The subway-Tom Wolfe
In a way ,of course,the subway is the living symbol of all that adds up to lack of stauts in New York.There is a sense of madness and disorientation at almost every express stop.The ceilings are low ,the vistas are long,there are no landmarks,the lighting is an eerie blend of fluorescent tubing,electric light bulbs and neon advertising.
在某种程度上，地铁无疑是纽约所有缺乏身分的因素的生动象征。几乎每一站都有疯狂和令人迷失方向的气息。地铁站的天花板很低，远景很长，没有什么标志性建筑，荧光灯管、电灯泡和霓虹广告的光线融合成光怪陆离的混合体。
The whole place is a gross assault on the senses.The noise of the trains stopping or rounding curves has a high-pitchinged harshness that is difficult to describe.People feel no qualms about pushing whenever it becomes crowded.Your tactile sense takes a crucifying you never dreamed possible.The odors become unbearable when the weather is warm.
整个站台对人的感观是极大的伤害。列车停止和转弯时发出的噪音之尖锐刺耳实在让人无法描述。人们在感到拥挤时毫无顾忌地乱推乱搡。你的触觉会感受到前所未有的煎熬。当天气暖和时，气味会让人无法忍受。
Between platforms,record shops broadcast rds with metallic tones and lunch counters serve the kind of hot dogs in which you bite through a tensile,rubbery surface and then hit a soft,oleaginous center like cottonseed meal,and the customers sit there with pastry and bread falkes caked around their mouths ,belching to themselves so that their cheeks pop out flatulently now and then.
在站台之间，唱片行会播放45转/分的重金属唱片，供应午餐的柜台会提供热狗，如果你咬下去一口，你会先感受到有如橡皮般有弹性的外壳，然后会吃到柔软多油的棉籽饭般的中心部分。顾客们坐在那里，嘴边糊满了热狗皮和面包屑之类的东西，他们会不时打个饱嗝，而他们的腮帮子也会随之不时鼓起。
The underground spaces seem to attract every eccentric passion.A small and ancient man with a Bible ,an American flag and a megaphone haunts the subways of Manhattan.
地下的空间似乎能够吸引每一种怪异的激情。一个身材矮小、穿着古旧的人总会拿本圣经、带着一面美国国旗和一个扩音器出入于曼哈顿的地铁。
He opens the Bible and quotes from it in a strong but old and monotonous voice.He uses the megaphone at express stops,where the noise is too great for his voice to be heard ordinarily,and calls for redemption.
他会翻开圣经，用沧桑而又单调的声音引述上面的经文。因为周围的噪音太大以至于他的正常嗓音不能被人很好的听见，他在每一站都使用扩音器，并且总是号召人们进行救赎。
Also beggars.And among the beggars New York's status comp
etition is renewed ,there in the much-despised subway.On the Seventh Avenue IRT line the competition is maniacal .
还有乞丐。在这令人无比厌恶的地铁上，在乞丐之间，纽约的身份竞争得到了光大和发扬。这种竞争在第七大道的城际快车上达到了癫狂的程度。
Some evenings the beggars ricochet off one another between stops,calling one another-s and -s and telling each other to go find their own -car.
在一些夜晚，一些乞丐互相撕斗，相互咒骂并且互相警告对方滚回到自己的车厢去。
A mere blind man with a cane and a cup is mediocre business.What is demanded is entertainment.Two  boys,one of them with a bongo drum,get on and the big boy,with the drum,starts beating on  it as soon as the train starts up,and the little boy goes into what passes for a native dance.
一个拿着拐杖和杯子的普通盲人只能算是平庸的乞讨者。人们需要的是娱乐表演。有两个男孩，其中一个拿着一只小手鼓，上了车。大点的男孩在列车起步时开始击打手鼓，小点的男孩就开始跳通常认为是土著舞的舞蹈。
Then ,if there is room,he goes into a tumbling act.He runs from one end of the car ,first in the direction the train is going,and does a complete somersault in the air,landing on his feet.Then ,he runs back the other way and dose  a somersault in the air ,only this time against the motion of the train.
然后，如果车厢内有空间的话，他会开始进行空翻表演。他从车厢的一头跑到另一头，先顺着车行驶的方向在空中来一个完整的空翻，双脚着地。然后他会逆着车行驶的方向奔跑，再来一个空翻。
He does this several times both ways ,doing some native dancing in between.
他会来回做上好几次这样的空翻，其间穿插一些土著舞表演。
This act takes so long that it can be done properly only over a long stretch,such as the run between 42nd Street and 72nd Street.After the act is over,the boys pass along the car with Dixie cups,asking for contributions.
