The Soul of the City:Berlin

Leo Luo

∷黄湘淇 注

Traveling is not a list of must-see attractions, but a blank diary to record the memories which remind us that learning is a lifelong journey. These memoirs are meant to open a window to reveal the everyday details that encapsulate1. encapsulate: 总结，概括。the souls of the cities that I have visited.

Just as certain cities appear to be frozen in time, others seem to have shed2. shed: 摆脱。their past as quickly as possible, eager to shape a new identity. Berlin is one such city. Once two provincial towns on opposing banks of the Spree River, Berlin has since emerged onto the world stage as the epicenter of countless events that have rewritten European history.3. 柏林的前身为隔施普雷河相望的两个省会城市，其后，它作为无数次重写欧洲历史事件的中心而登上了世界舞台。 epicenter: 中心，焦点。Some were glorious, others best left in the annals of history, never to be repeated. The soul of this city has been both blessed and battered, having experienced the best of times and the worst of times, and nowhere is that soul more clearly expressed than through its people.4. 城市之魂，既享福泽又受蹂躏，经历了时代的福祸起伏，而没有什么能比柏林人更清楚地表达其灵魂。batter:重创，连续打击。

Germans, especially Berliners, are a practical people. Perhaps I am subscribing to the stereotype perpetrated by images of the clockwork precision in German auto factories.5. subscribe to: 支持，同意；stereotype:刻板印象，成见；perpetrate: 犯（罪），做（恶）。Yet as my family and I strolled along the concrete grid of sidewalks or observed passersby as we guzzled tankards of cold beer,I could not think any adjective other than “practical.”6. 然而，当我和家人沿着水泥人行道漫步，或边狂饮大杯的冰啤酒边观察路人时，我无法想到除了“务实”以外的其他形容词。guzzle: 狂饮，豪饮作乐；tankard: 一大杯之量，大啤酒杯。Unlike the French in Paris or the Italians in Milan, most Berliners do not swathe themselves with gaudy appearances.7. swathe: 包，裹；gaudy: 俗丽的，华而不实的。Of course, they are not sloppy in the slightest, for urban Europeans always seem to know how to look presentable.8. sloppy: 草率的，粗心的；in the slightest: 丝毫，根本；presentable: 漂亮的，体面的。Their dress is functional, but they lack the ostentatious flair of the tailored suits and pencil skirts that roam the Parisian alleyways or Milanese plazas.9. ostentatious: 招摇的，惹人注目的； flair: 天资，天分； roam:在……漫步，漫游；plaza: 广场。This functionality is also re flected in the architecture and city planning of Berlin. Although the city had to be rebuilt after it was more or less razed to the ground10. raze to the ground: 夷为平地。, each building appears to serve the sole purpose of a roof over one’s head, nothing else. Unlike the works of art hidden in plain sight on Parisian apartment walls or balconies, those carved reliefs or intricate fern patterns,11. relief: 浮雕； intricate: 复杂的，错综的；fern: 蕨类植物。Berlin dresses its buildings in plain clothes. Perhaps the absence of such decorations can be called an art in itself.

德国，一个孕育出了“命运交响曲”的国度，经历了太多历史的风风雨雨，沧海桑田。走进柏林，进入德意志的中心，亲历这座一言难尽的城市：高尚而残酷，强硬而懦弱，狂热而克制。纳粹的罪状被永远钉在了耻辱柱上，而千帆过尽后的柏林人民依然能够扼住命运的喉咙，延续德意志的精魂。

From the observation platform of the Berlin Tower, with its panoramic views of the city from the Brandenburg Gate to Karl Marx Avenue, Berlin felt tame,12. panoramic: 全景的；tame: 驯服的，平淡的。like a toothless tiger. Watching the miniscule beings scuttle about the city streets,13. miniscule: 极小的；scuttle: 小跑。I got the impression that each aspect of daily life is efficiently managed. Aside from pockets14. pocket:（孤立的）小块地区。where the cathedrals and monuments stood, the city appears too normal. Just as Germany is famous for its auto industries, perhaps Berlin is an industrial plant for humans and of humans,each individual running along the assembly line15. assembly line: 装配线，流水线。of daily appointments and everyday necessities.

Perhaps it’s because Berlin and her people have been hurled16. hurl: 丢下。around by fate far too long. In the ancient Latin language, “volvere” means “to toss about,” yet the deeper connotation17. connotation: 暗示，隐含意义。implies a sense of helplessness in the face of forces outside of one’s control. From the madness that Hitler ignited to the squabbles between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. that led to the tragedy of the Berlin wall,18. ignite: 点燃，激起；squabble: 争吵，口角；Berlin wall: 柏林墙，由冷战期间美国和苏联两大阵营之间的冲突导致，是二战后德国分裂和冷战的重要标志性建筑。Berliners have certainly been swept from crisis to crisis without any regard for the human consequence. Perhaps now they have had enough, and only through absolute control can Berliners have peace.

