上海是一個神祕的地方，人說上海人滑頭，有人說上海人聰明靈活，我同意後一種看法。從飲食烹調到糖果點心，從輕工產品到服裝樣式，都體現了聰明靈活。下面是吳冠中《上海街頭》的英譯欣賞，準備學習英語筆譯的大家可以參考看看。
上海街頭
吳冠中
(原文部分)
我每次過上海，多半是匆匆三五天，只有很少幾次是超過一星期的，像一個雖常見面但無深交的熟人，不很瞭解，而其音容笑貌卻是難忘的。
上海是一個神祕的地方!我在宜興農村的童年時代，每見到上海人回鄉，也總愛擠在人叢中聽他們講講花花世界的見聞。夏天，他們穿着黑色的香雲紗，我以爲香雲紗就是上海人的標誌。在上海做事的人顯然比鄉下人高貴多了，他們似乎很有錢，帶回來的.整筒餅乾和美女月份牌就夠令人羨慕了，後來我才知道他們都是當女工、小工和保姆的，掙錢並不那麼容易。和百分之九十九的鄉親們一樣，我的父母也從未見過上海，雖然相距並不算遠，但上海對他們永遠是一個遙遠的天國。近幾年我每到北站候車，總聽到地道的鄉音，年邁的鄉親們常來上海觀光了，他們的子女在工廠、大學及科研單位工作，他們有福氣了。
外灘是大上海的面貌特徵吧，南京路一帶的高樓大廈曾是上海人向鄉下佬描述的驕傲。後來當我在倫敦過了一個暑假，發現那文藝復興時代式樣的古代樓房、那狹窄的街道，與南京路一帶何其相似!不是倫敦像南京路，而是按照倫敦的某些模式捏塑了南京路，讓人們去回憶上海灘形成的史蹟吧!然而南京路還是有自己的特色的：人多。這可與北京的王府井爭冠軍，爭世界冠軍去!
有人說上海人滑頭，有人說上海人聰明靈活，我同意後一種看法。從飲食烹調到糖果點心，從輕工產品到服裝樣式，都體現了聰明靈活。最近我看到上海一家毛紡廠生產的虎皮晴綸毯，很美，虎虎有生氣，是一件藝術品，在衆多老式呆板花色的毛毯中，它應被評爲毯中之王，我希望接着出現亂真的豹皮毛毯!我也見過滑頭的上海人，白相人。我也曾以爲上海人吃不了苦，然而我在井岡山中，在西雙版納的橡膠林中，在新疆阿爾泰的邊境，遇到過不少刻苦耐勞的青年人，只當他們暴露了“阿拉，阿拉”之後，才知原來是上海人。
30年代的上海高樓大廈，與香港差不多，此後高樓沒有再生高樓，如今比不上香港了，也比不上北京了，在上海的我的老師和同學仍大都住在擁擠不堪的里弄裏，仍可體驗產生30年代文學的環境。我去年10月下旬經上海，出站時遇大雨，提着行李包，撐着雨傘排進等出租汽車的長隊，沒希望，轉入排三輪的長隊，也沒希望，暫找個避雨的立足之地，沒有，前後左右能容人的只是馬路，大雨在橫掃所有的馬路。“鬼上海”!旅客們罵了。“鬼上海”!我也跟着罵。
我未曾碰到過上海的大闊佬，只在《子夜》、《陳毅市長》等文藝作品中見到資本家的豪華排場，見到老爺、太太、少爺、小姐們的神情風致。最近一次到上海，見到許多大飯店的門口排開成羣西裝革履、燙頭髮擦口紅的青年男女，有的胸前佩戴着大紅花，他們在等待頻頻到來的小汽車裏的貴客。滿是一番燈紅酒綠夜都市的氣氛，這不真有點像少爺小姐們的闊綽氣派了嗎!我好奇了，人們告訴我這個北京來的鄉下佬，說這是結婚。那迎賓的隊伍從大門口一直引至宴會廳，而且幾家大飯店的喜宴日程已登記到1983年很晚的月份了。
任伯年和吳昌碩鬻畫於上海。劉海粟先生在上海創辦了中國第一所現代化雛形的美術學校。今天許多重要省市都有了較完整的美術學院，而上海沒有，但上海擁有衆多的畫家，人才濟濟。凡是重要的美展，國內和國外的，北京展完便到上海，上海的展廳與上海之不相襯，一如那個火車站。沒有吸引我的美術活動，這大概是我每過上海多半隻是匆匆三五天的原由吧!
譯文
Shanghai as I See It
Wu Guanzhong
Whenever I passed through Shanghai, I would stay there for only three or four days, seldom more than a week. So the city, like a person who is more of a nodding acquaintance than a close friend of mine, is still rather unfamiliar to me. But its look and voice are unforgettable.
