Surely, whichever sage coined the old Irish blessing, “May the road rise up to meet you,” did not foresee the cursed way those words would apply today in Beijing, where not so much the roads, but the sidewalks alongside them, are conducting an uprising. 憶盛唐，李太白傾倒于蜀道逶迤，后著《蜀道難》?？唇癯?，青蓮居士若得以一觀京路之險惡，必詩興大發(fā)而作《京路險》?！班嬗鯂?！京途猛于虎也！” The capital city’s woefully deteriorating walkways are prone to buckling, cracking and crumbling, putting countless pedestrians in danger of tripping and, in the worst-case scenario, doing a face-plant on the pavement. 北京貴為一國之都，其道路質(zhì)量卻實在令人憂心。路面塌陷、龜裂乃至坍塌等現(xiàn)象均不鮮見。行人極易絆倒，運氣極差的甚至?xí)韨€倒栽蔥。 I discovered this hazard firsthand recently during a night run through my neighborhood. Nighttime, after all, is safer for jogging than daytime, right? Most of the reckless drivers, scooter pilots and bat-out-of-hell couriers have retired to their homes by then. 有一次，我在家附近夜跑時不幸親自嘗到了北京人行道的厲害。在此之前，我一直認(rèn)為夜晚跑步比白天安全很多。畢竟在白天的馬路上，汽車恣意馳騁，摩托馬達(dá)轟鳴，快遞員更是分秒必爭，仿佛在與死神賽跑。夜幕降臨則意味著這些危險制造者大多已經(jīng)回家了。 On this night, however, the errant sidewalks, abetted by the city’s paucity of streetlights, conspired against me. It took just one of these miscreant bricks, jutting skyward but hidden in shadow, to catch the toe of my running shoe as I quickly passed over it. 而那天晚上，一切都透著不詳?shù)恼髡?。在曲折的人行道上跑步已?jīng)是難事一樁，偏偏街燈又昏暗得很。人行道上一塊磚頭直指蒼穹，蟄伏在黑暗中守株待兔。我的腳在跑步時擦到了它，因此淪為了它的手下敗將。 In a split second I was airborne, though my childhood judo training saved me as I instinctively executed a break-fall, my arms sacrificing themselves so I could quite literally save face. The unexpected sprawl left huge scrapes, now scars, on both elbows. 說時遲，那時快，我騰空飛起復(fù)又跌落。所幸兒時練過柔道，摔下時便下意識使出一招護(hù)身倒法，用雙臂護(hù)住臉部。因此在這場無妄之災(zāi)中，我的雙肘嚴(yán)重擦傷，疤痕至今未褪。 Granted, I’m no construction expert. But when I was a child, my siblings and I assisted Dad in setting the forms for, mixing, pouring and leveling enough concrete for a patio of around 90 square meters, as well as a lengthy sidewalk leading to it. Four decades later, it’s still intact. 我確實不算什么建筑專家。不過我曾在幼時和兄弟姐妹一起協(xié)助父親制備混凝土，然后澆筑制模，最后抹平地面。90平米的露臺就此完工，通往露臺的幽長小道也一并落成。如今四十年過去，地面依舊完好無損。 The same cannot be said for Beijing’s unsafe sidewalks, which, rather than being constructed of concrete, are pieced together brick by brick, like a massive jigsaw puzzle. The bricks are then “secured” by a dirt mixture that’s filled in around them to supposedly hold them in place. But in many cases, the filler has been washed away by rain or eroded by strong winds. The bricks are subsequently broken, kicked loose or removed, or they simply stand perilously on end. 而北京道路質(zhì)量則顯得相形見絀。這里的人行道由磚塊堆砌而成，仿佛在玩一盤規(guī)模宏大的拼圖游戲。磚塊擺放完成后，用泥土混合物“固定”，填補(bǔ)縫隙，使其成為一體。然而填充物飽受風(fēng)吹雨淋，因此磚塊往往暴露在外，繼而在千萬次踩踏下發(fā)生破損、松動、缺失，或是干脆豎立在地面上，形成安全隱患。 To make things worse, huge stretches of sidewalk that have been replaced recently, using the same method, seem particularly prone to quick deterioration, giving way like so many loose teeth. Alarmingly, even the yellow stone guideways, embedded in the sidewalks for cane-using blind or eyesight-impaired pedestrians, are in some places broken, heaving or twisted. 大片受損路段得到修繕，手法與修建時相同。然而新修路面的質(zhì)量問題尤甚，很快人行道上便一副破敗景象，缺損的磚塊比比皆是。鑲嵌在人行道中央的黃色盲道專為方便盲人及視障人士出行而修建，可部分地區(qū)的盲道竟也崎嶇蜿蜒，時有破損，這可不是個好兆頭。 How many stubbed toes, twisted ankles or broken wrists — and let’s face it, falls are particularly dangerous for the elderly or infirm — are needed before the city wakes up to this danger underfoot? 政府何時能對人腳下的危險有所察覺？在此之前，又不知有多少行人要付出血的代價。其中對于老弱病殘來說，一次摔倒可能會對他們造成生命危險。 Maybe the producers of these tricky bricks are making a mint, but as the city continues to grow and becomes ever more modern, this outdated mode of construction increasingly looks like a temporary fix. 低質(zhì)量磚塊的生產(chǎn)廠商固然賺得盆滿缽滿，可如今城市的面積和現(xiàn)代化程度都日益增長，這種過時的施工套路愈發(fā)像是某種權(quán)宜之計，無法解決根本危機(jī)。 The trouble is, this stop-gap measure leaves step gaps, which, even in broad daylight, lie in wait for hapless passers-by. 奈何“船到江心補(bǔ)漏遲?！闭煌５匦扌扪a(bǔ)補(bǔ)，可路面破損問題反而更加嚴(yán)重。這些“馬路殺手”總是靜靜地等待著下一個倒霉蛋，無論日與夜。