入夏以来，里约热内卢气候一反常态，时不时连降暴雨。今天整整一个早上，我们望着窗外发呆。到了中午，雨情丝毫没有改观，相反，雨点由鸟粪那点小骤变成高尔夫球这般大，天空依旧阴沉沉的，妈妈终于沉不住气，打算豁出去就近走走看看。我觉得妈妈十有八九憋昏了头，只要雨伞撑过头顶，前方的路况休想看得清楚，因为乌云早已抢先把余晖挤出天边。 

      This summer, torrential rain was extremely unusual in Rio de Janeiro. We spent the whole morning watching the rain pour on and on. By noon, nothing was improving unless somebody called raindrops the size of bird pellets growing to the size of golf balls as "improving". When a streak of sunlight came through the clouds, mom took the chance and set up the tone that we should explore. At the back of my head, I thought no way this was going to be good. I didn't know if I really saw the light with an umbrella. The clouds hid it well when we went out.

      Mom was particularly interested in National Library of Brazil. We borrowed an umbrella from our hotel and marched on pebble-paved streets to Cinelandia Square in downtown. When I entered the building, my breath got lost as the light came through the window on the top. There were 6 floors and about 9 millions of books for a country. Mom asked if any tours were available and the staff assembled one group for us in English right there. In the meanwhile, they took our personal belongings to the locks and didn't even let cameras past the stairs. I guessed that the place was super important. When the tour group gathered together, we began with the introduction about its history.

      妈妈对巴西国家图书馆饶有兴趣，于是我们从酒店借来雨伞，沿着鹅卵石铺就的街区，慢慢朝市中心西尼兰地亚广场方向走去。一走进大楼，只见光线从天窗射下来，全国九百万图书收藏在眼前这座六层楼高的建筑内，我差点没晕过去。妈妈打听参观事宜，工作人员很快帮我们组织，配上英语导游，同时要求把随身携带的背包甚至相机全部寄存起来，看来该图书馆级别非常。等游客全部到齐，导游开始对我们抚今忆昔。

      Back in Europe, a Portuguese man named Dom Joao VI organized the library in 1808 as the Royal Library of Lisbon. By the looks of 1 million 500 thousands books, the collection didn't seem as though it came easily. Floors of books stacked up endlessly.

      早在1808年，欧洲葡萄牙英国王室约翰六世开始筹集兴办里斯本皇家图书馆，经过千辛万苦，收集了150万册图书并搬到这里，把楼道内外塞得满满登登。

      The library also had rare books like the first edition of the famous "Os Lusiadas" by Lus de Camoes, the Portuguese National Epic; the first edition of Mozart's scores; the Mainz Bible of 1462 by Gutenberg, the originals Carlos Gomes scores (a Brazilian foremost composer of the 19th century), and others. Since the older books came from Europe, I couldn't believe that I barely read anything when standing in the largest library in Latin America, the 7th largest national library in the world considered by UNESCO. I should learn a little of Portuguese before I came.

      图书馆收藏了不少罕世珍贵书籍，譬如：出自贾梅士之手的著名史诗《葡国魂》印刷头版、莫扎特作曲手稿第一版印刷、1462年古登堡出版的《缅茵兹圣经》、十九世纪巴西最著名的作曲家卡洛斯•戈梅斯作品原稿等。虽说古书来自欧洲，可我简直不敢相信，置身于拉美最大、联合国科教文组织公认的世界第七大国家图书馆内，自己仍然读不懂任何东西，真应该来前学点葡萄牙文。

      The building was built in an eclectic style, which fused art nouveau and neoclassical elements in 1910. Amid the main facade, there was a portico with 6 Corinthian columns flanked by allegories of the Press, Bibliography, Paleography, Cartography, Iconography and Numismatic. On the right side of the entrance, a bronze statue represented intelligence and another on the left represented the study. The materials made from all over the world, such as the Belgian chandeliers, German staircases, Italian granite, the British doors, etc.

      该图书馆建筑汲取了新艺术流派及新古典风格之精华，门厅正面有6根哥林斯式高柱，两侧装饰象征出版印刷、书志目录、古文书字、地图制作、肖像图解和钱币徽章六项分类；入门口右侧铜像代表智慧，左侧铜像代表研究。建筑材料来自五湖四海，譬如：比利时吊灯、德国楼梯、意大利花岗石、英国门榄等，不一而足。

      It made my ankles so painful when I walked in the rain with a pair of Croc sandals. After we got back at the hotel, I checked the weather and gloom settled over me. With no doubt, tomorrow it was going to rain again.

      穿着“鳄鱼牌”凉鞋雨中长征，脚脖子累得酸痛。回到下榻之后，我查了一下天气预报，阴霾不散，明天肯定继续下雨。

(二O一三年一月十日)