Then there are the leftover scenes: my father always wondering what I did with my time, why I was always alone; my mother urging me to make new friends if the old ones didn’t interest me, but above all to stop hanging around the house all the time—books, books, books, always books, and all these scorebooks, both of them begging me to play more tennis, go dancing more often, get to know people, find out for myself why others are so necessary in life and not just foreign bodies to be sidled up to. Do crazy things if you must, they told me all the while, forever prying to unearth the mysterious, telltale signs of heartbreak which, in their clumsy, intrusive, devoted way, both would instantly wish to heal, as if I were a soldier who had strayed into their garden and needed his wound immediately stanched or else he’d die. You can always talk to me. I was your age once, my father used to say. The things you feel and think only you have felt, believe me, I’ve lived and suffered through all of them, and more than once—some I’ve never gotten over and others I’m as ignorant about as you are today, yet I know almost every bend, every toll-booth, every chamber in the human heart.
還有另外一些瑣碎場(chǎng)景:父親總好奇詢問我怎樣利用時(shí)間、為什么我老是落單;母親鼓勵(lì)我,如果對(duì)老朋友沒有興趣,就去結(jié)交新朋友,但最重要的是別老在家里晃來晃去——書、書、書,老是書,擺弄這些樂譜。他們倆都勸我多去打網(wǎng)球,多去跳舞,去認(rèn)識(shí)人,自己去體會(huì)為什么其他人在我們的生命中是如此不可或缺的一部分,而并不是讓人只敢偷偷摸摸接近的一些陌生身體。必要時(shí)可以做些瘋狂的事。他們總是告訴我:他們永遠(yuǎn)在孜孜不倦地打探,想找尋透露出傷心內(nèi)情,神秘難解的蛛絲馬跡,他們都想以那種特有的笨拙、擾人,又飽含深情的方式立刻幫我療傷治病,仿佛我是迷途的士兵,誤闖了他們的花園,傷口若不立即止血就會(huì)死亡。“你隨時(shí)可以找我商量,我也經(jīng)歷過你的年紀(jì)”,父親以前常說。“相信我,你以為只有你感受過的事,我全經(jīng)歷過,也因此吃過苦頭,而且不只一次——有些我從來沒克服,有些我仍像你現(xiàn)在一樣無知,但人心的每個(gè)秘密角落,我?guī)缀醵贾馈?rdquo;
There are other scenes: the postprandial silence—some of us napping, some working, others reading, the whole world basking away in hushed semitones. Heavenly hours when voices from the world beyond our house would filter in so softly that I was sure I had drifted off. Then afternoon tennis. Shower and cocktails. Waiting for dinner. Guests again. Dinner. His second trip to the translator. Strolling into town and back late at night, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.
還有其他場(chǎng)景:飯后的沉靜——有些人小睡,有些人工作,有些人閱讀,整個(gè)世界沉浸在安靜的半音里。外面世界傳來的聲音溫柔地滲透進(jìn)來,在這段美妙的時(shí)光里,我確信我已經(jīng)神游他方了。午后的網(wǎng)球;淋浴與雞尾酒;等待晚餐;賓客再度光臨。晚餐。他二度造訪譯者,散步進(jìn)城,深夜回來,有時(shí)一個(gè)人,有時(shí)有朋友作伴。