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像爱丽丝的小镇|A small town like Alice

第四章|Chapter 4

属类： 双语小说 【分类】双语小说 阅读：[21228]
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“天啊，”我说，“实在是太悲惨了。”

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“My dear,”I said.“I am so very sorry.”

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她抬起头。“不必惊讶，”她说，“战争就是这样的。那是很久之前，到现在差不多有六年了。渚蒲大尉也已经被绞死了——不是因为这件事，而是因为他在铁路上犯下的暴行。时过境迁，我几乎都想不起来了。”

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She raised her head.“You don’t have to be sorry,”she replied.“It was one of those things that seem to happen in a war. It’s a long time ago, now—nearly six years. And Captain Sugamo was hung—not for that, but for what he did upon the railway. It’s all over and done with now, and nearly forgotten.”

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关丹果然没有女子战俘营，渚蒲大尉也不喜欢让许多妇女和孩子打扰他。死刑中午时分在一个游乐场里执行，从那里可以俯瞰一片网球场。双手被钉在树上的身体鲜血淋漓，体无完肤。它一停止扭动，渚蒲大尉马上让这些女人和孩子在他面前站成一排。

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There was, of course, no women’s camp in Kuantan, and Captain Sugamo was not the man to be bothered with a lot of women and children. The execution took place at midday at a tree that stood beside the recreation ground overlooking the tennis courts: as soon as the maimed, bleeding body hanging by its hands had ceased to twitch Captain Sugamo stood them in parade before him.

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“你们都是很坏的人，”他说，“没有给你们的地方。我让你们去哥打巴鲁。你们现在就走。”

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“You very bad people,”he said.“No place here for you. I send you to Kota Bahru. You walk now.”

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他们一言不发，跌跌撞撞地上路了。他们的心被绝望笼罩，只想赶快逃离这个恐怖的地方。护送他们从金马士过来的中士仍然被派作看守，因为他恬不知耻地参与了分赃。命令他继续和他们待在一起，是对他的惩罚，因为在日本人眼里，所有这些战俘都是卑劣无耻的生物，押送他们也是一件下流丢脸的工作，只能由那些最低贱的人来干。一个光荣的日本军人宁可自杀也不会甘心被俘。也许为了强调这一点，那位普通士兵被带走了，所以从关丹开始，这个中士就是他们唯一的看守。

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They stumbled off without a word, in desperate hurry to get clear of that place of horror. The same sergeant that had escorted them from Gemas was sent with them, for he also was disgraced as having shared the chickens. It was as a punishment that he was ordered to continue with them, because all prisoners are disgraceful and dishonourable creatures in the eyes of the Japanese, and to guard them and escort them is an insulting and a menial job fit only for the lowest type of man. An honourable Japanese would kill himself rather than be taken prisoner. Perhaps to emphasize this point the private soldier was taken away, so that from Kuantan onwards the sergeant was their only guard.

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他们就这样再次上路，日复一日地延挨着。他们离开关丹的时候大约是七月中旬。从关丹到哥打巴鲁有大约两百英里路程，算上疾病将引致的耽搁，琴预计这一次至少要走两个月。

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So they took up their journey again, living from day to day. They left Kuantan about the middle of July. It is about two hundred miles from Kuantan to Kota Bahru: allowing for halts of several days for illness Jean anticipated it would take them two months at least to get there.

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第一天他们走到了勿沙莱，海边的一个渔村，沙滩边缘有雪白的珊瑚沙和棕榈树。这个地方风光秀丽，但他们几近无眠，因为几乎所有孩子都因恐怖的记忆失魂丧魄，整夜哭泣，无法入寐。他们无法在如此靠近关丹的地方停留，第二天就继续上路。经过短暂的行程，他们到达巴洛，另一个海边渔村，棕榈树更为繁茂。他们在这里休息了一天。

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They got to Besarah on the first day: this is a fishing village on the sea, with white coral sand and palm trees at the head of the beach. It is a very lovely place but they slept little, for most of the children were awake and crying in the night with memories of the horror they had seen. They could not bear to stay so close to Kuantan and travelled on next day another short stage to Balok, another fishing village on another beach with more palm trees. Here they rested for a day.

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他们渐渐意识到自己进入了一片新天地。马来亚东北部海岸漂亮宜人，也更加健康。它景色优美，海岬周围岩石满布，满是沙子的海滩绵延曲折，边缘点缀着棕榈树，海风清爽新鲜，悠悠不绝。更重要的是，所有村庄都能供应大量鲜鱼。他们离开帕农至今，第一次获得充足的蛋白质搭配米饭，健康马上好转。大部分人至少每天在温暖的海水里洗一次澡，他们罹患的某些皮肤病——尽管不是全部——也开始在这种盐水疗法中逐渐痊愈。多月来孩子们头一次有充沛的体能玩耍嬉戏。

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Gradually they came to realize that they had entered a new land. The north-east coast of Malaya is a very lovely country, and comparatively healthy. It is beautiful, with rocky headlands and long, sweeping, sandy beaches fringed with palm trees, and usually there is a freshwind from the sea. Moreover there is an abundance of fresh fish in all the villages. For the first time since they left Panong the women had sufficient protein with their rice, and their health began to show an improvement at once. Most of them bathed in the warm sea at least once every day, and certain of the skin diseases that they suffered from began to heal with this salt water treatment, though not all. For the first time in months the children had sufficient energy to play.

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实际上，除了中士，所有人的状态都变好了。他现在对这群女人疑心重重，几乎不帮她们抱小孩儿，也不以任何其他方式帮助她们了。他似乎对于所受的谴责耿耿于怀，而且也失去了可以交谈的同伴。他总是精神不振，晚上坐得离她们远远的，一脸阴沉。有一两次，琴忽然意识到自己正在故意尝试鼓励他振作，仿佛他倒是战俘，而她却成了看守。一路上他们很少碰到日本人，只是偶尔会看到河村或者小机场上的分队驻地。他们每次经过驻地，中士都会把自己收拾得漂漂亮亮，向主管军官作报告，军官通常会过来检查他们。但在关丹和哥打巴鲁之间几乎没有工业设施和比渔村大的小镇，也没有人认为敌人会袭击马来半岛东部。有好几次，女人们连续一周连一个日本人也没看见，除了中士之外。

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They all improved, in fact, except the sergeant. The sergeant was suspicious of them now; he seldom carried a child or helped them in any way. He seemed to feel the reproofs that he had been given very much, and he had now no companion of his own race to talk to. He moped a great deal, sitting sullenly aloof from them in the evenings; once or twice Jean caught herself consciously trying to cheer him up, a queer reversal of the role of prisoner and guard. Upon this route they met very few Japanese. Occasionally they would find a detachment stationed in a river village or at an airstrip; when they came to such a unit the sergeant would smarten himself up and go and report to the officer in charge, who would usually come and inspect them. But there is very little industry between Kuantan and Kota Bahru and no town larger than a fishing village, nor was there any prospect of an enemy attack upon the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula. On several occasions a week passed without the women seeing any Japanese at all except the sergeant.

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他们慢慢沿着海岸往北走，妇女和孩子们的状况大为改善。六个月前，他们无助地从帕农出发，但现在这群战俘已经非同往日。死亡无情地淘汰了那些最弱的成员，把他们的数量减至原来一半左右，这样一来，村子为他们安排住宿和伙食就容易多了。他们的经验也大为增加，学会了怎样使用当地疗法对付疟疾和痢疾，并和当地人一样穿衣、洗澡和睡觉。因此，与他们之前拒向原始条件屈服，努力挣扎维持西方生活方式的时候相比，他们现在拥有的闲暇时间大为增加。每隔一天走十英里已然不再是一个沉重的负担。在休息日，女人们能抽出更多时间陪伴孩子。不久，曾任小学女校长的沃纳太太为孩子们开班授课，上课成了休息日的常规活动。

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As they travelled slowly up the coast the condition of the women and the children altered greatly for the better. They were now a very different party from the helpless people who had started off from Panong nearly six months before. Death had ruthlessly eliminated the weakest members and reduced them to about half the original numbers, which made all problems of billeting and feeding in the villages far easier. They were infinitely more experienced by that time, too. They had learned to use the native remedies for malaria and dysentery, to clothe themselves and wash and sleep in the native manner; in consequence they now had far more leisure than when they had been fighting to maintain a western style of life in primitive conditions. The march of ten miles every other day was now no longer a great burden; in the intervening day they had more time for the children. Presently Mrs Warner, who at one time had been an elementary schoolmistress, started a class for the children, and school became a regular institution on their day of rest.

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琴开始教小宝贝罗宾·霍兰走路。他恢复了健壮的体魄，并变得很沉，因为他现在已经十六个月大，琴快要背不动他了。气候炎热，她从未给他穿过任何衣服。他身无挂碍，在棕榈树和木麻黄树荫里，或在阳光下的沙滩上，像个马来婴儿一样赤身裸体地爬来爬去，并晒得跟马来婴儿差不多一样黑。

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Jean began to teach her baby, Robin Holland, how to walk. He was quite fit and healthy again, and getting quite a weight for her to carry, for he was now sixteen months old. She never burdened him with any clothes in that warm climate, and he crawled about naked in the shade of palm or casuarina trees, or in the sun upon the sand, like any Malay baby. He got nearly as brown as one, too.

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接下来几周，他们慢慢沿着海岸往北走，经过许多渔村，像乌拉、真德、卡隆、珀农乔角、甘马仕，等等。他们偶尔染病，当很多人都排汗退烧时，就随地停留几天，但再也没有人死去。关丹留给他们的死亡恐惧，是最后一次，每个人都对之讳莫如深，因为没有人想唤起其他人的可怖回忆。但是，每个人却又都暗中认为，这个惨剧恰好是他们命运的转捩点。

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In the weeks that followed they moved slowly northwards up the coast, through all the many fishing villages, Ular and Chendar and Kalong and Penunjok and Kemasik and many others. They had a little sickness and spent a few days here and there while various members of the party sweated out a fever, but they had no more deaths. The final horror at Kuantan was a matter that they never spoke about at all, each fearing to recall it to the memory of the others, but each was secretly of the opinion that it had changed their luck.

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弗里思太太的存在大大加深了这个念头。她是一位小个子的虔诚女士，恪守时辰早晚祈祷。正是弗里思太太永远知道哪天是星期天：那天她会大声向任何听众念上一个小时祈祷书和圣经。如果碰上休息日，她会猜算时间，尽量在十一点开始这项服务，因为晨祷理应在此时进行。

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With Mrs Frith this impression struck much deeper. She was a devout little woman who said her prayers morning and evening with the greatest regularity. It was Mrs Frith who always knew when Sunday was: on that day she would read the Prayer Book and the Bible for an hour aloud to anyone who came to listen to her. If it was their rest day she would hold this service at eleven o’clock as near as she could guess it, because that was the correct time for Matins.

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弗里思太太试图为他们遇到的每一件事情寻找上帝之手。循着这种思路来冥想他们的经历，她猛然领悟到某种相似性。圣人受难的故事，她烂熟于心，现在她亲眼见证了另外一个。在她心目中，这位澳洲人有治愈疾病的力量，因为他给他们带来的药物治好了她的痢疾和庄妮·霍斯福尔的皮癣。并且，毫无疑问的是，在他为他们牺牲之后，他们每一所遇都仿佛恩受祝福。上帝把儿子送到了巴勒斯坦。难道他在马来亚重演了这个故事？

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Mrs Frith sought for the hand of God in everything that happened to them. Brooding over their experiences with this in mind, she was struck by certain similarities. She had read repeatedly about one Crucifixion; now there had been another. The Australian, in her mind, had had the power of healing, because the medicines he brought had cured her dysentery and Johnnie Horsefall’s ringworm. It was beyond all doubt that they had been blessed in every way since his death for them. God had sent down His Son to earth in Palestine. What if He had done it again in Malaya?

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遭蒙持续巨大苦难的男男女女，被完全切断了和之前生活的联系，过上一种完全异样的生活，常常会形成奇怪的心理特质。弗里思太太并没有把自己的观点强加到其他人身上，然而，她开始逐渐相信的事情还是不可避免地为其他女人所知悉。大家初时心存怀疑，但都认为这件事情比其他一切更需要深刻和谨慎的思考。大部分女人过去一有机会就去教堂，几乎全属低教会派，内心深处一直渴望得到上帝的帮助。随着她们的身体健康一周周改善，宗教思想能力逐步增强，时间也渐渐冲淡了关于澳大利亚人的准确记忆。这种记忆变得充满敬畏，泛着玫瑰色，脱离了现实。如果弗里思太太相信的这个奇迹有可能是真的，实际上意味着她们被置于上帝手中，没有东西可以碰她们，她们会战胜万难，熬过苦境，终将重新获得她们的家园、丈夫和西方生活方式。她们重获力量，继续前行。

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Men and women who are in great and prolonged distress and forced into an entirely novel way of life, divorced entirely from their previous association, frequently develop curious mental traits. Mrs Frith did not thrust her views upon them, yet inevitably the matter that she was beginning to believe herself became known to the other women. It was received with incredulity at first, but as a matter that required the most deep and serious thought. Most of the women had been churchgoers when they got the chance, mostly of Low Church sects; deep in their hearts they had been longing for the help of God. As their physical health improved throughout these weeks, their capacity for religious thought increased, and, as the weeks went on, accurate memory of the Australian began to fade, and was replaced by an awed and roseate memory of the man he had not been. If this incredible event that Mrs Frith believed could possibly be true, it meant indeed that they were in the hand of God; nothing could touch them then; they would win through and live through all their troubles and one day they would regain their homes, their husbands, and their western way of life. They marched on with renewed strength.

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琴并没有做任何事来驱散这些幻想，因为它们明显对女人们大有益处，但她自己却不为所动。她最年轻，也是唯一一个未婚姑娘，对于乔·哈曼的印象跟其他人大相径庭。她认识的他不过是一个普通人，一个普通的男人。当他回来跟她谈话的时候，她已经变得更漂亮迷人。她下意识地采取了防范措施，让他一直叫她土著太太。如果她臀上的婴儿使他误会她跟其他女人一样已为人妻，那也无妨。在那些热带村庄的炎热夜晚，他们几乎衣不蔽体。那个地方不守常规，甚至根本毫无规则可言，如果他知道她是个未婚姑娘，她敢说他们两人之间可能发生任何事情，而且可能猝不及防。她因他而起的悲伤，相比其他妇女而言更真实，也深刻得多，并且丝毫不是因为她认为他是个神圣的人。她很肯定他不是。

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Jean did nothing to dispel these fancies, which were evidently helpful to the women, but she was not herself impressed. She was the youngest of all of them, and the only one unmarried; she had formed a very different idea of Joe Harman. She knew him for a very human, very normal man; she had grown prettier, she knew, when he had come to talk to her, and more attractive. It had been a subconscious measure of defence that had led her to allow him to continue to refer to her as Mrs Boong; if the baby on her hip had misled him into classing her with all the other married women, that was just as well. In those villages, in the hot tropic nights when they wore little clothing, in that place of extraordinary standards or no standards at all, she knew that anything might have happened between them if he had known that she was an unmarried girl, and it might well have happened very quickly. Her grief for him was more real and far deeper than that of the other women, and it was not in the least because she thought that he had been divine. She was entirely certain in her own mind that he wasn’t.

