2022年经济学人 公共浴场文化——身体与灵魂（上）

Books and Arts

文学与艺术

Bathhouse culture -- Body and soul

公共浴场文化——身体与灵魂

Covid-19 has accelerated the decline of hammams, yet the steam still rises

新冠加速了公共浴池的衰落，但蒸汽仍在升腾

Yeni hammam in Antakya, Turkey’s southernmost city, is hard to find.

Yeni hammam位于土耳其最南端城市安塔基亚，很难被找到。

Would-be bathers must search the maze-like streets for the tell-tale arched entrance.

想要洗浴的人必须在迷宫般的街道上寻找泄露了内情的拱形入口。

Locals can help; after all, the hammam has been there for over 300 years.

当地人可以帮你找到它；毕竟，这个公共浴场已经存在了300多年。

The name means “new bath”, and Yeni Hammam is indeed much newer than other bathhouses in Antakya, some of which date back to the Mamluks.

这个名字的意思是“新浴室”，而Yeni Hammam确实比安塔基亚的其他公共浴场要新得多，其中一些浴池可以追溯到马穆鲁克时代。

Inside, the architecture is lofty and monumental.

建筑内部高耸又宏伟。

Customers strip off in the entrance hall, before beginning the ritual of steam, scrub and oil massage¹, progressing through three marble chambers² of gradually increasing humidity.

顾客在入口大厅脱去衣物，然后开始例行汗蒸、擦洗和精油按摩，完成这一过程会穿过三个湿度逐渐增加的大理石房间。

Light from star-shaped chinks in the domed³ ceilings filters through the vapour.

半球形天花板上的星形缝隙中透出的光线穿透水汽。

Old hands use the shafts⁴ cast on the walls to tell the time of day.

老手会用挂在墙上的杆子来判断时间。

Like many cities, Antakya (Antioch in antiquity) once boasted many more hammams, and before that, lavishly⁵ mosaicked Roman baths.

和许多城市一样，安塔基亚（古代的安提阿）曾经拥有许多公共浴场，在那之前，还有奢华的马赛克罗马浴场。

Over 2,000 years communal⁶ bathing never went out of fashion.

2000多年来，公共洗浴从未过时。

Now, though, the tradition is under threat.

然而现在，这一传统正受到威胁。

Yeni is one of only four functioning hammams in Antakya—and in March 2020 it shut for the first time in living memory.

Yeni是安塔基亚仅有的四个仍在经营的浴场之一，2020年3月，它在人们记忆中首次关门。

Across north Africa and the Levant, from Morocco to Istanbul, Covid-19 closed historic bathhouses. Not all have reopened.

从北非到黎凡特，从摩洛哥到伊斯坦布尔，新冠迫使这些历史悠久的浴场关门。不是所有的浴场后来都重新开放了。

To survive, they must draw deep on a venerable past.

为了生存，他们必须深深汲取古老历史中的经验。

Historically, hammams fulfilled a practical function as communal washing facilities.

从历史上看，公共浴场作为公共洗浴设施发挥了其实用功能。

They were a fixture⁷ of the Islamic urban landscape, built close to mosques⁸ and with similar architecture—a place to purify the body before focusing on the soul.

它们是伊斯兰城市景观的一部分，建在清真寺附近，与其有着相似的建筑风格——一个在专注于灵魂之前净化身体的地方。

Strictly⁹ segregated¹⁰ by gender¹¹, under Ottoman rule hammams became hubs for business, socialising and gossip.

在奥斯曼帝国的统治下，浴场严格按照性别分开，于是浴场成了商业、社交和八卦的中心。

They were vital for women in times when they could not meet freely in public.

在女性无法在公共场合自由会面的时代，这些对话对她们至关重要。

As Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a British traveller, rhapsodised in the early 18th century, “'tis the women’s coffee-house, where all the news of the town is told and scandal invented”.

正如英国旅行家玛丽·沃特利·蒙塔古女士在18世纪早期所赞颂的那样，“这是属于女性的咖啡馆，镇上所有的新闻都在这里被讲述，所有的丑闻都在这里被编造出来。”

Mariem, a Tunisian student, affirms that, before the pandemic, she and her pals¹² would visit the hammam about once a month for dedicated¹³ girl time: wrapped in foutas (linen towels), they ate oranges and laughed in the steam.

Mariem是一名突尼斯学生，她肯定地说，在疫情之前，她和她的朋友们每个月都会去一次公共浴场，享受专属于女孩的时光：她们裹着亚麻毛巾，吃着橘子，在蒸汽中开怀大笑。

For most clients, the trip is now a treat not a necessity.

对于大多数顾客来说，这种体验如今是一种享受，而不是必需。

Bathing in the Hammam Nur al-Din, one of the oldest in Damascus, is a retro thrill, says Bashar, one of its erstwhile patrons.

在Hammam Nur al-Din浴场（大马士革最古老的浴场之一）洗浴有一种复古的兴奋，它的一位老主顾巴沙尔说道。

Besides the steam and the massage, “I connect with my roots.”

除了汗蒸和按摩，“我在感受与祖先的连结。”

His forebears “all washed on these same stones, under these same domes”.

他的祖先“都曾在同样的穹顶下，坐在同样的石头上洗浴”。

1 massage   

n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据

参考例句：

• He is really quite skilled in doing massage.他的按摩技术确实不错。
• Massage helps relieve the tension in one's muscles.按摩可使僵硬的肌肉松弛。

2 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

3 domed   

adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• I gazed up at the domed ceiling arching overhead. 我抬头凝望着上方弧形的穹顶。
• His forehead domed out in a curve. 他的前额呈弯曲的半球形。

4 shafts   

n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等）

参考例句：

• He deliberately jerked the shafts to rock him a bit. 他故意的上下颠动车把，摇这个老猴子几下。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Shafts were sunk, with tunnels dug laterally. 竖井已经打下，并且挖有横向矿道。 来自辞典例句

5 lavishly   

adv.慷慨地，大方地

参考例句：

• His house was lavishly adorned.他的屋子装饰得很华丽。
• The book is lavishly illustrated in full colour.这本书里有大量全彩插图。

6 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

7 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

8 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

9 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

10 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

11 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

12 pals   

n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙

参考例句：

• We've been pals for years. 我们是多年的哥们儿了。
• CD 8 positive cells remarkably increased in PALS and RP(P CD8+细胞在再生脾PALS和RP内均明显增加(P 来自互联网

13 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。