(单词翻译:单击)
Delhi, the capital of the world's largest democracy, has come under a lot of flak in the past year.
作为世界最大民主国家的首都，德里在过去一年里饱受责难。
The fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in the city earned it the 'unsafe' tag internationally. The city is full of obstacles that make living here challenging. Just getting around is tough. Forget the gummed up roads, even walking in Delhi can be really difficult. Its flagship airport, which handles more than 34 million passengers annually and is only three years old, is prone to flooding when there's too much rain.
23岁理疗专业女学生遭多人轮奸的事件让德里在国际社会上被贴上了“不安全”的标签。这座城市充满了各种障碍，让人生活在这儿挑战重重，就连随便走走都很困难。橡胶路面使得步行异常艰难。主机场每年处理3,400万人次的客流量，并且仅建成三年，但在雨量多时却很容易发洪水。
But there are rays of light in the city, which on a closer look, reveal a certain charm. As the capital goes to the polls today, we take a look at 10 things about Delhi that remind us of the brighter side.
不过这个城市也有着熠熠的光辉，仔细体味你会发现它也会散发出一定的魅力。随着这座城市今天开始选举，我们来看看德里有哪十个地方能让我们想起她光鲜的那面。
1. 春天
When spring is sprung, Delhi becomes a city of flowering trees and fragrant breezes.
春天来临时，德里就成了一座鲜花盛开、在微风中散发香气的城市。
Birds sing (it's the world's second-most avian rich city). Poets muse. Even Aunties recklessly remove the woolly socks under their sandals.
小鸟吟唱（它是世界上鸟类第二多的城市），诗人沉思，就连大妈们都大胆地脱掉了凉鞋里面的羊毛袜子。
This blissful state lasts approximately four days. As the great Mughal poet Ghalib wrote, 'Where there is no autumn, how can spring exist?'
这种愉悦的状态持续大概四天。就像伟大的莫卧儿(Mughal)诗人迦利布(Ghalib)所写的：“没有秋天哪会有春天？”
Delhi ensures the appreciation of springtime by filling the remaining 361 days with other memorable and more prolonged seasons: psychotic heat, road-choking rain, and smog.
剩下的361天分配给了其他让人怀念并且更漫长的季节：酷热、多雨和浓雾。于是春天显得格外珍贵。
2. 免费理疗
Delhi life is one big therapy session. Just let it all out.
德里的生活就像是一个大型的理疗疗程。尽情释放吧。
Opportunities to release repressed anger particularly present themselves when one is in transit. You can scream, shout and weep-'Rascal, you are! Whither justice?'-all before you even get into an auto rickshaw.
在交通工具上是释放被压抑的愤怒情绪的好机会。你可以大喊大叫或者大哭──“你这个无赖！正义何在？”──在登上机动三轮车前你都可以这样做。
Delhi-ites also take advantage of the city's Metro to work out their anger management issues. Practice your jiu-jitsu, especially for the women's queues.
德里人还会利用城市地铁锻炼自己管理愤怒的能力。练习一下自己的柔术，尤其是在跟女人一起排队的时候。
3. 灵活性和诚实
Actually, everyday Delhi existence is pretty liberating.
实际上在德里待着每天都有摆脱束缚的感觉。
Running late? Relax, we're on Indian Stretchable Time-all the fun people will arrive at least two hours late anyway.
快迟到了？别紧张，我们是“印度弹性时间”(Indian Stretchable Time)──反正所有有趣的人都会迟到至少两个小时。
There's a lady opposite? Stare at her. She has a moustache? She'll appreciate your frankness if you loudly recommend a good strimmer.
对面有位女士？盯着她看，是不是有胡子？如果你大声推荐一款好的剃须刀，她会很感激你的直率的。
4. 永恒的创新
Delhi's history is extraordinary and its monuments are glorious, from the Qutub Minar, a 12-century minaret, and Jama Masjid, one of India's largest mosques, to the hundreds of smaller relics dotted around the city that risk extinction. But the capital has also been constantly rebuilt, relocated, recycled, and colored by waves of migration.
德里的历史非同寻常，纪念遗迹也非常辉煌，包括12世纪的顾特卜塔(Qutub Minar)、印度最大的清真寺之一贾玛清真寺(Jama Masjid)，还有数百处散落在城市各处、面临消失危险的小规模遗迹。但这座首都也持续在重建、迁移、回收循环并受到移民浪潮的影响。
The result is endless novelty.
结果就是无穷无尽的创新。
Bored of your local shops? Don't worry, they'll be totally different in a week. Had enough of your semi-legal house? No problem-a major sporting event is coming up, so it'll be torn down next Tuesday. Unless you're middle-class, that is.
厌倦了当地的商店？别担心，它们会在一周内完全变样。受够了自己半合法的房子？没问题──一场大型体育赛事马上就会来，所以下周二房子就会被拆掉。不过除非你是中产阶级。
5. 印度英语
Many Delhi-ites speak an unusual language.
很多德里人都讲着与众不同的语言。
It's 30% English, 30% Hindi, 18% made-up words (timepass, anyone?), 12% indecipherable acronyms, and 10% innovative familial obscenities.
