Every Olympics is a fusion¹ of the generic², staid look of the Games, as mandated³ by the International Olympic Committee, with the singular aesthetic⁴ of the hosting country. It is what gives these biennial⁵ extravaganzas, which stage nearly identical competitions in a different part of the world, their distinctive⁶ feel.

每一届奥运会都是国际奥委会规定的奥运会通用的固定样式与东道主独特美学融合的结果。这使得每两年举办一次的奥运盛事，虽然比赛项目大致相同，但在世界不同地方举办却有着与众不同的特色。

More than anything, being here is a feast for the senses. Your palette is regularly lit up by the food, which is super spicy⁷, or super sweet, or sometimes a bit of both. You can be freezing outdoors one moment and sweating in an overheated bus the next. Your eardrums get a workout anywhere there is music.

到平昌冬奥会是来享受感官盛宴的。你的味觉经常受到超辣、超甜或有时两者兼有的美食的撩拨。你有时会在寒冷的室外冻得发抖，有时上了公交车又热得冒汗。有音乐的地方，你的耳膜都会受到锻炼。

Then there are the bright colours and brash graphics⁸, a combination found everywhere, especially on television. A number of shows have word bubbles that make the classic “bloop!” sound.

接着是鲜艳的色彩和耀眼的图案，到处都可以看到两者的结合，尤其在电视上。很多节目都会出现发出经典“噗鲁”声的文字气泡。

Just about everything here is bold, you soon notice, including the flavours. The shelves in convenience stores sell snacks that make their American counterparts seem timid and bland⁹. Here is squid’s body with peanut butter. There is a strawberry sandwich with what is either cheese or frosting. Try some crab¹⁰ stick; or Spam with kimchi gimbap; or pig’s trotters, which on the packaging gets a grinning thumbs-up from a guy in a red bow tie.

你很快发现，这里几乎一切都很大胆，包括口味。便利店的货架上卖的零食让美国同行显得胆小和乏味。这是花生酱拌鱿鱼，那是乳酪草莓三明治或糖霜草莓三明治。尝尝蟹肉棒，午餐肉配泡菜，或猪蹄，包装上是一位戴着红色蝶形领结的男子笑着竖起大拇指。

Pyeongchang has many restaurants with multicourse dinners that sound like a tour of the ocean. Sea anemone¹¹, sea squirts, raw trout¹², live octopus¹³, and the list goes on and on. Closer by are places that lay a tilted¹⁴ skillet on your table and start grilling¹⁵ pork. Heaven for a carnivore, rough on vegetarians¹⁶. A menu item called “vegetables” means that some greens come with the pork.

平昌很多餐馆提供多道菜的正餐，不过听上去就像海中游。海葵、海鞘、生鳟鱼、活章鱼等等。有的餐馆则是在你的桌子上放一个倾斜的煎锅，开始烤猪肉。这里是食肉者的天堂，对于素食者来说很难受。菜单上称为“蔬菜”的菜品实际上是青菜炒肉。

At Olympic events, the noise of the colours is matched by the volume of the music. Like a lot of American sporting venue¹⁷ owners, the organisers here believe that unless the DJ is playing tracks at punishingly high levels, nobody is having fun. It’s even hard to shout over the commentators¹⁸ at cross-country skiing events.

在奥运赛事上，色彩的艳丽与音乐的音量有一拼。跟很多美国体育场馆的老板一样，这里的组织者们认为，如果音响师不把音量调到足够高，谁都不会玩得高兴。甚至在越野滑雪比赛中，喊叫声要高过广播员都很难。

The marriage of loud colours and sounds reaches its zany apogee¹⁹ at the hockey rink. The place has an official cheerleading group, four young women in short, pink dresses, who stand halfway²⁰ up the stands and dance to songs like Happy by a Chinese-South Korean group called Cosmic Girls.

在冰球场，艳丽的色彩与喧闹的声音相结合达到了幽默的最高点。这里有一个官方的拉拉队，四名年轻的女子身着粉红色的短装站在看台中间，伴着中韩演唱组合“宇宙少女”的《快乐》之类的歌曲在跳舞。

On Wednesday night, the rink’s master of ceremonies interviewed a cheerleader and asked questions like, “How do you like being the official cheerleading group of the arena²¹?” There was no translation, unfortunately, but the body language – a wide grin, jazz hands beside each ear – sufficed as an answer.

14日晚上，冰球场的主持人采访了一位拉拉队长，问了几个问题，比如“作为本场的官方拉拉队，你有何感想？”。遗憾的是没有翻译，不过其肢体语言——咧着嘴笑，张开双手放在两耳边上——足以充当答案了。

When they are not overloading²² your senses, the Games are showcasing tech. The official and ubiquitous motto “Passion. Connected” seems a subtle nod to South Korea’s leading role in helping²³ to wire the world, most notably²⁴ through the success of Samsung, a corporate²⁵ sponsor.

这届冬奥会如果不是在过度刺激你的感官，就是在向你展示技术。官方的无处不在的口号“激情同在”似乎在微妙地称赞韩国在帮助联结世界方面所起的引导作用，主要是靠赞助商三星公司的成功。

Robots are a common sight, roaming around indoor settings and beaming the day’s schedule and weather forecast, projector-like, on the floor. The Super Store that sells official Olympic gear of every kind has an aquarium²⁶ filled with swimming electronic fish. Many of the bus schedule kiosks have what appear to be high-definition screens and a Siri-like female voice offering real-time updates.

机器人随处可见，在室内漫游，在地板上像投影仪一样播放当日的赛程和天气预报。销售官方的各种奥运商品的超市里摆放着一个装满游动电子鱼的水族箱。很多公交车站台都有高清晰显示屏和类似Siri的女性声音提供实时更新。

There is also an emphasis on politesse. When someone hands you something, it is rarely with one outstretched hand. It’s either with two hands or with one hand touching the second near the elbow. The odd thing is that once you get used to it, the single outstretched hand from friends does start to feel a bit ill-mannered.

还有对礼貌礼节的重视。如果有人递东西给你，很少只伸出一只手。要么是伸出双手递过来，要么是一只手按在另一手的肘部递过来。奇怪的是，一旦你习惯了，如果朋友单手伸出来递东西，你就会开始感觉有点不够礼貌。

For those watching at home, these Olympics may be remembered for the cold weather, or for performances like that of the halfpipe prodigy²⁷ Chloe Kim and others that have yet to come.

对于在家通过电视观看冬奥会的人们来说，可能会记住冬奥会寒冷的天气，和女子单板滑雪U型池项目的天才克洛•金以及今后几天选手的出色表现等等。

The same moments will resonate for attendees, too. But added to them will be the countless²⁸, you-had-to-be-there ways that South Korea’s iridescent²⁹ style has been stamped on these Games. That’s the Olympics, forever the same and always different.

对于到现场观赛的人们来说，同样的时刻也会引起他们的共鸣。不过，此外还有很多你必须到现场才能感受到的韩国给冬奥会打上的闪光印记。这就是奥运会，永远一样，也一直不同。