西方文明在牛津

Western Civilization in Oxford

在牛津，我感受到了西方文明的真谛：鹅卵石步道、宁静的方庭、悦耳的鸣钟、寂静的阿什莫林博物馆和博德莱安图书馆……这里的一切似乎都是丑恶、粗俗、低劣事物的对立面。

I＇ve just returned from Oxford, England, where everything is twice as expensive as it is here, where the weather is crappy^1 and most of the food .tastes like boiled cardboard. That said, I still want to take a room in one of those lopsided little houses built in the 12th century and stay for the rest of my life.^2 It＇s something I＇ve felt fleetingly during previous visits to Europe,but, this time, the feeling was more pronounced.^3 At Oxford, I had the sense of being truly in Western Civilization, with the added poignancy that this might be a last and dying outpost.^4