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八月末，他们来到一条名叫瓜拉德朗的村子，大概在关丹和哥打巴鲁的半途。德朗是一条河流，短小泥泞，蜿蜒经过一片平坦的稻米种植区，流入大海，村子就坐落在河流南岸的河口沙洲内。这是一个秀美的地方，棕榈树和木麻黄树青葱茂盛，南中国海的巨浪拍打着绵长的玉白色沙滩，碎成点点银雪。村民以打鱼和种植稻米为生。河里停泊着大约十五艘用于出海捕鱼的渔船，是一种大型开放式帆船，头尾装饰着高高扁扁的奇怪雕像。村子里有一块用作广场的空地，周围聚集着用木头和棕榈叶搭建而成的当地店铺，后面有一个紧靠河岸的米仓。这个米仓当时是空的，女人们带着孩子住在里面。

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Toward the end of August they were in a village called Kuala Telang about half way between Kuantan and Kota Bahru. The Telang is a short, muddy river that wanders through a flat country of rice fields to the sea; the village stands on the south bank of the river just inside the sand bar at the mouth. It is a pretty place of palm and casuarina trees and long white beaches on which the rollers of the South China Sea break in surf. The village lives upon the fishing and on the rice fields. About fifteen fishing-boats operate from the river, big open sailing-boats with strange, high, flat figureheads at bow and stern. There is a sort of village square with wood and palm-leaf native shops grouped round about it; behind this stands a godown for the rice beside the river bank. This godown was empty at the time, and it was here that the party was accommodated.

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中士在这里病倒了，发起烧来，很有可能是得了疟疾。关丹一事之后，他性情大变，一路上阴沉忧郁，仿佛深觉孤单寂寞。女人们越来越健壮，他却变得越来越虚弱。一开始她们都觉得很奇怪，因为他以前从未生过病。这个小个子男人怪异、丑陋又野蛮，她们看见他一蹶不振，最初都感到轻松愉快，但随着他日益身心交病，她们反而开始蒙受一种相反的感觉。他和她们共度了漫长的时光，也在职责范围内竭尽所能减轻她们的负担。在路上，他心甘情愿地抱着她们的孩子，孩子去世时，他黯然哭泣。后来他烧得很厉害，她们便轮流帮他拿着来复枪、紧身短上衣、靴子和包裹。所以当这群人到达村子时，走成了一个很奇怪的队列：一个只穿着长裤的小个子黄种男人被沃纳太太牵着，头晕目眩地踉跄而行。他光着脚走更舒服。其他女人走在他们后面，拿着他的整套装备和她们自己的行囊。

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The Japanese sergeant fell ill with fever here, probably malaria. He had not been himself since Kuantan; he had been sullen and depressed, and he seemed to feel the lack of companionship very much. As the women had grown stronger so he had grown weaker, and this was strange to them at first, because he had never been ill before. At first they had been pleased and relieved that this queer, ugly, uncouth little man was in eclipse, but as he grew more unhappy they suffered a strange reversal of feeling. He had been with them for a long time and he had done what was possible within the limits of his duty to alleviate their lot; he had carried their children willingly and he had wept when children died. When it was obvious that he had fever they took turns at carrying his rifle and his tunic and his boots and his pack for him, so that they arrived in the village as a queer procession, Mrs Warner leading the little yellow man clad only in his trousers, stumbling about in a daze. He walked more comfortably barefoot. Behind them came the other women carrying all his equipment as well as their own burdens.

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琴找到村子的首领，一个大约五十岁，名叫马特·阿明·宾·泰布的男人，向他解释情况。“我们是战俘，”她说，“要从关丹步行到哥打巴鲁，这个日本人是我们的看守。他生病发烧了，我们必须找一间阴凉的屋子让他躺下休息。他有权以日本皇军的名义开具收据，支付我们的食宿费。他康复之后就会这样做的，会给你们开一张收据。我们自己也必须找地方住宿和吃饭。”

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Jean found the headman, a man of about fifty called Mat Amin bin Taib, and explained the situation to him.“We are prisoners,”she said,“marching from Kuantan to Kota Bahru, and this Japanese is our guard. He is ill with fever, and we must find a shady house for him to lie in. He has authority to sign chits in the name of the Imperial Japanese Army for our food and accommodation, and he will do this for you when he recovers; he will give you a paper. We must have a place to sleep ourselves, and food.”

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马特·阿明说：“我没有能给白人夫人睡觉的地方。”

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Mat Amin said,“I have no place where white Mems would like to sleep.”

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琴说：“我们已经不再是白人夫人了。我们是战俘，已经习惯了和你们的妇女一样生活。我们需要的只是一个屋顶和一块可以睡觉的地板，并借用锅、米、蔬菜和一点点鱼或肉。”

21
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Jean said,“We are not white mems any longer; we are prisoners and we are accustomed to living as your women live. All we need is a shelter and a floor to sleep on, and the use of cooking pots, and rice, and a little fish or meat and vegetables.”

22
-

“我们自己吃的你们都可以吃，”他说，“但看到你们这些夫人如此落魄，真是让人感到奇怪。”

22
-

“You can have what we have ourselves,”he said,“but it is strange to see mems living so.”

23
-

他把中士带进自己的屋子，用椰子纤维填充出一张褥子和一个枕头给他。他想把一个明显是他自己平日用的蚊帐给中士，但妇女们拒绝了，因为她们知道中士需要尽可能多的凉风。她们帮他脱掉裤子，穿上纱笼，扶他躺到床上。她们的奎宁已经用光了，但首领用自己的配方调制了一剂药。她们给中士喝了一点，就把他留给首领的妻子照顾，去找自己落脚的地方和食物。

23
-

He took the sergeant into his own house and produced a mattress stuffed with coconut fibre and a pillow of the same material; he had a mosquito net which was evidently his own and he offered this, but the women refused it because they knew the sergeant needed all the cooling breezes he could get. They made him take his trousers off and get into a sarong and lie down on the bed. They had no quinine left, but the headman produced a draught of his own concoction and they gave the sergeant some of this, and left him in the care of the headman’s wife, and went to find their own quarters and food.

24
-

中士整个晚上都烧得很厉害。她们第二天早上去看望他的时候，他看起来一点也不好。他仍然发着高烧，变得虚弱了很多，她们觉得他好像已经放弃了，那是一个不祥的征兆。那天，她们轮流坐在他身旁，给他洗脸、擦身子，不时跟他说话，试图引起他的兴趣，但并不怎么成功。晚上，琴坐在他身旁，他毫无生气地朝天躺着，汗流如注，她问什么都不答应。

24
-

The fever was high all that night; in the morning when they came to see how he was getting on they did not like the look of him at all. He was still in a high fever and he was very much weaker than he had been; it seemed to them that he was giving up, and that was a bad sign. They took turns all that day to sit with him and bathe his face, and wash him; from time to time they talked to him to try and stimulate his interest, but without a great deal of success. In the evening Jean was sitting with him; he lay inert upon his back, sweating profusely; he did not answer anything she said.

25
-

她想找点东西来吸引他的注意，于是拉过他的紧身短上衣，在口袋里摸寻收据本。她在口袋里找到了一张照片，上面有一个日本女人和四个小孩，站在一间屋子的入口处。她说：“军曹，这是你的孩子吗？”然后递给他。他拿过去，一言不发，也没有看。然后他把照片递回给琴，示意她放回去。

25
-

Looking for something to attract his interest, she pulled his tunic to her and felt in the pocket for his paybook. She found a photograph in it, a photograph of a Japanese woman and four children standing by the entrance to a house. She said,“Your children, gunso?”and gave it to him. He took it without speaking and looked at it; then he gave it back to her and motioned to her to put it away again.

26
-

她一边把夹克放回原位，一边看着他。眼泪从他的眼中流出，淌下，混入脸颊上的汗珠。她非常轻柔地把它们拭去了。

26
-

When she had laid the jacket down she looked at him and saw that tears were oozing from his eyes and falling down to mingle with the sweat beads on his cheeks. Very gently she wiped them away.

27
-

他越来越虚弱，两天后在夜里去世了。似乎没有特别的理由可以解释他的离世，但在关丹所受的侮辱可能一直重重地压在他的心上，使他失去了活下去的兴趣和愿望。她们第二天把他葬在村子外的穆斯林墓地里，几乎所有人都为他哭了一阵，把他当作一位珍贵的老朋友。

27
-

He grew weaker and weaker, and two days later he died in the night. There seemed no particular reason why he should have died, but the disgrace of Kuantan was heavy on him and he seemed to have lost interest and the will to live. They buried him that day in the Moslem cemetery outside the village, and most of them wept a little for him as an old and valued friend.

28
-

他们因为中士的死而陷入了非常尴尬的处境，成了没有看守的战俘。葬礼当天晚上，妇女们深入而详细地探讨了目前的状况。“我看不出来为什么我们不应该留在这里，原地不动，”弗里思太太说，“这是一个很不错的地方。它确实很不错，不比我们之前去过的任何一个地方差。那是他说的，我们应该找一个地方，不再奔波，安顿下来。”

28
-

The death of the sergeant left them in a most unusual position, for they were now prisoners without a guard. They discussed it at some length that evening after the funeral.“I don’t see why we shouldn’t stay here, where we are,”said Mrs Frith.“It’s a nice place, this is, as nice as any that we’ve come to. That’s what He said, we ought to find a place where we’d be out of the way, and just live there.”

29
-

琴说：“我知道。但我们必须先确定两件事情。第一，日本兵终有一天会发现我们在这里生活，这样一来首领就会因为擅自收留我们而受到惩罚。日本兵很可能会杀了他，大家都很清楚他们是什么人。”

29
-

Jean said,“I know. There’s two things we’d have to settle though. First, the Japs are bound to find out sometime that we’re living here, and then the headman will get into trouble for having allowed us to stay here without telling them. They’d probably kill him. You know what they are.”

30
-

“也许他们根本就不会发现我们呢？”普莱斯太太说。

30
-

“Maybe they wouldn’t find us, after all,”said Mrs Price.

31
-

“我不相信马特·阿明是愿意冒这种险的人，”琴说，“他也毫无冒险的理由。如果我们留下来，他会立刻去找日本兵，告诉他们我们在这里。”她顿了顿，“第二，我们不能仅仅凭着白人夫人的身份，就期望这个村子会一直无限期供养我们十七个人。他们会把我们的消息通知日本兵，只是为了甩掉我们这个包袱。”

31
-

“I don’t believe Mat Amin is the man to take that risk,”Jean said.“There isn’t any reason why he should. If we stay he’ll go straight to the Japanese and tell them that we’re here.”She paused.“The other thing is that we can’t expect this village to go on feeding seventeen of us for ever just because we’re white mems. They’ll go and tell the Japs about us just to get rid of us.”

32
-

弗里思太太精明地说：“也许我们可以自己种粮食。我们来的时候看到有一半的稻田今年尚未播种。”

32
-

Mrs Frith said shrewdly,“We could grow our own food, perhaps. Half the paddy fields we walked by coming in haven’t been planted this year.”

33
-

琴看着她说：“非常正确——那些田现在荒着。我真想知道原因。”

33
-

Jean stared at her.“That’s quite right—they haven’t. I wonder why that is?”

34
-

“肯定是因为所有男人都去打仗了，”沃纳太太说，“作为苦力修建那条铁路什么的。”

34
-

“All the men must have gone to the war,”said Mrs Warner.“Working as coolies taking up that railway line, or something of that.”

35
-

琴慢慢地说：“大家怎么看？如果我们去告诉马特·阿明，只要他让我们留下来，我们就下地干活，你们觉得怎么样？”

35
-

Jean said slowly,“What would you think of this? Suppose I go and tell Mat Amin that we’ll work in the rice fields if he’ll let us stay here? What would you think of that?”

36
-

普莱斯太太冷笑道：“我？以我这体型？在齐膝深的泥和水里走来走去，把秧苗插进地里，就像大家看见的马来亚女孩那样？”

36
-

Mrs Price laughed.“Me, with my figure? Walking about in mud and water up to the knee planting them little seedlings in the mud, like you see the Malay girls doing?”

37
-

琴满怀歉意地说：“那只是一个想法。”

37
-

Jean said apologetically,“It was just a thought.”

38
-

“也是一个很好的想法，”沃纳太太说，“我不介意在稻田里劳动，只要我们能留在这里安安稳稳地生活。”

38
-

“And a very good one, too,”said Mrs Warner.“I wouldn’t mind working in the paddy fields if we could stay here and live comfortable and settled.”

39
-

弗里思太太说：“如果我们能像你说的那样种水稻的话，说不定他们会让我们留下来——我是指日本兵。无论如何，那样我们就能做点贡献，而不用再无所事事地全国各地闲荡，就跟受鞭打的流浪狗一样。”

39
-

Mrs Frith said,“If we were growing rice like that, maybe they’d let us stay here—the Japs I mean. After all, in that way we’d be doing something useful, instead of walking all over the country like a lot of whipped dogs with no home.”

40
-

第二天早上，琴去找首领。她双手交叠，做出致敬的祈祷姿势，向他微笑，并用马来语说：“马特·阿明，我们看到有些稻田没有播种，这是为什么呢？我们来到这里时，看见太多被完全荒置的田地了。”

40
-

Next morning Jean went to the headman. She put her hands together in the praying gesture of greeting, and smiled at him and said in Malay,“Mat Amin, why do we see the paddy fields not sown this year? We saw so many of them as we came to this place, not sown at all.”

41
-

他说：“大部分的男人，除了渔夫，都在为军队工作。”他指日本军队。

41
-

He said,“Most of the men, except the fishermen, are working for the army.”He meant the Japanese Army.

42
-

“在铁路上？”

42
-

“On the railway?”

43
-

“不，他们在贡卡达。他们正在开路，需要铲平一条长长的陆地，在上面铺上柏油和石头，这样飞机就可以在上面降落了。”

43
-

“No. They are at Gong Kedak. They are making a long piece of land flat, and making roads, and covering the land they have made flat with tar and stones, so that aeroplanes can come down there.”

44
-

“他们很快就会回来种地了吗？”

44
-

“Are they coming back soon to plant paddy?”

45
-

“那掌握在真主手中，但我认为他们还要在外度过很多个月。我听说他们在贡卡达做完这个工程之后，还要去另外一个叫作马常的地方，继续做同样的工程，完了还要去檀永麻。一旦落入了日本兵的魔掌，人们就很难逃回自己的家园。”

45
-

“It is in the hand of God, but I do not think they will come back for many months. I have heard that after they have done this thing at Gong Kedak, there is another such place to be made at Machang, and another at Tan Yongmat. Once a man falls into the power of the Japanese it is not easy for him to escape and come back to his home.”

