(中英)现代散文:偶像的话 The Idol Speaks

The Idol Speaks

◎ Ai Qing

There stood in a well-known ancient temple a huge statue. It was so tall that people standing by were unable to touch even its knees however hard they tried to reach for it. For many, many years, visitors couldn't help feeling so overawed and dwarfed at the sight of it that they looked to it eagerly for salvation.

在那著名的古庙里，站立着一尊高大的塑像，人在他的旁边，伸直了手还摸不到他的膝盖。很多年以来，他都使看见的人不由自主地肃然起敬，感到自己的渺小，卑微，因而渴望着能得到他的拯救。

Having stood there for several hundred years, the statue had now come to detest it as a kind of forced drudgery. And it knew perfectly well that it could do nothing whatsoever to help the suffering mortal beings craving for salvation by it. Feeling bored as well as ashamed, it began to address its worshippers at long last:

这尊塑像站了几百年了，他觉得这是一种苦役，对于热望从他得到援助的芸芸众生，明知是无能为力的，因此他由于羞愧而厌烦，最后终于向那些膜拜者说话了：

O ye mortals, what a ridiculous thing you've done! You've created me in your own image, and an image of gigantic dimensions at that, believing that I can thus be powerful enough to rid you of your worries and cares. As a result, however, I've become just scared of you.

“众生啊，你们做的是多么可笑的事！你们以自己的模型创造了我，把我加以扩大，想从我身上发生一种威力，借以镇压你们不安定的精神。而我却害怕你们。

I've every reason to believe that it is your lack of self-confidence that has prompted you to create me. Look, in what way am I superior to you? As a matter of fact, I even lack what you yourselves are equipped with.

“我敢相信：你们之所以要创造我，完全是因为你们缺乏自信——请看吧，我比之你们能多些什么呢？而我却没有你们自己所具备的。

If you're bold enough to smash me to pieces, you won't see a single drop of blood trickling down my chest.

“你们假如更大胆些，把我捣碎了，从我的胸廓里是流不出一滴血来的。

Of course I'm also aware that it's a daring act of yours to have created me, in an attempt to make me an accomplice of yours so that I can join you in hoodwinking those who are even weaker than you.

“当然，我也知道，你们之创造我也是一种大胆的行为，因为你们尝试着要我成为一个同谋者，让我和你们一起，能欺骗更软弱的那些人。

I've had enough of punishment, having been footed to the spot for several hundred years! Ever since your forefathers moulded me, people have been gilding me all over from generation to generation to keep me glittering from top to toe. Nevertheless, I'm sick of my present position as much as I'm of hypocrisy.

“我已受够惩罚了，我站在这儿已几百年，你们的祖先把我塑造起来，以后你们一代一代为我的周身贴上金叶，使我能通体发亮，但我却嫌恶我的地位，正如我嫌恶虚伪一样。

Please smash me, or reduce me to your size and instill life-giving blood into me! I would be very grateful to you if that could ever be done. But it's simply impossible!

“请把我捣碎吧，要么能将我缩小到和你们一样大小，并且在我的身上赋予生命所必需的血液，假如真能做到，我是多么感激你们——但是这是做不到的呀。

I hold, therefore, that you yourselves only are your saviours, and my presence can only mean your misfortune. With that, the statue crumbled all of a sudden like a huge mountain.

“因此，我认为，真正能拯救你们的还是你们自己。而我的存在，只能说明你们的不幸。”说完了最后的话，那尊塑像忽然像一座大山一样崩塌了。

艾青（1910—1996），浙江金华人。1929年赴法国巴黎习画，1932年回国后放弃绘画而写诗，1941年奔赴延安。他不仅是诗人，也是散文家。《偶像的话》是他写于五十年代的一篇随笔。