通译双语文库:故园风雨后序幕旧地重游

1

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到达山头上的Ｃ连边界时，停下来回望那爿营房——在清晨灰色的雾霭中，下面的营地清晰映入眼帘。那天我们就要开拔了，可三个月前进驻时，这里还覆盖着皑皑白雪；此时，春日初生的嫩叶正在萌芽。那时我就知道，以后不管再看到如何荒凉的景象，自己也不会畏惧了——没有哪儿能比这里更差。现在再回想起来，这地方没有给我留下哪怕一丁点儿愉快的记忆。就是在这里，我与军队间的仰慕之情全盘终结。

1

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When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning. We were leaving that day. When we marched in, three months before, the place was under snow; now the first leaves of spring were unfolding. I had reflected then that, whatever scenes of desolation lay ahead of us, I never feared one more brutal than this, and I reflected now that it had no single happy memory for me.Here love had died between me and the army.

2

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这里是有轨电车的终点站，所以在格拉斯哥把自己灌得醉醺醺再回营地的士兵们，大可以在座位上打个盹儿，然后直到终点再被人叫醒。从车站到营盘门口还有一段路——四分之一英里[1]的路程——经过警卫岗亭前还有工夫扣好军装，戴端正军帽，这段四分之一英里的水泥路边缘已经是杂草丛生了。这里是这城市的最远端。将鳞次栉比、整齐划一的住宅区和电影院与穷乡僻壤一刀切得泾渭分明。

[1]基本英语（Basic English）是一种人工语言，基于英语的一种简化版本而产生，由查尔斯·凯·奥格登创造。在他一九三〇年所出版的《基本英语——规则和语法的一般约定》一书中有详细介绍。序幕旧地重游

2

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Here the tram lines ended, so that men returning fuddled from Glasgow could doze in their seats until roused by the conductress at their journey’s end. There was some way to go from the tram-stop to the camp gates; a quarter of a mile in which they could button their blouses and straighten their caps before passing the guard-room, a quarter of a mile in which concrete gave place to grass at the road’s edge. This was the extreme limit of the city, a fringe of drift-wood above high-water mark. Here the close, homogeneous territory of housing estates and cinemas ended and the hinterland began.

3

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兵营驻扎的地方不久前还是一片牧场和农耕地；仍旧被小山环抱的农舍现在做了营部；曾是果园的那些残垣断壁上已经爬满了常春藤，洗衣房后头还有之前果园留下来的小半英亩[2]残损老树。军队进驻前，这块地方本来是想着要清理掉的。要是再多来一年的太平，那里的农庄、围墙和苹果树也就都消失得不见踪影了。半英里长的水泥路在两旁光秃秃的堤坝间修筑起来。马路两旁横七竖八交错的下水明渠，表明市政开发商早先是打算在那里修建排水系统的。如果再多来一年的太平，这块地方可能就已经成了城市近郊的一部分。我们过冬的那些小屋，马上就要轮上被毁的命运。

[2]英亩是面积单位，1英亩约为4046平方米。

3

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The camp stood where, until quite lately, had been pasture and ploughland; the farmhouse still stood in a fold of the hill and had served us for battalion offices; ivy still supported part of what had once been the walls of a fruit garden; half an acre of mutilated old trees behind the wash-houses survived of an orchard. The place had been marked for destruction before the army came to it. Had there been another year of peace, there would have been no farmhouse, no wall, no apple trees. Already half a mile of concrete road lay between bare clay banks, and on either side a chequer of open ditches showed where the municipal contractors had designed a system of drainage. Another year of peace would have made the place part of the neighbouring suburb. Now the huts where we had wintered waited their turn for destruction.

4

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路的那边，即使冬天也是被树木四周环绕、遮遮掩掩着的，是一家地方精神病院。它也是人们一直讽刺、嘲弄、八卦的绝佳话柄，其高大的铁栅栏和院门让营地上那么粗实的铁丝网也相形见绌，黯黯然失了颜色。天气暖和时，可以看见一群疯子在整齐的碎石子路上和美丽的人工草坪上踱来踱去闲溜达，或者跳过来蹦过去的；这帮子幸运有福、无须为国奉献之人，已经全然放弃了他们承担不起的战斗，毫无疑问地，他们已经尽了力了，是这个发展的世纪无可争议的合法继承人，心安理得地享受着继承来的遗产。

4

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[p1]Over the way, the subject of much ironical comment, half hidden even in winter by its embosoming trees, lay the municipal lunatic asylum, whose cast-iron railings and noble gates put our rough wire to shame. We could watch the madmen, on clement days, sauntering and skipping among the trim gravel walks and pleasantly planted lawns; happy collaborationists who had given up the unequal struggle, all doubts resolved, all duty done, the undisputed heirs-at-law of a century of progress, enjoying the heritage at their ease.

5

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我们一从那儿经过，士兵们常常会隔着铁栅栏向那些病人大喊：“哥们儿，把床给我焐热乎咯，我马上过来——”但是新来的排长胡珀，显然羡慕嫉妒恨着那些人的舒适生活，“希特勒会把他们送进毒气室毒死”，他这么说，“我觉得我们也可以从他那儿学个一两样。”

5

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[p2]As we marched past the men used to shout greetings to them through the railings--"Keep a bed warm for me, chum. I shan’t be long"--but Hooper, my newest-joined platoon commander, grudged them their life of privilege: "Hitler would put them in a gas chamber," he said; "I reckon we can learn a thing or two from him."

6

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我们是深冬季节驻扎到此的，那时候，我带来的是一连身强力壮、踌躇满志的棒小伙子。从泥泞沼泽地带调拨到这个码头时，大家都说我们最终会开赴中东。日子一天天过去，我们清扫积雪，平整训练场地，眼睁睁看着士兵们从大失所望变成了听天由命。刚开始时，他们贪婪地嗅着炸鱼铺子里的香味儿，竖起耳朵听工厂里传来的那些熟悉的、和平时期的喇叭声和舞厅乐队的伴奏。

6

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[p1]Here, when we marched in at midwinter, I brought a company of strong and hopeful men; word had gone round among them, as we moved from the moors to this dockland area, that we were at last in transit for the Middle East. As the days passed and we began clearing the snow and levelling a parade ground, I saw their disappointment change to resignation. They snuffed the smell of the fried-fish shops and cocked their ears to familiar, peace-time sounds of the works’ siren and the dance-hall band.