46
-

“那谁来栽种和收割水稻？”

46
-

“Who, then, will plant the paddy, and reap it?”

47
-

“妇女们会尽其所能去做。明年稻米将很短缺——这里不会，因为我们不会卖掉自己需要吃的稻米。我们将不会有多余的稻米卖给日本人。我不知道他们明年吃什么，但应该没有稻米。”

47
-

“The women will do what they can. Rice will be short next year, not here, because we shall not sell the paddy that we need to eat ourselves. We shall not have enough to sell to the Japanese. I do not know what they are going to eat, but it will not be rice.”

48
-

琴说：“马特·阿明，我有一件很严肃的事情想跟您商量。如果我们之中有一个男人，我会让他来跟您谈，可是没有。如果我请您跟一个代表其他女士的女人来商量正事，希望您不会感到被冒犯。”她现在已经稍稍懂得跟伊斯兰教徒打交道的正确方法。

48
-

Jean said,“Mat Amin, I have serious matters to discuss with you. If there were a man amongst us I would send him to talk for us, but there is no man. You will not be offended if I ask you to talk business with a woman, on behalf of women?”She now knew something of the right approach to a Mohammedan.

49
-

他向她鞠了一躬，请她去他的屋子商量。那里有一个颤巍巍的小门廊，他们走上去，面对面在地板上坐下来。他两只眼睛靠得很近，头发剪得很短，小胡子修得整整齐齐，腰以上赤裸着，下身穿着纱笼。他面容坚定，但透着仁慈。他厉声吩咐屋子里的妻子把咖啡端出来。

49
-

He bowed to her, and led her to his house. There was a small rickety veranda; they went up to this and sat down upon the floor facing each other. He was a level-eyed old man with close-cropped hair and a small, clipped moustache, naked to the waist and wearing a sarong; his face was firm, but not unkind. He called sharply to his wife within the house to bring out coffee.

50
-

在等咖啡端上来的时间里，琴很有礼貌地与首领寒暄。她从六个月的乡村生活经验中总结出谈判的规矩。端上来的咖啡装在两个厚厚的玻璃杯里，没放牛奶，却甜甜的，加了糖。她向他鞠一躬，举起杯子啜了一口，又把杯子放下。“我们身处困境，”她坦率地说，“看守去世了。现在我们的命运掌握在自己手中——和您的手中。您了解我们的故事。我们在帕农被俘，一路跋山涉水来到这里。没有日本指挥官愿意收留我们，让我们进战俘营，供养我们，在我们生病的时候给予照顾，因为每个指挥官都认为这是其他人的职责。所以他们派看守押送我们从这个镇走到那个镇。这足足持续了六个多月，在这期间我们一半人死在了路上。”

50
-

Jean waited till the coffee appeared, making small talk for politeness; she knew the form after six months in the villages. It came in two thick glasses, without milk and sweet with sugar. She bowed to him, and lifted her glass and sipped, and set it down again.“We are in a difficulty,”she said frankly.“Our guard is dead, and what now will become of us is in our own hands—and in yours. You know our story. We were taken prisoner at Panong, and since then we have walked many hundreds of miles to this place. No Japanese commander will receive us and put us in a camp and feed us and attend to us in illness, because each commander thinks that these things are the duty of the other; so they march us under guard from town to town. This has been going on now for more than six months, and in that time half of our party have died upon the road.”

51
-

他点点头。

51
-

He inclined his head.

52
-

“现在我们的军曹过世了，”她说，“我们要怎么办？即使我们继续走下去，直到碰上一个日本军官，向他报告此事，他也不会收留我们。这整个国家没有人会收留我们。他们不会马上杀掉我们，就像对待男人一样。为了摆脱我们，他们会迫使我们不断走下去，走去别处，也许是沼泽满布的乡下，就像我们之前经过的那些地方。这样我们就会再次生病，一个接一个全部死去。如果我们现在就去告知日本兵，这就是我们的命运。”

52
-

“Now that our gunso is dead,”she said,“what shall we do? If we go on until we find a Japanese officer and report to him, he will not want us; nobody in all this country wants us They will not kill us quickly, as they might if we were men. They will get us out of the way by marching us on to some other place, perhaps into a country of swamps such as we have come through. So we shall grow ill again, and one by one we shall all die. That is what lies ahead of us, if we report now to the Japanese.”

53
-

他回答道：“《古兰经》上写道：‘凡有血气者，都要尝死的滋味。我以祸福考验你们，你们只被召归我。’”

53
-

He replied,“It is written that the angels said, ‘Every soul shall taste of death, and we will prove you with evil and with good for a trial of you, and unto us shall ye return.’”

54
-

她飞速思考，迪里特村首领的话在脑海里浮现出来。她说：“《古兰经》上也写道：‘如果你们行善而且敬畏，那末，真主确是彻知你们的行为的。’”

54
-

She thought quickly; the words of the headman at Dilit came into her mind. She said,“It is also written, ‘If you be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.’”

55
-

他定定地看着她。“在什么地方？”

55
-

He eyed her steadily.“Where is that written?”

56
-

她说：“第四章。”

56
-

She said,“In the Fourth Surah.”

57
-

“你也信奉伊斯兰教？”他怀疑地问道。

57
-

“Are you of the Faith?”he asked incredulously.

58
-

她摇摇头。“我不想欺骗您。我是一个基督教徒。我们都是基督教徒。路上我们遇到了一位对我们非常仁慈的村子首领，我去答谢他时，他向我说了这句话。我不懂《古兰经》。”

58
-

She shook her head.“I do not want to deceive you. I am a Christian; we are all Christians. The headman of a village on our road was kind to us, and when I thanked him he said that to me. I do not know the Koran.”

59
-

“你是一位非常聪明的女士，”他说，“请告诉我你的请求。”

59
-

“You are a very clever woman,”he said.“Tell me what you want.”

60
-

“我希望我们能留在这里，在这个村子里，”她说，“下地劳动，种植稻米，就像你们的妇女一样。”他瞠目结舌。“这对您来讲很危险，”她说，“我们很清楚。如果日本军官在接到您的报告之前在这里找到我们，肯定会勃然大怒。因此，我希望您这样做。我希望您马上让几位村子里的妇女带领我们下地劳动，教会我们如何种水稻。我们会从早到晚工作，纯粹为了换取食物和栖身之处。两周后，我会自己去找日本军官，向他报告我们的情况。希望您作为村子的首领能跟我一同前往，告诉军官，如果我们被允许留下来继续种地，日本军队就有更多稻米可吃。这就是我的请求。”

60
-

“I want our party to stay here, in this village,”she said,“and go to work in the paddy fields, as your women do.”He stared at her, astonished.“This will be dangerous for you,”she said. We know that very well. If Japanese officers find us in this place before you have reported to them that we are here, they will be very angry. And so, I want you to do this. I want you to let us go to work at once with one or two of your women to show us what to do. We will work all day for our food alone and a place to sleep. When we have worked so for two weeks, I will go myself and find an officer and report to him, and tell him what we are doing. And you shall come with me, as headman of this village, and you shall tell the officer that more rice will be grown for the Japanese if we are allowed to continue working in the rice fields. These are the things I want.”

61
-

“我从未听说过白人夫人在稻田里劳作。”他说。

61
-

“I have never heard of white mems working in the paddy fields,”he said.

62
-

她问道：“您是否听说过白人夫人像我们一样四处奔波、接连死去？”

62
-

She asked,“Have you ever heard of white mems marching and dying as we have marched and died?”

63
-

他不言语。

63
-

He was silent.

64
-

“我们的命运掌握在您的手中，”她说，“如果您说，继续上路，到别处去，那我们就必须离开，离开就意味着死亡。到时请您向真主解释。如果您允许我们留下来耕种您的稻田，在您的护荫下平静安全地生活下去，那么当英国的老爷们获胜后重返这个国家时，您将获得巨大的荣誉，因为他们终将赢得这场战争。这些矮子们现在当权，但他们敌不过美国人和世界上所有自由民族。英国老爷们终有一天会回来的。”

64
-

“We are in your hands,”she said.“If you say, go upon your way and walk on to some other place, then we must go, and going we must die. That will then be a matter between you and God. If you allow us to stay and cultivate your fields and live with you in peace and safety, you will get great honour when the English Tuans return to this country after their victory. Because they will win this war in the end; these Short Ones are in power now, but they cannot win against the Americans and all the free peoples of the world. One day the English Tuans will come back.”

65
-

他说：“那一天来临的时候，我将不胜欢喜。”

65
-

He said,“I shall be glad to see that day.”

66
-

他们默默坐着，抿着咖啡。过了一会儿首领说：“这不是一件能轻易决定的事情，因为它关乎整个村子的安危。我会认真考虑，并和兄弟们详细商量。”

66
-

They sat in silence for a time, sipping the glasses of coffee. Presently the headman said,“This is a matter not to be decided lightly, for it concerns the whole village. I will think about it and I will talk it over with my brothers.”

67
-

琴离开了。当天晚上晚祷结束后，她看见一群男人坐在首领屋子前面。他们都是老人家，因为当时在瓜拉德朗已经全然看不见年轻男子的踪影，况且，很可能无论如何年轻小伙子也是没有资格参加会议的。稍晚的时候，马特·阿明来到米仓，要求见佩吉特夫人。琴背着婴儿出来迎接他，在一盏小油灯发出的光亮中站着和他交谈。

67
-

Jean went away, and that evening after the hour of evening prayer she saw a gathering of men squatting with the headman in front of his house; they were all old men, because there were very few young ones in Kuala Telang at that time, and young ones probably would not have been admitted to the conference in any case. Later that evening Mat Amin came to the godown and asked for Mem Paget; Jean came out to him, carrying the baby. She stood talking to him in the light of a small oil lamp.

68
-

“我们已经讨论过你提出的请求了，”他说，“让白人夫人在我们的稻田里干活实在有点不近情理。一些兄弟担心白人老爷们回来时无法理解这种情形，并且会发怒说我们违背你们的意志，强迫你们为我们劳动。”

68
-

“We have discussed this matter that we talked about,”he said.“It is a strange thing, that white mems should work in our rice fields, and some of my brothers are afraid that the white Tuans will not understand when they come back, and that they will be angry, saying we have made you work for us against your will.”

69
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琴说：“我们可以马上给您写一封信。如果他们那样说，您可以把信拿给他们看。”

69
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Jean said,“We will give you a letter now, that you can show them if they should say that.”

70
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他摇摇头。“不必如此。等老爷们回来的时候，请你告诉他们，这完全出于你们的意愿就可以了。”

70
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He shook his head.“It is not necessary. It is sufficient if you tell the Tuans when they come back that this thing was done because you wished it so.”

71
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她说：“我们会的。”

71
-

She said,“That we will do.”

72
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她们第二天就开始下地干活。当时他们的队伍有六个已婚女士、琴和十个孩子，包括琴的婴儿。首领把他们带到田里，和名叫法缇玛·宾蒂·妲露丝和蕾哈娜·宾蒂·哈珊的两个马来女孩儿一起工作。作为开端，他让她们耕种七小块杂草丛生的土地。以她们的力气，耕种这几块地游刃有余。旁边有一个带屋顶的平台供她们纳凉休息，大家一起劳动的时候，最小的孩子们就待在那里。

72
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They went to work next day. There were six married women in the party at that time, and Jean, and ten children including Jean’s baby. The headman took them out to the fields with two Malay girls, Fatimah binti Darus and Raihana binti Hassan. He gave them seven small fields covered in weeds to start upon, an area that was easily within their power to manage. There was a roofed platform nearby in the fields for resting in the shade; they left the youngest children here and went to work.

73
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七位女士都非常健壮。艰苦的旅途淘汰了无法承担农活的成员，剩下来的女人都坚定勇敢，士气高昂，风趣幽默。一旦她们适应了在脚踝深的泥土和水里工作的新鲜感，就发现这种劳动并不吃力。她们很快就变得雄心勃勃，想要向村民们证明白人夫人也能干和马来女人一样多的活，甚至更多。

73
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The seven women were all fairly robust; the journey had eliminated the ones who would have been unable to stand agricultural work. Those who were left were women of determination and grit, with high morale and a good sense of humour. As soon as they became accustomed to the novelty of working ankle-deep in mud and water they did not find the work exacting, and presently as they became accustomed to it they were seized with an ambition to show the village that white mems could do as much work as Malay women, or more.

74
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人们把稻米种在小块田地里，田地周围环绕着像矮墙一样的泥垄，以便把溪水引入田中，形成小池塘。把水排干后，稻田底部全是柔软的淤泥，就可以用手拔掉杂草，犁地，准备插秧。人们把稻种撒在类似苗圃的地方，等种子发芽后把秧苗移植到泥土松软的田里插成排，然后重新往田里灌水，让幼苗在水里露出头来，在大太阳底下暴晒几天，之后水被再次排空，好让太阳晒到稻苗根部。在热带气候下，这样的水旱交替能使作物迅速生长，等它们长到差不多跟小麦一样高时，稻秆顶端就开始抽穗，就像长出来毛茸茸的小耳朵一样。收割时，用小刀把耳朵割下，装进袋子拿进村子去糠，把稻秆留在地里。水牛这时就被放进田里吃掉稻秆，使土地更肥沃，并把土地踩个遍。这样这些土地就适于来年重新播种，重复上述循环。这些稻田每年大约能收两造，并且不需要轮作。

74
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Paddy is grown in little fields surrounded by a low wall of earth, so that water from a stream can be led into the field at will to turn it into a shallow pool. When the water is let out again the earth bottom is soft mud, and weeds can be pulled out by hand and the ground hoed and prepared for the seedlings. The seedlings are raised by scattering the rice in a similar nursery field, and they are then transplanted in rows into the muddy field. The field is then flooded again for a few days while the seedlings stand with their heads above the water in the hot sun, and the water is let out again for a few days to let the sun get to the roots. With alternating flood and dry in that hot climate the plants grow very quickly to about the height of wheat, with feathery ears of rice on top of the stalks. The rice is harvested by cutting off the ears with a little knife, leaving the straw standing, and is taken in sacks to the village to be winnowed. Water buffaloes are then turned in to eat the straw and fertilize the ground and tramp it all about, and the ground is ready for sowing again to repeat the cycle. Two crops a year are normally got from the rice fields, and there is no rotation of crop.

75
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习惯之后，在这些田里劳作并无令人不愉快之处。在一个炎热逼人的国家里，戴上一顶用棕榈叶编成的大圆锥形太阳帽，脱掉大部分衣裳，在泥和水里嬉戏，筑起小水坝，把潺潺小溪引流入田，比起从事其他许多工作来要惬意得多。最初两周快要结束的时候，女士们都已经安下心来踏实干活，并且喜欢上了这份工作，而所有的孩子打从一开始就乐此不疲。在那期间，并没有日本兵靠近村子。

75
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Working in these fields is not unpleasant when you get accustomed to it. There are worse things to do in a very hot country than to put on a large conical sun-hat of plaited palm leaves and take off most of your clothes, and play about with mud and water, damming and diverting little trickling streams. By the end of the fortnight the women had settled down to it and quite liked the work, and all the children loved it from the first. No Japanese came near the village in that time.

