The Crooked Streets
Why do they pull down and do away with the Crooked Streets, I wonder, which are my delight, and hurt no man living?
Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another in their capitals and their great towns: they do not know why they do it; neither do I. It ought to be enough, surely, to drive the great broad ways which commerce needs and which are the life-channels of a modern city, without destroying all the history and all the humanity in between: the islands of the past. For, note you, the Crooked Streets are packed with human experience and reflect in a lively manner all the chances and misfortunes and expectations and domesticity and wonderment of men. One marks a boundary, another the kennel of an ancient stream, a third the track some animal took to cross a field hundreds upon hundreds of years ago; another is the line of an old defence, another shows where a rich man's garden stopped long before the first ancestor one's family can trace was born; a garden now all houses, and its owner who took delight in it turned to be a printed name. Leave men alone in their cities, pester them not, with futilities of great governments, nor with the fads of too powerful men, and they will build you Crooked Streets of their very nature as moles throw up the little mounds or bees construct their combs. There is no ancient city but glories, or has gloried, in a whole foison and multitude of Crooked Streets. There is none, however, wasted and swept by power, which, if you leave it alone to natural things, will not breed Crooked Streets in less than a hundred years and keep for a thousand more. I know a dead city called Timgad which the sand or the barbarians of the Atlas overwhelmed fourteen centuries ago. It lies between the desert and the Algerian fields, high up upon a mountain-side. Its columns stand. Even its fountains are apparent, though their waterways are choked. It has a great forum or market-place, all flagged and even, and the ruined walls of its houses mark its emplacement on every side. All its streets are straight, set out with a line, and by this you may judge how a Roman town lay when the last order of Rome sank into darkness. Well, take any other town which has not thus been mummified and preserved but has lived through the intervening time, and you will find that man, active, curious, intense, in all the fruitful centuries of Christian time has endowed them with Crooked Streets, which kind of streets are the most native to Christian men. So it is with Arles, so it is with Nimes, so it is with old Rome itself, and so it is with the City of London, on which by a special Providence the curse of the Straight Street has never fallen, so that it is to this day a labyrinth of little lanes. It was intended after the Great Fire to set it all out in order with "piazzas" and boulevards and the rest—but the English temper was too strong for any such nonsense, and the streets and the courts took to the natural lines which suit us best.The Renaissance indeed everywhere began this plague of vistas and of avenues. It was determined three centuries ago to rebuild Paris as regular as a chessboard, and nothing but money saved the town—or rather the lack of money. You may to this day see in a square called the "Place des Vosges" what was intended. But when they had driven their Straight Street two hundred yards or so the exchequer ran dry, and thus was old Paris saved. But in the last seventy years they have hurt it badly again. I have quarrel with what is regal and magnificent, with splendid ways of a hundred feet or more, with great avenues and lines of palaces; but why should they pull down my nest beyond the river—Straw Street and Rat Street and all those winding belts round the little Church of St Julien the Poor, where they say that Dante studied and where Danton in the madness of his grief dug up his dead love from the earth on his returning from the wars?
