2018.7.11纽约时报：在《卡萨布兰卡》咖啡馆追忆旧时光
‘Play It Again, Issam’: In Casablanca, a Cafe Is Still a Cafe
在《卡萨布兰卡》咖啡馆追忆旧时光
CASABLANCA, Morocco — Some things get better as time goes by. Rick’s Café may be one of them.
摩洛哥卡萨布兰卡——随着时间的推移，有些事情会变得更好。里克咖啡馆(Rick's Café)便是其中之一。
Chris Kelley of Bath, England, stopped there one recent day for lunch on his way to a kite-surfing vacation in southern Morocco, and said he was impressed at how lovingly restored the old place was. It was just like the one in the movie “Casablanca.”
最近的一天，在一次前往摩洛哥南部的风筝冲浪度假之行时，英国巴斯的克里斯·凯利(Chris Kelley)在那里吃了一次午餐，并且表示这个老地方的精心修复给他留下了深刻印象。跟电影《卡萨布兰卡》(Casablanca)里的那个咖啡馆一模一样。
Like many visitors here, Kelley was surprised to learn that Rick’s Café Américain never existed, except on a Hollywood movie lot, where the classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was made.
像这里的许多客人一样，凯利惊讶地发现，里克美式咖啡馆除了在好莱坞一个片场以外，从未真的存在过。亨弗莱·鲍嘉(Humphrey Bogart)和英格丽·褒曼(Ingrid Bergman)主演的那部经典影片就是在那个片场中诞生的。
It was 1942, the world was at war, and the eponymous city was occupied by the Axis powers. Rick’s was just the figment of a writer’s imagination.
那是1942年，世界还处于战争中，这座与影片齐名的城市当时为轴心国所占领。里克只是编剧想象出来的虚构人物。
The owner and founder of the real Rick’s Café in Casablanca is a former American diplomat, Kathy Kriger.
卡萨布兰卡现实中的里克咖啡馆背后的老板和创始人是一位名叫凯西·克里格(Kathy Kriger)的前美国外交官。
“We wanted to make it everything it was in the movie, and then some,” she said.
“我们想完全还原电影里的场景，而且还不止于此，”她说。
A dozen white arches supported by columns frame the main dining room, under a three-story, octagonal cupola, and green leather bumpers grace the curved bar top. Palms in the corners, hanging brass chandeliers, beaded table lamps and a baby grand piano tucked into an archway lend to the period-authentic mise-en-scène.
12个由圆柱支撑起来的白色拱门构成了主用餐区的框架，上方是三层高、八角形的穹顶，绿色的皮质镶边装饰着曲面吧台。角落的棕榈树，挂在上方的黄铜吊灯，放在桌上的串珠台灯和一架严丝合缝地放入拱门的袖珍三角钢琴，让人觉得仿佛置身于当年的场景中。
Not coincidentally, Kriger on most nights can be found standing at the corner of the bar, the waiters under instructions to refill her wineglass with water until 11 p.m., when a Moroccan Val d’Argan Blanc is allowed. A lot of the regulars call her “Madame Rick.”
无独有偶，在很多个晚上，你都能在酒吧角落找到站在那里的克里格，遵照指示的侍者会不断为她的酒杯倒满水，直至晚上11点，才能喝上一杯摩洛哥瓦干白葡萄酒。许多常客都称她为“里克女士”。
The incarnation of Rick’s Café has nothing to do with World War II, but a lot to do with the modern-day war on terrorism, and Kriger’s own small role in it. It also has much to say about the enduring power of a great work of art to affect destinies in real life.
里克咖啡馆的化为现实和“二战”毫无干系，但却与当代对恐怖主义的战争，以及克里格个人在其中的微小作用有所关联。对于伟大艺术作品经久不衰的力量，影响现实生活中的个人命运，它也很有发言权。
Like a lot of Americans, Kriger was long a fan of “Casablanca,” which often makes critics’ lists of the 10 greatest movies of all time. She first saw it in 1974 at a movie festival in her hometown, Portland, Oregon.
像许多美国人一样，克里格一直以来都是《卡萨布兰卡》的忠实影迷，这部影片也常常登上影评人有史以来十大最佳电影的榜单。她第一次观看这部电影时是1974年，当时她在自己的家乡俄勒冈州波特兰。
“At the end, everyone stood up and applauded,” she said.
