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双语·《刀锋》 第三章 一

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2022年06月30日

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CHAPTER THREE 1
第三章 一

For ten years after this I saw neither Isabel nor Larry. I continued to see Elliott, and indeed, for a reason that I shall tell later, more frequently than before, and from time to time I learnt from him what was happening to Isabel.But of Larry he could tell me nothing.
这以后,有十年的时间我再也没有见过伊莎贝尔和拉里。艾略特我倒是经常见,而且由于某种原因(容我以后向诸位交代)见的次数更多了。从他的嘴里,时不时会听到一些伊莎贝尔的情况。可是关于拉里,他不能提供任何信息。

“For all I know he's still living in Paris, but I'm not likely to run across him. We don't move in the same circles,”he added, not without complacency.“It's very sad that he should have gone so completely to seed.He comes of a very good family.I'm sure I could have made something of him if he’d put himself in my hands.Anyhow it was a lucky escape for Isabel.”
“根据我了解的情况,他仍住在巴黎,只是不太可能碰上他的面。我们的社交圈子是不一样的。”后边的一句说出来时,他的语气里透出一股自豪感,“他沉沦到今天这种样子,叫人不胜伤感。论出身,他是相当不错的。假如他听我的话,我敢说我可以让他有所作为的。不管怎么说,伊莎贝尔摆脱他,算是吉星高照了。”

My circle of acquaintance was not so restricted as Elliott's and I knew a number of persons in Paris whom he would have thought eminently undesirable. On my brief but not infrequent sojourns I asked one or other of them whether he had run across Larry or had news of him;a few knew him casually, but none could claim any intimacy with him and I could find nobody to give me news of him.I went to the restaurant at which he habitually dined, but found he had not been there for a long time, and they thought he must have gone away.I never saw him at any of the cafés on the Boulevard du Montparnasse which people who live in the neighbourhood are apt to go to.
我跟艾略特有所不同,并非只跟一定圈子里的人打交道。在巴黎,我有一些熟人,在艾略特看来登不了大雅之堂。我虽然时常经过巴黎,但是待的时间都不太长。我曾经问过一两位熟人是否见过拉里,有没有他的消息。有几个熟人跟拉里是认识的,但没有一个和他是深交,于是无人了解他的近况。我去他常吃晚饭的那家餐馆打听消息,却发现他已经好久不去了,餐馆里的人说他可能搬走了。在附近居民常去的蒙巴纳斯林荫道上的那些咖啡馆,我也没有发现他的踪迹。

His intention, after Isabel left Paris, was to go to Greece, but this he abandoned. What he actually did he told me himself many years later, but I will relate it now because it is more convenient to place events as far as I can in chronological order.He stayed on in Paris during the summer and worked without a break till autumn was well advanced.
在伊莎贝尔离开巴黎之后,他原打算去希腊,后来放弃了。当时的实际情况,他多年以后才亲口告诉了我。不过,为了把事情尽量按照时间顺序排列,读起来方便些,我还是在此处对诸位讲一讲吧。他整个夏天都住在巴黎,苦读不休,直至深秋。

“I thought I needed a rest from books then,”he said,“I'd been working from eight to ten hours a day for two years. So I went to work in a coal mine.”
“那时我觉得需要放下书本,休息休息。”他说道,“我每天看八至十个小时的书,已有两年的时间了。于是,我就去了一座煤矿找活干。”

“You did what?”I cried.
“你去哪里啦?”我失声叫道。

He laughed at my astonishment.
他见我一脸的惊讶,不由哈哈笑了。

“I thought it would do me good to spend a few months in manual labour. I had a notion it would give me an opportunity to sort my thoughts and come to terms with myself.”
“我认为干几个月的体力活对我有好处。我有一种感觉,干体力活能叫我理清思绪,使心情恢复平静。”

