Jerusalem : The Real and the Imagined

Photo courtesy of Ellen Cheng

Walking in the old city of Jerusalem is like passing through lengthened history time, sporadic cultural scenes, reviewing eternal humanity imprinted on the faces of various ethnicities. Everything in Jerusalem is a monument of its unageing magnificence, with the most glorious memory and immortal honor on its own.

The experience is like strolling in a grand museum. One is always a pilgrim in awe of legendary oil paintings hanging on the giant walls, which have preserved the essential virtues of history. The context asks for wholehearted devotion, absorbing everyone into the complete solemnness. 

Somehow that’s only one side of Jerusalem, which belongs to the heaven. It enshrines itself upon the pure adorations and critical acclamations from the mass. Prayers weep, linger, and echo with all secret whispers to its soul from the past. It deserves all poetry and legends, and it demands the greatest imaginations.

The other side of Jerusalem is rooted in the most mundane reality. It is the blurred boundary between Israel and unoccupied Palestine, between a modern state and a land without a country, between a legitimate narrative and some lost tales. It’s the political symbol forcefully added with the most significant meanings, and its name, worth being remembered thousands of times, bears an overloaded geographical metaphor that never ceases to become less.

It’s like any other cities in the world, where people reside call it their dear home, and tourists pours in to search for more stories unlike their own. Still, It delivers people the simplest choice: If you start to seek for ultimate reason of your own being, then ignore all other philosophies, and choose a religion.

Without the imagined, Jerusalem can’t be real.

Article by Ellen Cheng

漫步在耶路撒冷旧城，就好像是在经历那一段漫长的历史。那一处处文明，都刻画着各个民族的人性。耶路撒冷的一切，都展现着这样永久的辉煌，带给人们不朽的回忆与文明。

身处在这个国家，就像是在一个偌大的博物馆。好像一堵堵墙，上面的油画展现了被历史所封存的美与敬畏。这种感觉让所有人都变得肃穆，用全身心来感受着这座城市的与众不同的美。

但是，这只是耶路撒冷的一面，属于天堂的一面。它供奉着所有的纯净与纯洁。所有祈祷的人们都耳语着属于他们的洁净灵魂。这些思想配得上一切诗歌和传说，同时也需要很大的想象力。

然而耶路撒冷的另一面却仍然逃不过现实的魔爪。耶路撒冷，作为以色列和巴勒斯坦的边界，将一个现代化的国家与一个没有政府管制的国家隔开，这之间隔开的是现实的法制，和正在迷失的神话。这个国家，被赋予了超越一切的政治意义，而‘耶路撒冷’这个名字也已经远远超过了它在地图上的意义。

这就像是世界上其他的国家一样，去到那里的游客总会挖掘到一些当地人所忽略的故事。当然，这也教会了我们，要真正探索一个地方，请忽略一切的留言，而是选择将自己完全沉浸于这个国家的文化中。
就好像耶路撒冷，在你真实地身处在这个国家之前， 你永远无法想象它的真面目。

Ellen Cheng 所作的文章