IKEA
宜家

by John Kuti
約翰?庫(kù)迪

Our journey started in a minibus to Lomonosov underground station. In the open area behind the station we could see about 30 people waiting for a bus to the IKEA shop. This bus is unusual for two reasons – it is free, and it is one of very the few buses in the city that has a timetable.
我們的旅程始于一輛前往羅蒙羅索夫（Lomonosov）地鐵站的面包車。在車站后方的戶外空地上，可以看到大約三十來個(gè)人正在等待著去宜家的公車。這輛公車有兩個(gè)不尋常之處：一、它是免費(fèi)的；二、它是這個(gè)城市中為數(shù)不多的有著發(fā)車時(shí)刻表的公車之一。

We got onto the bus and it drove over the bridge across the River Neva and out of the city. One passenger had her dog with her. We saw the big yellow letters IKEA on a blue background from far away, they are on a sign which is higher than the trees. The same design is on the side of the building, a very big blue box with a car park all around it. We got out of the bus and walked along a special route to the entrance with a roof over it. We went into the shop through a big door that turned like a wheel. About ten people can walk inside one section of the wheel. IKEA shops are very popular everywhere in the world, and they are made to serve very large numbers of people.
我們上了這輛公車后，它載著我們駛過了涅瓦河大橋奔向了市外。有位乘客還帶著一條狗乘車。我們可以遙望到遠(yuǎn)方宜家的戶外廣告牌，那個(gè)廣告牌高高矗立在群樹之上，藍(lán)色的背景牌烘襯出了IKEA這四個(gè)大大的黃色字母。同樣的圖案也顯現(xiàn)在了宜家商場(chǎng)的高樓一側(cè)，而商場(chǎng)整體就像一個(gè)四周被停車場(chǎng)環(huán)繞的藍(lán)色大盒子。我們下車后穿過了一條被遮陽(yáng)頂罩住的特殊通道來到了入口處。入口處的大門可以像方向盤一樣旋轉(zhuǎn)，每個(gè)旋轉(zhuǎn)截面大約可以同時(shí)容下十個(gè)顧客。宜家商場(chǎng)的確風(fēng)靡全球，它們服務(wù)的顧客可是多到數(shù)不清。

Most places in Russia have a cloakroom where you can leave your coat. On this day there were too many people, so only children could leave their coats. I had a rucksack and they said that I should leave this in the cloakroom and carry my coat. If you have a child aged 3 to 6 you can leave him or her in a play room…usually for 2 hours or just one hour on busy days. They give parents a piece of paper with the time of collection written on it so that they don’t forget. I don’t know what people with dogs do.
俄羅斯的大部分商場(chǎng)都有衣帽間以便顧客存放衣物。而今天宜家因?yàn)轭櫩吞?，所以只能讓孩子們存放衣物。我隨身背了一個(gè)帆布包，工作人員則讓我把帆布包放在衣帽間而將自己的衣服隨身帶著。如果有顧客帶著3到6歲的孩子前來，他們可以把孩子留在兒童游戲室自由嬉戲。一般遇上比較忙的工作日只能讓孩子在游戲室里呆上一兩個(gè)小時(shí)。工作人員會(huì)給父母?jìng)円粡埣?，上面寫著要來接孩子的時(shí)間，以免有的父母忘了這事。至于那些帶狗的顧客，我就不知道他們會(huì)忙些個(gè)什么了。

The first place we went was up the stairs to the café. Here everything is self-service. You take a tray and ask people to serve you food, for example traditional Swedish meat-balls. If you want coffee, tea or a fizzy drink you pay for a cup and afterwards you fill it from a machine. While you eat and drink you can study the catalogue. They say that 160 million copies of the catalogue are printed all round the world – where I live, they delivered a copy to each flat. People who want to buy a lot of things can take a big yellow plastic bag to put them in. There are also different sorts of trolley. One has a seat for a small child and a place to hang the big yellow bag.
我們首先光顧的是咖啡廳，這里一切都是自助式的。你可以拿著個(gè)托盤讓服務(wù)員給你夾食物，例如瑞典肉球。但是如果你需要咖啡、茶或者汽水的話，那么你就得自掏腰包，不過當(dāng)你喝完一杯后你可以自己去飲料機(jī)那邊免費(fèi)續(xù)杯。喝著飲料時(shí)研究下商品手冊(cè)則是必不可少的了。據(jù)工作人員介紹，宜家在全球有1.6億份產(chǎn)品手冊(cè)。在我們來的這間宜家，產(chǎn)品手冊(cè)每層都會(huì)有供應(yīng)。如果有人需要狂購(gòu)一次，那么可以領(lǐng)取一個(gè)黃色大塑料袋來裝戰(zhàn)利品。當(dāng)然，商場(chǎng)還有各種手推車，每個(gè)手推車都有一個(gè)可以讓孩子坐的小座位，以及可以掛黃色大袋子的設(shè)計(jì)。

The area next to the café is for special offers. Then, there are a lot of pictures in frames and mirrors. After that, you come to a place where there are different rooms which you can walk into and sit down in. When you know what you want to buy, you have to look at the code on the price tag. This code tells you the place on the ground floor where you should go to collect the pack with the parts you want inside it. All Ikea furniture is in cardboard boxes and you have to put the parts together when you get home.
咖啡廳旁邊是特價(jià)優(yōu)惠區(qū)，在那有很多用框裱好的圖片和鏡子。再往旁邊點(diǎn)的地方有著很多不同的單間，顧客可以走到單間里坐坐。當(dāng)你想好要買什么的時(shí)候，你需要看一下價(jià)格標(biāo)牌上的編碼。宜家的底層會(huì)有很多的箱子，而這些編碼可以告訴你，你想要的產(chǎn)品是在哪個(gè)箱子里面。宜家家具都是裝在紙板盒里面的，所以當(dāng)你回家的時(shí)候可得需要把家具各個(gè)部分都給帶齊了。

One of the main problems of life in Russia is the small amount of living space that people have in their flats. It is very unusual for a family to have a room that nobody sleeps in. So the idea of a “l(fā)iving room” or a “sitting room”, as we call it in English, is a bit different. Most people have a room with a sofa-bed that they open out in the evening to sleep on. I think it’s quite a good idea for Russian flats to have the bed on tall legs with enough space for a sofa under it. You can buy one in IKEA for about ￡200. On my visit to IKEA I didn’t buy anything because I live in a rented flat with lots of furniture in it. I just like looking.
在俄羅斯生活有一個(gè)很大的問題，那就是人們公寓的生活空間都比較小。在俄羅斯很少看到有哪戶人家會(huì)閑置出一個(gè)沒人睡覺的房間。所以在俄羅斯人概念中的“客廳”或者“起居室”，和這兩個(gè)英文單詞的字面意思會(huì)有稍稍的區(qū)別。很多人家都會(huì)有一個(gè)房間，里面放著一個(gè)沙發(fā)床，每到夜晚就可以開打沙發(fā)床睡覺。而我認(rèn)為俄羅斯的公寓配上個(gè)高腿的床真是絕妙的主意，這樣就可以在床底預(yù)留出足夠的空間放沙發(fā)了。像這樣的床你花上200英鎊就可以在宜家買到。我此次的宜家之旅并沒有購(gòu)置什么東西，因?yàn)槲易约鹤≡谝粋€(gè)有很多家具的出租房里。我來到宜家就是喜歡隨便看看。
?