I was silent. I wondered whether that was the only reason for this unexpected step or whether it was connected with Isabel's refusal to marry him.The fact was, I didn't know at all how deeply he loved her.Most people when they're in love invent every kind of reason to persuade themselves that it's only sensible to do what they want.I suppose that's why there are so many disastrous marriages.They are like those who put their affairs in the hands of someone they know to be a crook, but who happens to be an intimate friend because, unwilling to believe that a crook is a crook first and a friend afterwards, they are convinced that, however dishonest he may be with others, he won’t be so with them.Larry was strong enough to refuse to sacrifice for Isabel’s sake the life that he thought was the life for him, but it may be that to lose her was bitterer to endure than he had expected.It may be that like most of us he wanted to eat his cake and have it.
我没有吱声。我真不清楚,这是他迈出这出乎人意料之外的一步的唯一原因,还是与伊莎贝尔拒绝嫁给他也有关系。实际上,我也不知道他爱伊莎贝尔究竟有多深。大多数人在恋爱的时候会想出各种理由说服自己,认为按自己的心愿做事是合情合理的。天下婚姻多悲剧,恐怕这就是症结了。这情况就像有些人将自己的事情交给一个骗子去做一样——他们明明知道此人是骗子,却跟他关系很好,于是就不愿意相信他行骗会对朋友下手;他们坚信,他虽然对别人居心叵测,对自己决不会如此。拉里不肯为了伊莎贝尔牺牲自己心仪的生活,其意志相当坚定,可是失掉伊莎贝尔却又给他带来了痛苦,想不到竟如此难以忍受。这可能就是我们通常所说的“鱼和熊掌不可兼得”。

“Well, go on,”I said.
“哦,你继续讲。”我说道。

“I packed my books and my clothes in a couple of trunks and got the American Express to store them. Then I putan extra suit and some linen in a grip and started off.My Greek teacher had a sister who was married to the manager of a mine near Lens and he gave me a letter to him.D'you know Lens?”
“我把书和衣服放在两只箱子里,交给美国运通公司保管。然后把一套替换的衣服和一些内衣打了个包,就动身了。我的希腊语教师有个妹妹嫁给了兰斯附近一座煤矿的经理,便写了一封信介绍我去见他。你知道兰斯吧?”

“No.”
“不知道。”

“It's in the North of France, not far from the Belgian border. I only spent a night there, at the station hotel, and next day I took a local to the place where the mine was.Ever been to a mining village?”
“在法国北部,离比利时边界不远。我下榻于车站旅馆,在兰斯只待了一个晚上,次日就乘坐当地的火车去了煤矿。你去过矿区吗?”

“In England.”
“在英国去过。”

“Well, I suppose it's much the same. There's the mine and the manager's house, rows and rows of trim little two-storey houses, all alike, exactly alike, and it's so monotonous it makes your heart sink.There's a newish, ugly church and several bars.It was bleak and cold when I got there and a thin rain was falling.I went to the manager’s office and sent in my letter.He was a little, fat man with red cheeks and the look of a guy who enjoys his food.They were short of labour, a lot of miners had been killed in the war, and there were a good many Poles working there, two or three hundred, I should think.He asked me one or two questions, he didn’t much like my being an American, he seemed to think it rather fishy, but his brother-in-law’s letter spoke well of me and anyhow he was glad to have me.He wanted to give me a job on the surface, but I told him I wanted to work down below.He said I’d find it hard if I wasn’t used to it, but I told him I was prepared for that, so then he said I could be helper to a miner.That was boy’s work really, but there weren’t enough boys to go round.He was a nice fellow;he asked me if I’d done anything about finding a lodging, and when I told him I hadn’t he wrote an address on a piece of paper and said that if I went there the woman of the house would let me have a bed.She was the widow of a miner who’d been killed and her two sons were working in the mine.
反正都差不多吧。那儿有煤矿,有经理的房子,还有两层高的矿工小屋,一排一排的,千篇一律,完全是一种模样,单调得让你的心直朝下沉。教堂是新建的,样子很难看。另外,街上还有几家酒吧间。我到达矿区时,天气阴冷,空中飘着毛毛细雨。我找到经理的办公室,把信交给了他。经理是个矮胖子,两颊红红的,看上去像是个贪嘴的人。矿上正缺工人,因为许多矿工都死在了战场上。有不少波兰人在此处打工,大概有两三百人吧。经理问了我一两个问题。他一听我是个美国人,好像觉得来头有些蹊跷。不过,他的小舅子把我夸成了一朵花,他也就乐于雇用我了。他要给我一个地面上的工作,可我说自己想下井。他说如果不习惯,在井下会吃不消的。我说自己已有心理准备。末了,他叫我给一个矿工当帮手。其实,那是童工干的活,只是眼下童工太少,不够用罢了。这位经理是个挺不错的人。他问我找到住处了没有,我说还没有找到。他便拿过一张纸写了个地址,说按这个地址找去,会有一位家庭主妇给我安排睡觉的地方的。那是个寡妇,丈夫是矿工,死于战火之中,她有两个儿子在矿上工作。

