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双语·居里夫人的故事 第十八章 出国

所属教程:译林版·居里夫人的故事

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2022年06月16日

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Chapter XVIII Abroad

IT was May, 1920. The sun was hot. The chest-nuts in Paris were all in bloom, and Marie was, as usual, working. But an event was about to break in on her work; a most surprising event that she didn't expect in the least.

Marie never saw newspaper men, still less newspaper women. She hated being interviewed; she hated publicity. She had neat slips printed to say politely and firmly to strangers who wanted to meet her: “Madame Curie regrets…”

But people with Irish names who live in America sometimes have an odd little way of finding a right, irresistible word, and there was a certain Mrs. Meloney who had written to Marie: “My doctor father always used to say that it is quite impossible to exaggerate the littleness of human creatures. But for twenty years you have been great in my eyes, Madame, and I want to see you, only for a few minutes.” That was another way of saying: “Might a very little cat look at a queen?” and Marie, breaking all her own rules, said “Yes.”

So Mrs. Meloney waited on that May morning in Marie's tiny waiting-room at the Radium Institute, and this is how she described what happened:

“The door opened, and I saw come in a pale, timid woman with the saddest face I have ever seen. She had on a black cotton dress. Her splendid, patient, gentle face had the absent-minded look of people who study much. Suddenly, I felt that I was a mere intruder; I became even shyer than Madame Curie. I had been a professional reporter for more than twenty years and yet I couldn't manage to ask a single question of this defenceless woman in black cotton.”

It was Marie who set the reporter at ease by talking about America and Radium. She told her that America had fifty grammes of Radium, and she knew exactly how many grammes were in each town. “And how many has France?” asked Mrs. Meloney. “My laboratory possesses a little more than a gramme.”

“You have only a gramme of radium?”

“I? I haven't any. This gramme belongs to my laboratory.”

Then Mrs. Meloney began to speak of patents. She imagined, she said, that Marie must be drawing much money from those who used her methods of producing Raduim.

“Radium ought not to enrich anyone,” said Marie. “It is an element. It belongs to everybody.”

Mrs. Meloney must have felt then that the whole world ought to give Marie a present in return for what she had given the world. She said suddenly, “If you could choose out of the whole world the thing you would have, what would it be?”

Marie hesitated, “I need,” she said, “a gramme of radium to go on with my researches. But I can't buy it. Radium is too dear for me.”

It was then that Mrs. Meloney determined that America should give Marie Curie a gramme of Radium. She went home and tried to persuade ten rich women to give £3,000 each. But she could find only three. Then she turned from the few rich to the many poor. All the women of America should join together to give Marie the gift. In less than a year she wrote to Marie: “We have the money. Your Radium is yours.”

But America had grown excited over the collection. Soon all the girls and women had heard of the Madame Curie Radium Fund; everyone wanted to see Madame Curie. But Marie hated crowds. She did not want to go, but she had never before been offered so lovable a gift. Still she began to make excuses. She couldn't be separated from her daughters. That didn't worry hospitable America; they invited the girls, and told Marie that the gramme of Radium would be presented to her by the President himself.

So Marie, Irène and Eve packed all their clothes into one single trunk and set sail in the Olympic's most luxurious cabin, for America willed it so. France gave them a great send-off with a gala performance at the Opera, in which the greatest actors, Sarah Bernhardt, and the famous Guitrys, took part. Only the Atlantic refused to join in honouring Science; the ocean remained morose, dark and uncivilised, and encouraged Marie to dream with longing of the blue sunlit seas at home.

As the Olympic docked, Mrs. Meloney, who had travelled with her, brought Marie from her cabin to meet a real American welcome, and only those who have experienced it can imagine the warm-hearted sincerity of it. The crowd had been waiting five hours to greet her whom they named, “The benefactor of the human race.” It was summer; the skies were blue above the splendid white skyscrapers. The quay was colourful with the flags of Poland, France, and America. Students, girl-guides, three hundred women representing the Polish women of America, waved red and white roses before her. She sat, rather like a child trying to be good, in an armchair on the upper deck, while Mrs. Meloney took away her hat and her handbag and posed her for the photographers. “Your head to the right, please, Madame Curie.” “A little more this way please... !”

