有本小小的小书，The Element of Style，是几代人的英文写作圣经——初版在1919年，那会儿就在校园里流行了，大家就叫它“the little book”——可惜我一直没记住它的作者（们），前些时候买过E.B. White的几本书（小朋友应该比我还熟悉他的精灵小鼠弟和夏洛的网），才发现他是小书的修订者，失敬了。

大作家John Updike很欣赏老白的散文：Just to dip into this miraculous essay -- to experience the wonderful lightness and momentum of its prose, its supremely casual air and surprisingly tight knit – is to find oneself going ahead and rereading it all. White's homage feels as fresh now as fifty years ago

最后这句话特别准确——看他的《这里是纽约》（“Here is New York”），想不亲切都不行——尽管我没去过纽约，但如果抹去NY，它几乎可以用来描写今天任何一个中国城市（大或不那么大的）。文章写的是60多年前（1949年）的纽约，说纽约有三个：一个属于“土人”，一个属于“流人”，一个属于“漂人”：

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter – the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trebling cities the greatest is the last – the city of final destination, the city that is a goal.

“土人”当然就是生长在那儿的人，如“老北京”，四合院里长大的，天桥耍把式的，什刹海蹬三轮儿的；第三种人大概像“北漂”？也许还包括“农民工”——不知纽约市讲不讲户口？

我们身边更多的是Commuter，这是个“土生的”美国词儿，指那些持月票坐公交上下班的人，如北京五六环以外的？意思很简单，不知中文怎么称呼（“流人”显然不合适）。《牛津英语词典》列举了几个例子，很有助于我们理解那个词儿的生活气息：

commuter orig. U.S. The holder of a commutation-ticket; gen., one who commutes (sense 4 b). Also attrib.

     1865 Atlantic Monthly XV. 82 Two or three may be styled commuters' roads, running chiefly for the accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences.

1888 Critic (N. York) 6 Oct. 167, I myself perform that feat five or six times a week; and so does every commuter on the New York Central..Railroad.  

 1902 Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 10 He had his breakfast at 8.45 a.m. to the tick. He might have been a Long Island commuter.

1926 J. Reed Ten Days that shook the World vii. 158 Trains went no further, however, than Tsarskoye.‥ Our car was full of commuters and country people going home.

1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Feb. 86/2 Many things familiar in America need explaining in Britain: ‘commuters' zone’ (season-ticket region).

1940 Auden Another Time 114 From the conservative dark Into the ethical life The dense commuters come.  

1956 Times 28 June 9/5 Even five years ago a million commuters were coming daily into the County of London.  

1962 Daily Tel. 22 June 14/2 Commuter services around London.

1963 J. T. Story Something for Nothing iii. 79, I live ten miles out. I'm a scooter commuter.

大概所有的城市都要经历这一幕“三城记”，现在轮到我们主演了。当然，我们还多了一个场景：春运——那更像白先生说的locusts（没有贬义）在吞吐一个城市！