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The Dead and Alive City

Two thousand years ago you could start out on any road anywhere, and if you kept on going far enough you would at last come to a great city in Italy called Rome, for at that time “all roads led to Rome.” Rome was then the largest, the richest, the most beautiful, the most important city in the World. It was the capital of the World.

Rome was built on seven hills, and seven was supposed to be a lucky number. Through Rome runs a river called Tiber, whose waters the Romans thought were ruled over by a god called Father Tiber, to whom they prayed to save them from drowning and shipwreck.

The old Rome of that time is now dead, mostly in ruins, but there is a saying that Rome will live forever—that it is “Eternal”—and though old Rome is in ruins, there is a new Rome. The new Rome, however, is no longer the capital of the World. It is now only the capital of Italy.

Rome is still the capital, however, of all Roman Catholics in the World, and the head of all the Roman Catholic churches in the World lives there. He is called the Pope, which means “Papa.”

St. Peter is supposed to have been crucified and his bones buried in Rome. It is said that on this spot a religious service has been held every single day since the time of St. Peter to the present—that is, for about 1,900 years. At first these services had to be held in secret at night, for most of the Romans did not believe in Christ, and any one who did was likely, if caught, to be thrown into prison or even put to death. But over this same spot, many hundreds of years later, was built the largest church in the World. It is called St. Peter’s.

On the top of St. Peter’s is an immense dome copied after Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence, but much larger. It was built by that great artist Michelangelo, who, I told you, was an architect as well as sculptor and painter. St. Peter’s is so large that on the roof is a village of small houses, a village in which live the caretakers of the church.

The front door of St. Peter’s is never closed night or day, but just to the right of that door is another door of bronze that is never opened except every twenty-five years. It is called the Holy Door and it is walled up with stone. At the end of every twenty-five years this wall has to be taken down in order to open the door.

参考译文

死亡而又活着的城市

两千年前，如果你从地球上的任意一个地方的任意一条路出发，只要你不停地行走，最终你会来到意大利一个叫罗马的伟大的城市，因为那个时候“条条大路通罗马”。那时，罗马是世界上面积最大、最富有、最漂亮、最重要的城市。罗马是世界的首都。

罗马建立在七座小山之上，“七”被认为是一个幸运数字。一条叫台伯的河流穿过罗马城。罗马人认为是一位名叫“台伯老人”的神掌管着这片河水。罗马人向这位神祷告，祈求他保佑罗马人不会溺水而死或遭遇船难。

那个时候的古罗马城现在已不复存在，多半已是废墟。但是，人们又常说，罗马永远活着——也就是说，罗马是“永恒的”。尽管古罗马已是一片废墟，但现在有一个新罗马。然而，新罗马不再是世界的首都，现在只是意大利的首都。

但是，罗马仍然是全世界天主教的中心，全世界所有天主教会的领袖就住在罗马，他被尊称为“教皇”，就是“父亲”的意思。

人们认为圣彼得被钉死在十字架上之后，他的遗骨就埋在罗马。据说，从圣彼得时代到现在大约1900年的时间，在这个地方，每天都会举行宗教仪式。起初，这些宗教仪式不得不在晚上秘密进行，因为大多数罗马人不信仰基督。如果有人信仰基督，一旦被发现，就会被扔进监狱，甚至被处死。但是，许多世纪以后，就是在这个地方，修建了世界上最大的教堂——圣彼得教堂。

圣彼得教堂的顶部是巨大的圆屋顶，仿照意大利佛罗伦萨的建筑师布鲁内莱斯基设计的圆屋顶，但要比它大得多。圣彼得教堂的圆屋顶，是由那位伟大的艺术家米开朗基罗建造的。我曾跟你们说过，米开朗基罗不仅是个雕刻家和画家，还是建筑家。圣彼得教堂如此之大，以至于在它的顶部有一个由很多房屋组成的居民村，里面住着教堂的管理人员。

无论是白天还是夜晚，圣彼得教堂的前门从来都是敞开的，但是，就在这扇门的右侧有一扇青铜门，每隔25年才会打开一次，其余时间从不打开。它被称为“神圣之门”，并用石头筑墙将它围了起来。在每个第25年的年末，为了打开这扇门，人们不得不拆除这堵石墙。