雙語·《刀鋒》 第六章 四

CHAPTER SIX 4
第六章 四

“I settled down in Paris for the rest of the winter. I knew nothing of science, and I thought the time had come when I must acquire at least a nodding acquaintance with it.I read a lot.I don't know that I learnt much except that my ignorance was abysmal.But I knew that before.When the spring came I went to the country and stayed at a little inn on a river near one of those beautiful old French towns where life doesn't seem to have moved for two hundred years.”
“我到巴黎住下來，在那兒度過了殘冬。我對科學(xué)知識一無所知，后來覺得該了解了解科學(xué)了，至少得掌握一點常識吧。于是，我讀了不少相關(guān)的書。我也不知道自己學(xué)到了多少知識，只覺得自己十分孤陋寡聞。若說這一點，我老早就有自知之明了。春天姍姍來臨，我到鄉(xiāng)間去，在傍河而建的一個客棧里住下來，不遠處有一座美麗的法式古鎮(zhèn)——那兒的生活平靜如水，似乎兩百年沒有起過波瀾。”

I guessed that this was the summer Larry had spent with Suzanne Rouvier, but I did not interrupt him.
我猜想那年夏天拉里是和蘇姍娜·魯維埃一起度過的。不過，我沒有打斷他的話。

“After that I went to Spain. I wanted to see Velasquez and El Greco.I wondered if art could point out the way to me that religion hadn't.I wandered about a bit and then came to Seville.I liked it and thought I'd spend the winter there.”
“后來，我去了西班牙，想看看委拉斯凱茲和埃爾·格列柯的畫。我覺得，宗教不能給我提供答案，也許藝術(shù)可以為我指出一條路吧。我浪跡天涯，四處游蕩，最后去了塞維利亞。我喜歡那地方，打算在那兒過冬?！?/p>

I had myself been to Seville when I was twenty-three and I, too, had liked it. I liked its white, tortuous streets, its cathedral, and the wide-spreading plain of the Guadalquivir；but I liked also those Andalusian girls with their grace and their gaiety, with their dark shining eyes, the carnation in their hair stressing its blackness and by the contrast itself more vivid；I liked the rich colour of their skins and the inviting sensuality of their lips.Then indeed to be young was very heaven.When Larry went there he was only a little older than I had been and I could not but ask myself whether it was possible that he had remained indifferent to the lure of those enchanting creatures.He answered my unspoken question.
我二十三歲那年也去過塞維利亞，也喜歡那地方。我喜歡那彎彎曲曲白顏色的街道，喜歡那教堂以及瓜達爾基維爾河畔一望無際的平原。我還喜歡那些安達盧西亞姑娘，她們一個個風(fēng)韻十足、活潑可愛，黑色的眸子閃閃發(fā)亮，頭上插一朵康乃馨，把一頭黑發(fā)襯托得如烏云一般，而康乃馨顯得愈加艷麗。她們美麗的膚色以及誘人、性感的嘴唇令人著迷。是呀，那時候年輕，覺得自己到了天堂。拉里到那兒去的時候，比我當年大不了許多。我不由心想，見了那些迷人的姑娘，他不可能無動于衷。他以下說的話解答了我心里的疑問。

