旅行的艺术:回归 Ⅸ 习惯-1

1 我从巴巴多斯回到伦敦，发现这座城市依然固执地拒绝改变。我已看到蔚蓝的天空和巨大的海葵；我曾经睡在一间以酒椰纤维做屋顶的湖边度假屋，吃下一条大鱼；我曾和小海龟一同游泳；在椰子树的树阴下读书。但是故乡却没有给我很好的印象。它仍然在下雨。公园满是积水，天空仍然是阴暗的。当我们心情很好，而又看到阳光明媚时，我们会很容易将产生于我们自身之内的情绪归因于周围环境所给予的影响。然而在我返回的时候，伦敦的外表却提醒我，世界对发生在人们身上的任何事件的冷漠。返回伦敦使我感到绝望。我注定要在这个可怕的城市生活下去。在这个地球，恐怕没有几个地方比这里更糟了。

I returned to London from Barbados to find that the city had stubbornly refused to change. I had seen azure skies and giant sea anemones, I had slept in a raffia bungalow and eaten a kingfish, I had swum beside baby turtles and read in the shade of coconut trees. But the home town was unimpressed. It was still raining. The park was still a pond, and the skies funereal. When we are in a good mood and it is sunny, it is tempting to impute a connection between what happens inside and outside of us, but the appearance of London on my return was a reminder of the indifference of the world to any of the events unfolding in the lives of its inhabitants. I felt despair to be home. I felt there could be few worse places on earth than the one I had been fated to spend my existence in.