雙語·《刀鋒》 第一章 一

CHAPTER ONE 1
第一章 一

I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. If I call it a novel it is only because I don't know what else to call it.I have little story to tell and I end neither with a death nor a marriage.Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.It is a sound instinct of the common people which persuades them that with this all that needs to be said is said.When male and female, after whatever vicissitudes you like, are at last brought together they have fulfilled their biological function and interest passes to the generation that is to come.But I leave my reader in the air.This book consists of my recollections of a man with whom I was thrown into close contact only at long intervals, and I have little knowledge of what happened to him in between.I suppose that by the exercise of invention I could fill the gaps plausibly enough and so make my narrative more coherent；but I have no wish to do that.I only want to set down what I know of my own knowledge.
以前動筆寫小說從未像今日這般顧慮重重。稱之為“小說”，只是因為再也想不出別的名稱。我所敘述的事情故事性不強，結(jié)局并非是“一命嗚呼”或者“喜結(jié)連理”。死亡可以一了百了，通常講故事都是以此作為收場，但“喜結(jié)連理”也是一種十分恰當(dāng)?shù)慕Y(jié)局。遇見世俗的所謂幸福美滿的大結(jié)局，奉勸那些老于世故者也不必嗤之以鼻。飲食男女嘛，本性使然，一切都盡在不言中。一男一女，不管經(jīng)歷怎樣的水深火熱，最終喜相逢，在生物功能完成之后，興趣也就轉(zhuǎn)移到未來一代的身上去了。至于事情的原委，我要給讀者留一些懸念。這本書記錄的是我跟一個人的陳年往事——此人和我關(guān)系親密，但要隔很長時間才相會一次。在這段間隔期他有著什么樣的經(jīng)歷我一無所知。如果叫我編出一些情節(jié)來加以彌補，我也可以寫得天衣無縫，讓故事一氣貫通，可我不愿意這樣做。我只打算將自己所了解的實情付諸筆端。

Many years ago I wrote a novel called The Moon and Sixpence. In that I took a famous painter, Paul Gauguin, and, using the novelist's privilege, devised a number of incidents to illustrate the character I had created on the suggestions afforded me by the scanty facts I knew about the French artist.In the present book I have attempted to do nothing of the kind.I have invented nothing.To save embarrassment to people still living I have given to the persons who play a part in this story names of my own contriving, and I have in other ways taken pains to make sure that no one should recognize them.The man I am writing about is not famous.It may be that he never will be.It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.Then my book, if it is read at all, will be read only for what intrinsic interest it may possess.But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.Then it will be quite clear of whom I write in this book and those who want to know at least a little about his early life may find in it something to their purpose.I think my book, within its acknowledged limitations, will be a useful source of information to my friend's biographers.
多年前，我寫過一本小說叫《月亮與六便士》。在那本書里，我塑造的主人公的原型是個名叫保羅·高更的名畫家。關(guān)于這位法國藝術(shù)家的生平我知之甚少，只是依據(jù)一星半點的事實，使用小說家的特權(quán)添枝加葉編造出一些情節(jié)加以渲染。在本書里，我無意如法炮制。此處無任何虛構(gòu)。書中角色的姓氏全都改過，并且采取了一些別的處理手法使之難以辨認，免得那些還活在世上的人看了尷尬。我寫的這人并不出名，也許永遠不會出名。也許，他的生命一旦結(jié)束，這一生留在世界上的痕跡并不比石子投入河中留在水面上的漣漪多。如此，如有讀者青睞本書，完全是書中的內(nèi)涵激發(fā)了讀者的興趣。不過，也許會出現(xiàn)另外一種情況——他選擇的人生道路以及他那堅毅和溫良的人格對同胞們產(chǎn)生了越來越強烈的影響。這樣，可能在他久別人世之后，人們會醒悟到：原來在這個時代產(chǎn)生過一個如此出類拔萃的人物。至于我寫的是何人，謎底將會昭然若揭。有些人對他早年的身世想略作了解，定會如愿以償。我在本書中追溯那如煙的往事。書中所述可能有種種不足，但對有意為我友著書立傳者尚可資用，不失為好的參考。

