最近刚读完英文的,想找中文的看看,却找不到。干脆自己也翻译翻译。
越往后翻译,小问题越来越多, 没有时间“旬月踟蹰”,先当作草稿放在这里。
翻译迫使你不得不注意细节,越发欣赏原作的妙处。
(A Rose for Emily
by William Faulkner
WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died,our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,which no one save an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years.
献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰
方壶斋 译
艾弥莉-吉尔森小姐去世的时候,全镇的人都去参加葬礼了:男人们去,是怀着对一座倒掉的纪念碑的崇敬之情去的; 女人们则是想看看她的房子里头什么样。十多年了,除了一个老佣人--- 一个又做园艺又做饭的佣人---以外,镇上没有人到那个房子里头去过。
It was a big,squarish frame house that had once been white,decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies,set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left,lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.
这个房子是一个很大的方形结构,一度是白颜色的,顶上有塔楼和尖顶,阳台围着铸铁雕花栏杆,极具70年代的轻巧风格。房子坐落的街区在镇上一度曾是最好的,不过后来修车行和棉花铺渐渐蚕食进来,把那个街区的一些显赫人家都挤跑了,只剩下艾弥莉的房子顽固而招摇地立在棉花车和汽油泵中间,为那里的一片破败平添了一分颓相。现在艾弥莉小姐离开了,成为了那些显赫家族的代表中的一员,在松柏森森的墓地里与牺牲在杰佛逊战役中的有名的和无名的南北军士兵比肩长眠了。
Alive,Miss Emily had been a tradition,a duty,and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town,dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris,the mayor--he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes,the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town,which the town,as a matter of business,preferred this way of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it,and only a woman could have believed it.
活着的时候,艾弥莉小姐曾是这个镇子的传统,责任,和关照的对象,是某种遗产般的承诺。这种责任是从1894年当时的镇长萨托利斯上校---就是规定黑女人不戴围裙不能上街的那个---宣布免除艾弥莉小姐的税款时开始的。这个待遇源于艾弥莉小姐父亲的去世,而且是终身的。给艾弥莉小姐这个待遇,倒不是因为她会乐于接受这种安排,而是萨托利斯上校处心积虑地编了一个故事,说艾弥莉小姐的父亲曾经借钱给镇里,现在镇里要用这种方式偿还。只有萨托利斯那一辈人思路的人才会发明这样的故事,也只有一个女人才会相信它。
When the next generation,with its more modern ideas,became mayors and aldermen,this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. February came,and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter,asking her to call at the sheriff's office at her convenience. A week later the mayor wrote her himself,offering to call or to send his car for her,and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape,in a thin,flowing calligraphy in faded ink,to the effect that she no longer went out at all. The tax notice was also enclosed,without comment.
当有着现代观念的下一辈人当了镇长和镇议员时,这种安排就有点让他们颇有微词了。那年伊始他们给艾弥莉寄了一个纳税通知单。二月到了,一点回音都没有。他们又给她寄去了一封正式信函,请她方便的时候到警察局长办公室去一趟。又过了一个星期,镇长亲自给她写了信,提出或者镇长自己登门拜访她或者派车把她接来谈谈。艾弥莉小姐这次回信了。信是用颜色不浓的墨水以一种细细的花体写在一张古里古气的纸上的,大意是说她现在已经足不出户了。纳税通知原样退回来了,没有多写一句话。
They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A deputation waited upon her,knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse--a close,dank smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy,leather-covered furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window,they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down,a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs,spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray. On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily's father.
他们召集了一次镇议员特别会议,组成了一个代表团前去敲艾米莉小姐的门。那可是自从八年前或者十年前艾米莉小姐不再开课传授磁画技巧后就再没有人进去过的。一个老黑人开了门,把他们领进一间昏暗的门厅。门厅里一个楼梯通向一片更为幽深的阴影。房间里弥漫着尘土和陈腐的气息,一种混浊潮湿的味道。黑人把他们带到客厅。客厅里都是沉甸甸的包裹着皮子的家具。那个黑人开启一扇窗户的百叶时,他们可以看到皮子是开裂了的。他们坐下,一股纤尘在他们的腿间慢慢升起,细小的颗粒在唯一的一缕阳光里慢慢地旋转着。壁炉前一个失去了光泽的镀金画架上立着一幅艾米莉父亲的蜡笔肖像。
They rose when she entered--a small,fat woman in black,with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt,leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated,like a body long submerged in motionless water,and of that pallid hue. Her eyes,lost in the fatty ridges of her face,looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand.
艾弥莉小姐走进客厅的时候他们都站了起来。他们看到的是一个穿黑衣的矮胖女人,一条细细的金链子垂到腰间消失在腰带处。她拄着一根乌木拐杖,拐杖的金色饰头已经不再发亮。她的骨架小而不多余,也许这就是为什么在别人身上体现的丰满在她这里就成了肥胖。她看起来很臃肿,就像在死水里泡过一样,而且也是那种死白的样子。她的眼睛深藏在肥胖的脸里,在他们陈述来访的意图时滴溜溜地从一个人的脸转到另一个人的脸,看上去就像塞进面团里的两个小煤球。
She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt. Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain.
她没有请他们坐下,而是站在门口静静地听着说话的人,直到他突然停止。然后他们听到了那根金链子的末端一只看不见的表的嘀嗒声。
Her voice was dry and cold. "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves."
艾弥莉开口的时候,她的嗓音干涩而冰冷:“我不欠杰弗逊任何税款。萨托利斯上校已经给我解释过了。也许你们查查镇里的记录就知道了。”
"But we have. We are the city authorities,Miss Emily. Didn't you get a notice from the sheriff,signed by him?"
“我们查过了。艾弥莉小姐,我们就是镇里来的。你没有收到警长签名的通知吗?”
"I received a paper,yes," Miss Emily said. "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson."
“我倒是收到过一张纸,”艾弥莉小姐说。“也许他以为自己是警长。。。总之我不欠杰佛逊任何税款。”
"But there is nothing on the books to show that,you see We must go by the--"
“可是镇里的帐目里没有相关记录。你知道,我们可得照章。。。”
"See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson."
“你们去找萨托利斯上校吧。我不欠杰佛逊任何税款。”
"But,Miss Emily--"
“可艾弥莉小姐。。。。”
"See Colonel Sartoris." (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!" The Negro appeared. "Show these gentlemen out."
“你们去找萨托利斯上校吧 (萨托利斯上校已经死了差不多十年了)。我不欠杰佛逊任何税款。托比!”黑人走进来。“送客!”
II
So SHE vanquished them,horse and foot,just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell.
就这样她把他们一古脑都打发了,就像三十年前打发他们的父辈一样。那次,他们是为了房子的气味而来的。
That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart--the one we believed would marry her --had deserted her. After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away,people hardly saw her at all. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call,but were not received,and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man--a young man then--going in and out with a market basket.
那是她父亲去世两年后,她的男朋友---我们都以为他会娶艾弥莉小姐呢---甩了她以后不久的事。她父亲死了以后,她很少出门。她男朋友走了以后,人们就更看不见她的人影了。倒是有几位女士斗胆去拜访她,却没容见纳。她房子的唯一生气就是那个黑人,当时还是个小伙子,拿着个菜篮子进进出出。
"Just as if a man--any man--could keep a kitchen properly,"the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smell developed. It was another link between the gross,teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons.
