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双语全文 ● 鲁迅——头发的故事

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2020年06月30日

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The Story of Hair

 

On Sunday morning, I turned over a page of my calendar and looked at the next one. Taking a second look I remarked, “Why, it’s the tenth of October—so today is the Double Tenth Festival. But there’s no mention of it here!”

 

Mr. N, one of my seniors, had just dropped in for a chat. Hearing this,he retorted irately, “They’re right. They’ve forgotten—so what? You remember—so what?”

 

This Mr. N is rather irascible. He often loses his temper for no reason and makes tactless remarks. At such times, I generally let him talk to himself, without putting in a word. After he has finished his monologue,that’s that.

 

“The Double Tenth Festival in Beijing strikes me as admirable,” he observed. “In the morning a policeman comes to your gate to order, ‘ Put up a flag.’ ‘A flag, right!’ Most families lackadaisically bring out a national flag, and that cloth of many colours is hung up till the evening, when they take it down and shut the gate. A few may forget and leave it up till the next morning.

 

“They have forgotten the anniversary, and the anniversary has forgotten them.

 

“I’m one of those who forget it. If I were to commemorate it, all that happened before and after the first Double Tenth would come back to my mind and upset me.

 

“Many faces from the past float before my eyes. Some young people kept on the go, hard as it was, for over ten years, till a bullet in the back ended their lives. Others, who weren’t shot, were tortured for a month or more in jail. Yet others with high ideals suddenly vanished without atrace—no one knows where their corpses are.

 

头发的故事

 

星期日的早晨,我揭去一张隔夜的日历,向着新的那一张上看了又看的说:

 

“阿,十月十日,——今天原来正是双十节。这里却一点没有记载!”

 

我的一位前辈先生N,正走到我的寓里来谈闲天,一听这话,便很不高兴的对我说:

 

“他们对!他们不记得,你怎样他;你记得,又怎样呢?”

 

这位N先生本来脾气有点乖张,时常生些无谓的气,说些不通世故的话。当这时候,我大抵任他自言自语,不赞一辞;他独自发完议论,也就算了。

 

他说:

 

“我最佩服北京双十节的情形。早晨,警察到门,吩咐道‘挂旗!’‘是,挂旗!’各家大半懒洋洋的踱出一个国民来,撅起一块斑驳陆离的洋布。这样一直到夜,——收了旗关门;几家偶然忘却的,便挂到第二天的上午。

 

“他们忘却了纪念,纪念也忘却了他们!

 

“我也是忘却了纪念的一个人。倘使纪念起来,那第一个双十节前后的事,便都上我的心头,使我坐立不稳了。

 

“多少故人的脸,都浮在我眼前。几个少年辛苦奔走了十多年,暗地里一颗弹丸要了他的性命;几个少年一击不中,在监牢里身受一个多月的苦刑;几个少年怀着远志,忽然踪影全无,连尸首也不知那里去了。——

 

“They were scoffed at, cursed, persecuted and betrayed all their lives by society. Now, little by little, their graves have crumbled away in oblivion.

 

“I can’t bear to commemorate such things.

 

“Let’s talk about more pleasant memories.”

 

Suddenly N smiled. Reaching up to stroke his head he went on loudly,“What pleased me most was the fact that, after the first Double Tenth,people stopped laughing at me or cursing me in the street.

 

“You know, my friend, in China hair is our pride and our bane. How many people since ancient times have suffered because of it, all to no purpose!

 

“Our earliest ancestors don’t seem to have taken hair too seriously. Judging by the criminal code, what counted most was naturally the head, so beheading was the worst punishment. Next in importance was the sexual organ, so castration and sterilization was another fearful punishment. As for having one’s hair cut off, that hardly counted; but when you come to think of it, goodness knows how many people must have been downtrodden all their lives because they had shaved heads.

 

“When we talked about revolution, a lot was said about the ten days in Yangzhou and the Jiading massacre, but actually that was just a subterfuge. In fact, the Chinese people in those days revolted not because the country was on the verge of ruin, but because they had to wear queues.

 

“By the time all refractory subjects had been killed off and the survivors had died of old age, the queue was here to stay. But then Hong and Yang made trouble. My grandmother told me how hard it was in those days for common citizens: those who didn’t shave off the hair over their temples were killed by government troops, those with queues were killed by the Long Hairs.

 

“Hair is insignificant, yet I’ve no idea how many Chinese suffered or died just on account of it. ”

 

N fixed his eyes, reflectively, on the rafter.

 

“Then, just fancy, it was my turn. Hair landed me in trouble.

 

“I went abroad to study, so cut off my queue. Not for any mysterious reason, just because it was too inconvenient. To my surprise, that made me an object of loathing to a few classmates who had coiled up their queues. Our supervisor was furious too. He threatened to stop my government grant and send me back to China.