“I took up my grip and went on my way. I found the house, and the door was opened for me by a tall, gaunt woman with greying hair and big, dark eyes.She had good features and she must have been nice-looking once.She wouldn't have been bad then in a haggard way except for two missing front teeth.She told me she hadn't a room, but there were two beds in a room she'd let to a Pole and I could have the other one.Her two sons had one of the upstairs rooms and she had the other.The room she showed me was on the ground floor and supposed, I imagined, to be the living-room;I should have liked a room to myself, but I thought I'd better not be fussy;and the drizzle had turned into a steady, light rain and I was wet already.I didn't want to go farther and get soaked to the skin.So I said that would suit me and I settled in.They used the kitchen as a living-room.It had a couple of rickety armchairs in it.There was a coal shed in the yard which was also the bathhouse.The two boys and the Pole had taken their lunch with them, but she said I could eat with her at midday.I sat in the kitchen afterwards smoking and while she went on with her work she told me all about herself and her family.The others came in at the end of their shift.The Pole first and then the two boys.The Pole passed through the kitchen, nodded to me with-out speaking when our landlady told him I was to share his room, took a great kettle off the hob and went off to wash himself in the shed.The two boys were tall good-looking fellows notwithstanding the grime on their faces, and seemed inclined to be friendly.They looked upon me as a freak because I was American.One of them was nineteen, off to his military service in a few months, and the other eighteen.
我拿起包袱,就告辞了。找到那户人家后,开门的是一个瘦高个女人,头发花白,有一双乌黑的大眼睛。她五官端正,年轻时一定颇有姿色。如果不是因为少了两颗门牙,就是现在也不一定会难看,会如此憔悴。她告诉我,说没有空房间了,但一个波兰人租下的房间里有两张床,我可以睡那张空床。楼上有两个房间,她的两个儿子住一间,她住另一间。她领我看的那个房间在楼下,可能以前是做客厅用的。我倒是想单独住一个房间,但又觉得还是别多事得好。外边毛毛细雨下个不停,雨势有所加大,而我已全身湿透。我不愿再到别处找房子,把自己浇成个落汤鸡。所以我说挺合适的,便住了下来。他们把厨房当作客厅使用,里边放着两把摇摇晃晃的扶手椅。院子里有个贮煤室,也兼作浴室用。她的两个儿子和那个波兰人把午饭带到上班的地方吃,她要我中午跟她一道吃饭。吃过饭,我坐在厨房里抽烟,她则忙家务,一边给我讲述她以及她家的情况。到了下班时间,那几个上班族便回来了。波兰人先回,那两个小伙子接踵而至。波兰人穿过厨房时,房东太太告诉他,说我要和他睡一个房间,而他仅仅冲我点了点头,什么话也没说。随后,他从炉子的铁架上拎起一只大水壶,到浴室里洗脸去了。两个小伙子都身材高挑,尽管脸上有煤污,看上去仍一表人才。他们似乎对我很友好。当得知我是个美国人时,便把我视为怪物。他们俩一个十九岁,退伍还乡才几个月,另一个十八岁。

“The Pole came back and then they went to clean up. The Pole had one of those difficult Polish names, but they called him Kosti.He was a big fellow, two or three inches taller than me, and heavily built.He had a pale fleshy face with a broad short nose and a big mouth.His eyes were blue and because he hadn't been able to wash the coal dust off his eyebrows and eyelashes he looked as if he was made up.The black lashes made the blue of his eyes almost startling.He was an ugly, uncouth fellow.The two boys after they'd changed their clothes went out.The Pole sat on in the kitchen, smoking a pipe and reading the paper.I had a book in my pocket, so I took it out and began reading too.I noticed that he glanced at me once or twice and presently he put his paper down.
波兰人洗完回来,两个小伙子就去浴室了。波兰人的名字属于很难叫出口的那一类,大伙儿都简单地叫他考斯迪。他是个大块头,比我要高出两三英寸,虎背熊腰,脸上苍白、多肉,鼻子短而宽,大嘴巴。他的眼睛是蓝颜色的,由于没有能把眉毛和睫毛上面的煤灰洗掉,看上去就像描了眉一样。由于睫毛特别黑,就把他的眼睛衬托得蓝得惊人。这家伙长相丑陋,为人有点粗野。那两个小伙子洗完,换了身衣服就出去了。波兰人坐在厨房里一边抽烟斗一边看报。我口袋里有本书,于是拿出来,也开始看起来。我留意到,他瞥过我一两眼。过了没多久,他放下了手中的报纸。

“‘What are you reading?'he asked.
‘你在看什么书?’他问。

“I handed him the book to see for himself. It was a copy of the Princesse de Clèves that I’d bought at the station in Paris because it was small enough to put in my pocket.He looked at it, then at me, curiously, and handed it back.I noticed an ironical smile on his lips.
我把书递给他,让他自己看。那是一本《克里夫斯公主》,我在巴黎火车站买的,小版本的,可以放在口袋里。他看看书,又看看我,一副诧异的样子,随后把书还给了我。我注意到他的嘴角浮现出一丝嘲讽的微笑。

“‘Does it amuse you?'
‘有意思吗?’

