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双语·美丽新世界 第十八章

所属教程:译林版·美丽新世界

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2022年05月02日

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The door was ajar; they entered.

“John!”

From the bathroom came an unpleasant and characteristic sound.

“Is there anything the matter?” Helmholtz called.

There was no answer. The unpleasant sound was repeated, twice; there was silence. Then, with a click, the bathroom door opened and, very pale, the Savage emerged.

“I say,” Helmholtz exclaimed solicitously, “you do look ill, John!”

“Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?” asked Bernard.

The Savage nodded. “I ate civilization.”

“What?”

“It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then,” he added, in a lower tone, “I ate my own wickedness.”

“Yes, but what exactly…? I mean, just now you were…”

“Now I am purified,” said the Savage. “I drank some mustard and warm water.”

The others stared at him in astonishment. “Do you mean to say that you were doing it on purpose?” asked Bernard.

“That's how the Indians always purify themselves.” He sat down and, sighing, passed his hand across his forehead. “I shall rest for a few minutes,” he said. “I'm rather tired.”

“Well, I'm not surprised,” said Helmholtz. After a silence, “We've come to say good-bye,” he went on in another tone. “We're off to-morrow morning.”

“Yes, we're off to-morrow,” said Bernard on whose face the Savage remarked a new expression of determined resignation. “And by the way, John,” he continued, leaning forward in his chair and laying a hand on the Savage's knee, “I want to say how sorry I am about everything that happened yesterday.” He blushed. “How ashamed,” he went on, in spite of the unsteadiness of his voice, “how really…”

The Savage cut him short and, taking his hand, affectionately pressed it.

“Helmholtz was wonderful to me,” Bernard resumed, after a little pause. “If it hadn't been for him, I should…”

“Now, now,” Helmholtz protested.

There was a silence. In spite of their sadness—because of it, even; for their sadness was the symptom of their love for one another—the three young men were happy.

“I went to see the Controller this morning,” said the Savage at last.

“What for?”

“To ask if I mightn't go to the islands with you.”

“And what did he say?” asked Helmholtz eagerly.

The Savage shook his head. “He wouldn't let me.”

“Why not?”

“He said he wanted to go on with the experiment. But I'm damned,” the Savage added, with sudden fury, “I'm damned if I'll go on being experimented with. Not for all the Controllers in the world. I shall go away to-morrow too.”

“But where?” the others asked in unison.

The Savage shrugged his shoulders. “Anywhere. I don't care. So long as I can be alone.”

From Guildford the down-line followed the Wey valley to Godalming, then, over Milford and Witley, proceeded to Haslemere and on through Petersfield towards Portsmouth. Roughly parallel to it, the up-line passed over Worplesden, Tongham, Puttenham, Elstead and Grayshott. Between the Hog's Back and Hindhead there were points where the two lines were not more than six or seven kilometres apart. The distance was too small for careless flyers—particularly at night and when they had taken half a gramme too much. There had been accidents. Serious ones. It had been decided to deflect the up-line a few kilometres to the west. Between Grayshott and Tongham four abandoned air-lighthouses marked the course of the old Portsmouth-to-London road. The skies above them were silent and deserted. It was over Selborne, Bordon and Farnham that the helicopters now ceaselessly hummed and roared.

The Savage had chosen as his hermitage the old lighthouse which stood on the crest of the hill between Puttenham and Elstead. The building was of ferro-concrete and in excellent condition—almost too comfortable the Savage had thought when he first explored the place, almost too civilizedly luxurious. He pacified his conscience by promising himself a compensatingly harder self-discipline, purifications the more complete and thorough. His first night in the hermitage was, deliberately, a sleepless one. He spent the hours on his knees praying, now to that Heaven from which the guilty Claudius had begged forgiveness, now in Zuñi to Awonawilona, now to Jesus and Pookong, now to his own guardian animal, the eagle. From time to time he stretched out his arms as though he were on the Cross, and held them thus through long minutes of an ache that gradually increased till it became a tremulous and excruciating agony; held them, in voluntary crucifixion, while he repeated, through clenched teeth (the sweat, meanwhile, pouring down his face), “Oh, forgive me! Oh, make me pure! Oh, help me to be good!” again and again, till he was on the point of fainting from the pain.

When morning came, he felt he had earned the right to inhabit the lighthouse; yes, even though there still was glass in most of the windows, even though the view from the platform was so fine. For the very reason why he had chosen the lighthouse had become almost instantly a reason for going somewhere else. He had decided to live there because the view was so beautiful, because, from his vantage point, he seemed to be looking out on to the incarnation of a divine being. But who was he to be pampered with the daily and hourly sight of loveliness? Who was he to be living in the visible presence of God? All he deserved to live in was some filthy sty, some blind hole in the ground. Stiff and still aching after his long night of pain, but for that very reason inwardly reassured, he climbed up to the platform of his tower, he looked out over the bright sunrise world which he had regained the right to inhabit. On the north the view was bounded by the long chalk ridge of the Hog's Back, from behind whose eastern extremity rose the towers of the seven skyscrapers which constituted Guildford. Seeing them, the Savage made a grimace; but he was to become reconciled to them in course of time; for at night they twinkled gaily with geometrical constellations, or else, flood-lighted, pointed their luminous fingers (with a gesture whose significance nobody in England but the Savage now understood) solemnly towards the plumbless mysteries of heaven.

In the valley which separated the Hog's Back from the sandy hill on which the lighthouse stood, Puttenham was a modest little village nine stories high, with silos, a poultry farm, and a small vitamin-D factory. On the other side of the lighthouse, towards the South, the ground fell away in long slopes of heather to a chain of ponds.

Beyond them, above the intervening woods, rose the fourteen-story tower of Elstead. Dim in the hazy English air, Hindhead and Selborne invited the eye into a blue romantic distance. But it was not alone the distance that had attracted the Savage to his lighthouse; the near was as seductive as the far. The woods, the open stretches of heather and yellow gorse, the clumps of Scotch firs, the shining ponds with their overhanging birch trees, their water lilies, their beds of rushes—these were beautiful and, to an eye accustomed to the aridities of the American desert, astonishing. And then the solitude! Whole days passed during which he never saw a human being. The lighthouse was only a quarter of an hour's flight from the Charing-T Tower; but the hills of Malpais were hardly more deserted than this Surrey heath. The crowds that daily left London left it only to play Electro-magnetic Golf or Tennis. Puttenham possessed no links; the nearest Riemann-surfaces were at Guildford. Flowers and a landscape were the only attractions here. And so, as there was no good reason for coming, nobody came. During the first days the Savage lived alone and undisturbed.

Of the money which, on his first arrival, John had received for his personal expenses, most had been spent on his equipment. Before leaving London he had bought four viscose-woollen blankets, rope and string, nails, glue, a few tools, matches (though he intended in due course to make a fire drill), some pots and pans, two dozen packets of seeds, and ten kilogrammes of wheat flour. “No, not synthetic starch and cotton-waste flour-substitute,” he had insisted. “Even though it is more nourishing.” But when it came to pan-glandular biscuits and vitaminized beef-surrogate, he had not been able to resist the shop-man's persuasion. Looking at the tins now, he bitterly reproached himself for his weakness. Loathesome civilized stuff! He had made up his mind that he would never eat it, even if he were starving. “That'll teach them,” he thought vindictively. It would also teach him.

