2022年经济学人 公共浴场文化——身体与灵魂（下）

When governments forced hammams to close in 2020, the copper¹ boilers² simmered down and ran dry.

当政府在2020年强制公共浴场关闭时，铜锅炉逐渐冷却并干涸。

Even between lockdowns, fear kept people away—especially the elderly, often among the most dedicated³ clients, having grown up with the tradition and benefiting most from assisted washing.

即使在封锁期间，恐惧也使人们远离这些浴场——尤其是老年人，他们往往是最忠实的顾客，他们在这种传统的伴随下长大，从辅助洗浴中获益最多。

Tourists vanished.

游客消失了。

Even the great hammams of Istanbul felt the pinch.

即使是伊斯坦布尔的大浴场也感到了压力。

Many operators feared the worst.

许多经营着担心会发生最坏的情况。

But though the pandemic accelerated the decline of hammams, it began much earlier.

但是，尽管疫情加速了公共浴场的衰落，但它的衰落其实很早就开始了。

Since the widespread advent⁴ of domestic hot water 70 years ago, their utility and profits have been eroded⁵.

自从70年前家用热水广泛普及以来，它们的实用价值和利润都已降低。

Only a few of the poorest clients still rely on them for routine washing; the wealthy have largely forsaken⁶ them for Western-style spas.

只有少数最贫穷的顾客还在依靠它们进行日常洗浴；富人们基本都不再去他们那里，而是去西式的水疗中心。

Telephones and the internet undermined their social purpose.

电话和互联网瓦解了公共浴场的社交用途。

In the 20th century many closed across the Middle East (occasionally becoming museums).

20世纪，中东地区的许多公共浴场关闭（少数会变成博物馆）。

Of those that survived these changes—as well as wars, earthquakes and revolutions—some have been finished off by the coronavirus.

在诸多变化——战争、地震和革命——中幸存下来的浴场中，有些也已经被冠状病毒消灭了。

Legend has it that Cairo once boasted a hammam for each day of the year; today it has fewer than a dozen.

传说开罗曾经拥有浴场之多可以供人们在一年里每天去一家；如今，那里的浴场只有不到12家。

Of the 50 in the ancient Medina of Tunis in the 19th century, only half cling on.

19世纪突尼斯麦地那老城的50个浴场中，只有一半还在坚持。

In Damascus two-thirds have closed since the 1940s.

在大马士革，自20世纪40年代以来，已有三分之二的浴场关门。

A handful operate in the whole of Lebanon.

在整个黎巴嫩，只有少数几家浴场营业。

In Turkey hammam culture remains⁷ strong, but the downturn is showing.

在土耳其，公共浴场文化仍然很盛行，但衰退逐渐显现。

Yeni Hammam is clean but crumbling⁸.

Yeni Hammam很干净但十分破旧。

Amid the trickle⁹ of water, the eerie¹⁰ green hue¹¹ of the peeling plaster suggests an underwater cave.

在涓涓细流中，剥落的灰泥呈现出诡异的绿色，不免让人联想到水下洞穴。

And yet in places such as Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the steam still rises.

然而，在黎巴嫩北部的的黎波里等地，蒸汽仍在升腾。

A worker at Hammam el Abed confides¹² that it never closed during lockdown. (The steam kills the virus anyway, he insists.)

Hammam el Abed的一名员工透露，在封锁期间，它从未关闭。（他坚持认为，反正蒸汽会把病毒杀死。）

A fuel and electricity crisis had left many Lebanese without hot water at home—but hammams elsewhere are reviving too.

燃料和电力危机使得许多黎巴嫩人家里没有热水——但其他地方的公共浴场也在复苏。

In Antakya attendance is growing as temperatures fall and vaccination¹³ rates increase.

在安塔基亚，随着气温下降和疫苗接种率的提高，来浴场的人数正在增加。

One aspect of hammam culture proving resistant¹⁴ to the pressures of both modernity and Covid-19 is its role in wedding rituals.

公共浴场文化抵挡现代化和新冠病毒压力的一个方面是它在婚礼仪式中的作用。

Traditionally, brides bathed before weddings, and grooms¹⁵' mothers came to inspect them: it might be the only chance to see them unveiled.

按照传统，新娘在婚礼前会进行沐浴，新郎的母亲会来观察新娘：这可能是看到新娘揭开面纱的唯一机会。

Recently Yeni Hammam hosted a modern-day bridal party.

