interest in mankind is
skin- deep, but whose impressions usually last a life- time. Each day the
tattooists go pecking away over acres of anatomy. And in downtown
Manhattan, Stanley Moskowitz, a scion of a distinguished family of
bowery skin-peckers, does a grand business.
纽约有 30 位纹身师。他们对人类的兴趣真是肤 浅，但他们在人身上
留下的印记却常常印刻一生。每天，纹身师们要纹刻几英亩的人体。
在曼哈 顿市中心，斯坦利·莫斯科维兹是鲍华利街区纹身世家的一位
传人。他的生意十分兴隆。
23. When it rains in Manhattan, automobile traffic is slow, dates are
broken and, in hotel lobbies, people slump behind newspapers or walk
aimlessly about with no place to sit, nobody to talk to, nothing to do.
Taxis are harder to get; department stores do between fifteen and twenty
five percent less business, and the monkeys in the Bronx Zoo, having no
audience, slouch grumpily in their cages looking more bored than the
lobby-loungers. 曼哈顿下雨的日子，汽车的车流变得缓慢，人们还常爽约，而在酒店
的大厅里，人们瘫坐着埋头看报 ，或者毫无目的地走来走去，没地方
坐、没人聊天、没事可干。叫出租车也更困难。百货商店的销售额也
降低了 15％到 25％。布朗克斯动物园里的猴子没有了观众，也只好
闷闷不乐地坐在笼子 里，看上去比那些在酒店大厅里闲坐的人还要无
聊。

24. While some New Yorkers become morose with rain, others prefer it,
like to walk in it, and say that on rainy days the city's buildings seem
somehow cleaner —— washed in an opalescence, like a Monet painting.
There are fewer suicides in New York when it rains. But when the sun is
shining, and New Yorkers seem happy, the depressed person sinks deeper
into depression, and Bellevue Hospital gets more suicide calls.
下雨的时候，有的纽约人抑 郁寡欢，而有的却喜欢雨天。他们爱在雨
中行走。他们说，雨天里城市的楼房变得似乎干净了 ——像一 幅莫
奈的画作一样，沉浸在一片朦胧之中。下雨时，纽约的自杀事件也减
少了。然而在阳光灿烂 的日子里，纽约看起来喜气洋洋的。忧郁的人
陷入更深的忧郁中，而贝勒佛医院也接到更多报告自杀事件 的电话。
25. New York is a town of 8,485 telephone operators, 1,364 Western
Union messenger boys, and 112 newspaper copyboys. An average
baseball crowd at Yankee Stadium uses over ten gallons of liquid soap per
game —— an unofficial high mark for cleanliness in the major leagues;
the stadium also has the league's top number of ushers (360), sweepers
(72), and men's rooms (34).
纽约有 8，485 名电话接线员，1，364 名西部联合电信公司的送信
员，和 112 名报社小工。扬基体育场普通的一场观众每次比赛要用
去 10 加仑以上的液体肥皂——这是联赛中一 个非正式的干净高记
录。在联赛比赛的各个体育场馆中，扬基体育场还拥有最多的检票员
(36 0 名)、清扫工(72 名)和男厕所(34 个)。

26. New York is a town in which the brotherhood of Russian Bath
Rubbers, the only union advocating sweatshops, appears to be heading for
its last rubdown. The union has been going in New York City for years,
but now most of the rubbers are pushing seventy and are deaf —— from
all the water and the hot temperatures.
在纽约，俄罗斯澡堂擦背工人兄弟会正在走向结束。这 是唯一一个主
张流汗苦干的工会。这个兄弟会在纽约历经数年，但是现在大多数擦
背工人已年近 70，耳朵也聋了——那是水和高温造成的后果。
27. Each afternoon in New York a rather seedy saxophone player, his
cheeks blown out like a spinnaker, stands on the sidewalk playing Danny
Boy in such a sad, sensitive way that he soon has half the neighborhood
peeking out of windows tossing nickels, dimes and quarters at his feet.
Some of the coins roll under parked cars, but most of them are caught in
his out-stretched hand. The saxophone player is a street musician named
Joe Gabler; for the past thirty years he has serenaded every block in New
York and has sometimes been tossed as much as $$100 a day in coins. He
is also hit with buckets of water, empty beer cans and eggs, and chased by
wild dogs. He is believed to be the last of New York's ancient street
musicians.
每天下午，在纽约，有一个衣衫褴褛 的萨克管吹奏手，两腮鼓得像风
帆似的，站在人行道上演奏(男孩但尼)。他吹奏得伤感、动人，以致< br>于半条街的人们都从窗口向外张望，向他脚下扔 5 分、1 毛和 2 毛

5 分的硬币。有的硬币滚到停着的汽车底下， 但大多数都被他伸出
的手接住了。这位萨克管吹奏手是一位 叫做乔·盖布勒的街头艺人。
在过去的 30 年里，他吹遍了纽约的大街小巷。有时人们扔给他的硬
币一天就有 100 美元。有时扔向他的也有一 桶桶的水、空啤酒罐、
鸡蛋，还有野狗追撵他。人们认为，他是纽约早期街头艺人的仅存者。
28. New York is a town of nineteen midget wrestlers. They all can
squeeze into the Hotel Holland's elevator, six can sleep in one bed, eight
can be comfortably transported to Madison Square Garden in the
chauffeur-driven Cadillac reserved for the midget wrestlers.
纽约有 19 名侏儒摔跤手。他们能够一起挤进荷兰酒店的电梯。6 个
人可以一起睡一张床，8 个人可以舒舒服服地乘车到麦迪逊广场花
园。那车是一辆由专人驾 驶的凯迪拉克，是这些侏儒摔跤手的专车。
29. In New York from dawn to dusk to dawn, day after day, you can hear
the steady rumble of tires against the concrete span of George
Washington Bridge. The bridge is never completely still. It trembles with
traffic. It moves in the wind. Its great veins of steel swell when hot and
contract when cold; its span often is ten feet closer to the Hudson River in
summer than in winter. It is an almost restless structure of graceful beauty
which, like an irresistible seductress, withholds secrets from the
romantics who gaze upon it, the escapists who jump off it, the chubby girl
who lumbers across its 3,500-foot span trying to reduce, and the 100,000
motorists who each day cross it, smash into it, shortchange it, get jammed

