历史上最好的时间地点（双语）

爱思英语编者按：如果可以让你选择，你想留在现在，返回过去，还是穿越未来？

THE BEST TIME AND PLACE TO BE ALIVE WHAT WAS THE BEST TIME AND PLACE TO BE ALIVE?

活在历史上什么时间和地点最好？

If you could travel back in time, what would be your destination? We put the question to a group of contributors and guests, starting with the historian Patrick Dillon ...

如果你可以回到过去，你的目的地会在哪里？我们向一些本刊的撰稿人和外部客座提出了这一问题，第一个回答来自于历史学家帕特里克·狄伦。

Making his own choice of the best time to have been alive, Edward Gibbon, author of “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1776-89), didn’t have much doubt. “If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.” This was the second century AD, when Rome’s “five good emperors”, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, brought a peace and stability that western Europe would—in Gibbon’s view—never see again. But maybe it was an easier question then. Gibbon was white, smart and male. He could walk from the right end of one hierarchical society into another without a tremor. Nor was he sacrificing much technology to do so. Barring gunpowder and the printing press, his world and Hadrian’s were close enough to let Gibbon swap breeches for a toga and barely notice the difference.

被问到会选择在历史上哪一段时间生活最好，《罗马帝国衰亡史》（1776-89）一书的作者爱德华·吉本非常确定地给出了答案：“如果一个人要在世界历史上定下人类最为幸福繁荣的一个时期，他将会毫不犹豫地指出从图密善过世到康茂德继位之间的时代。”这是公元二世纪史称罗马的“五贤帝”时代，涅尔瓦，图拉真，哈德良，安敦尼·庇护，马可·奥里略五位皇帝为西欧带来了吉本认为再也不会重现的和平安定景象。但是也许在当时这是个很容易回答的问题。吉本是一个聪明的白人男性。他可以从历史上一个阶级社会步入另一个而不受影响。他这么做也不需要牺牲放弃多少科技。除了火药和印刷，他所处的世界和哈德良的世界几乎没有多大区别，他可以直接脱下身上的马裤换上一套罗马宽袍而感觉不到任何差异。

For us, the question needs a little more thought. Anyone who dislikes pain, prefers their operations under anaesthetic, and has no wish to die of smallpox, might well choose to live now. We can balance that by awarding ourselves perpetual good health, but it’s harder to level the playing field when it comes to gender. Not many modern women, however frustrated with their lot, would choose to go back to long skirts, tight corsets and a general assumption that they are stupid. The same may apply to any European who isn’t white, and to anyone in the less affluent three-quarters of society. My children once went on a school trip to Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington’s home. I thought they were going to learn about lords; instead they were taught what it was like being a servant. Transport most of us to ancient Rome and we’ll find ourselves in a poorhouse or slave barracks. To give our question a chance, we have to assume that we can do our time travel, if not first-class, then in premium economy, switching genders if we feel like it, to land somewhere moderately comfortable.

对我们来说，这个问题就需要多一些思考了。任何不喜欢疼痛，希望能在麻醉状态下动手术，且不希望死于天花的人都可能倾向于居住在现在。我们可以平衡这一点，假设我们自己会处于永远的健康状态。但是要克服性别的歧视就很困难了。现代女性不管对于生活有多不满，她们中没有几个会愿意回到一个必须穿长裙，紧身衣以及一般舆论认为女性愚蠢的时代。同样的道理适用在那些不是白人的欧洲人，以及任何属于社会中最富裕的四分之一以外的人。我的孩子曾经参加学校组织的前往威灵顿公爵故居艾坡斯利的郊游。我本以为他们的远足会教他们一些关于贵族的知识，结果他们学的都是当一个仆人的感觉如何。我们中的大多数如果穿越回古罗马都会落入贫民窟或者奴隶圈里面。所以要让这个问题有回答的意义，我们必须假设我们的时间旅行就算坐的不是头等舱，也至少是高级经济舱，需要时也能自动设定性别，最后会落在一个适度舒适的地方。

This isn’t a question about technology, where the present will always trump the past. It’s about lifestyle and ideas, people and manners, things that ebb and flow. Armed with a passport to the good life in a time and place of our choice, not many will pass on the journey. Culture-vultures will book their seats in Shakespeare’s Globe in 1599 or the Cotton Club, Harlem, in the 1920s. Hero-worshippers will queue up to watch Michelangelo chisel stone in 1501 or Genghis Khan ride into battle in 1206. Epicures, the most prudent time-travellers, will follow Gibbon to Rome, or time their birth to dodge a call-up for the world wars and surf the Pax Americana.