Yet the spectre19. spectre: 幽灵。of the madness can never truly leave Berlin, nor my own thoughts. When I took my parents to see Charlottenburg Schloss, the summer palace of the German Kaisers, I deliberately made every effort to ensure that we would not have enough time to go see the Holocaust Memorial and the accompanying museum before our train to Prague.20. Charlottenburg Schloss: 夏洛滕堡宫，是柏林地区保存得最好、最重要的普鲁士国王宫殿建筑物；German Kaiser: 皇帝，独裁者； the Holocaust Memorial:欧洲被害犹太人纪念碑，亦称为浩劫纪念碑。它位于柏林，用以纪念浩劫中受害的犹太人。This decision was quite irrational, for I never had this kind of aversion21. aversion: 反感，厌恶。to memorials before.Perhaps the explanation lay in the fact that the memorials that I visited in the past were tributes to those fallen in war, not those who were senselessly slaughtered22. slaughter: 大屠杀。. (Then again, where does one draw the line?) Each time my thoughts turned to the memorial, they conjured scenes of the rows of emaciated bodies and the mountains of children’s shoes.23. conjure: 唤起； emaciated: 瘦削的，憔悴的。I felt that I would shed tears if I was confronted with such grisly images at the scene of the crime, so I left them safe within the vault of my imagination where they could be sterilized by the colourless and free-wandering mind.24. 我觉得，如果我在现场亲睹这令人毛骨悚然的罪行，我一定会落泪，所以我将它们隐藏在我想象的最深处，让它们能够在我无趣而散乱的思维中淡去。grisly: 可怕的；vault: 地下室；sterilize: 使不起作用。Perhaps only now could I begin to grasp the magnitude25. magnitude:（尺寸、规模、重要性等的）大小。of a single human connection to another, let alone those of the 6 million murdered at the hands of Nazi Germany. It is heart-wrenching to imagine that all the love that those families felt was twisted into a mockery of itself during the Second World War,26. heart-wrenching: 令人心痛的；mockery: 笑柄。when trust and charity were but luxuries.

So does choosing to avoid the Holocaust Memorial constitute maturity or immaturity on my part? Maybe both. Mature because I am starting to comprehend at least a fraction of27. a fraction of: 一小部分。the scale of the tragedy, yet immature because I did not dare to face the truth. I guess I truly do live a sheltered life,as best captured by the words of my four year old self: “I don’t like to watch disasters.” Maybe I’ll never be… no… I will absolutely never be ready to face to truth of the Holocaust, but I must take that step in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the world by staring into the black pits of the human capability for evil and acknowledging it as a part of ourselves. Such an aspect of human nature still remains etched in modern history, rearing its head in places like Rwanda and Syria.28. etched: 蚀刻的；Rwanda: 卢旺达，非洲中东部一个国家；Syria:叙利亚，位于亚洲西部。

But not everything had to be gloom and doom29. gloom and doom: 厄运。. While trying to find my way to the Museum Island, I stumbled into the courtyard of Humboldt University.30. Museum Island: 柏林博物馆岛。这里有五座国家级博物馆，是柏林唯一列入联合国教科文组织文化遗产名录的地方；stumble:蹒跚而行；Humboldt University:柏林洪堡大学，是柏林最古老的大学。Immediately I could sense the crackling31. crackling: 充满活力的。energy of the youths that inhabited this institution. As usual when the sun is shining, the quad was dotted with clusters of students.32. quad: 四方院子；clusters of: 成群的。Some were studying as they soaked up the rays; others relished33. relish: 享受。the company of their friends. Some were surely freshmen like me, re flecting on the year that had just flown by, like the glimpse of a beautiful lady as she passes by on the street. I lingered at the sight of a professor and his students arranged in a circle on the grass. One of the students was articulating34. articulate: （明确地）表达。his thoughts both through words and hand gestures. The professor held his beard in his hand and nodded occasionally, keeping eye contact with the student. His peers were also attentive, but there were one or two that were either absently pulling on grass or flipping through their notebooks. Perhaps reviewing what they learned, or reviewing past doodles? The sight looked so familiar; I couldn’t help but begin to giggle.

With a backpack on my shoulders, I fit right into the university setting. Not a single person gave me a second glance as I wandered through the university’s hallways.It all seemed so familiar to Georgetown University35. Georgetown University: 乔治敦大学，创建于1789年，是美国最古老的耶稣会天主教大学。. The billboards were flooded with promotions and posters, featured books shone behind glass bookshelves, and the libraries dotted with students hunched36. hunch: 弯腰驼背。over their books. It seems these traits are universal in Western institutions of learning, especially the vivacity37. vivacity: 活泼，精力充沛。of the students who believe that they can do anything. What else is the purpose of being young and idealistic other than so we can make the mistakes necessary for us to succeed later? In the face of all of Berlin’s tragedies, life and learning still moves on. That is the true beauty of human beings. Despite our transgressions against goodness, we are still able to hope, to look forward to the future with unbridled ambition.38. transgression: 违反，侵越；unbridled: 无拘束的，恣意的。As I stared out at the sun-soaked courtyard of Humboldt University, I realized that the soul of Berlin lay not within its buildings or its history, but within its lifeblood: the Berliners who have withstood all the challenges of destiny, and are now taking destiny with their own hands.

柏林洪堡大学