30%英语，30%印度语，18%自己发明的词汇（听说过timepass吧？），12%无法解读的缩写词，还有10%的创新家族脏话。
It's adaptable. It's TV-friendly. And it may just be the future - even McDonald's had to invent a McAloo Tikki burger to fit in with the local lexicon and diet.
适应性强，电视很受欢迎，或许这就是未来吧──就连麦当劳(McDonald's)都不得不发明McAloo Tikki汉堡来适应当地的词汇和饮食。
6. 现代设施齐全
Two decades of growth have made some citizens very rich.
二十年的发展让有些市民变得非常有钱。
The newly prosperous form a powerful consumer market, investing heavily in valuable assets such as land, bling, and onions.
新富人群形成了一个强大的消费者市场，他们投入大量资金在土地、珠宝和洋葱等贵重资产上。
In response Delhi has transformed into a shopper's delight. Today, visitors will find an artistic and fashion-conscious capital, filled with American brands and Chinese restaurants- there's even an indigenous breed of hipsters and plenty of Indian pride.
因此德里变成了购物者的天堂。如今，游客会看到一个充满艺术和时尚气息的首都，到处都是美国品牌和中国餐馆──甚至还有一批本土成长起来的嬉皮士和同性恋。
7. 权力
Delhi owes its prestige to the fact that it is the heart of the world's largest democracy. Alas, the government has struggled in recent months. Officials are all busy 'kindly doing the needful' and the capitals VVIPs (very very important people) spend time roaming wild in Lodhi Gardens, in training for their frequent parliamentary walkouts.
德里的声望要归功于它是世界最大民主国家的心脏地带。不过政府近几个月比较艰难。官员们都忙着“亲切地做需要做的事”，大人物们都在洛提花园(Lodhi Gardens)野外漫步，为频繁的议会退席做准备。
8. 美食
A gastronomic paradise, Delhi's shrines are its golgappas stands selling hollow pastry balls filled with a potato mixture and tamarind water, and its avenues lined with kebab stalls.
作为美食天堂，德里的美食 地就是售卖裹着土豆泥和罗望子汁的空心面球的golgappas路边摊，还有街道两旁的烤肉亭子。
On one end of the spectrum are glitzy five-star hotel restaurants. Conscious of India's science-loving reputation, they provide arithmetic practice through an elaborate system of taxes, service charges, and booze levies, including a levy for air-conditioning.
一方面是华丽的五星级酒店餐厅。由于意识到印度对科学的热爱，这些酒店通过一套详尽的税收、服务费还有酒税体系为人们提供练习算术的机会。
On the other end is, of course, Shahjahanabad, better known as Old Delhi. Until the British came, this was Delhi at her luscious prime. As one of her suitors, the seventeenth-century intellectual Chandra Bhan Brahman, enthused: 'Her avenues are so full of pleasure that her lanes are like the roads of paradise.' From aloo tikki to pav bhaji, it's worth even the threat of Delhi Belly.
当然另一方面是旧德里(Shahjahanabad)。英国人来之前，那是德里的黄金时代。作为旧德里的“追求者”之一，17世纪的知识分子钱德拉・班・婆罗门(Chandra Bhan Brahman)赞颂道：“她的大街是如此让人愉快，她的街道就像是公路天堂。”从aloo tikki到pav bhaji，就算冒着染上“德里肚”(Delhi Belly)的危险，这些小吃也都值得尝试。
Consider: what other cities have the honour of having an entire ailment named after them? Nobody talks about, say, the Rangoon Rumbles or the St. Moritz Squits.
想一想：还有哪些城市有此殊荣，一种疾病是以其城市名字命名的？没人说仰光嘟囔(Rangoon Rumbles) 或者 莫里茨腹泻(St. Moritz Squits)。
9. 危险重重
Life is never less than exciting in Delhi. It is periodically shaken by earthquakes, dengue and dust storms, and invaded by savage monkeys. Every car journey is a game of chicken. Aunties pack pistols in case they should suffer an outbreak of road rage. This is a city, lest we forget, which in which in 2001 witnessed mass panic over alleged attacks by a murderous cyborg 'monkey-man.'
德里的生活从来不缺少刺激。它偶尔会受到地震、登革热和沙尘暴的侵袭，还会遭到野猴子的袭击。每次开车都是“看谁是胆小鬼”的博弈(game of chicken)。大妈们会准备好手枪，以防路怒症爆发。别忘了，这是一座2001年所谓的“猴人”袭人事件造成大规模恐慌的城市。
Once my friend found a tooth embedded in the auto seat next to her. A human tooth. I rest my case.
我的朋友在她旁边的汽车座椅里找到一颗牙齿，一颗人的牙齿时，我就闭嘴了。
10. 德里人
Delhi is India's brash, restless, gossipy melting pot. There are a thousand different species of the 'Dilliwalla,' well beyond the obvious stereotypes, and it is of course them who really make the city worth living in. Even the ones who wear sunglasses indoors.
德里是印度鲁莽的、浮躁的和八卦的熔炉。这里有数千种不同类型的德里人(Dilliwalla)，常见的典型德里人只是很小一部分，当然也是因为有了他们才使得这个城市值得居住，甚至包括在室内带墨镜的那些人。
