美国国家公共电台 NPR In A Bullet-Riddled Mansion, A Beirut Architect Envisions A Museum Of Memory

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Today the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon is relatively¹ peaceful, though a civil war raged there in the '70s and '80s. Often Lebanese people don't like to talk about what happened. NPR's Alice Fordham meets a woman trying to start that conversation with the story of a single building.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE²: Lebanon isn't big on memory, especially not of its 15-year civil war which ended with a fractious truce³ rather than clear winners and losers. Lots of people fear that if the war is discussed it will stir up the tensions again. So it isn't taught in schools. There's no war memorial and no museum. But one woman, architecture professor Mona Hallak, is trying to change that via a 25-year obsession⁴ with a house that's an emblem⁵ of the capital Beirut's elegant distant past and its violent recent history.

I meet her taking a group of students around the extraordinary mansion⁶, a vast elegant edifice⁷ four stories tall, whose yellow walls and fluted⁸ pillars are ravaged⁹ by thousands of bullet holes. It's nearly a century old.

MONA HALLAK: This building, it's 1924. You can still see the etching in the stone.

FORDHAM: It belonged to a rich Lebanese family.

HALLAK: Now in 1932, the building was finished. And they lived happily ever after until 1975.

FORDHAM: In '75, tensions in Lebanon boiled over into civil war. And the house was right on what became known as the Green Line, dividing East Beirut from the West.

HALLAK: The minute the war started, this became a real difficult spot. And everybody left the building. And militias¹⁰ went in.

FORDHAM: Hallak shows us how balconies became hideouts for gunmen. The building was notorious during her frightening childhood when militias dominated the city. After the war sputtered¹¹ out in 1990, she came across the house again as a young architect, a destroyed building among many others.

HALLAK: There was a bullet in every square centimeter. But to me, I looked and I saw suddenly the sky, the blue sky through the building. There was this amazing hope in this building. There was - it was destroyed but beautiful. It was destroyed but peaceful.

FORDHAM: She takes us through the abandoned hallways, showing snipers' nests built into what were once airy salons¹². The first time she came, child memories of wartime flooded back.

HALLAK: So suddenly I, who lived the war, who hid under tables because I was - the thought that they would protect me from something, I really looked at my mother's face many times under the table because she would crawl with me. And I'm like, is it the last time I see you? And when I stood here, I had all these memories come back to me in this second. And I'm like, if I have all these memories, then somebody else will have these memories. So this is a place of memory.

FORDHAM: Since then, Hallak has been fighting to convert this into a House of Beirut, a museum of the history of the city, including the civil war - albeit¹³ told very, very carefully.

HALLAK: But we're talking about no timelines, no facts, no names, no dates. We're talking about the human experience of war, what happens to you and to your city during war.

FORDHAM: After years of campaigning, she persuaded the Beirut authorities to confiscate¹⁴ the house from its owners, who planned to demolish¹⁵ it, and compensate¹⁶ them. Gradually, funds were found to renovate¹⁷ the building. And it now stands ready for exhibits and visitors to arrive. But the final paperwork to open it to the public from the Beirut governorate still isn't finished. It's been years.

HALLAK: I think that there will always be fear within the government, within the municipality that, what have we done? We really started talking about the war in an officially - building officially owned by the government. And they want to control what's going to be said.

FORDHAM: I put this to the governor of Beirut, Ziad Chebib. And he staunchly denied any political problems and said there were merely bureaucratic¹⁸ hurdles¹⁹.

ZIAD CHEBIB: Unfortunately, I cannot give you an exact date for it. But I can promise you that it will be very, very, very soon.

FORDHAM: And then even if the House of Beirut does open one day, will people visit? I speak with one of the students touring the building, Nancy Hawat.

NANCY HAWAT: I am young. And it felt so weird²⁰ for me. So for my parents and their generation, I don't think they will be happy to remember the war because it brings them back bad memories.

FORDHAM: She says though even if it's too painful for those who lived the war to visit, her generation will go. It's good to remember the war, she says, because we hope it will not come back. Alice Fordham, NPR News, Beirut.

1 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

4 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

5 emblem   

n.象征，标志；徽章

参考例句：

• Her shirt has the company emblem on it.她的衬衫印有公司的标记。
• The eagle was an emblem of strength and courage.鹰是力量和勇气的象征。

6 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

7 edifice   

n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室)

参考例句：

• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。
• There is a huge Victorian edifice in the area.该地区有一幢维多利亚式的庞大建筑物。

8 fluted   

a.有凹槽的

参考例句：

• The Taylor house is that white one with the tall fluted column on Polyock Street. 泰勒家的住宅在波洛克街上，就是那幢有高大的雕花柱子的白色屋子。
• Single chimera light pink two-tone fluted star. Plain, pointed. Large. 单瓣深浅不一的亮粉红色星形缟花，花瓣端有凹痕。平坦尖型叶。大型。

9 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

10 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

11 sputtered   

v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的过去式和过去分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出

参考例句：

• The candle sputtered out. 蜡烛噼啪爆响着熄灭了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The balky engine sputtered and stopped. 不听使唤的发动机劈啪作响地停了下来。 来自辞典例句

12 salons   

n.（营业性质的）店( salon的名词复数 )；厅；沙龙（旧时在上流社会女主人家的例行聚会或聚会场所）；（大宅中的）客厅

参考例句：

• He used to attend to his literary salons. 他过去常常去参加他的文学沙龙。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Conspiracy theories about Jewish financiers were the talk of Paris salons. 犹太金融家阴谋论成为巴黎沙龙的话题。 来自互联网

13 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

14 confiscate   

v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公

参考例句：

• The police have the right to confiscate any forbidden objects they find.如发现违禁货物，警方有权查扣。
• Did the teacher confiscate your toy?老师没收你的玩具了吗？

15 demolish   

v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等)

参考例句：

• They're going to demolish that old building.他们将拆毁那座旧建筑物。
• He was helping to demolish an underground garage when part of the roof collapsed.他当时正在帮忙拆除一个地下汽车库，屋顶的一部份突然倒塌。

16 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

17 renovate   

vt.更新，革新，刷新

参考例句：

• The couple spent thousands renovating the house.这对夫妇花了几千元来翻新房子。
• They are going to renovate the old furniture.他们准备将旧家具整修一番。

18 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

19 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

20 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。