A gaggle of students are driving at high speed to Berlin. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven,” wrote Wordsworth about the French Revolution. The year is 1989, not 1789, but the poet’s sentiments capture our mood. Having grown up under the Cold War’s nuclear shadow, the temptation to catch a glimpse of its physical demise was irresistible. The instant we heard East Germany had opened Checkpoint Charlie, uniting Berlin, we were on our way. Within 18 hours we were chipping at that wall alongside tens of thousands of others, young and old, German and foreign. With chisels and pickaxes we made our tiny contributions. Two days later we returned to England, hungover, astonished to have avoided any speeding tickets, each carrying a small chunk of the wall.
一羣學生駕車高速向柏林駛去。「幸福啊，活在那個黎明之中，年輕人更是如進天堂，」華茲華斯(Wordsworth)對法國大革命有感而發地寫道。雖然那一年是1989年，而不是1789年，但詩人華茲華斯表達的情緒正契合我們的心情。對於在冷戰核陰影下長大的我們而言，親眼目睹冷戰結束標誌性一幕的誘惑是不可抗拒的。一聽說東德打開了東、西柏林之間的查理檢查哨(Checkpoint Charlie)，我們就上路了。不到18個小時之後，我們就和成千上萬的民衆（有老有少，有德國人也有外國人）一起鑿著那堵牆。我們用鑿子和鎬做出了綿薄的貢獻。兩天後，我們返回英格蘭，酒還沒醒，卻驚訝地發現沒有收到超速罰單，每個人都帶回了牆上的一小塊磚頭。