世界遗产：以无声的方式讲述过去的故事

On Sept 4, Gulangyu Island, off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian, was certificated a world heritage site by UNESCO. China now has 52 such sites, spread across the entire country.

9月4日，福建厦门的离岛鼓浪屿被联合国教科文组织授予世界遗产证书。目前，中国全国各地共有52处这样的世界遗产。

Millions of Chinese people visit Gulangyu Island every year to enjoy its natural delights and the mixture of foreign and Chinese architecture.

每年都有数百万的中国游客来到鼓浪屿，领略这里的自然美景，欣赏其中西结合的建筑。

The recognition of this beautiful, culturally remarkable island is an honor. But the fact that it is a heritage site means much more than that.

对于这座富有文化底蕴的美丽小岛而言，这样的肯定是种荣誉。但事实上，作为一处遗产的意义远不止于此。

The word “heritage” refers to the invaluable things we inherit from the past. And UNESCO’s world heritage sites, of which there are over 1,000, make a rich tapestry of memories, both natural and man-made. Like a time machine, they take us back to our ancestors and even earlier, enabling us to wonder at both the natural world and human history.

“遗产”一词指的是我们从过去继承来的珍贵之物。而联合国教科文组织1000多处世界遗产如同一匹灿烂的织锦，编织着自然和人文的记忆。这些遗产就像时光机一样，将我们带回到祖先的时代，甚至更早，让我们为自然世界和人类历史惊叹不已。

This applies to all the sites around the world certificated by UNESCO, but in different ways. Places like Moscow’s Red Square stand for a particular moment in the civilization of humankind; they’re valuable cultural resources that tell a story of the past better than a history book could.

联合国教科文组织在世界范围内认定的遗产皆是如此，但方式又各不相同。莫斯科的红场等地代表了人类文明的某一特定时刻;它们是珍贵的文化资源，比一本史书更能讲述那段过去的故事。

But heritage can also be a reminder of a lifestyle of the past. Just look at Vienna’s coffee culture: UNESCO gave the award, not to particular cafes in Austria, but to the culture of those places; the award was for what happened there, not for the venues themselves.

但遗产也能带我们重温过去的生活方式。看看维也纳的咖啡文化就知道了：联合国教科文组织并没有将世界遗产的称号授予奥地利某些特定的咖啡馆，而是颁给了这些地点所蕴含的文化;它属于那里曾发生的一切，而不是地点本身。

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the last century, the cafes were packed with artists and intellectuals. The popularity of these places reached its height during the last period of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire, which ended in 1918.

在19世纪末20世纪初，咖啡馆里满是艺术家和知识分子。这些咖啡馆的风潮在伟大的奥匈帝国末期达到鼎盛。1918年，奥匈帝国最终解体。

By the 1950s, Austria’s coffee houses began to go into decline, just after television arrived and people chose to stay at home for entertainment rather than go out.

而到了上世纪50年代，电视机的出现让人们选择待在家里，而不是出门找乐子，奥地利的咖啡馆开始衰落。

Just like Gulangyu Island and Viennese cafes, every world heritage item is worthy of care and protection. They remind us of our rich and various cultural pasts, and the things that made us who we are.

就像鼓浪屿和维也纳的咖啡馆一样，每处世界遗产都值得关注与保护。它们让我们想起了丰富多彩的文化历史，以及那些塑造了我们是谁的事物。