“光之城”，我的家

文/让·塔凯 译/袁晓琳 审订/张海榕

“光之城”，我的家

文/让·塔凯 译/袁晓琳 审订/张海榕

“It will be nice to be home for a month, right?” My friend smiled,expecting an affirmative rejoinder2rejoinder（机智的）应答；（尖锐的）反驳。. I smiled too, as I knew what he meant, but I gently replied, “The US is home for my family, but Paris is my home now.”

[2] My recent month Stateside was full of activity―one sister got married at the start of it and another one had a baby at the end of it and all the while I carried on running my businesses while catching up with old friends.

[3] Home. In the seven years I lived in Kansas City it wasn’t long before I felt that warm sensation33 sensation感觉。upon returning there from a trip. Home was near family. Home was where my friends lived. Where my business was growing.Where my staff worked. Home was where my bed was―where I had a fireplace and where I could quietly cook breakfast. But as I look at these characteristics, even now, I realize I am describing comfort. And yes, a component of home iscomfort. But that’s only part of it. That’s the present.

[4] Home. There’s also the past. You need to feel a rootedness4rootedness根深蒂固，牢不可破。and a sense of belonging. But that was a tenuous55 tenuous脆弱的；空洞无力的。position for me in KC. Yes, I finished an undergraduate degree there and built a productive company. But it was self-made.Perhaps that desire to connect with the past was why I loved St. Louis so much. Not only did I have relatives buried in that city,but in the one year I lived there I felt the comfort of knowing that when a branch of my family had emigrated from Europe(from England, Ireland, and Alsace), that they settled in Southern Illinois and the St. Louis area. Yes, Kansas City was in Missouri, but the St. Louis side of the state was actually tied up with my family history too. Rootedness and community―people who know your name, your habits, your history, and your family. That’s home too.That’s the past.

[5] Home. Home is the future too. I have some truly lifelong friends in KC that I cherish time with whenever I visit.As I built my life in that area all sorts of ideas were mooted6moot提出……供讨论。as I considered a lifelong stay. The University of Missouri at Kansas City had a fully funded Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship that would have offered a leisurely career in academia, but it didn’t excite me,and given my experience teaching a couple semesters as an adjunct7adjunct助手。in an MBA program, it was clear that the hierarchical8hierarchical等级制度的。setup99 setup〈非正式〉体制；组织方式。in a university setting wasn’t for me. I thought about buying into businesses, and went so far as preliminary discussions with some principals of those companies. But none of it inspired me in the visceral10visceral（未经过认真思考而）出自内心的，发自肺腑的。manner that Paris did.

[6] Home. Knowing you are where you belong now, with roots in the past,and a future to look forward to. That all comes together for me in Europe, in Paris, deep in my bones.

[7] As I took in the mountain of data I considered my own case. I wasn’t fl eeing war, as so many are in Europe these days. I wasn’t seeking a better life economically.Indeed my experience at the time of just selling a business should have encouraged me to stay. I had moved to a US city with no connections, and with some of my own funds, a couple of investors, and a co-founder, built a company from nothing to one that successfully sold and transitioned to a new owner. I could simply wash,rinse, and repeat if I chose, with little interference and regulation from the US government.

[8] When I immigrated to the United States in 1988, I was already a citizen,but the move wasn’t my choice. In 2013 I came to France as a noncitizen,but entirely by choice. And like many immigrants before me, I jumped through legal hoops while setting up the infrastructure for my own businesses to be based in my new country. I didn’t come here to “get a job.” I came here to build a life.