这个问题和科技无关，在那一点上现代永远会占上风。这是一个关于生活方式和思想，人文，风俗这些随着时间而潮起潮落的特质的问题。给你一本可以在自己选择的地点和时间过上舒适生活的护照，没有多少人会放弃这个机会。文化艺术痴会在1599年莎士比亚的环球剧院，或是20世纪20年代哈莱姆区的棉花俱乐部订票。英雄崇拜者会排成长队观看1501年米开朗基罗凿石的情形或是1206年成吉思汗跨马上战场的景观。享乐主义者是最谨慎的时间旅行者，他们会跟随吉本前往古罗马，或是计算好自己出生的时间来躲过世界大战的征兵，同时又尽情享受美国单极主导下的和平时代。

Peace and stability are all very well, but several of mankind’s giant leaps have come in times of war. Democracy got going, and conversation buzzed, in Athens in the fifth century BC, with the Peloponnesian war raging outside. I’d brave the 16th-century Wars of Religion to catch the Reformation, or the Thirty Years War (1618-48) to watch the Enlightenment dawn. What I’m after is a sense of possibility. There’s a striking moment at the start of Thucydides’ “Peloponnesian War” when he surveys Greek history up to then. The striking part is, it only lasts a couple of pages. History is still on Series One. And maybe that sense of freshness is why the present doesn’t hold all the cards. Our own excitement in the rich, free West seems to have leaked away. A third of us can’t be bothered to use the votes Libyans are dying for. We have freed slaves, empowered women, shaken off tyrants. We should be living happily ever after, yet we’re not. Reason enough to tack against time and find a place where the future hasn’t gone stale.

和平及稳定确实很好，但是人类的一些最巨大的跃进都发生在战争时代。公元前五世纪，伯罗奔尼撒战争在雅典城外愈演愈烈的同时，在城内正在如火如荼地推行民主，且各种观点百家争鸣。我会鼓起勇气前往16世纪的宗教战争来看看新教改革，或是三十年战争（1618－48）来看看文艺复兴的启蒙。我所追求的是一种可能性的感觉。修西得底斯的《伯罗奔尼撒战争》一书开头有一个引人注目的部份，审视了希腊直到当时的所有历史。在今天看来让人惊讶的是，这部分只涵盖了几页。当时人类历史才刚刚播到第一季。也许这种新鲜感正是现代无法超过的地方。我们自己对于富裕，自由的西方的激动感似乎已经流失。我们有三分之一人甚至都不屑于在选举中投票，而在利比亚正有人为了这种权利而牺牲生命。我们解放了奴隶，赋予了女权，推翻了暴君。我们应该可以从此快乐地生活下去，但我们没有。这就足以作为让我们回到未来还没有停滞的时代去看一看的理由了。

It’s tempting to go by what you might witness—Socrates arguing with Plato in Athens, their contemporary Confucius riding through China, or Julius Caesar tangling with Cicero in 50BC Rome. But that would just be time tourism.

根据能够见证的历史时刻来决定目的地是很吸引人的一个主意，苏格拉底和柏拉图在雅典的辩论，和他们同代的孔子在周游列国，或是在公元前50年的罗马凯撒和西塞罗的对峙。但这样就只不过是参加了一次时间旅行团。

The Byzantine empire at its height would be hard to beat for other-worldly glitter, but the power of church and emperor rules it out. Knights on horseback put the Middle Ages out of bounds as far as I’m concerned. Of all the Renaissance states, Vicenza in the 16th century stands out, with Palladio to build you a villa and a chance to studio-crawl round some of the Venetian artists who fill our museums today. Amsterdam in the golden age of the 17th century also comes close, but that’s putting a lot of weight on culture, and we need something broader. The French ancien régime is almost appealing enough to mute my objection to absolute monarchs. Talleyrand, the sly politician who grew up under it and survived the twists and turns of its demise, maintained that “anyone who hasn’t lived in the 18th century before the revolution does not know the sweetness of living.”

拜占庭帝国处于巅峰状态时其神圣的光辉是很难匹敌的，但是教廷的权力和皇帝专制把它从我的名单上剔除了。对我而言马背上的骑士让中世纪不堪忍受。在文艺复兴诸国内，16世纪的维琴察最为耀眼，可以让帕拉弟奥为你建一座庄园，还有机会可以游遍所有的画室，见见今天塞满我们的博物馆的那些美术品的作者们。17世纪黄金时代的阿姆斯特丹也很不错，不过这么一来在文化上放的比重就太大了，我们需要一些更广阔的决定因素。法国旧制时期吸引力极大，都快抵销我对于专制君主的反对了。在旧制时代长大的狡猾政客塔利郎在那个时代结束的风云变幻中幸存了下来，并坚持说：“那些没有在革命之前的18世纪生活过的人不知道生活的美好。”

Part of the challenge is that we’re not just looking for a single charismatic moment. Places exist in time. What have the old people seen? What’s in store for the children? We’re looking for a turning point, a place living through changes whose effects are with us still. Which brings us to London in the 1690s, just after the Glorious Revolution that drove James II from his throne in a coup led by Prince William of Orange.