7

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可现在一到休假日，他们便蔫头耷脑地站到街角上，一看见有军官走近就侧转身溜了，惧怕着区区一个敬礼，或者让军官看到他们带着小情人逛大街而导致颜面尽失。连部里尚躺着一大堆提请小额借款和开恩给予假期的待批小条；天光才一亮，满世界便充斥着泡病号的军士们的抱怨、带着一肚子牢骚的阴郁脸和呆滞眼，一天就这么开始了。

7

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[p2]On off-days they slouched now at street corners and sidled away at the approach of an officer for fear that, by saluting, they would lose face with their new mistresses. In the company office there was a crop of minor charges and requests for compassionate leave; while it was still half-light, day began with the whine of the malingerer and the glum face and fixed eye of the man with a grievance.

8

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我呢，照理说应该去帮助提振他们的精气神的——可我也自顾不暇，根本就是自身难保，我帮了他们谁来帮我啊？此前把我们这个组整编起来的上校已经升职调作他用了，继任者是从别的团调过来的一个不那么好说话的年轻人。战争伊始一起受训的那批志愿兵，仍然留在这个烂摊子里的已经所剩无几——他们用着这样那样的理由，差不多都走干净了——一些人因为伤病退伍；一些人转到别的营地，有的进了参谋部，有的自愿当了特工；还有个在野外靶场上一不留神被枪子儿打死了；再有一个遭受了军事审判——这些人的位子已经全都被应征兵们取代了；现在，军官餐厅休息室不停地播放着无线电节目，人们在茶余饭后喝很多啤酒……以前可不这样。

8

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And I, who by every precept should have put heart into them--how could I help them, who could so little help myself? Here the colonel under whom we had formed was promoted out of our sight and succeeded by a younger and less lovable man, cross-posted from another regiment. There were few left in the mess now of the batch of volunteers who trained together at the outbreak of war; one way and another they were nearly all gone--some had been invalided out, some promoted to other battalions, some posted to staff jobs, some had volunteered for special service, one had got himself killed on the field firing range, one had been court-martialled--and their places were taken by conscripts; the wireless played incessantly in the ante-room nowadays, and much beer was drunk before dinner; it was not as it had been.

9

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这会儿，我在三十九这个岁数上就开始苍老起来。每天晚上都浑身僵硬、疲惫不堪的，一步也不愿挪出营地；还养成了一人独占哪几把椅子、哪几种报纸的“恶习”；经常在晚饭前喝上三杯杜松子酒，就三杯；听完晚上九点钟的新闻播报立马儿上床；总是在吹起床号前一小时醒来，并且烦躁不安。

9

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Here at the age of thirty-nine I began to be old. I felt stiff and weary in the evenings and reluctant to go out of camp; I developed proprietary claims to certain chairs and newspapers; I regularly drank three glasses of gin before dinner, never more or less, and went to bed immediately after the nine o’clock news. I was always awake and fretful an hour before reveille.

10

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在这里，我对军队最后的爱消逝了——完全是在神不知鬼不觉中消逝的。在营地最后一天的前不久，我又在吹起床号之前醒过来，躺在尼森小屋，盯视着一片黑暗，一边听着同屋的那四个人沉重的呼噜声和梦呓，一边在心里反复盘算着今天要办的事情——把两个伍长的名字登在参加携带武器训练的名单上了么？假满归队日，我手下超假的人数会否又是最多的？我能否委托胡珀把一班候补的带出去勘察地形？……

10

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[p1]Here my last love died. There was nothing remarkable in the manner of its death. One day, not long before this last day in camp, as I lay awake before reveille, in the Nissen hut, gazing into the complete blackness, amid the deep breathing and muttering of the four other occupants, turning over in my mind what I had to do that day--had I put in the names of two corporals for the weapon-training course? Should I again have the largest number of men overstaying their leave in the batch due back that day? Could I trust Hooper to take the candidates class out map-reading?

11

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躺在黑夜里，会讶异地感觉到心里有某个地方，久治不愈，静悄悄地死去了。就像某一位丈夫可能感觉到的那样，在结婚第四年，才突然发现对那个他一度热爱过的妻子居然不再有热情、温柔，或者尊重了；跟她在一起完全感觉不到一丝快乐，更没有要去取悦她的任何想法，连对她可能要做什么说什么想什么也提不起丝毫的兴致；没有努力改善这种关系的打算，对遭遇到什么不好的事情也不自我谴责……我清楚地知道婚姻破灭后单调乏味的各种境界——我和军队一起经历了这样的境界，从最开始的苦求苦索一直到当下。如今我们之间除了由法律、责任和习惯约束、定规好的冰冷义务之外什么也没剩下。

11

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[p2]As I lay in that dark hour, I was aghast to realize that something within me, long sickening, had quietly died, and felt as a husband might feel, who, in the fourth year of his marriage, suddenly knew that he had no longer any desire, or tenderness, or esteem, for a once-beloved wife; no pleasure in her company, no wish to please, no curiosity about anything she might ever do or say or think; no hope of setting things right, no self-reproach for the disaster. I knew it all, the whole drab compass of marital disillusion; we had been through it together, the army and I, from the first importunate courtship until now, when nothing remained to us except the chill bonds of law and duty and custom.

12

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我亲身出演了这一“家庭悲剧”的每一场戏。从看见早期的小争执越来越多、越来越频繁，越来越少地能再被泪水所感染和打动，重归于好的和解再谈不上甜蜜……直到生发出某种内心的冷漠和冷嘲热讽来——这些使我越发相信，错并不在我，而是我原来的爱人。从她的声音里听到了不老实的调调儿后，我便学会了忧虑地侧耳倾听还有没有这种声音；从她眼睛里看到了茫然、仇恨和不可理喻；看到她自私的、紧紧抿起的唇角。

12

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[p3]I had played every scene in the domestic tragedy, had found the early tiffs become more frequent, the tears less affecting, the reconciliations less sweet, till they engendered a mood of aloofness and cool criticism, and the growing conviction that it was not myself but the loved one who was at fault. I caught the false notes in her voice and learned to listen for them apprehensively; I recognized the blank, resentful stare of incomprehension in her eyes, and the selfish, hard set of the corners of her mouth.