He counted his money. The little that remained would be enough, he hoped, to tide him over the winter. By next spring, his garden would be producing enough to make him independent of the outside world. Meanwhile, there would always be game. He had seen plenty of rabbits, and there were waterfowl on the ponds. He set to work at once to make a bow and arrows.

There were ash trees near the lighthouse and, for arrow shafts, a whole copse full of beautifully straight hazel saplings. He began by felling a young ash, cut out six feet of unbranched stem, stripped off the bark and, paring by paring, shaved away the white wood, as old Mitsima had taught him, until he had a stave of his own height, stiff at the thickened centre, lively and quick at the slender tips. The work gave him an intense pleasure. After those weeks of idleness in London, with nothing to do, whenever he wanted anything, but to press a switch or turn a handle, it was pure delight to be doing something that demanded skill and patience.

He had almost finished whittling the stave into shape, when he realized with a start that he was singing—singing! It was as though, stumbling upon himself from the outside, he had suddenly caught himself out, taken himself flagrantly at fault. Guiltily he blushed. After all, it was not to sing and enjoy himself that he had come here. It was to escape further contamination by the filth of civilized life; it was to be purified and made good; it was actively to make amends. He realized to his dismay that, absorbed in the whittling of his bow, he had forgotten what he had sworn to himself he would constantly remember—poor Linda, and his own murderous unkindness to her, and those loathsome twins, swarming like lice across the mystery of her death, insulting, with their presence, not merely his own grief and repentance, but the very gods themselves. He had sworn to remember, he had sworn unceasingly to make amends. And here he was, sitting happily over his bow-stave, singing, actually singing….

He went indoors, opened the box of mustard, and put some water to boil on the fire.

Half an hour later, three Delta-Minus landworkers from one of the Puttenham Bokanovsky Groups happened to be driving to Elstead and, at the top of the hill, were astonished to see a young man standing Outside the abandoned lighthouse stripped to the waist and hitting himself with a whip of knotted cords. His back was horizontally streaked with crimson, and from weal to weal ran thin trickles of blood. The driver of the lorry pulled up at the side of the road and, with his two companions, stared open-mouthed at the extraordinary spectacle. One, two, three—they counted the strokes. After the eighth, the young man interrupted his self-punishment to run to the wood's edge and there be violently sick. When he had finished, he picked up the whip and began hitting himself again. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve…

“Ford!” whispered the driver. And his twins were of the same opinion.

“Fordey!” they said.

Three days later, like turkey buzzards settling on a corpse, the reporters came.

Dried and hardened over a slow fire of green wood, the bow was ready. The Savage was busy on his arrows. Thirty hazel sticks had been whittled and dried, tipped with sharp nails, carefully nocked. He had made a raid one night on the Puttenham poultry farm, and now had feathers enough to equip a whole armoury. It was at work upon the feathering of his shafts that the first of the reporters found him. Noiseless on his pneumatic shoes, the man came up behind him.

“Good-morning, Mr. Savage,” he said. “I am the representative of The Hourly Radio.”

Startled as though by the bite of a snake, the Savage sprang to his feet, scattering arrows, feathers, glue-pot and brush in all directions.

“I beg your pardon,” said the reporter, with genuine compunction. “I had no intention…” He touched his hat—the aluminum stove-pipe hat in which he carried his wireless receiver and transmitter. “Excuse my not taking it off,” he said. “It's a bit heavy. Well, as I was saying, I am the representative of The Hourly…”

“What do you want?” asked the Savage, scowling. The reporter returned his most ingratiating smile.

“Well, of course, our readers would be profoundly interested…” He put his head on one side, his smile became almost coquettish. “Just a few words from you, Mr. Savage.” And rapidly, with a series of ritual gestures, he uncoiled two wires connected to the portable battery buckled round his waist; plugged them simultaneously into the sides of his aluminum hat; touched a spring on the crown—and antennae shot up into the air; touched another spring on the peak of the brim—and, like a jack-in-the-box, out jumped a microphone and hung there, quivering, six inches in front of his nose; pulled down a pair of receivers over his ears; pressed a switch on the left side of the hat—and from within came a faint waspy buzzing; turned a knob on the right—and the buzzing was interrupted by a stethoscopic wheeze and crackle, by hiccoughs and sudden squeaks. “Hullo,” he said to the microphone, “hullo, hullo…” A bell suddenly rang inside his hat. “Is that you, Edzel? Primo Mellon speaking. Yes, I've got hold of him. Mr. Savage will now take the microphone and say a few words. Won't you, Mr. Savage?” He looked up at the Savage with another of those winning smiles of his. “Just tell our readers why you came here. What made you leave London (hold on, Edzel!) so very suddenly. And, of course, that whip.” (The Savage started. How did they know about the whip?) “We're all crazy to know about the whip. And then something about Civilization. You know the sort of stuff. ‘What I think of the Civilized Girl.’ Just a few words, a very few…”

The Savage obeyed with a disconcerting literalness. Five words he uttered and no more—five words, the same as those he had said to Bernard about the Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury. “Háni! Sons éso tse-ná!” And seizing the reporter by the shoulder, he spun him round (the young man revealed himself invitingly well-covered), aimed and, with all the force and accuracy of a champion foot-and-mouth-baller, delivered a most prodigious kick.

Eight minutes later, a new edition of The Hourly Radio was on sale in the streets of London. “HOURLY RADIO REPORTER HAS COCCYX KICKED BY MYSTERY SAVAGE,” ran the headlines on the front page. “SENSATION IN SURREY.”

“Sensation even in London,” thought the reporter when, on his return, he read the words. And a very painful sensation, what was more. He sat down gingerly to his luncheon.

Undeterred by that cautionary bruise on their colleague's coccyx, four other reporters, representing the New York Times, the Frankfurt Four-Dimensional Continuum, The Fordian Science Monitor, and The Delta Mirror, called that afternoon at the lighthouse and met with receptions of progressively increasing violence.

From a safe distance and still rubbing his buttocks, “Benighted fool!” shouted the man from The Fordian Science Monitor, “why don't you take soma?”

“Get away!” The Savage shook his fist.

The other retreated a few steps then turned round again. “Evil's an unreality if you take a couple of grammes.”

“Kohakwa iyathtokyai!” The tone was menacingly derisive.

“Pain's a delusion.”

“Oh, is it?” said the Savage and, picking up a thick hazel switch, strode forward.

The man from The Fordian Science Monitor made a dash for his helicopter.