76
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第十六天，琴和首领马特·阿明带着中士的来复枪、装备、制服和收据本，一起出发去寻找日本军队。他们去的地方叫作瓜拉拉吉特，大约二十七英里远，有一个日本分队驻扎在那里。

76
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On the sixteenth day Jean started out with the headman, Mat Amin, to go and look for the Japanese; they carried the sergeant’s rifle and equipment, and his uniform, and his paybook. There was a place called Kuala Rakit twenty-seven miles away where a Japanese detachment was stationed, and they went there.

77
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他们花了两天时间步行去瓜拉拉吉特，中途在一个叫作武吉特帕拉的地方过了一个晚上，当地首领接待了他们，琴和村子的妇女一起睡在村子后面的屋子里。他们第二天继续上路，晚上到达瓜拉拉吉特。那是一条很大的村庄，或者说是一个小镇。马特·阿明带琴去当地一个马来政府官员登库·本塔拉·拉雅家中与他见面。登库·本塔拉是一个瘦小的马来人，英语说得非常好。他由衷关心从马特·阿明和琴那里听来的故事。

77
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They took two days to walk this distance, staying overnight at a place called Bukit Perah. They stayed with the headman there, Jean sleeping in the back quarters with the women. They went on next day and came to Kuala Rakit in the evening; it was a very large village, or small town. Here Mat Amin took her to see an official of the Malay administration at his house, Tungku Bentara Raja. Tungku Bentara was a little thin Malay who spoke excellent English; he was genuinely concerned at the story that he heard from Mat Amin and from Jean.

78
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“真是非常，非常抱歉，”他最后说，“我无法给予你们直接的帮助，因为日本兵控制了我们的一切行为。你们不得不耕种稻田，这实在是太糟糕了。”

78
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“I am very, very sorry,”he said at last.“I cannot do much to help you directly, because the Japanese control everything we do. It is terrible that you should have to work in the rice fields.”

79
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“一点儿也不糟糕，”琴说，“实际上我们非常喜欢这份工作。我们想和马特·阿明一起留在那里。如果日本军队在本地有一个女子战俘营，我想他们会把我们送进去，但如果没有的话，我们不想继续步行环游马来亚。在途中我们已经失去了一半成员。”

79
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“That’s not terrible at all,”Jean said.“As a matter of fact, we rather like it. We want to stay there, with Mat Amin here. If the Japanese have got a camp for women in this district I suppose they’ll put us into that, but if they haven’t, we don’t want to go on marching all over Malaya. Half of us have died already doing that.”

80
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“请你们今晚务必留下，”他说，“明天我将和这里的日本行政长官谈一谈。总之这里是没有女子战俘营的。”

80
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“You must stay with us tonight,”he said.“Tomorrow I will have a talk with the Japanese Civil Administrator. There is no camp here for women, anyway.”

81
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当天晚上，琴近七个月来第一次睡在床上。她并没有因此觉得很高兴。习惯了在地板上睡觉后，她觉得睡在褥子上反而没那么凉快。她并没有真的下床睡到地板上，不过她差一点就那样做了。然而，泡在浴缸里，拿一个灌满水的葫芦往头上淋浴，倒是件乐事。她洗了很久很久。

81
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That night Jean slept in a bed for the first time in nearly seven months. She did not care for it much; having grown used to sleeping on the floor she found it cooler to sleep so than to sleep on a mattress. She did not actually get out of bed and sleep upon the floor, but she came very near to it. The bath and shower after the bath taken by holding a gourd full of water over her head, however, were a joy, and she spent a long time washing.

82
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早上，登库·本塔拉和马特·阿明带她一起去见日本行政长官，她又讲了一遍她的故事。行政长官曾在加利福尼亚州立大学留学，说一口一流的美式英语。他深感同情，但宣称战俘归军队负责，与他毫不相干。不过，他带他们一起去见军事指挥官，一个松坂大佐。琴对着松坂又讲了一遍她的故事。

82
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In the morning she went with Tungku Bentara and Mat Amin to the Japanese Civil Administrator, and told her tale again. The Civil Administrator had been to the State University of California and spoke first-class American English; he was sympathetic, but declared that prisoners were nothing to do with him, being the concern of the Army. He came with them, however, to see the military commanding officer, a Colonel Matisaka, and Jean told her tale once more.

83
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松坂大佐显然认为女战俘是令人讨厌的累赘，丝毫不愿意抽调自己的任何兵力来押送他们。如果让他自行裁决，他很可能会让他们继续上路，但是碍着登库·本塔拉和行政长官的情面，又了解到女人们的悲惨遭遇，他没法这样做。最后，他干脆洗手不管，让行政长官作出自认为最妥当的安排。行政长官告诉本塔拉，女人们可以暂时留在原地，琴便和马特·阿明一起出发回瓜拉德朗。

83
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It was quite clear that Colonel Matisaka considered women prisoners to be a nuisance, and he had no intention whatsoever of diverting any portion of his force to guarding them. Left to himself he would probably have sent them marching on, but with Tungku Bentara and the Civil Administrator in his office and acquainted with the facts he could hardly do that. In the end he washed his hands of the whole thing and told the Civil Administrator to make what arrangements he thought best. The Civil Administrator told Bentara that the women could stay where they were for the time being, and Jean started back for Kuala Telang with Mat Amin.

84
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他们一留便是三年。

84
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They lived there for three years.

85
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“那是遗失的三年，被生生从我们的生命中割离开来。”她说。她抬起头来看着我，迟疑着。“至少——我认为是那样。我懂得很多关于马来人的知识，但它们在英国没有多少价值。”

85
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“It was three years wasted, just chopped out of one’s life,”she said. She raised her head and looked at me, hesitantly.“At least—I suppose it was. I know a lot about Malays, but that’s not worth much here in England.”

86
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“直到生命结束那一刻，你才能确定那是否是一段毫无意义的时间，”我说，“也许到时你就觉得不是了。”

86
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“You won’t know if it was wasted until you come to the end of your life,”I said.“Perhaps not then.”

87
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她点点头。“我想您是对的。”她拿起拨火棍，开始刮掉壁炉铁栏上的灰。“他们对我们太好了，”她说，“用他们拥有的一切，以他们的方式尽可能善待我们。法缇玛，那位最初几周告诉我们如何在田里工作的姑娘——她简直是个完美的宝贝儿。实际上到后来我们情同姐妹。”

87
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She nodded.“I suppose that’s right.”She took up the poker and began scraping the ash from the bars of the grate.“They were so very kind to us,”she said.“They couldn’t have been nicer, within the limits of what they are and what they’ve got. Fatimah, the girl who showed us what to do in the rice fields in those first weeks—she was a perfect dear. I got to know her very well indeed.”

88
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“那就是你想回去的地方？”我问道。

88
-

“Is that where you want to go back to?”I asked.

89
-

她点点头。“现在我继承了这笔钱，想回去为他们做点事情。我们和他们一起生活了三年，他们倾囊相助。如果他们没有收留我们，可能我们都活不到战争结束。现在我这么富有，而他们却如此，如此穷困……”

89
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She nodded.“I would like to do something for them, now that I’ve got this money. We lived with them for three years, and they did everything for us. We’d have all died before the war was ended if they hadn’t taken us in and let us stay with them. And now I’ve got so much, and they so very, very little...”

90
-

“别忘了你还未能支配全部遗产，”我说，“马来亚之旅将所费不菲。”

90
-

“Don’t forget you haven’t got as much as all that,”I said.“Travelling to Malaya is a very expensive journey.”

91
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她微微一笑。“我知道。我想为他们做的事情花不了这么多钱——不会超过五十英镑。住在那个村子的时候，我们必须去打水，那是女人的职责，也是一个可怕的任务。是这样，流经村子的河流随海潮涨落，所以河水是咸的，人们可以用它来洗澡或者洗衣服，但如果要喝水，就必须走大约一英里，把泉水打回来。我们一般用葫芦打水，每只手拿两个，中间穿一条棍子提着，早晚一次——去程一英里，回程一英里——一天走四英里。法缇玛和其他姑娘并不觉得有任何不妥，因为村子一直以来都是那样做的，世代因循。”

91
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She smiled.“I know. What I want to do for them won’t cost so very much—not more than fifty pounds, if that. We had to carry water in that village—that’s the women’s work—and it’s a fearful job. You see, the river’s tidal at the village so the water’s brackish; you can use it for washing in or rinsing out your clothes, but drinking water has to be fetched from the spring, nearly a mile away. We used to go for it with gourds, two in each hand with a stick between them, morning and evening—a mile there and a mile back—four miles a day. Fatimah and the other girls didn’t think about it; it’s what the village has done always, generation after generation.”

92
-

“那就是你想要去挖一口井的原因？”

92
-

“That’s why you want to dig a well?”

93
-

她点点头。“那是我能为他们做的事情，为妇女们——可以让她们活得更轻松，就像她们让我们活得更轻松一样。我想在村子正中央挖一个井，离每间屋子都不到一百码。她们早就应该有这么一个井。我敢肯定至多只需要挖十英尺深，因为那里遍地是水源。地下水位不会深于十英尺，至多十五英尺。我想如果我回去雇用一个挖井队替他们做这项工作，应该能把井挖成。做完这件事之后，我就可以清清白白地安心享用这笔钱。”她再次抬起头来看我。“您会不会觉得我很傻？”

93
-

She nodded.“It’s something I could do for them, for the women—something that would make life easier for them, as they made life easier for us. A well right in the middle of the village, within a couple of hundred yards of every house. It’s what they ought to have. I’m sure it wouldn’t have to be more than about ten feet deep, because there’s water all about. The water level can’t be more than about ten feet down, or fifteen feet at the most. I thought if I went back there and offered to engage a gang of well-diggers to do this for them, it’ld sort of wind things up. And after that I could enjoy this money with a clear conscience.”She looked up at me again.“You don’t think that’s silly, do you?”

94
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“不会，”我说，“我不觉得。但有一点，我希望你不用去那么远的地方。往返马来亚的旅程会花掉一年大部分收入。”

94
-

“No,”I said.“I don’t think that. The only thing is, I wish it wasn’t quite so far away. Travelling there and back will make a very big hole in a year’s income.”

95
-

“我知道，”她说，“如果我把钱花光了，我会在新加坡或者其他地方找一份工作，干几个月活，存一点钱。”

95
-

“I know that,”she said.“If I run out of money, I’ll take a job in Singapore or somewhere for a few months and save up a bit.”

96
-

“我很想知道，”我说，“为什么你不干脆留在那里找一份工作呢？你对那个国家很熟悉。”

96
-

“As a matter of interest,”I said,“why didn’t you stay out there and get a job? You know the country so well.”

97
-

她说：“我当时对那里有点厌倦了——1945年的时候。我们都渴望回家。他们从哥打巴鲁派了三辆卡车来接我们，把我们送到机场。我们坐空中列车飞往新加坡，机组人员都是澳大利亚人。在飞机上我遇到了比尔·霍兰。我必须告诉他关于艾琳、弗雷迪和简的事情。”她的声音低沉了下去。“我必须告诉他所有家庭成员的遭遇，除了罗宾。他那时已经四岁了，是一个很健壮的小家伙。他们让我跟比尔和罗宾一起回家，帮忙照顾罗宾。他很自然地把我当成妈妈了。”

97
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She said,“I had a scunner of it, then—in 1945. We were all dying to get home. They sent three trucks for us from Kota Bahru, and we were taken to the airfield there and flown down to Singapore in a Dakota with an Australian crew. And there I met Bill Holland, and I had to tell him about Eileen, and Freddie and Jane.”Her voice dropped.“All the family, except Robin; he was four years old by that time, and quite a sturdy little chap. They let me travel home with Bill and Robin, to look after Robin. He looked on me as his mother, of course.”

98
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她微微一笑。“比尔想我做他的妻子，”她说，“我做不到。我不可能成为他想要的那种妻子。”

98
-

She smiled a little.“Bill wanted to make it permanent,”she said.“I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t have been the sort of wife he wanted.”

99
-

我一言不发。

99
-

I said nothing.

100
-

“我们降落的时候，英国是那么地绿意逼人，那么美丽，”她说，“我想忘却战争，忘却东方，做回一个普通人。我在帕克和利维公司找到了现在这份工作，在那里干了两年了——用于奢侈品贸易的女士手提包和公文包跟战争、疾病和死亡一点关系都没有。总的来说，我在那里过得还算愉快。”

100
-

“When we landed, England was so green and beautiful,”she said.“I wanted to forget about the war, and forget about the East, and grow to be an ordinary person again. I got this job with Pack and Levy and I’ve been there two years now—ladies’ handbags and attaché cases for the luxury trade, nothing to do with wars or sickness or death. I’ve had a happy time there, on the whole.”

101
-

她重返家园时茕茕孑立。她一到新加坡就给母亲发了电报。过了很久，科尔温贝的阿加莎姑姑才通过电报作出回复，向她透露她母亲已经去世的消息。她离开新加坡之前已经听说哥哥唐纳德死在泰缅铁路上。当她重获自由，却发现亲人尽失，肯定深感孤寂。在我看来，她确实展现出了极其坚强的精神，才在彼时彼境拒绝了求婚。她在利物浦着陆，去科尔温贝和阿加莎姑姑待了几周，就南下伦敦找工作。

101
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She was very much alone when she got home. She had cabled to her mother directly she reached Singapore; there was a long delay, and then she got a cable in reply from her Aunt Agatha in Colwyn Bay, breaking to her the news that her mother was dead. Before she left Singapore she heard that her brother Donald had died upon the Burma-Siam railway. She must have felt very much alone in the world when she regained her freedom; it seemed to me that she had shown great strength of character in refusing an offer of marriage at that time. She landed at Liverpool, and went to stay for a few weeks with her Aunt Agatha at Colwyn Bay; then she went down to London to look for a job.

102
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我问她为什么不和舅舅联系，去找那位住在埃尔的老人家。“老实说，”她说，“我把他忘得一干二净。即使我想起他来，也只会认为他已经去世了。我只见过他一面，那个时候我才十一岁，他看起来就好像行将就木了。我从来没想过他还活着。母亲的财产全部毁于一旦。她的私人文件也几乎全部丢失了，因为遭受轰炸时，它们都放在南安普敦的佩吉特家里。即使我能想起道格拉斯舅舅来，也不知道他住在哪里……”

102
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I asked her why she had not got in touch with her uncle, the old man at Ayr.“Quite honestly,”she said,“I forgot all about him, or if I thought of him at all I thought he was dead, too. I only saw him once, that time when I was eleven years old, and he looked about dead then. It never entered my head that he would still be alive. Mother’s estate was all wound up, and there were very few of her personal papers left, because they were all in the Pagets’ house in Southampton when that got blitzed. If I had thought about Uncle Douglas I wouldn’t have known where he lived...”