America went mad with welcome. The Americans were determined that the world should see through their eyes that a scientist is perhaps the greatest human-being. Their hearts were captured by Marie's love for pure science, by her scorn of profit, and by her conviction that to serve is the true purpose for which men live.

Nothing that they could invent to honour her was neglected. They wanted to welcome her everywhere and forgot the long distances of their great country. They offered her banquets where the guests were five hundred, and forgot the long hours. They offered her titles of honour by the bagful, and forgot that in her own country she refused them all. They asked her to university ceremonies and were surprised that she had no cap and gown. They offered her flowers grown especially for her, and forgot that she preferred them wild. Love is often like that; but Marie, though tired, understood. The only thing she could not tolerate was the magnificent university gown they made for her, for to expect her to wear silk was just a little too much, because silk irritated her fingers that Radium itself had injured.

Marie's first visits were to the women's colleges. Everywhere she went, girls in white made hedges to the roads or ran in immense clusters across fields to greet her carriage. And above the white masses were always the coloured streamers of the flags. At an immense gathering in New York the university women passed in long file before her, bowing and presenting alternately the Lily of France and the Rose of America. In another gathering of ambassadors and the great of many Lands, at which she was given the “Freedom of New York”, the most famous person after herself was Paderewski, whom long ago, when he was a struggling pianist, she had encouraged with her clapping.

Then came the great event: the presentation of the gramme of Radium.

The White House at Washington was prepared for the fête. The President of the United States and all the great people of America were there to meet Marie, but Radium itself was absent. It was too dangerous and too precious to sit about on tables and be handled by a president. It stayed safely in the factory and was present only by proxy. On a table in the east room during the ceremony stood a Radium casket containing tubes of imitation Radium.

At four o'clock the double doors were thrown open and the procession entered, Marie on the arm of President Harding.

In his address, the President reminded the guests that Marie was not only a great scientist, but a devoted wife and mother. She had done the daily work of a man and all her womanly duties in addition.

At the end of his speech, he gave her a rolled parchment, the deed of gift, and hung the tiny gold key of the real casket round her neck. Then, in the blue room, Marie sat while all the guests passed in procession before her and shook hands with Irène and Eve, because she herself was too tired.

So Marie possessed a gramme of Radium! By no means. On the evening before the ceremony, Mrs. Meloney had shown her the deed of gift and she had insisted, then and there, though it was late at night, that a lawyer should be sent for to give the gramme legally to her laboratory. When Mrs. Meloney suggested that the week after would do, Marie exclaimed: “I might die tonight!” From that evening her gramme was just something to work with which belonged to the laboratory.

There were other visits to make. America, full of penitence at having tired its guest, tried to spare her fatigue in every possible way. Sometimes they arranged for her to arrive at the station before the one at which she was expected, and when the excited people found out what had been done, there was a stream of cars along the road to meet the traveller. Sometimes Marie had to get out of the train on the wrong side, jump down to the rails and walk across them, which could not have been really restful. Sometimes Irène and Eve were accepted as their mother's understudies, and nobody smiled when staid professors spoke to sixteen-year-old Eve of her “magnificent discoveries” and “her lifetime of labour.”

But Marie was present herself when the Poles fêted her in Chicago. To them she was a symbol of their distant birthplace and her triumph was Poland's. Men and women, their faces wet with tears of joy, tried to kiss her feet or the hem of her dress.

On the Olympic, on which she sailed home at the end of June, was the Radium itself, locked in behind the complicated locks of the ship's safe. But in her letters, it was not of Radium she wrote, but of a little touch of gladness in her heart because she had been able to win just a little more American friendliness for France and Poland.

