Scotland's clock that's (almost) never on time
百年传说：从不准点的苏格兰钟塔
Arrive in Edinburgh on any given day and there are certain things you can guarantee. The fairy-tale Gothic of the royal castle, built on an extinct volcanic plug. The medieval riddle of alleys and lanes. The majesty of the churchyards and macabre spires set against a barb of basalt crags, all as if created by a mad god.
随便哪一天到爱丁堡，有一些景象是你一定会看到的：童话中的哥特式(Gothic)皇家城堡屹立在一座死火山的熔岩管道口上，那些充满谜团的中世纪小巷和道路，庄严壮观的教堂墓地与令人毛骨悚然的尖塔和钩状的玄武岩峭壁相映生辉，所有这一切都宛若出自狂放的上帝之手。
Yet there is one other given in the Scottish capital, and it is the hallmark of Princes Street, the city’s main thoroughfare that runs east to west joining Leith to the West End. The time on the turret clock atop The Balmoral Hotel is always wrong. By three minutes, to be exact.
然而在苏格兰的首府还有一件东西，它是王子大街(Princes Street)的标志，这条大街是城市的主干道，由东向西穿行，并在西端(West End)与赖斯(Leith)汇合。东端的巴尔莫勒酒店(The Balmoral Hotel)楼顶钟塔的时间一直不准。准确地说差了三分钟。
While the clock tower’s story is legendary in Edinburgh, it remains a riddle for many first-timers. To the untrained eye, the 58m-high landmark is simply part of the grand finale when surveyed from Calton Hill, Edinburgh’s go-to city-centre viewpoint. There it sits to the left of the Dugald Stewart Monument, like a giant exclamation mark above the glazed roof of Waverley Train Station.
这座钟塔的故事在爱丁堡家喻户晓，然而对初来乍到的人来说它却依旧成谜。在普通人眼里，这个58米高的地标仅仅只是当人们从卡尔顿山(Calton Hill)丈量这座城市时所看到的“收官之作”的一部分，在卡尔顿山上人们可以俯瞰爱丁堡市中心。钟塔位于杜格尔德·斯图尔特纪念亭(Dugald Stewart Monument)左边，仿佛一个巨大的惊叹号矗立在威佛利火车站(Waverley Train Station)的釉色楼顶之上。
Likewise, the sandstone baronial tower looks equally glorious when eyed from the commanding northern ramparts of Edinburgh Castle while peering out over the battlements. It is placed at the city’s very centre of gravity, between the Old Town and the New Town, at the confluence of all business and life. Except, of course, that the dial’s big hand and little hand are out of sync with Greenwich Mean Time.
相似的是，当人们从爱丁堡城堡(Edinburgh Castle)那居高临下的北城墙眺望城垛的时候，这座由砂石筑成的华丽塔楼显得同样宏伟壮观。它恰巧位于城市的重心，在老城(Old Town)与新城(New Town)之间，汇聚了所有的商业活动和民生生活。当然，除了有一点——表盘的分针和时针与格林尼治标准时间(Greenwich Mean Time)并不同步。
This bold irregularity is, in fact, a historical quirk first introduced in 1902 when the Edwardian-era building opened as the North British Station Hotel. Then, as now, it overlooked the platforms and signal boxes of Waverley Train Station, and just as porters in red jackets met guests off the train, whisking them from the station booking hall to the interconnected reception desk in the hotel’s basement, the North British Railway Company owners wanted to make sure their passengers – and Edinburgh’s hurrying public – wouldn’t miss their trains.
这一明显的“不合规”之处其实是一则历史趣谈，它首次出现于1902年，当时这座称为北不列颠车站酒店(North British Station Hotel)的爱德华时期(Edwardian-era)建筑刚开幕。接下来，正如现在这样，它俯瞰着威佛利火车站的月台和信号塔，仿若身着红衣的列车服务员在车外迎送旅客，带着他们飞快地从车站售票大厅来到酒店地下室的互通接待处，北不列颠铁路公司(North British Railway Company)想要确保他们的旅客，以及爱丁堡步履匆忙的大众不会错过火车。
Given an extra three minutes, they reasoned, these travellers would have more time on the clock to collect their tickets, to reach their corridor carriages and to unload their luggage before the stationmaster’s whistle blew. Still today, it is a calculated miscalculation that helps keep the city on time.
他们认为，将钟拨快三分钟能使旅客们在站长的口哨吹响之前有更多的时间去取车票、到达走廊车厢并放下行李。直到今天，这一误算仍然有意为之，以帮助这座城市保持准点。
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