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旅行的艺术:对旅行的期待-3

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2020年07月24日

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在对旅行的期望和旅行的现实的关系上总会出现一个问题。我碰巧读到于斯曼 [4] 的小说《逆流》。小说发表于1884年,主人公德埃桑迪斯公爵是一个衰朽厌世的贵族,正筹算一趟伦敦之旅,他百般思索,分析了对一个地方的想象和实际情形之间令人极度沮丧的差异。

One question revolves around the relationship between the anticipation of travel and its reality. I came upon a copy of J.-K. Huysmans's novel A Rebours , published in 1884, whose effete and misanthropic hero, the aristocratic Duc des Esseintes, anticipated a journey to London and offered in the process an extravagantly pessimistic analysis of the difference between what we imagine of a place and what can occur when we reach it.

在于斯曼的小说中,德埃桑迪斯独自住在巴黎市郊的一处宽敞的别墅。他几乎足不出户,因为这样,可以使他避免看见他所以为的人之丑陋和愚蠢。他还年轻时,一天下午,冒险到附近的村子去了几个小时,结果发现他对他人的憎恶更甚。从那以后,他决意一个人躺在书房里的床上,阅读文学经典,同时构想自己对人类的一些尖酸刻薄的想法。但有一天清早,德埃桑迪斯突然有一种强烈的意愿,想到伦敦旅行。这变化,连他自己都觉得吃惊。在到伦敦旅行的意念萌生之时,他正坐在火炉边读一本狄更斯的小说。这小说引发了他对英国人的生活情形的种种想象。事实上,对此他之前已冥思良久,只是现在,他热切地盼望能亲眼一睹。兴奋已让他难以自持,所以,他差使仆人打点好行装,他自己呢,则身着灰色花呢套装,脚蹬一双系带短靴,头戴一顶圆顶礼帽,还披了件蓝色亚麻长斗篷,搭乘最早的一趟火车去了巴黎。离开往伦敦的火车正式出发还有些时间,他走进了丽弗里街的加里尼涅英文书店,买了一本贝德克尔的《伦敦旅行指南》。书中对伦敦名胜的简练描述让他觉得美不胜收。接着,他走到附近的一间英国人常来光顾的酒吧。酒吧里的氛围活脱脱是狄更斯小说中的场景:他想起了小杜丽,朵拉·科波菲尔和汤姆·品奇的妹妹露丝坐在和这酒吧间相似的温馨明亮的小屋里的情形。酒吧里的一位顾客有着威克费尔德先生一般的白发和红润肤色,而其分明的面部轮廓、木然的表情和无精打采的眼神又让人想起塔金霍恩先生。

Huysmans recounts that the Duc des Esseintes lived alone in a vast villa on the outskirts of Paris. He rarely went anywhere to avoid what he took to be the ugliness and stupidity of others. One afternoon in his youth, he had ventured into a nearby village for a few hours and had felt his detestation of people grow fierce. Since then, he had chosen to spend his days alone in bed in his study, reading the classics of literature and moulding acerbic thoughts about humanity. However, early one morning, the Duc surprised himself by an intense wish to travel to London. The desire came upon him as he sat by the fire reading a volume of Dickens. The book evoked visions of English life which he contemplated at length and grew increasingly keen to see. Unable to withhold his excitement, he ordered his servants to pack his bags, dressed himself in a grey tweed suit, a pair of laced ankle boots, a little bowler hat and a flax-blue Inverness cape and took the next train to Paris. Because he had time to spare before the departure of the London train, he went to Galignani's English bookshop on the Rue de Rivoli and there bought a volume of Baedeker's Guide to London . He was thrown into delicious reveries by its terse descriptions of London's attractions. He moved on to a wine bar nearby frequented by a largely English clientele. The atmosphere was out of Dickens: he thought of scenes where Little Dorrit, Dora Copperfield and Tom Pinch's sister Ruth sat in similarly cosy, bright rooms. One customer had Mr Wickfield's white hair and ruddy complexion and the sharp, expressionless features and unfeeling eyes of Mr Tulkinghorn.

德埃桑迪斯觉得有些饿,便到了隔壁的一家英式小餐馆。餐馆在阿姆斯特丹街,靠近圣拉扎尔火车站。餐馆里光线昏暗,烟雾弥漫,柜台上摆着一长排啤酒,还摊着小提琴般褐色的火腿,以及番茄酱般红色的大龙虾。一些小木餐桌旁,坐着健硕的英国女人。她们的长相很男性化,露出硕大的牙齿,有如调色刀;她们手脚粗长,脸颊像苹果般红通通的。德埃桑迪斯找了一个桌子坐下,点了牛尾汤,烟熏鳕鱼,还要了一份烤牛肉和土豆,一些艾尔啤酒和一大块斯提耳顿干酪。

Hungry, Des Esseintes went next to an English tavern in the Rue d'Amsterdam, near the Gare Saint Lazare. It was dark and smoky there, with a line of beer pulls along a counter, which was spread with hams as brown as violins and lobsters the colour of red lead. Seated at small wooden tables were robust Englishwomen with boyish faces, teeth as big as palette knives, cheeks as red as apples and long hands and feet. Des Esseintes found a table and ordered some oxtail soup, a smoked haddock, a helping of roast beef and potatoes, a couple of pints of ale and a chunk of Stilton.

随着火车离站时刻的迫近,德埃桑迪斯对伦敦的梦想行将变为现实,但就在这个时刻,他忽地变得疲乏和厌倦起来。他开始想象自己若真的去伦敦该是如何的无聊和乏味:他得赶到火车站,抢个脚夫来搬行李,上了车,得睡在陌生的床上,之后还得排队下车,在贝德克尔已有精到描述的伦敦街景里拖着自己疲惫的身子瑟瑟前行……想及这些,他的伦敦之梦顿时黯然失色:“既然一个人能坐在椅子上优哉游哉捧书漫游,又何苦要真的出行?难道他不已置身伦敦了吗?伦敦的气味、天气、市民、食物,甚至伦敦餐馆里的刀叉餐具不都已在自己的周遭吗?如果真到了伦敦,除了新的失望,还能期待什么?”仍然是坐在椅子上,他开始了自我反省:“我竟然不肯相信我忠实可信的想象力,而且居然像老笨蛋一样相信到国外旅行是必要、有趣和有益的,我一定是有些精神异常了。”

However, as the moment to board his train approached, along with the chance to turn dreams of London into reality, Des Esseintes was abruptly overcome with lassitude. He thought how wearing it would be actually to go to London, how he would have to run to the station, fight for a porter, board the train, endure an unfamiliar bed, stand in queues, feel cold and move his fragile frame around the sights that Baedeker had so tersely described-and thus soil his dreams: 'What was the good of moving when a person could travel so wonderfully sitting in a chair? Wasn't he already in London, whose smells, weather, citizens, food, and even cutlery were all about him? What could he expect to find over there except fresh disappointments?' Still seated at his table, he reflected, 'I must have been suffering from some mental aberration to have rejected the visions of my obedient imagination and to have believed like any old ninny that it was necessary, interesting and useful to travel abroad.'

结果自然是,德埃桑迪斯付了账单,离开餐馆,依旧是搭上最早的一趟火车回到了他的别墅。一起回家的当然还有他的行李箱、他的旅行包、他的旅行毛毯、他的雨伞和他的拐杖。自那以后,他再也没有离开过他的家。

So Des Esseintes paid the bill, left the tavern and took the first train back to his villa, along with his trunks, his packages, his portmanteaux, his rugs, his umbrellas and his sticks-and never left home again.

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