103
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外面依然下着倾盆大雨。我们决定放弃当天下午外出的主意，干脆留在公寓喝茶。她到我的小厨房烧水沏茶，我则忙于摆桌子，切面包和奶油。当她拿着托盘进来的时候，我说：“那你打算什么时候回马来亚？”

103
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It was still pouring with rain. We decided to give up the idea of going out that afternoon, and to have tea in my flat. She went out into my little kitchen and began getting it, and I busied myself with laying the tea table and cutting bread and butter. When she came in with the tray, I asked,“When do you think of going to Malaya, then?”

104
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她说：“我想，我会订五月底的票，继续在帕克和利维公司工作到那个时候。”又说，“离现在大概还有六周时间。那个时候我就能存起足够的钱来支付来回路费，我还有从过去两年的工资里省下来的六十英镑。”她开始认真思考这次旅途的费用，并在一艘中等大小的货船上订到一张票，这艘货船会顺路带上十来位乘客到新加坡去，收费比较便宜。“我将不得不从新加坡坐飞机到哥打巴鲁，”她说，“马来航空有经停关丹去哥打巴鲁的飞机。我不知道要怎样从哥打巴鲁去瓜拉德朗，不过我想总会有办法的。”

104
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She said,“I thought I’d book my passage for the end of May, and go on working at Pack and Levy up till then,”she said.“That’s about another six weeks. By then I’ll have enough saved up to pay my passage out and home, and I’ll still have about sixty pounds I saved out of my wages in this last two years.”She had been into the cost of her journey, and had found a line of intermediate class cargo ships that took about a dozen passengers for a relatively modest fare to Singapore.“I think I’ll have to fly to Kota Bahru from Singapore,”she said.“Malayan Airways go to Kuantan and then to Kota Bahru. I don’t know how I’ll get from Kota Bahru to Kuala Telang, but I expect there’ll be something.”

105
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我想，她从哥打巴鲁走路去瓜拉德朗应该也没有问题。步行穿过马来亚腹地现在对她来讲应该是小菜一碟。她给我讲战时遭遇时，我把地图集拿了出来，看看她说的地方都在哪里。现在我又在看地图。“你可以在关丹下飞机，”我说，“从那里走近一些。”

105
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She was quite capable of walking it, I thought; a journey through the heart of Malaya could mean little to her now. I had had the atlas out while she had been telling me her story to see where the places were, and I looked at it again now.“You could get off the aeroplane at Kuantan,”I said.“It’s shorter from there.”

106
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“我知道，”她说，语气透着悲伤，“我知道那样近一些。但如果让我回到那里，我会发疯。”

106
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“I know,”she said,“I know it’s a bit shorter. But I couldn’t bear to go back there again.”There was distress in her voice.

107
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为了缓和气氛，我岔开话题道：“我肯定要花很多年才能记住这些马来名字。”

107
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To ease the situation I said idly,“It would take me years to learn how to remember these Malay names.”

108
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“懂得它们的含义后就简单多了，”她说，“就跟英语名字一样。‘巴鲁’是‘新’的意思，‘哥打’是‘要塞’的意思。就像英语里的纽卡斯尔。”

108
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“It’s all right when you know what they mean,”she said.“They’re just like English names. Bahru means New, and Kota means a fort. It’s only Newcastle, in Malay.”

109
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她继续她在佩里维尔的工作，我也继续我在赞善里的工作，但她的故事在我脑海里挥之不去。我俱乐部里有一位叫怀特的男士，曾经在马来警察局工作，日据期间成为了日本军队的战俘，我想他被关进了樟宜监狱。一个晚上，我坐在他身旁吃饭，无法抑制向他探听此事的冲动。“前几天我的客户告诉我一个关于马来亚的离奇故事，”我说，“日本兵拒绝让一批女人进入战俘营，她是其中一人。”

109
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She went on with her work at Perivale, and I went on with mine in Chancery Lane, but I was unable to get her story out of my mind. There is a man called Wright, a member of my club, who was in the Malayan Police and was a prisoner of the Japanese during their occupation of Malaya, I think in Changi gaol. I sat next to him at dinner one night, and I could not resist sounding him about it.“One of my clients told me an extraordinary story about Malaya the other day,”I said.“She was one of a party of women that the Japanese refused to put into a camp.”

110
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他放下刀子。“您不是说在帕农被俘后，被迫步行横穿马来亚的那批女士吧？”

110
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He laid his knife down.“Not the party who were taken at Panong and marched across Malaya?”

111
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“正是她们，”我说，“你知道她们的故事，是不是？”

111
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“That was it,”I said.“You know about them, do you?”

112
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“哦，是的，”他说，“那真是一件再离奇不过的事了，正如你所说的那样。日本指挥官让她们东奔西走，直到最后她们被允许在东海岸某个村子里安顿下来，在那里一直生活到战争结束。她们的首领是一位非常可敬的姑娘，马来语说得非常流利。她不是什么名人，曾经在吉隆坡一个办事处当打字员，战时却表现出色，堪称楷模。”

112
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“Oh yes,”he said.“It was a most extraordinary thing, as you say. The Japanese commanders marched them from place to place, till finally they were allowed to settle in a village on the east coast somewhere, and they lived there for the rest of the war. There was a very fine girl who was their leader; she spoke Malay fluently. She wasn’t anybody notable; she’d been a shorthand typist in an office in Kuala Lumpur. A very fine type.”

113
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我点点头。“她就是我的客户。”

113
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I nodded.“She’s my client.”

114
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“是吗！我总想知道她后来怎么样了。她现在在干什么？”

114
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“Is she! I always wondered what had happened to her. What’s she doing now?”

115
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我干巴巴地说：“她又当回打字员了，在佩里维尔一个手提包厂工作。”

115
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I said dryly,“She’s a shorthand typist again, working in a handbag factory at Perivale.”

116
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“真的？”他吃了几口饭，又说，“我总是觉得应该给她颁个奖章什么的。不幸的是，你无法给予那样的人任何奖赏。但如果没有她，那些女士和她们的孩子可能都会死掉。在那批战俘里，其他人都没有她那样的才干。”

116
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“Really!”He ate a mouthful or two, and then he said,“I always thought that girl ought to have got a decoration of some sort. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can give to people like that. But if she hadn’t been with them, all those women and children would have died. There was no one else in the party of that calibre at all.”

117
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“我知道那批战俘有一半去世了。”我说。

117
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“I understand that half of them did die,”I said.

118
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他点点头。“我相信那是真的。最后她帮助他们安顿下来，在稻田里劳作，那之后他们都平安无事。”

118
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He nodded.“I believe that’s true. She got them settled down and working in the rice fields in the end, and after that they were all right.”

119
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在琴离开英国之前的六周里，我不时与她见面。她订好了6月2日从伦敦出发去新加坡的船票，并通知了她的公司，她将于五月底离职。她告诉我，他们听到这个消息后非常沮丧，并且马上提出给她十先令的提薪。有鉴于此，她向帕克先生提及遗产的事情，他只好接受了这件不可避免的事情。

119
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I saw Jean Paget from time to time in the six weeks before she left this country. She booked her passage to sail from London docks on June 2nd, and she gave notice to her firm to leave at the end of May. She told me that they were rather upset about it, and they offered her a ten shilling rise at once; in view of that she had told Mr Pack about her legacy, and he had accepted the inevitable.

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我做好安排，给她在渣打银行开了一个账户，使她能在新加坡收到七到九月的收入。随着她的出发时间日益临近，我开始为她担忧，不是怕她大手大脚花钱，而是怕实际花销超出预算，使她陷入困境。在现在这种时世，每年九百英镑对于一个去东方旅行的人来讲有点捉襟见肘。

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I made arrangements for her income for the months of July and August and September to be available to her in Singapore, and I opened an account for her with the Chartered Bank for that purpose. As the time for her departure drew closer I became worried for her, not because I was afraid that she would overspend her income, but because I was afraid she would get into some difficulty due to her expenses being higher than she thought they would be. Nine hundred a year does not go very far in these days for a person travelling about the east.

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大约在她出发前一周，我向她提及我的忧虑。“别忘记你现在是一个相当富有的女士了，”我说，“量入而出很正确，实际上我也必须防止你铺张浪费，但是别忘了，根据你舅舅的遗嘱，我对这笔遗产有相当大的酌情权。一旦你陷入任何困难，或者真的急需用钱，请立刻给我发电报。比如说，万一你生病了。”

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I mentioned that to her about a week before she left.“Don’t forget that you’re a fairly wealthy woman now,”I said.“You’re quite right to live within your income and, indeed, I have to see you do. But don’t forget that I have fairly wide discretionary powers under your uncle’s will. If you get into any difficulty, or if you really need money, let me have a cable at once. As, for example, if you should get ill.”

122
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她莞尔一笑。“您真的是太体贴了，”她说，“不过，老实说，我想我会没问题的。如果我的钱都花光了，我可以指望找一份工作来挣钱。毕竟，我并不需要在一个指定日期之前回英国，也没有什么别的事情迫使我按期回国。”

122
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She smiled.“That’s very sweet of you,”she said.“But honestly, I think I’ll be all right. I’m counting upon taking a job if I find I’m running short. After all, I haven’t got to get back here to England by a given date, or anything like that.”

123
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我说：“别在外逗留太长时间。”

123
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I said,“Don’t stay too long away.”

124
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她微微一笑。“我不会的，斯特拉坎先生，”她说，“一旦我完成此事，就没有不得不走的理由。”

124
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She smiled.“I shan’t Mr Strachan,”she said.“There’s nothing to keep me in Malaya once I’ve done this thing.”

125
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既然要出门长期远行，她退掉了伊令公地的房间。她问是否可以把一个大箱子和一个手提箱放在我公寓的储物室里，请我在她回国前替她妥为保管。她出发前一天将两个箱子拿过来，还有一双带冰刀的溜冰鞋，她塞不进箱子。她告诉我她只带一只手提箱做行李。

125
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She was giving up her room in Ealing, of course, and she asked if she might leave a trunk and a suitcase in the box-room of my flat till she came back to England. She brought them round the day before she sailed, and with them a pair of skating boots with skates attached, which wouldn’t go into the trunk. She told me then that she was only taking one suitcase as her luggage.

126
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“你的热带工具包呢？”我问，“把它托运了吗？”

126
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“But what about your tropical kit?”I asked.“Have you had that sent on?”

127
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她微微一笑。“我把它放进了我的手提包，”她说，“五十片百乐君，一百片磺胺嘧啶片，一些防蚊膏，还有我的旧纱笼。我不是去马来亚当淑女的。”

127
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She smiled.“I’ve got it with me in the suitcase,”she said.“Fifty Paludrine tablets and a hundred Sulphatriads, some repellent, and my old sarong. I’m not going out to be a lady in Malaya.”

128
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除我之外没有人到码头送她。她在世上非常孤单，有可能愿意来送她的朋友也都要上班，没法请假。我叫了一辆出租车送她去码头。她当然很重视这次旅行，但在我看来，我那个时代的姑娘们去一趟奇斯尔赫斯特过周末所做的准备都要比她周全，而她可是要跨越半个地球。轮船是崭新的，一切都洁净光鲜。当乘务员替她打开舱门时，她不胜讶异地后撤了一步，因为他为这个小小的房间饰满了鲜花，里面一片花海。“瞧瞧这些花儿！”她转向乘务员，“它们是从哪儿来的？不是我公司送的吧？”

128
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She had nobody but me to go down to the docks with her to see her off; she was very much alone in the world, and friends she had who might have liked to come were all working in jobs, and couldn’t get the time off. I drove her down in a taxi. She took her journey very much as a matter of course; she seemed to have made no more preparation for a voyage half way round the world than a girl of my generation would have made for a weekend at Chislehurst. The ship was a new one and everything was bright and clean. When the steward opened the door of her cabin she stood back amazed, because he had arranged the flowers all round the little room, and there were plenty of them.“Oh Noel, look!”she said.“Just look at all the flowers!”She turned to the steward.“Wherever did they come from? Not from the Company?”

129
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“昨天晚上放在三个大箱子里送过来的，”他回答，“它们把房间装饰得很漂亮，是不是，小姐？”

129
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“They come in three big boxes yesterday evening,”he replied.“Make a nice show, don’t they, Miss?”

130
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她转过身来看着我。“我相信是您送的。”然后她说，“您怎么能这么可爱！”

130
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She swung round on me.“I believe you sent them.”And then she said,“Oh, how perfectly sweet of you!”

131
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“这些都是英国的花朵，”我说，“只是想提醒你尽快回家。”甚至在她还没有出发的时候，我肯定就已经预感到她永远都不会回来了。

131
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“English flowers,”I said.“Just to remind you to come back to England soon.”I must have had a premonition, even then, that she was never going to come back.

132
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等我回过神来，她已经把一只手臂环在我的肩上，轻吻了我的嘴唇。“这是多谢你送的这些花朵，诺尔，”她温柔地说，“这些花朵，还有你为我所做的一切。”我实在是太心慌意乱、不知所措了，能说出口的只有这么一句话：“等你回来的时候，我会再送你一次那些花。”

132
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Before I could realize what she was doing, she had slipped an arm round my shoulders and kissed me on the lips.“That’s for the flowers, Noel,”she said softly.“For the flowers, and for everything you’ve done for me.”And I was so dumbfounded and confused that all I could find to say to her was,“I’ll have another of those when you come back.”

133
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不等开船我就走了，因为离别会让人变得愚蠢，所以最好尽早结束。我回到出租车上，独自返回公寓。我记得自己在公寓的窗前站了很久，看着对面马厩的雕花墙壁，想着她那艘漂亮的蒸汽轮船沿河而下，经过格雷夫德森、蒂尔伯里、舒伯里和北福兰角，带她离开。然后我让自己从想象中醒来，去把她的箱子和手提箱挪到储物室一角，跟其他物品分开存放。我站在那里，手里拿着她的靴子和溜冰刀，她的私人物品，考虑应该安放于何处。最后我把它们拿进卧室，放在我衣橱的最下面，因为如果它们不幸被盗，我将永远无法原谅自己。她正是那种让人很想认作女儿的人，而我们自己又偏偏没有女儿。

133
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I didn’t wait to see her ship go off, because partings are stupid things and best got over quickly. I went back in the taxi to my flat alone, and I remember that I stood for a long time at the window of my room watching the ornamented wall of the stables opposite and thinking of her fine new steamer going down the river past Gravesend and Tilbury, past Shoebury and the North Foreland, taking her away. And then I woke myself up and went and shifted her trunk and her suitcase to a corner of the box-room by themselves, and I stood for some time with her boots and skates in my hand, personal things of hers, wondering where they had better go. Finally I took them to my bedroom and put them in the bottom of my wardrobe, because I should never have forgiven myself if they had been stolen. She was just such a girl as one would have liked to have for a daughter, but we never had a daughter at all.

