走進紐約專門留給美國總統(tǒng)的那間房

走進紐約專門留給美國總統(tǒng)的那間房

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.

你可能無福享受聯(lián)邦雇員才享有的高額公務折扣。你將不得不在沒有花押字毛巾、花押字床品，也沒有防彈玻璃的房間里湊合住下，也不會有大都會北方鐵路 (Metro-North)的專屬列車在公園大道(Park Avenue)地下的一條專用線上隨時待命，以便將你火速接走，免得曼哈頓中城(Midtown)的交通擁堵到無法通行。

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.

不過，你不必成為美國總統(tǒng)，也可以在在華爾道夫-阿斯托里亞酒店(Waldorf Astoria)預定他們的總統(tǒng)套房。這間套房位于35樓，擁有三間臥室、三間浴室。在2月12日中午之前，情人節(jié)當晚的總統(tǒng)套房已被預定。不過其他總統(tǒng)日的周末依然接受預定，還可享受淡季折扣——每晚僅需4000美元(約合人民幣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.)

曾有一段時間，想要入住這間套房的客人，不得不接受背景安全檢查，外人甚至連為總統(tǒng)套間拍照都被禁止。如今，在隱私政策放寬后，幾乎任何人只要負擔得起每晚高達8000美元(約合人民幣50078元)的天價，都可以在禮賓人員的帶領下從車庫進入酒店，無需接觸外面人多眼雜的走道。然后乘坐專屬電梯，進入華爾道夫大廈(Waldorf Tower)的那間總體套房。自赫伯特·胡佛(Herbert Hoover)以來的歷任美國總統(tǒng)只要出訪紐約，就會在此下榻(1893年制成的大堂座鐘上，還有六位從未在此下榻過的總統(tǒng)的淺浮雕，包括喬治·華盛頓 [George Washington])。

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.)

華爾道夫大廈號稱“酒店上的酒店”(因為華爾道夫酒店28樓以上的部分稱為“華爾道夫大廈”，28樓以下的部分稱為“華爾道夫-阿斯托里亞酒店” ——譯注)，在東50街有其自己的車道門廊，酒店內設有26間“總統(tǒng)式”套房。而總統(tǒng)套房本身甚至還不是最大或最貴的那間。更好的房型包括：帶有五間臥室科爾·波特套房(Cole Porter，得名于百老匯劇作家——譯注)、溫莎公爵夫婦居住過的皇室套房，以及頂層套房。

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.)

話雖如此，總統(tǒng)套房依然是很寬敞的，里面設有一間門廳、一間帶裝飾性壁爐的起居室、一間十座的餐廳、一間廚房和一間緊挨著大理石主浴室的化妝間。它的面積夠大，有2245平方英尺(約合209平方米)，可以招待50位客人(這間套房還可以改裝成一套更加經(jīng)濟的一居室)。

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.

總統(tǒng)套房里本來布置著殖民風格(colonial)的陳設，但在1969年被重新裝修成了喬治亞風格(Georgian)，“這是為了在不模仿白宮的情況下，讓人聯(lián)想起白宮。”該酒店的銷售和市場營銷總監(jiān)馬特·佐爾布(Matt Zolbe)說。

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.

這里沒有了不起的原創(chuàng)藝術可言，但仍有不少陳設為起居室增添了光彩，比如約翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)的一張私人軟墊搖椅，理查德·M·尼克松(Richard M. Nixon)捐贈的壁燈，還有荷馬、莎士比亞、劉易斯·卡羅爾(Lewis Carroll)和J·K·羅琳的書籍(羅琳也曾入住過)。特大號(king size)的床鋪配備了舒達完美睡眠系列的床墊(Serta Perfect Sleeper)，以及Anichini 400紗支數(shù)的床單，床對面擺的是亞瑟·麥克阿瑟將軍(Gen. Douglas MacArthur)的私人書桌。他在這座酒店里曾經(jīng)擁有一間套房。

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.

華爾道夫酒店原本坐落在第五大道和第33街交匯處。1931年它在現(xiàn)址開業(yè)時，胡佛(Hoover)總統(tǒng)在白宮通過無線電直播，親致了賀電。 1933年，胡佛搬入華爾道夫大廈34樓的一間套房，從此長居于此，直至1964年去世。艾森豪威爾(Eisenhower)從1967年起也在這里長住(他住在七樓，因為妻子瑪米[Mamie]恐高)，直到兩年后去世。

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.

歷任總統(tǒng)在紐約很少下榻其他酒店。去年五月，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)在紐約參加完民主黨的籌款活動后，曾在華爾道夫酒店對面的紐約巴克萊洲際大酒店 (InterContinental New York Barclay)留宿一晚?？磥砭瓦B在酒店的選擇上，他都貫徹了聯(lián)邦政府的多元化政策。不過他也依然下榻在華爾道夫酒店。

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.

如果你是聯(lián)邦稅的納稅人，那么請放心，雖然總統(tǒng)和他的隨行人員一般會在華爾道夫大廈酒店里占據(jù)整整三層樓，但他們支付的房費沒有你那么多。

“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.”

“有些來自得梅因(Des Moines，美國愛荷華州[Iowa]的首府——譯注)的人可能會說，‘這里的房費抵得上我一個月的抵押貸款了’，但是總統(tǒng)不需要付那么多錢，”佐爾布說，“我們的目標是，要讓總統(tǒng)成為吸引其他代表團下榻的磁鐵。”

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.”

等到聯(lián)合國大會秋季召開會議時，酒店就可以同時招待多達二十幾位的國家元首，佐爾布說，“每個人都可以體驗到眾星捧月的感覺。”

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.

唯一不會讓他們有這種感覺的場合，是在與其他23名元首級貴賓搶搭一部隨時待命的電梯時。不過反正多數(shù)房客都不會有這種待遇。此外，酒店旁也不會有私人專列隨時待命，幫助他們避開中城繁忙的交通。這是又一項美國總統(tǒng)(出于安全原因)才享有的設施。

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.

如果你坐在大都會北方鐵路的列車上，那就可能會在東49街附近，見到一輛看起來像是生銹的藍色貨運車廂的裝備，就?？吭谌A爾道夫酒店樓下的一條鐵路支線上。據(jù)傳，它要么是曾經(jīng)搭載過富蘭克林·羅斯?？偨y(tǒng)專車的車廂，要么，就是一輛已報廢的維修車而已。在華爾道夫酒店的車庫以東，有一部入口設在第49 街上的貨運電梯，可以直通這條鐵路支線。

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.”

羅斯?？偨y(tǒng)曾經(jīng)使用過這條鐵路支線，部分原因是為向公眾掩飾自己(由脊髓灰質炎造成)的殘疾?？梢钥隙ǖ氖?，這條鐵路支線他至少用過一次。那是在 1944年的10月21日，他在為期一整天的競選活動結束之際，對外交政策協(xié)會(Foreign Policy Association)發(fā)表了演講。羅斯福的通信秘書威廉·D·哈塞特(William D. Hassett)后來回憶道，這條鐵路支線之所以會修建，是“為了給那些‘經(jīng)濟?；逝?rsquo;停放私家車的，其設計初衷是為讓這些特權階級享受到極致奢華的便利設施，”但是在那天晚上，使用它的人“卻偏偏是這些特權階級的頭號敵人(羅斯福對經(jīng)濟?；逝刹扇娪驳呐険魬B(tài)度——譯注)。”