镇里的女人们议论道:“哼!随便找个男的就能把厨房的事管好吗?”所以当艾弥莉小姐的房子散发出一股味道的时候她们倒也没觉得奇怪。这股味道,像那个黑仆一样,成为了连接这个乱糟糟的世界和高傲的吉尔森家族的一个纽带。
A neighbor,a woman,complained to the mayor,Judge Stevens,eighty years old.
隔壁邻居的一个女人向镇长,80岁的史蒂文斯法官,投诉了艾弥莉的房子。
"But what will you have me do about it,madam?" he said.
“可是,太太,您要我拿她怎么办呢?”他说。
"Why,send her word to stop it," the woman said. "Isn't there a law? "
“怎么办?告诉她别散味了,”女人说。“不是有法律吗?”
"I'm sure that won't be necessary," Judge Stevens said. "It's probably just a snake or a rat that nigger of hers killed in the yard. I'll speak to him about it."
“没有这个必要,”史蒂文斯法官说。“也许就是那个黑人在院子里杀死的一条蛇或是老鼠。我去跟他说。”
The next day he received two more complaints,one from a man who came in diffident deprecation. "We really must do something about it,Judge. I'd be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily,but we've got to do something." That night the Board of Aldermen met--three graybeards and one younger man,a member of the rising generation.
第二天他又接到两宗投诉。一宗是一位男士言辞婉约地提出来的。“法官先生,我们的确需要针对这个问题采取什么措施。我是最不原意麻烦艾弥莉小姐的了,可是我们必须采取措施。”那天晚上,镇议员们开了会,三个灰白胡子的和一个年轻的。年轻人是镇上的后起之秀。
"It's simple enough," he said. "Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in,and if she don't. .."
“事情很简单,”年轻人说。“告诉她把房子收拾干净。给她一个期限。要是她不。。。”
"Dammit,sir," Judge Stevens said,"will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"
“混帐话!”史蒂文斯法官说,“难道你能当着一个淑女的面说她发臭吗?”
So the next night,after midnight,four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars,sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there,and in all the outbuildings. As they recrossed the lawn,a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it,the light behind her,and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. They crept quietly across the lawn and into the shadow of the locusts that lined the street. After a week or two the smell went away.
于是第二天夜晚子时过后,四个男的像贼一样偷偷摸摸地进入艾弥莉的草坪,沿着房子的墙裙和地窖的窗口闻来闻去。同时,一个人从肩头背着的口袋里掏出来什么,播种一样地洒到地上。他们弄开地窖的门,在那里和院子里别的建筑里都洒了石灰。他们再次穿过草坪的时候,一个本来是黑着的窗口亮起了灯。艾弥莉小姐就坐在那里,灯在她的身后。她的身驱直挺挺地呆在那里,一动不动像一个木偶。他们悄悄地穿过草坪,消失在路旁槐树的影子里。一两个星期后,那种怪味消失了。
That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. People in our town,remembering how old lady Wyatt,her great-aunt,had gone completely crazy at last,believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau,Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background,her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground,his back to her and clutching a horsewhip,the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single,we were not pleased exactly,but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.
那个时候人们开始真地可怜起艾弥莉小姐了。我们镇子里的人都记得她的姑奶奶维亚老太太最后怎么完全疯了的。他们相信吉尔森一家太高看自己了,好像镇上的年轻后生们没一个配得上艾弥莉小姐似的。我们都把他们一家想象成一幅活人画:艾弥莉小姐的苗条身材穿着白色的衣裙站在后排,她父亲岔开双腿的剪影在她的前面,手里还拿着一根马鞭。他们两个都镶嵌在朝后开着的前门门框里。所以当艾弥莉小姐三十岁了还没婚配的时候,我们与其说是幸灾乐祸,倒不如说是理直气壮(?)了。就算艾弥莉小姐的家族里有人头脑不正常,要是她面临过的机会能够变成现实的话她也不至于会全都拒绝的。
When her father died,it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way,people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone,and a pauper,she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less.
她父亲死的时候,留给艾弥莉小姐的就是那栋房子。在某种意义上说,人们对此感到高兴。他们终于可以可怜艾弥莉小姐了。现在她孤身一人,不名一文,倒被人当作普通人看了。现在她也可以体会到一分钱的有无给穷人带来的欣喜和绝望了。
The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid,as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door,dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days,with the ministers calling on her,and the doctors,trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force,she broke down,and they buried her father quickly.
他父亲死后的第二天,镇上的女人们都按照习俗准备到艾弥莉家表示哀悼,问问能帮她什么。艾弥莉小姐穿着平常的衣服在门口迎接了她们。她的脸上丝毫看不出一点悲伤的痕迹。她告诉她们说她父亲没有去世。她那样坚持了三天,牧师和医生也都来了,劝说她让他们把后事办了。就当他们不得不诉诸法律的时候,艾弥莉小姐挺不住了。他们便赶紧着把她父亲下葬了。
We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away,and we knew that with nothing left,she would have to cling to that which had robbed her,as people will.
那个时候我们倒没有说艾弥莉小姐疯了。我们相信她是一定要那样做的。我们记得她父亲挡驾了所有的小伙子。我们知道现在艾弥莉小姐已经抓不到什么了,也只有抓着剥夺了她机会的人不放了。人不都是这样么?
III
SHE WAS SICK for a long time. When we saw her again,her hair was cut short,making her look like a girl,with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene.
她病了很长时间。我们又看见她的时候,她的头发剪短了,使得她看上去像个女孩子,也有点像教堂窗户里的那些个天使,既显得悲哀又显得安宁。
The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks,and in the summer after her father's death they began the work. The construction company came with niggers and mules and machinery,and a foreman named Homer Barron,a Yankee--a big,dark,ready man,with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face. The little boys would follow in groups to hear him cuss the niggers,and the niggers singing in time to the rise and fall of picks. Pretty soon he knew everybody in town. Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square,Homer Barron would be in the center of the group. Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable.
镇里刚刚让人承包了铺设人行道,艾弥莉父亲去世后的那个夏天工程就开始了。承包公司带来了黑人,骡子和机械,还有一个工头名叫侯莫-巴戎,一个北方佬,大个子,人是很机灵,说话嗓门大大的,眼睛的颜色比脸的颜色淡。小孩子们总是成群结伙地跟在他后面听他骂那些黑人,听那些黑人随着镐头的起落唱着有节奏的歌。不久巴戎就跟镇里每个人都混熟了。随便什么时候你在广场上听见人们大笑,巴戎都会在那里被一群人围着。不久我们开始看到她和艾弥莉小姐在星期天的下午驾着马车兜风。那马车的轮子是黄色的,套着两匹平时寄养在收费马厩的枣红马。
At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest,because the ladies all said,"Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner,a day laborer." But there were still others,older people,who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige- -without calling it noblesse oblige. They just said,"Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her." She had some kin in Alabama; but years ago her father had fallen out with them over the estate of old lady Wyatt,the crazy woman,and there was no communication between the two families. They had not even been represented at the funeral.
起初我们很高兴艾弥莉小姐恢复了点兴致。女人们都说:“吉尔森家的人当然不会看上一个北方佬和打散工的。”可是还是有些人,那些老人,说一个真正的淑女,就算心灰意冷也不应该忘了自己上等人的责任。他们倒是没有用这个词儿,只是说:“艾弥莉真可怜。她的亲戚应该来看看她。” 她在阿拉巴马州有亲戚,可是几年前她父亲因为维亚特老太太,就是那个疯老太,的遗产问题跟他们闹翻了,从此两家不再来往。他们连艾弥米莉父亲的葬礼都没派人来参加。
And as soon as the old people said,"Poor Emily," the whispering began. "Do you suppose it's really so?" they said to one another. "Of course it is. What else could . . ." This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin,swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: "Poor Emily."
