【雅思课外精读】访日旅客锐减，奈良神鹿饿得要“造反”

　　【雅思课外精读】访日旅客锐减，奈良神鹿饿得要“造反”   原文译文*  注：本文选自12月3日《经济学人》

　　Hungry ungulates饥饿的鹿A crash in tourism leaves Japanese deer ravenous for treats日本旅游业崩溃，神鹿缺乏食物The sacred deer of Nara miss their old diet of rice crackers奈良的神鹿怀念脆米饼

图片来源网络

　　1. THE MORE than 13m tourists who visit Nara, an ancient capital of Japan, each year tend to follow a well-worn path. On their way into a park at the edge of the city they pass the towering wooden pagoda of Kofuku-ji, a temple complex founded in 710. They continue to nearby Todai-ji, gazing in awe at Japan’s largest Buddha, a bronze behemoth weighing 400 tons and standing 15 metres tall. And finally they feed shika senbei, a special kind of rice cracker, to the sacred deer, some 1,300 of which live in the park.

　　日本古都奈良每年有1300万游客，这些游客往往都会走一条老路。在他们去城郊公园的路上，他们会经过兴福寺，兴福寺始建于710年，是一个巨大的寺庙建筑群。继续往前走，就来到东大寺，可以在这里瞻仰日本最大的佛像，这座佛像重达400，高15米。最后，游客会用一种特殊的米饼——“鹿仙贝”来喂神鹿。公园里大约有1300只神鹿。

　　2. The deer, though wild, have come to love the crackers. With tourism reduced to a trickle because of the pandemic, they are hungry. Many have begun wandering far from home in search of food. A recent study by the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation and Tatsuzawa Shirow of Hokkaido Universityshows that 20% fewer are spending their days in the park; incidents of damage caused by deer in town have shot up. The less enterprising ones, apparently accustomed to eating only crackers, have become emaciated.

　　鹿是野生的，但它们也很喜欢这些脆米饼。受新冠疫情影响，这些鹿在忍饥挨饿。很多鹿为了寻找食物而逃离公园。奈良鹿保护基金会和北海道大学的Tatsuzawa Shirow最近的一项研究表明，呆在公园里的鹿减少了20%，而镇上由鹿造成的破坏事件激增。那些不思进取的录，早已习惯了只吃脆米饼，它们现在都瘦弱不堪了。

　　3. The deer are not the only ones going hungry. So are businesses in places like Nara, which have come to rely ever more heavily on tourism in recent years. Fewer than 7m foreign tourists visited Japan in 2009; last year some 32m did. Revenue from tourism hit a record 4.8trn yen ($46bn). With the Olympics scheduled for this past summer, Japan had hoped to welcome 40m foreigners this year. Instead, after a near-total closure of its borders because of the pandemic, arrivals have dropped by 99.4%.

　　鹿并不是唯一忍饥挨饿的动物。奈良的企业也陷入困境。近年来，奈良企业越来越依赖旅游业。2009年，日本游客不到700万，如今已有3200万。旅游业收入达到创纪录的48万亿日元(460亿美元)。奥运会将于今年夏天举行，日本有望接待4000万外国游客。然而，新冠之后，日本边境封锁，如今日本入境人数下降了99.4%。

　　4. The government has tried to cushion the blow by encouraging its own citizens to get out more. The Diet earmarked ¥1.35trn ($12.9bn) for “Go To Travel” subsidies, which provide discounts of up to 35% at domestic hotels and inns; a concurrent programme called “Go To Eat” applies to restaurants. The ministry of tourism says nearly 40m nights have been booked under the programme since it was launched in July. That is a pyrrhic victory: the campaign is thought to have contributed to a recent uptick in covid-19. Daily cases reached a record of 2,680 on November 28th. Suga Yoshihide, Japan’s prime minister, recently announced that the subsidies would be suspended in areas with high caseloads. In addition, older Japanese have been asked not to make use of them.

　　日本政府鼓励公民出行，以减小冲击。日本国会拨款1.35亿日元(约合129亿美元)的出行补贴，为国内酒店和小旅馆提供高达35%的折扣，同时还进行“去吃饭”的餐馆活动。旅游部称，自7月份启动该计划以来，酒店预定量已达4000万。这是一场惨胜：日本疫情因此加重。11月28日，日本每日感染人数达到创纪录的2680人。日本首相菅义伟最近宣布，确诊病例高的地区将暂停补贴。此外，老年人不允许使用该项补贴。

　　5. Japan is loth to give up on tourism, or to let the infrastructure that supports it wither. (Mr Suga himself championed tourism as chief cabinet secretary to his predecessor, Abe Shinzo.) Officials see spending by foreign visitors as a means to compensate for Japan’s own shrinking population. Tourism may also help make Japan more open to foreign migrants in the future, says Saito Jun of the Japan Centre for Economic Research, a think-tank in Tokyo.

　　日本不想放弃旅游业，也不想放任其基础设施萎缩。(在担任安倍晋三内阁官房长官期间，菅义伟本人就曾大力支持旅游业。)日本官员将外国游客的消费视为弥补日本人口减少的一项措施。东京智库日本经济研究中心的Saito Jun表示，旅游业也可能促进日本未来对外国移民更加开放。

　　6. Meanwhile, the more resourceful deer in Nara have reverted to a healthier diet of plants and nuts, which has been good for their insides. Their droppings, made pale and runny by the crackers, have become firmer and darker again. If only belt-tightening were as good for the economy.

　　如今，奈良神鹿恢复了其健康饮食，开始吃草食和坚果，这对它们的内脏很有好处。此前，由于吃了很多脆米饼，这些鹿的分辨又白又稀，而今变得又黑又硬了。要是勒紧裤腰带对经济发展同样有用就好了。