都柏林夜未眠

2018-08-06ByChristineMcCafferty

英语学习 2018年7期

By Christine Mc Cafferty

Shannon and Christine have three goals for their trip to Dublin， the capital city of Ireland： see ancient bog bodies， drink Guinness beer and find a job.1 Which would they achieve？

W e arrived in Dublin before midday， running on2 only three hours of sleep as wed been at a party the night before. The next two days were going to be crazy， but we didnt know it at that time. We were dropped off in the heart of Dublin and the very first thing we did was head to the National Museum of Ireland.3 There we came face-to-face with a 2000-yearold bog body named Clonycavan Man4. He had only half a body…but at least he had a head… unlike many of the others who were so gruesomely murdered and dropped in a marshy bog.5 Our first goal was achieved！

Moving further in time， but still at the museum， we also saw the famous Tara Brooch6. This is the most beautiful and intricate piece of jewellery remaining from Irelands mediaeval times.7 It would have tied the front of a wealthy mans tunic8. The pin is over 32cm long. It was dropped somewhere around 650 AD. Imagine how upset the man was to lose it. But， could he ever have imagined the stir9 it caused in the fashion world when it was found in 1850… Thousands of imitations were made—even Queen Victoria bought a copy.10 No one knows where the Tara Brooch was picked up， because the peasant woman who found it claimed that she had found it in a box on a beach. This was probably to avoid having to share the money she made selling it with the landowner whose land she found it on.11

What I love about European history is the layers and layers of history in any one place.12 Dublin has many beautiful old buildings from different eras， but what lies beneath the city is even more surprising… a Viking settlement13. The Vikings were Scandinavian invaders from the countries that today are known as Sweden and Norway.14 They were vicious warriors and expert sailors， attacking villagers and forming settlements all along the coastlines.15 Often in Dublin， when development takes place or buildings are demolished， developers and archaeologists find the remains of Vikings and their belongings and houses.16 Many traded and settled in Ireland， and it is believed that some intermarried17 with the local people. This resulted in words from the Scandinavian languages being taken into Irish. That includes place names and the surnames of people.

Vikings skeletons are usually found with swords and other artefacts—for use in the next life. The Vikings were not Christians. Christian burials usually did not include anything like this as Christians do not believe anything material can be taken into the afterlife.18

All this learning and activity took place on less than three hours of sleep！19 But little did we know that we would get even less over the next two nights.

Absolutely broke， we headed to the nearest youth hostel， not to book a room but to beg for a place to stay. We befriended a guy who worked there. He said that we could sleep in the shared lounge20 of the hostel. We longed to rest our weary bodies on the sofas but had the awful bad luck to find a guy and his girlfriend spread out over both！21 How annoyed we were at them taking our “beds”！

We sat on the floor morosely22 watching them， but they did not move away. Shannon named him “The Fisherman”， as she decided he smelled like fish， and his girlfriend “the Black Beauty” because of her mass of untidy black hair. Shannon passed the time drawing nasty pictures of them in my diary. She wrote that she wished they“would take their corpses outa here” and that they were “bloody obnoxious23 for taking over our bedrooms”. Let all this anger be an indication of how tired we were， and desperate to lay our bodies down， rather than an indicator of Shannons character！24

Unable to get any rest， we decided to head out again. We left our backpacks in safe-keeping and headed for Temple Bar， an older and arty part of the city that was rocking with nightlife： crowded but interesting.25

As luck would have it26， there we met and partied with some young guys who then invited us back to their house in the suburbs to sleep for the night. Like most of the Irish， they were friendly and easy-going. It was well after midnight， and we were tired， so we took them up on the offer.27 Once we got to the house， all we wanted to do was sleep but they wanted to keep chatting and joking around.

Finally we were offered a bed. We dived in， but one of the young fellows decided to sit at the foot of the bed and read us a book called The Gospel According to Peanuts which is apparently a very interesting and funny book on Christianity.28 I dont remember anything about the book； only trying to sleep. We ignored him as it was nearly 5 oclock. But still we got no peace as， ironically， because he was reading a book on Christianity to our semi-sleeping bodies， a girl barged into the room and started shouting loudly and angrily at him.29 It was his girlfriend. We put our heads under our pillows. Could things get worse？

At least we got to sleep later that morning and then easily got a lift back into the city. There we spent the day walking around looking for a job. We had no luck at all at any of the nice places， so we decided to try a real down-andout30 bar. There we met three rowdy31 guys who had had way too much to drink. They have been watching Gaelic football， which is a dangerous game： half rugby and half soccer.32 The guys made us feel very uncomfortable so we pretended to go to the toilet and escaped！

We wandered back to the hostel. After all， it was late and we needed to get to our backpacks； we had been wearing the same clothes for 24 hours！ We got to the hostel to find that the couple who Shannon had named “The Fisherman” and “Black Beauty” were still on the sofas！ Obviously the friendly worker who had offered us the sofas， had offered it to them as well. Our hearts sank because we knew they were not going anywhere. It looked like they had not moved off the sofas since wed left.

But our luck was about to turn， or so we hoped： a French tour group arrived. They had taken a large dormitory room at the hostel and found that they had two extra beds in it， which they offered to us. How pleased we were.

We were exhausted and ready to sleep. They were thrilled to have just arrived in Dublin and were bubbling with33 energy！ Their Italian tour leader， who was from Rome， was super excited about us being in their dorm with them and took a liking to me34… Oh no！ I did not need that. I still had bad memories of how we had been harassed by Italian men in Edinburgh！ They shouted and laughed and chatted and did not put the lights off till about 4 a.m.

We were dead tired and could have slept till midday， but they all woke（loudly） at 7 a.m. and dived out of bed35 and got dressed. It was demanded that we all vacate36 the room so we moved to the lounge. Yes you guessed it…“The Fisherman” and “Black Beauty” were still on the sofas.

So Shannon and Christine start another exhausting day. They still had two goals left to achieve in Dublin： drink Guinness beer and find a job. So far， Dublin had been very tiring！

1. bog body：泥炭沼人，木乃伊尸體；Guinness beer：吉尼斯黑啤酒，产于英国。

2. run on：持续进行。

3. drop off：让······下车；the National Museum of Ireland：爱尔兰国家博物馆。

4. Clonycavan Man：克隆坎瓦人。

5. gruesomely：可怖地；marshy：沼泽的，湿软的。

6. Tara Brooch：塔拉胸针。

7. intricate：复杂精细的；mediaeval times：中世纪时期。

8. tunic：束腰长外衣。

9. stir：纷乱，骚动。

10. imitation：复制品；Queen Victoria：英国维多利亚女王。

11. 她含糊不清的言辞，很可能是不想让那块地的主人知道此事，从而要求和她共享胸针换来的财富。

12. 欧洲历史令我着迷之处，便在于无论在何处，它都需要我们一层层慢慢揭开。