老人们一开始说:“可怜的艾弥莉”,镇里就风言风语嘀咕开了。“你说这是真的吗?”他们互相问。“当然是真的了。还能是。。。”这些话都是掩着嘴说的。当星期天的下午艾弥莉小姐的双套马车响着清脆的呱答呱哒的马蹄声在街上驶过的时候,在为了阻挡阳光而拉下的百叶窗后面,伸着脖颈的绫罗绸缎们在窸窣的声音中发出如此的感叹:“可怜的艾弥莉!”
She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness. Like when she bought the rat poison,the arsenic. That was over a year after they had begun to say "Poor Emily," and while the two female cousins were visiting her.
然而就当我们认为艾弥莉小姐已经是过气角色的时候,她却高昂着头颅,仿佛比以往任何时候都更主张她作为吉尔森家族最后成员的尊严,仿佛要再次显示她的拒人于千里之外的高傲需要这么一点世俗的做法。她那年买老鼠药和砒霜药的时候就是如此。那是人们开始说“可怜的艾弥莉”后过了一年光景的时候,也是她的两个亲戚来看她的的时候。
"I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then,still a slight woman,though thinner than usual,with cold,haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look. "I want some poison," she said.
"Yes,Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? I'd recom--"
"I want the best you have. I don't care what kind."
The druggist named several. "They'll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is--"
"Arsenic," Miss Emily said. "Is that a good one?"
"Is . . . arsenic? Yes,ma'am. But what you want--"
"I want arsenic."
The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him,erect,her face like a strained flag. "Why,of course," the druggist said. "If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for."
“我要买点毒药,”她对药店老板说。那时候她三十来岁,还很苗条,虽然比往常清瘦了一些。她的黑眼珠透着一股冰冷和高傲。她的额头两侧和眼窝旁紧绷的肉使她看起来更像是一个看守灯塔的人。“我要买毒药,”她说。
“当然,艾弥莉小姐。您要哪种? 杀老鼠什么的?我给您介绍。。。”
“我要毒性最大的,不管哪种。”
药店老板说了几种药的名字。“这些杀大象都富富有余。可您要的是。。。”
“砒霜,”艾弥莉小姐说。“砒霜怎么样? 好不好?”
“您是说。。。砒霜? 是的您呐。可您要的。。。”
“我要砒霜。”
药店老板朝下盯着她。她也把眼睛直直地盯了回去,脸绷得像一面旗子。“哦,好说好说。”药店老板说。“不过要是您要买这个,法律要求您说明您打算拿它干什么。”
Miss Emily just stared at him,her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye,until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the druggist didn't come back. When she opened the package at home there was written on the box,under the skull and bones: "For rats."
艾弥莉只是拿眼睛盯着店老板。她把头仰起来,为了能跟他双目对视。终于店老板退缩了,回身取了砒霜包起来。药是店里的黑人伙计送出来的。店老板没有回来。艾弥莉回到家打开包,只见盒子上的骷髅骨头标志下面写着:“灭鼠用。
IV
So THE NEXT day we all said,"She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron,we had said,"She will marry him." Then we said,"She will persuade him yet," because Homer himself had remarked--he liked men,and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man. Later we said,"Poor Emily" behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy,Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth,reins and whip in a yellow glove.
第二天我们都说:“她要自杀了。”我们还说这倒是最好的结局。我们起初看见她跟侯莫-巴戎在一块儿的时候,我们说:“她要嫁给那个人了。”后来我们说:“她还得说服他娶她才行,”因为侯莫自己说过他不是居家过日子的人。他喜欢跟男人们在一块。我们都知道他在埃克斯的俱乐部跟一帮小青年喝酒。再后来,当星期天下午他们的闪闪发亮的马车从街上经过,艾弥丽小姐高昂着头,侯莫-巴戎歪戴着帽子,嘴里叼着根烟卷,带着黄手套挥着鞭子驾着马车的时候,我们就在百叶窗的后边说:“可怜的艾弥丽!”
IV
Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere,but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview,but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets,and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily's relations in Alabama.
后来有些女人就开始说闲话了,说艾弥丽小姐这样做给镇子丢了脸,而且给年轻人树立了一个坏榜样。男人们并不想管闲事,可是那些女人们逼着浸礼教的牧师---艾弥丽小姐是信奉英国国教的---去跟艾弥丽小姐谈谈。牧师去了以后,没有透露见面的情况,可是他再也不想再去见艾弥丽小姐了。下一个星期天,艾弥丽小姐和侯莫又驾着马车招摇过市。星期一,浸会牧师的太太给艾弥丽小姐在阿拉巴马的亲戚写了封信。
So she had blood-kin under her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. At first nothing happened. Then we were sure that they were to be married. We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver,with the letters H. B. on each piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men's clothing,including a nightshirt,and we said,"They are married." We were really glad. We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been.
于是她的亲戚又出现在她的房檐下了而我们则袖手旁观事态的发展。起初什么也没有发生。后来我们肯定他们要结婚了。我们听说艾弥丽小姐去了珠宝店定制了一套银质男用盥洗用具,每一件上都有H.B.字样。两天后我们听说她买了一整套男装,包括睡衣,所以我们说:“他们要结婚了。”我们真地很高兴。我们很高兴,因为艾弥丽的两个堂姐比埃弥丽更有吉尔森家族的派头。
So we were not surprised when Homer Barron--the streets had been finished some time since--was gone. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off,but we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily's coming,or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins. (By that time it was a cabal,and we were all Miss Emily's allies to help circumvent the cousins.) Sure enough,after another week they departed. And,as we had expected all along,within three days Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening.
所以侯莫-巴戎不见了的时候---那时候马路已经铺完有段时间了----我们一点也不奇怪。我们倒是觉得这没有引起大家的兴奋着实有点令人失望,不过我们都相信侯莫离开是为了准备跟艾弥丽小姐结婚的事儿,要不就是给她时间让那两个堂姐妹走人。(那时我们已经结成一伙儿,帮着艾弥丽小姐跟那两个堂姐妹周旋)。果然两个星期后她们走了。正像我们预料的那样,三天之内侯莫就回来了。一天傍晚,一个邻居看见那个黑佣人打开厨房的门让侯莫进去。
And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time. The Negro man went in and out with the market basket,but the front door remained closed. Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment,as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime,but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.
那是我们最后一次看见候莫-巴戎,后来也有好一阵子没有看见艾弥莉小姐。那个黑人拎着买菜的篮子进进出出,可那扇门永远是关着的。我们时不时地可以在一个窗口看见她,就跟那个晚上那些洒石灰的人看见她在窗口出现一样,可是有半年的光景她没有在街上出现过。后来我们意识到这也是应该在意料之中的,就好像艾弥莉小姐的爸爸那多次葬送了她女人生涯的恶毒而狂暴的品性顽固不化不肯消失一样。
When we next saw Miss Emily,she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray,when it ceased turning. Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray,like the hair of an active man.