13

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我如此了解她，就像了解一个朝夕相处、共同生活了三年半的女人一样：了解她的邋遢习性，她撩骚诱人的手段，她的善妒和自私，以及她说谎时神经质的手指。现在她失去了所有魅惑人心的力量，我可算看出来她与我志趣完全不搭，我们根本就不是一路人……过去，只是我一时痴迷，对她欲罢不能才黏在一起的。

13

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[p4]I learned her, as one must learn a woman one has kept house with, day in, day out, for three and a half years; I learned her slatternly ways, the routine and mechanism of her charm, her jealousy and self-seeking, and her nervous trick with the fingers when she was lying. She was stripped of all enchantment now and I knew her for an uncongenial stranger to whom I had bound myself indissolubly in a moment of folly.

14

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因此在军队开拔的这天早上，我全然不在意是要往哪里去。服役总归照旧服役，默默接受便是，何谈什么热情。我们接到的命令是早晨九点十五分在附近的铁路支线上车，把剩下的口粮放进军用背包里——这就是我需要知晓的一切。副连长已经带着一小支先遣队走了。连里的物资头天已经收拾打包妥当。胡珀被选派去检查营房。全连七点半列队集合，帆布军用背包都摆在营房门前。

14

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[p1]So, on this morning of our move, I was entirely indifferent as to our destination. I would go on with my job, but I could bring to it nothing more than acquiescence. Our orders were to entrain at 0915 hours at a near-by siding, taking in the haversack the unexpired portion of the day’s ration; that was all I needed to know. The company second-in-command had gone on with a small advance party. Company stores had been packed the day before. Hooper had been detailed to inspect the lines. The company was parading at 0730 hours with their kit-bags piled before the huts.

15

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这是一九四零年一个让人尤其兴奋的清晨，我们误以为要被派去保卫加来。打那一刻起，我们一年要换防三四回；这一回，新上任的指挥官正进行着不寻常的“安全”演示，甚至不惜麻烦要我们把制服和运输工具上的标志统统摘下来。“这是极为宝贵的战争状态训练，”他说，“要是我发现有军妓在那头等着咱们，那我就知道是泄密了。”

15

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[p2]There had been many such moves since the wildly exhilarating morning in 1940 when we had erroneously believed ourselves destined for the defence of Calais. Three or four times a year since then we had changed our location; this time our new commanding officer was making an unusual display of "security" and had even put us to the trouble of removing all distinguishing badges from our uniforms and transport. It was "valuable training in active service conditions," he said. "If I find any of these female camp followers waiting for us the other end, I’ll know there’s been a leakage."

16

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厨房飘出的炊烟在清晨的雾霭中摇曳，营房就驻扎在那里，像一个由多条线路所构建的迷宫，描画在尚未完工的建筑图纸上，新近才由一帮考古学家发掘出来似的。

16

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The smoke from the cookhouses drifted away in the mist and the camp lay revealed as a planless maze of short-cuts, superimposed on the unfinished housing-scheme, as though disinterred at a much later date by a party of archæologists.

17

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代号为‘绿鳕’的发掘物，在二十世纪市民奴隶团体和其后部落无政府状态间，成为有大价值的一环。在这里，你可以看到一个高度文明的民族会修造复杂的排水系统以及永久性公路。但是，却被一个处于最低级发展阶段的人种给毁了。衡量新来者的标准可能是因为他们的女人没有任何个人装饰，死者被转移到离定居点很远的地方埋葬——这无疑是原始禁忌的标志。

17

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The Pollock diggings provide a valuable link between the citizen-slave communities of the twentieth century and the tribal anarchy which succeeded them. Here you see a people of advanced culture, capable of an elaborate draining system and the construction of permanent highways, overrun by a race of the lowest type. The measure of the newcomers may be taken by the facts that their women were devoid of all personal adornment and that the dead were removed to burying places a great distance from the settlement--a sure sign of primitive taboo....

18

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我认为未来的学术权威们可能会那么写上几笔。我扭转过头去问军士长：“胡珀先生来过吗？”

18

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Thus, I thought, the pundits of the future might write; and, turning away, I greeted the company sergeant-major: "Has Mr. Hooper been round?"

19

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“长官，今天早上就没有见过他。”

19

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Haven’t seen him at all this morning, sir.

20

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等到了那间已经被搬空的连部我才发现，在做好了营房设备损耗表之后，又多出来一块打破了的窗玻璃。“夜里风刮的，长官。”军士长说。

20

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We went to the dismantled company office, where I found a window newly broken since the barrack-damages book was completed. "Wind-in-the-night, sir," said the sergeant-major.

21

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（一切损坏都可以归咎于此的百搭原因，否则就归咎于“工程兵演习，长官。”）

21

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(All breakages were thus attributable, or to "Sappers’-demonstration, sir.")

22

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胡珀来了。这是个面带菜色的年轻人，梳着背头，头发从前额发际线起就不分缝，直往后背，操着一口让人乏味的中部口音。他来连队已经两个月了。

22

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Hooper appeared; he was a sallow youth with hair combed back, without parting, from his forehead, and a flat, Midland accent; he had been in the company two months.

23

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士兵们不喜欢胡珀，觉得他不懂行。他有时候会面朝大家，嘴里却喊着某一士兵的名字下口令，比如——“乔治，稍息！”但我对他却堪堪已经到了挚爱那样的程度，起因缘自他刚到餐厅吃饭时发生的那件事。

23

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The troops did not like Hooper because he knew too little about his work and would sometimes address them individually as "George" at stand-easies, but I had a feeling which almost amounted to affection for him, largely by reason of an incident on his first evening in mess.

24

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当时新上校才来还没有一个礼拜，我们对这个人根本还不了解。他在餐厅休息室里已经喝了几杯杜松子酒了，带着三分酒意，那是他第一次注意到胡珀。

24

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The new colonel had been with us less than a week at the time and we had not yet taken his measure. He had been standing rounds of gin in the ante-room and was slightly boisterous when he first took notice of Hooper.

25

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“莱德，那个青年军官是你们连的对不对？”他对我说，“他的头发该剪剪了。”

25

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That young officer is one of yours, isn’t he, Ryder? he said to me. "His hair wants cutting."

26

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“是的，上校，”我说，“早就该剪。我一定想办法让他剪了。”

26

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It does, sir, I said. It did. "I’ll see that it’s done."