America's joy in her had taught Marie how much she meant to the great world. She realised that her mere name, her mere presence, could help the things she cared for and loved. So she began to travel more and face ceremonies and congresses. She became known the world over. She visited South America, Spain, England and Czechoslovakia. Even in China, though she did not go there, there was a portrait of her in a temple of Confucius side by side with the Buddhas and the Emperors of the Celestial Empire.

In all her travels she enjoyed the odd things she saw. She liked the fish that jump out of the water and fly through the air and, at the

Equator, it amused her that she lost her shadow, and she loved the wild flowers, new and old, that met her in strange places.

But apart from the things that she merely looked at and loved, there were the other loved things that she journeyed to fight for. Like everyone else who had served mankind, she hated war. She had been willing in war to do a soldier's work in defence of her country; but in peace, she was eager to serve in preventing future wars. She refused to take time from research to belong to Soceities, but she made one exception: she allowed herself to be nominated by the Council of the League of Nations as a member of the society of men and women who decided to use their brains to find ways of getting different nations to work together. That Society was called “The International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation.” Marie did not belong to it merely to talk. She set to work to do definite things. One was to get scientific people of all nations to use the same scientific terms and to make complete lists of all the scientific books and discoveries all the world over, so that every student could know what work had already been done.

Next, Marie wanted a scheme to help any scientific genius who might, in any nation, be too poor to develop its gifts. It is horrible waste, she thought, to throw away a genius. She gave all her strength to help to create a world in which freedom, peace and science were ever more and more. Now that the Radium Institute in Paris was working, Marie determined to build a Radium Institute in Warsaw. Her sister Bronia, who was in Poland, launched the appeal. All Poland was soon covered with placards; all the post-offices sold stamps with Marie's picture; postcards invited everyone to “buy a brick to build the Marie-Sklovodska-Curie Institute,” and, on them in Marie's writing, were the words: “My most ardent desire is the creation of a Radium Institute in Warsaw.”

1925, Marie was able to go to Warsaw for the foundation of the Institute. The President of the Republic laid the first brick, Marie the second. Laughingly, he asked her if she remembered the travelling pillow she had lent him when he was poor. She replied: “Yes, and you forgot to return it.” She remembered, too, that the famous actor who complimented her from the stage was none other than Monsieur Kotarbinski, for whom Manya had once plaited a crown of wild flowers.

But a Radium Institute was a queer place without Radium. Mrs. Meloney had again to persuade the United States to give Marie another gramme, and again Marie went to New York. On that occasion it was to thank the Americans in the name of Poland. She stayed at the White House and found it very amusing to see it full of elephants, large elephants, small elephants, minute elephants, white elephants. As a parting gift she was given two elephants, a little ivory one and an almost invisible one. Elephants were the badge of the governing party. With her two and the Radium, she returned to Warsaw to see the Institute begin its work of curing the sick.

As she had done when she was a little girl, she wandered by the great Vistula and wrote about it:

“The river winds, broad and lazy, gray near at hand and blue as heaven in the distance. Adorable sandbanks, sparkling in the sun, show here and there and mark the capricious course of the stream. At the edge of these banks, strips of more brilliant light show where the waters grow deep. I simply have to wander by these light-filled magnificent shores…There is a song which says: ‘In this Polish water there is such charm that those who love it once, love it for ever.’ To me that is true. This great river has a deep inexplicable fascination.”

第十八章 出国

1920年5月。天气炎热。巴黎的栗子花开了,玛丽一如既往在努力工作。但有件事即将打断她的工作,而这件事太出乎意料,她一点思想准备都没有。

玛丽从没见过报社记者,更别说女记者。她不喜欢接受采访,她讨厌曝光。面对要采访她的陌生人,玛丽总是有礼但坚决地说:“居里夫人不想……”

但生活在美国的爱尔兰人有时能找到某种令人无法抗拒的方式发出邀请,有位名为麦隆内的女士给玛丽写了封信:“我的博士父亲经常说,人类取得的小小成就不容夸大。但夫人,这二十年来您在我心中的形象一直很伟大,我只想与您见个面,哪怕只有几分钟。”这其实说的是:“小猫能有荣幸面见女王吗?” 玛丽一反常态,回复道:“好的。”