我们后来再见到艾弥莉小姐的时候,她长胖了,头发也发白了。随后几年里,她的头发越发白了,一直白到不再变化为止。那时候她的头发便成了一种均匀地混杂了花椒色和盐色的铅灰色。一直到她74岁去世的时候,那头发一直保持了那种强烈的铅灰色,好像一个闲不住的男人的头发。
From that time on her front door remained closed,save for a period of six or seven years,when she was about forty,during which she gave lessons in china-painting. She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms,where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris' contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they were sent to church on Sundays with a twenty-five-cent piece for the collection plate. Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted.
从那时起她家的前门总是关着的,只是中间有六、七年的样子除外。那几年她40岁左右,在家里教手绘瓷器。她在楼下的一个房间布置了画室。萨托利斯上校那一辈人的女儿和孙女们被家里人送到那里去上课,其准时和热忱不亚于她们星期天拿着两毛五分钱的奉献上教堂的劲头。那时候,艾弥莉小姐的税已经免了。
Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town,and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies' magazines. The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good. When the town got free postal delivery,Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them.
Daily,monthly,yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped,going in and out with the market basket. Each December we sent her a tax notice,which would be returned by the post office a week later,unclaimed. Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows--she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house--like the carven torso of an idol in a niche,looking or not looking at us,we could never tell which. Thus she passed from generation to generation--dear,inescapable,impervious,tranquil,and perverse.
后来年轻的一辈成了镇子的骨干和精英,学画画的学生们也长大成人,各适其家,不再让自己的孩子带着乏味的彩笔和从妇女杂志上剪下来的画到她那里去了。最后一个学生离开后,她家的前门就关上了,而且再也没有开过。镇子上有了免费的邮递服务后,只有艾弥莉小姐不让人家在门上安装铁门牌和信箱。她根本不听别人劝。我们日复一日,月复一月,年复一年地看着那个黑人拿着菜篮子进进出出,头越来越白,背越来越驼。每年年底,镇里给她寄去一份纳税通知单,一个星期后,那份通知单就会原封不动地被邮局退回来。我们偶尔会看见看她出现在楼下房间的窗口---显然她已经把楼上关闭了---,样子就像墙洞里放着的一尊偶像,对我们呢她则是似看非看的,我们谁也说不准。就这样她从一代人活到下一代人,近在咫尺,无从躲避,无动于衷,悄无声息,冥顽不化。
And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows,with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her. We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro
He talked to no one,probably not even to her,for his voice had grown harsh and rusty,as if from disuse.
她就这么着一直到死。在那个阴影幢幢,灰尘漫漫的房子里,她病了,身边只有一个步履蹒跚的黑人服侍她。我们甚至不知道她病了。我们早就不再向那个黑人打听她的情况了。那个黑人跟谁都不说话,恐怕都不跟她说话了,因为他的嗓音已经变得艰涩难听,好像长久不用而废弃了一样。
She died in one of the downstairs rooms,in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain,her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.
她是在楼下的一个房间死掉的。死的时候她躺在一张挂着帷幔的厚重的核桃木床上,灰白的头枕在一个枕头上,那枕头由于年深日久不见阳光已经发黄发霉。
V
THE NEGRO met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in,with their hushed,sibilant voices and their quick,curious glances,and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again.
那个黑人在门口迎接了头一批到达的女士,让她们进了门。在女士们压低嗓门细声细气地说话,满怀好奇忙着东张西望时,他不见了。他穿过房子的房间从后门溜了出去,从此再也没有谁见过他。
The two female cousins came at once. They held the funeral on the second day,with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers,with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men --some in their brushed Confederate uniforms--on the porch and the lawn,talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs,believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps,confusing time with its mathematical progression,as the old do,to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but,instead,a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches,divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.
那两个堂姐很快就来了。她们第二天就把葬礼办了。全镇的人都来看埋在买来的花下的艾弥莉小姐。在灵车上,他父亲的彩笔画像带着一幅令人莫测的沉思表情,而穿着窸窣绸缎的女人们则透着一股死亡的气息。还有那些老人们---有的还穿上了刷得干干净净的邦联军装---站在门廊上和草坪上像谈论同代人那样谈论着艾弥莉小姐,相信着自己曾经跟艾弥莉小姐跳过舞甚至好像还追求过她,完全混淆了时间的跨度。这正是老人常有的事,对他们来说,往昔不是一条渐渐消失的道路而是一片冬天未曾染指的草原,只被最近十来年的细细的瓶颈跟自己隔开了。
Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years,and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it.
我们已经知道艾弥莉小姐房子楼上的那个四十年里没人去过的地方有那么一间屋子必须撬开。他们等到了艾弥莉体面下葬之后才着手破门。
The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin,acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color,upon the rose-shaded lights,upon the dressing table,upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver,silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a collar and tie,as if they had just been removed,which,lifted,left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit,carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.
屋子的门被猛然扳倒的时候掀起了满屋的灰尘。屋子布置得像个婚房,然而却弥漫着坟墓特有的刺鼻味道:在失去了原色的的玫瑰色窗幔上,在玫瑰状的灯具上,在梳妆台上,在精心放置的水晶摆设和男人的盥洗用具上。那套男用盥洗用具的银色已经发黑,黑得上面的姓名字母已经难以辨认。这些物件中间放着一套领结领带,好像刚刚从脖子上取下来的一样。拿起来的时候,在梳妆台尘封的台面上留下了一个浅浅的半月痕。在一把椅子上搭着一件西服,叠得整整齐齐的,下面是一双无声的鞋和一双脱掉的袜子。
The man himself lay in the bed.
For a long while we just stood there,looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace,but now the long sleep that outlasts love,that conquers even the grimace of love,had cuckolded him. What was left of him,rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt,had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it,and leaning forward,that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils,we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.
那个男人就躺在床上。
我们在那里站了好一会儿,盯着那骷髅洞开的嘴巴。死尸显然曾经以拥抱姿势摆放过,但是他的情人最后所青睐的,却是那个比爱情更长久的长眠,那个甚至连畸样的爱情也要征服的长眠。他之所剩都已经在睡衣所剩的底下腐烂,无法从他睡过的床榻上剥离开来了。在他身上,在他旁边的枕头上则覆着一层耐心而执着的灰尘。
我们的视线转向第二个枕头,注意到了一个头型的凹痕。有人从上面提起了什么。我们都俯向前去,在几乎看不见的干燥而刺鼻的纤尘里,看到了长长的一缕铅灰色的头发。
http://www.archive.org/stream/collectedstories030393mbp/collectedstories030393mbp_djvu.txt
- Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/27/2009
教过这篇。且看老方怎么译The folky "we". - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
I really do not know. - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
As opposed to the royal "we". - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
- Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
As opposed to all that, it's Faulkner's unique usage. Actually we all use it colloquially, especially when we recall something collectively, but he, I guess, used it in literature first. You will see as you get there in your translation. - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
我想有些微言大意只能靠分析带出来,无法靠翻译带出来。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
我想有些微言大意只能靠分析带出来,无法靠翻译带出来。 - posted on 07/28/2009
LaoLiao,
In the end of the wiki page there is the description of "inclusive and exclusive we." Is that what you are talking about? I read the whole story and it seems the "we" intimates that the narrator is part of the ambient of the fictional town, gives the story more authenticity.
