新闻搜索：
 |
A Colourful City – New York
New York is one of those cities that many people feel they know -- even if they haven't been there. Its trademark sky-scrapers have formed the backdrop to innumerable films and television series, (millions of words have been written about its characters) while its streets have been the subject of a thousand different songs. So what new can a correspondent leaving the city possibly say about it?
Well, the BBC's Stephen Evans can suggest that a Cuban café saved him from joining the September the 11th casualty list. Stephen is leaving New York to take up a new post here at Bush House in London:
Whenever people from Britain ask me why I like New York so much, I say: "It's the energy of the place" and they say, "ah, yes, the city that never sleeps". And I think no, that's not what I meant at all. It's not about clubs or bars or lights -- in fact, there's relatively little drunken carousing in New York.
Rather, it's the mental energy of the people, a wit and a wisdom on buses or in diners. People engage with each other. They're interested. They recount stories with wonder at the way we human beings behave, at the way the world turns.
I remember two classic Jewish ladies in Café Edison on 46th Street, a faded old deli that does a mean cherry blintz. They'd just witnessed, or so they maintained, a security man turn his back at a bus stop and his dog get on the bus without him, only for the bus to depart. "Well, did the dog have a ticket", one wondered. Facts, or near facts, in New York become stories.
It is a city where you learn the nuances of culture. I know now that Chinese and Hispanic people stand so their grand-children can sit on buses, something I, as a European, find shocking.
译文：纽约是许多人都认为自己了解的城市之一——即使他们未曾到过那里。它标志性的摩天大楼构成了无数电影和电视系列剧的背景，（关于它的特征已经有数百万计的文字）而它的街道一直是上千首歌曲的主题。因此，一个离开这座城市的通讯记者能有什么关于它的新鲜东西要说呢？
英国广播公司（BBC）的史蒂芬·埃文斯可以暗示，一家古巴咖啡馆把他从“9.11”死难者名单上救了下来。史蒂芬正要在伦敦的布什大厦（Bush House）担任一个新的职务：
无论什么时候，当英国人问我为什么我这么喜欢纽约，我会说：“是因为那座城市充满活力。”而他们会说：“啊，是的，那是座不夜城” 。而我不这么认为，我根本不是这个意思。不是夜总会、酒吧或灯光的问题——事实上，纽约狂饮作乐的情况相对来说不多。
我的意思是，人们充满了精神活力，连公共汽车和餐车上都充满智慧。人们相互交往，他们很有趣。他们满怀对我们人类行为方式和世界发展方式的好奇讲述着各自的故事。
我记得坐落在46号大街的爱迪生咖啡馆里有两位传统的犹太女士，咖啡馆是一个褪色的老式熟食店，出售普通的樱桃薄饼。她们见过，或者她们这样认为，有一位安全员在公共汽车站背过身去，他的狗上了汽车，而他没上，他只是看着汽车开走。有人可能会问，“唉，狗买票了吗？”事实，或接近事实的情况，在纽约都是故事。
纽约是一座能够体会到细微文化差异的城市。我知道，现在的中国老人和拉丁老人在公共汽车上都站着，为的是让他们的孙子孙女们坐着。作为一个欧洲人，我认为这种现象非常让人吃惊。
最重要的是，充满活力的正是这种相互交融的移民文化。我的理发师是一个来自乌兹别克斯坦的犹太人，他能说流利的俄语和波斯语。俄语源自苏联，因为犹太人早在数百年之前就被从波斯赶出，波斯语也被他们带到乌兹别克斯坦。我们谈到政治：“你对战争有什么看法，米哈伊尔？”“这是正义的战争。萨达姆是个畜生，你必须杀一儆百。”我们边走边聊。
Or a moment ago, coming into the building. The doorman said to me in a thick Eastern European accent: "Are you Welsh?" He'd recognised my accent because he'd had a Welsh friend -- or mentor as he called him -- in Kosovo before coming to New York. So this city is a rich, marvellous, energizing cultural mix where people retain differences even as they unite.
It is said that in New York, even the Catholics are Jewish, and I know what they mean: there is an extravagance of gesture here.
It is a city too where kindness and despair are a block apart. From my eleventh floor window, I've watched a man in a wheelchair in the biting cold go down the line of bins opposite, flipping off the lids to search for food.
