別了 我心中難以磨滅的中央車站老書店

For 15 years, employees of Posman Books in Grand Central Terminal have perfected their response to six magic words: “I have a train to catch.”

15年來，對於“我要趕火車”這個帶魔力的句子，紐約中央車站(Grand Central Terminal)波茲曼書店(Posman Books)的員工們已將自己的反饋做得日臻完美了。

“I think that we have always tried very hard to make it easy for our customers to come in in a hurry and grab something,” said Robert Fader, Posman’s vice president. “Of course, we encourage anyone to linger who has the time, and if the trains are delayed, so much the better.”

“我覺得我們一直在盡最大努力，以方便匆匆趕來的顧客儘快買好東西，”波茲曼的副總裁羅伯特·菲德爾(Robert Fader)說，“當然了，我們鼓勵有時間的人在書店裏逗留，如果火車晚點的話，就更好了。”

As the evening rush began on a recent Wednesday, several customers did linger, but not for the reasons Mr. Fader once relied on. The store will close its doors on Dec. 31, and some commuters wanted to buy a book, a card, a calendar, in a show of respect.

最近的一個星期三，隨着晚高峯的開始，有好幾名顧客確實在書店裏逗留了一陣，但原因跟菲德爾所說的不一樣。因爲這家書店在12月31日就要關門了，有些通勤者想要過來買上一本書、一張卡片或一副掛曆，以表敬意。

“I wanted to get some books to help them,” said Cynthia Cruz, who teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and comes into the store several times a week. “I just figured it was another bookstore that was going away.”

“我想買些書來幫助他們，”辛西婭·克魯茲(Cynthia Cruz)說。克魯茲在莎拉勞倫斯學院(Sarah Lawrence College)教授詩歌，每週都會到店裏來幾次，“我才發現，這是又一家要消失的書店。”

Bookstores around New York City have been disappearing for years, driven out by soaring rents and the overall gloomy economics of the publishing industry.

許多年來，紐約各處的書店都在相繼消失。它們因持續上漲的租金和出版業的整體蕭條而遭淘汰。

But Posman’s location in one of North America’s biggest transit hubs had always been among its biggest blessings, keeping it profitable, according to Mr. Fader. That fortunate locale, however, has now contributed to the store’s misfortune, because the shop is in the middle of two separate multibillion-dollar construction projects that are pushing it out.

但據菲德爾說，波茲曼書店的所在地是北美最大的交通樞紐之一，這一直是書店盈利的一大優勢。然而，這個得天獨厚的位置如今也成了書店的不幸，因爲在書店的兩側，分別出現了一個耗資數十億美元的施工項目，正在將書店擠走。

SL Green Realty, one of the largest commercial landlords in New York, plans to build a 1,400-foot tower next to Grand Central at 1 Vanderbilt Avenue. Under an agreement that predates the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s oversight of Grand Central, SL Green has a right to take back the rear half of Posman’s space to support construction projects above ground, according to Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the M.T.A.

SL Green Realty房產投資信託公司是紐約最大的商業地產公司之一。該公司計劃在中央車站旁邊的範德比爾特大道(Vanderbilt Avenue)1號，建造一座1400英尺（約合427米）高的大樓。大都會運輸署（Metropolitan Transportation Authority，以下簡稱MTA）的發言人亞倫·多諾萬(Aaron Donovan)表示，根據MTA監管中央車站之前的一份協議，SL Green Realty有權收回波茲曼書店後半部分的空間，來支持地面上的施工項目。

And the M.T.A. is busy with its own $10 billion project to connect Grand Central with the Long Island Rail Road. Bracing for the surge of new passengers both projects will bring, the agency saw 1 Vanderbilt as an opportunity to increase space for pedestrian foot traffic.

而MTA正忙着鋪開其耗資100億美元（約合人民幣613億元）的項目，將中央車站和長島鐵路連接起來。兩個項目都將帶來大量客流。由於抱有這樣的預期，MTA將範德比爾特大道1號視爲一個契機，來爲行人交通爭取更多的空間。

So SL Green and the M.T.A. reached an agreement: SL Green will use its space to build pillars, columns or whatever it may need for 1 Vanderbilt, but it will turn most of the area into a pedestrian thoroughfare, according to Mr. Donovan. When it finishes, the M.T.A. can turn the other half of the space back into a retail area, he said.

多諾萬說，由此一來，SL Green和MTA達成了一個協議：SL Green將在波茲曼書店後半部分的空間裏，修建支柱、圓柱等範德比爾特1號可能需要的一切構件；但作爲交換，這裏絕大多數地方都將被修成行人通道。等到完工後，MTA就可以把書店的前半部分變回零售區了。

In the meantime, Posman’s floor space will be used for storage for other retailers that have lost space to the Long Island Rail Road project.

與此同時，波茲曼書店的底層將作爲其它零售商的儲物空間，用於補償其在長島鐵路項目中損失的經營場所。

SL Green will pick up most of the bill. It has committed to spend $210 million on the walkway and other improvements to Grand Central, Mr. Donovan said.

多諾萬表示，SL Green將支付大部分費用。該公司已承諾斥資2.1億美元（約合人民幣13億元），改善中央車站的人行道等設施。

The Rite Aid drugstore next door to Posman will remain open (its lease extends through 2019), although it will lose about 3,000 square feet of space, Mr. Donovan said. PIQ, a nearby gift store, will lose about 200 square feet.

多諾萬還說，波茲曼書店隔壁的RiteAid藥店將繼續營業（其租約有效期到2019年），只不過它將損失3000平方英尺（約合279平方米）的場地。而附近的PIQ禮品店將損失200平方英尺（約合19平方米）的場地。

Only Posman will close. The M.T.A. opted not to renew its lease when it expired in August, and the store has operated on a month-to-month basis since then.

