中国特色的滑雪
登载媒体：基督教科学箴言报标题：Skiing 'with Chinese characteristics? 链接：http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0309/p04s01-woap.html翻译方式：原创译文：http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0309/csmimg/OSLOPES_P1.jpg 两年前我来到中国，获得很多前所未有的体验，最让人愉悦的事情之一就是滑雪。滑雪也许是我最喜欢的事了。派驻巴黎时，我曾很奢侈的去阿尔卑斯一些世界最壮观的长坡滑了一周雪，虽然姿势不够优美。河北省位于北京西北方向，不是阿尔卑斯但也是一个多山的地区，不常下雪。中国特色的滑雪特色之一就是滑雪道铺满的是人工制雪。河北地区大部分时候都很干燥，由于北京抽走了它很多的水。这个冬季，河北省遇到了50年来最为严重的旱灾。不知当地农民对把珍贵的水资源制成“雪”，只为了让有钱的疯子们滑下来有何感想。就像为了提醒你在这里滑雪有多么的不环保，因为从附近的戈壁滩吹来很多细沙，这儿的滑雪道是浅褐色的。不过上周在万龙滑雪度假村（一万条龙的意思。修建时间不到十年）滑雪时，一场暴风雪缓解了我的负罪感。看到山岭被洁白的，自然的雪覆盖，我高兴得眼睛发亮！尽管这场暴风雪算不算完全意思上的“自然”我不太清楚：政府一直在尝试用碘银颗粒人工布云降雨。万龙度假村的经营者尽一切可能想让顾客有在阿尔卑斯滑雪的感觉：比如说在其中的一个缆车输送点，
你会看到粗糙的仿瑞士小松木屋，在那能买到咖啡和吃饭。不过木屋墙上装饰着的阿尔卑斯高山草甸风景照片还是让你无法忽视一些与之格格不入的地方：木椽上悬挂红色的中国灯笼；花瓶里插着塑料牡丹花；窗外的石头缝里插着佛教的小旗子，风吹沙拉作响。而且有谁在阿尔卑斯的山顶餐厅里吃到过猪肉韭菜蒸饺？ 这里的滑雪坡道倒是意想不到的长，蜿蜒曲折，很有意思，而且由于是春节假后的周三，来滑雪的人非常少。我对中国雪橇安全性的理解没有确切的证据：一家意大利公司在万龙山的另一面建了一个滑雪场，运送缆车全从意大利进口。万龙滑雪度假村的运送缆车则和阿尔卑斯通常见到的一样好，而且不用排队。雪场的机器设备似乎也是从欧洲进口的。不过在中国，
司机们不会对自己在工作而别人却在滑雪感到不满；在这个国家，
劳动力不是问题，庞大的机器运转着，
近50名男女用铁铲挖掘，
修整着滑雪道。如果是在阿尔卑斯，这些工人在孩童时期就会滑雪了，而在这里，滑雪是外国人的运动，当地居民嘲笑外来者怪异的行为。换班时工人们跨坐在铁铲上，抓着铲把，一个接一个的坐着铁铲“平底雪橇”从坡道上滑下去。明年也许我没必要滑什么雪，租个铁铲就可以了。 原文：
Of all the unexpected lessons I have learned about China since arriving here two years ago, one of the most gratifying is that you can ski here.
Skiing is perhaps my most prized pleasure; one of the luxuries of my last posting in Paris was to spend a winter week in the Alps descending – generally rather inelegantly – some of the world's most spectacular slopes.
Hebei, a hilly province northwest of Beijing, is not the Alps. It doesn't snow here often, one of the first aspects of "skiing with Chinese characteristics" that you must appreciate: The runs are generally covered with artificial snow.
Hebei is dry at the best of times, as Beijing drains much of its water. This winter, it is undergoing its worst drought for 50 years, and I can only imagine what local farmers think about using scarce water to make "snow" for wealthy madmen to slide down. (The Chinese term for "to ski," by the way, is to "slide snow.")
As if to remind you how environmentally unfriendly you are being by skiing here, the pistes are often a pale beige, regularly dusted as they are by fine sand blown in from the nearby Gobi Desert.
My conscience was assuaged, however, and my eyes delighted, by a heavy snowstorm while I was skiing last week at the Wanlong (10,000 Dragon) resort, which is less than a decade old. The hills were blanketed by fresh, natural powder, though it was unclear how naturally it had fallen: The government has been seeding clouds over Hebei with silver iodide pellets to provoke precipitation.
Wanlong's planners do what they can to convince you that you are in the Alps: At the top of one chairlift, for example, is a rustic Swiss chalet, built from pine trunks, that serves as a cafe-cum-restaurant.
Walls decorated with photos of Alpine meadows, however, are not enough to distract your attention from the incongruous red Chinese lanterns hanging from the rafters, nor the pots of plastic peonies, nor the Buddhist prayer flags fluttering from a pile of stones outside the window.
Neither has any mountain restaurant where I have ever eaten in the Alps served steamed pork-and-leek dumplings.
The slopes, meanwhile, were unexpectedly long and enjoyable and varied, not to mention empty, since I was skiing midweek after the Chinese New Year holiday. My apprehensions about the reliability of Chinese ski lifts proved unfounded: At a resort in the other side of Wanlong's mountain, opened this season by an Italian firm, the chairliftis state of the art (imported from Italy), while Wanlong's lifts seem just as good as your average Alpine system (and without queues).
The snow-packing machines also looked as if they had been imported from Europe, but this being China, drivers had no compunctions about working on slopes where people were skiing. And this being China, where manpower is not a problem, the giant machines were augmented by some 50 men and women with shovels, digging and shaping the runs' edges.
If this had been the Alps, such workers would have learned to ski as toddlers. But skiing is an alien sport, and locals scoff at the weird ways of outsiders.
When their shift was over, the workers simply put their shovels between their legs, grasped their handles, and sat down on their broad blades. One by one, they rocketed down the slope in line on their makeshift toboggans.
Next year, maybe I won't bother to ski; I'll just rent a shovel. o035)
I think I should promote my English presently! 辛苦了 ～翻译得不错 河北位于北京西北部，哈哈，河北位于北京东南西北部 楼上 有什么好笑的？
人家去的是北京西北部的河北省不行？ 楼主辛苦，翻译得很好。最后一句没看懂，看了原文才明白，所以在翻译的时候最好用“补译”的方法：明年，也许我没必要（再用滑雪板）滑雪，我会只租一把雪铲（就行了）。
Next year, maybe I won't bother to ski; I'll just rent a shovel.在这里，SKI就是用SKI(滑雪板)去SKI（滑雪。） 这个冬天想滑雪想疯了... 在阿尔卑斯山上滑雪确实是人生一大享受 不好意思， 水平有限， 翻译得不好的地方请大家见谅。最后一句我以为有前面内容的铺垫理解起来不成问题， 没想到......以后一定多多努力!
多谢各位指点o3O100)
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