于是五月的某个清晨,麦隆内女士就坐在了研究所小小的会客厅里。她后来描述道:

“房间门开了,我看见一位瘦削苍白的女士走了进来,脸上尽显悲伤。她当时穿着一条黑棉裙。她耐心而和善的面庞上闪现出学识渊博的人特有的超然物外。我突然觉得自己打扰到了她的生活,我甚至比居里夫人本人还要羞涩。我做职业记者已有二十多年了,但在那一刻,面对这位毫无防备之心的女士,我什么都问不出。”

玛丽后来谈到了美国和镭元素,这也舒缓了女记者紧张的情绪。玛丽告诉她自己知道美国有五十克镭元素,她也清楚地知道每座城市拥有的镭元素量。“那法国有多少克呢?” 麦隆内女士问道。

“我的实验室里也只有一克多一点。”

“您只有一克镭元素?”

“我?我一克都没有。这克镭元素属于实验室。”

随后,麦隆内女士谈到了专利问题。她猜想,玛丽肯定能从那些使用自己的镭元素提炼方法的人身上赚取大笔财富。

“镭不能成为任何人谋求财富的手段,” 玛丽说,“它是一种元素,属于全人类。”

麦隆内女士当时肯定觉得凭玛丽为人类做出的贡献,整个世界都应回报她。她突然问道:“如果您能问全世界要一件需要的东西,您会选择什么?”

玛丽犹豫了片刻,回答说:“我需要一克镭,以便继续进行自己的实验研究。但我买不起。镭元素对我来说太昂贵了。”

麦隆内女士当即认为美国应该赠予玛丽·居里一克镭元素。她回到家,试图游说十位富有的女性每人捐赠三千法郎,但最后只说服了三位。她之后又去游说劳苦大众。美国所有的女性都应该联合起来,让玛丽获得这份礼物。不到一年,她就给玛丽写信说:“我们筹集到了钱。你很快就能得到那克镭元素。”

整个美国都为这项活动而激动不已。很快所有的女性都得知了居里夫人镭元素基金的存在,大家都想见见居里夫人。然而玛丽不喜欢在人前讲话。她其实不想去,但又觉得对不起这份弥足珍贵的礼物。不过她一开始还是找了很多理由。比如,她不能和女儿们分开。这丝毫不影响美国人民的热情好客,她的女儿们也获得了邀请,而且将由总统本人将镭元素赠予玛丽。

于是,玛丽、艾琳和伊芙把所有的衣服塞进大箱子,应邀搭乘奥林匹克号邮轮,坐在高级客舱里前往美国。法国也在歌剧院举办了盛大的欢送会,著名演员莎拉·贝恩哈特和吉瑞斯都参与了演出。唯有大西洋显得不太友好,海面黑沉,让玛丽开始怀念家乡阳光普照的蓝色海湾。

奥林匹克号靠岸时,与玛丽她们同行的麦隆内女士陪同着玛丽走出客舱,迎接美国式的欢迎仪式,唯有亲身经历过的人才懂得这热情好客背后的真情实意。人群等待了整整五个小时,来迎接被他们称作“人类恩人”的伟大女性。时值夏季,蓝天白云下,高耸着亮丽的摩天大楼。码头上充斥着各色国旗,波兰的、法国的、美国的。学生们,年轻女孩们,和三百位在美国的波兰女性代表捧着红色白色的玫瑰迎接她们。玛丽就像小学生一样端坐在甲板的轮椅上,麦隆内女士拿着她的帽子和手包,把她推到相机镜头前。“头向右偏些,居里夫人。”“再往这边来点……”