134
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她坐这艘不定期货船穿越大半个地球，几乎从每一个停靠的港口城市给我写信，从马赛和那不勒斯，从亚历山大和亚丁，从科伦坡，从仰光(10)，从槟城(11)。怀特总是对她怀有浓厚的兴趣，因为他知道她在马来亚的事迹。我习惯于捎上她写给我的信去告诉他她的行程和近况。他有一个好朋友是哥打巴鲁酋长的英国顾问，一位威尔逊-海斯先生。我让他写航空邮件给威尔逊-海斯先生，告诉这位先生琴·佩吉特的计划，并请这位先生尽量给予她帮助。他告诉我那非常有必要，因为在哥打巴鲁，女士只能跟当地的英国人住在一起。我从威尔逊-海斯先生那里收到了一封非常友好的回信，告诉我他期待她的光临。我给她寄去一封航空快信，在信上告知我们为她所做的一切，她应该能在渣打银行收到它。

134
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She travelled across half the world in her tramp steamer and she wrote to me from most of the ports she called at, from Marseilles and Naples, from Alexandria and Aden, from Colombo, from Rangoon, and from Penang. Wright was always very interested in her because he had known about her in Malaya, and I got into the habit of carrying her latest letter about with me and telling him about her voyage and how she was getting on. He knew the British Adviser to the Raja at Kota Bahru quite well, a Mr Wilson-Hays, and I got him to write out to Wilson-Hays by air mail telling him about Jean Paget and asking him to do what he could for her. He told me that that was rather necessary, because there was nowhere a lady could stay in Kota Bahru except with one of the British people who were living there. We got a very friendly letter back from Wilson-Hays saying that he was expecting her, and I was able to get a letter out to her by air mail to meet her at the Chartered Bank telling her what we had done.

135
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她只在新加坡逗留了一个晚上，就坐次日早上的航班去哥打巴鲁。空中列车在马来亚到处飞来飞去，经停许多地方。午后不久飞机就载着她停泊在哥打巴鲁的小机场上。她下了飞机，穿着离开伦敦时穿的浅灰色外套和裙子，威尔逊-海斯已经亲自和妻子一起在那里等候了。

135
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She only stayed one night in Singapore, and took the morning plane to Kota Bahru; the Dakota wandered about all over Malaya calling at various places, and put her down upon the air-strip at Kota Bahru early in the afternoon. She got out of the Dakota wearing the same light grey coat and skirt in which she had left London, and Wilson-Hays was there himself to meet the aeroplane, with his wife.

136
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一年后，我在联合大学俱乐部见到了正在度假的威尔逊-海斯。他又高又黑，很安静，脸很长。他说她发现他亲自来到机场迎接她时有一点窘迫。她似乎没有意识到她在当地这么有名。尽管早在我给他写信之前，威尔逊-海斯理所当然地就已经知道了她所有事情，但战争结束后他就没有听说过她的任何消息。他收到我们的信，知道琴会回来探望瓜拉德朗的村民之后，就捎了个口信给马特·阿明，并安排好把他的吉普车连司机一起借给她，送她走一百多英里去瓜拉德朗。我想他这么做真的是非常周到，向他表达了我的感谢。他说，战争结束后，英国人在瓜拉德朗地区的声望之所以能高于战前，主要归功于这位姑娘和他们这批战俘，他想，让这辆吉普车替她服务几天，也是应分的。

136
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I met Wilson-Hays at the United University Club a year later, when he was on leave. He was a tall, dark, quiet man with rather a long face. He said that she had been a little embarrassed to find that he had come to the airstrip to meet her personally; she did not seem to realize that she was quite a well-known person in that part of Malaya. Wilson-Hays knew all about her long before we wrote to him although, of course, he had heard nothing of her since the end of the war. He had sent word to Mat Amin when he got our letter to tell him that she was coming back to see them, and he had arranged to lend her his jeep with a driver to take her the hundred miles or so to Kuala Telang. I thought that very decent of him, and I told him so. He said that the prestige of the British was higher in the Kuala Telang district after the war was over than it was before, due solely to the presence of this girl and her party; he thought she’d earned the use of a jeep for a few days.

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她在官邸住了两个晚上，从当地商店买了一些简单的小物品。第三天早上坐吉普车离开的时候，她换上了当地衣服。她把手提箱和大部分物品留给威尔逊-海斯太太看管，只随身带着当地体面妇女日常携带的物品。她穿着一条褪了色的旧蓝白方格纱笼，一件白色紧身短上衣。但柔嫩的双脚让她被迫妥协，穿上了拖鞋。她带了一把朴素的茶色中国伞遮阳，按当地样式把头发盘到头顶上，中间插了一个大大的梳子。她拿着一个小小的棕榈叶篮子，但威尔逊-海斯太太告诉她丈夫说里面其实没有什么东西。她带了牙刷，但没带牙膏，带了一条毛巾和一块抗菌肥皂，还有几样药品。她带了一套换洗的衣服：一条新纱笼和一件用来配它的碎花棉上衣；还有三个小小的伍尔沃思胸针和两只戒指，作为送给朋友的小礼物，但没带任何化妆品。那大概就是她的全部行装。

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She stayed in the Residency two nights, and bought a few simple articles in the native shops. When she left in the jeep next morning she was wearing native clothes; she left her suitcase and most of her things with Mrs Wilson-Hays. She took with her only what a native woman of good class would take; she wore a faded old blue and white chequered sarong with a white coatee. She wore sandals as a concession to the softness of her feet, and she carried a plain tan Chinese type umbrella as a sunshade. She had done her hair up on top of her head in the native style with a large comb in the middle of it. She carried a small palm-leaf basket, but Mrs Wilson-Hays told her husband there was very little in it; she took a toothbrush but no toothpaste; she took a towel and a cake of antiseptic soap and a few drugs. She took one change of clothes, a new sarong and a flowered cotton top to match; she took three small Woolworth brooches and two rings as little presents for her friends, but she took no cosmetics. That was about all she had.

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“我想她的做法非常聪明，”威尔逊-海斯说，“如果她把自己打扮成一个英国淑女，见面时会让村民们很尴尬。有些英国居民听到她穿着当地服饰去瓜拉德朗时感到很难过——她也是接受过正规教育的，怎么能穿得如此暴露，全是那一类的话。我必须说，看到她出发时的模样，我觉得她的选择非常正确。”他顿了顿，“毕竟，在战争期间她一直穿成那样，当时也没有人说过她穿着暴露。”

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“I thought her very wise to go like that,”said Wilson-Hays.“If she had gone dressed as an Englishwoman she’d have made them embarrassed. Some of the English residents were quite upset when they heard she’d gone off in native dress—old school tie, and letting down the side, and all that sort of thing. I must say, when I saw her go I thought it was rather a good thing to do.”He paused.“After all, it’s how she was dressed all through the war, and nobody talks about her letting down the side then.”

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坐吉普车从哥打巴鲁到瓜拉德朗需要一天时间，漫长而痛苦。路面情况很糟糕，而且途中要跨越四条河流的干流，必须把吉普车开到渡轮上过河。除此之外还要经过很多浅滩。她花了十四个小时才走完这一百多英里路，到达瓜拉德朗时天已经黑了。吉普车驶进夜色朦胧的村子时，惹起一阵激动的嘈杂声。村民们一边系上纱笼一边从屋子里走出来。那是一个月圆之夜，月亮的清辉足以帮助司机看清道路。车子停在首领屋子前面，她下了车，稍带倦容，举起双手做出祈祷的姿势向首领走去，用马来语说：“我回来了，马特·阿明，唯恐您误以为，当白人夫人不再需要你们时，就把你们抛诸脑后。”

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It is a long day in a jeep from Kota Bahru to Kuala Telang; the roads are very poor, and there are four main rivers to be crossed which necessitate ferrying the jeep over in a boat, apart from a large number of fords. It took her fourteen hours to cover the hundred miles, and it was dark when they drove into Kuala Telang. There was a buzz of excitement as the jeep drove through the shadowy village, and people came out of their houses doing up their sarongs; there was a full moon that night, so that there was light enough to see to drive. They stopped in front of the headman’s house, and she got out of the jeep a little wearily, and went to him, and put her hands up in the praying gesture, and said in Malay,“I have come back, Mat Amin, lest you should think the white mems have forgotten all about you when their need is past.”

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他说：“你们离开之后，我们一直念念不忘，时常谈起你们。”随后人们过来聚集在他们周围。她看见法缇玛走过来，抱着一个婴儿，一个学步的小童紧紧抓住她的纱笼。琴从人群中挤过去，牵着她的手，说：“时间过得太快了。”然后她看见蕾哈娜，萨菲娅·宾蒂·雅各布和萨菲娅·宾蒂·泰布；还有那个总是眯着眼睛看她的小不点儿易卜拉欣，他现在已经长成了一个年轻小伙儿；还有他的哥哥萨马特，还有老祖贝达、梅里亚姆和很多其他人。其中有一些是她不认识的，因为她离开马来亚后不久，男人们就结束苦役回来了，现在这里有很多新面孔。

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He said,“We have thought and talked about you ever since you went.”And then there were people thronging about them, and she saw Fatimah approaching with a baby in her arms and a toddler hanging on to her sarong, and she pushed through the crowd and took her by the hand, and said,“It is too long since we met.”And there was Raihana, and Safirah binti Yacob, and Safirah binti Taib, and little Ibrahim who squinted, now grown into a young man, and his brother Samat, and old Zubeidah, and Meriam, and many others, some of whom she did not know, because the men had come back from the labour gangs soon after she left Malaya, and there were a number of new faces.

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法缇玛和一个叫作德拉曼·宾·伊斯梅尔的年轻小伙儿结了婚。她把他带上前介绍给白人夫人。琴向他鞠躬，心想要是她带了一块头巾来遮住脸就好了，这样被介绍给陌生男士时才显得知书识礼。她把手举起来挡住脸，说：“请原谅我没戴面纱。”他向她鞠躬，说：“请别介意。”然后法缇玛插进来说：“他知道的，所有人都知道白人夫人和我们住在一起的时候从来不戴面纱。因为不同民族有不同规矩。迪恩(12)啊，你能回来真是太让人高兴了。”

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Fatimah was married to a young man called Derahman bin Ismail, and she brought him forward and presented him to the white mem; Jean bowed before him and wished that she had brought a shawl to pull over her face, as would have been polite when being introduced to a strange man. She put her hand up to her face, and said,“Excuse me that I have no veil.”He bowed to her and said,“It is no matter,”and Fatimah broke in and said,“He knows and everybody knows that the white mems never veiled their faces when they lived with us, because different people have different ways. Oh Djeen, we are so happy that you have come back.”

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琴和马特·阿明一起为司机安排好住宿，然后和法缇玛到她丈夫屋子里去。他们问琴是否已经吃过饭，琴说没有，他们就给琴做了一顿虾酱米饭。虾酱是用极辣的生鱼虾肉糊做成的，马来人把它们保存在倒立起来的混凝土排水管里。不久，精疲力竭的琴用她的棕榈叶袋子做了一个枕头，就像过去上千次那样躺到一个垫子上，把围在腰上的纱笼松开，进入了梦乡。说她在过了三年有床可睡的生活之后，在地板上睡得很安稳并不完全准确。她一晚上醒来了很多次，听着晚上各种声响，看着洒满屋子的月光，满心高兴。

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She made arrangements with Mat Amin for the accommodation of the driver, and then went with Fatimah to her husband’s house. They asked if she had eaten, and she said no, and they made her a supper of rice and blachan, the highly-spiced paste of ripe prawns and fish that the Malays preserve in an upended concrete drain pipe. And presently, tired out, she made a pillow of her palm-leaf bag and lay down on a mat as she had done a thousand times before, and loosened the sarong around her waist, and slept. It would not be entirely accurate to say that she slept well upon the floor after sleeping in a bed for three years. She woke many times throughout the night, and listened to the noises of the night, and watched the moonlight creep around the house, and she was happy.

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次日早上，她跟法缇玛、梅里亚姆和老祖贝达围坐在房子后面的锅旁聊天，以免受到男士们打扰。“我离开后每天都想起这个地方。”她说，这并非绝对真实，但也八九不离十。“我工作和生活的时候，就想起你们所有人的工作和生活。我在英国工作，在办公室做案头工作，就跟我们国家其他不得不工作的女士一样。因为，正如你们所知，我很贫穷，必须一辈子工作来养活自己，直到找到一位如意郎君，而我又那么挑肥拣瘦。”女人们笑了，老祖贝达说：“女人要以那种方式自己养活自己还真是件怪事。”

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She had a talk with Fatimah and Meriam and old Zubeidah next morning, squatting round the cooking-pots behind the house out of the way of the men.“Every day that I have been away I have thought of this place,”she said; it was not precisely true, but near enough.“I have thought of you all living and working as I lived and worked. I was working in England, in an office at books in the way that women have to work in my country, because, as you know, I am a poor woman and I have had to work all my life to earn my living till I find a husband who suits me, and I am very particular.”The women laughed, and old Zubeidah said,“It is very strange that a woman should earn her living in that way.”

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梅里亚姆说：“我们民族有一个女人在瓜拉拉吉特的银行工作。我从窗户里看见过她。她正在用手指头敲一个机器，机器发出像钟一样的踢踏踢踏声。”

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Meriam said,“There is a woman of our people working in the bank at Kuala Rakit. I saw her through the window. She was doing something with her fingers on a machine, and it went clock-click-click.”

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琴点点头。“我在我的国家就是这样挣钱的，用类似那样的机器替我的老爷打印信函。但最近我的舅舅去世了。他住得离我很远，只与我见过一次面，但他没有其他亲戚了，我继承了他的遗产。所以现在我不需要工作了，除非我乐意。”女人们发出一阵赞羡的低语声。此时又有几个人加入了谈话的圈子，她们的队伍越发壮大了。“现在，我人生头一回有了这么多钱，我比以前任何时候都更加想念在瓜拉德朗的你们，想念我们身为战俘住在这里时，你们给予我们的恩惠。我意识到我必须报恩。我将以一个女人的身份送给瓜拉德朗的女人一件礼物，这件礼物跟男士们毫无关系。”

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Jean nodded.“That is how I earn my living in my country, working a machine like that to make a printed letter for the Tuan. But recently my uncle died; he lived far away from me and I have only met him once, but he had no other relatives and I inherited his money, so that now I need not work unless I want to.”A murmur of appreciation went around the women. Two or three more had drifted up to enlarge the circle.“And now having money of my own for the first time in my life, I thought more of you here in Kuala Telang than ever before, and of your kindness to us when we lived with you as prisoners. And it came to me that I should give a thankoffering to this place, and that this thankoffering should be a present from a woman to the women of Kuala Telang, nothing to do with the men.”