这个难题的一部份是因为我们不仅仅是在找一个璀璨的时刻。空间在时间里存在。老人们看到了什么？孩子们的未来会怎样？我们在寻找一个转折点，一个经历了变化的地点，这种变化产生的结果直到今天还与我们同在。这把我们带回了17世纪90年代的伦敦，威廉王子带领政变将詹姆斯二世赶下台的光荣革命刚刚结束的时候。

This London has a back story as rich as its potential. Its old people might have shaken the hand of Shakespeare, as well as surviving two civil wars; their grandchildren will die in the capital of a global empire. Around them, a whole new world is taking shape. At Jonathan’s coffee house, you can watch the stockmarket being born; insurance is being invented at Lloyd’s, and the new Bank of England is laying the foundations of national finance. Walking down Cheapside, you can buy an uncensored newspaper or stop to pray in a chapel of your choice. Your father couldn’t do either. Parliament has just begun a continuous tradition of government that will last for centuries. In the bookshops around Westminster Hall, you can buy Isaac Newton’s “Principia” warm off the press, as well as economic texts that talk for the first time about supply and demand, the way money isn’t fixed in value, and why credit matters more than gold. And you may well understand what they are saying, because enlightenment disciplines are still young and connected enough for a generalist to grasp.

当时的伦敦不仅前途无量，而且也有着华丽的背景故事。那里的老人们可能曾握过莎士比亚的手，也在两场内战中幸存了下来，而他们的孙儿最终将会是在一个全球帝国的首都逝去。在他们周围，一个崭新的世界正在成型。在乔纳森的咖啡馆，你可以看到股市正在诞生之中，劳和社正在发明保险，而新建立的英格兰银行正在打下国家财政的基础。沿着齐普赛街行走，你可以买到不经审查的报纸，或者在你中意的教堂停下来祈祷。这两件事都是你的父亲所不能做到的。议会刚刚开始了一个会持续几个世纪的连续政府传统。在威斯敏斯特宫周围的书店里，你可以买到艾萨克·牛顿的《原理》，纸张还是刚刚从印刷机上拿下来的，热乎着呢，也可以买到一些经济学著作，这些书中第一次阐述了供应和需求，货币价值不固定的方式，以及信用为什么比黄金更宝贵等概念。而且你很可能可以读懂这些书，因为当时的启蒙学科还都很年轻，互相之间又有足够的联系，可以造就一些无所不知的通才。

Leisure is thriving in 1690s London. Pleasure gardens are opening and French food is all the rage, swept in by Huguenot immigration. You can go to the first night of Vanbrugh’s “The Relapse”, or Purcell’s“The Fairy Queen”. Coffee houses are packed and the craic is good: the age of wits such as Steele and Addison is dawning. Fashion has arrived, and the Strand is full of luxury shops whose display windows are a novelty, as are most of the things they sell. Best of all, the walk across town takes far longer than it took your father because this is becoming the first monster metropolis. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,” Samuel Johnson said 80 years later. You can watch his sparkling city take shape.

当时的伦敦休闲娱乐正是欣欣向荣。游乐园正在纷纷开放，而胡格诺派移民带来的法国菜风头正劲。你可以去现场观看凡布鲁的“故态复萌”，或是普塞尔的“仙后”的首映。咖啡馆门庭若市，而里面人们侃的内容也相当不错：那个由斯蒂尔和艾迪森为代表的机智时代正要开始。时尚已经出现了，河滨街上塞满了奢侈品商店，这些店里的开放型橱窗和店里出售的大部份东西一样，在当时还是新鲜玩意。最过瘾的是，现在要穿过市区比你父亲那一辈所花的时间要长多了，伦敦正在逐渐转型为世界上第一个巨型都市。80年后，萨缪尔·约翰逊如是说：“一个人如果厌倦了伦敦，他就厌倦了生活。”你可以亲眼看到他所说的璀璨之都开始成型。

No one is celebrating yet. People are saying there’ll be another coup and the newfangled stockmarket will crash again. That’s all part of the charge. Things are happening in London—tolerance, freedom of the press and parliament, consumerism, scientific breakthroughs, economic transformation—that millions of people will still be benefiting from 320 years later. In the coffee house, they talk of the new mathematics for calculating probability. That’s what the insurance market is about, as well as the gambling craze that’s ruining aristocrats all over town: a whole new engagement with possibility, an understanding that the future isn’t going to be like the past. And that’s what draws me to London in the 1690s, despite the wigs, the quack doctors and the stink of coal smoke. The modern world is starting, and I want to be there. 

但是却没有人庆祝。人们传言将会再有一次政变，新奇的股市将会再次崩盘。这都是事物必经的一部份。当时的伦敦孕育的很多东西，包括社会容忍，媒体自由，议会自由，消费主义，科学突破，经济改革在320年之后仍在给人们带来益处。在咖啡店里，人们在谈论崭新的计算概率的数学。这种新科学不仅是保险市场的基础，同时也是让全城各地的贵族倾家荡产的赌博热潮背后的本质。一种全新的对概率的认识，理解未来不会和过去一样。这就是尽管17世纪90年代的伦敦充斥着假发，庸医和煤烟，却仍然吸引着我的原因。现代世界正在萌芽之中，而我想要亲身体验那个时代。

Patrick Dillon is an architect and author of three history books, "The Story of Britain", "Gin: The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva" and "The Last Revolution".

帕特里克·狄伦是一位建筑师，他著有三本历史书籍《英国故事》，《琴酒：日内瓦夫人令人扼腕的逝去》以及《最后的革命》。