走进华尔道夫酒店专门留给美国总统的房间
Inside the Waldorf Astoria’s Presidential Suite
编辑:给力英语 作者：By SAM ROBERTS 更新：2018年2月18日
在纽约的华尔道夫-阿斯托里亚酒店，那间历任美国总统都曾下榻的神秘套房，终于对外开放。
YOU probably won’t be eligible for the generous discount accorded federal employees on official business. You’ll have to make do without the monogrammed towels and bedding and the bulletproof panes of window glass. Nor will a special Metro-North train be manned and idling on a siding below Park Avenue to whisk you away in case Midtown Manhattan traffic becomes impassable.
你可能无福享受联邦雇员才享有的高额公务折扣。你将不得不在没有花押字毛巾、花押字床品，也没有防弹玻璃的房间里凑合住下，也不会有大都会北方铁路(Metro-North)的专属列车在公园大道(Park Avenue)地下的一条专用线上随时待命，以便将你火速接走，免得曼哈顿中城(Midtown)的交通拥堵到无法通行。
Still, you don’t have to be the president of the United States to reserve the presidential suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. As of midday Thursday, the three-bedroom, three-bath suite on the 35th floor was booked for Valentine’s Day but still available for the rest of Presidents’ Day weekend at an off-season bargain rate of as little as $4,000 a night.
不过，你不必成为美国总统，也可以在在华尔道夫-阿斯托里亚酒店(Waldorf Astoria)预定他们的总统套房。这间套房位于35楼，拥有三间卧室、三间浴室。在2月12日中午之前，情人节当晚的总统套房已被预定。不过其他总统日的周末依然接受预定，还可享受淡季折扣——每晚仅需4000美元（约合人民币25039元）。
There was a time when prospective guests had to undergo background security checks, and outsiders were barred from even photographing the suite. Nowadays, with privacy compromised, just about anyone who can afford the negotiable congestion-pricing rates, which range up to about $8,000 a night, can be ushered into the hotel through the garage, without ever touching the grimy sidewalk outside, and into the elevator to the Waldorf Towers suite, where every president since Herbert Hoover has stayed. (The 1893 lobby clock features bas reliefs of six presidents, including George Washington, none of whom slept there.)
曾有一段时间，想要入住这间套房的客人，不得不接受背景安全检查，外人甚至连为总统套间拍照都被禁止。如今，在隐私政策放宽后，几乎任何人只要负担得起每晚高达8000美元（约合人民币50078元）的天价，都可以在礼宾人员的带领下从车库进入酒店，无需接触外面人多眼杂的走道。然后乘坐专属电梯，进入华尔道夫大厦(Waldorf Tower)的那间总体套房。自赫伯特·胡佛(Herbert Hoover)以来的历任美国总统只要出访纽约，就会在此下榻（1893年制成的大堂座钟上，还有六位从未在此下榻过的总统的浅浮雕，包括乔治·华盛顿[George Washington]）。
自胡佛总统以来的历届美国总统在出访纽约时，都会下榻华尔道夫·阿斯托里亚酒店的总统套房。套房入口处的铭牌上还列出了其他有名的住客，包括英国女王伊丽莎白二世和日本裕仁天皇。
The Waldorf Towers, which bills itself as a hotel atop a hotel and has its own drive-through entrance on East 50th Street, has 26 “presidential style” suites. The presidential suite itself isn’t even the biggest or the most expensive. (It is surpassed by the Cole Porter, with five bedrooms; the royal, where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived; and the penthouse.)
华尔道夫大厦号称“酒店上的酒店”（因为华尔道夫酒店28楼以上的部分称为“华尔道夫大厦”，28楼以下的部分称为“华尔道夫-阿斯托里亚酒店”——译注），在东50街有其自己的车道门廊，酒店内设有26间“总统式”套房。而总统套房本身甚至还不是最大或最贵的那间。更好的房型包括：带有五间卧室科尔·波特套房（Cole Porter，得名于百老汇剧作家——译注）、温莎公爵夫妇居住过的皇室套房，以及顶层套房。
Still, it’s roomy, with a foyer, a living room with a decorative fireplace, a dining room that seats 10, a kitchen and a boudoir off the marble master bathroom. It is spacious enough, at 2,245 square feet, to accommodate 50 guests. (The suite can also be converted into a more economical one-bedroom.)
