公共浴场文化——身体与灵魂（上）

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Bathhouse culture -- Body and soul

公共浴场文化——身体与灵魂

Covid-19 has accelerated the decline of hammams, yet the steam still rises

新冠加速了公共浴池的衰落，但蒸汽仍在升腾

Yeni hammam in Antakya, Turkey’s southernmost city, is hard to find.

Yeni hammam位于土耳其最南端城市安塔基亚，很难被找到。

Would-be bathers must search the maze-like streets for the tell-tale arched entrance.

想要洗浴的人必须在迷宫般的街道上寻找泄露了内情的拱形入口。

Locals can help; after all, the hammam has been there for over 300 years.

当地人可以帮你找到它；毕竟，这个公共浴场已经存在了300多年。

The name means “new bath”, and Yeni Hammam is indeed much newer than other bathhouses in Antakya, some of which date back to the Mamluks.

这个名字的意思是“新浴室”，而Yeni Hammam确实比安塔基亚的其他公共浴场要新得多，其中一些浴池可以追溯到马穆鲁克时代。

Inside, the architecture is lofty and monumental.

建筑内部高耸又宏伟。

Customers strip off in the entrance hall, before beginning the ritual of steam, scrub and oil massage, progressing through three marble chambers of gradually increasing humidity.

顾客在入口大厅脱去衣物，然后开始例行汗蒸、擦洗和精油按摩，完成这一过程会穿过三个湿度逐渐增加的大理石房间。

Light from star-shaped chinks in the domed ceilings filters through the vapour.

半球形天花板上的星形缝隙中透出的光线穿透水汽。

Old hands use the shafts cast on the walls to tell the time of day.

老手会用投射在墙上的光线来判断时间。

Like many cities, Antakya (Antioch in antiquity) once boasted many more hammams, and before that, lavishly mosaicked Roman baths.

和许多城市一样，安塔基亚（古代的安提阿）曾经拥有许多公共浴场，在那之前，还有奢华的马赛克罗马浴场。

Over 2,000 years communal bathing never went out of fashion.

2000多年来，公共洗浴从未过时。

Now, though, the tradition is under threat.

然而现在，这一传统正受到威胁。

Yeni is one of only four functioning hammams in Antakya—and in March 2020 it shut for the first time in living memory.

Yeni是安塔基亚仅有的四个仍在经营的浴场之一，2020年3月，它在人们记忆中首次关门。

Across north Africa and the Levant, from Morocco to Istanbul, Covid-19 closed historic bathhouses. Not all have reopened.

从北非到黎凡特，从摩洛哥到伊斯坦布尔，新冠迫使这些历史悠久的浴场关门。不是所有的浴场后来都重新开放了。

To survive, they must draw deep on a venerable past.

为了生存，他们必须深深汲取古老历史中的经验。

Historically, hammams fulfilled a practical function as communal washing facilities.

从历史上看，公共浴场作为公共洗浴设施发挥了其实用功能。

They were a fixture of the Islamic urban landscape, built close to mosques and with similar architecture—a place to purify the body before focusing on the soul.

它们是伊斯兰城市景观的一部分，建在清真寺附近，与其有着相似的建筑风格——一个在专注于灵魂之前净化身体的地方。

Strictly segregated by gender, under Ottoman rule hammams became hubs for business, socialising and gossip.

在奥斯曼帝国的统治下，浴场严格按照性别分开，于是浴场成了商业、社交和八卦的中心。

They were vital for women in times when they could not meet freely in public.

在女性无法在公共场合自由会面的时代，这些对话对她们至关重要。

As Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a British traveller, rhapsodised in the early 18th century, “'tis the women’s coffee-house, where all the news of the town is told and scandal invented”.

正如英国旅行家玛丽·沃特利·蒙塔古女士在18世纪早期所赞颂的那样，“这是属于女性的咖啡馆，镇上所有的新闻都在这里被讲述，所有的丑闻都在这里被编造出来。”

Mariem, a Tunisian student, affirms that, before the pandemic, she and her pals would visit the hammam about once a month for dedicated girl time: wrapped in foutas (linen towels), they ate oranges and laughed in the steam.

Mariem是一名突尼斯学生，她肯定地说，在疫情之前，她和她的朋友们每个月都会去一次公共浴场，享受专属于女孩的时光：她们裹着亚麻毛巾，吃着橘子，在蒸汽中开怀大笑。

For most clients, the trip is now a treat not a necessity.

对于大多数顾客来说，这种体验如今是一种享受，而不是必需。

Bathing in the Hammam Nur al-Din, one of the oldest in Damascus, is a retro thrill, says Bashar, one of its erstwhile patrons.

在Hammam Nur al-Din浴场（大马士革最古老的浴场之一）洗浴有一种复古的兴奋，它的一位老主顾巴沙尔说道。

Besides the steam and the massage, “I connect with my roots.”

除了汗蒸和按摩，“我在感受与祖先的连结。”

His forebears “all washed on these same stones, under these same domes”.

他的祖先“都曾在同样的穹顶下，坐在同样的石头上洗浴”。