After that the Savage was left for a time in peace. A few helicopters came and hovered inquisitively round the tower. He shot an arrow into the importunately nearest of them. It pierced the aluminium floor of the cabin; there was a shrill yell, and the machine went rocketing up into the air with all the acceleration that its super-charger could give it. The others, in future, kept their distance respectfully. Ignoring their tiresome humming (he likened himself in his imagination to one of the suitors of the Maiden of Mátsaki, unmoved and persistent among the winged vermin), the Savage dug at what was to be his garden. After a time the vermin evidently became bored and flew away; for hours at a stretch the sky above his head was empty and, but for the larks, silent.

The weather was breathlessly hot, there was thunder in the air. He had dug all the morning and was resting, stretched out along the floor. And suddenly the thought of Lenina was a real presence, naked and tangible, saying “Sweet!” and “Put your arms round me!” —in shoes and socks, perfumed. Impudent strumpet! But oh, oh, her arms round his neck, the lifting of her breasts, her mouth! Eternity was in our lips and eyes. Lenina…No, no, no, no! He sprang to his feet and, half naked as he was, ran out of the house. At the edge of the heath stood a clump of hoary juniper bushes. He flung himself against them, he embraced, not the smooth body of his desires, but an armful of green spikes. Sharp, with a thousand points, they pricked him. He tried to think of poor Linda, breathless and dumb, with her clutching hands and the unutterable terror in her eyes. Poor Linda whom he had sworn to remember. But it was still the presence of Lenina that haunted him. Lenina whom he had promised to forget. Even through the stab and sting of the juniper needles, his wincing flesh was aware of her, inescapably real. “Sweet, sweet…And if you wanted me too, why didn't you…”

The whip was hanging on a nail by the door, ready to hand against the arrival of reporters. In a frenzy the Savage ran back to the house, seized it, whirled it. The knotted cords bit into his flesh.

“Strumpet! Strumpet!” he shouted at every blow as though it were Lenina (and how frantically, without knowing it, he wished it were!), white, warm, scented, infamous Lenina that he was flogging thus. “Strumpet!” And then, in a voice of despair, “Oh, Linda, forgive me. Forgive me, God. I'm bad. I'm wicked. I'm…No, no, you strumpet, you strumpet!”

From his carefully constructed hide in the wood three hundred metres away, Darwin Bonaparte, the Feely Corporation's most expert big-game photographer, had watched the whole proceedings. Patience and skill had been rewarded. He had spent three days sitting inside the bole of an artificial oak tree, three nights crawling on his belly through the heather, hiding microphones in gorse bushes, burying wires in the soft grey sand. Seventy-two hours of profound discomfort. But now the great moment had come—the greatest, Darwin Bonaparte had time to reflect, as he moved among his instruments, the greatest since his taking of the famous all-howling stereoscopic feely of the gorillas' wedding. “Splendid,” he said to himself, as the Savage started his astonishing performance. “Splendid!” He kept his telescopic cameras carefully aimed—glued to their moving objective; clapped on a higher power to get a close-up of the frantic and distorted face (admirable!); switched over, for half a minute, to slow motion (an exquisitely comical effect, he promised himself); listened in, meanwhile, to the blows, the groans, the wild and raving words that were being recorded on the sound-track at the edge of his film, tried the effect of a little amplification (yes, that was decidedly better); was delighted to hear, in a momentary lull, the shrill singing of a lark; wished the Savage would turn round so that he could get a good close-up of the blood on his back—and almost instantly (what astonishing luck!) the accommodating fellow did turn round, and he was able to take a perfect close-up.

“Well, that was grand!” he said to himself when it was all over. “Really grand!” He mopped his face. When they had put in the feely effects at the studio, it would be a wonderful film. Almost as good, thought Darwin Bonaparte, as the Sperm Whale's Love-Life—and that, by Ford, was saying a good deal!

Twelve days later The Savage of Surrey had been released and could be seen, heard and felt in every first-class feely-palace in Western Europe.

The effect of Darwin Bonaparte's film was immediate and enormous. On the afternoon which followed the evening of its release John's rustic solitude was suddenly broken by the arrival overhead of a great swarm of helicopters.

He was digging in his garden—digging, too, in his own mind, laboriously turning up the substance of his thought. Death—and he drove in his spade once, and again, and yet again. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. A convincing thunder rumbled through the words. He lifted another spadeful of earth. Why had Linda died? Why had she been allowed to become gradually less than human and at last…He shuddered. A good kissing carrion. He planted his foot on his spade and stamped it fiercely into the tough ground. As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. Thunder again; words that proclaimed themselves true—truer somehow than truth itself. And yet that same Gloucester had called them ever-gentle gods. Besides, thy best of rest is sleep, and that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st thy death which is no more. No more than sleep. Sleep. Perchance to dream. His spade struck against a stone; he stooped to pick it up. For in that sleep of death, what dreams…?

A humming overhead had become a roar; and suddenly he was in shadow, there was something between the sun and him. He looked up, startled, from his digging, from his thoughts; looked up in a dazzled bewilderment, his mind still wandering in that other world of truer-than-truth, still focused on the immensities of death and deity; looked up and saw, close above him, the swarm of hovering machines. Like locusts they came, hung poised, descended all around him on the heather. And from out of the bellies of these giant grasshoppers stepped men in white viscose-flannels, women (for the weather was hot) in acetate-shantung pyjamas or velveteen shorts and sleeveless, half-unzippered singlets—one couple from each. In a few minutes there were dozens of them, standing in a wide circle round the lighthouse, staring, laughing, clicking their cameras, throwing (as to an ape) peanuts, packets of sex-hormone chewing-gum, pan-glandular petits beurres. And every moment—for across the Hog's Back the stream of traffic now flowed unceasingly—their numbers increased. As in a nightmare, the dozens became scores, the scores hundreds.

The Savage had retreated towards cover, and now, in the posture of an animal at bay, stood with his back to the wall of the lighthouse, staring from face to face in speechless horror, like a man out of his senses.

From this stupor he was aroused to a more immediate sense of reality by the impact on his cheek of a well-aimed packet of chewing-gum. A shock of startling pain—and he was broad awake, awake and fiercely angry.

“Go away!” he shouted.

The ape had spoken; there was a burst of laughter and hand-clapping. “Good old Savage! Hurrah, hurrah!” And through the babel he heard cries of: “Whip, whip, the whip!”

Acting on the word's suggestion, he seized the bunch of knotted cords from its nail behind the door and shook it at his tormentors.

There was a yell of ironical applause.

Menacingly he advanced towards them. A woman cried out in fear. The line wavered at its most immediately threatened point, then stiffened again, stood firm. The consciousness of being in overwhelming force had given these sightseers a courage which the Savage had not expected of them. Taken aback, he halted and looked round.

“Why don't you leave me alone?” There was an almost plaintive note in his anger.

“Have a few magnesium-salted almonds!” said the man who, if the Savage were to advance, would be the first to be attacked. He held out a packet. “They're really very good, you know,” he added, with a rather nervous smile of propitiation. “And the magnesium salts will help to keep you young.”

The Savage ignored his offer. “What do you want with me?” he asked, turning from one grinning face to another. “What do you want with me?”

“The whip,” answered a hundred voices confusedly. “Do the whipping stunt. Let's see the whipping stunt.”

