三个纽约



《三个纽约》是一篇叙述不同人对纽约不同看法的随笔。作为闻名世界的国际大都市，纽约在不同人的心目中含有不同的意义。作者以敏锐的目光进行观察，发现三种视觉产生了三个纽约。土生土长的纽约城里人对一切都已习以为常。他们眼里的纽约总是那个老模样。住在郊外而在城里办公的人，每天乘班车上下班，来去匆匆，使纽约显得人潮滚滚，喧闹不定。唯有从其他各个地方纽约来寻求发展的人，纽约就是他们最后的目的地。在他们眼里，纽约是个应有尽有，充满希望，充满创业精神，令人振奋的城市，所以他们对纽约的感情也最为强烈。这篇随笔虽然篇幅短小，但是构思精巧，一气呵成，表现了作者扎实的文笔功底。

埃尔文·布鲁克斯·怀特(Elwyn Brooks White, 1899-1985)是美国优秀散文作家。他生于纽约州弗农山，1921年康奈尔大学毕业，曾先后但任《纽约人》和《哈珀斯》杂志的编辑、专栏作家和自由撰稿人。1941年与妻子合著《美国幽默拾零》。他的作品有《斯图亚特·利特尔》（1945）、《夏洛特的网》（1952）、《我罗盘上的方位》（1962）、《天鹅的喇叭》（1970）、《怀特书信集》（1976）、《怀特散文集》（1977）以及两本诗选。1960年曾获美国文学艺术协会金奖。怀特以文笔犀利，讽刺尖刻，思维独特，风格高雅而在美国文坛享有极高声誉。

The Three New Yorks

Elwin Brooks White

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last — the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidarity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.