The story itself is a good read, has a trace of Dickensian influence too.
liaokang wrote:
As opposed to all that, it's Faulkner's unique usage. Actually we all use it colloquially, especially when we recall something collectively, but he, I guess, used it in literature first. You will see as you get there in your translation. - posted on 07/28/2009
Inclusive we is 咱们 including the listener; exclusive we is 我们 excluding the listener.
You are right, Tar, Faulkner's we as the story teller is certainly not the royal we but it is as if the villagers were together recalling the bits and pieces about Emily's strange life and then came up with the entire story. I say "as if" because, after all, the story is told by one narrator, who knows it all and pieces it together.
I would change 除了一个老佣人--- 一个兼作园艺的厨子---以外 to 除了一个老佣人以外---他还兼作园丁和厨子,
"But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see We must go by the--"
“可是镇里的帐目里没有你不欠税的记录。你知道,我们可得照章。。。”
是否应该说“可是镇里的帐目里没有你不必赋税的说明。你知道,我们可得照章……”? - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
good work thus far... - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/28/2009
也可以以模糊对模糊,亦称“没有有关记录”
后边小地方疑问还是很多的。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/29/2009
"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published in the April 30, 1930.是很著名的美国早期的短篇小说,有很好的历史背景,叙述的第一人称用的是we,写作手法是悬念式地步步引伸,最后一个意想不到的惊粟,来隐射南方白人[上等人]在国内战争失败后的世袭,挣扎,没落…..
是学习英文写作的范文.老方把她翻成中文,可要保持原汁原味噢.
- Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/29/2009
Good.
fanghuzhai wrote:
也可以以模糊对模糊,亦称“没有有关记录”
后边小地方疑问还是很多的。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 07/30/2009
这篇小说真棒,从前没读过,谢老方找出来给大家欣赏。
- Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/01/2009
老方跟艾弥莉同病相怜。 - posted on 08/01/2009
以前学英美文学课的时候老师很推崇这篇的,那时候十七八岁,太年轻,体会不到小说里面的人情况味,只觉得emily是个怪女人,不明白作者为什么要送一朵玫瑰给她。结局现在已经不觉得惊栗,沈从文也写过恋尸的故事。
感谢秋子讲解这篇小说的内战背景,我更愿意从个人的角度来看,一个人受到内在情感的折磨比起战争、革命、时代的剧变有过之而无不及。艾米莉孤寂、痛苦的一生,难道不是人类永恒的写照么。那朵玫瑰,代表最深切的同情,是作者送给每一个人的。
老方翻译的很好。我在网上找到不知谁翻的一篇,语言比您差很远,给您参考。另外注意到您上面的帖子里第III部分买老鼠药的段落重复贴了好几次。
Barron是个ready man,这个词很传神,但我也不知道怎么翻译,下文翻成“精明强干”,也不全对。比方说transporter里的那个frank,就是个ready man,无论发生何种突变,都是ready的,就是天要塌下来,他也可以先把一个kiss从容完成了再去理会。
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A ROSE FOR EMILY的中文
一
爱米丽•格里尔生小姐过世了,全镇的人都去送丧:男子们是出于敬慕之情,因为一个纪念碑倒下了:妇女们呢,则大多数出于好奇心,想看看她屋子的内部。除了一个花匠兼厨师的老仆人之外,至少已有十年光景谁也没进去看看这幢房子了。
那是一幢过去漆成白色的四方形大木屋,坐落在当年一条最考究的街道上,还装点着有十九世纪七十年代风味的圆形屋顶、尖塔和涡形花纹的阳台,带有浓厚的轻盈气息。可是汽车间和轧棉机之类的东西侵犯了这一带庄严的名字,把它们涂抹得一干二净。只有爱米丽小姐的屋子岿然独存,四周簇拥着棉花车和汽油泵。房子虽已破败,却还是执拗不驯,装模作样,真是丑中之丑。现在爱米丽小姐已经加入了那些名字庄严的代表人物的行列,他们沉睡在雪松环绕的墓园之中,那里尽是一排排在南北战争时期杰斐逊战役中阵亡的南方和北方的无名军人墓。
爱米丽小姐在世时,始终是一个传统的化身,是义务的象征,也是人们关注的对象。打一八九四年某日镇长沙多里斯上校——也就是他下了一道黑人妇女不系围裙不得上街的命令——豁免了她一切应纳的税款起,期限从她父亲去世之日开始,一直到她去世为止,这是全镇沿袭下来对她的一种义务。这也并非说爱米丽甘愿接受施舍,原来是沙多里斯上校编造了一大套无中生有的话,说是爱米丽的父亲曾经贷款给镇政府,因此,镇政府作为一种交易,宁愿以这种方式偿还。这一套话,只有沙多里斯一代的人以及像沙多里斯一样头脑的人才能编得出来,也只有妇道人家才会相信。
等到思想更为开明的第二代人当了镇长和参议员时,这项安排引起了一些小小的不满。那年元旦,他们便给她寄去了一张纳税通知单。二月份到了,还是杳无音信。他们发去一封公函,要她便中到司法长官办公处去一趟。一周之后,镇长亲自写信给爱米丽,表示愿意登门访问,或派车迎接她,而所得回信却是一张便条,写在古色古香的信笺上,书法流利,字迹细小,但墨水已不鲜艳,信的大意是说她已根本不外出。纳税通知附还,没有表示意见。
参议员们开了个特别会议,派出一个代表团对她进行了访问。他们敲敲门,自从八年或者十年前她停止开授瓷器彩绘课以来,谁也没有从这大门出入过。那个上了年纪的黑人男仆把他们接待进阴暗的门厅,从那里再由楼梯上去,光线就更暗了。一股尘封的气味扑鼻而来,空气阴湿而又不透气,这屋子长久没有人住了。黑人领他们到客厅里,里面摆设的笨重家具全都包着皮套子。黑人打开了一扇百叶窗,这时,便更可看出皮套子已经坼裂;等他们坐了下来,大腿两边就有一阵灰尘冉冉上升,尘粒在那一缕阳光中缓缓旋转。壁炉前已经失去金色光泽的画架上面放着爱米丽父亲的炭笔画像。
她一进屋,他们全都站了起来。一个小模小样,腰圆体胖的女人,穿了一身黑服,一条细细的金表链拖到腰部,落到腰带里去了,一根乌木拐杖支撑着她的身体,拐杖头的镶金已经失去光泽。她的身架矮小,也许正因为这个缘故,在别的女人身上显得不过是丰满,而她却给人以肥大的感觉。她看上去像长久泡在死水中的一具死尸,肿胀发白。当客人说明来意时,她那双凹陷在一脸隆起的肥肉之中,活像揉在一团生面中的两个小煤球似的眼睛不住地移动着,时而瞧瞧这张面孔,时而打量那张面孔。
她没有请他们坐下来。她只是站在门口,静静地听着,直到发言的代表结结巴巴地说完,他们这时才听到那块隐在金链子那一端的挂表嘀嗒作响。
她的声调冷酷无情。“我在杰斐逊无税可纳。沙多里斯上校早就向我交代过了。或许你们有谁可以去查一查镇政府档案,就可以把事情弄清楚。”
“我们已经查过档案,爱米丽小姐,我们就是政府当局。难道你没有收到过司法长官亲手签署的通知吗?”
