譯/莊蕙嘉
明星建築師設計 威尼斯新橋很難走
As tourists wandered obliviously on the glass floor of the footbridge, locals proceeded with caution. Venetians made sure to walk on the narrow stone strip at the center, some lifting fogged glasses to keep their eyes on the ground. When a visitor tripped, they barely lifted their gaze.
當觀光客在步行橋的玻璃橋面不以為意地漫步時，當地人謹慎前進。威尼斯人確保走在中間的一排狹窄石頭上，有些人推高起霧的眼鏡，讓雙眼盯著路面。就算一名遊客跌倒，他們眼皮也不抬一下。
"That is not a bridge," said Angelo Xalle, 71, a retired port worker who recalled helping people with broken chins or foreheads get up from its sleek floor. "It's a trap."
「這不是座橋」，71歲退休港口員工薩爾說，他回想起幫助因滑溜橋面而跌斷下巴或額頭的人起身，「這是個陷阱」。
The bridge, Ponte della Costituzione, by star architect Santiago Calatrava, is a multimillion-dollar work of glass and steel that opened in 2008. Its smooth curve above the Grand Canal, near Venice's train station, was meant to symbolize the city's embrace of modernity, but it has become better known as a stage for ruinous tumbles and dangerous slips.
這座「憲法橋」由明星建築師卡拉特拉瓦設計，花費數百萬美元以玻璃和鋼鐵打造，2008年開放。它坐落於威尼斯火車站附近，在大運河上的柔和曲線，有意象徵這座城市的包容現代，但它已成為害人跌倒及危險滑跤的舞台。
Now, after years of protests and problems, the city has decided to replace the translucent glass with less slippery — and less glamorous — trachytestone.
現在，在多年的抗議和各種問題後，市政府決定以比較不滑、也沒那麼美麗的粗面岩，取代透明玻璃。
"People hurt themselves, and they sue the administration," said Francesca Zaccariotto, Venice's public works official. "We have to intervene."
「民眾受傷，他們就告政府」，威尼斯公共事務官員札卡里歐托說，「我們必須介入」。
The city's decision to allocate 500,000 euros, or about $565,000, to replace the bridge's glass section comes after several failed attempts to limit slips with resin and nonslip stickers. Last month, as the winter cold and rains made the floor especially dangerous, officials placed keep-off signs on the glass portion of the bridge, which is most of it.
在數次用樹脂和防滑貼紙以減少滑倒的失敗嘗試後，這座城市決定籌措50萬歐元、相當於56萬5000美元，更換橋上的玻璃部分。上個月，冬季寒冷天氣和降雨讓橋面格外危險，官員在占據大多數橋面的玻璃部分放置「危險勿近」指示牌。
Acclaimed around the world for work including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York, Calatrava was commissioned to design the bridge in 1999. When it opened nine years later, after protests about delays and soaring costs, complaints about falls began quickly.
以包括紐約世界貿易中心車站等作品享譽國際的卡拉特拉瓦，1999年接受委託設計這座橋。在關於延宕和費用激增的抗議後，當它九年後開放，有關跌倒的投訴很快開始。
Protests intensified in 2013, when the city installed a cable car on the bridge to make it more accessible. The red, round cabin — not designed by Calatrava — cost about 1.5 million euros, was slow to cross the bridge and became unbearably hot in the summer. It was later dismantled.
抗議在2013年變得激烈，市政府在橋上裝設一座纜車，讓它更便於通行。這座圓型的紅色纜車並非卡拉特拉瓦設計，花了150萬歐元，過橋速度很慢，夏天更是悶熱難當，之後就被拆除。
In 2018, the city replaced some of the slabs of glass with trachyte, but during the pandemic, when national television filmed people walking over the bridge to illustrate the return to normalcy after a lockdown, it inevitably caught someone slipping. Last year, the administration gathered the funds to fully replace the glass.
2018年，市政府以粗面岩替換部分玻璃板，但在疫情期間，全國性電視台拍攝民眾步行過橋，以呈現封城後生活回歸正常時，無可避免的拍到有人滑倒畫面。去年，市政府籌措資金，要把玻璃全部換掉。
"We can't always do poetry," Zaccariotto said. "We must give security."
「我們不能老是搞浪漫」，札卡里歐托說，「我們必須保障安全」。
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