Williamsburg Brooklyn ｜Escaping is a Sense of Epiphany 逃離世界中心之城
- Sandy Lin
- 2017年11月6日
- 讀畢需時 5 分鐘
Williamsburg For me, Williamsburg is my favorite place in New York City. It is one of Brooklyn's districts, followed by Queens, full of hippies, pub music, record labels, Vintage Store. It feels like finding a shelter for life, fleeing from the disturbing Manhattan Island, and then nesting there for an afternoon sun. As usual, New York is as choking as any big city, and friends said "New York City is a place where people are easily worn off." It's a city that wears off young dreams in exchange for glittering a glittering but do-not-know-if-it-really-exists future.
對我來說，Williamsburg是我在紐約最喜歡的地方，他是Brooklyn其中一個區，上面緊接著Queens，嬉皮、酒吧的音樂、唱片行、Vintage Store。這種感覺像是找到了一個生活的避難所一樣。逃離紛紛擾擾的曼哈頓島，然後窩在這裡享受一下午的陽光。紐約一如往常的、就像所有大城市那樣令人有些窒息，朋友說：「紐約市個讓人容易wear off的地方。」耗損年輕的夢、在年輕的城市裡用時間換取閃閃發光的一切。
New York, The City that Nurtures and Injures This reminds me of Just Kids's sequence written by Patti Smith:
"At that time, they and the world were young."Boys and girls fled their hometowns and met in the city of the center of the world. They were only twenty then and had nothing but guts. They were too young to be sure of what they would look like, but were convinced that they will become a great artist. Along the dreary of the dream of the road, they helped each other when both were in humble situations, together being hurt, nourished by the city, getting to know all kinds of eccentric and elegant people, those names now seem to flicker like a heavenly star ... ... In the end, the city was not only the place where promised to go, but also a nutrition-giving school that finally made them strong enough and mature enough to make their dreams come true. The time when the World is as young as they were. — 馬世芳 Ma Shifang（A Taiwanese writer）
New York is indeed such a center of the world; its bright cannot be looked straight, and dark cannot be seen. It may not be fair to represent all of them in these words, but after walking for a while, all the cities seem to be forever young and never be old. New York in the 1960s was not the same as New York now, but it was the same. The Beat Generation is not yet old, and now lively on the wall of the subway station, and live music bar's wooden chair; Jack Kerouac's unintelligible On the Road seems to be still talking about some without priority, which shuttles in my mind, also on the way to Williamsburg where I fall into those potholes of time and unable to extricate myself.
The weather in Williamsburg was fine on that Tuesday afternoon, and it might be even better if the weather was not good. Williamsburg is so shade-free, and no blue sky can be seen. Graffiti is everywhere on the wall, and garbage dumps; people eating cakes on the roadside, smoking, and humming Italian ballads which only can be understood by themselves on the roadside. Everyone is breathing in and out of their own version of New York City.
Williamsburg, where is quite different with Manhattan island, is slightly decadent. I came with my friend in a matter of days after that day I visited on my own because she said she had hardly been to Brooklyn and went to Williamsburg the first time. Perhaps half the people in Manhattan have never heard of Bedford Avenue, and haven't took L train. Those who hunched hurried rushed to any station of NQR, living a life without any one second of a second you can waste; just as friend Kayla said: "Just take a train for a few stops, then you can see the appearance of a hundred New York." It can be so busy, and it can be so easy.
這讓我想起Patti Smith寫的Just Kids裡的序：「那時，他們和世界都正年輕。」
男孩女孩逃離各自的家鄉，在那座世界中心之城邂逅。那時他們纔二十歲，除了一身膽量別無所有。他們還太年輕，不確定自己應當長成什麼模樣，卻都堅信自己終將成為偉大的藝術家。沿著顛沛的逐夢之路，他們相濡以沫，一起被這座城市傷害，被這座城市滋養，結識各路怪人貴人，那些名字如今看來皆閃爍如天穹星辰......到頭來，這座城不僅是當初投奔的應許之地，更是一座賜與養分的學校，讓他們終於足夠強壯，足夠成熟，足夠讓夢想成真。 馬世芳「那時，他們和世界都正年輕。」
紐約確實是這樣的世界中心，光亮的無法直視、灰暗的無法卒睹。用這些話代表全部的人或許不是公平的，但走了一下玩了一陣，所有的城市好像永遠都這麼年輕，永遠都不會老一樣。當時六零年代的紐約和現在的紐約很不一樣，卻也一樣；當時的The Beat Generation尚未老去，現在也活脫脫的呈現在地鐵站的牆上、Live music bar的木椅上；當年不知所云的Jack Kerouac的On the Road好像仍然在講一些沒重點的話，在腦海裡穿梭著，也在我走在Williamsburg的路上，掉進的那些時間的坑洞裡無法自拔。
威廉斯堡的那個星期二午後，天氣好。天氣就算不好，可能更好吧。Williamsburg就是適合這樣陰陰的、看不到藍色天空的。牆上到處是graffiti，垃圾堆。在路邊吃蛋糕的人、抽煙的人、流浪狗，在路邊哼著只有自己聽得懂的義大利民謠，還有反著自己倒影的店家玻璃，看起來沒什麼人煙的街上，大家都在努力自己的生活。
與曼哈頓島恍如隔世的Williamsburg有些頹廢。跟朋友隔幾天又來一次，因為她說幾乎沒來過Brooklyn，威廉斯堡也是第一次來。可能曼哈頓有一大半的人是這樣吧，沒聽過Bedford Avenue，沒搭過L train。那些彎腰駝背的人們匆匆忙忙的趕往NQR的隨便一個站，過著沒有任何一分一秒可以浪費的人生，就跟朋友Kayla說的一樣：「只要搭train做過幾個站，就可以看到一百種紐約的樣貌。」可以是那樣的汲汲營營，也可以是那樣的從容自在。
How Does Your Version of New York City Look Like? This is the back garden of Greater Manhattan; No, absolutely is not a garden. Williamsburg probably will not like the name under Manhattan. Williamsburg is an ecosystem independent of the universe, a system that will probably be very shady at night, but I was completely drawn to it. Here is my favorite place in New York- a place with few rules and no systematically ordered lifestyles. It's one step away from that brightest city and one single reach away to be a part of it, but I prefer to stay here—almost a backcountry.
How does your version of New York look like? 這裏就是大曼哈頓的後花園，喔不，絕對不是花園，Williamsburg大概也不會喜歡隸屬於曼哈頓之下的名號，Williamsburg就是獨立於宇宙之外的一個生態體系，一個在晚上大概會非常shady的體系，但我徹頭徹尾的被吸引，這種沒有秩序的，看不出規則，也沒有太多交通工具打擾的這裏，就是我在紐約最愛的地方。好像伸手就能觸及城市最亮的那串高樓大廈、那一大片燈火通明的天際線，但寧願待在這，差一步就窮鄉僻壤、就鳥不生蛋的這裡。
過上我的日子，每個人的心中都有個紐約的樣子，Williamsburg是我最愛的那副模樣。
Photo by Myself in New York City in March 2017
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