27

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那上校又喝了几大杯酒，又开始边打量胡珀边大声说：“天哪，现在他们竟然把这样的军官送到我们这儿来！”

27

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The colonel drank more gin and began to stare at Hooper, saying audibly, "My God, the officers they send us now!"

28

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那天晚上，上校好像总是忘不掉胡珀。才吃完晚饭，他突然大声说：“在我原来那个团里，要是青年军官这个模样儿，那底下人抵死也得把他头发给剪喽。”

28

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Hooper seemed to obsess the colonel that evening. After dinner he suddenly said very loudly: "In my late regiment if a young officer turned up like that, the other subalterns would bloody well have cut his hair for him."

29

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没人表现关注，没人接他的话茬儿，而大家的木呆呆无反应想必激怒了上校。“你，”他转过身去对着Ａ连一个老实巴交的战士说，“你去拿把剪子来，把那军官的头发给我剪了。”

29

-

No one showed any enthusiasm for this sport, and our lack of response seemed to inflame the colonel. "You," he said, turning to a decent boy in A Company, "go and get a pair of scissors and cut that young officer’s hair for him."

30

-

“长官，这是命令？”

30

-

Is that an order, sir?

31

-

“这是你长官的希望，而长官的希望据我所知，就是最好的命令。”

31

-

It’s your commanding officer’s wish and that’s the best kind of order I know.

32

-

“是，长官。”

32

-

Very good, sir.

33

-

就这样，在稍许有些尴尬的气氛烘托下，胡珀坐到了椅子上，同时后脑勺上的头发已挨了几剪子。理发开始时我就离开了休息室，后来因为他被那样对待我还向胡珀道了歉。“这样的事么，在我们团里是很鲜见的。”我说。

33

-

And so, in an atmosphere of chilly embarrassment, Hooper sat in a chair while a few snips were made at the back of his head. At the beginning of the operation I left the ante-room, and later apologized to Hooper for his reception. "It’s not the sort of thing that usually happens in this regiment," I said.

34

-

“嗨，别不好意思，”胡珀说，“这么点儿玩笑我还禁得住。”

34

-

Oh, no hard feelings, said Hooper. "I can take a bit of sport."

35

-

胡珀对军队不抱幻想——确切点儿说，他看万事万物都隔着纱隔着雾的，模糊不明朗。他看军队跟看迷雾一样，没有什么特别的幻想，他尽了自己的一切努力推迟服兵役，最后的最后，还是被迫别别扭扭地进了军队。他说他接受兵役就像接受“麻疹”一样。胡珀绝对不是一个浪漫的人，小时候既没有唯鲁伯特亲王的马首是瞻过，也没有坐在艾克思桑萨德河畔的军营篝火边。我到了某个岁数，除了听诗朗诵（由老师推荐、使大人小孩无一例外都泪如雨下的、关于坚韧不拔的印第安人的）之外，从不流一滴泪——而胡珀却常常掉眼泪，只不过向来不是为国王亨利的圣·克里斯本演讲，或者塞莫皮莱的墓志铭掉眼泪而已。

35

-

[p1]Hooper had no illusions about the army--or rather no special illusions distinguishable from the general, enveloping fog from which he observed the universe. He had come to it reluctantly, under compulsion, after he had made every feeble effort in his power to obtain deferment. He accepted it, he said, "like the measles." Hooper was no romantic. He had not as a child ridden with Rupert’s horse or sat among the camp fires at Xanthus-side; at the age when my eyes were dry to all save poetry--that stoic, red-skin interlude which our schools introduce between the fast flowing tears of the child and the man--Hooper had wept often, but never for Henry’s speech on St. Crispin’s Day, nor for the epitaph at Thermopylæ.

36

-

他们给他讲的历史故事里虽没有战争，但却详细地描述了文明立法和近代工业革命。那些战场，比如加利波利、巴拉克拉瓦、魁北克、勒颁多、班诺克平、龙塞瓦利斯和马拉松……还有亚瑟王倒下的地方，以及成百上千这样的古战场的号角，就算目前在我万念俱灰，看破红尘的精神状态中，这些古战场的名称还是悠然越过漫长岁月，以我童年时听到的那般铿锵清楚的声调召唤着我。胡珀听了就无动于衷。

36

-

[p2]The history they taught him had had few battles in it but, instead, a profusion of detail about humane legislation and recent industrial change. Gallipoli, Balaclava, Quebec, Lepanto, Bannockburn, Roncesvales, and Marathon--these, and the Battle in the West where Arthur fell, and a hundred such names whose trumpet-notes, even now in my sere and lawless state, called to me irresistibly across the intervening years with all the clarity and strength of boyhood, sounded in vain to Hooper.

37

-

虽然这是一个连最简单的任务我都不能放心交付的人，他却很少发什么牢骚。此人过分重视“效率”，仅凭有限的一点儿商业经验，在间或谈起军饷和供给情况，以及“每小时人均工量”的效率时，他会说：“他们可逃不脱商业上的惩罚。”

37

-

He seldom complained. Though himself a man to whom one could not confidently entrust the simplest duty, he had an overmastering regard for efficiency and, drawing on his modest commercial experience, he would sometimes say of the ways of the army in pay and supply and the use of man-hours: "They couldn’t get away with that in business."

38

-

他睡得很沉，我却睡不着，烦躁。

38

-

He slept sound while I lay awake fretting.

39

-

在我们一起度过的几周里，我觉得胡珀成了英国青年的象征。所以我一读到报上公开的什么演讲，说本来需要什么什么样的青年，世界怎么怎么要靠青年，我就会拿胡珀代替文中泛指的青年，然后再看是不是合适。这么一来，我在起床号前醒来的黑暗中，便会暗暗想着“胡珀联合会”“胡珀旅店”“国际胡珀合作组织”“胡珀教会”。胡珀是测试以上那些名号最靠谱的耐酸腐实验品。

39

-

In the weeks that we were together Hooper became a symbol to me of Young England, so that whenever I read some public utterance proclaiming what Youth demanded in the Future and what the world owed to Youth, I would test these general statements by substituting "Hooper" and seeing if they still seemed as plausible. Thus in the dark hour before reveille I sometimes pondered: "Hooper Rallies," "Hooper Hostels," "International Hooper Co-operation" and "the Religion of Hooper." He was the acid test of all these alloys.

