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When governments forced hammams to close in 2020, the copper boilers simmered down and ran dry.
当政府在2020年强制公共浴场关闭时，铜锅炉逐渐冷却并干涸。
Even between lockdowns, fear kept people away—especially the elderly, often among the most dedicated clients, having grown up with the tradition and benefiting most from assisted washing.
即使在封锁期间，恐惧也使人们远离这些浴场——尤其是老年人，他们往往是最忠实的顾客，他们在这种传统的伴随下长大，从辅助洗浴中获益最多。
Tourists vanished.
游客消失了。
Even the great hammams of Istanbul felt the pinch.
即使是伊斯坦布尔的大浴场也感到了压力。
Many operators feared the worst.
许多经营着担心会发生最坏的情况。
But though the pandemic accelerated the decline of hammams, it began much earlier.
但是，尽管疫情加速了公共浴场的衰落，但它的衰落其实很早就开始了。
Since the widespread advent of domestic hot water 70 years ago, their utility and profits have been eroded.
自从70年前家用热水广泛普及以来，它们的实用价值和利润都已降低。
Only a few of the poorest clients still rely on them for routine washing; the wealthy have largely forsaken them for Western-style spas.
只有少数最贫穷的顾客还在依靠它们进行日常洗浴；富人们基本都不再去他们那里，而是去西式的水疗中心。
Telephones and the internet undermined their social purpose.
电话和互联网瓦解了公共浴场的社交用途。
In the 20th century many closed across the Middle East (occasionally becoming museums).
20世纪，中东地区的许多公共浴场关闭（少数会变成博物馆）。
Of those that survived these changes—as well as wars, earthquakes and revolutions—some have been finished off by the coronavirus.
在诸多变化——战争、地震和革命——中幸存下来的浴场中，有些也已经被冠状病毒消灭了。
Legend has it that Cairo once boasted a hammam for each day of the year; today it has fewer than a dozen.
传说开罗曾经拥有浴场之多可以供人们在一年里每天去一家；如今，那里的浴场只有不到12家。
Of the 50 in the ancient Medina of Tunis in the 19th century, only half cling on.
19世纪突尼斯麦地那老城的50个浴场中，只有一半还在坚持。
In Damascus two-thirds have closed since the 1940s.
在大马士革，自20世纪40年代以来，已有三分之二的浴场关门。
A handful operate in the whole of Lebanon.
在整个黎巴嫩，只有少数几家浴场营业。
In Turkey hammam culture remains strong, but the downturn is showing.
在土耳其，公共浴场文化仍然很盛行，但衰退逐渐显现。
Yeni Hammam is clean but crumbling.
Yeni Hammam很干净但十分破旧。
Amid the trickle of water, the eerie green hue of the peeling plaster suggests an underwater cave.
在涓涓细流中，剥落的灰泥呈现出诡异的绿色，不免让人联想到水下洞穴。
And yet in places such as Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the steam still rises.
然而，在黎巴嫩北部的的黎波里等地，蒸汽仍在升腾。
A worker at Hammam el Abed confides that it never closed during lockdown. (The steam kills the virus anyway, he insists.)
Hammam el Abed的一名员工透露，在封锁期间，它从未关闭。（他坚持认为，反正蒸汽会把病毒杀死。）
A fuel and electricity crisis had left many Lebanese without hot water at home—but hammams elsewhere are reviving too.
燃料和电力危机使得许多黎巴嫩人家里没有热水——但其他地方的公共浴场也在复苏。
In Antakya attendance is growing as temperatures fall and vaccination rates increase.
在安塔基亚，随着气温下降和疫苗接种率的提高，来浴场的人数正在增加。
One aspect of hammam culture proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and Covid-19 is its role in wedding rituals.
公共浴场文化抵挡现代化和新冠病毒压力的一个方面是它在婚礼仪式中的作用。
Traditionally, brides bathed before weddings, and grooms’ mothers came to inspect them: it might be the only chance to see them unveiled.
按照传统，新娘在婚礼前会进行沐浴，新郎的母亲会来观察新娘：这可能是看到新娘揭开面纱的唯一机会。
Recently Yeni Hammam hosted a modern-day bridal party.
最近，Yeni Hammam举办了一场现代新娘派对。
A group of 30, including pensioners and babies, danced in sodden slips and towels, beating drums and singing in the tepid chamber, before piling into the steam room for a scrub by an attendant.
30个人穿着湿漉漉的拖鞋和浴巾跳舞，老人和婴儿也参与其中，在温热的房间里击鼓唱歌，然后拥进蒸汽室，请服务员擦洗。
(These can be eye-watering: in Syrian Arabic, the word for the scrub— takyees—is also used when the regime snatches someone for interrogation.)
（这可能会某些人感到痛苦：在叙利亚阿拉伯语中，“擦洗”（takyees）一词也被用于当局抓人进行审讯时。）
Aunts washed their nieces’ hair amid a cacophony of chatter.
姑姑们在嘈杂的聊天声中给侄女洗头。
In the cooling room, picnic rugs were laid out on the central marble slab.
冷却室里，野餐地毯铺在中央大理石板上。
Bridal parties are an example of the intergenerational socialising hammams have always hosted: mothers brought daughters to the baths, where they could observe the bodies of other women at different stages of life, unselfconscious and unposed.
新娘派对是浴场中代际社交活动的一个例子：母亲带着女儿去浴场，在那里她们可以观察其他处于不同人生阶段的女性的身体，自然不拘束。
Today these parties, and the male equivalents, are a vital part of both tradition and modern business plans—as, against the odds, enterprising hammams struggle into a post-covid world.
如今，这些派对，以及新郎派对，已成为传统和现代商业计划的重要组成部分——有进取心的公共浴场迎难而上，艰难挤进后新冠时代。
No longer an essential part of daily life, they can still connect bathers to their heritage, their cities and a deep part of their identity, which the steam brings out of their pores.
公共浴场不再是日常生活的重要组成部分，但它们仍然可以将洗浴者与他们的传统、他们的城市和他们身份的深层部分联系起来，蒸汽从他们的毛孔之中将其带出。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