Then, in unison and on a slow, heavy rhythm, “We—want—the whip,” shouted a group at the end of the line. “We—want—the whip.”

Others at once took up the cry, and the phrase was repeated, parrot-fashion, again and again, with an ever-growing volume of sound, until, by the seventh or eighth reiteration, no other word was being spoken. “We—want—the whip.”

They were all crying together; and, intoxicated by the noise, the unanimity, the sense of rhythmical atonement, they might, it seemed, have gone on for hours—almost indefinitely. But at about the twenty-fifth repetition the proceedings were startlingly interrupted. Yet another helicopter had arrived from across the Hog's Back, hung poised above the crowd, then dropped within a few yards of where the Savage was standing, in the open space between the line of sightseers and the lighthouse. The roar of the air screws momentarily drowned the shouting; then, as the machine touched the ground and the engines were turned off: “We—want—the whip; we—want—the whip,” broke out again in the same loud, insistent monotone.

The door of the helicopter opened, and out stepped, first a fair and ruddy-faced young man, then, in green velveteen shorts, white shirt, and jockey cap, a young woman.

At the sight of the young woman, the Savage started, recoiled, turned pale.

The young woman stood, smiling at him—an uncertain, imploring, almost abject smile. The seconds passed. Her lips moved, she was saying something; but the sound of her voice was covered by the loud reiterated refrain of the sightseers.

“We—want—the whip! We—want—the whip!”

The young woman pressed both hands to her left side, and on that peach-bright, doll-beautiful face of hers appeared a strangely incongruous expression of yearning distress. Her blue eyes seemed to grow larger, brighter; and suddenly two tears rolled down her cheeks. Inaudibly, she spoke again; then, with a quick, impassioned gesture, stretched out her arms towards the Savage, stepped forward.

“We—want—the whip! We—want…”

And all of a sudden they had what they wanted.

“Strumpet!” The Savage had rushed at her like a madman. “Fitchew!” Like a madman, he was slashing at her with his whip of small cords.

Terrified, she had turned to flee, had tripped and fallen in the heather. “Henry, Henry!” she shouted. But her ruddy-faced companion had bolted out of harm's way behind the helicopter.

With a whoop of delighted excitement the line broke; there was a convergent stampede towards that magnetic centre of attraction. Pain was a fascinating horror.

“Fry, lechery, fry!” Frenzied, the Savage slashed again.

Hungrily they gathered round, pushing and scrambling like swine about the trough.

“Oh, the flesh!” The Savage ground his teeth. This time it was on his shoulders that the whip descended. “Kill it, kill it!”

Drawn by the fascination of the horror of pain and, from within, impelled by that habit of co-operation, that desire for unanimity and atonement, which their conditioning had so ineradicably implanted in them, they began to mime the frenzy of his gestures, striking at one another as the Savage struck at his own rebellious flesh, or at that plump incarnation of turpitude writhing in the heather at his feet.

“Kill it, kill it, kill it…” The Savage went on shouting.

Then suddenly somebody started singing “Orgy-porgy” and, in a moment, they had all caught up the refrain and, singing, had begun to dance. Orgy-porgy, round and round and round, beating one another in six-eight time. Orgy-porgy…

It was after midnight when the last of the helicopters took its flight. Stupefied by soma, and exhausted by a long-drawn frenzy of sensuality, the Savage lay sleeping in the heather. The sun was already high when he awoke. He lay for a moment, blinking in owlish incomprehension at the light; then suddenly remembered—everything.

“Oh, my God, my God!” He covered his eyes with his hand.

*

That evening the swarm of helicopters that came buzzing across the Hog's Back was a dark cloud ten kilometres long. The description of last night's orgy of atonement had been in all the papers.

“Savage!” called the first arrivals, as they alighted from their machine. “Mr. Savage!”

There was no answer.

The door of the lighthouse was ajar. They pushed it open and walked into a shuttered twilight. Through an archway on the further side of the room they could see the bottom of the staircase that led up to the higher floors. Just under the crown of the arch dangled a pair of feet.

“Mr. Savage!”

Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east….

门虚掩着,他们进去了。

“约翰!”

从卫生间里传来了那种典型的令人不快的声音。

“出什么事了吗?”赫尔姆霍茨问。

没有人回答。那种令人不舒服的声音又传来了,一次,两次,然后是一片静寂。过了一会儿,卫生间的门咔嗒一声打开了,野蛮人走了出来,脸色苍白。

“我说,”赫尔姆霍茨关切地喊道,“约翰,你看起来真像生病了!”

“你吃了什么不合你胃口的东西了吗?”伯纳德问。

野蛮人点点头说:“我吃了文明。”

“什么?”

“我中毒了,我被玷污了。”他接着放低了声音补充道,“我吃了我自己的邪恶。”

“好吧,到底是什么呢?我是说,你刚才在……”

“现在,我净化了自己,”野蛮人说,“我喝了些温水冲服的芥末。”

那两个人吃惊地盯着他。“你是说,你刚才是故意那么做的?”伯纳德问。

“印第安人总是这么净化自己的。”他坐下来,叹口气,用手抹了抹额头,“我要休息几分钟,”他说,“我很累。”

“我一点也不吃惊。”赫尔姆霍茨说,沉默了一会儿,他又说,“我们是来跟你告别的,”他换了种语气,“我们明天早晨就离开。”

“是的,我们明天走。”伯纳德说,野蛮人注意到他的脸上新添了一种坚忍的、听天由命的表情。“顺便说一句,约翰,”他继续说,坐在椅子上的身体前倾,将一只手放在野蛮人的膝盖上,“我想说,我为昨天发生的事情抱歉,”他的脸红了,“多么耻辱,”他继续说,虽然声音有些颤抖,“真的,多么……”

野蛮人打断他的话,抓住他的手,亲切地捏了捏。

“赫尔姆霍茨对我太好了,”伯纳德停顿了片刻,接着说,“要没有他的话,我可能……”

“别说了,别说了。”赫尔姆霍茨抗议了。

他们陷入了沉默。虽然有些伤心,甚至正是由于这种伤心的情感,因为他们的伤心正是他们彼此爱对方的表现,这三个年轻人感到非常开心。

“今天早晨我去见了控制官。”最后,野蛮人说。

“去干什么呢?”

“去问问我能否和你们一起去岛上。”

“他怎么说?”赫尔姆霍茨急切地问。

野蛮人摇摇头。“他不允许。”

“为什么呢?”