最近，Yeni Hammam举办了一场现代新娘派对。

A group of 30, including pensioners¹⁶ and babies, danced in sodden¹⁷ slips and towels, beating drums and singing in the tepid¹⁸ chamber¹⁹, before piling into the steam room for a scrub by an attendant.

30个人穿着湿漉漉的拖鞋和浴巾跳舞，老人和婴儿也参与其中，在温热的房间里击鼓唱歌，然后拥进蒸汽室，请服务员擦洗。

(These can be eye-watering: in Syrian Arabic, the word for the scrub— takyees—is also used when the regime snatches someone for interrogation.)

（这可能会某些人感到痛苦：在叙利亚阿拉伯语中，“擦洗”（takyees）一词也被用于当局抓人进行审讯时。）

Aunts washed their nieces' hair amid a cacophony²⁰ of chatter²¹.

姑姑们在嘈杂的聊天声中给侄女洗头。

In the cooling room, picnic rugs were laid out on the central marble slab²².

冷却室里，野餐地毯铺在中央大理石板上。

Bridal parties are an example of the intergenerational socialising hammams have always hosted: mothers brought daughters to the baths, where they could observe the bodies of other women at different stages of life, unselfconscious and unposed.

新娘派对是浴场中代际社交活动的一个例子：母亲带着女儿去浴场，在那里她们可以观察其他处于不同人生阶段的女性的身体，自然不拘束。

Today these parties, and the male equivalents, are a vital part of both tradition and modern business plans—as, against the odds²³, enterprising hammams struggle into a post-covid world.

如今，这些派对，以及新郎派对，已成为传统和现代商业计划的重要组成部分——有进取心的公共浴场迎难而上，艰难挤进后新冠时代。

No longer an essential part of daily life, they can still connect bathers to their heritage, their cities and a deep part of their identity, which the steam brings out of their pores.

公共浴场不再是日常生活的重要组成部分，但它们仍然可以将洗浴者与他们的传统、他们的城市和他们身份的深层部分联系起来，蒸汽从他们的毛孔之中将其带出。

1 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

2 boilers   

锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Even then the boilers often burst or came apart at the seams. 甚至那时的锅炉也经常从焊接处爆炸或裂开。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The clean coal is sent to a crusher and the boilers. 干净的煤送入破碎机和锅炉。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

5 eroded   

adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The cliff face has been steadily eroded by the sea. 峭壁表面逐渐被海水侵蚀。
• The stream eroded a channel in the solid rock. 小溪在硬石中侵蚀成一条水道。

6 Forsaken   

adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词

参考例句：

• He was forsaken by his friends. 他被朋友们背弃了。
• He has forsaken his wife and children. 他遗弃了他的妻子和孩子。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

9 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

10 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

11 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

12 confides   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的第三人称单数 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• Now Butterfly confides to Pinkerton that she has secretly embraced Christianity. 蝴蝶向平克顿吐露，她已暗地里信奉了基督教。 来自辞典例句
• He also confides, in great secrecy, that his own heart still bleeds over Natalie. 他还极秘密地透露，他自己内心里还在为那塔丽感到痛苦。 来自辞典例句

13 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

14 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

15 grooms   

n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗

参考例句：

• Plender end Wilcox became joint grooms of the chambers. 普伦德和威尔科克斯成为共同的贴身侍从。 来自辞典例句
• Egypt: Families, rather than grooms, propose to the bride. 埃及：在埃及，由新郎的家人，而不是新郎本人，向新娘求婚。 来自互联网

16 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

17 sodden   

adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑

参考例句：

• We stripped off our sodden clothes.我们扒下了湿透的衣服。
• The cardboard was sodden and fell apart in his hands.纸板潮得都发酥了，手一捏就碎。

18 tepid   

adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的

参考例句：

• She bent her mouth to the tap and drank the tepid water.她把嘴伸到水龙头底下去喝那微温的水。
• Her feet firmly planted on the tepid rough brick of the floor.她一双脚稳固地立在微温而粗糙的砖地上。

19 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

20 cacophony   

n.刺耳的声音

参考例句：

• All around was bubbling a cacophony of voices.周围人声嘈杂。
• The drivers behind him honked,and the cacophony grew louder.后面的司机还在按喇叭，且那刺耳的声音越来越大。

21 chatter   

vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战

参考例句：

• Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
• I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。

22 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

23 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？