“‘I think it's very interesting-even absorbing.'
‘我觉得非常有意思,甚至可以说是引人入胜。’

“‘I read it at school at Warsaw. It bored me stiff.'He spoke very good French, with hardly a trace of Polish accent.‘Now I don't read anything but the newspaper and detective stories.'
‘我在华沙上中学时读过此书。我觉得味如嚼蜡。’他的法语讲得很好,一点波兰口音也没有,‘现在我除了报纸和侦探小说外,什么都不看。’

“Madame Leclerc, that was our old girl's name, with an eye on the soup that was cooking for supper, sat at the table darning socks. She told Kosti that I had been sent to her by the manager of the mine and repeated what else I had seen fit to tell her.He listened, puffing away at his pipe, and looked at me with brilliantly blue eyes.They were hard and shrewd.He asked me a few questions about myself.When I told him I had never worked in a mine before his lips broke again into an ironical smile.
勒克莱尔太太(这是我们房东太太的名字)一边留意着炉子上为晚饭煮的汤,一边坐在桌旁补袜子。她告诉考斯迪,说我是煤矿经理介绍来的,把我对她讲过的一席话重复了一遍。波兰人听着,抽着烟斗,用湛蓝湛蓝的眼睛打量着我。那双眼严苛、精明。他问了我几个问题。当我告诉他,说我从来没有在煤矿上干过时,他的嘴角又浮现出了嘲讽的微笑。

“‘You don't know what you're in for. No one would go to work in a mine who could do anything else.But that's your affair and doubtless you have your reasons.Where did you live in Paris?'
‘你都不知道自己在做什么。只要有别的路可走,谁都不愿当矿工的。不过,这是你的事情,你肯定有自己的原因。你在巴黎住在哪里?’

“I told him.
我如实做了回答。

“‘At one time I used to go to Paris every year, but I kept to the Grands Boulevards. Have you ever been to Larue's?It was my favourite restaurant.'
‘有一个时期,我每年都要去巴黎走一走,不过,都是在大街上逛悠。你去拉鲁埃餐馆吃过饭吗?那是我最喜欢去的馆子。’

“That surprised me a bit because, you know, it's not cheap.”
“我听了觉得有点奇怪,因为那家餐馆的饭菜并不便宜。”

“Far from it.”
“一点都不便宜。”

“I fancy he saw my surprise, for he gave me once more his mocking smile, but evidently didn't think it necessary to explain further. We went on talking in a desultory fashion and then the two boys came in.We had supper and when we'd finished Kosti asked me if I'd like to come to the bistro with him and have a beer.It was just a rather large room with a bar at one end of it and a number of marble-topped tables with wooden chairs around them.There was a mechanical piano and someone had put a coin in the slot and it was braying out a dance tune.Only three tables were occupied besides ours.Kosti asked me if I played belote.I'd learnt it with some of my student friends, so I said I did and he proposed that we should play for the beer.I agreed and he called for cards.I lost a beer and a second beer.Then he proposed that we should play for money.He had good cards and I had bad luck.We were playing for very small stakes, but I lost several francs.This and the beer put him in a good humour and he talked.It didn't take me long to guess both by his way of expressing himself and by his manners, that he was a man of education.When he spoke again of Paris it was to ask me if I knew So-and-so and So-and-so, American women I had met at Elliott’s when Aunt Louisa and Isabel were staying with him.He appeared to know them better than I did and I wondered how it was that he found himself in his present position.It wasn’t late, but we had to get up at the crack of dawn.
他可能看明白了我的心思,因为他的嘴角又浮现出了那种嘲讽的微笑。不过,他显然觉得没必要做进一步的解释。我们东一搭西一搭地扯些咸淡话,直至两个小伙子回来。随后,大家在一起吃晚饭。饭毕,考斯迪问我愿不愿到小酒馆喝一杯。小酒馆设在一个非常大的房间里,有个吧台在房间的一端,屋里摆着几张大理石面桌子,每张桌子旁放几把木椅。酒馆里配有一架自动钢琴,有人往投币孔里塞了一枚硬币,此时钢琴正在弹奏一首舞曲。除掉我们坐的那张桌子外,只有三张桌子旁坐有人。考斯迪问我会不会玩勃洛特牌戏。我曾经跟我的同学学过这种游戏,于是便说自己会玩。他建议我们赌一把,以啤酒为赌注。我同意后,他叫人把纸牌拿了来。我连着输了两局。这时,他提议我们赌钱。他拿的牌好,而我的运气很糟。我们赌的是小钱,但最终我还是输掉了好几法郎。赢了钱,再加上啤酒助兴,他心情很好,打开了话匣子。不一会儿工夫,我就从他的谈吐和行为方式看出他是个受过教育的人。当他重又谈到巴黎时,他就问我认不认识某某人和某某人。他说的是几个美国女人,路易莎伯母和伊莎贝尔住在艾略特家里时,我曾在那儿碰见过。他好像比我跟那些人熟悉得多。我不明白他为什么落到了今天这个地步。此时天色并不算晚,但我们次日天一破晓就得起床呢。