“个错,我收到过一份通知,”爱米丽小姐说道,“也许他自封为司法长官……可是我在杰斐逊无税可交。”
“可是纳税册上并没有如此说明,你明白吧。我们应根据……”
“你们去找沙多里斯上校。我在杰斐逊无税可交。”
“可是,爱米丽小姐——”
“你们去找沙多里斯上校,(沙多里斯上校死了将近十年了)我在杰斐逊无税可纳。托比!”黑人应声而来。“把这些先生们请出去。”
二
她就这样把他们“连人带马”地打败了,正如三十年前为了那股气味的事战胜了他们的父辈一样。那是她父亲死后两年,也就是在她的心上人——我们都相信一定会和她结婚的那个人——抛弃她不久的时候。父亲死后,她很少外出;心上人离去之后,人们简直就看不到她了。有少数几位妇女竟冒冒失失地去访问过她,但都吃了闭门羹。她居处周围唯一的生命迹象就是那个黑人男子拎着一个篮子出出进进,当年他还是个青年。
“好象只要是一个男子,随便什么样的男子,都可以把厨房收拾得井井有条似的。”妇女们都这样说。因此,那种气味越来越厉害时,她们也不感到惊异,那是芸芸众生的世界与高贵有势的格里尔生家之间的另一联系。
邻家一位妇女向年已八十的法官斯蒂芬斯镇长抱怨。
“可是太太,你叫我对这件事又有什么办法呢?”他说。
“哼,通知她把气味弄掉,”那位妇女说。“法律不是有明文规定吗?”
“我认为这倒不必要,”法官斯蒂芬斯说。“可能是她用的那个黑鬼在院子里打死了一条蛇或一只老鼠。我去跟他说说这件事。”
第二天,他又接到两起申诉,一起来自一个男的,用温和的语气提出意见。“法官,我们对这件事实在不能不过问了。我是最不愿意打扰爱米丽小姐的人,可是我们总得想个办法。”那天晚上全体参议员——三位老人和一位年纪较轻的新一代成员在一起开了个会。
“这件事很简单,”年轻人说。“通知她把屋子打扫干净,限期搞好,不然的话……”
“先生,这怎么行?”法官斯蒂芬斯说,“你能当着一位贵妇人的面说她那里有难闻的气味吗?”
于是,第二天午夜之后,有四个人穿过了爱米丽小姐家的草坪,像夜盗一样绕着屋子潜行,沿着墙角一带以及在地窖通风处拚命闻嗅,而其中一个人则用手从挎在肩上的袋子中掏出什么东西,不断做着播种的动作。他们打开了地窖门,在那里和所有的外屋里都撒上了石灰。等到他们回头又穿过草坪时,原来暗黑的一扇窗户亮起了灯:爱米丽小姐坐在那里,灯在她身后,她那挺直的身躯一动不动像是一尊偶像一样。他们蹑手蹑脚地走过草坪,进入街道两旁洋槐树树荫之中。一两个星期之后,气味就闻不到了。
而这时人们才开始真正为她感到难过。镇上的人想起爱米丽小姐的姑奶奶韦亚特老太太终于变成了十足疯子的事,都相信格里尔生一家人自视过高,不了解自己所处的地位。爱米丽小姐和像她一类的女子对什么年轻男子都看不上眼。长久以来,我们把这家人一直看做一幅画中的人物:身段苗条、穿着白衣的爱米丽小姐立在背后,她父亲叉开双脚的侧影在前面,背对爱米丽,手执一根马鞭,一扇向后开的前门恰好嵌住了他们俩的身影。因此当她年近三十,尚未婚配时,我们实在没有喜幸的心理,只是觉得先前的看法得到了证实。即令她家有着疯癫的血液吧,如果真有一切机会摆在她面前,她也不至于断然放过。
父亲死后,传说留给她的全部财产就是那座房子;人们倒也有点感到高兴。到头来,他们可以对爱米丽表示怜悯之情了。单身独处,贫苦无告,她变得懂人情了。如今她也体会到多一便士就激动喜悦、少一便士便痛苦失望的那种人皆有之的心情了。
她父亲死后的第二天,所有的妇女们都准备到她家拜望,表示哀悼和愿意接济的心意,这是我们的习俗。爱米丽小姐在家门口接待她们,衣着和平日一样,脸上没有一丝哀愁。她告诉她们,她的父亲并未死。一连三天她都是这样,不论是教会牧师访问她也好,还是医生想劝她让他们把尸体处理掉也好。正当他们要诉诸法律和武力时,她垮下来了,于是他们很快地埋葬了她的父亲。
当时我们还没有说她发疯。我们相信她这样做是控制不了自己。我们还记得她父亲赶走了所有的青年男子,我们也知道她现在已经一无所有,只好象人们常常所做的一样,死死拖住抢走了她一切的那个人。
三
她病了好长一个时期。再见到她时,她的头发已经剪短,看上去像个姑娘,和教堂里彩色玻璃窗上的天使像不无相似之处——有几分悲怆肃穆。
行政当局已订好合同,要铺设人行道,就在她父亲去世的那年夏天开始动工,建筑公司带着一批黑人、骡子和机器来了,工头是个北方佬,名叫荷默•伯隆,个子高大,皮肤黝黑,精明强干,声音宏亮,双眼比脸色浅淡。一群群孩子跟在他身后听他用不堪入耳的话责骂黑人,而黑人则随着铁镐的上下起落有节奏地哼着劳动号子。没有多少时候,全镇的人他都认识了。随便什么时候人们要是在广场上的什么地方听见呵呵大笑的声音,荷默•伯隆肯定是在人群的中心。过了不久,逢到礼拜天的下午我们就看到他和爱米丽小姐一齐驾着轻便马车出游了。那辆黄轮车配上从马房中挑出的栗色辕马,十分相称。
起初我们都高兴地看到爱米丽小姐多少有了一点寄托,因为妇女们都说:“格里尔生家的人绝对不会真的看中一个北方佬,一个拿日工资的人。”不过也有别人,一些年纪大的人说就是悲伤也不会叫一个真正高贵的妇女忘记“贵人举止”,尽管口头上不把它叫作“贵人举止”。他们只是说:“可怜的爱米丽,她的亲属应该来到她的身边。”她有亲属在亚拉巴马;但多年以前,她的父亲为了疯婆子韦亚特老太太的产权问题跟他们闹翻了,以后两家就没有来往。他们连丧礼也没派人参加。
老人们一说到“可伶的爱米丽”,就交头接耳开了。他们彼此说:“你当真认为是那么回事吗?”“当然是啰。还能是别的什么事?……”而这句话他们是用手捂住嘴轻轻地说的;轻快的马蹄得得驶去的时候,关上了遮挡星期日午后骄阳的百叶窗,还可听出绸缎的窸窣声:“可怜的爱米丽。”
她把头抬得高高——甚至当我们深信她已经堕落了的时候也是如此,仿佛她比历来都更要求人们承认她作为格里尔生家族末代人物的尊严;仿佛她的尊严就需要同世俗的接触来重新肯定她那不受任何影响的性格。比如说,她那次买老鼠药、砒霜的情况。那是在人们已开始说“可怜的爱米丽”之后一年多,她的两个堂姐妹也正在那时来看望她。
“我要买点毒药。”她跟药剂师说。她当时已三十出头,依然是个削肩细腰的女人,只是比往常更加清瘦了,一双黑眼冷酷高傲,脸上的肉在两边的太阳穴和眼窝处绷得很紧,那副面部表情是你想象中的灯塔守望人所应有的。“我要买点毒药。”她说道。
“知道了,爱米丽小姐。要买哪一种?是毒老鼠之类的吗?那么我介——”
“我要你们店里最有效的毒药,种类我不管。”
药剂师一口说出好几种。“它们什么都毒得死,哪怕是大象。可足你要的是——”
“砒霜,”爱米丽小姐说。“砒霜灵不灵?”