There is a whole scavenging sub-culture to this city. Early in the morning, old ladies, often Chinese, push shopping trolleys heaped with empty cans that they've collected from bins and gutters and heaped in big plastic bags which they take to a recycling centre on Avenue C where they crowd to get five cents a can. It’s Raw capitalism. When I started moving out, I had furniture I couldn't take with me -- chairs, lamps -- so I just put them on the street where they disappeared within minutes.
There is warmth too. At the bagel shop I go to, a homeless man calls for his daily free ration every morning. And there's always a show in New York. I remember the cop, the overweight cop, his muscles and smile bulging from his summer, short sleeved uniform -- who picked up a busker's guitar in Union Square and belted out a string of rock and roll classics.
So I'm grateful to this city. I'm grateful to the Sucelt coffee bar on 14th Street at the corner with Seventh Avenue. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I had a meeting in the World Trade Centre and I'd decided to have breakfast in the Windows on the World restaurant right at the top.
Fortunately, I came across Sucelt on the way. It's a cramped bar run by Cubans, right at the spot where I changed from the bus to the train. The strong smell of Latin American coffee and shrimp empanadas -- a sort of South American pasty -- lured me from a route that would have done me no good at all.
I remember, too, my local bar on 11th Street on the night of September 11. When I went in, it was crowded but utterly silent. As I crossed the room, the bar tender followed my eyes all the way, and when I reached the bar, he clasped both my hands as said: "Are you all right?"
New York has its rows and corruptions and cock-ups but still its people don't doubt that it is the ultimate city, the ultimate non-provincial city which doesn't look anywhere else.
I shall remember New York, its vibrancy and confidence. It is a city of marvellous humanity. It is a city to make you feel better about people -- and better about yourself.
译文：不一会儿，我们走进大楼。看门人操着浓重的西欧口音对我说：“你是威尔士人吗？”他听出了我的口音，因为他在来纽约之前在科索沃有一位威尔士朋友——他叫他导师。相互交融的文化丰富多彩，无比绝妙，而且充满活力。即使联合成一个整体，人们在这种文化氛围里也可以保留自己的不同特色。
据说在纽约即使天主教徒也是犹太人。我理解其中的含意：这的确是一件夸张的事情。
这里也是一座善良与绝望截然分开的城市。从我第十一层楼的窗口，我曾看到一个坐在轮椅上的男子在严寒中沿着对面的一排垃圾桶一个个地打开盖子寻找食物。
这个城市有一种起着净化作用的亚文化。大清早就会有老年女性，通常是中国人，推着满装空易拉罐的购物车走过。这些空易拉罐是她们从垃圾桶和污水沟里捡来的。她们把这些易拉罐装满塑料袋运到位于C大道的回收中心，在那里，他们你推我挤地把每个易拉罐换成五美分。残酷的资本主义。当我开始往外搬家时，我有一些家具不能搬走，椅子、灯，因此我就把它们放在了街道上，儿分钟后它们就不见了。
但也有令人感到温暖的时候。在我去的那家百吉饼店，一个无家可归的男子正在要他每天一份的免费配餐。在纽约经常会有这样的一幕。我记得有一个警察，一个体重超重的警察，他的肌肉和笑容挤出了他那短袖制服，他在联合广场拿起卖艺人的一把吉他，弹起了一曲古典摇滚乐。
因此我对这座城市心存感激。我感激位于第14大街与第七大道交叉口的苏塞尔特咖啡馆。在2001年9月11日早上，我要在世贸中心参加一个会议，而且我已经决定在位于世界饭店顶层的窗前吃早餐。
幸运的是，我路过了苏塞尔特咖啡馆。这是古巴人开的一家狭小的咖啡馆，它正好位于我换乘火车的地方。拉美咖啡的浓香以及虾肉馅饼――一种南美馅饼――的香味把我从一条将对我毫无好处的道路上诱开了。
我还记得9月11日晚上我所在的第11大街当地的一个酒吧。当我走进去时，里面挤满了人，但却鸦雀无声。我走过房间时，酒吧侍者一直盯着我的双眼。当我走到吧台前时，他拉住我的双手说：“你还好吗？”
纽约有它自己的喧闹与堕落，也有一团糟的地方，但是，这里的人不会怀疑，这里是城市的终极境界，是非地方性城市的终极境界，没有哪个城市能超过它。
我会记住纽约，记住它的活力与自信。它是一座有着美好人性的城市，一座让你感到别人与你自己一样在变得越来越好的城市。 
