2024年3月14日发(作者：)

The Pleasure of Walking

Walking gives us back our senses. We see, hear, smell the world as we never

can when we ride. No matter what vehicle, it is the vehicle that is moving, not

ourselves. We are trapped inside its fixed environment, and once we have taken in

its sensory aspects–mainly in terms of comfort or discomfort–we turn off our

perceptions and either go to sleep or open a magazine and begin dozing awake.

But when we walk, the environment changes every moment and our senses

are continuously being alerted. Around each corner of a city block, around each

bend in a country road, there is something new to greet the eyes, the ears, and the

nose. Even the same walk, the one we may take every day, is never the same from

one day to another, from one week and season to another.

This is true not only in the country, but anywhere at all. In New York City, a

group of executives who meet every weekday morning walk from their homes to

their offices. Their way takes them through quiet streets of old brownstones, one

of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, then up and over Brooklyn Bridge with its

cathedral arches supporting the web-like drapery of cables, then down into the

skyscraper canyons of the financial district.

On their daily route they see, hear, smell the city in all its seasonal changes,

under bright and cloudy skies. Only the most inclement weather stops them –

suitably dressed, they can walk with pleasure in spring rains, autumn drizzles, the

sunlight of a summer morning or a soft winter snowfall. The river waters roll by

below their feet, sullen or sparkling. Tugboats chug past, shoving and hauling their

variously laden barges; on a shrouded morning, foghorns hoot and moan. The

famous skyline of lower Manhattan rises before them, glittering in sun, afloat in

mist, against a backdrop of sky never twice the same.

步行的乐趣

步行唤起我们的知觉。我们所看到的、听到的、闻到的世界与坐车时感知到的截然不

同。无论乘坐什么车，都只是车在移动，而不是我们自己。我们被困在车内一成不变的环

境里，一旦接受了它所给予我们的感觉——主要是舒适与否的感觉——我们就关闭了自己

的知觉，不是睡觉，就是打开一本杂志，昏昏欲睡。

可是当我们步行的时候，周围的环境每时每刻都在变化，我们的知觉不断地为外界事

物所激活。在城市街区的每一拐角处，在乡间道路的每个拐弯处，总有些新的东西映入我

们的眼帘，窜入我们的耳朵，扑入我们的鼻子。即便我们日复一日，年复一年走的是同一

条路，但是，我们所感知到的却没有一次是完全相同的。

不仅仅是在乡村，而是在任何地方都是如此。纽约城里，有几位公司高管，天天早上

结伴从各自家里步行到办公室。一路上，他们先是沿着古旧的褐色石头铺成的寂静街道向

前走，经过一个全市最古老的街区，继而跨过布鲁克林大桥，穿过支撑着网状钢缆结构的

教堂式拱桥，最后进入金融区摩天大楼林立的“峡谷”中。

在每天的路程中，他们感受着这座城市的季节交替，明媚阴郁。只有极其恶劣的天气

才会阻止他们步行。他们衣着得体，享受地漫步在春雨之中，在秋季的微雨里，在夏日的

晨光下，或是在柔软的冬雪间。河水在他们脚下流淌，时明时暗，闪闪发亮。拖船轧轧地

驶过，推着或拖着载满各色货物的驳船。在大雾茫茫的清晨，雾号时而嘟嘟叫嚣，时而呜

咽呻吟。以天空为背景，著名的曼哈顿下城的地平线在他们面前升起，闪耀在阳光中，飘

浮在雾霭里，独一无二，每天都不同。