★Blarney Stone (巧言石)
在爱尔兰小镇布拉尼,有座建于15世纪的布拉尼城堡,是爱尔兰历史最悠久的城堡之一,这里最为世人所熟知的就是城堡内的巧言石。传说只要吻过这块“巧言石”便会能言善辩,滔滔不绝。
Montagne: We're talking to Catherine Price about her book, 101 Places Not to See Before You Die. Now, I gather you got in trouble—at least about one of these destinations—and that's the 18)Blarney Stone in Ireland.
蒙塔捏:我们正在谈论的是凯瑟琳·普莱斯的书《101个一生不必去的地方》。现在,我要给你出难题了——但至少是关于其中的一个旅游点的——来说说爱尔兰的巧言石吧。
Ms. Price: Oh, yeah. I got into big trouble for that. I'm also in trouble with Nevada because I included the entire state. But...but for the Blarney Stone, when I hear about a destination whose main attraction is giving you the chance to kiss a piece of stone that's been kissed by hundreds of thousands of people, that is not something that I personally need to do.
普莱斯女士:哦,是的,这个确实饱受争议。同样的还有内达华州,因为我把整个州都写进去了。但……但是对于巧言石,当我听说这个景点最吸引人的地方就是你有机会去亲吻一块成千上万的游客都亲吻过的石头的时候,我就不是很想去了。
But as you can imagine, the tourist board—and in particular, the marketing department of the Blarney Stone—was not really excited to hear that that was on the list.
但正如你想象的那样,观光委员会——尤其是巧言石的市场部——听到巧言石在此清单上的时候是绝对不会兴奋到哪去的。
I actually had a very sweet exchange with the woman in charge. And she would like me—and therefore, all of our listeners—to know that you can actually request a special cleaning of the stone before you kiss it, if you would like.
事实上,我与(巧言石的)女负责人有过一次愉快的交谈。她告诉我——因此,也告诉了我们所有的听众朋友——在你亲吻之前,你可以提出要求,对这块石头做一个特别的清理,如果你愿意的话。