“他说他想继续这个实验,可是,我才不会干呢,”野蛮人突然怒气冲冲地说,“我才不会让他继续拿我做实验呢。即使世界上所有控制官都请我来做,我也不做。我明天也要离开。”

“可是去哪里呢?”两个人一起问。

野蛮人耸了耸肩。“任何地方。我不在乎,只要我能够独自一人就行。”

*

下行线路从吉尔福德出发,沿着威谷径直下到戈德尔明,然后,越过米尔福德和威特利,通向黑斯尔米尔,再穿过彼得斯菲尔德,到达朴茨茅斯。和这条线路大概平行的上行线路,则经过沃普尔斯顿、堂海姆、普坦汉姆、埃尔斯坦德和格雷肖特。在野猪背和欣德黑德之间的一些地方,这两条线路之间的距离不超过六七英里。对那些漫不经心的驾驶员来讲,这段距离太小了,尤其是晚上他们多吃了半克唆麻之后。曾经出过一些事故,很严重的事故。后来决定将上行线往西挪移几英里。在格雷肖特和堂海姆之间,有四座废弃的航空灯塔,标志着从朴茨茅斯到伦敦的那条旧路线。这些灯塔的上空寂静无声,一片荒凉。现在,那些直升机是在塞尔伯恩、博尔敦和法纳姆的上空飞行,不间断地嗡嗡着,呼啸着。

野蛮人选择了一座旧灯塔作为自己的隐居地,这个灯塔位于普坦汉姆和埃尔斯坦德之间的一座小山上。这是个铁架水泥建筑,状况良好。当野蛮人首次勘查这个地方的时候,觉得这个住处简直过于舒服、过于文明化、过于奢侈了。他保证将以更加严酷的自律和更加彻底的净化加以弥补,以此安慰自己的良心。在隐居地度过的第一个晚上,他刻意没有睡觉。他整夜都跪在地上祈祷,一会儿向身负罪孽的克劳狄斯(1)曾经乞求过宽恕的上天祈祷,一会儿又用祖尼语向阿沃纳威娄纳祈祷,一会儿向耶稣和菩公祈祷,一会儿又向自己的守护兽雄鹰祈祷。他不时将胳膊展开,好像在十字架上那样。他一直保持这个姿势,随着时间一分一秒地流逝,他胳膊上的疼痛逐渐加剧,直到变成一阵阵刺骨的痛楚;他就这样挺着,承受着自发的钉刑,咬着牙,嘴里不断地重复着(同时,汗水顺着脸颊淌下来):“哦,宽恕我吧!哦,让我变得纯洁!哦,助我变得善良!”一遍又一遍,直到他几乎因为疼痛而晕死过去。

天亮了,他感到已经赢得了住在这个灯塔里的权利,尽管大多数窗户上的玻璃还在,尽管从塔顶平台看过去的风景很美。最初他选择这个灯塔的原因现在几乎成了他想马上去别处的理由。起初,他决定在这里生活就是因为风景太美了,因为,从他的那个制高点,他正在面对着的似乎是神灵的化身。可是,他又有何德何能,得到如此的娇宠,能够每天、每小时都看到如此美景?他是谁,能够一直与上帝面对面?他只配生活在某个肮脏的猪圈里,某个阴暗的地下洞穴里。经过漫长一夜的折磨,他浑身依旧僵硬酸痛,但正是因此,他的良心才更加平静,他爬到了灯塔顶部的平台上,眺望着那个日出时分明亮的世界,感觉他已经重新赢得了在这个世界生存的权利。他北面的风景被野猪背长长的灰白色山脊包围,最东头的山脊后面,耸立着七座摩天大楼,那里就是吉尔福德。看到这些大楼,野蛮人苦笑了一下,但是,随着时间的推移,他将习惯这个景观。夜晚,这些摩天大楼或是装饰着亮闪闪的、几何形的星座,或是打着泛照灯,像通体透亮的手指(在英格兰,除了野蛮人,没有人能够明白这个手势的意义),庄严地指向天穹深不可测的奥秘之中。

一个山谷将野猪背和他的灯塔坐落的这座砂质小山隔离开来,在那里,普坦汉姆就像一个不起眼的小村庄,只有九层楼高,只有几个筒仓、一个家禽场和一个不大的维他命D工厂。在灯塔的另一侧,地势向南面渐渐下降,先是长长的长满石楠的缓坡,然后降低为一长串池塘。

在更远处,比树林更远的地方,矗立着一座十四层的塔楼,这就是埃尔斯坦德了。在英格兰薄雾笼罩的空气中,欣德黑德和塞尔伯恩看上去有点朦胧,吸引着你将视线往那蔚蓝的浪漫远处望去。不过,最初将野蛮人吸引到灯塔这里来的,并不仅仅是这种远景,近景也一样令人迷醉。树林,连绵不绝的石楠和黄色的金雀花,一丛丛的苏格兰桦树,杉树掩映下的闪闪发光的池塘,池塘里的睡莲和一簇簇的灯芯草,这些都是那么美丽,对于习惯了美洲干旱沙漠的眼睛来说,简直令人震惊。还有那孤独!几天过去了,他从来没有见过一个人影。这个灯塔离查令T字塔只有一刻钟的飞行距离,可是,就算是玛尔帕斯的山脉几乎也不比这位于萨里郡的荒野更加寂寥。一群群人每天离开伦敦,只是为了去玩电磁高尔夫或者网球。普坦汉姆那里没有高尔夫球场,最近的黎曼曲面网球场是在吉尔福德,野花和风景是这里唯一的吸引力。因此,没有来这里的充分理由,也就没有人来这里。在最初的几天里,野蛮人完全是一个人生活,毫无打扰。

他刚到文明世界的时候,领到了一笔款项,作为他日常花销之用。他把这笔钱大多花在了买装备上面。离开伦敦之前,他购买了四床人造丝-羊毛毯、粗粗细细的绳子、钉子、胶水、几件工具、火柴(虽然他计划着过一段时间就钻木取火)、几个锅壶、二十多包种子、十千克小麦面粉。“不,不要那种合成淀粉和废棉做的代面粉,”他坚持着,“即使它更有营养也不要。”可是,在面对泛腺体饼干和添加维生素的代牛肉时,他没有抵挡住店员的劝服。看着那些罐头瓶子,他猛烈地谴责自己的软弱。可憎的文明化的东西!他已经下定决心,坚决不吃那东西,即使快要饿死了也不吃。“给他们一个教训。”他报复似的想。对他自己也是一个教训。

他数了数钱,希望剩下的那点足够让他凑合着度过冬天。到来年春天,他的菜园里将生产出足够的食物,他就不用依赖外面的世界了。同时,总会有一些猎物的。他看到过许多野兔,池塘里还有水禽。他立刻动手制作一副弓箭。

灯塔附近有一些白蜡树,还有长满挺拔漂亮的榛子树苗的灌木林,可以做箭杆。他开始砍伐一棵嫩白蜡树,砍出一段六英尺长、没有枝杈的树干,剥掉树皮,开始切削,刮下白白的木屑,就像老米斯玛教他的那样,最后,剩下了一段与他的身高大致相等的木棍,中间稍粗且坚硬,两头纤细、灵活而柔软。这项工作给了他极大的乐趣。他在伦敦度过了好几星期懒散的日子,无所事事,需要什么东西的时候,只需按一下开关或者转一下手柄,现在,做一些需要技巧和耐力的事情,真是一大乐趣。