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在她周围的女人之间爆发出一阵愉快兴奋的低语声。老祖贝达说：“这倒是真的，男人们什么都不缺。”有几个女人听到这个异端邪说，震惊得目瞪口呆。

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There was a pleased and excited little buzz amongst the women who surrounded her. Old Zubeidah said,“It is true, the men get everything.”One or two of the women looked shocked at this heresy.

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“我考虑了很多遍，”琴说，“认为这个地方应该有一口井，这样你们就不需要早晚去泉边打水，而只需走出房子，最多走个五十步就有一口井，井里有新鲜水，旁边放着水桶，每当你们需要凉快的新鲜水时，都可以随时出来打。”又是一阵赞赏的低语声。“井的周围应该有光滑的石头，在年轻小伙子们替你们用桶打水的时候，你们可以坐在石头上聊天。我会在井边修建一个用聂帕榈做顶的屋子给你们用来洗衣服，里面有光滑的长条石板，或者混凝土板，那样你们就可以面对面洗衣服，边洗边聊。屋子四面用聂帕榈墙围起来，那样男人们就看不见你们在做什么了。”低语声变成一阵兴奋的喧闹声。“这就是我想做的事情，作为我对你们恩惠的回报。我会请一个挖井队过来挖井，并付钱给泥瓦匠，让他们弄好井旁的石头，还会请木匠过来修建洗衣房。但我想请几位经验丰富的女士给我提提建议，告诉我应该如何进行室内布置——关于洗衣板的高度，混凝土水池或者水渠，等等。这是女人送给女人的礼物，在这件事情上，男人要对女人唯命是从。”

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“I have thought many times,”Jean said,“that there should be a well in this place, so that you should not have to fetch fresh water from the spring morning and evening, but you could walk out of your houses only fifty paces at the most and there would be a well of fresh water with a bucket that you could go to and draw water at any time of the day whenever you had the need of cool, fresh water.”There was a little buzz of appreciation again.“There would be smooth stones around the well where you could sit and talk while the young men work the bucket for you. And close beside the well, I would have an atap house for washing clothes with long slabs of smooth stone or concrete arranged so that you could face each other while you wash, and talk, but all surrounded by an atap wall so that the men will not be able to see.”The buzz rose to an excited clamour.“This is what I want to do, as a thankoffering. I will engage a gang of well-diggers, and they shall dig the well, and I will pay masons for the stonework round the top, and I will pay carpenters to build the washing-house. But for the arrangement inside the house I shall want two or three women of experience to advise me how it should be devised, for the height of the slabs, for concrete pools or channels for the water, and so on. This is the gift of a woman for women, and in this thing the men shall do what women say.”

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接下来是一阵长时间的热烈讨论。一些女人怀疑男人们会不会允许这么一件事物的存在，有一些则怀疑，她们的祖母和母亲都对目前的打水方式相当满意，希望改变它是不是会有不虔诚的嫌疑。但如果这一革新有可能成为现实，几乎所有女人都对它充满渴望。一旦她们不再对这个主意大惊小怪，就开始反反复复地思考它，检查每一个细节，讨论井、洗衣间、混凝土水池和水渠的最佳位置。两个多小时后，她们都全心全意接受了这个主意。琴满心欢喜，因为它将使她们真正受惠，也是她们目前最想要的礼物。

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There was a long clamour of discussion. Some of the women were doubtful if the men would ever allow such a thing, and some were doubtful whether it was not impious to wish to alter the arrangements that had satisfied their mothers and their grandmothers before them. But most were avid for the innovation if it could be achieved; once they were used to the idea they savoured it and turned it over, examining it in every detail and discussing where the well should be and where the washhouse, and where the concrete pools should be, and where the drain. At the end of a couple of hours they had accepted the idea whole-heartedly, and Jean was satisfied that it would fill a real need, and that there was nothing that they would have preferred her to give.

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那天晚上，她和马特·阿明面对面坐在他屋子前面的小门廊上，就像以前无数次一样。她要跟他谈谈与女人们切身相关的事情。她抿了一口咖啡。“我要来和您谈一谈，”她说，“因为我想回报此地对我们的恩惠，好让人们记住，白人夫人曾经来过这里，你们对她们非常仁慈。”

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That evening she sat opposite Mat Amin on the small veranda before his house, as she had sat so many times before when matters that concerned the women had to be discussed. She sipped her coffee.“I have come to talk with you,”she said,“because I want to give a thankoffering to this place, that people may remember when the white women came here, and you were kind to them.”

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他说：“今天一整天我妻子净在和其他女人一起谈这件事情。她们说你想挖一口井。”

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He said,“The wife has been talking of nothing else all day, with other women. They say you want to make a well.”

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琴说：“是真的。这是一份送给瓜拉德朗的感恩之礼，来自所有英国夫人。但因为我们是女人，所以这份礼物送给此地女性比较合适。当我们住在这里的时候，打水任务非常繁重，我们早晚都要去泉边打水。在英国的时候，每次想起她们我都觉得非常难过。这就是我打算在村子中央挖一口井，作为感恩之礼的原因。”

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Jean said,“That is true. This is a thankoffering from all the English mems to Kuala Telang, but because we are women it is fitting that it should be a present for the women of this place. When we lived here it was a great labour, morning and evening, to fetch water from the spring and I was sorry for your women when I thought of them, in England, fetching water all that way. That is why I want my thankoffering to be a well in the middle of the village.”

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他说：“对于她们之前的母亲和祖母而言，能够喝上泉水就已经心满意足了。如果她们有一口井，难免会生出很多与其地位不相配的念头。”

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He said,“The spring was good enough for their mothers and their grandmothers before them. They will get ideas above their station in life if they have a well.”

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她耐心地说：“那样一来，她们将会有更多精力来尽忠尽责地伺候您，脾气也会变得更加温柔，马特·阿明。您还记得蕾哈娜·宾蒂·伊斯梅尔吗？她去打水的时候失去了肚子里三个月大的孩子。”她能说出这件事情来，使他倍感震惊，但英国夫人一向口无遮拦。“后来她病了整整一年，我不认为她以后还会对丈夫好声好气的。如果当时她们有这个作为感恩礼物献给您的井，悲剧就不会发生了。”

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She said patiently,“They will have more energy to serve you faithfully and kindly if they have this well, Mat Amin. Do you remember Raihana binti Ismail who lost her baby when she was three months’ pregnant, carrying this water?”He was shocked that she should speak of such a thing, but English mems would speak of anything.“She was ill for a year after that, and I don’t think she was any good to her husband ever again. If the women had had this well I want to give you as a thankoffering, that accident would not have happened.”

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他说：“真主安排女人的命运，就像他安排男人的命运一样。”

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He said,“God disposes of the lives of women as well as those of men.”

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她温柔地笑了。“我需要提醒您吗，马特·阿明？《古兰经》上写道：‘人性是贪吝所支配的。如果你们行善而且敬畏，那末，真主确是彻知你们的行为的。’”

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She smiled gently,“Do I have to remind you, Mat Amin, that it is written, ‘Men’s souls are naturally inclined to covetousness; but if ye be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.’”

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他用手拍打大腿，大笑道：“你住在这里时，每次想管我要点什么，就过来向我唠叨这句话。但你走了之后我就再也没听到过它了。”

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He laughed and slapped his thigh.“You said that to me many times when you lived here, whenever you wanted anything, but I have not heard it since.”

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“让女人们拥有她们的井，确是行善的。”她说。

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“It would be kind to let the women have their well,”she said.

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他仍然笑着，回答道：“我这样跟你说吧，琴小姐。当女人们像渴望这口井一样渴望一样东西时，她们一般都会得到它。但这是关乎整个村子的大事，我必须和兄弟们商量。”

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He replied, still laughing,“I say this to you, Si-Jean; that when women want a thing as badly as they want this well that you have promised them, they usually get it. But this is a matter which concerns the village as a whole, and I must consult my brothers.”

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第二天早上，男人们聚集在聂帕榈棚屋市场的阴凉处开会，全都坐在脚跟上。不久他们把琴叫过来。琴在他们身旁坐下，稍稍别过身子去，女士这样坐是很得体的。他们问她打算把井挖在哪里，以及聂帕榈洗衣房的位置。她说一切都掌握在他们手中，不过如果在蔡山的店铺前面那块空地上挖井，并把聂帕榈洗衣房建在井的西面，对着阿罕默德的屋子，对于女人们来讲会很方便。他们都站起来去视察地形，从所有角度展开了讨论。村子里所有女人都站着围观，见证她们的主人做出这个重要的决定。而迪恩则加入了他们的讨论，好像她也是他们当中平等的一员。

159
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The men sat in conference next morning, squatting on their heels in the shade of the atap market house. Presently they sent for Jean and she squatted down with them a little to one side as is fitting for a woman, and they asked her where the well was to be put, and where the atap washhouse. She said that everything was in their hands, but it would be convenient for the women if it was on the patch of ground in front of Chai San’s shop, with the atap washhouse west of it and pointing towards Ahmed’s house. They all got up then and went to see the ground and discuss it from all angles, and all the women of the village stood around and watched their lords making this important decision, and Djeen talking with them almost as if she was an equal.

160
-

她并没有催促他们匆忙下决定。她在这个村子里住了三年，知道他们思考过程非常缓慢，也知道他们在面临任何革新的时候有多么小心翼翼。他们花了两天时间，最终决定拥有一口井是好事，如果他们着手挖井，真主的愤怒不会落到他们头上。

160
-

She did not hurry them; she had lived three years in this village and she knew the slowness of their mental processes, the caution with which all innovations were approached. It took them two days to make up their minds that the well would be a good thing to have, and that the Wrath of God would not descend upon them if they put the work in hand.

161
-

挖井是一件技术性很强的差事，沿海一带只有一个家庭可堪重任。他们住在离关丹大约五英里远的地方。马特·阿明口授了一封信给当地的阿訇，请他写成爪哇文，然后村民们把信带到瓜拉拉吉特寄出去。琴托人从哥打巴鲁送来五袋水泥，并在瓜拉德朗安顿下来，打算工程进行期间在村子里住几天。

161
-

Well-digging is a skilled craft, and there was one family only on the coast who could be entrusted with the work; they lived about five miles from Kuantan. Mat Amin dictated a letter for the Imam to write in the Jawi script, and then they took it into Kuala Rakit and posted it. Jean sent for five sacks of cement from Kota Bahru, and settled down to wait for several weeks while the situation developed.

162
-

她常常跟渔夫们一起出海，要不然就坐在沙滩上和孩子们一起玩耍。她教他们堆沙堡，用手指在沙地上画出方格玩画圈打叉游戏。她常常在海里洗澡和游泳，水稻收割时节在稻田里劳动了一周。她和这里的人一起生活了很久，所以也很耐心地悠然度日。况且，既然已经没有必要继续上班，她也需要利用这段时间来思考新的人生目标。她闲居了三周，一点儿也不觉得无聊。

162
-

She spent much of the time with the fishermen on their boats, or sitting on the beach and playing with the children. She taught them to build sand castles and to play Noughts and Crosses on a chequer drawn with the finger in the sand; she bathed and swam a good deal, and worked for a week in the rice fields at the time of harvest. She had lived so long with these people that she was patient about the passage of time; moreover, she had a use for time to consider what she was going to do with her life now that she had no further need to work. She waited there for three weeks in idleness, and she did not find it tedious.

163
-

挖井队和水泥大约同时到达，工程开始了。挖井队是一家人，灰胡子的父亲叫苏莱曼，两个儿子叫雅各布和侯赛因。他们花了一天时间勘察土地，所有关于在哪里挖井的争论又重演了一遍，好让这些专家满意。后来终于可以开始动工了，工程进行得又快又好。挖井队从黎明一直忙活到黄昏，一个人在洞底，另外两个人在上面将挖出来的土堆在洞外。他们一边挖一边从上往下铺砖，用插入洞壁的木桩支撑砖墙。

163
-

The well-diggers and the cement arrived about the same time, and work commenced. The diggers were a family of an old grey-bearded father, Suleiman, and his two sons, Yacob and Hussein. They spent a day surveying the land and all the arguments for the site chosen for the well had to be gone over once again to satisfy these experts; when work finally began it was done quickly and well. The diggers worked from dawn till dusk, with one at the bottom of the shaft and the other two disposing of the soil on top; they bricked it downwards from the top as they worked, supporting the brickwork upon stakes driven into the earth sides.

164
-

那位父亲老苏莱曼对村子而言是一座信息的宝矿，因为他在马来亚东海岸走南闯北，修建和维修水井，不时走遍大部分村庄。瓜拉德朗的男男女女都习惯坐在周围，一边看他们挖井，一边和老人家扯些闲话，打听沿岸熟人和亲属的信息。一天下午，琴坐在一旁，向他说道：“您是从关丹来的吗？”

164
-

Old Suleiman, the father, was a mine of information to the village, for he travelled up and down the east coast of Malaya building and repairing wells, and so visited most villages from time to time. The men and women of Kuala Telang used to sit around watching the progress of the new well and gossiping with the old man, getting news of their acquaintances and relatives up and down the coast. Jean was sitting there one afternoon, and said to him,“You are from Kuantan?”

165
-

“从巴图沙瓦，”那位老人家说，“从关丹步行需要两个小时。我们的家在那里，但我们总是在旅行。”

165
-

“From Batu Sawah,”said the old man.“That is two hours’ walk from Kuantan. Our home is there, but we are great travellers.”

166
-

琴沉默了一会儿，然后问道：“您还记得战争第一年主管关丹军事的那位日本军官，渚蒲大尉吗？”

166
-

She was silent for a moment; then she said,“Do you remember the Japanese officer in charge at Kuantan in the first year of the war, Captain Sugamo?”

167
-

“当然记得，”那位老人家回答说，“他是一个很坏的人，他离任时我们都很高兴。接替他的市野大尉要好一些。”

167
-

“Assuredly,”the old man replied.“He is a very bad man, and we were glad when he went away. Captain Ichino who came after him was better.”

168
-

他似乎不知道渚蒲大尉已经死了，琴感到很惊讶。她以为战争犯罪委员会会去关丹调查取证。她告诉他：“渚蒲大尉现在已经死了。他后来被派往负责修建泰缅铁路，在那里滥施暴行，还谋杀了很多人。但同盟国战后逮捕了他，他以谋杀罪名接受审判，在槟城被处决了。”

168
-

Jean was surprised that he did not seem to know that Sugamo was dead; she had supposed that the War Crimes Commission would have taken evidence in Kuantan. She told him,“Captain Sugamo is dead now. He was sent to the Burma-Siam railway, and there he caused many atrocities, and many murders. But the Allies caught him when the war was over, and he was tried for murder, and executed in Penang.”