40

-

说到有没有变化，那就是比起刚从“军官训练营”出来时，胡珀的军人气少了。这天早晨，他披挂了全副装备，可看上去却不大像样，倒像个跳舞的。一路滑着过来对着我立正，举起戴着羊毛手套的手对着我敬礼。

40

-

So far as he had changed at all, he was less soldierly now than when he arrived from his OCTU. This morning, laden with full equipment, he looked scarcely human. He came to attention with a kind of shuffling dance-step and spread a wool-gloved palm across his forehead.

41

-

“军士长，我要跟胡珀说……哎，你上哪儿去了？我叫你查营房的。”

41

-

I want to speak to Mr. Hooper, sergeant-major... well, where the devil have you been? I told you to inspect the lines.

42

-

“对不起，我迟到了？紧急收拾装备来着。”

42

-

’M I late? Sorry. Had a rush getting my gear together.

43

-

“这就是你需要勤务兵的目的吗？”

43

-

That’s what you have a servant for.

44

-

“是，严格讲，我想是的。知道怎么回事么？他自己也有事情要做……要是对这种人不好的话，他们就会使别的法子报复你。”

44

-

Well I suppose it is, strictly speaking. But you know how it is. He had his own stuff to do. If you get on the wrong side of these fellows they take it out of you other ways.

45

-

“嗯，现在去查营房吧！”

45

-

Well, go and inspect the lines now.

46

-

“得嘞——啊。”

46

-

Rightyoh.

47

-

“天啊，别说什么‘得嘞——啊’行吗。”

47

-

And for Christ’s sake don’t say ’rightyoh.’

48

-

“对不起，我确实想记住。刚才是顺嘴溜出来的。”

48

-

Sorry. I do try to remember. It just slips out.

49

-

胡珀才走，军士长回来了。

49

-

When Hooper left the sergeant-major returned.

50

-

“长官，指挥官刚刚走上这条小道。”他报告。

50

-

C.O. just coming up the path, sir, he said.

51

-

我出去迎指挥官。

51

-

I went out to meet him.

52

-

指挥官猪鬃似的红胡子上凝着细小的水珠。

52

-

There were beads of moisture on the hog-bristles of his little red moustache.

53

-

“嗯，这里都清点好了？”

53

-

Well, everything squared up here?

54

-

“清点好了，长官，我想已经好了。”

54

-

Yes, I think so, sir.

55

-

“你想已经好了？你应该知道是不是真的好了。”

55

-

Think so? You ought to know.

56

-

他看见破玻璃窗了，“这块玻璃在营房损失表上登记了没有？”

56

-

His eyes fell on the broken window. "Has that been entered in the barrack-damages?"

57

-

“长官，还没有。”

57

-

Not yet, sir.

58

-

“还没有？要不是我看到了，天知道你什么时候才能把这块玻璃登记在册。”

58

-

Not yet? I wonder when it would have been if I hadn’t seen it.

59

-

一跟我在一起他就如此不自在，吵吵嚷嚷大多出于胆小怯懦，可我却并未因此而变得更好。

59

-

He was not at ease with me, and much of his bluster rose from timidity, but I thought none the better of it for that.

60

-

他领我去到小屋后面一段铁丝围栏旁，这段围栏把我们和运输排的驻地隔离开来。他灵巧地跳过铁丝围栏，朝一个长满荒草的沟渠走去，这沟渠一度是那个农场的界线。他在那里用手杖刨着地，像一只用嘴拱着吃菌类的猪一样，没一会儿发出了一声胜利的尖叫。他刨出了一个垃圾坑，爱干净的士兵们就喜欢这种垃圾坑：笤帚把、火炉膛盖儿、锈蚀了的水桶子、袜子和一块面包，连同香烟盒和罐头桶一起埋在酸模草和蛇麻草底下。

60

-

He led me behind the huts to a wire fence which divided my area from the carrier-platoon’s, skipped briskly over and made for an overgrown ditch and bank which had once been a field boundary on the farm. Here he began grubbing with his walkingstick like a truffling pig and presently gave a cry of triumph. He had disclosed one of those deposits of rubbish which are dear to the private soldier’s sense of order: the head of a broom, the lid of a stove, a bucket rusted through, a sock, a loaf of bread, lay under the dock and nettle among cigarette packets and empty tins.

61

-

“瞧瞧这个，”指挥官说，“这些东西会给接防的团队留下良好印象。”

61

-

Look at that, said the commanding officer. "Fine impression that gives to the regiment taking over from us."

62

-

“太糟糕了。”我说。

62

-

That’s bad, I said.

63

-

“真够丢人的。离开营地前，必须把这些都烧了。”

63

-

It’s a disgrace. See everything there is burned before you leave camp.

64

-

“是的，长官。军士长，给运输排传话，告诉布朗上尉，指挥官要求把这条沟清理干净。”

64

-

Very good, sir. Sergeant-major, send over to the carrier-platoon and tell Captain Brown that the C.O. wants this ditch cleared up.

65

-

不知道上校是否能够容忍我不服从命令，可他容忍了。他犹豫不决地站了一小会儿，用手杖又拨弄了一阵沟里的脏东西，然后转身大步走开了。

65

-

I wondered whether the colonel would take this rebuff; so did he. He stood a moment irresolutely prodding the muck in the ditch, then he turned on his heel and strode away.

66

-

“连长，你不应该这么做，”军士长说，自打我到连队以后他一直都是我的指引和依靠。“你真不应该这么做。”

66

-

You shouldn’t do it, sir, said the sergeant-major, who had been my guide and prop since I joined the company. "You shouldn’t really."

67

-

“可那又不是我们的垃圾。”

67

-

That wasn’t our rubbish.

68

-

“连长，可能不是，但你知道是怎么回事对吧。但凡你跟上级的关系没搞好，他们就会用别的法子整治你。”

68

-

Maybe not, sir, but you know how it is. If you get on the wrong side of senior officers they take it out of you other ways.

69

-

我们走过疯人院时，有那么三两个疯老头子在栏杆后面客客气气地念叨着什么听来毫无头绪的话。

69

-

As we marched past the madhouse two or three elderly inmates gibbered and mouthed politely behind the railings.

70

-

“老朋友，再见啦！我们会来看你们的。”士兵们对那些疯子高喊，“过不久我们就会再回来了。”“一直笑到再见的那天吧。”

70

-

Cheeroh, chum, we’ll be seeing you; "We shan’t be long now"; "Keep smiling till we meet again," the men called to them.