Crooked Streets will never tire a man, and each will have its character, and each will have a soul of its own. To proceed from one to another is like travelling in a multitude or mixing with a number of friends. In a town of Crooked Streets it is natural that one should be the Moneylender’s Street and another that of the Burglars, and a third that of the Politicians, and so forth through all the trades and professions. Then also, how much better are not the beauties of a town seen from Crooked Streets! Consider those old Dutch towns where you suddenly come round a corner upon great stretches of salt water, or those towns of Central France which from one street and then another show you the Gothic in a hundred ways. It is as it should be when you have the back of Chartres Cathedral towering up above you from between and above two houses gabled and almost meeting. It is what the builders meant when one comes out from such fissures into the great Place, the parvis of the cathedral, like a sailor from a river into the sea. Not that certain buildings were not made particularly for wide approaches and splendid roads, but that these, when they are the rule, sterilize and kill a town. Napoleon was wise enough when he designed that there should lead up all beyond the Tiber to St Peter's a vast imperial way. But the modern nondescript horde, which has made Rome its prey, is very ill advised to drive those new Straight Streets foolishly, emptily, with mean facades of plaster and great gaps that will not fill. You will have noted in your travels how the Crooked Streets gather names to themselves which are as individual as they, and which are bound up with them as our names are with all our own human reality and humour. Thus I bear in mind certain streets of the town where I served as a soldier. There was the Street of the Three Little Heaps of Wheat, the Street of the Trumpeting Moor, the Street of the False Heart, and an exceedingly pleasant street called "Who Grumbles at It?" and another short one called "The Street of the Devil in his Haste," and many others. From time to time those modern town councillors from whom Heaven has wisely withdrawn all immoderate sums of money, and who therefore have not the power to take away my Crooked Streets and put Straight ones in their places, change old names to new ones. Every such change indicates some snobbery of the time: some little battle exaggerated to be a great thing; some public fellow or other in Parliament or what not; some fad of the learned or of the important in their day. Once I remember seeing in an obscure comer a twist of dear old houses built before George III was king and on the corner of this row was painted "Kipling Street: late Nelson Street."Upon another occasion I went to a little Norman market up among the hills, where one of the smaller squares was called "The Place of the Three Mad Nuns," and when I got there after so many years and was beginning to renew my youth I was struck all of a heap to see a great enamelled blue and white affair upon the walls. They had renamed the triangle. They had called it "The Place Victor Hugo"! However, all you who love Crooked Streets, I bid you lift up your hearts. There is no power on earth that can make man build Straight Streets for long. It is a bad thing, as a general rule, to prophesy good or to make men feel comfortable with the vision of a pleasant future; but in this case I am right enough. The Crooked Streets will certainly return. Let me boldly borrow a quotation which I never saw until the other day, and that in another man's work, but which having once seen it, I shall retain all the days of my life. "O passi graviora, dabit Deus his quoque finem," or words to that effect. I can never be sure of a quotation, still less of scansion, and anyhow, as I am deliberately stealing it from another man, if I have changed it so much the better.
Notes:
the Crooked Streets: 弯弯曲曲的街道、老街，指城市中古旧的街巷
no man living = no living man
all the history and all the humanity in between: the islands of the past: 指处于一条条又大又宽的新街之间的历史与人文古迹，就像一个个处在现代海洋中的历史孤岛一样
note you = you note please
One marks a boundary: 某条街是一条疆界的标志
a garden now all houses, and its owner who took delight in it turned to be a printed name: 这个花园现在已盖满了房子，当年曾在这里赏花的园主现在已成了历史陈迹
Leave men alone in their cities: 不要去干预城市里的人们
as moles throw up the little mounds: 犹如鼹鼠垒起土堆（说明老街的行成都是出于自然的天性）
There is no ancient city but glories, or has gloried, in a whole foison and multitude of Crooked Streets: 每一座老街众多的古城都有着或曾有过它的辉煌
There is none, however, wasted and swept by power, which, if you leave it alone to natural things, will not breed Crooked Streets in less than a hundred years and keep for a thousand more: 每一座城市，无论在权力的争斗过程中曾变得如何荒凉惨败，只要任其自然发展，那么不出100年就一定会出现几条老街，而且他们还会延续千年