“是……砒霜?知道了,小姐。可是你要的是……”
“我要的是砒霜。”
药和师朝下望了她一眼。她回看他一眼,身子挺直,面孔像一面拉紧了的旗子。“噢噢,当然有,”药剂师说。“如果你要的是这种毒药。不过,法律规定你得说明作什么用途。”
爱米丽小姐只是瞪着他,头向后仰了仰,以便双眼好正视他的双眼,一直看到他把目光移开了,走进去拿砒霜包好。黑人送货员把那包药送出来给她;药剂师却没有再露面。她回家打开药包,盒子上骷髅骨标记下注明:“毒鼠用药”。
四
于是,第二天我们大家都说:“她要自杀了”;我们也都说这是再好没有的事。我们第一次看到她和荷默•伯隆在一块儿时,我们都说:“她要嫁给他了。”后来又说:“她还得说服他呢。”因为前默自己说他喜欢和男人来往,大家知道他和年轻人在糜鹿俱乐部一道喝酒,他本人说过,他是无意于成家的人。以后每逢礼拜天下午他们乘着漂亮的轻便马车驰过:爱米丽小姐昂着头,荷默歪戴着帽子,嘴里叼着雪茄烟,戴着黄手套的手握着马缰和马鞭。我们在百叶窗背后都不禁要说一声:“可怜的爱米刚。”
后来有些妇女开始说,这是全镇的羞辱,也是青年的坏榜样。男子汉不想干涉,但妇女们终于迫使浸礼会牧师——爱米丽小姐一家人都是属于圣公会的——去拜访她。访问经过他从未透露,但他再也不愿去第二趟了。下个礼拜天他们又驾着马车出现在街上,于是第二天牧师夫人就写信告知爱米丽住在亚拉巴马的亲厦。
原来她家里还有近亲,于是我们坐待事态的发展。起先没有动静,随后我们得到确讯,他们即将结婚。我们还听说爱米丽小姐去过首饰店,订购了一套银质男人盥洗用具,每件上面刻着“荷•伯”。两天之后人家又告诉我们她买了全套男人服装,包括睡衣在内,因此我们说:“他们已经结婚了。”我们着实高兴。我们高兴的是两位堂姐妹比起爱米丽小姐来,更有格里尔生家族的风度。
因此当荷默•伯隆离开本城——街道铺路工程已经竣工好一阵子了——时,我们一点也不感到惊异。我们倒因为缺少一番送行告别的热闹,不无失望之感。不过我们都相信他此去是为了迎接爱米丽小姐作一番准备,或者是让她有个机会打发走两个堂姐妹。(这时已经形成了一个秘密小集团,我们都站爱米丽小姐一边,帮她踢开这一对堂姐妹。)一点也不差,一星期后她们就走了。而且,正如我们一直所期待的那样,荷默•伯隆又回到镇上来了。一位邻居亲眼看见那个黑人在一天黄昏时分打开厨房门让他进去了。
这就是我们最后一次看到荷默•伯隆。至于爱米丽小姐呢,我们则有一段时间没有见到过她。黑人拿着购货篮进进出出,可是前门却总是关着。偶尔可以看到她的身影在窗口晃过,就像人们在撒石灰那天夜晚曾经见到过的那样,但却有整整六个月的时间,她没有出现在大街上。我们明白这也并非出乎意料;“她父亲的性格三番五次地使她那作为女性的一生平添波折,而这种性格仿佛大恶毒,太狂暴,还不肯消失似的。
等到我们再见到爱米丽小姐时,她已经发胖了,头发也已灰白了。以后数年中,头发越变越灰,变得像胡椒盐似的铁灰色,颜色就不再变了。直到她七十四岁去世之日为止,还是保持着那旺盛的铁灰色,像是一个活跃的男子的头发。
打那时起,她的前门就一直关闭着,除了她四十左右的那段约有六七年的时间之外。在那段时期,她开授瓷器彩绘课。在楼下的一间房里,她临时布置了一个画室,沙多里斯上校的同时代人全都把女儿、孙女儿送到她那里学画,那样的按时按刻,那样的认真精神,简直同礼拜天把她们送到教堂去,还给她们二角伍分钱的硬币准备放在捐献盆子里的情况一模一样。这时,她的捐税已经被豁免了。
后来,新的一代成了全镇的骨干和精神,学画的学生们也长大成人,渐次离开了,她们没有让她们自己的女孩子带着颜色盒、令人生厌的画笔和从妇女杂志上剪下来的画片到爱米丽小姐那里去学画。最后一个学生离开后,前门关上了,而且永远关上了。全镇实行免费邮递制度之后,只有爱米丽小姐一人拒绝在她门口钉上金属门牌号,附设一个邮件箱。她怎样也不理睬他们。
日复一日,月复一月,年复一年,我们眼看着那黑人的头发变白了,背也驼了,还照旧提着购货篮进进出出。每年十二月我们都寄给她一张纳税通知单,但一星期后又由邮局退还了,无人收信。不时我们在楼底下的一个窗口——她显然是把楼上封闭起来了——见到她的身影,像神龛中的一个偶像的雕塑躯干,我们说不上她是不是在看着我们。她就这样度过了一代又一代——高贵,宁静,无法逃避,无法接近,怪僻乖张。
她就这样与世长辞了。在一栋尘埃遍地、鬼影憧憧的屋子里得了病,侍候她的只有一个老态龙钟的黑人。我们甚至连她病了也不知道;也早已不想从黑人那里去打听什么消息。他跟谁也不说话,恐怕对她也是如此,他的嗓子似乎由于长久不用变得嘶哑了。
她死在楼下一间屋子里,笨重的胡桃木床上还挂着床帷,她那长满铁灰头发的头枕着的枕头由于用了多年而又不见阳光,已经黄得发霉了。
五
黑人在前门口迎接第一批妇女,把她们请进来,她们话音低沉,发出咝咝声响,以好奇的目光迅速扫视着一切。黑人随即不见了,他穿过屋子,走出后门,从此就不见踪影了。
两位堂姐妹也随即赶到,他们第二天就举行了丧礼,全镇的人都跑来看看覆盖着鲜花的爱米丽小姐的尸体。停尸架上方悬挂着她父亲的炭笔画像,一脸深刻沉思的表情,妇女们唧唧喳喳地谈论着死亡,而老年男子呢——有些人还穿上了刷得很干净的南方同盟军制服——则在走廊上,草坪上纷纷谈论着爱米丽小姐的一生,仿佛她是他们的同时代人,而且还相信和她跳过舞,甚至向她求过爱,他们把按数学级数向前推进的时间给搅乱了。这是老年人常有的情形。在他们看来,过去的岁月不是一条越来越窄的路,而是一片广袤的连冬天也对它无所影响的大草地,只是近十年来才像窄小的瓶口一样,把他们同过去隔断了。
我们已经知道,楼上那块地方有一个房间,四十年来从没有人见到过,要进去得把门撬开。他们等到爱米丽小姐安葬之后,才设法去开门。
门猛烈地打开,震得屋里灰尘弥漫。这间布置得像新房的屋子,仿佛到处都笼罩着墓室一般的淡淡的阴惨惨的氛围:败了色的玫瑰色窗帘,玫瑰色的灯罩,梳妆台,一排精细的水晶制品和白银作底的男人盥洗用具,但白银已毫无光泽,连刻制的姓名字母图案都已无法辨认了。杂物中有一条硬领和领带,仿佛刚从身上取下来似的,把它们拿起来时,在台面上堆积的尘埃中留下淡淡的月牙痕。椅子上放着一套衣服,折叠得好好的;椅子底下有两只寂寞无声的鞋和一双扔了不要的袜子。
那男人躺在床上。
我们在那里立了好久,俯视着那没有肉的脸上令人莫测的龇牙咧嘴的样子。那尸体躺在那里,显出一度是拥抱的姿势,但那比爱情更能持久、那战胜了爱情的熬煎的永恒的长眠已经使他驯服了。他所遗留下来的肉体已在破烂的睡衣下腐烂,跟他躺着的木床粘在一起,难分难解了。在他身上和他身旁的枕上,均匀地覆盖着一层长年累月积下来的灰尘。
后来我们才注意到旁边那只枕头上有人头压过的痕迹。我们当中有一个人从那上面拿起了什么东西,大家凑近一看——这时一股淡淡的干燥发臭的气味钻进了鼻孔——原来是一绺长长的铁灰色头发。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/01/2009
谢谢找来这篇译文。我把译完的部分跟这篇对比一下,可以帮助我解决一些不清楚的地方。
重译一般都拿已有的译本作参考。我倾向于先自己翻译,然后看别人的,取别人之长补自己之短。这样基本的行文风格还是自己的。如果先看了别人的译文,有的时候连行文都会受到影响。
蒙特雷研究院旁边的这栋房子很像艾弥丽的:
这栋房子的窗帘总是拉着的,不知道什么人住在哪里。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
有的地方翻译不下去了。看了那个译文,更是糊涂:
那尸体躺在那里,显出一度是拥抱的姿势,但那比爱情更能持久、那战胜了爱情的熬煎的永恒的长眠已经使他驯服了。
The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.