美国热情欢迎。美国人要让世界都明白,科学家是最伟大的人。他们被玛丽对纯粹科学的虔诚追求、对金钱的清心寡欲以及服务人类的坚定信条深深触动。

他们无法为玛丽再授予任何殊荣,这并不重要。美国各地的人都想一睹她的芳容,却忽视了国家幅员辽阔而造成的交通时间。他们为玛丽举办了盛大的欢迎宴,宾客多达五百人,尽情欢乐,忘却时间。他们授予玛丽大量的荣誉头衔,但却忘记玛丽在自己的国家早就拒绝了这类嘉奖。他们邀请玛丽参加大学的仪式,惊讶地发现她竟然没有长袍和帽子。他们给玛丽送来了精心培育的鲜花,却忘记了她最喜欢自然生长的花朵。爱就是这样,玛丽尽管被折腾得筋疲力尽,但她能理解。唯一无法包容的,就是他们为她量身定做的各式各样的学院长袍。希望玛丽穿上丝织长袍本身就不现实,丝绸会弄疼她早已被镭元素灼伤的手指。

玛丽首先参观了女子大学。无论她走到哪里,穿着白色校服的女孩们都挤满了道路,或快跑穿过操场来追赶玛丽乘坐的马车。白色的人群中还有人挥舞着彩色的旗帜。在纽约,大学女生们排着长长的队伍,为玛丽献上法国百合和美国玫瑰。另一队是各国大使及重要人物,他们将玛丽称作“纽约的自由女神”,另一位获此殊荣的波兰人是音乐家帕德雷夫斯基。很多年前,在他还是一名穷困潦倒的钢琴家时,玛丽曾为他拍手喝彩。

随后是盛大的赠予仪式:赠送镭元素。

华盛顿白宫亲自筹备这一仪式。美国总统和各界政要都在等待会见玛丽,但独不见镭元素。它太珍贵也太危险了,不能放在桌上或是总统手里。它被安全地存放在工厂里,总统手里拿的不过是个替代品。赠予仪式期间,东边房间桌子上摆的不过是镭元素的仿制品。

四点钟,两扇门同时打开,人群缓缓进入,玛丽挽着哈定总统的手臂走进会场。

总统发表欢迎词,他表示玛丽不仅仅是位伟大的科学家,更是一位尽心尽职的妻子和母亲。她不仅像男性一样完成了自己的日常工作,还额外履行了女性职责。

致辞结束后,总统颁给玛丽一张证书,并将镭元素箱子的金钥匙挂在玛丽的脖子上。在蓝色的会场上,玛丽安静地坐着,宾客排着队同艾琳和伊芙一一握手,因为玛丽已经太累了。

玛丽终于得到了一克镭元素!而过程一点也不容易。在赠予仪式的前一晚,麦隆内女士将证书交给玛丽,她却一直坚持不管多晚都要请律师来公证这克镭元素是属于实验室的。当麦隆内女士建议一周后再进行公证时,玛丽严肃地说道:“也许今晚我就会离世!” 从那晚起,镭元素正式归实验室所有,玛丽只是有权用之进行实验。

还有很多参观活动。美国因让客人筋疲力尽而深感愧疚,试尽一切方法让玛丽消除疲劳。有时他们特意安排玛丽在目的地前一站下车,等早就守候在车站的兴奋人群发现这一点时,他们又纷纷开着车去追赶这位客人。有时,玛丽不得已在火车的另一边下车,跳到铁轨上,穿过轨道,但其实没什么作用。有时艾琳和伊芙也想代替母亲出现,但当教授们同年仅十六岁的伊芙谈论起“伟大发现”和“毕生工作”时,人群根本无法满足。

但当芝加哥的波兰人为玛丽举办欢迎盛会时,玛丽还是如期赴约了。对他们来说,玛丽就是远方祖国的象征,她的成就是属于波兰的。男男女女的面庞都被喜悦的泪水打湿,纷纷跪在玛丽脚边亲吻她的双脚和裙边。

六月底,玛丽搭乘奥林匹克号重返巴黎,镭元素被锁在邮轮精密的保险箱里。在玛丽的信中,丝毫未提及镭元素,更多描述的是她内心的愉悦,她终于能为法国和波兰赢得美国的一丝友善。