快要将木棍削出形状来的时候,他突然意识到自己在唱歌,他吃了一惊——唱歌!就好像,他碰巧刚刚从外面回来,看到自己正在干一件大坏事,抓了个正着。他惭愧了,脸唰地红了。毕竟,他来到这里,不是为了唱歌和享受,而是为了逃离文明生活的污秽对他进一步的腐蚀,是为了净化自己,让自己变得更好,是为了积极地赎罪。他沮丧地意识到,专注于切削他的弓的时候,他已经忘记了发誓要时刻牢记的事情——可怜的琳达,以及自己对她的凶狠和残忍,那些可憎的多胞胎,像虱子一样爬着,亵渎了琳达之死的奥秘,他们的存在不仅侮辱了他自己的悲伤和悔恨,更侮辱了天神们。他曾经发誓要牢记这些,他曾经发誓要不停地赎罪。可是,他却坐在这里,开心地坐在这里,忙着做弓,还唱歌,真的在唱歌……

他走进屋子,打开一盒芥末,倒了些水,放到火上开始煮。

半个小时之后,来自普坦汉姆的一个波卡诺夫斯基组别的三个德尔塔-农民开车去埃尔斯坦德,恰巧经过这里。到达山顶时,他们吃惊地发现一个年轻人站在废弃的灯塔外面,上身赤裸,正在用一根打了结的鞭子抽打自己。他的后背上面横亘着一道道深红色的印迹,从这些鞭痕上流下细细的血水。卡车司机将车停在路边,和两个同伴一起,目瞪口呆地盯着这不同寻常的景象。一下,两下,三下——他们数着鞭打的次数。打完第八下,年轻人停止了自我惩罚,跑到树林边上,开始猛烈地呕吐。吐完之后,他拾起鞭子,又开始鞭打自己。九下,十下,十一下,十二下……

“福帝啊!”司机低声说,他的两个同伴也深有同感。

“福帝!”他们说。

三天后,记者们来了,犹如落在尸体上的秃鹫。

弓体在绿色木头生起的文火上烤干变硬之后,就做好了。野蛮人正忙着做箭。已经削出三十支榛子木棍,晾干了,一头钉上了尖尖的铁钉,弦口也仔细刻好了。有一天晚上,他突袭了普坦汉姆的家禽场,现在他已经有足够的羽毛来装备整个武器库。他正在加工箭杆上的羽毛,这时,第一个记者找到了他。这个人穿着充气鞋子,悄无声息,从他的身后突然出现。

“早上好,野蛮人先生,”他说,“我是《每时广播》的记者。”

野蛮人吓了一跳,好像被蛇咬了一下,他跳了起来,箭杆、羽毛、胶水瓶子和刷子散落一地。

“请你原谅,”记者说,真心地感到愧疚,“我没有想……”他用手碰触了一下帽子,那是一顶铝制的烟囱形状的帽子,在帽子里面装有无线电接收器和发报器,“原谅我没法把它摘下来,”他说,“有点沉。如我刚才所说,我代表的是……”

“你想干什么?”野蛮人阴沉着脸说。记者报以他最讨好的笑容。

“哦,当然,我们的读者会非常感兴趣……”他的头歪向一边,脸上的笑容几乎像是在献媚。“野蛮人先生,就说几句话。”他做出了一系列快速的仪式般的动作,解开两团电线接上围在他腰间的便携式电池;将它们同时插入铝制帽子的两侧;碰了一下帽顶上的弹簧,一根天线射向了空中;碰了一下帽檐顶端的另一个弹簧,跳出一个麦克风,就像从玩偶盒子里跳出一个玩偶一样,麦克风悬在那里,在离他的鼻子六英寸处颤动着;拉下一对接收器,戴在耳朵上;按了一下帽子左边的开关,从里面传来微弱的黄蜂般的嗡嗡声;拧了一下右边的旋钮,嗡嗡声之上立刻又增添了听诊器里那种呼呼声和咳咳声、咯咯声和突然的吱吱声。“喂,”他对着麦克风说“喂,喂……”他的帽子里突然传出了一声铃响。“是你吗,厄泽尔?我是普利莫·梅尔伦。是的,我抓到他了。野蛮人先生现在要对着麦克风说几句话。你会说的吧,野蛮人先生?”他抬头看着野蛮人,脸上又挂上了他最迷人的笑容。“就告诉我们的读者你为什么会来这里。你为什么突然离开伦敦?(再等会儿,厄泽尔!)当然,还有那鞭子的事。”(野蛮人吃了一惊,他们怎么知道鞭子的事的?)“我们都非常想知道那鞭子是怎么回事。再说点对文明的看法。你知道的,就那类东西,‘我如何看待文明的姑娘’,等等。寥寥数语就行,寥寥……”

野蛮人照他的话做了,真的就只有令人不安的几个词。他只说了五个词语,只有五个,就是他对伯纳德说过的同样的话,他对坎特伯雷首席歌唱家的看法:“哈尼!桑斯埃索嚓那!”他抓住记者的肩膀,把他的身子扳过去(这个年轻人包裹得很严实,真是诱人),瞄准,然后像个职业足球运动员一样,猛力而准确地向他踢过去,狠狠的一脚。

八分钟之后,《每时广播》的最新一期就在伦敦的大街小巷售卖了。头版头条印着“《每时广播》记者被神秘野蛮人狠狠踢中尾骨”“轰动整个萨里郡”。

“甚至轰动了伦敦。”这个记者返回后,看到这些词句时心里想。况且,这种轰动还是那么痛苦。他小心翼翼地坐下,开始吃午饭。

又来了四个记者,他们丝毫没有被同事尾骨上那本可以用以警戒的踢伤吓倒,他们分别是《纽约时报》、法兰克福《四维闭连报》、《福帝科学箴言报》和《德尔塔镜报》的记者。他们当天下午来到灯塔,却遭到了越来越暴力的对待。

《福帝科学箴言报》的记者躲在远远的安全距离之外,仍旧在揉着屁股。“愚昧的傻瓜!”他大喊,“你干吗不吃点唆麻?”

“滚开!”野蛮人晃了晃拳头。

其他人退后几步,又转过身来。“如果你吃几片唆麻,邪恶就不复存在。”

“抠哈克哇咿呀透克呀咿!”语气凶恶且满含讥讽。

“痛苦只是幻象。”

“哦,是吗?”野蛮人说,捡起一根粗粗的榛子木棍,大步走了过来。

《福帝科学箴言报》的记者朝着自己的直升机飞奔过去。

这之后的一段时间内,野蛮人的生活回归平静。几架直升机飞来,围着灯塔好奇地盘旋。他向飞得最近、最缠人的一架射出一箭,射穿了驾驶舱的铝制地板,只听一声尖叫,飞机火箭般地加速升空,使出了它的超级充电器所能提供的最大速度。随后,其他飞机就敬而远之了。野蛮人毫不理会那些恼人的嗡嗡声(在他的想象中,他将自己比喻成玛塔斯基少女的众多求婚者之一,不为那些长翅膀的毒虫所扰乱,坚毅而执着),继续挖他那个未来的菜园。过了片刻,很明显,毒虫厌倦了,飞走了。连续几个小时,他头顶的天空中空空如也,除了云雀的鸣叫外,寂静无声。

