在夏威夷擁抱沙灘

Ｊｏｎａｔｈａｎ　Ｓｔｅｌｌｉｎｇ

I arrived in Hawaii on a bright, beautiful day, a stark contrast from the gray February I had just left behind in England. Even after 9/11, Hawaii makes an effort to welcome tourists far more than the rest of the United States, and the pretty girls, clad in wreaths of flowers called lei, who shouted ?Aloha!? at the airport certainly made you feel welcome!

完全不同于剛離開的英格蘭陰翳的二月天氣，我在一個明媚的日子抵達夏威夷。盡管剛剛發(fā)生了911事件，夏威夷比美國其它地方更歡迎外來游客的到來，一群身披lei（花環(huán)）的美麗女孩們在機場高呼著“Aloha！”，這的確讓我覺得備受歡迎。

Hawaii is an American state, the last to be added to the USA – it only achieved statehood in 1959.It was taken over by the USA in the nineteenth century from the native monarchy, under dubious circumstances that many native Hawaiians are still angry about. Nowadays, though, the people are better-off and healthier than many parts of America, the economy booming with tourist dollars and local development. Many aspects of traditional Hawaiian culture remain, and parts of the language are used in everyday speech, like 'Aloha!' for hello and 'brah' for friend.

夏威夷是最后加入美利堅合眾國的州——它在1959年才取得獨立州的身份。19世紀美國政府用令人不齒的手段從當地君主手中奪取了統(tǒng)治權，到現在很多夏威夷人對此還耿耿于懷。如今人們的生活和健康狀況都優(yōu)于美國很多地方，經濟伴隨著旅游增收和當地的繁榮而高速發(fā)展。很多夏威夷傳統(tǒng)文化都被保留下來，還有一些日常用語像表示“你好”的“Aloha”以及表示“朋友”的“brah”也依舊每天都在使用。

I went that first evening to a typical Hawaiian barbecue, along with some Hawaiian friends from university. We were in a backyard in a suburban house, on a beautiful warm evening, with a pig slowly roasting in a fire pit. Hawaiians call this kind of celebration a luau, this one was for the birthday of a friend of my friend's, who was lying back in a chair having his girlfriend feed him grapes when we arrived. Pretty soon people started dancing, a mixture of traditional Hawaiian music and modern American party hits. There were plenty of lei being thrown around – girls like to throw them onto guys as a sign of affection, or just for fun.

在第一天晚上我就和大學里的夏威夷朋友一起去了最有特色的夏威夷戶外燒烤。溫暖的美麗夜晚，我們聚在一家郊區(qū)房子的后花園里的火坑上慢慢烤著一頭豬。夏威夷人把這種慶祝方式叫做luau，這次是為了慶祝我朋友的朋友的生日，而我們到達時他正躺在椅子上，他的女朋友正在喂他吃葡萄。很快人們就在傳統(tǒng)的夏威夷和現代美國聚會的混合樂下開始跳舞。很多l(xiāng)ei四處飛舞——女孩們將它們扔向男孩們表達愛意，或者只是為了好玩。

The next day I went walking out into Honolulu, Hawaii's capital. We were on the island of Oahu, or 'The Big Island', where 80% of the Hawaiian population lives, and the streets were crowded.In many ways it was like being in any other rich American city, except for the preponderance of shorts-clad surfers and beach bums, and the high density of tourists. It was easy to tell apart the locals from the tourists. For a start, Hawaiians are very ethnically diverse, with Polynesian natives and Japanese immigrants playing a big role in the island's makeup. Some of the women were startingly gorgeous, with their mixed ancestry giving them a striking, exotic beauty. Most of the locals were also in good shape, in comparison to the often-doughy tourists.

第二天我前往夏威夷的州府——檀香山。我們來到瓦胡島或者稱為“大島”，夏威夷80%的人都居住在這，街道上人潮擁擠。除了大量身穿短褲的沖浪者和沙灘游玩者還有云集的游客，這里在很多方面和其它美國富裕的城市沒有什么差別。……