只有波茲曼書店會關張。該書店的租約在8月到期時，MTA沒有與之續約；自此以後，書店一直是按月繳費，維持經營的。

Mr. Fader estimated that roughly 1,500 people stream through the door each day, nearly double Posman’s second-busiest location in Chelsea (Posman operates a third store in Rockefeller Center).

菲德爾估計，書店每天上門的顧客約有1500人，比波茲曼旗下生意第二紅火的切爾西(Chelsea)門店多出將近一倍（波茲曼書店還在洛克菲勒中心[Rockefeller Center]經營着第三家門店）。

Many of those customers are tourists, others are commuters. Many are in a rush, and the store is designed to get them in and out quickly.

顧客當中許多是旅客，其他人則是通勤者。很多人都需要趕時間，而這家店的設計宗旨就是讓顧客能夠快速進出店面。

Some books are displayed on tables instead of shelves, to make it easier for customers to get a quick sense of the selection. Kent Peterson, 61, a merchandiser who has been with the store since it opened, even helped design the shelves underneath the tables so that more books could be displayed this way.

有些書陳列在桌子上，而非書架上，就是爲了讓顧客能夠更快地挑選到心儀的圖書。採購員肯特·彼得森(Kent Peterson)現年61歲，從書店開張伊始就一直在店裏工作。他甚至還協助設計了桌子底下的書架，這樣就能陳列更多的書。

“This isn’t one of those stores where you’re going into some sort of labyrinth of confusion,” Mr. Fader said. “We can then take care of what it is they need and get them out of the door, and I think that there’s a sort of nice simplicity to that.”

“有些店面，進去之後感覺就像進了迷宮一樣迷茫。這家書店則不一樣，”菲德爾說，“我們可以幫助他們尋找自己需要的東西，讓他們帶出店門。我覺得這是一種美好的簡單理念。”

The store also caters to popular tastes, unlike what Mr. Fader, 57, said were the snobbier independent booksellers of his native London and his earlier days in New York. (One store would not sell Stephen King novels, he recalled, although he declined to say which one.)

這家店還會迎合大衆的胃口。現年57歲的菲德爾表示，他老家倫敦的那些清高的獨立書商則不一樣，他自己在紐約早年間也是如此（他記得有一家書店不願意賣斯蒂芬·金[Stephen King]的小說，只不過他不肯說出是哪一家）。

He carefully monitors the news to make sure that Posman has plenty of a potentially hot-selling book. The Harlequin romance section is always well stocked.

他會仔細瞭解時事資訊，以確保波茲曼書店的潛在暢銷書庫存充足。禾林出版社(Harlequin)的愛情小說專區總是庫存充足的。

“We treat that area with the seriousness that we treat literature, if you like,” he said.

“我們對那個專區的態度很認真，就像我們對待文學一樣，如果你要這麼說的話。”他說。

Posman is one of about 100 retailers and restaurants in Grand Central, roughly double the number when the M.T.A. undertook a major overhaul of the station in the 1990s to try to make better use of the space.

包括波茲曼書店在內，中央車站大概有100家零售店和餐館，比MTA當初接管車站時多出了將近一倍。20世紀90年代，MTA對車站進行了大規模整修，以便更好地利用它的空間。

“There was a store selling baked potatoes and cooking with no kitchen exhaust,” said Nancy Marshall, the M.T.A.’s director of retail leasing and management for the terminal. “There was just a very unplanned method of retail within the building and the lack of any sort of cohesive mix.”

南希·馬歇爾(Nancy Marshall)在MTA負責中央車站的零售場所租賃和管理，她說：“當時這裏有一家店是賣烤土豆的，沒有廚房換氣設施。這個建築裏面的零售店根本就沒有經過很好的規劃，缺少整體性。”

Now, the station tries to include a group of national retailers like Banana Republic and M.A.C. Cosmetics, although it prefers to keep restaurants more New York-centric, like Shake Shack, Junior’s and Two Boots pizza.

如今，中央車站正試圖引進一批全國規模的零售商，比如服飾品牌香蕉共和國(Banana Republic)和化妝品牌魅可(M.A.C. Cosmetics)，只不過在對餐廳的選擇上，它更傾向於紐約特色的商家，比如Shake Shack、Junior's和Two Boots披薩。

The M.T.A. also made cosmetic changes during the renovation. It removed a fake ceiling near the Oyster Bar, which has called the station home since 1913, making it Grand Central’s oldest business. Now, passengers walking in front can see the famous sky ceiling of the main concourse, with its depictions of stars and constellations.

在裝修期間，MTA還對中央車站進行了“整容”，拆掉了生蠔吧(Oyster Bar)附近的一個假天花板。生蠔吧早在1913年就入駐了大中央車站，是這裏歷史最悠久的店面。如今，旅客走在前面，可以看到主站廳那著名的天頂壁畫，上面畫着星星和星座。

Mr. Fader keeps reminders of a different Grand Central Terminal in his office. An old photograph of the main concourse, before another major construction project sprang up next door, hangs on his wall.

菲德爾在辦公室裏存放了一些物品，來紀念中央車站的往日面貌。有一張老照片掛在牆上，展示的是主站廳，當時隔壁還有一個大型建築項目即將動工。

“The light can’t come in like that anymore,” he said. “It’s nice to think about it from a different time.”

“光線已經不可能像那樣照射進來了，”他說，“能從一個不同的時代回顧它的面貌，也別有一番意境。”