“‘Let's have one more beer before we go,'said Kosti.
‘走之前,咱们再喝一杯吧。’考斯迪说。

“He sipped it and peered at me with his shrewd little eyes. I knew what he reminded me of then, an ill-tempered pig.
他一面呷着啤酒,一面用他那精明的小眼睛瞅着我。他那样子使我联想到了肥猪,一头脾气暴躁的肥猪。

“‘Why have you come here to work in this rotten mine?'he asked me.
‘你为什么跑到这个烂煤矿受苦?’他问我。

“‘For the experience.'
‘为了体验生活。’

“‘Tu es fou, mon petit,'he said.
‘你是昏了头了,小伙子。’他说。

“‘And why are you working in it?'
‘那你为什么来呢?’

“He shrugged his massive, ungainly shoulders.
他耸了耸他那厚实、笨拙的肩膀。

“‘I entered the nobleman's cadet school when I was a kid, my father was a general under the Czar and I was a cavalry officer in the last war. I couldn't stand Pilsudski.We arranged to kill him, but someone gave us away.He shot those of us he caught.I managed to get across the frontier just in time.There was nothing for me but the Foreign Legion or a coal mine.I chose the lesser of two evils.'
‘我小的时候便进了少年军事学校。我父亲是沙皇麾下的一个将军。在上次大战中,我是一名骑兵军官。我无法忍受皮尔苏茨基,我们策划杀死他,却被人出卖了。凡是被捕的,都叫他枪决了。我侥幸逃过了边境。当时摆在我面前的只有两条路:加入法国的外籍军团或者下井挖煤。我选择了后一种罪恶感比较轻的出路。’

“I had already told Kosti what job I was to have in the mine and he had said nothing, but now, putting his elbow on the marble-topped table, he said:“‘Try to push my hand back.'
之前,我已经告诉过考斯迪我预备在煤矿上做什么工作,他当时没有说什么,这时却见他将胳膊肘在大理石桌面上一架,说道:‘来,试试把我的手掰下去。’

“I knew the old trial of strength and I put my open palm against his. He laughed.‘Your hand won't be as soft asthat in a few weeks.'I pushed with all my might, but I could make no effect against his huge strength and gradually he pressed my hand back and down to the table.
我懂得这是一种老式的角力,于是摊开手,跟他的手握在了一起。他哈哈一笑说:‘用不了几个星期,你的手就不会这么柔软了。’我使出吃奶的气力把他的手朝下扳,可抵不住他的神力。渐渐地,他将我的手朝下压,最终压到了桌面上。

“‘You're pretty strong,'he was good enough to say.‘There aren't many men who keep up as long as that. Listen, my helper's no good, he's a puny little Frenchman, he hasn’t got the strength of a louse.You come along with me tomorrow and I’ll get the foreman to let me have you instead.’
‘你真有劲。’承蒙他这么夸奖我,‘能坚持这么长时间的人是不多的。你听我说,我的助手屁用都不顶,是个三寸丁的法国人,手无缚鸡之力。不如你明天跟我走,我跟工头说叫你做我的助手。’

“‘I'd like that,'I said.‘D'you think he'll do it?'
‘我愿意跟你去。’我说,‘你看工头会同意吗?’

“‘For a consideration. Have you got fifty francs to spare?'
‘这得有见面礼。你拿得出五十个法郎吗?’