[9] I’ve always been an optimist,but it’s only recently I’ve realized that immigration―of whatever kind or character―is a supreme act of hope,not just for the “better life” which is,seemingly the only reason ever mentioned in news stories about immigration, but because it is such a big task to make and create a new home. Getting a new job,a new house, learning the ins and outs11ins and outs来龙去脉。of a city―these things are not so hard.But building another home―tying those long, colorful, and winding threads of past, present, and future into a coherent tapestry, that’s hard. That’s perhaps why those of us who weren’t born here love it so much, because we don’t take any part of this experience for granted. ■

“回家待上一个月，感觉不错吧？”我的朋友笑道，以为我会说是。明白他的意思，我不置可否，只是轻声回答：“美国是我的家乡，而如今我以巴黎为家。”

[2]我在美国的这个月可谓应酬不断，一位姐妹在月初嫁人，另一位在月末生娃，我一边忙于生意，一边会见老友。

[3]家。我在堪萨斯城生活的七年中，很早便感受到了外出归来后的温馨怡人。家意味着与家人相依；家乡是我朋友们生活的地方、我事业成长的沃土、我的员工工作的乐园；家里有我的床榻和壁炉，在这里，我可以静静地烹调早餐。如今回首，发现这些特点都是对舒适的描述，是啊，家的一个要素就是舒适度，但这毕竟只是一部分。此为家所承载的现在。

[4]家也代表着过去。你需在此获得一种根基感和归属感。但这种感觉我在堪萨斯城却鲜有体会。的确，我在堪萨斯读完了大学，还创建了一家公司，生意兴隆，但在那里我是白手起家、自力更生的。或许我对圣路易斯的深爱正是源于过去的牵绊，我的亲人长眠于此，我也在此生活一年，欣然得知我的家族支系何时迁离欧洲（英国、爱尔兰、阿尔萨斯）并定居于伊利诺斯州南部和圣路易斯区域——是的，堪萨斯也属于密苏里州，但实际上，是该州的圣路易斯区域与我的家族历史密切相关。家乡是根基，是社区，是那些熟知你姓名、习惯、过去和家族的人们所在的地方。是以家也蕴含着过往。

[5]家还孕育着未来。我在堪萨斯城结交了一些挚友并珍惜每次与其相聚的时光。在这儿营造新生活的期间，我曾考虑过要永久定居下来，当时权衡了各种方案。攻读密苏里大学堪萨斯分校的企业学博士学位能获得全额资助，走上悠闲的学术生涯，但这并未使我动心。我曾在工商管理硕士培养班当过两个学期的助教，很明显大学机构中的等级制度并不适合我。我也曾考虑过入股公司，甚至和那些公司的负责人进行过初步的商讨。但这些都不及巴黎令我心动。

[6]家就是我所归属的现在、我所依附的过去以及我所期盼的将来，这一切感受深植于我骨髓，在欧洲、在巴黎一齐涌现。

[7]我在查阅成堆的移民资料的同时，思索自己移民巴黎的原因。和如今其他许多移民欧洲的人不同，我不是为了躲避战争，也并非为了改善经济状况，实际上，当时我的公司刚被收购，我的创业经历本应促使我留在美国。我初到美国一个城市时，毫无人脉，仅仅凭借一些个人资金，找到两三位投资者和一个合作人，便创建了一家公司，将其从一无所有逐渐做大做强并最终出售转手他人。如果我想，我完全可以在一个新的城市从头再来，再造辉煌，也几乎不受政府的干涉和管制。

[8]我于1988年移民美国，当时已是一名公民，但这次迁居并非我主动选择的。2013年我来法国时还是非公民，却完全出于自愿。同之前众多的移民者一样，初来乍到，我得跨越法律上的重重阻碍为自己的事业建好基础设施。我来这里不是为了“谋生”，而是为了打造一种生活。

[9]我一直是个乐天派，但也是最近才意识到，无论何种形式何种性质的移民都孕育着一种至高无上的希望。这不仅因为移民能带来“更好的生活”（这似乎是新闻报道里唯一提到的关于移民的原因了），还因为移民意味着创建新家，任务艰巨。找到新工作，住进新房子，学习在一个城市生活的种种要领，这些都不算难，难的是要创建一个新家——将纷繁复杂的过去、现在和未来的多彩长线编织成和谐的绫罗锦缎。我们深知其中不易，从未视其理所当然，这大概就是为什么我们这些人虽未生于巴黎，却如此热爱这座城市。 □

The Story of My Adventures in the City of Light1光之城，巴黎的别称。

ByJean Taquet

（译者单位：河海大学外国语学院）