 

“他们都在社会的冷笑恶骂迫害倾陷里过了一生;现在他们的坟墓也早在忘却里渐渐平塌下去了。

 

“我不堪纪念这些事。

 

“我们还是记起一点得意的事来谈谈罢。”

 

N忽然现出笑容,伸手在自己头上一摸,高声说:

 

“我最得意的是自从第一个双十节以后,我在路上走,不再被人笑骂了。

 

“老兄,你可知道头发是我们中国人的宝贝和冤家,古今来多少人在这上头吃些毫无价值的苦呵!

 

“我们的很古的古人,对于头发似乎也还看轻。据刑法看来,最要紧的自然是脑袋,所以大辟是上刑;次要便是生殖器了,所以宫刑和幽闭也是一件吓人的罚;至于髡,那是微乎其微了,然而推想起来,正不知道曾有多少人们因为光着头皮便被社会践踏了一生世。

 

“我们讲革命的时候,大谈什么扬州十日,嘉定屠城,其实也不过一种手段;老实说:那时中国人的反抗,何尝因为亡国,只是因为拖辫子。

 

“顽民杀尽了,遗老都寿终了,辫子早留定了,洪杨又闹起来了。我的祖母曾对我说,那时做百姓才难哩,全留着头发的被官兵杀,还是辫子的便被长毛杀!

 

“我不知道有多少中国人只因为这不痛不痒的头发而吃苦,受难,灭亡。”

 

N两眼望着屋梁,似乎想些事,仍然说:

 

“谁知道头发的苦轮到我了。

 

“我出去留学,便剪掉了辫子,这并没有别的奥妙,只为他太不便当罢了。不料有几位辫子盘在头顶上的同学们便很厌恶我;监督也大怒,说要停了我的官费,送回中国去。

 

“A few days later, though, that supervisor fled, as his queue had been cut off by other people. Among them was Zou Rong, who wrote The Revolutionary Army. For this reason he was not allowed to go on studying abroad and went back to Shanghai, where he subsequently died in a western jail.

 

“A few years later, my family had become so badly off that unless I found a job I would have starved, so I had to go back to China too. As soon as I reached Shanghai I bought an artificial queue, which then cost two yuan, and took it home with me. My mother said nothing about it, but it was the first thing scrutinized by all the other people I met; and once they found out it was false, with a scornful laugh they adjudged me guilty of a capital offence. One of my own family planned to indict me, but he later refrained from doing this for fear the rebels of the revolutionary party might succeed.

 

“I thought, a sham is less straightforward than the truth so I discarded that artificial queue, and went out dressed in a Western suit.

 

“Wherever I went I heard jeers and abuse. Some people even tagged after me cursing, ‘ Lunatic!’‘Fake foreign devil!’

 

“Then I stopped wearing a suit and wore a long gown, but they cursed me harder than ever.

 

“It was then, at a dead-end, that I took to carrying a cane, and after I had given several people a good trouncing, they gradually stopped cursing me. But if I went to some new place where I hadn’t beaten anyone, I was still cursed.

 

“To this day, I keep remembering how wretched this made me. While studying in Japan, I read in some Japanese paper an account of Dr. Honda’s travels in the South Seas and China. Being unable to speak Chinese or Malaysian, or to understand the questions asked him, how could he travel?He expressed himself by brandishing a cane, for this was a language everyone understood! This had incensed me for days, yet here was I now unconsciously doing the same, and all those people understood....

 

“不几天,这位监督却自己被人剪去辫子逃走了。去剪的人们里面,一个便是做《革命军》的邹容,这人也因此不能再留学,回到上海来,后来死在西牢里。你也早已忘却了罢?

 

“过了几年,我的家景大不如前了,非谋点事做便要受饿,只得也回到中国来。我一到上海,便买定一条假辫子,那时是二元的市价,带着回家。我的母亲倒也不说什么,然而旁人一见面,便都首先研究这辫子,待到知道是假,就一声冷笑,将我拟为杀头的罪名;有一位本家,还预备去告官,但后来因为恐怕革命党的造反或者要成功,这才中止了。

 

“我想,假的不如真的直截爽快,我便索性废了假辫子,穿着西装在街上走。

 

“一路走去,一路便是笑骂的声音,有的还跟在后面骂:‘这冒失鬼!’‘假洋鬼子!’

 

“我于是不穿洋服了,改了大衫,他们骂得更利害。

 

“在这日暮途穷的时候,我的手里才添出一支手杖来,拚命的打了几回,他们渐渐的不骂了。只是走到没有打过的生地方还是骂。

 

“这件事很使我悲哀,至今还时时记得哩。我在留学的时候,曾经看见日报上登载一个游历南洋和中国的本多博士的事;这位博士是不懂中国和马来语的人,人问他,你不懂话,怎么走路呢?他拿起手杖来说,这便是他们的话,他们都懂!我因此气愤了好几天,谁知道我竟不知不觉的自己也做了。而且那些人都懂了。……

 

“At the start of the Xuantong era, when I was dean of our local middle school, my colleagues kept at a distance from me, officialdom mounted a strict watch over me. I felt as if sitting all day in an ice-house, or standing by an execution ground. And the sole reason for this was my lack of a queue!