I do not pretend that the conversations I have recorded can be regarded as verbatim reports. I never kept notes of what was said on this or the other occasion, but I have a good memory for what concerns me, and though I have put these conversations in my own words they faithfully represent, I believe, what was said.I remarked a little while back that I have invented nothing；I want now to modify that statement.I have taken the liberty that historians have taken from the time of Herodotus to put into the mouths of the persons of my narrative speeches that I did not myself hear and could not possibly have heard.I have done this for the same reasons as the historians have, to give liveliness and verisimilitude to scenes that would have been ineffective if they had been merely recounted.I want to be read and I think I am justified in doing what I can to make my book readable.The intelligent reader will easily see for himself where I have used this artifice, and he is at perfect liberty to reject it.
我并無意硬說書中對原談話內(nèi)容的記載一句不漏。在此類境況中，對于說話人的話語我從不做筆錄，而只是將與我有關(guān)的事情謹記心間。雖說記載他們談話的內(nèi)容我用的是自己的詞語，但我敢保證自己所言不虛。剛才我說書中無任何虛構(gòu)，現(xiàn)在我想做一更正。就像希羅多德希羅多德，公元前5世紀(jì)的古希臘作家，他把旅行中的所聞所見，以及第一波斯帝國的歷史記錄下來，著成《歷史》一書，成為西方文學(xué)史上第一部完整流傳下來的散文作品。

Another reason that has caused me to embark upon this work with apprehension is that the persons I have chiefly to deal with are American. It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own countrymen.For men and women are not only themselves；they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives'tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in.It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you have lived them.You can only know them if you are them.And because you cannot know persons of a nation foreign to you except from observation, it is difficult to give them credibility in the pages of a book.Even so subtle and careful an observer as Henry James, though he lived in England for forty years, never managed to create an Englishman who was through and through English.For my part, except in a few short stories, I have never attempted to deal with any but my own countrymen, and if I have ventured to do otherwise in short stories it is because in them you can treat your characters more summarily.You give the reader broad indications and leave him to fill in the details.It may be asked why, if I turned Paul Gauguin into an Englishman, I could not do the same with the persons of this book.The answer is simple：I couldn't.They would not then have been the people they are.I do not pretend that they are American as Americans see themselves；they are American seen through an English eye.I have not attempted to reproduce the peculiarities of their speech.The mess English writers make when they try to do this is only equalled by the mess American writers make when they try to reproduce English as spoken in England.Slang is the great pitfall.Henry James in his English stories made constant use of it, but never quite as the English do, so that instead of getting the colloquial effect he was after, it too often gives the English reader an uncomfortable jolt.
寫這本書還有一點也叫我顧慮重重——書中的主人公基本上都是美國人。了解一個人是非常困難的事情。對于本國之人尚可以知根知底，對于其他國家的人恐怕就難以做到這一點了。了解一個人，不論男女，不但要了解其本身，也得了解其出生的環(huán)境、居住的城市公寓、學(xué)步的場所、兒時的游戲、外婆講的故事、吃的飯菜、求學(xué)之處、從事的運動、吟詠的詩篇以及宗教信仰。這些因素深入他們的骨髓。你不可能聽別人說說就算了解了他們，而非得跟他們同吃同住才能夠知根知底。要做到真正了解，就得成為他們當(dāng)中的一員。對于異國他鄉(xiāng)的人，你只是一個旁觀者，不可能真正了解，寫書時就難取信于人了。即便亨利·詹姆斯①那般觀察細致入微的人，在英國住了四十年，也沒能在作品中創(chuàng)造出一個有著地道英國味的英國人來。至于我本人，除了在幾個短篇里涉及外國人，我只專注于刻畫本國人。敢于在短篇里寫外國人，僅僅因為短篇里的人物不必精細描寫，而只需泛泛一談。你給讀者一點粗淺的啟示，細節(jié)由讀者自己推想。也許有人要問，既然我能把保羅·高更塑造成一個英國人，這本書里的人物為什么不可以照做?；卮鹗牵核‰y從命。照葫蘆畫瓢，那樣的主人公就不倫不類了。我敢說，那樣的主人公絕非美國人眼中的美國人，而成了英國人眼里的美國人。連他們的語言特點我都沒有打算仿效。英國作家在這方面闖的亂子和美國作家打算模仿英國人說的英語時闖的亂子一樣多。俚語簡直就是個陷阱。亨利·詹姆斯在他的英國故事里經(jīng)常要用俚語，可是總不像一個英國人說的那樣地道，因此非但未能取得他所追求的俚語效果，反而弄巧成拙，時常使英國人讀來感到別扭和不舒服。