71

-

我和胡珀走在先行排前头。

71

-

I was marching with Hooper at the head of the leading platoon.

72

-

“哎，你知道我们是往哪儿开发吗？”

72

-

I say, any idea where we’re off to?

73

-

“不知道。”

73

-

None.

74

-

“你认为真的要干起来？”

74

-

D’you think it’s the real thing?

75

-

“并不。”

75

-

No.

76

-

“不过是再折腾一阵子吧？”

76

-

Just a flap?

77

-

“嗯，是。”

77

-

Yes.

78

-

“人人都说我们要真刀真枪地开干了。可我也真的给闹糊涂了。也不知道怎么的，我感觉我们要是永远也不去打仗的话，这一切一切的演习和训练就是超级大蠢事。”

78

-

Everyone’s been saying we’re for it. I don’t know what to think really. Seems so silly somehow, all this drill and training if we never go into action.

79

-

“我可不发愁这个。到时候大家都有很多仗要打。”

79

-

I shouldn’t worry. There’ll be plenty for everyone in time.

80

-

“哎，你知道，我可不想打太多的仗……只要说我打过仗就行了。”

80

-

Oh, I don’t want much you know. Just enough to say I’ve been in it.

81

-

一列破旧的火车在侧线上等着我们；负责这节车皮的是一个铁路运输官，一群疲惫不堪的士兵正把卡车上最后一批帆布袋子运到行李车上。出发准备半小时业已做好，可一小时之后火车才开。

81

-

A train of antiquated coaches were waiting for us at the siding; an R.T.O. was in charge; a fatigue party was loading the last of the kit-bags from the trucks to the luggage vans. In half an hour we were ready to start and in an hour we started.

82

-

我和三个排长合用一个车厢。他们只管啃汉堡、吃巧克力、抽烟和睡觉，谁也没带一本书。如惯常情况一样，火车常停在两站之间。在一开始的三四个小时里，只要车一停，他们就把头探到车窗外，去注意该城镇的名字，到后来也慢慢失了兴趣。中午和晚上，人们把温温吞吞的可可饮品用勺从桶里舀到我们的水杯。火车越过干线两侧风景单调的地区，缓缓向南。

82

-

My three platoon commanders and myself had a carriage to ourselves. They ate sandwiches and chocolate, smoked and slept. None of them had a book. For the first three or four hours they noted the names of the towns and leaned out of the windows when, as often happened, we stopped between stations. Later they lost interest. At midday and again at dark some tepid cocoa was ladled from a container into our mugs. The train moved slowly South through flat, drab main-line scenery.

83

-

这一天的重大事件是指挥官的“命令发布会”。传令兵召集我们在指挥官的车厢里集合，他和副官都戴着钢盔，全副武装的样子。说的头一件事是：“这是命令发布会。我希望你们参加时都全副武装。虽然恰巧是在火车上，但这一事实是相当不重要的。”我还以为他要把我们打发回去重新着装，但他盯着我们看了一会儿便说：“坐下吧。”

83

-

The chief incident in the day was the C.O.’s "Order Group." We assembled in his carriage, at the summons of an orderly, and found him and the adjutant wearing their steel helmets and equipment. The first thing he said was: "This is an Order Group. I expect you to attend properly dressed. The fact that we happen to be in a train is immaterial." I thought he was going to send us back but, after glaring at us, he said: "Sit down....

84

-

“我们让营地处于一种很不体面的情形之中了。随便走到哪个地方都会看到军官没有恪尽职守。丢下的营地是什么样子，最能说明团级军官的效率了。营地和军官们的荣誉就指望这个。而且——”下面的话是他真说出口了，还是我从他愤懑的腔调和目光里读出来的？我想，他是把话咽下去没有说出来——“我不想让几个临时军官的松弛懈怠坏了我的荣誉。”

84

-

The camp was left in a disgraceful condition. Wherever I went I found evidence that officers are not doing their duty. The state in which a camp is left is the best possible test of the efficiency of regimental officers. It is on such matters that the reputation of a battalion and its commander rests. And--Did he in fact say this or am I finding words for the resentment in his voice and eye? I think he left it unsaid--"I do not intend to have my professional reputation compromised by the slackness of a few temporary officers."

85

-

我们坐着，端着笔记本拿着铅笔等着记录下一步工作的详细指令。某个比较敏感一点的人会看出，他已经不能给人深刻印象了。他自己可能也看出来了，因为随后他就用一个爱发脾气的校长的办法补充了一句：“我要求的只不过是精诚合作的精神。”

85

-

We sat with our note-books and pencils waiting to take down the details of our next jobs. A more sensitive man would have seen that he had failed to be impressive; perhaps he saw, for he added in a petulant schoolmasterish way: "All I ask is loyal co-operation."

86

-

然后他看着笔记本念道：“命令。“情报。本部正运行于A地与B地之间——这是C地的主线，容易遭受敌机轰炸和毒气攻击。“意图。我打算到达B地。“方法。火车大约在二十三点十五分到达目的地。”

86

-

Then he referred to his notes and read:Information. The battalion is now in transit between location A and location B. This is a major L of C and is liable to bombing and gas attack from the enemy."Method. Train will arrive at destination at approximately 2315 hours..."" and so on."

87

-

重中之重出现在结束时宣布的“后勤”子项下头：C连抽出一排人员，在火车抵达侧线时负责卸车，那里有三辆三吨卡车，可把物资全部运到新营地的临时堆放处。一直工作到完成任务；所抽出的一排人员看守堆放处，保持营地四周警戒。

87

-

The sting came at the end under the heading, "Administration." C Company, less one platoon, was to unload the train on arrival at the siding where three three-tonners would be available for moving all stores to a battalion dump in the new camp; work to continue until completed; the remaining platoon was to find a guard on the dump and perimeter sentries for the camp area.

88

-

“有什么问题吗？”

88

-

Any questions?

89

-

“我们能给值勤的人发可可饮品吗？”

89

-

Can we have an issue of cocoa for the working party?

90

-

“不能。还有什么问题？”

90

-

No. Any more questions?

