系列二：[Arsenal Here,Arsenal there]-新加坡
Arsenal Here, Arsenal There - Singapore
By KC Aw | Sunday, 6 June 2004
翻译：上午八点
未经本人和www.arsenalcn.com 同意请勿转载
Reading "An American Gooner at the Home of Football" really brings back my own lovely memories of my own pilgrimage to Highbury at a time when football had not become quite the big business it has today.
读了“在足球家乡的美国枪手”真的勾起了我自己有一次去海布里“朝圣”的有趣回忆，当时足球还没有成为象现在这样巨大的商业体育运动。
The year was 1991 and there I was on a working trip to London, thousands of miles away from home in Singapore. In the days before the advent of the Internet and cable TV, being a Gooner in Singapore was a totally different experience compared to what it is today. Sure some things don't change much, such as the difficulty in getting club merchandise, though I sometimes rather perversely enjoy the difficulty in locating a set of the team kit, or a book or video, that makes it all the more pleasurable when I do find it.
那还是在1991年，我去离新加坡相距几千里之遥的伦敦出差。在那些internet和有线电视还没有出现的年代，当一个新加坡的枪手比起今天来说感受完全不同。当然用途些事情依旧没有改变太多，比如得到俱乐部商品的难度，虽然有时候我宁愿倔强地享受寻找俱乐部球衣、书籍或者视频的困难，这样在我找到的时候，我就能感觉出更多的快乐。
But back in those idyllic times, being an Arsenal fan was really all about faith, and I had kept it since I was a 7-year old boy way back in the 60s. I had just started playing football, and had bought a book on the history of football. I devoured the pages, learning about legends of the English game and invariably the great Arsenal teams of the Chapman era caught my imagination. Here was a team full of history and tradition and I decided that this would be my team.
但是回想起那些田园般的时光，做一个阿森纳球迷真正关乎信念，早在60年代7岁的时候我就满怀这种信念。那个时候我刚开始踢足球，买了一本关于足球历史的书。我贪婪地消化着那本书籍，学习英格兰体育的传奇，永恒的阿森纳队的查普曼时代深深的吸引了我。这是一支有着光辉历史和传统的球队，我下定决心，她就是我心中的球队。
In those days and for years to come, all I had to sustain me was a weekly diet of Star Soccer, and later Big League Soccer on TV in which Arsenal were not featured very frequently. Still I religiously followed the team through copies of Shoot magazine, and every Sunday, the first order of the day was to go right to the sports pages and find out how they had done. Usually not very well.
在那些日子里，随着时光流逝，唯一支撑我的就是每周一次的Star Soccer这道足球大餐，和随后在电视中播出的Big League Soccer，当时阿森纳的比赛播出得并不太频繁。但通过盗版的射门杂志(Shot magazine)，我仍然虔诚地追随着这支球队，每个周日要做的第一件事就是直接找到体育版，找出球队的近况。通常并不太出色。
As the years went by, there was greater access to news and telecasts of games and it became easier to call yourself a fan, especially when you don't live in England. My first taste of "success" was of course the 79 Cup Final victory over Man Utd and it still remains one of my all-time favourite games, coming as it did after a long barren spell. My greatest shame was in sleeping through the dramatic League triumph of 89 (the game was "live" in the middle of the night, but that is no excuse) - I guess my alarm clock just didn't do the job. On one of the most dramatic nights in league history that featured my team, and I missed it seeing it live. Oh I saw the replay but it just wasn't the same...
一年一年的过去，要获得比赛的新闻和电视广播变得更加简单，要把自己定位成一个球迷也变得更加容易，尤其是当你并不住在英格兰的时候。我第一次品位到胜利的滋味自然是79年杯赛战胜曼联的时候，这场比赛到现在仍然是我最为钟爱的比赛之一，在长时间毫无建树的情况下最后时间爆发。我最羞愧的事就是89年戏剧性的联赛三冠王时睡着了（这场比赛是在午夜直播的，但是那不是借口）——我想是我的闹钟坏了，我没能起来。那是我的球队的联赛历史中最戏剧性的一个夜晚，我却错过了现场直播。噢，我看过了随后的录象，但是感觉却完全不一样……
Well there I was two years later on a lovely May evening, standing outside the home of football determined to make amends. As luck would have it, I had some free time in London on a weekday (Tuesday I think it was) and checked out that week's edition of Time Out magazine and there it was! A game against QPR (yes it was that long ago) that had been postponed from earlier in the season. I persuaded a colleague to go and we gamely took the Tube to Arsenal station with absolutely no idea whether there would be tickets.
随后的就是两年后的那个美好的五月夜晚，站在足球之家的门外以作为赔偿。幸运的是那个工作日（我想应该是周二）里在伦敦我有些空闲时间，查看那周的Time Out 杂志，发现了！对QPR的比赛（是的，的确是很久远的事了）是赛季初期延迟到那个时候的。我说服了一位同僚同去，因为完全无法确定是否还有车票出售，只得勇敢的搭乘地铁去阿森纳。
A tout (but perhaps I should be kinder seeing as he provided me with a ticket to football heaven) approached us and persuaded us to part with the then-princely sum of 15 pounds each for a ticket - the face value was only 7 pounds at the time! We entered the ground, dutifully bought our souvenirs and then took in the majestic sight of Highbury. I simply fell in love with the stadium.
一个票贩子（但是也许我应该更友好地看他，因为他给我提供了一张去足球天堂的球票）靠近我们，说服我们分开坐，并向我们提供了15英镑一张的高价票——而当时实际的面值只是7英镑！我们走进了场地，忠诚地购买了我们的纪念品，然后环视了一下庄严的海布里。轻轻松松的，我对这座体育场一见钟情。
That season, we were a match for any team in the country and QPR was duly dispatched without too much fuss. I recall at one stage of the game, the fans even engaged David Seaman in a little cameo. The chant was "Seaman, Seaman, what's the score?" And they roared when Seaman held up two fingers. Another enduring memory was this chap sitting nearby who literally sang non-stop from the start of the game right through to the end. It was one of the best times of my life and I can only envy those Gooners who get to do it week in week out.
在那个赛季，我们能和这个国家的任何一支球队媲美，QPR无伤大雅地适时出现了。现在回响起来那场比赛，球迷甚至都和空闲的大卫·希曼开起了玩笑。歌词是这样唱的“希曼，希曼，比分是多少？”然后当希曼伸出两根指头的时候他们就吼叫起来。另一个深刻的记忆就是坐在我旁边的一个小家伙，他一字不漏地从开场一直唱到比赛结束。那是个生命中最美好的时刻，我只能嫉妒那些每个周末都能这样做的枪手了。
As the days of Highbury draw to a close in the next few seasons, I have a burning desire to see it again, but this time with my two older boys aged 7 and 6. They have not quite reached fever pitch (apologies to Nick Hornby - love his book and the movie) in their passion for the Gunners and may not for some time. But I have a feeling that if I bring them to see the magnificent spectacle that is Highbury, I reckon I would have advanced the schedule by a couple of years. Two more converts for the cause from faraway Singapore!
在接下来的几个赛季里，我心中充盈着再去一次的燃烧着的渴望，但是这个时候我的两个孩子已经分别6岁和7岁了。他们对枪手的激情远没有到达那种狂热程度，也许有时候才有。但是我有一种感觉，如果我们带着他们去看那座华丽的殿堂，海布里，我想我原本该把安排提前两年，因为那样又会多出两个来自遥远的新加坡的皈依者。