在美国受到的热情礼遇让玛丽认识到她对世界来说有多重要。她意识到单单是自己的名字、自己的出现就能帮助她在意和热爱的事物。于是她开始更多地到各地参观拜访,出席庆祝仪式和会议。她已经名扬四海。她去过南美洲、西班牙、英国和捷克斯洛伐克。即便在她没到访过的中国,在一座孔子庙里,居里夫人的肖像也和佛像、天朝皇帝的头像摆在一起。

每次旅途中,玛丽都能看到新奇事儿。她喜欢看到鱼儿跳出水面,在空中划过一道弧线,在赤道附近人根本看不到自己的影子,这也让她兴奋不已,她喜欢在陌生地方遇见的各色野花。

但除了能看到自己喜爱的事物之外,每一次出访玛丽也都在为自己热爱追寻的事业而努力奋斗。同任何热爱世界、服务人类的人一样,玛丽痛恨战争。她愿意在战争中履行士兵的义务,为国家而战。但在和平年代,她更愿意努力避免更多战争的发生。她不愿意浪费科研时间参加各种协会活动,但唯有一个例外:她被国际联盟行政院提名为协会成员,成员们都立志于促进不同国家间的相互协作。这个协会也被称作“国际智力合作委员会”。玛丽不想只在协会中动动嘴皮子,她想确切做些实事。有成员致力于让所有国家的科研人员都使用相同的科研术语,制作关于世界上所有科学书籍和科学发现的完整清单,这样学生们就知道科学界已经取得了哪些成就。

此外,玛丽希望能建立一种机制,帮助各国具有科学天赋但却穷困潦倒的科学家们发挥自己的才能。她认为对天才放任不理是世界上最可怕的资源浪费。她竭尽所能创造一个自由、和平和科学发展越来越迅速的世界。既然巴黎的镭研究所已经正常运作了,玛丽还想在华沙也建立一个镭元素研究所。她的姐姐布朗尼娅就在波兰,能帮助她实施这一想法。很快,波兰举国上下就贴满了公告;所有的邮局都开始出售印有玛丽头像的邮票;明信片上都印有“为玛丽·斯克沃多夫斯卡·居里研究所的建设添砖加瓦吧”这样的邀请,上面还有玛丽的笔迹:“我真切地希望能在华沙建立镭元素研究所。”

1925年,玛丽回到了华沙,参加研究所奠基仪式。波兰共和国总统垒下了第一块砖,玛丽垒下了第二块。他笑着问玛丽是否还记得自己穷困潦倒时玛丽送给他的睡枕。她回答道:“当然,不过您忘还了。”她也清楚地记得当年那个著名的演员在舞台上给她的问候,那个人就是科塔宾斯基先生,玛丽曾给他送了顶用野花编制的花环。

但镭研究所要是没了镭元素就显得有些可笑。麦隆内女士又成功说服美国给玛丽送了一克镭元素,玛丽也因此再次赴美。但这一次是以波兰的名义感谢美国。她待在白宫,看见到处都是象的雕塑,有大象、小象、小小象、白象,觉得很有意思。作为临别礼物,玛丽获赠两头象,一头象牙制的小象和一头几乎看不见的小象。大象是执政党的徽标。带着两个象雕和镭元素,玛丽回到华沙,看到研究所已经正常运转,开始医治病人。

同当年小女孩时一样,玛丽沿着维斯瓦河散步,并写下:

“河流蜿蜒,河面宽阔,河水缓缓,近处是灰色,远处如天空般碧蓝。美丽的沙滩在太阳下金光闪闪,勾勒出河流蜿蜒的轮廓。在河岸边,明亮的光线显示出水深的地方。我只想在这波光粼粼的河岸边漫步……有首歌唱的是:‘波兰的河水魅力无边,一旦爱上便永远爱上。’对我来说这千真万确。这条伟大的河流有一种不能言说的魅力。”

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