“He stretched out his hand and I took a note out of my wallet. We went home and to bed.I'd had a long day and I slept like a log.”
“他说完把手伸出来,我从钱包里掏出一张五十法郎的钞票递给他。之后我们便回去睡觉。那一天真够累的,我一躺下便睡得像死猪。”

“Didn't you find the work terribly hard?”I asked Larry.
“你是不是发现挖煤的活十分艰辛?”我问拉里。

“Back-breaking at first,”he grinned.“Kosti worked it with the foreman and I was made his helper. At that time Kosti was working in a space about the size of a hotel bathroom and one got to it through a tunnel so low that you had to crawl through it on your hands and knees.It was as hot as hell in there and we worked in nothing but our pants.There was something terribly repulsive in that great white fat torso of Kosti's;he looked like a huge slug.The row of the pneumatic cutter in that narrow space was deafening.My job was to gather the blocks of coal that he hacked away and load a basket with them and drag the basket through the tunnel to its mouth, where it could be loaded into a truck when the train came along at intervals on its way to the elevators.It's the only coal mine I've ever known, so I don't know if that's the normal practice.It seemed amateurish to me and it was damned hard work.At half time we knocked off for a rest and ate our lunch and smoked.I wasn’t sorry when we were through for the day, and gosh, it was good to have a bath.I thought I’d never get my feet clean;they were as black as ink.Of course my hands blistered and they got as sore as the devil, but they healed.I got used to the work.”
“起初,累得人腰酸背痛。”他咧开嘴笑了笑说,“考斯迪打通了工头的关系,让我当上了他的助手。那时,他在一块旅馆浴室那么大的空间里干活,进去时得手脚并用爬过一条非常低的隧道。里面热得像火炉,干活时浑身脱得精光,只穿一条裤子。考斯迪的身子又白又胖,活像一条巨无霸鼻涕虫,看了叫人心生厌恶。在那巴掌大的地方,气动挖煤机发出的声音震耳欲聋。我的任务是把他切下来的煤块装进一个筐子,再拖着筐子爬过隧道,将其拖到隧道口。隔一段时间就有一辆运煤车开过来,煤块便被装进车斗,然后运往电梯那儿。这是我平生第一次下井,不知道这流程是否规范,只觉得不太专业化,简直是牛马干的活。中途,我们停下手休息——吃午饭和抽烟。一天干下来,我的感觉并不糟糕,再洗个澡,舒服极了。我当时觉得自己的脚恐怕永远也别想洗干净了——那双脚黑得像煤炭。我的手磨出了水泡,疼得像刀割,但后来都长好了。渐渐地,挖煤的活我就干惯了。”

“How long did you stick it out?”
“你坚持了多长时间?”

“I was only kept on that job for a few weeks. The trucks that carried the coal to the elevators were hauled by a tractor and the driver was a poor mechanic and the engine was always breaking down.Once he couldn't get it going and he didn't seem to know what to do.Well, I'm a pretty good mechanic, so I had a look at it and in half an hour I got it working.The foreman told the manager and he sent for me and asked me if I knew about cars.The result was that he gave me the mechanic's job;of course it was monotonous, but it was easy, and because they didn't have any more engine trouble they were pleased with me.
当助手的活我只干了几个星期。话说那些往电梯口运煤的车,它们是靠一辆拖拉机拖拽的。拖拉机驾驶员只会开,不懂机械,而拖拉机的引擎经常出毛病。有一次出毛病,他修理不好,一时不知所措。我可是个呱呱叫的机修工,帮他瞧了瞧,没过半个小时便排除了故障。工头将此事告诉了经理,经理把我找了去,问我懂不懂汽车。结果呢,他给了我一份机修工的工作。当然,那工作单调乏味,可我干起来得心应手。由于汽车一有故障就被排除,他们对我很是满意。

“Kosti was as sore as hell at my leaving him. I suited him and he'd got used to me.I got to know him pretty well, working with him all day, going to the bistro with him after supper, and sharing a room with him.He was a funny fellow.He was the sort of man who'd have appealed to you.He didn't mix with the Poles and we didn't go to the cafés they went to.He couldn’t forget he was a nobleman and had been a cavalry officer and he treated them like dirt.Naturally they resented it, but they couldn’t do anything about it;he was as strong as an ox, and if it had ever come to a scrap, knives or no knives, he’d have been a match for half a dozen of them together.I got to know some of them all the same, and they told me he’d been a cavalry officer all right in one of the smart regiments, but it was a lie about his having left Poland for political reasons.He’d been kicked out of the Officers’Club at Warsaw and cashiered because he’d been caught cheating at cards.They warned me against playing with him.They said that was why he fought shy of them, because they knew too much about him and wouldn’t play with him.
我离开了考斯迪,这叫他窝了一肚子的火。我们俩配合默契,已彼此适应。成天跟他一起干活,晚饭后一起下酒馆,睡觉时分享一个房间,我把他已摸得透透的。他是个古怪的人,叫你一见就会留下印象。他不跟波兰人来往,波兰人去的咖啡馆我们就不去。他总忘记不了自己是贵族,而且当过骑兵军官,所以,他把那些波兰人都看得粪土不如。那些波兰人当然气得不得了,可又奈何不了他——他壮得像头牛,打起架来,不管用不用刀子,五六个人近不了他的身。尽管如此,我还是结识了几个波兰人。他们告诉我,说他在一个很棒的骑兵分队里当过军官是真的,但至于说他是出于政治原因被迫离开了波兰,那是一派胡言——他是被华沙军官俱乐部开除了,并解除了他的军职,理由是他打牌时抽老千,叫人抓了个正着。他们警告我不要跟他打牌,说他老躲着他们是因为他们知道他的底细,不愿跟他在一起待。