这样的表演一般需要较长的时间才能很好的完成，例如列车从第42街行驶到第72街期间。表演完毕后，
两个男孩会拿着装饮料用的纸杯沿着车厢索要小费。
solidityThe Dixie cup is the conventional container.There is one young Negro on the Seventh Avenue line who used to get on at 42nd Street and start singing a song ,"I wish that i were married."He was young and looked perfectly healthy.
装饮料用的纸杯是传统的容器。在第七大道的线路上有一个年轻的黑人，他通常在第42街上车，然后开始唱“我希望我已经结婚了”这首歌。他很年轻，看起来身体非常健康。
But he would get on and sing this song"I wish that i were married."at the top of his lung and then pull a Dixie cup out from under the windbreaker he always wore and walk up and down the car wait
ing for contributions.
但他会上来唱这首“我希望我已经结婚了”，并且在唱到最高音的时候从他经久不变的防风外衣里掏出一个装饮料用的纸杯，然后沿着车厢来回走动，希望能得到一些小费.
I never saw him get a cent .Lately ,however,life has improved for him because he has begun to understand status opens up his windbreaker,he not only takes out a Dixie cup but reveals a cardboard sign,on which is written:"My mother has multiple schlerrossis and i am bland in one eye ."
我从未见到他得到一分钱。然而最近由于他开始了解身份竞争，他的生活开始有了改观。现在他上车后只会在他解开防风大衣时唱“我希望我已经结婚了”这首歌，他不但会拿出他的纸杯，还会露出一块纸板，上面写着“我母亲患了硬化症，我的一只眼是瞎的”。
His best touch is sclerosis,which he has added every conceivable consonant to creating a good ,intimidating German physiiology-textbook solidity.So today he does much better.
他最出彩的地方是“硬化症”这个词，他故意拼错这个词，在中间加上很多多余的辅音字母，很好的营造出一种骇人的德国生理学课本般稳固的感觉。所以现在他干得好多了。
He seems to make a living.He is no idler,lollygagger or bum.He can look with condescentsion upon the states to which men fall.
他似乎可以以此谋生。他不再是懒惰者、消磨时间者或者是游荡者。他可以带着超然的态度看待他人的没落。
On the East Side IRT subway line ,for example ,at 86th Street ,the train stops and everyone comes squeezing out of the cars in clots and there on a bench in the gray-green gloom,under the girders and 1905 tiles,is an old man slouched back fast asleep,wearing a cotton windbreaker with the sleeves pulled off.
在东部的城际快车线路上，比如说第86街，列车停下后人们互相拥挤，成地挤出车厢，而在灰绿阴影中的一条长凳上，在那些大梁和1905年铺设的瓷砖下面，有一位懒散地斜靠着椅背的老人似乎在酣睡，他穿着一件棉风衣，衣服的袖子已经被扯掉了。
That is all he is wearing .His skin is the color of congealed Wheatena laced with pocket lint .His legs are crossed in a gentlemanly fashioin and his kindly juice-head face is slopped over on the back of the bench.
他就穿了这么多东西。他的肤死灰，间杂着苍白的斑点。他双腿以一种绅士般的方式交叉，他酒鬼特有的脸耷拉在长凳的后面。
Apparenly ,other winos,who are notorious thieves among one another,had stripped him of all his clothes except his windbreaker,which they had tried to pull off him,but only managed to rip the sleeves off ,and left him there passed out on the bench and naked,but in a gentlemanly posture .
显然那些同时又身为臭名昭著的小偷的其他酒鬼曾
经扒光了他的所有衣服，只剩下这件风衣，他们也曾试图把这件风衣扒走，（但最终没有成功），只能够将袖子拽掉，然后任由这位老人裸坐在长凳上人事不省，但他们还是给他保留了一个绅士般的姿态。
Everyone stares at him briefly ,at his congealed Wheatena-and -lint carcass,but no one breaks stride,and who knows how long it will be before finally two policemen have to come in and hold their breath and scrape him up out of the gloom and into the bosom of the law ,from which he will emerge with a set of green fatigues,at least,and an honorable seat at night on the subway bench.
经过的路人都会短暂地凝视一番，看看他灰白斑驳的躯体，但没有人停下脚步；没人知道到底要经过多久才会有警察过来屏住呼吸将他从阴暗中转移出来，并将他安置在法律的温暖怀抱中去。那样的话，他至少会穿上一件普通的绿工作服，重新拥有在夜晚的地铁长凳上值得尊敬的一席位置.