2015-12-28

【Aiden in English】

        Maryland houses the one thing the nation prides. Well, technically speaking, it isn’t in Maryland, but I’m not that technical. No, it’s not the winner of the NFC East (screw you Eagles!) or a decent basketball team (screw you 76ers!), but the nation’s capital. No one passes through Maryland without thinking about the stately White House and the craftiness of a politician and Donald Trump, and mom and I were not out of the ordinary in that particular category.

        Okay, maybe for one category we are a bit different. Instead of visiting the Natl. Air and Space Museum or the Natl. Museum of Natural History, we went to the Library of Congress (LOC). Yeah! Well, I’m really excited about this one. Visitors don’t even get to view books! Yet this library was more on the history side, and right off the bat, I could infer that it was more of a museum than a knowledge/boredom center. Magnificent mosaics decorated Italian Renaissance style architecture. As we boarded a public, free tour, we learned that the building was not always planned like this. In the early 1800s, a library for Congress was designed and built in the Capitol but was soon destroyed by the British in the war of 1812. Then, the second time it was built, a hyper chimney on Christmas Eve burned down nearly every book in the library in 1851. So a new building was to be built, and it was supposed to be big, but simple. It turned out to be quite fancy. As the French Opera House was opening soon, and well, knowing the United States of America, the LOC then had to be the best of the best, number one in the world, wipe out all competition, look like today Golden State Warriors, and etcetera. And boom, here we have it, the great Jefferson Building. He got to the name because of the number of books sold to the library in 1815 to actually make the collection a collection. But a few decades later, the Madison and Adam Buildings were built for, you guessed it or maybe didn’t, more books! As well as patents, motion pictures, regular pictures, journals, letters, artworks, diaries, and anything you can think of that would be on a nerd’s desk.

        Around the building were many paintings and mosaics, each with different meanings. To start, in the main reading room, where basically you could fit Albert Einstein’s brain into the books and shelves, at the top of the ceiling where it was domed, was a painting of a woman. The woman was taking a hood off, and it symbolized the unveiling of ignorance. On the entrance to the room was a mosaic of Minerva, to all those Percy Jackson fans, symbolizing wisdom. She had dropped her shield and pointed her spear into the ground, which meant she was surrendering, and she was reading from a scroll showing wisdom, and under her was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory and Golden State Warriors, at least looking at their season right now. It wished to the people that used the wisdom within the room for success for whatever it was. And no, it’s not the sports company Nike, but they have some success as well.

       Yes, we thought about the Capitol of our country, and I also thought about how the Philadelphia Eagles so should’ve won the last game against the Washington Redskins. Donald Trump was left out of the conversation, and he didn’t need to be in my holiday discussion. But since I’m talking about him now, well, some things can’t be avoided. Just hope that he doesn’t burn down the Library of Congress with his attitude to life.

【紅霞譯文】

        馬里蘭州因是首都所在地而引人驕傲，嚴格地說，首都根本沒有坐落在馬里蘭州，可我本身沒那麼專業，且慢，咱不提國家橄欖球聯合會東區賽事（去你的吧，費城老鷹隊！）或者像樣的籃球隊（滾蛋吧，費城七六人隊！）而只談國家首都。每逢路過馬里蘭州，人們免不了想起權力象徵的白宮、縱橫捭闔的政治家、有錢任性的唐納德·特朗普，況且我和媽媽都不是那種脫俗之人。

        沒錯，如果硬要分門別類，我們有點與眾不同。這回道訪華府，我們既不是沖美國國家航空航天博物館而來，也不是奔美國國立自然歷史博物館而去，相反卻為瀏覽國會圖書館而至，千真萬確！對嘍，此行令我極度興奮，來訪者親臨藏書之地反倒無需讀書！國會圖書館比較偏重歷史，而非知識性博物館／讓人疲乏中心，沿襲了意大利文藝復興建築風格的馬賽克裝飾可謂富麗堂皇。正因為加入國會圖書館為公眾免費提供的參觀小組，我們才搞清楚大樓原始設計根本不是現在我們看到的這個樣子。追溯到十九世紀早期，國會圖書館首次破土動工，當時設在國會大廈內，但不久即毀於1812年美英戰爭之中。重建的國會圖書館命運多舛，1851年平安夜煙囪起火，幾乎燒掉所有藏書。於是，興建一個又新又大簡單易行的國會圖書館迫在眉睫，但最終卻造出這麼一個出奇華美的建築。當時法國歌劇院即將落成，明白了吧，美國國會圖書館必須好上加好，而且一定舉世無雙，並以排山倒海之勢力壓群雄，如同時下金州勇士隊所向無敵，等等。只聽“轟”的一聲，世界上最大的圖書館傑斐遜大廈與世人見面。之所以以他的名字命名，是因為1815年他把自己收藏的圖書轉手賣給國會圖書館“收藏”，幾十年過後，麥迪遜和亞當大廈先後完工，無論你想到沒有，書越來越多！另外還有專利、電影、普通膠片、報刊、信件、藝術品以及其它你放飛想象書呆子熱衷擺放在桌上的任何玩意。

        繪畫作品及鑲嵌藝術無處不在，而且各自都有不同的寓意。先從主閱覽室說起，那可真是集艾爾伯特·愛因斯坦之大成，將其聰睿才智全部復製成書並整理上架；圓拱形屋頂畫有婦女肖像，她正要摘下帽子，藉此引申除去無知的面紗；正門掛着一件密涅瓦馬賽克，對於所有珀西·傑克遜書迷而言，她是智慧的象徵。密涅瓦放下手中盾牌，把戰矛插入地面，意味着她鼓足勇氣熱愛智慧，其下方是勝利女神耐克塑像，恰巧反映出金州勇士隊目前的戰績。這幅畫的用意在於，智慧是成功的前提，希望所有到此研習的學者都能從智慧中吸取力量，爭取在各行各業獲得成功。上面所提到的耐克不是生產運動品牌的公司，但不管怎樣，兩者各有成功的一面。

        是的，人人都會惦記一國之家的國會大廈，這不能不叫我聯想起上一場美式橄欖球比賽費城老鷹隊怎麼會贏不了華盛頓紅皮隊，唐納德·特朗普已被排除在原因之外，過節期間我不想拿他說事，不過既然提及他，我就直白好了，但願他的處世態度不會毀掉國會圖書館。