“I'd been losing to him consistently, not much, you know, just a few francs a night, but when he won he always insisted on paying for drinks, so it didn't amount to anything really. I thought I was just having a run of bad luck or that I didn't play as well as he did.But after that I kept my eyes skinned and I was dead sure he was cheating, but d'you know, for the life of me I couldn't see how he did it.Gosh, he was clever.I knew he simply couldn’t have the best cards all the time.I watched him like a lynx.He was as cunning as a fox and I guess he saw I’d been put wise to him.One night, after we’d been playing for a while, he looked at me with that rather cruel, sarcastic smile of his which was the only way he knew how to smile, and said:“‘Shall I show you a few tricks?'
我和他打牌老输,但每次输得不多,只不过区区几个法郎,而且他总是争着付酒钱,所以实际上也就算不了什么。我以为自己仅仅是手气不好罢了,或者说自己的牌技不如他。可是,了解了内幕后,我就擦亮眼睛注意观察,百分之百地肯定他在抽老千。可是,即便要了我的命,我也看不出他是怎么捣的鬼。啊,他可真是聪明到家了。我明明知道他不可能老拿到最好的牌,却苦于抓不着把柄。我像猞猁一样紧盯着他不放,而他似狐狸一般狡猾。他可能发现我在提防着他了。一天晚上,我们玩了一会儿牌之后,他看着我,脸上浮现出那种无情、嘲讽的微笑(他只会这种笑法),款款说道:‘想不想让我给你变几个戏法看?’

“He took the pack of cards and asked me to name one. He shuffled them and he told me to choose one;I did, and it was the card I'd named.He did two or three more tricks and then he asked me if I played poker.I said I did and he dealt me a hand.When I looked at it I saw I'd got four aces and a king.
他把纸牌拿过去,让我说一张牌,然后洗了牌,叫我随便取一张。我取出一张看了看,发现正是我方才说的那张。他又变了两个戏法,然后问我会不会玩扑克游戏,我说会玩。于是他就给我发了几张牌。我看了看,发现手里拿的是四张A和一张老K。

“‘You'd be willing to bet a good deal on that hand, wouldn't you?'he asked.
‘愿意不愿意给你手里的牌下一笔大赌注?’

“‘My whole stack,'I answered.
‘我愿意把所有的钱都押上。’我回答说。

“‘You'd be silly.'He put down the hand he'd dealt himself. It was a straight flush.How it was done I don't know.He laughed at my amazement.‘If I weren't an honest man I’d have had your shirt by now.’
‘那你就傻了。’他说完把手里的牌摊在了桌子上——原来是一把同花顺。这叫我一头雾水。他见我一脸的诧异,不由哈哈大笑起来,说道:‘假如我不是个规矩人,我会叫你把身上的衣服都输掉的。’

“‘You haven't done so badly as it is,'I grinned.
‘现在你把我赢得也够惨的了。’我笑着说。

“‘Chicken feed. Not enough to buy a dinner at Larue's.'
‘一点小钱,连去拉鲁埃餐馆打打牙祭都不够。’

“We continued to play pretty well every night. I came to the conclusion that he cheated not so much for the money as for the fun of it.It gave him a queer satisfaction to know that he was making a fool of me, and I think he got a lot of amusement out of knowing that I was on to what he was doing and couldn't see how it was done.
我们每晚仍继续打牌,而且兴致很高。我得出的结论是,他抽老千与其说是为了赢钱,还不如说是为了寻乐子。他对自己能够愚弄我而感到一种异样的满足。也许最叫他感到高兴的是:我明明知道他在捣鬼,却弄不清他是怎么捣的。