Shanghai is a mysterious place! When I was a child living in the countryside of Yixing, I used to elbow my way into a big crowd so as to listen to someone lately returned from Shanghai chatting about things he had seen and heard in the dazzling city. To me, their summer wear of dark-colored xiangyuansha was characteristic of a Shanghailander. Evidently, those who had been working in Shanghai enjoyed a much higher status than their fellow villagers. They seemed to be quite rich. The tins of biscuits and wall calendars with pinup girls on them they had brought home were the envy of all country folks. Later, I learned, however, that they had been earning money the hard way by becoming factory workers, old jobbers or housemaids. Like 99 percent of our fellow villagers, my parents had never been to Shanghai. Though living not remote from Shanghai, they had to regard it as an inaccessible paradise on earth. In recent years, often in the waiting room of Shanghai Northern Railway Station, I have overheard some travelers speaking with a pure accent of my native place. They are apparently elderly villagers from my home town who, thanks to their children working in local factories, universities or research institutes, can now well afford to visit the city on sight-seeing tours.
The Bund is a marked feature of Greater Shanghai. Shanghailanders used to describe to country folks with pride how Nanjing Road is lined with high-rises. Later, while I was in London for a summer vacation, I noticed the remarkable resemblance between some of the narrow streets there with their renaissance-style ancient buildings and Nanjing Road. But I would rather say that it is Nanjing Road that has been modeled after London. Well, let’s review the history of Shanghai! Nevertheless, Nanjing Road has a characteristic of its own, that it, street congestion. In this respect, it can vie with Wangfujing of Beijing for championship, or world championship.
Some say Shanghailanders are shrewd, some say they are smart. I agree with the latter. The delicacies they cook and the sweets and pastries they make, as well as their light industry products and dress fashions, all speak well for their cleverness. Recently I was very much struck by the robust beauty of an acrylic blanket made in imitation of tiger skin, which was the product of a Shanghai Woolen Mill. It was a real work of art standing head and shoulders above other blankets with old-fashioned dull patterns and colors. I hope they will follow up with blankets patterned to perfection on leopard skin. Shanghai is not without its sly fellows or even rogues of course. And I used to presume that Shanghailanders as a whole are not used to hardship and toil. But I have come across a great many hardworking youth hailing from Shanghai in the Jinggang Mountains, on the rubber plantations of Xi-shuang-ban-na, or in Altai on the frontier of Xinjiang. It was not until they revealed their Shanghai accent that I knew where they were from.
In the thirties, Shanghai used to compare well with Hong Kong for skyscrapers and high-rise. But later, when it ceased to erect more, it began to lag behind and even Beijing. Most of my former teachers and schoolmates there are still living in the close quarters of lanes and alleys, experiencing the same environment that had produced literature of the thirties. In the latter part of last October, when I made a stopover in Shanghai, I happened to be caught by a heavy rain outside the railway station. I joined a long queue for taxis with luggage and umbrella in hand, but to no avail. I joined another long queue for pedicabs, but also to not avail. Then I tried to seek a shelter from the rain, but also to no avail. All travelers had to stand in the open totally exposed to the storm. "Damnable Shanghai!" they cursed. "Damnable Shanghai!" I echoed.
I’ve never come to know any wealthy guys in Shanghai except in the novel Midnight, the stage play Mayor Chen Yi, etc., depicting moneyed capitalists and their families leading a lavish life. On my last trip to Shanghai, I happened to see many young men dressed in Western suits and leather shoes and women with poem and rouged lips, some sporting big red flowers on their chests, lining up in front of many luxury hotels to await the arrival of cars carrying distinguished guests. Wasn’t that a night scene of color and bustle typical of a metropolis – a scene of children from rich families flaunting an ostentatious life-style? While I was utterly puzzled, people told me that I was too much of a country bumpkin to recognize a wedding ceremony. The guest-welcoming line extended all the way from the gate to the banquet hall. And several big hotels had already been booked up for wedding banquets till the end of 1983.
Ren Bonian and Wu Changshuo used to sell their paintings for a living in Shanghai. And Liu Haisu established China’s first school of fine arts in the city. Today, many provinces and cities in China boast their own standardized art schools with the exception of Shanghai although it is home to a galaxy of painters. All art exhibitions, foreign or Chinese, were first held in Beijing and next in Shanghai. But the exhibition hall in Shanghai, like its railway station, doesn’t go well with the status of such a metropolis. It therefore holds little attraction for me as a painter. That probably accounts for the fact that every time in passing through the city, I usually stayed there for only three or four days!