天气又闷又热,叫人透不过气来,空中传来滚滚雷声。他挖了一上午的地,正躺在地板上休息。突然,对列宁娜的思念似乎变成了一个真实的存在,裸露着,几乎可以触摸到,她在说:“亲爱的!”“抱紧我!”她穿着鞋子和袜子,喷了香水。不要脸的娼妇!可是,哦,哦,她的胳膊在搂着他的脖子,她的乳房抬起来了,她的嘴!永恒就在我们的唇间和双眼。列宁娜……不,不,不,不!他跳了起来,半裸着身体,跑出房子。在荒原边上,有一大簇灰白色的杜松,他冲入杜松丛。他拥抱的,不是他渴望的光滑肉体,而是一捧绿色的松针。尖利的松针,上千个针尖,刺着他。他竭力去想可怜的琳达,她喘不过气,说不出话,两手乱挠着,眼睛里充满无言的恐惧。可怜的琳达,他曾经发誓要牢记的琳达。可是,缠绕着他的依然是列宁娜,他发誓要忘记的列宁娜。尽管杜松的松针在刺着他,扎着他,但他畏缩的肉体感受到的,还是列宁娜,真实的、难以逃避的列宁娜。“亲爱的,亲爱的……如果你也想要我,你干吗不……”

鞭子就挂在门边的钉子上,记者们来时可以随手就拿起来。野蛮人一阵迷乱,他跑回房子,抓住鞭子,挥舞起来。打了结的绳子咬进了他的肉体。

“娼妇!娼妇!”每打一鞭,他就大喊一声,好像他打的是列宁娜(他没有意识到,他多么疯狂地希望打的真是列宁娜啊!),白花花的、温暖的、喷喷香的、无耻的列宁娜,他正这样鞭打着她。“娼妇!”然后,他绝望地说,“哦,列宁娜,宽恕我吧。宽恕我吧,上帝,我道德败坏,我邪恶。我……不,不,你这个娼妇,你这个娼妇!”

在三百米开外的树林里,达尔文·波拿巴藏在他精心建造的隐身处,目睹了刚才的整个过程,他是感官电影公司最高明的大型野兽摄像师。耐心和技巧终于得到了回报。他在一棵人工橡树的树洞里坐了三个白天,又花了三个晚上在石楠丛中爬来爬去,将麦克风安装到金雀花丛中,将电线埋进柔软的灰色沙地。在七十二个小时里,他饱尝艰辛,现在,伟大的时刻到来了,最伟大的时刻——达尔文·波拿巴一边在他的仪器中间走动着,一边在想,自从他拍摄了那著名的有关大猩猩交配的全号叫、立体感官电影之后,这是最伟大的时刻。“太精彩了,”当看到野蛮人开始那令人震惊的表演,他自言自语,“太精彩了!”他将望远式照相机小心翼翼地瞄准并固定在那移动着的目标上,调大功率,以获得那张疯狂扭曲的脸的特写(太棒了!);又调换成半分钟的慢镜头(将产生巧妙的滑稽效果,他向自己保证);同时,他聆听着那些正在往位于胶卷边沿的录音带中录入的鞭打声、呻吟声、狂野而疯癫的话语声,试了试将声音稍微放大的效果(是的,绝对更好);在短暂的停歇之中,他很高兴地听到了云雀高亢尖锐的歌声;他真希望野蛮人能够扭过身去,让他给他后背上的鲜血来个特写,这时,几乎是立刻(多么令人吃惊的好运气!),那个与人为善的家伙真的转过身去了,他拍了个完美的特写。

“嗯,好极了!”拍完之后,他心里想,“真是好极了!”他擦了把脸。等他们在制作室里加入感官效果,这会是一部绝佳的影片。达尔文·波拿巴想,几乎和《抹香鲸的爱情生活》一样优秀——福帝!那可就说明问题了!

十二天后,《萨里郡的野蛮人》正式上映,在西欧的每个顶级感官电影院都可以看到、听到和触摸到。

达尔文·波拿巴的电影立即产生了巨大的轰动。晚上推出的电影,第二天下午,一大群直升机就突然飞临约翰头顶,打断了他的乡间独处生活。

他正在菜园里挖地,在他的脑海里,他也在挖着,费力地翻动着头脑中的思绪。死亡——他的铁锹落下去,一下,一下,再一下。我们所有的昨天,不过替傻子们照亮了到死亡的土壤中去的路。(2)一阵有说服力的雷声在那些词语之上訇然作响。他又抡起了一锹土。为什么琳达会死?为什么要让她逐渐变得不像人样,最后……他打了个冷战。可亲可吻的好腐肉。(3)他将脚放在铁锹上,狠狠地踩入坚硬的土地。天神掌握着我们的命运,正像顽童捉到苍蝇一样,为了戏弄的缘故而把我们杀害。又一声响雷。这些话宣告着自己的正确,甚至比真理本身还正确。可是,葛罗斯特却把他们叫作永远温柔的天神。(4)还有,睡眠是你所渴慕的最好的休息,死是永恒的宁静,你却对它心惊胆战。(5)睡眠,可能会做梦。(6)他的锹碰到了一块石头,他弯腰捡起来。可是,在那死亡的睡眠里,会做什么样的梦呢?(7)……

头顶上的嗡嗡声变成了轰鸣声,一片阴影突然遮住了他,有什么东西挡在了他和太阳之间。他停下挖掘,停下思考,抬头望去,吓了一跳。他迷茫不解地抬头去看,脑子还在比真理还正确的另一个世界里游荡,注意力仍然还停留在死亡与神祇的重大问题上。他抬头看去,看见了,那群盘旋着的直升机,离他的头顶那么近。它们就像蝗虫一样飞过来,悬停在半空,然后降落在他四周的荒原上。从这些巨大的蝗虫肚子里,走出了穿白色人造丝-法兰绒衣服的男人,穿黏胶-茧绸套装或者天鹅绒短裤和拉链半开的无袖汗衫的女人(天气很热)——从每架飞机中都走出一对男女。不一会儿,就走出来几十个人,他们围着灯塔,形成一个大圈子,盯着他看,嬉笑着,咔嚓咔嚓地照着相,向他扔花生(就像扔给一只猴子),扔一包包性荷尔蒙口香糖,扔泛腺体小奶油饼。每时每刻,他们的数量都在增加,此时,在野猪背的上空,飞机还在不断地蜂拥而来。如同在噩梦中一般,几十个人变成了上百个,上百个又变成了几百个。

野蛮人退回到隐蔽处。现在,他背靠灯塔的墙壁,姿势如同困兽一样,一张张脸地看过去,恐惧得说不出话来,像个疯子。

突然,一包瞄准精确的口香糖砸到了他的脸颊,把他从恍惚状态中惊醒,他意识到了眼前的现实。他痛苦地惊叫一声,他完全清醒了,清醒而怒火中烧。

“滚开!”他大喊。

猴子说话了,周围爆发出一阵大笑和鼓掌声。“好野蛮人!好哇,好哇!”他在这些杂乱的声音里听到有人在喊:“鞭子,鞭子,鞭子!”