Timgad: 提姆盖德城，西北非的一座古城遗址
the Atlas: 阿特拉斯山脉，西北非的一列山系
the desert: 撒哈拉大沙漠
It has a great forum or market-place, all flagged and even, and the ruined walls of its houses mark its emplacement on every side: 城里有一个讲坛，也许那是个市场吧，地上铺着石板，十分平坦，四面的残垣断壁标示出古城的疆界
set out with a line: 以一根绳子作准绳来修路
how a Roman town lay when the last order of Rome sank into darkness: 当罗马帝国的末代皇朝衰微时，一个罗马城镇的布局是怎样的
has not thus been mummified and preserved: 没有像提姆盖德城那样成为文物古迹
the fruitful centuries of Christian time: 基督教鼎盛时期的几百年，11世纪初到20世纪初
Arles: 阿尔勒，法国南方中部城市，中世纪曾为一个王国
Nimes: 尼姆，法国东南部城市
on which by a special Providence the curse of the Straight Street has never fallen, so that it is to this day a labyrinth of little lanes: 仰仗于一种特殊的神力，它终于免遭兴建笔直新街的厄运，所以至今它依然像是一条条小巷构成的迷宫
It was intended after the Great Fire to set it all out in order with "piazzas" and boulevards and the rest: 在大火之后，原来人们曾打算对伦敦全程进行有条理的改建，铺建“大广场”、大马路，等等
the English temper: 英国人的性格
took to the natural lines: 按自然状态建造
The Renaissance indeed everywhere began this plague of vistas and of avenues: 文艺复兴运动实在想散播瘟疫一样，使欧洲各地都出现了林荫大道和宽阔大街
You may to this day see in a square called the "Place des Vosges" what was intended: 直至今天，在一个称为“山岳广场”的广场上，你还能看得出当年的设想
But when they had driven their Straight Street two hundred yards or so the exchequer ran dry
I have quarrel with: 可是他们的新街才铺了200码左右，经费就不够了
nest: 作者把老街是为自己的天地
all those winding belts round the little Church of St Julien the Poor: 贫者圣朱利恩教堂周围曲曲折折的地带
Dante: 但丁·亚利吉利
where Danton in the madness of his grief dug up his dead love from the earth on his returning from the wars: 丹东从战场回来时，满心悲愤，神智迷乱，便在那儿从地理崛起了死去的爱人
Moneylender’s Street: 高利贷者之街（这条街上以贷款为主的人较多）
how much better are not the beauties of a town seen from Crooked Streets: 一座城镇的美景从老街观看难道不更显得美丽吗
come round a corner upon great stretches of salt water: 拐过一个街角，但见一片盐湖引入眼帘
from one street and then another show you the Gothic in a hundred ways: 一条条街向你展现哥特式建筑的千姿百态
It is as it should be when you have the back of Chartres Cathedral towering up above you from between and above two houses gabled and almost meeting: 当你站在沙特尔教堂后面，看着在两幢山墙耸立，几乎相接的毗邻房子之间拔地而起时，你一定会有这种感觉
fissures: 指类似上句中所说的两幢房子之间的空隙
Place: 广场
Not that certain buildings were not made particularly for wide approaches and splendid roads, but that these, when they are the rule, sterilize and kill a town: 并不是因为人们不为旷阔的大道和壮丽的通衢修造建筑物，而是由于一旦这些大路遍布城市，就会使城市丧失生机，变得死气沉沉
there should lead up all beyond the Tiber to St Peter's a vast imperial way: 修造一条皇家大道，从台伯河边直通圣彼得大教堂
the modern nondescript horde: 庸庸碌碌的现代群氓
which has made Rome its prey: 霸占了罗马
with mean facades of plaster and great gaps that will not fill: 一幢幢房子的正墙抹着灰泥，十分难看。房子间的间隙也大得难以填补
You will have noted in your travels how the Crooked Streets gather names to themselves which are as individual as they, and which are bound up with them as our names are with all our own human reality and humour: 当你旅行时，你一定会注意到老街的名字也和它们本身一样不同寻常。人的名字与人的实际情况和性格密切相关，老街也是如此
the town where I served as a soldier: 贝洛克曾在部队服役
town councillors: 镇议会议员
Every such change indicates some snobbery of the time: some little battle exaggerated to be a great thing; some public fellow or other in Parliament or what not; some fad of the learned or of the important in their day: 每一次名字的更换都表明了当时的人趋炎附势的品性；或把某次小战役夸大为显赫战役（因而以此战役为某条街命名）；或用某个议员或诸如此类的公务人员（的名字来命名）；或以某一时代学者或要人的时尚（来命名）
a twist of dear old houses: 一条曲曲折折的街道上可爱的老房子
Kipling Street: late Nelson Street: 吉卜林街，原名纳尔逊街
Norman: 诺曼底的
when I got there after so many years and was beginning to renew my youth I was struck all of a heap to see a great enamelled blue and white affair upon the walls: 多年以后，我来到那，正想重温我的年轻时代，却吃惊地看到墙上有一块很大的蓝白两色的搪瓷玩意
The Place Victor Hugo: 维克多·雨果广场
However, all you who love Crooked Streets, I bid you lift up your hearts. There is no power on earth that can make man build Straight Streets for long: 然而，一切喜爱老街的人，请你们振作起来。尘世的力量是不能长久让人铺设新街的（圣经口吻）
which I never saw until the other day, and that in another man's work: 直到前几天才在别人的一部作品中看到它
O passi graviora, dabit Deus his quoque finem: 噢，步履沉重地前行的人，上帝将把你引到旅途的尽头
or words to that effect: 或大意如此
I can never be sure of a quotation, still less of scansion: 我从来记不准引文，更不用说记清其诗律、音步划分了
as I am deliberately stealing it from another man, if I have changed it so much the better: 既然这句话是我有意从别人那借用来的，那么与原文出入越大，也就越好了
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