 

“One day, without warning, some students came into my room. They said, ‘ Sir, we want to cut off our queues.’

 

“I told them, ‘ Don’t!’

 

“ ‘ Is it better to have queues or not?'

 

“‘Better not.’

 

“‘Then why tell us not to cut them?’

 

“‘It’s not worth it. Better not cut them off—wait a while.’

 

“They said nothing but marched out, pursing their lips. In the end,however, they cut them.

 

“Ha, what a to-do! What an uproar! But I simply turned a blind eye and let those shorn heads into the assembly hall together with all the queues.

 

“But this queue-cutting proved contagious. Three days later, six students in the normal school suddenly cut off their queues too, and that evening they were expelled. They could neither remain in the school nor go home. Not till a month or more after the first Double Tenth did they stop being branded as criminals.

 

“And I? It was the same. In the winter of 1912 I came to Beijing, and was still cursed several times. Only after those who had cursed me had their queues cut off by the police did I stop getting cursed; but I didn’t go to the country. ”

 

N had been looking very smug. Now suddenly his face fell.

 

“Nowadays, idealists like you are calling on girls to cut their hair. you’re going to make many more people suffer for nothing! Aren’t there already girls who can’t take the school entrance examinations, or who are expelled because they’ve bobbed their hair?

 

“Reform? Where are your weapons? Education for workers? Where are your factories?

 

“宣统初年,我在本地的中学校做监学,同事是避之惟恐不远,官僚是防之惟恐不严,我终日如坐在冰窖子里,如站在刑场旁边,其实并非别的,只因为缺少了一条辫子!

 

“有一日,几个学生忽然走到我的房里来,说,‘先生,我们要剪辫子了。’我说,‘不行!’‘有辫子好呢,没有辫子好呢?’‘没有辫子好……’‘你怎么说不行呢?’‘犯不上,你们还是不剪上算,——等一等罢。’他们不说什么,撅着嘴唇走出房去;然而终于剪掉了。

 

“呵!不得了了,人言啧啧了;我却只装作不知道,一任他们光着头皮,和许多辫子一齐上讲堂。

 

“然而这剪辫病传染了;第三天,师范学堂的学生忽然也剪下了六条辫子,晚上便开除了六个学生。这六个人,留校不能,回家不得,一直挨到第一个双十节之后又一个多月,才消去了犯罪的火烙印。

 

“我呢?也一样,只是元年冬天到北京,还被人骂过几次,后来骂我的人也被警察剪去了辫子,我就不再被人辱骂了;但我没有到乡间去。”

 

N显出非常得意模样,忽而又沉下脸来:

 

“现在你们这些理想家,又在那里嚷什么女子剪发了,又要造出许多毫无所得而痛苦的人!

 

“现在不是已经有剪掉头发的女人,因此考不进学校去,或者被学校除了名么?

 

“改革么,武器在那里?工读么,工厂在那里?

 

“Let girls keep their long hair and marry, becoming daughters-in-law. Forgetting everything they can be happy. If you remind them of that talk of equality and freedom, they’ll be wretched all their lives.

 

“Borrowing the words of Artzybashev, let me ask you: you subscribe to a golden age for posterity, but what have you to give these people themselves?

 

“Ah, until lashed on the back by the Creator’s whip, China will always remain the way she is, absolutely refusing to change a single hair on her body!

 

“Since you have no poisonous fangs, why paste that big sign ‘Viper’ on your forehead, inciting beggars to kill you?...”

 

N was talking more and more wildly. However, as soon as he noticed my lack of interest, he shut his mouth, stood up and picked up his hat.

 

“Going home?” I asked.

 

“Yes, it’s going to rain,” he answered.

 

I saw him out in silence.

 

As he put on his hat he said, “So long! Excuse me for disturbing you. Fortunately, tomorrow isn’t the Double Tenth, so we can forget all about it.”

 

Oct-20

 

“仍然留起,嫁给人家做媳妇去:忘却了一切还是幸福,倘使伊记着些平等自由的话,便要苦痛一生世!

 

“我要借了阿尔志跋绥失的话问你们:你们将黄金时代的出现豫约给这些人们的子孙了,但有什么给这些人们自己呢?

 

“阿,造物的皮鞭没有到中国的脊梁上时,中国便永远是这一样的中国,决不肯自己改变一支毫毛!

 

“你们的嘴里既然并无毒牙,何以偏要在额上帖起‘蝮蛇’两个大字,引乞丐来打杀?……”

 

N愈说愈离奇了,但一见到我不很愿听的神情,便立刻闭了口,站起来取帽子。

 

我说,“回去么?”

 

他答道,“是的,天要下雨了。”

 

我默默的送他到门口。

 

他戴上帽子说:

 

“再见!请你恕我打搅,好在明天便不是双十节,我们统可以忘却了。”

 

一九二〇年十月。

 


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