儒琴英语咀嚼阿兰·德波顿的《旅行的艺术》(The Art of Travel) 英语用词。阿兰·德波顿(Alain de Botton)是一位出生于瑞士的英国哲学家和作家。他写的散文式的书被称为“日常生活哲学”。他的作品涉及爱情、旅行、建筑和文学，包括小说《爱情笔记》（1993）、《爱上浪漫》（1994）、《亲吻与诉说》（1995）及散文作品《拥抱逝水年华》（1997 ）、《哲学的慰藉》（2000）、《旅行的艺术》（2002）、《写给无神论者》（2012）。他的书在30个国家畅销。
Departure : I Anticipation (Places: Hammersmith, London, Barbados ) 8
出发：第1章: 对旅行的期待 (伦敦,哈默史密斯,巴巴多斯) 第8节
第8节
After Holland and his abortive visit to England, Des Esseintes did not attempt another journey abroad. He remained in his villa and surrounded himself with a series of objects which facilitated the finest aspect of travel, its anticipation. He had coloured prints hung on his walls, like those in travel agents’ windows, showing foreign cities, museums, hotels and steamers bound for Valparaiso or the River Plate. He had the itineraries of the major shipping companies framed and lined his bedroom with them. He filled an aquarium with seaweed, bought a sail, some rigging and a pot of tar and, with their help, was able to experience the most pleasant aspects of a long sea voyage without any of its inconveniences. Des Esseintes concluded, in Huysmans’s words, that ‘the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience’. Actual experience where what we have come to see is always diluted in what we could see anywhere, where we are drawn away from the present by an anxious future and where our appreciation of aesthetic elements remains at the mercy of perplexing physical and psychological demands.
I travelled in spite of Des Esseintes. And yet there were times when I too felt there might be no finer journeys than those provoked in the imagination by staying at home slowly turning the Bible-paper pages of the British Airways Worldwide Timetable.
重点用词注解
Valparaiso： 瓦尔帕莱索港，濒临太平洋的东南侧，是智利的最大海港，也是南美太平洋沿岸的最大港口。始建于1536年，是首都圣地亚哥（SANTIAGO）的海上门户，相距约100km。
the River Plate： 拉普拉塔河，南美洲东南海岸的河口湾。介于阿根廷和乌拉圭两国之间,由巴拉那河与乌拉圭河汇注而成,向东南流入大西洋
Huysmans： 若利斯·卡尔·于斯曼（Joris-Karl Huysmans 1848-1907），法国小说家。他最著名的作品是小说À reours (Against Nature) ，《逆天》(1884, rebours,又译“逆流”）。他的风格因其对法语的独特使用，广泛的词汇，丰富的细节和感官描述，以及辛辣和讽刺的机智而引人注目。