这话提醒了他,他从门后的钉子上抓起那段打了结的绳子,对着折磨他的人晃了晃。

一阵讥讽的喝彩声和掌声。

他气势汹汹地走向他们。一个女人害怕地叫起来。队伍中离危险最近的人们犹豫了一下,然后又站直了,坚定地站在那里。这些观光者意识到自己在力量上具有压倒性的优势,因此勇气大增,这大大出乎野蛮人的意料。他吃了一惊,停住了脚步,向四处望望。

“你们为什么不让我一个人待着?”他的愤怒里几乎带着一种哀怨。

“吃点镁盐杏仁吧!”如果野蛮人继续向前,将第一个受到攻击的那个男人说,他递过来一包,“很好吃,你知道的,”他又说,讨好的笑容有些紧张,“镁盐会帮助你永葆青春。”

野蛮人没有理会他递过来的东西。“你们找我干什么?”他看着一张张傻笑的脸,问道,“你们找我干什么?”

“鞭子,”上百个声音乱糟糟地说,“表演一下那鞭子功夫,给我们看看鞭子功。”

然后,伴着缓慢沉重的节奏,他们一起喊起来:“我们——想看——鞭子。”队伍后边的一群人喊:“我们——想看——鞭子。”

其他人马上也跟着喊了起来,不断地重复着这句话,鹦鹉学舌一般,一遍又一遍,声音越来越大,喊到第七次或第八次的时候,就没有其他声音了,只剩下“我们——想看——鞭子”。

他们都在一起喊着。这声音,这团结,还有作为补偿的节奏感,都令他们陶醉,他们似乎可以连续喊叫几个小时,几乎可以无休无止地喊下去。可是,喊到大概第二十五次的时候,这喊叫被突如其来地打断了。又一架直升机飞过野猪背,悬停在人群上方,然后,在观光者和灯塔之间的空地上,在距离野蛮人几码远的地方降落了。螺旋桨的咆哮声暂时淹没了喊声。飞机落地了,马达关掉了。“我们——想看——鞭子,我们——想看——鞭子”的喊声再次爆发,同样响亮、同样急切的单调声音。

直升机门打开了,走出一个金发碧眼、脸色红润的年轻人,随后走出来的,是一个穿着绿色天鹅绒短裤和白衬衫、戴着骑士帽的年轻姑娘。

野蛮人一看到这个姑娘,吓得直往后退,脸色变得煞白。

那个姑娘站在那里,对他微笑着——不自信的、乞求的、几乎是低声下气的微笑。时间一秒秒地过去了,她的嘴唇翕动,她在说着什么,可是,她的声音被观光者们一次次的大喊遮盖住了。“我们——想看——鞭子!我们——想看——鞭子!”

姑娘将两只手紧紧地贴在自己身体的左侧,她那桃红色的、布娃娃般的明媚脸蛋上出现了极不协调的渴望和悲伤。她碧蓝的眼睛似乎变大了,更加明亮了。突然,两颗泪珠顺着她的脸颊滚落。她又说了什么听不见的话,然后,她突然动情地张开双臂,向着野蛮人走过来。

“我们——想看——鞭子!我们——想看……”

突然之间,他们看到了他们想看的。

“娼妇!”野蛮人像个疯子一样冲向她,“臭猫!”他像个疯子,要用那打结的鞭子抽打她。

她吓坏了,扭头就逃,绊了一下,摔倒在石楠丛中。“亨利!亨利!”她大喊,可是,那个红脸膛的年轻人已经逃到直升机后面,躲到安全之处了。

人群又兴奋又激动,大喊着,散开来,一窝蜂地向那个有磁力般的焦点簇拥过来。痛苦真是一种令人痴迷的恐怖。

“惩罚,好色,惩罚!(8)”迷乱之中,野蛮人再次挥起鞭子抽打起来。

人们饥渴地聚集在周围,像食槽周围的猪,乱哄哄地推搡着,拥挤着。

“哦,肉体!”野蛮人咬牙切齿。这一次,他抽打的是自己的肩膀,“杀死它!杀死它!”

人们着迷于这种痛苦的恐怖景象,又被合作的习惯以及那种寻求一致和补偿的欲望驱动(早年的条件训练已将这种欲望植根于他们的头脑,难以消除),他们开始模仿野蛮人那癫狂的举动,击打着彼此的身躯,同时,野蛮人正在鞭打他自己叛逆的肉体,或者鞭打着他脚下的石楠丛中那团蠕动着的丰满肉体,那个淫乱的化身。

“杀死它,杀死它,杀死……”野蛮人还在大喊。

突然,有人开始高唱“狂欢啊狂欢”,不一会儿,人们都唱开了,不断地重复着那个叠句,开始跳舞。狂欢啊,一圈又一圈,打着六八拍,击打着彼此。狂欢啊……

午夜过后,最后一架直升机起飞离开了。野蛮人正在石楠丛中沉睡,唆麻令他呆滞,长时间疯狂的肉欲放纵令他精疲力竭。他醒来时,太阳已经高照。他躺了片刻,像猫头鹰一样,对着阳光眨着不解的眼睛,突然,他想起来了,一切都想起来了。

“哦,我的上帝,我的上帝呀!”他用手蒙住了眼睛。

那天晚上,一群群嗡嗡叫着的直升机飞过野猪背,形成了绵延十公里的乌云。所有的报纸上都登载了对昨天晚上赎罪般的狂欢的描述。

“野蛮人!”最早到达的人们走下飞机,喊道,“野蛮人先生!”

没有回答。

灯塔的门虚掩着。他们推开门,步入百叶窗背后的昏暗。透过房间另一头的拱门,他们可以看到通往楼上的楼梯的底部。在圆拱的下方,悬挂着一双脚。

“野蛮人先生!”

那双脚,就像圆规的两条不慌不忙的腿,缓慢地,缓慢地转向右边,北,东北,东,东南,南,西南,然后停住了,悬停了几秒钟,接着又慢条斯理地转向左边,西南,南,东南,东……

————————————————————

(1) 《哈姆雷特》里哈姆雷特的叔叔、丹麦现任国王。

(2) 引自《麦克白》,麦克白在第五幕中关于人生和死亡的著名台词。

(3) 引自《哈姆雷特》,哈姆雷特装疯时的胡言乱语。

(4) 引自《李尔王》,葛罗斯特的话,他认为天神对待人类的态度就像男孩子们对待苍蝇一样轻率,可是,在下一句里,他又称天神是温柔的。

(5) 引自《一报还一报》,公爵对克劳迪奥说的话,问他为什么惧怕死亡,死亡不过是睡眠。不过是睡眠。

(6) 引自《哈姆雷特》,是哈姆雷特关于“To be or not to be”的著名独白段落中的话。

(7) 出处同上。

(8) 引自《特洛伊罗斯与克瑞西达》,特洛伊罗斯误会了克瑞西达,以为她是轻浮的女人。

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