“影片最后，每个人都站起来鼓掌了，”她说。
Kriger later joined the State Department, which posted her as a commercial attaché to this Atlantic coastal port, Morocco’s business center and biggest city.
克里格后来在国务院就职，后者将她以商务参赞的身份派驻到了这个大西洋沿海港口，这里是摩洛哥的商业中心，也是该国最大的城市。
She was stunned to discover there was no Rick’s Café here, which seemed to her a missed marketing opportunity.
当她发现这里没有里克咖啡馆后感到十分震惊，在她看来，这是一个被错失掉的营销机会。
Then came the Sept. 11 attacks, and what she considered a backlash in America against Muslims. She wanted to fight that backlash, she said.
然后9·11袭击就来了，还有在她看来在美国出现的对穆斯林的反弹。她想对抗这种反弹，她说。
She decided that a good way would be to show that an American woman, operating alone in a Muslim society, could start a business like Rick’s Café, to act as an exemplar of tolerance, a refuge in a troubled world.
于是她决定，达成这个目的的一个好方法，是展示出一名单独在穆斯林社会工作生活的女性，也能做像里克咖啡馆这样的生意，以其作为社会包容的典范、一个问题重重世界的避难所。
Kriger cashed in her 401(k) plan and found a wreck of an old stately home in the Ancienne Medina, the old city of Casablanca, which was then and is still a shabby, litter-strewn place.
克里格把自己的养老金都提了出来，在卡萨布兰卡老城老麦地那找到了一座古老、宏伟的破旧住宅，那里当时是，今天也依旧是一个破烂不堪，垃圾遍地的地方。
The house did not look like much, but it faced the port, had two royal palm trees flanking its front door, and inside was an architectural gem in the rough. She enlisted noted interior designer Bill Willis to help restore it, and went to a Moroccan bank for a loan.
房子看起来很不起眼，但它面对着港口，前门的两侧种着皇家棕榈树，里面则是一个未经雕琢的建筑宝石。她招募了著名室内设计师比尔·威利斯(Bill Willis)帮忙重建，然后去一家摩洛哥银行贷了一笔款。
The loan wasn’t enough, so Kriger began emailing friends in the States with a pitch that began something like: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, this is the one.”
贷款的数目不够，于是克里格开始给美国的朋友发邮件，里面的提议是这么开头的：“在全世界所有小镇里的杜松子酒酒吧中，这就是你要找的那一家了。”
Many of them responded to the idea of starting a real Rick’s Café. She referred to her fundraising effort as “rounding up the usual suspects,” which inspired the name of the corporate entity that would own the club.
他们中许多人对开一家真实的里克咖啡馆作出了积极回应。她将自己的筹款行动称作“围捕非常嫌犯”，这也成为了拥有该俱乐部的公司实体名称的来源。
It was 2002 when she was fundraising, amid much suspicion in America about the finances of Islamic extremists, so she proactively went to the Treasury Department to explain why people were wiring money to the Usual Suspects Société Anonyme in Casablanca.
2002年，当她筹款时，美国对伊斯兰极端分子的财务状况非常怀疑，因此她主动前往财政部，解释人们为什么将钱汇给卡萨布兰卡的非常嫌犯匿名社团(Usual Suspect Société Anonyme)。
Even so, one of her investors, in Lincoln, Nebraska, received a visit from the local FBI office to question his investment, she said.
她说，即便如此，她在内布拉斯加州林肯市的一位投资者还是被当地联邦调查局办公室访问，质疑他的这笔投资。
Kriger was interviewing Moroccan candidates for a manager when she met Issam Chabaa. He mentioned he could play the piano. “I asked him to show me, and he sat down and played ‘As Time Goes By,'” Kriger said. “He was hired.”
为了招募经理，克里格面试了几位摩洛哥候选人，并且遇到了伊萨姆·查巴(Issam Chabaa)。他提到自己会弹钢琴。 “我让他给我弹一下，他坐下来，弹起了《时光流逝》(As Times Goes By)，”克里格说。“他被录用了。”
He has been with her since the opening 14 years ago.
