英国卫报:西班牙小镇为何成疫情重灾区(8)（在线收听）

“You cannot understand Santo Domingo without its saint,” Francisco Suarez, the cathedral’s abbot, told me.

“不知道圣多明各的圣人，你就无法了解圣多明各，”大教堂的院长弗朗西斯科·苏亚雷斯告诉我。

In his lifetime, the saint helped to build bridges, roads and shelter for pilgrims travelling to the tomb of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela, about 300 miles west.

在他的一生中，这位圣人帮助前往圣詹姆斯墓的朝圣者建造了桥梁、道路和住所。圣詹姆斯墓位于圣地亚哥德孔波斯特拉以西约300英里处。

(Santo Domingo is patron saint of Spain’s civil engineers.)

（圣多明各是西班牙土木工程师的守护神。)

Work on Santo Domingo’s cathedral began in the 12th century, and the town has been a stopping point for pilgrims ever since.

圣多明各大教堂的修建始于12世纪，此后这座城镇一直是朝圣者的停留点。

Today, much of the local economy revolves around the dozen hostels and hotels that offer hundreds of rooms to pilgrims.

现在，当地大部分经济都是围绕着十几家旅馆和酒店展开的，这些旅馆和旅馆为朝圣者提供数百间客房。

Such towns are not used to tragedy. In normal times, the most dramatic events that local reporter Javier Albo, a one-man newsroom, covers are minor car crashes.

这样的城镇不习惯发生悲剧。在正常时期，由当地记者哈维尔·阿尔博报道的最具戏剧性的事件是一些轻微的车祸，他是新闻编辑的唯一员工。

Skimming through La Rioja’s local pages from March and April 2019,

浏览2019年3月和4月里奥哈的当地报纸，

the most noteworthy stories concerned a modest swarm of bees and a few complaints about a “plague” of pigeons invading the town.

最值得注意的故事是关于一小群蜜蜂和一些对入侵城镇的鸽子“瘟疫”的抱怨。

During the strictest phase of lockdown, residents of Santo Domingo tried to keep up their spirits.

在最严格的封锁阶段，圣多明各的居民努力振作精神。

The police began driving around town in the evening and stopping every few blocks to blast music from their loudhailers and exchange applause with people on balconies.

晚上，警察开始开车在城里四处走动，每隔几个街区就停下来，用喇叭播放音乐，并与阳台上的人们互相鼓掌。

This ritual was briefly suspended after complaints that it was unsuitable at a time of tragedy, but soon it started up again.

在有人抱怨这种做法在悲剧发生时不合适后，这种做法一度被叫停，但很快又重新开始。

People loved the shows, which filled the emptiness with noise and coloured lights.

人们喜欢那些用噪音和彩色灯光来填补空虚的表演。

Eventually, it turned into a caravan of municipal police cars, ambulances, civil protection and street-cleaning vehicles,

最终，街上出现了由市政警车、救护车、民防车辆和街道清洁车辆组成的车队，

which set out at 8pm and drove around for two hours with sirens blaring and loud music mangled by tinny speakers.

他们在晚上8点出发，开了两个小时的车，刺耳的警笛声不断，喇叭里的音乐也很嘈杂。

Like any party, the music depended on who took control of the sound system:

像任何派对一样，播放的音乐取决于谁控制了音响系统：

some days it was corny Spanish pop or children’s tunes, other days it was AC/DC.

有时是老掉牙的西班牙流行音乐或儿童歌曲，有时是AC/DC。