导语：

一座城市的灵魂，是生活在那里的人们。罗马尼亚首都布加勒斯特，一座非典型的东欧城市，在Simina的笔下，有北京胡同的柔情，有夏威夷阳光的炽烈，还有南美丛林的生机。离开故土四年，Simina的一颗游子心，在她的文字里，可以看的很清晰。

正文：

It’s been four years since I visited Bucharest, Romania’s capital, in the summer.

During the long winter months, the city lives up to its negative reputation of being gray and gloomy. Dilapidated communist buildings can feel overbearing, and people’s faces become thoughtful and worried.

Everything changes in the summer. Once the trees are full of leaves and the sun sets in for the long summer months, the city comes to life.

夏天的布加勒斯特，有浓绿的树，还有久驻的阳光。

The interesting thing is that the trees and the sun alone seem to give it life. By many measures, Bucharest hasn’t changed much in the past 25 years. Many of its buildings have fallen into disrepair, and comparatively few modern buildings have been built. But business people and restaurant owners have sensed Romanians’ Latin propensity toward having long talks and drinks under the summer sky – and they’ve opened terraces.

单单是树和阳光，就让整个城市重新“活”过来了。布加勒斯特人喜爱在夏天的时候，一边长长久久的聊天，一边就着和煦的阳光下酒。商人和酒店老板们看到这这点，于是他们开辟了一块招客法宝-街边酒吧。

Hundreds of green oases, tucked in behind old buildings, invite visitors to relax, drink and talk their evening away. And with the renovation of Old Town in the past seven-eight years, an entire neighborhood basically becomes a huge terrace during summer. In 2008, a New York Times travel article called the appearance of Bucharest’s open-air terraces “a revolution that was entirely ignored by the international community.”

Although seemingly a small change, the terraces have had a big impact on people’s lives. I remember when I used to live here, every day after work during the summer I would meet my friends at a terrace.

对城市来说，这似乎只是小小的改变，但对城市人的来说，生活完全不一样了。我还记得当年生活在这里的时候，每每下了班，我总会跟朋友们在街头的酒吧见面、聊天。

Bucharest’s Old Town can be best compared to Beijing’s hutongs. Although the two places have different architecture, they are both historic, pedestrian-friendly and full of shops and restaurants.

布加勒斯特的老城区最好的对照应该就是北京的胡同了。尽管建筑风格大不相同，它们经历过同样漫长的历史，对行人同样的温柔，也吸引着各类商贩的聚集。

But while Old Town and the terraces are among the few things that have changed in Bucharest in the past two decades, Beijing’s hutongs seem to be among the few places that have resisted change.

当北京的胡同抗拒着改变的时候，布加勒斯特的老城区和街巷一直没有停止过改变。

China is building the square-foot equivalent of Rome every two weeks. Beijing has gone through a wave of changes especially in the years prior to the 2008 Olympics, when large parts of the city were demolished and rebuilt. Even the seven-century-old hutongs have paid the price of development. In 1980, Beijing had 6,000 such alleys. Over the years, only a few hundred have remained; the rest were leveled to make way for office buildings and apartment complexes.

Author Evan Osnos in his book “Age of Ambition” cites a Chinese friend who is preparing for a trip in the U.S. He asks Osnos what cities he should visit. Osnos recommends New York. His friend responds, as tactfully as he can, “Every time I go, it looks the same.”

作家Evan Osnos写过一则小故事。Osnos有个朋友正在准备他的美国之行，朋友问他，他应该去哪个城市。Osnos回答，纽约。朋友反驳：“每次我去纽约，它看起来都一样！”

The author writes that he never passes a chance to visit Beijing because places and people vanish before you get a chance to see them again, and others take their place. Bucharest is comparatively constant. Except for the summer.

Osnos说，他从来不放弃任何一个来北京的机会。因为他知道，北京的人事更替速度是难以想象的。一旦错过了这次，下次物是人非，你会永远跟一些人、一些事擦肩而过。

而布加勒斯特是恒久不变的，当然，除了在夏天。