自14年前开业以来，他一直和她在一起。
Chabaa still plays jazz piano several nights a week, as well as managing the club’s 60 employees. Hardly a week goes by without some diner asking him to “Play it again, Issam.”
查巴现在管理着俱乐部的60名员工，每个星期，他仍然会有几个晚上在这里演奏爵士钢琴。每个星期总会有几个用餐者对他说，“再来一次，伊萨姆。”
Chabaa does play “that song” a lot, but he’s a proud man. When customers say, “Play it again, Sam,” he corrects them: “My name is Issam.”
查巴确实经常演奏“那首歌”，但他是个骄傲的人。如果客人说，“再来一次，山姆，”他总会纠正他们：“我的名字是伊萨姆。”
(Historical note: “Play it again, Sam,” is never actually uttered in the movie; Ingrid Bergman’s character, Ilsa, says, “Play it once, Sam, for old time’s sake.”)
（关于历史的脚注：电影里其实没有“再来一次，山姆”这句台词；英格丽·褒曼(Ingrid Bergman)饰演的伊尔莎[Ilsa]说的是，“弹一次吧，山姆，为了旧时光。”）
What Kriger feels she has created, she said, is a place that can showcase what is great about America and Americans, when the country is once again on a protectionist, isolationist bent.
克里格认为，当美国再次出现保护主义和孤立主义倾向时，她创造了一个可以展现美国和美国人伟大之处的地方。
“Casablanca” was, first of all, a propaganda movie, at a time when Americans were debating whether to send troops to North Africa and later to Europe. Kriger’s own politics are hinted at in the restaurant’s menu, which includes dishes like “Obama Family Chili con Carne.” It is surprisingly spicy.
《卡萨布兰卡》首先是一部政治宣传片，当时美国人正在讨论是否要派兵到北非，之后再前往欧洲。克里格用餐厅菜单来暗示自己的政见，其中有“奥巴马家族香辣肉酱”等菜品。它辣得令人难以置信。
Her Rick’s Café seems a success, filling its tables in five dining rooms over two floors for lunch and dinner on most days. At any given sitting there are guests from such a variety of places they would rival the movie’s own very international set of characters, and cast.
她的里克咖啡馆似乎生意很好，大多数日子里，两个楼层的五个餐室里都坐满了来吃午餐和晚餐的客人。不管什么时候，这里的客人都是来自五湖四海，可以同那部电影非常国际化的角色和演员相媲美。
Lakeitha Anderson, 49, is more of an exile than a tourist, an American who decided after President Donald Trump’s election that she was leaving the country and taking her employment recruiting business on the road.
今年49岁的雷凯莎·安德森(Lakeitha Anderson)与其说是在旅游，不如说是在流亡，唐纳德·特朗普当选总统后，这位美国人决定离开祖国，在路上从事她的就业招聘工作。
“I love the oasis feeling of it here,” she said, over dinner. “Especially for people of color, we need a break from it all.”
“我喜欢这里绿洲般的感觉，”她在晚餐时说道。“特别是对于有色人种来说更是如此，我们需要从发生的一切之中抽身出来休息片刻。”
Wasn’t the point of the movie, though, that the oasis that was Rick’s Café Américain could not long evade what was happening in the wider world?
不过，电影的重点难道不是在于，像里克美式咖啡馆这样的绿洲也无法长期逃避广阔世界中发生的事情吗？
“That may be,” Anderson said, “but I’m going to stay away for as long as I can.”
“可能是吧，”安德森说，“但我会尽可能长时间地置身事外。”
Kriger, 72 and divorced, said she planned to spend the rest of her days in Rick’s Café, holding up her corner of the bar when she is not mingling with customers. “This is my assisted living center,” she quipped. Or as Humphrey Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine, put it in the movie: “I’m going to die in Casablanca. It’s a good place for it.”
克里格今年72岁，已经离婚，她说，她打算在里克咖啡馆度过余生，不和客户打交道时，她就独自呆在酒吧的角落里。“这里是我的辅助生活中心，”她打趣说。或者正如汉弗莱·鲍嘉饰演的角色里克·布莱恩(Rick Blaine)在电影中说的：“我会死在卡萨布兰卡。这是一个死去的好地方。”