91

-

当我把这个命令向军士长传达时，他的反应是：“可怜的C连又要倒霉了。”于是乎，我明白这就是在“变着法儿”地处罚我忤逆了指挥官。

91

-

When I told the sergeant-major of these orders he said: "Poor old C Company struck unlucky again"; and I knew this to be a reproach for my having antagonized the commanding officer.

92

-

我给几位排长传达了指挥官的命令。

92

-

I told the platoon commanders.

93

-

“喂，”胡珀说，“这么个差事会让咱们的小伙子非常、非常难做啊，他们要发脾气的。他怎么老是派咱们干脏活呢。”

93

-

I say, said Hooper, "it makes it awfully awkward with the chaps. They’ll be fairly browned-off. He always seems to pick on us for the dirty work."

94

-

“你去执行警戒任务。”

94

-

You’ll do guard.

95

-

“好。但是……我在暗中怎么能看出警戒线呢？”

95

-

Okeydoke. But I say, how am I to find the perimeter in the dark?

96

-

灯火管制才开始不久，一个勤务兵闷闷不乐地顺着列车车身走着，嘎嘎的响声惊动了我们。某位有经验的军士大声喊着：“上第二道菜了。”

96

-

Shortly after blackout we were disturbed by an orderly making his way lugubriously down the length of the train with a rattle. One of the more sophisticated sergeants called out "Deuxième service."

97

-

“敌人在向我们喷液态芥子气，”我说，“务必把窗子关牢。”然后我写了一个简单的情况报告，说明没有人员伤亡，没有什么受到污染，已经派士兵在部队下火车前把车厢外表的毒气消除干净。估摸指挥官对这报告挺满意，因为他再没说过什么了。天一黑我们就都睡了。

97

-

We are being sprayed with liquid mustard-gas, I said. "See that the windows are shut." I then wrote a neat little situation-report to say that there were no casualties and nothing had been contaminated; that men had been detained to decontaminate the outside of the coach before detraining. This seemed to satisfy the commanding officer, for we heard no more from him. After dark we all slept.

98

-

末了，夜深时我们到达了要去的铁路侧线。安全作战行动训练要求我们一定要规避车站和月台。但从开动的火车上，在一片漆黑里跳到铺着矿渣的轨道边，仍然造成了混乱和损失。

98

-

At last, very late, we came to our siding. It was part of our training in security and active service conditions that we should eschew stations and platforms. The drop from the running board to the cinder track made for disorder and breakages in the darkness.

99

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“到路堤下的大路集合。赖德上尉，C连的行动一如既往慢吞吞。”

99

-

Fall-in on the road below the embankment. C Company seem to be taking their time as usual, Captain Ryder.

100

-

“是，长官。我们漂白车皮的工作遇到点儿困难。”

100

-

Yes sir. We’re having a little difficulty with the bleach.

101

-

“漂白车皮？”

101

-

Bleach?

102

-

“给车皮消毒，长官。”

102

-

For decontaminating the outside of the coaches, sir.

103

-

“哦，我明白了，干得非常认真。先把它撂下吧，行动。”

103

-

Oh, very conscientious, I’m sure. Skip it and get a move on.

104

-

到现在，我那些处于半梦半醒之间的、恼怒的兵士窸窸窣窣地在大路上排起队来。不一会儿，胡珀那个排就出发了，在黑暗中消失不见。我看到几辆卡车，排成一队的士兵把补给品从陡峭的路堤上一件件传递到堤下。当士兵们明确了自己正在做着一件目标明确的工作时，就变得比较欢脱快活起来。我和他们一起传递了半个钟头，后来我就停下来去迎乘坐头一趟卡车回来的副连长。

104

-

By now my half-awake and sulky men were clattering into shape on the road. Soon Hooper’s platoon had marched off into the darkness; I found the lorries, organized lines of men to pass the stores from hand to hand down the steep bank, and, presently, as they found themselves doing something with an apparent purpose in it, they got more cheerful. I handled stores with them for the first half-hour; then broke off to meet the company second-in-command who came down with the first returning truck.

105

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“那营地很不错，”他报告说，“是在一片宽敞的私人住宅地，还有两三个湖。要是运气足够好，说不准我们还能逮到几只野鸭子。村子里有一家酒店、一个邮政局。方圆几英里内没有别的城镇了。我已经想方设法为咱俩搞到了一间小屋。”

105

-

It’s not a bad camp, he reported; "big private house with two or three lakes. Looks as if we might get some duck if we’re lucky. Village with one pub and a post office. No town within miles. I’ve managed to get a hut between the two of us."

106

-

清晨四点运输工作结束。我坐着最后一辆卡车，行驶在弯曲的乡间小道上，垂下的树枝常会撞上卡车的风挡玻璃，不时地，我们偏离小道开到别人家的汽车道上了；不时地，又开到两股汽车道合并的空地上，一串防风灯标志着这里堆放了物资。在这里卸车后，终于跟着向导到了营地，天空中一颗孤星也没有，细雨蒙蒙的。

106

-

By four in the morning the work was done. I drove in the last lorry, through tortuous lanes where the overhanging boughs whipped the wind screen; somewhere we left the lane and turned into a drive; somewhere we reached an open space where two drives converged and a ring of storm lanterns marked the heap of stores. Here we unloaded the truck and, at long last, followed the guides to our quarters, under a starless sky, with a fine drizzle of rain beginning now to fall.

107

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一觉睡到勤务兵过来叫醒我。疲乏地起床，默默地穿服，刮脸。等走到门口我才问副连长：“这叫什么地方？”

107

-

I slept until my servant called me, rose wearily, dressed and shaved in silence. It was not till I reached the door that I asked the second-in-command, "What’s this place called?"

108

-

他告诉了我这地方的名字。刹那间，就像是有人突然关掉了无线电——多少日子以来在我耳边持续不停地、愚蠢地嘶吼着的声音一下子就被打断了。紧接着是深重的沉默，起先是一片空虚，但伴随着受创的感官慢慢恢复知觉，在我耳边又逐渐充满了许多甜美的、纯真的，已忘却良久的声音。他说出了我那么熟悉那么熟悉的一个名称，具有古老的、深不可测的、魔法般的地名，只要一听到它，那些魂牵梦萦的岁月的影子就在眼前翩翩起舞。

108

-

He told me and, on the instant, it was as though someone had switched off the wireless, and a voice that had been bawling in my ears, incessantly, fatuously, for days beyond number, had been suddenly cut short; an immense silence followed, empty at first, but gradually, as my outraged sense regained authority, full of a multitude of sweet and natural and long-forgotten sounds--for he had spoken a name that was so familiar to me, a conjuror’s name of such ancient power, that, at its mere sound, the phantoms of those haunted late years began to take flight.