“But that was only one side of him and it was the other side that made him so interesting to me. I couldn't reconcile the two.Though he boasted he never read anything but the paper and detective stories he was a cultivated man.He was a good talker, caustic, harsh, cynical, but it was exhilarating to listen to him.He was a devout Catholic and had a crucifix hanging over his bed, and he went to Mass every Sunday regularly.On Saturday nights he used to get drunk.The bistro we went to was crammed jammed full then, and the air was heavy with smoke.There were quiet, middle-aged miners with their families, and there were groups of young fellows kicking up a hell of a row, and there were men with sweaty faces round tables playing belote with loud shouts, while their wives sat by, a little behind them, and watched.The crowd and the noise had a strange effect on Kosti and he'd grow serious and start talking-of all unlikely subjects-of mysticism.I knew nothing of it then but an essay of Maeterlinck's on Ruysbroek that I'd read in Paris.But Kosti talked of Plotinus and Denis the Areopagite and Jacob Boehme the shoemaker and Meister Eckhart.It was fantastic to hear that great hulking bum, who'd been thrown out of his own world, that sardonic, bitter down-and-out, speaking of the ultimate reality of things and the blessedness of union with God.It was all new to me and I was confused and excited.I was like someone who’s lain awake in a darkened room and suddenly a chink of light shoots through the curtains and he knows he only has to draw them and there the country will be spread before him in the glory of the dawn.But if I tried to get him on the subject when he was sober he got mad at me.His eyes were spiteful.
不过,这只是他的一个方面,而使我最感兴趣的却是他的另一方面。我简直无法把这两方面调和起来。虽则他自夸除掉报纸和侦探小说以外,什么都不看,但其实他是个有学问的人。他很健谈,语言犀利、刻薄,夹枪带棒的,然而却让听者兴奋不已。他是个虔诚的天主教徒,床头挂一个十字架,每逢星期天就去做弥撒。星期六的晚上则以酒为伴。我们去的那个酒馆一到星期六便顾客盈门,屋里空气混浊,烟雾缭绕。客人中有携家人而至的沉默寡言的中年矿工,有结伙而来的喧闹不已的年轻人;一些酒客围在桌旁玩勃洛特牌戏,脸上淌着汗,嘴里大声吆喝着,他们的贤内助则坐在他们身后观战。人群和喧闹声对考斯迪会产生奇特的影响,使他变得深沉。这时的他会谈一些你想不到的话题,会谈神秘主义。至于神秘主义,我在巴黎时仅仅读过梅特林克写的一篇关于鲁斯布鲁克的文章,其他便一无所知了。而考斯迪却大谈普罗提诺、古希腊雅典最高法院的法官丹尼斯、鞋匠雅各布·贝姆以及迈斯特·埃克纳特。听这样一个被自己的社会圈子驱逐出来的大块头游民,一个愤世嫉俗、牢骚满腹、穷困潦倒的人,大谈什么万物的本质以及和上帝合为一体的极乐境界,简直是匪夷所思。这些情况我闻所未闻,让我感到迷茫,也感到激动。我就像一个躺在黑屋子里的人,窗帘的缝隙透进一线光亮,心里知道只要拉开窗帘,眼前就会出现一片沐浴在灿烂曙光里的原野。不过,在没有喝醉酒的情况下,你再跟他扯这个话题,他会生气的,眼睛露出恶狠狠的光。

“‘How should I know what I was talking about when I didn't know what I was saying?'he snapped.
‘我都不知道自己说了些啥,怎么能给你讲呢?’他会板着脸说。

“But I knew he was lying. He knew perfectly well what he was talking about.He knew a lot.Of course he was soused, but the look in his eyes, the rapt expression on his ugly face, weren't due only to drink.There was more to it than that.The first time he talked in that way he said something that I've never forgotten, because it horrified me;he said that the world isn't a creation, for out of nothing nothing comes;but a manifestation of the eternal nature;well, that was all right, but then he added that evil is as direct a manifestation of the divine as good.They were strange words to hear in that sordid, noisy café,to the accompaniment of dance tunes on the mechanical piano.”
“可我知道他在睁着眼说瞎话。他完全清楚自己说的是什么。他的知识非常渊博。他当时喝醉了酒固然不错,但他的眼神以及那张丑脸上激昂的表情,就不能仅仅用一句喝醉了的话搪塞过去的。情况并非如此简单。他第一次跟我那般说话,其话语我一直都没有忘掉,因为我当时都惊呆了。他竟然说这个世界并非上帝所创造,说无中不能生有,而是一种永恒的存在。这还罢了,他竟然又说恶和善一样,都直接反映着上天的意志。酒馆里肮脏不堪、人声喧哗,再加上那架自动钢琴弹奏着舞曲,他的话在这种环境中听上去怪兮兮的。”


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