话虽如此，总统套房依然是很宽敞的，里面设有一间门厅、一间带装饰性壁炉的起居室、一间十座的餐厅、一间厨房和一间紧挨着大理石主浴室的化妆间。它的面积够大，有2245平方英尺（约合209平方米），可以招待50位客人（这间套房还可以改装成一套更加经济的一居室）。
Originally fitted with colonial-style furnishings, it was redecorated in a Georgian style in 1969, “to be evocative of the White House, without trying to copy it,” said Matt Zolbe, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing.
总统套房里本来布置着殖民风格(colonial)的陈设，但在1969年被重新装修成了乔治亚风格(Georgian)，“这是为了在不模仿白宫的情况下，让人联想起白宫。”该酒店的销售和市场营销总监马特·佐尔布(Matt Zolbe)说。
There’s no great original art to speak of, but the living room is graced by an upholstered rocking chair that belonged to John F. Kennedy; wall sconces donated by Richard M. Nixon; and books by Homer, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and J. K. Rowling (she stayed there). Facing the king-size bed and Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress (with 400-thread-count sheets from Anichini) is a desk owned by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had a suite at the hotel.
这里没有了不起的原创艺术可言，但仍有不少陈设为起居室增添了光彩，比如约翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)的一张私人软垫摇椅，理查德·M·尼克松(Richard M. Nixon)捐赠的壁灯，还有荷马、莎士比亚、刘易斯·卡罗尔(Lewis Carroll)和J·K·罗琳的书籍（罗琳也曾入住过）。特大号(king size)的床铺配备了舒达完美睡眠系列的床垫(Serta Perfect Sleeper)，以及Anichini 400纱支数的床单，床对面摆的是亚瑟·麦克阿瑟将军(Gen. Douglas MacArthur)的私人书桌。他在这座酒店里曾经拥有一间套房。
华尔道夫酒店总统套房的壁炉边摆放着肯尼迪总统的私人摇椅。
When the Waldorf opened at its current site in 1931, having moved from Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street, President Hoover delivered a congratulatory message live on radio from the White House. He moved in 1933 to a suite on the 34th floor of the Waldorf Towers, where he lived until his death there in 1964. Eisenhower also lived there (on the seventh floor; his wife, Mamie, was afraid of heights), from 1967 until he died two years later.
华尔道夫酒店原本坐落在第五大道和第33街交汇处。1931年它在现址开业时，胡佛(Hoover)总统在白宫通过无线电直播，亲致了贺电。1933年，胡佛搬入华尔道夫大厦34楼的一间套房，从此长居于此，直至1964年去世。艾森豪威尔(Eisenhower)从1967年起也在这里长住（他住在七楼，因为妻子玛米[Mamie]恐高），直到两年后去世。
Presidents rarely stay anywhere else in New York. President Obama overnighted at the InterContinental New York Barclay across the street last May after attending a Democratic fund-raising event there, in keeping with the administration’s policy of diversity even in the choice of hotels, but he has stayed at the Waldorf.
历任总统在纽约很少下榻其他酒店。去年五月，奥巴马总统在纽约参加完民主党的筹款活动后，曾在华尔道夫酒店对面的纽约巴克莱洲际大酒店(InterContinental New York Barclay)留宿一晚。看来就连在酒店的选择上，他都贯彻了联邦政府的多元化政策。不过他也依然下榻在华尔道夫酒店。
If you pay federal taxes, rest assured that while the president and his entourage typically fill three floors of the Waldorf Towers, they don’t pay what you would.
如果你是联邦税的纳税人，那么请放心，虽然总统和他的随行人员一般会在华尔道夫大厦酒店里占据整整三层楼，但他们支付的房费没有你那么多。
“Someone from Des Moines might say, ‘That’s my mortgage for a month,’ but the president pays less than that,” Mr. Zolbe said. “The goal for us is, he’s the magnet that brings in the other delegations.”