为什么这里用but 和even?
不好懂的是 conquers even the grimace of love, - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
表明上是说死亡战胜了爱情,夺走了他。言外之意是,她的爱情如此长久,唯有死亡才能夺走。 - posted on 08/13/2009
他曾经躺在这里期待着拥抱,但迎接他的是那女人的背叛。现在静静的长眠已经抹去了那短暂的爱情,那扭曲的爱情。
fanghuzhai wrote:
有的地方翻译不下去了。看了那个译文,更是糊涂:
那尸体躺在那里,显出一度是拥抱的姿势,但那比爱情更能持久、那战胜了爱情的熬煎的永恒的长眠已经使他驯服了。
The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.
为什么这里用but 和even?
不好懂的是 conquers even the grimace of love, - posted on 08/13/2009
The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.
那具尸体躺在那里,显然是个拥抱的姿势,但那长久的睡眠,比爱情还长久的睡眠,甚至能制服爱情苦痛的睡眠,夺走了他怀里的人。
fanghuzhai wrote:
The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.
为什么这里用but 和even?
不好懂的是 conquers even the grimace of love, - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
cuckold 是女人让男人戴绿帽子的意思。这句话的主语是long sleep, 有个定语从句:
1。long sleep outlasts love and conquers even the grimace of love
2. long sleep cuckolded the man
有的解释是,Homer 一直不愿意结婚,想做自由人,没想到却死于爱情的陷阱,被艾米莉永远留在床上。在这个意义上,艾米莉用死亡欺骗了他。
为什么说死亡甚至战胜了扭曲的爱情? - posted on 08/13/2009
这里是比喻的用法,死亡最终夺走了她,好像让他戴绿帽子了。
艾米莉多年怀抱僵尸,这爱情还不扭曲吗?
fanghuzhai wrote:
cuckold 是女人让男人戴绿帽子的意思。这句话的主语是long sleep, 有个定语从句:
1。long sleep outlasts love and conquers even the grimace of love
2. long sleep cuckolded the man
有的解释是,Homer 一直不愿意结婚,想做自由人,没想到却死于爱情的陷阱,被艾米莉永远留在床上。在这个意义上,艾米莉用死亡欺骗了他。
为什么说死亡甚至战胜了扭曲的爱情? - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
如果这样理解就不符合小说对Homer这个人的描写,说他不想结婚。这样解释好像Homer成了一个情圣。
- Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
fanghuzhai wrote:
如果这样理解就不符合小说对Homer这个人的描写,说他不想结婚。这样解释好像Homer成了一个情圣。
他不想结婚,Emily因此用死亡(“长眠”)制服了他,而自己嫁给了死亡,让他“戴了绿帽子”。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
对,艾米莉用耗子药毒死了Homer,把他搞到手,又永远地“嫁给”死亡了。说她钟情也不恰当,她就是个人意志太强。What a woman!
我教这篇时,有一句妙语:Homer is not homo. - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
This is the first time that I read William Faulkner's words. I know nothing about him except only faintly remembering seeing this name Faulkner before. His words are like a knife - sharp and cool. Dignity is the word I use to describe this short story.
- posted on 08/13/2009
综合各位意见,我这样翻:
我们在那里站了好一会儿,盯着那骷髅洞开的嘴巴。死尸显然曾经以拥抱姿势摆放过,但是得到他的情人青睐的,却是那个比爱情更长久的长眠,那个甚至把爱情的痛苦都消灭了的长眠。他留下来的都已经在破碎的睡衣下腐烂, 无法从他睡过的床榻上剥离开来了。在他身上,在他旁边的枕头上则覆着一层耐心而执着的灰尘。
我们的视线转向第二个枕头,发现那里有个头型的凹痕。有人从上面提起了什么。我们都俯向前去,在几乎看不见的干燥而刺鼻的纤尘里,看到了长长的一缕银灰色的头发。
but I am still not satisfied with this:
那个甚至把爱情的痛苦都消灭了的长眠。
铅灰 是不是好一点。
汉语不说“铁灰”吧。
最后又修改了,见原贴。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/13/2009
Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.
既然是hung, 为什么还folded carefully???? - posted on 08/14/2009
Excellent!
Perhaps Lao Fang should select a few more short stories and translate them into Chinese. It would enrich the Chinese literature, in the light that most of the Chinese translations of Western literature are so badly done in general. Seriously.
How about "那个甚至消灭了爱情苦痛的长眠"? 很多时候直接用动词比用“把什么怎样了”的句型要来得明快。另外,“苦痛”比“痛苦”好。“爱情的痛苦”是个陈词。
“铅灰”大大好过“银灰”。
Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.
既然是hung, 为什么还folded carefully????
Maybe the jacket was hung on the back of the chair, while the pants were carefully folded and placed on the chair? - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/14/2009
“苦痛”是我打错了,不过可以将错就错。
听起来像民国时候的汉语了。 - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/14/2009
fanghuzhai wrote:
“苦痛”是我打错了,不过可以将错就错。
听起来像民国时候的汉语了。
"A rose for Emily" was published in 1930, wasn't it? :-) - Re: 献给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰----老方译 A Rose for Emilyposted on 08/14/2009
A Rose for Emily的中文版太好了,老方可以走出怪梦。可怜的艾米莉!
这篇短文很精彩,最精彩的就是那个结尾。可怜的艾米莉,什么都被夺走了,最后只留下一具尸体,她爱情的象征。
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