“I ran across a French painter I'd known in Paris, a fellow called Auguste Cottet, who'd kept Suzanne Rouvier at one time. He'd come to Seville to paint and was living with a girl he'd picked up there.He asked me to go with them one evening to Eretania to listen to a flamenco singer and they brought along with them a friend of hers.She was the prettiest little thing you ever saw.She was only eighteen.She'd got into trouble with a boy and had had to leave her native village because she was going to have a baby.The boy was doing his military service.After she had the baby she put it out to nurse and got a job in the tobacco factory.I took her home with me.She was very gay and very sweet, and after a few days I asked her if she’d like to come and live with me.She said she would, so we took a couple of rooms in a casa de huéspedes, a bedroom and a sitting-room.I told her she could leave her job, but she didn’t want to, and that suited me because it left me my days to myself.We had the run of the kitchen, so she used to make my breakfast for me before she went to work and then at midday she’d come back and cook the lunch and in the evening we’d dine at a restaurant and go to a movie or to some place to dance.She looked upon me as a lunatic because I had a rubber bath and insisted on having a cold sponge every morning.The baby was farmed out in a village a few miles from Seville and we used to go and see it on Sundays.She made no secret of the fact that she was living with me to make enough money tofurnish the lodging in a tenement they were going to take when her boy friend was through with his military service.She was a dear little thing and I’m sure she’s made her Paco a good wife.She was cheerful, good-tempered, and affectionate.She looked upon what you delicately call sexual congress as a natural function of the body like any other.She took pleasure in it and she was happy to give pleasure.She was of course a little animal, but a very nice, attractive, domesticated animal.
我遇見了一個在巴黎就認識的畫家，名叫奧古斯特·科迪特，此人曾經(jīng)和蘇姍娜·魯維埃同居過。他來到塞維利亞寫生，勾搭上一個女孩子，兩個人就住在了一起。有天晚上他請我和他們一道去埃里丹尼亞劇院聽一位弗拉明戈歌唱家演唱，把他情婦的閨密也帶了去。那個閨密有沉魚落雁的容貌，年僅十八歲。她跟一個小伙子闖了禍，有了身孕，不得不離開了自己的村子。那個小伙子正在服兵役。她將孩子生下來后交給奶媽照料，自己進了一家煙草廠打工。我把她帶回了我的住處。她活潑可愛，非常招人喜歡。過了幾天，我問她愿意不愿意跟我在一起生活。她回答說愿意。于是，我們在一家旅館租了兩個房間，里面有寢室和客廳。我讓她辭去工作，可是她老大不愿意。這倒也好，因為這樣一來，白天我可以用來做些事情。我們自己開火做飯。她上班前準備好早餐，中午回來做午飯，晚飯我們則下館子，吃完飯就去看電影或者跳舞。她把我看作瘋子，因為我洗過一次蒸汽浴，而且每天早晨堅持用海綿蘸冷水擦身子。她把孩子寄養(yǎng)在一個村子里，離塞維利亞有幾英里的路程，我們常在星期天去看孩子。她跟我同居是想積攢些錢，等她的男友服完兵役回來，他們就租套房，好用這些錢裝修房子，對此她毫不隱瞞。她是個招人疼的小可愛，將來一定能成為她的心上人帕克的好妻子。她整天樂呵呵的，性格溫和，懂得情意。她把人們諱莫如深的性交視為身體的自然功能，與身體別的功能是一樣的。她從性交中獲得歡樂，也樂得給別人帶來歡樂。在床上，她活像一頭小獸，不過卻是一頭善良、迷人、溫和的小獸。

“Then one evening she told me that she'd had a letter from Paco in Spanish Morocco, where he was doing his service, to say that he was to be released and would arrive in Cadiz in a couple of days. She packed her belongings next morning and slipped her money in her stocking and I took her to the station.She gave me a hearty kiss as I put her into the railway carriage, but she was too excited at the thought of seeing her lover again to have a thought for me and I'm sure that before the train was out of the station she'd forgotten my existence.
后來，一天晚上，她告訴我，說她收到帕克從西屬摩洛哥（他服兵役的地方）寄來一封信，信中說他就要復(fù)員了，兩天內(nèi)將抵達加的斯。第二天早上，她把自己的東西打了包，把錢塞在長襪子里，讓我送她上車站。當我把她送上車廂時，她熱烈地吻了我。一想到就要和自己久別的心上人重逢，她興奮不已，早已沒有心情跟我話別。我很肯定，不等火車開出車站，她就會把我忘到九霄云外。

“I stayed on in Seville and in the fall I set out on the journey that landed me in India.”
“她走后，我繼續(xù)留在塞維利亞，直至秋天來臨，然后就踏上了前往印度的旅程。”