“有些来自得梅因（Des Moines，美国爱荷华州[Iowa]的首府——译注）的人可能会说，‘这里的房费抵得上我一个月的抵押贷款了’，但是总统不需要付那么多钱，”佐尔布说，“我们的目标是，要让总统成为吸引其他代表团下榻的磁铁。”
总统套房里有一间正式餐厅。这件套房位于35楼，面积2245平方英尺，可以轻松地举办一场50人的聚会。
When the United Nations General Assembly is in session in the fall, the hotel can play host to as many as two dozen heads of state simultaneously, he said, “and each can feel that they’re the sun around which everyone orbits.”
等到联合国大会秋季召开会议时，酒店就可以同时招待多达二十几位的国家元首，佐尔布说，“每个人都可以体验到众星捧月的感觉。”
The only time they don’t feel that way is when they’re jockeying with 23 other entitled heads of state for an on-call elevator, which most guests don’t expect, anyway. Nor do they assume a private train will be available to beat Midtown traffic, which is another amenity the president receives for security reasons.
唯一不会让他们有这种感觉的场合，是在与其他23名元首级贵宾抢搭一部随时待命的电梯时。不过反正多数房客都不会有这种待遇。此外，酒店旁也不会有私人专列随时待命，帮助他们避开中城繁忙的交通。这是又一项美国总统（出于安全原因）才享有的设施。
Riding on Metro-North near East 49th Street, you may have seen what looks like a rusted blue boxcar on a spur directly under the Waldorf. Depending on the telling, it either carried Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential automobile or is an abandoned maintenance car. The spur is accessible by a freight elevator, which opens onto 49th Street, just east of the Waldorf garage.
如果你坐在大都会北方铁路的列车上，那就可能会在东49街附近，见到一辆看起来像是生锈的蓝色货运车厢的装备，就停靠在华尔道夫酒店楼下的一条铁路支线上。据传，它要么是曾经搭载过富兰克林·罗斯福总统专车的车厢，要么，就是一辆已报废的维修车而已。在华尔道夫酒店的车库以东，有一部入口设在第49街上的货运电梯，可以直通这条铁路支线。
President Roosevelt used the spur, in part to hide his disability (a result of polio) from the public, on at least one occasion. It was Oct. 21, 1944, when he capped a full day of campaigning with a speech to the Foreign Policy Association. William D. Hassett, Roosevelt’s correspondence secretary, later recalled that the spur was built “for the accommodation of the private cars of ‘economic royalists’ ” and that night it was used “of all persons, by the arch-foe of the privileged group for whose delectation this extravagant convenience was devised.”
罗斯福总统曾经使用过这条铁路支线，部分原因是为向公众掩饰自己（由脊髓灰质炎造成）的残疾。可以肯定的是，这条铁路支线他至少用过一次。那是在1944年的10月21日，他在为期一整天的竞选活动结束之际，对外交政策协会(Foreign Policy Association)发表了演讲。罗斯福的通信秘书威廉·D·哈塞特(William D. Hassett)后来回忆道，这条铁路支线之所以会修建，是“为了给那些‘经济保皇派’停放私家车的，其设计初衷是为让这些特权阶级享受到极致奢华的便利设施，”但是在那天晚上，使用它的人“却偏偏是这些特权阶级的头号敌人（罗斯福对经济保皇派采取强硬的抨击态度——译注）。”
主卧的床为特大号，上面铺设着舒达完美睡眠系列床垫和Anichini床单。
Even without the special train, to say you slept in the presidential suite places you in a privileged group. For eight decades, history has happened there, and the radio days of big bands and fireside chats resonate for anyone who can afford it.
就算没有专属列车随时待命，仅仅在总统套房里睡过一晚，就足以让你跻身特权阶级了。80年来，历史就在那里上演，只要财力足够雄厚的人，都可在其中重温那些昔日的大牌乐队和炉边谈话（Fireside Chats，由美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福所开创的广播发言形式——译注），感受到无线电黄金时代的历史回响。
翻译：彭月明