109

-

我呆立屋外。雨停风住，但阴云仍旧密布，低低地压在头上。这是个寂静的清晨，厨房里的炊烟笔直飘升至铅灰色的天空。一条原来用碎石子铺成，后来长满荒草的大车道，现在遍布着条条车辙，活脱脱搅成了烂泥路。这条道顺着山坡延伸，直至没入山顶。路两旁杂乱散布着一幢幢波纹铁皮屋顶的房子，从那里传来阵阵喀里喀啦的声响，像在动物园里一样嘈杂，伴着嘘声四起，俨然人声鼎沸的样子——一营士兵开启了一天崭新的生活。

109

-

[p1]Outside the hut I stood awed and bemused between two realities and two dreams. The rain had ceased but the clouds hung low and heavy overhead. It was a still morning and the smoke from the cookhouse rose straight to the leaden sky. A cart-track, once metalled, then overgrown, now rutted and churned to mud, followed the contour of the hillside and dipped out of sight below a knoll, and on either side of it lay the haphazard litter of corrugated iron, from which rose the rattle and chatter and whistling and catcalls, all the zoo-noises of the battalion beginning a new day.

110

-

一派更熟稔、更精致的园林风光在我们眼前呈现。这是一个与世隔绝的地方，被孤单、蜿蜒的山谷抱拥着。我们的营地就驻扎在山丘的缓坡上。对面那片感觉还不那么可人的田野一直伸展到近前的地平线外。中间夹着的那条新娘河，发源于两英里外的新娘泉农场，我们曾经走到那儿去喝过茶；顺流而下，小溪在汇入艾冯河之前已颇为壮观成了大河了。艾冯河在此地有大闸拦着，形成了三个湖，其中之一是一片灰蓝的芦苇荡，其他两个湖就要宽阔得多了，湖面倒映出云彩和天空，还有巨大的山毛榉树。

110

-

[p2]Beyond and about us, more familiar still, lay an exquisite man-made landscape. It was a sequestered place, enclosed and embraced in a single, winding valley. Our camp lay along one gentle slope; opposite us the ground led, still unravished, to the neighbourly horizon, and between us flowed a stream--it was named the Bride and rose not two miles away at a farm called Bridesprings, where we used sometimes to walk to tea; it became a considerable river lower down before it joined the Avon--which had been dammed here to form three lakes, one no more than a wet slate among the reeds, but the others more spacious, reflecting the clouds and the mighty beeches at their margin.

111

-

林子里都是橡树和山毛榉。橡树是灰的，光秃秃的；山毛榉树才萌芽，带着嫩嫩的绿。这些树与绿色的林间空地以及开阔的绿草坪构成了一个着实简单却又感觉精心设计过的图案——黄毛白斑的小鹿们还在这里吃草么？为了避免眼睛失焦，水边还建了一座古希腊样式的多斯神庙，爬满常春藤的拱门连接着堤坝的最低点……所有这些都是一个半世纪以前就设计和建造好的，人们今天才得以欣赏到如此美景。绿色山峦阻挡了视线，虽然看不到山那边的房子，但我却很清楚地知道房屋的具体位置和它的式样，伏在菩提树间的房子就像羊齿苋草丛里的一只雌鹿。

111

-

[p3]The woods were all of oak and beech, the oak grey and bare, the beech faintly dusted with green by the breaking buds; they made a simple, carefully designed pattern with the green glades and the wide green spaces--Did the fallow deer graze here still?--and, lest the eye wander aimlessly, a Doric temple stood by the water’s edge, and an ivy-grown arch spanned the lowest of the connecting weirs. All this had been planned and planted a century and a half ago so that, at about this date, it might be seen in its maturity. From where I stood the house was hidden by a green spur, but I knew well how and where it lay, couched among the lime-trees like a hind in the bracken. Which was the mirage, which the palpable earth?

112

-

胡珀侧身走过来，用他大部分是学来的，可是别人却怎么也学不像的姿势向我敬礼。因为做了警卫熬了夜，他面色灰败，也没有刮脸。

112

-

Hooper came sidling up and greeted me with his much imitated but inimitable salute. His face was grey from his night’s vigil and he had not yet shaved.

113

-

“B连接替我们了。我已经让小伙子们洗漱去了。”

113

-

B Company relieved us. I’ve sent the chaps off to get cleaned up.

114

-

“好。”

114

-

Good.

115

-

“房子就在那边拐角。”

115

-

The house is up there, round the corner.

116

-

“我知道。”我说。

116

-

Yes, I said.

117

-

“下周旅司令部要迁过来。这个地方做兵营足够了。刚才侦察了一圈……我觉得真是华丽啊，可奇怪的是怎么还会有一个天主教堂。因此也进去看了看，里头正在做礼拜呢——只有一个神父和一个老头儿，尴尬至极。宗教的事儿你比我在行。”或许看我并没有注意听他讲话，便尽了他最后的努力要来引起我的兴趣，他说：“台阶前还有个特别大的喷泉，都是像雕刻成动物的大石头——你一定没见过这样的喷泉。”

117

-

Brigade Headquarters are coming there next week. Great barrack of a place. I’ve just had a snoop round. Very ornate, I’d call it. And a queer thing, there’s a sort of R.C. church attached. I looked in and there was a kind of service going on--just a padre and one old man. I felt very awkward. More in your line than mine. Perhaps I seemed not to hear; in a final effort to excite my interest he said: "There’s a frightful great fountain, too, in front of the steps, all rocks and sort of carved animals. You never saw such a thing."

118

-

“见过，胡珀。我以前来过这儿。”

118

-

Yes, Hooper, I did. I’ve been here before.

119

-

这些话就在耳边回荡，因了房屋的穹顶回响而越发清亮。

119

-

The words seemed to ring back to me enriched from the vaults of my dungeon.

120

-

“哦，那好吧，你都知道了……我得去洗漱、整理一下了。”

120

-

Oh well, you know all about it. I’ll go and get cleaned up.

121

-

我以前到过这里。我知道这里的所有。

121

-

序幕 旧地重游|Prologue