169
-

“这个消息真是大快人心，”老人家回答，“我要告诉我儿子。”他向井里大声说出这个新闻，几位男士进行了简短的讨论后便继续工作。

169
-

“I am glad to hear it,”the old man replied.“I will tell my sons.”He called down the well with the news; it was discussed a little, and then the men went on with their work.

170
-

琴问：“他在关丹做了很多邪恶的事情吗？”其中一件仍然留在她脑海里，记忆犹新，但她不想听见自己把它说出来。

170
-

Jean asked,“Did he do many evil things in Kuantan?”There was one still hideously fresh in her mind, but she could not bring herself to speak of it directly.

171
-

苏莱曼说：“很多人被折磨死了。”

171
-

Suleiman said,“Many people were tortured.”

172
-

她点点头。“我自己就看见过一次。”话已经藏不住了，而且她在这位不相干的老人家面前无须顾忌。“那时我们都在挨着饿，生着病，一个被俘的士兵向我们伸出了援手。日本人抓住了他，对他施以酷刑，把他的手钉在树上打死了他。”

172
-

She nodded.“I saw one myself.”It had to come out, and it did not matter what she said to this old man.“When we were starving and ill, a soldier who was a prisoner helped us. The Japanese caught him, and they crucified him with nails through his hands, and they beat him to death.”

173
-

“我记得那件事，”老人家说，“那个人就在关丹的医院里。”

173
-

“I remember that,”the old man said.“He was in hospital at Kuantan.”

174
-

琴睁大双眼看着他说：“老人家，他什么时候在医院里？他死了。”

174
-

Jean stared at him.“Old man, when was he in hospital? He died.”

175
-

“也许是两个人吧。”他向井里的雅各布喊道，“那个战争第一年在关丹被施以酷刑，被打伤的英国士兵，这位英国夫人认识他。告诉我们，那个英国人死了吗？”

175
-

“Perhaps there were two.”He called down the well to Yacob.“The English soldier who was crucified and beaten at Kuantan in the first year of the war. The English mem knew him. Tell us, did that man die?”

176
-

侯赛因插进来说：“被打的是个澳大利亚人，不是英国人。他是因为偷鸡被打的。”

176
-

Hussein broke in.“The one who was beaten was an Australian, not English. He was beaten because he stole chickens.”

177
-

“确实如此，”那位老人家说，“就是因为偷了黑公鸡。但他死了还是没死？”

177
-

“Assuredly,”the old man said.“It was for stealing the black chickens. But did he live or die?”

178
-

雅各布从井底往上喊道：“那天晚上渚蒲大尉把他放了下来，他们把钉子从他手里拔掉。他没死。”

178
-

Yacob called up from the bottom of the well.“Captain Sugamo had him taken down that night; they pulled the nails out of his hands. He lived.”

序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

railway

['reɪlweɪ]

n.【C】铁路

grind

[ɡraɪnd]

v.磨;压迫;碾碎;磨得吱吱响;逐渐停顿

bleed

[bliːd]

v.流血;渗色;榨取;放掉(水或气体);给...抽血

escort

['eskɔːt]

n.护送者;护航舰;陪伴者;陪游;妓女

disgrace

[dɪs'ɡreɪs]

n.耻辱

disgraceful

[dɪs'ɡreɪsfl]

adj.可耻的;不光彩的

dishonorable

[dɪs'ɒnərəbl]

adj.不名誉的;不光彩的

honorable

['ɒnərəbl]

adj.光荣的;可敬的;体面的.

Jean

[dʒiːn]

n.斜纹布(复数)jeans:牛仔裤.

traveled

['trævld]

adj.有旅行经验的;旅客多的,

gradual

['ɡrædʒuəl]

adj.逐渐的;逐步的;平缓的

comparative

[kəm'pærətɪv]

adj.比较的;相当的

rocky

['rɒki]

adj.岩石的;像岩石的;坚硬的;麻木的;困难重重的;摇晃的，不稳定的

headland

['hedlənd]

n.海角;海岬

fringe

[frɪndʒ]

n.流苏;边缘;次要;额外补贴

reproof

[rɪ'pruːf]

n.斥责;责备

mope

[məʊp]

v.抑郁不乐;闲逛;无精打采

sullen

['sʌlən]

adj.愠怒的;闷闷不乐的;阴沉的

queer

[kwɪə(r)]

a. 古怪的，奇怪的;

reversal

[rɪ'vɜːsl]

n.翻转;倒转;反转

detachment

[dɪ'tætʃmənt]

n.冷漠;公正;分遣队;脱离

Peninsula

[pə'nɪnsjələ]

n.半岛

helpless

['helpləs]

adj.无助的;无依靠的

ruthless

['ruːθləs]

adj.残忍的;无情的

billet

['bɪlɪt]

n.兵舍;军营;职位;短木柴;钢坯

infinite

['ɪnfɪnət]

adj.无穷的;无限的

dysentery

['dɪsəntri]

n.痢疾

leisure

['leʒə(r)]

n.闲暇;休闲

primitive

['prɪmətɪv]

adj.原始的;简陋的

Warner

['wɔːnə]

n.报警器;警告者

Robin

['rɒbɪn]

罗宾(人名)

Holland

['hɔlənd]

n.荷兰

regularity

[ˌreɡju'lærəti]

n.规律性;规则性;匀整;定期

brood

[bruːd]

n.一窝;一伙;一家孩子;一组事物

Palestine

[ˈpælɪstaɪn]

n.巴勒斯坦

prolong

[prə'lɒŋ]

vt.延长;拖延

distress

[dɪ'stres]

n.不幸;危难;苦恼;痛苦

sect

[sekt]

n.宗派;教派

awe

[ɔː]

n.敬畏;恐惧

marches

[mɑːtʃ]

1. n. (尤指英格兰与苏格兰或威尔士的)边界地区, 2.动词march的第三人称单数形式

renew

[rɪ'njuː]

v.重新开始;更新

fancy

['fænsi]

n. 【C】设想；幻想；空想;

unmarried

[ˌʌn'mærid]

adj.未婚的;独身的

tropic

['trɒpɪk]

n.回归线;热带

clothe

[kləʊð]

vt.穿上;赋予

muddy

['mʌdi]

adj.泥泞的;浑浊的;糊涂的

roller

['rəʊlə(r)]

n.滚筒;滚轴;滚转机

surf

[sɜːf]

vi.冲浪;浏览

figurehead

['fɪɡəhed]

n.装饰船头的人像;傀儡领袖

stern

[stɜːn]

adj.严厉的;严峻的;苛刻的;坚决的

eclipse

[ɪ'klɪps]

n.日或月食;丧失;没落

alleviate

[ə'liːvieɪt]

vt.减轻;使 ... 缓和

weep

[wiːp]

v.流泪;哭泣;悲叹;渗出

procession

[prə'seʃn]

n.队伍;行列

comfortably

['kʌmftəbli]

adv.舒服地;容易地;充裕地

chit

[tʃɪt]

n.便条;欠条;黄毛丫头

Imperial

[ɪm'pɪəriəl]

adj.帝国的;皇帝的

accommodation

[əˌkɒmə'deɪʃn]

n.膳宿

re-cover

[ˌriː'kʌvə(r)]

v.再覆盖;装以新的封面或盖

mattress

['mætrəs]

n.床垫

coconut

['kəʊkənʌt]

n.椰子

quinine

[kwɪ'niːn]

n.奎宁

inert

[ɪ'nɜːt]

adj.无行动的;惰性的;迟钝的

profuse

[prə'fjuːs]

adj.很多的;丰富的;慷慨的;浪费的

felted

['feltɪd]

v. 把 ... 制成毡(使 ... 粘结)

ooze

[uːz]

v.(使)渗出;泄漏;流露

bead

[biːd]

n.珠子

Frith

[frɪθ]

n.狭窄的海岔;河口

paddy

['pædi]

n.稻田;大怒;爱尔兰人

seedling

['siːdlɪŋ]

n.幼苗

sow

[saʊ]

v.播种;散布

Gong

[ɡɒŋ]

n.锣; 奖章

aeroplane

['eərəpleɪn]

n.飞机

unkind

[ˌʌn'kaɪnd]

adj.不和善的;无情的;不厚道的

liftable

[lɪftəbl]

a.1. 可以举起的

sip

[sɪp]

n.啜饮

swamp

[swɒmp]

n.沼泽;湿地;困境

unto

['ʌntə]

prep.对;给;直到;在 ... 旁边

acquaint

[ə'kweɪnt]

vt.使了解;使熟知;告知

Surah

['sjʊərə]

n.斜纹软绸;章;回

incredulous

[ɪn'kredjələs]

adj.怀疑的;不轻信的

Koran

[kə'rɑːn]

n.(伊斯兰教)《古兰经》

honour

[ˈɒnə]

n.光荣;

squat

[skwɒt]

v.蹲下;蹲坐;擅自占地

robust

[rəʊ'bʌst]

adj.强健的

grit

[ɡrɪt]

n.砂砾;粗砂石;勇气;决心

morale

[mə'rɑːl]

n.士气;斗志;道德准则

novelty

['nɒvlti]

n.【C】新奇;小装饰

Paddy

['pædi]

n.稻田;大怒;爱尔兰人

hoe

[həʊ]

n.锄头

transplant

['trænsplɑːnt]

v.移居;移栽(植物);移植(器官)

alternate

['ɔːltɜːnət]

v.交替;轮流

stalk

[stɔːk]

n.茎;梗

harvestable

['hɑːvɪstəbl]

可收成的;可收割的;

winnow

['wɪnəʊ]

v.吹开糠皮;把挑出来;精选

Buffalo

['bʌfələʊ]

n.水牛;野牛;水陆坦克

tramp

[træmp]

n.徒步;流浪汉;淫妇;重脚步声

rotation

[rəʊ'teɪʃn]

n.旋转;循环

unpleasant

[ʌn'pleznt]

adj.使人不愉快的;讨厌的;不合意的;不友好的，粗鲁的

trickle

['trɪkl]

vi.滴流;慢慢移动

cooler

['kuːlə(r)]

n.冷却器

gourd

[ɡʊəd]

n. 葫芦; 脑瓜

Colonel

['kɜːnl]

n.上校

nuisance

['njuːsns]

n.讨厌的人;讨厌的东西;伤害

hesitant

['hezɪtənt]

adj.迟疑的;犹豫不定的

Malay

[mə'leɪ]

n.马来人;马来语

poker

['pəʊkə(r)]

n.扑克

scrape

[skreɪp]

v.刮掉;擦掉

grate

[ɡreɪt]

n.栅;壁炉

fearful

['fɪəfl]

adj.担心的;可怕的;非常的

tidal

['taɪdl]

adj.潮的;潮水似的

Singapore

[ˌsiŋgə'pɔ:]

n.新加坡

Bill

[bɪl]

①帐单；清单;

sturdy

['stɜːdi]

adj.强健的;坚固的;坚决的

chap

[tʃæp]

vt. 使(皮肤)裂口，裂开；变粗糙;

Levy

['levi]

n.征税;召集

Liverpool

[ˈlɪvəpuːl]

n.利物浦(英国港市)

blitz

[blɪts]

n.闪击(尤指空袭);(突击性或集中性的)工作

atlas

['ætləs]

n.地图集

fort

[fɔːt]

n.堡垒;要塞

Wright

[raɪt]

赖特

typist

['taɪpɪst]

n.打字员

mouthful

['maʊθfʊl]

n.一口;又长又拗口的词

shill

[ʃɪl]

n.托儿;雇佣骗子

discretionary

[dɪ'skreʃənəri]

adj.自由裁量的;任意的， 自由决定的，酌情行事的， 便宜行事的

suitcase

['suːtkeɪs]

n.手提箱

skating

['skeɪtɪŋ]

n.溜冰,

skate

[skeɪt]

v.溜冰;滑冰

tablet

['tæblət]

n.药片

repellent

[rɪ'pelənt]

n.驱虫剂;防水剂

amaze

[ə'meɪz]

vt.使吃惊;使惊异

premonition

[ˌpriːmə'nɪʃn]

n.(不祥的)预感

Noel

[nəʊ'el]

n.诺埃尔(姓氏;男子名;女子名)

steamer

['stiːmə(r)]

n.汽船;轮船;蒸笼;【动】沙海螂

past

[pɑːst]

a. 过去的;

latest

['leɪtɪst]

adj.最近的;最新的

prestige

[pre'stiːʒ]

n.【U】威望;声望

concession

[kən'seʃn]

n.让步;特许权;租界;妥协

brooch

[brəʊtʃ]

n.胸针;领针

cosmetic

[kɒz'metɪk]

adj.化妆用的;整容的;表面的

Englishwoman

['ɪŋɡlɪʃwʊmən]

n.英国女人

sarong

[sə'rɒŋ]

n.莎笼(马来人及印尼人所穿的围裙)

wearily

['wɪərəli]

adv.疲倦地;厌烦地

throng

[θrɒŋ]

n.人群;一大群;大量

squint

[skwɪnt]

n. 斜视；斜视眼;

labour

[ˈleɪbə]

n. 劳动;劳动力

veil

[veɪl]

n.面纱;面罩;掩饰物

supper

['sʌpə(r)]

n.晚饭

paste

[peɪst]

n.浆糊

prawn

[prɔːn]

n.对虾;明虾

loosen

['luːsn]

vt.松开;放松;放宽

creep

[kriːp]

vi.蹑手蹑脚地走;爬

murmur

['mɜːmə(r)]

n. 低沉连续的声音(如风的沙沙声、流水的淙淙声等);

enlarge

[ɪn'lɑːdʒ]

v.扩大;增大;详述

excite

[ɪk'saɪt]

vt.使兴奋;使激动;刺激;激起

slab

[slæb]

n.厚板

mason

['meɪsn]

n.石匠;泥瓦匠

devise

[dɪ'vaɪz]

vt.设计;发明;遗赠

clamor

['klæmə]

n.喧嚷;大声的要求

kindly

['kaɪndli]

adj.和蔼的;温和的;爽快的

caution

['kɔːʃn]

n.警告;慎重;戒备;吸引人眼球的人或物

entrust

[ɪn'trʌst]

vt.信赖;信托;交托

cement

[sɪ'ment]

n.水泥

nought

[nɔːt]

n.没有;零;无

digger

['dɪɡə(r)]

n.挖掘者;采掘机;澳大利亚士兵;新西兰士兵

dusk

[dʌsk]

n.黄昏;薄暮;幽暗

shaft

[ʃɑːft]

n.轴;柄;竖井;杆状物;

stake

[steɪk]

n.桩;赌注;利害关系

gossip

['ɡɒsɪp]

n.流言蜚语;爱说长道短的人;闲话

acquaintance

[ə'kweɪntəns]

n.熟人;相识;了解

traveller

[ˈtrævlə]

n.旅客;旅行家

atrocity

[ə'trɒsəti]

n.暴行;残暴

hideous

['hɪdiəs]

adj.丑陋的;可怕的;可憎的;令人惊骇的

starve

[stɑːv]

vi.挨饿;受饿;极度匮乏

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