up on it.
在纽约，从凌晨到傍晚 再到早晨，你可以不断听见乔治·华盛顿桥上
车轮在水泥桥面上沉闷的声音。那座桥从来没有完全静止的 时候。它
随着车水马龙而震颤，在风中摇动。它那巨大的钢筋遇热膨胀、遇冷
收缩。在夏天，它 的桥身比在冬天要更加 接近哈德逊河 10 英尺。
这是一座优雅、美丽、几乎永无止歇的建筑。它像 一位诱人的女子，
令人难以抗拒。浪漫的人凝视它， 可它却保留着自己的秘密。sm厌
世者从桥上跳下。胖乎乎的女孩子为了减肥，在那 3，500 英尺长的
桥面上笨重地跑步。还有 100， 000 名驾车人每天从桥上经过，有
的撞上桥，有的逃交过桥费，还有的被堵在桥上。
30. When street traffic dwindles and most people are sleeping in New
York, some neighborhoods begin to crawl with cats. They move quickly
through the shadows of buildings; night watchmen, policemen, garbage
collectors and other nocturnal wanderers see them —— but never for
long.
当纽约街头的车辆人流减少，大多数人都已入睡，这时有些街道上面
便开 始爬满了猫。它们在楼房的暗影里飞快地穿过。 夜间值班员、
警察、拾垃圾的人和夜晚游荡的人看得见它们——只一会儿又不见
了。
31. There are 200,000 stray cats in New York. A majority of them hang
around the fish market, or in Greenwich Village, and in the East and West
Side neighborhoods where garbage cans abound. No part of the city is

without its strays, however, and all-night garage attendants in such busy
neighborhoods as Fifty-fourth Street have counted as many as twenty of
them around the Ziegfeld Theatre early in the morning. Troops of cats
patrol the waterfront piers at night searching for rats. Subway
trackwalkers have discovered cats living in the darkness. They seem
never to get hit by trains, though some are occasionally liquidated by the
third rail. About twenty- five cats live seventy-five feet below the west
end of Grand Central Terminal, are fed by the underground workers, and
never wander up into the daylight.
纽约有 200，000 只野猫。大多数野猫游荡在鱼市场、格林威治 村，
还有东区和西区一些垃圾桶较多的街道。城市里任何一个地方都有无
主的动物，可是在像 54 大街这样繁忙的街区，车库值夜工却在一大
早，在齐格非尔德剧院附近看见过多达 20 只 野 猫。晚上，野猫们
成群结队，在水边码头搜寻老鼠。地铁检道工发现，有猫生活在黑暗
的隧道里 。它们似乎从来不会被列车撞上，尽管有些猫有时会被第三
电轨电击身死。在大中央车站西头地底 72 英尺的隧道里，生活着 25
只猫。地铁工人喂食它们。 这些猫从不跑到地上去。
32. New York is a city in which large, cliff-dwelling hawks cling to
skyscrapers and occasionally zoom to snatch a pigeon over Central Park,
or Wall Street, or the Hudson River. Bird watchers have seen these
peregrine falcons circling lazily over the city. They have seen them
perched atop tall buildings, even around Times Square. About twelve of

these hawks patrol the city, sometimes with a wingspan of thirty-five
inches. They have buzzed women on the roof of the St. Regis Hotel, have
attacked repairmen on smokestacks and, in August, 1947, two hawks
jumped women residents in the recreation yard of the Home of the New
York Guild for the Jewish Blind. Maintenance men at the Riverside
Church have seen hawks dining on pigeons in the bell tower. The hawks
remain there for only a little while. And then they fly out to the river,
leaving pigeons' heads for the Riverside maintenance men to clean up.
When the hawks return, they fly in quietly —— unnoticed, like the cats,
the headless men, the ants, the ladies' masseur, the doorman with three
bullets in his head, and most of the other offbeat wonders in this town
without time.
在纽约这座城市，有一些巨大崖居山鹰。它们住在摩天大楼上。有时，
在中央公园 、在华尔街、在哈德逊河，它们会俯冲而下，捕攫鸽子。
鸟类观察爱好者们看到过这些迁徙到城里的老鹰 倦慵地在城市上空
盘旋。他们看见它们停歇在高楼楼顶上， 甚至还停在时代广场附近。
大约有 12 只这样的老鹰在这座城市飞来飞去。有的老鹰翼长达 35
英寸。它们曾经俯冲下来，惊吓圣雷 吉斯宾馆房顶上的妇女。它们袭
击过修烟囱的工人。1947 年 8 月，在纽约犹太盲人会疗养所的 娱乐
园里，两只老鹰把在那儿的女性疗养者们吓了一大跳。河畔教堂的修
理工人看见过老鹰在钟 塔里吃鸽子。老鹰只在那儿呆了一会儿。然后
它们就飞到河上去，残留下几只鸽子脑袋让河畔教堂的修理 工们打

扫。老鹰回来时，它们悄然而来——不为人注目，就像那些猫、那些
看不 见脑袋的人、那些蚂蚁、贵妇按摩师、脑袋里面留着 3 颗子弹
的门房，还有其他许多稀奇古怪的奇观，在这座城市里，永恒无尽。