(中英)現(xiàn)代散文:虎 The Tiger

The Tiger

虎

◎ Ba Jin

◎　巴　金

I have never been to the depths of remote mountains to see a lively fierce tiger, but I have heard quite a few stories about it.

我不曾走入深山，見(jiàn)到活潑跳躍的猛虎。但是我聽(tīng)過(guò)不少關(guān)于虎的故事。

Of all animals, I like the tiger best. And of all the stories about it, the following is my favourite:

在獸類中我最愛(ài)虎；在虎的故事中我最愛(ài)下面的一個(gè)：

There was deep in a mountain an ancient temple where several pious Buddhist monks lived a monotonous life. They had for company only a number of tigers apart from a few country folks who occasionally came up the mountain for a visit. Instead of harassing the monks, the tigers voluntarily stood guard at the gate of the temple. As a reward for it, the monks would place some edibles in front of the gate for the tigers to eat. Towards evening, when the setting sun had dyed half of the sky red, the tigers would come up to the gate in groups to eat their fill and then left skipping and jumping. The monks usually left the gate wide open while peacefully engaged in their daily routine of chanting Buddhist scripture inside the temple. Normally none of them came out to watch the tigers eat. Sometimes, however, one or two monks did appear standing at the gate, but the tigers would remain unalarmed and, taking the monks for their friends, did nothing to harm them. They just kept on eating unhurriedly until they finished and left. Sometimes, when they found no monks at the gate, they would whisk away like the wind after uttering several thunderous roars.

深山中有一所古廟，幾個(gè)和尚在那里過(guò)著單調(diào)的修行生活①。同他們做朋友的②，除了有時(shí)上山來(lái)的少數(shù)鄉(xiāng)下人外，就是幾只猛虎?；⒉惑@擾僧人，卻替他們守護(hù)廟宇。作為報(bào)酬，和尚把一些可吃的東西放在廟門(mén)前。每天傍晚，夕陽(yáng)染紅小半個(gè)天空，虎們成群地走到廟門(mén)口，吃了東西，跳躍而去。廟門(mén)大開(kāi)，僧人安然在廟內(nèi)做他們的日課③，也沒(méi)有誰(shuí)出去看虎怎樣吃東西，即使偶爾有一二和尚立在門(mén)前，虎們也視為平常的事情④，把他們看作熟人，不去驚動(dòng)，卻斯斯文文地吃⑤完走開(kāi)。如果看不見(jiàn)僧人，虎們就發(fā)出幾聲長(zhǎng)嘯，隨著幾陣風(fēng)飛騰而去⑥。

It's a pity that I'm unable to go to the mountain to make friends with the fierce tigers. I can only see the lovely animal in my dreams once in a while. As to the tiger we see in a zoo, it is nothing but a wretched tame animal confined to a cage.

可惜我不能走到這座深山，去和猛虎為友。只有偶爾在夢(mèng)里，我才見(jiàn)到這樣可愛(ài)的動(dòng)物。在動(dòng)物園里看見(jiàn)的則是被囚在“狹的籠”中搖尾乞憐的馴獸了。

Nevertheless, it is improper to call such a tiger "tame animal" because caged as it is, the roar it raises on waking up from a nap is still such as to make monkeys tremble with terror. One can visualize in the caged animal the power of the erstwhile king of beasts. Set it free, and it will go right back to the remote mountains to lord it over the forest again.

其實(shí)說(shuō)“馴獸”，也不恰當(dāng)。甚至在虎圈中，午睡醒來(lái)，昂首一呼，還能使猿猴顫栗。萬(wàn)獸之王的這種余威，我們也還可以在作了檻內(nèi)囚徒的虎身上看出來(lái)。倘使放它出柙，它仍會(huì)奔回深山，重做山林的霸主⑦。

Thirty-one years ago, I remember, when my father was magistrate of Guangyuan County a local hunter suddenly visited him one evening to present him with a dead tiger. He told my father nervously that he had killed the king of beasts by mistake for he had been to the mountains exclusively to hunt wolves, foxes, jackals and dogs. He added that he had by no means killed the tiger on purpose, that he was afraid that the mighty tiger would retaliate against him for his serious offence and that since the dead animal could not be revived, he had brought it as a gift to my father the magistrate in order to have his own crime mitigated. My father accepted it and gave him some money in return. The dead tiger lay in the yamen for a day until it was skinned and dismembered. From then on, my father had a new acquisition in his room — namely, the tiger-skin chair cushion, and people often came to our home to ask for some tiger-bone powder, with which they were to make a medicinal drink by steeping it in liquor.

我記起一件事情：三十一年前，父親在廣元做縣官。有天晚上，一個(gè)本地獵戶忽然送來(lái)一只死虎，他帶著一臉惶恐的表情對(duì)我父親說(shuō)，他入山打獵，只想獵到狼、狐、豺、狗，卻不想誤殺了萬(wàn)獸之王。他決不是存心打虎的。他不敢冒犯虎威，怕虎對(duì)他報(bào)仇，但是他又不能使枉死的虎復(fù)活，因此才把死虎帶來(lái)獻(xiàn)給“父母官”⑧，以為可以減輕他的罪過(guò)。父親給了獵人若干錢(qián)，便接受了這個(gè)禮物。死虎在衙門(mén)⑨里躺了一天，才被剝了皮肢解了。后來(lái)父親房?jī)?nèi)多了一張虎皮椅墊⑩，而且常常有人到我們家里要虎骨粉去泡酒當(dāng)藥吃。

Later, when my family moved back to Chengdu, we brought the tiger's skull with us. Sometimes I would gaze at the skull on the table until it blurred before my eyes and conjured up in me visions of a live tiger's head. But we always had it locked up in a cupboard. My father would not have it taken out to have part of it ground into powder unless when someone who needed it as medicine came to ask for it. Consequently the whole tiger skull was given away in the form of powder.

我們一家人帶著虎的頭骨回到成都。頭骨放在桌上，有時(shí)我眼睛看花了，會(huì)看出一個(gè)活的虎頭來(lái)。不過(guò)虎骨?總是鎖在柜子里，等著有人來(lái)要藥時(shí)，父親才叫人拿出它來(lái)磨粉。最后整個(gè)頭都變成粉末四處散開(kāi)了。

Things that happened some thirty years ago are apt to be forgotten. But even to this day I still remember the appearance of the tiger's skull and the apprehension in the hunter's face while he addressed my father. I should say that his facial expression boiled down to this: he looked as if he had blasphemed the gods. And I would also like to add in passing that while he was talking to my father he didn't even dare to take a glance at the dead tiger. He would turn pale the moment his eye accidentally fell on it.

經(jīng)過(guò)三十年的長(zhǎng)歲月，人應(yīng)該忘記了許多事情。但是到今天我還記得虎頭骨的形狀，和獵人說(shuō)話時(shí)的惶恐表情。如果叫我把那個(gè)獵人的面容描寫(xiě)一下，我想用一句話：他好像做過(guò)了什么褻瀆神明的事情似的?。我還要補(bǔ)充說(shuō)?：他說(shuō)話時(shí)不大敢看死虎，他的眼光偶爾挨到它，他就要變臉色。

A fierce animal like the tiger, which continues to inspire us with reverent awe even after death, really deserves our warm love.

死了以后，還能夠使人害怕，使人尊敬?，像虎這樣的猛獸，的確是值得我們熱愛(ài)的。

《虎》是巴金寫(xiě)于1941年7月26日的一篇隨筆，后編入散文集《龍·虎·狗》。作者愛(ài)虎，講述有關(guān)虎的故事和家庭往事，娓娓道來(lái)，夾敘夾議，耐人尋味。