罗马城有着悠久的历史，美味可口的冰淇淋，精致养眼的披萨和美轮美奂的艺术作品。旅行第一站便是罗马圆形大剧场和古罗马广场，这里曾是罗马的经济、政治和宗教中心。可是现在罗马将要处于崩溃的边缘，因为数百万候鸟的鸟粪污染了其街道。

　　ROME — There is nothing quite as overpowering as the acidic stench of the fresh, wet feces from more than four million birds that have apparently decided to winter in Rome this year.

　　(罗马电)——没有什么比四百多万小鸟的潮湿的排泄物所散发出的酸臭味更加强烈了。

　　The sickly sweet smell, which is unavoidable in much of the center of Rome, is accompanied by a slick sheen covering everything from sidewalks and cobblestones to churches, park benches and café tables. And it is more than just an annoyance. It has become a death trap causing scores of car and moped accidents and nearly 100 fractures and sprains attributed to pedestrians falling on the slippery stuff.

　　罗马市中心大部分地方都不可避免的充满了令人恶心的臭味，还伴随着光泽，遍及通往教堂的人行道和鹅卵石上，还有公园的长椅和咖啡桌上，无所不在。这并不仅仅只是令人恼怒，它们已经成了造成汽车和助动车事故的危险地带，并且因其会使行人们在这些光滑的东西上跌倒，已造成几乎100例骨折和扭伤的病例。

　　The crisis, which has been brewing for more than a month, came to a head over the weekend, when the first serious winter rains fell on the Italian capital, making the gluey guano even more treacherous. The city of Rome even closed the busy thoroughfare that runs along the Tiber River for more than ten hours so crews could sand and scrape the slime after more than a dozen accidents were reported in less than an hour as scooters slid and pedestrians plummeted to the pavement.

　　这起危机已持续了一个多月，并在周末达到了顶峰。意大利首都遭遇第一场冬天的大雨，使粘湿的鸟粪更加令人生厌。罗马市甚至封闭了台伯河边最繁忙的大道长达十小时，就是为了工作人员可以撒沙子并且清除这些淤泥般的东西。而之前已报道，在一小时内已经有十几起事故发生，小轮摩托车滑到，行人摔倒在人行道上。

　　Roman residents know all too well to carry umbrellas and not park for long on tree-lined streets during the starling season. But this year, for a variety of reasons, the busy birds have not moved on and their flock has grown from the usual million or so to an estimated four million.

　　罗马市民们太了解这些以至于早八哥来的时节出门不能带伞，不能再树下的街上停留过久。但今年，由于各种各样的原因，这些繁忙的鸟儿没有离开，而且他们群种的数量已经由往常的一百万升到四百万。

　　The city is without a mayor at the moment, and the last time the city council met to discuss non-essential matters was October 30. “It’s an embarrassment,” says Fabrizio Ghera, a former city council member who had apparently warned the interim city government that they’d better act fast or the, uh, excrement would hit the fan. “We are a world class capital in the midst of a Holy Jubilee and the tourists are covered in crap,” he said.

　　此时，罗马是没有市长的，上一次市议会集会讨论一些不重要的事情还是12月30日。市议会前市长Fabrizio Ghera似乎已经向临时市政府发出警告，命令他们尽快采取行动否则鸟粪将会酿成很严重的后果，他说，“这是件很难堪的事情。我们是圣禧年之中一个世界级的首都，而游客们却受鸟粪之害。”

　　But it may just be Mother Nature who solves the problems. On Saturday night, temperatures in Rome finally dropped to seasonal lows and the Fauna Urbus city environmental agency, which runs the speaker scare program, promised the birds would soon be on the move.

　　但这个问题也许只有大自然母亲能解决。一个星期六的晚上，罗马的气温骤降至季节性最低，掌管说话者恐惧问题的动物王国的环境部将会宣布，保证鸟儿们不久就会离开。

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