-
In the dining-saloon I sit at a
table with three other men; Laura sits some way
oft with a married
couple and their
daughter. I can observe her without her knowing,
and this gives me pleasure, for
it is
as in a moving picture that I can note the grace
of her gestures, whether she raises a glass of
wine to her lips or turns with a remark
to one of her neighbours or takes a cigarette from
her case
with those slender fingers. I
have never had much of an eye for noticing the
clothes of women, but
I get the
impression that Laura is always in grey and white
by day, looking cool when other people
are
flushed
and
shiny
in
the
tropical
heat;
in
the
evening
she
wears
soft
rich
colours,
dark
red,
olive green, midnight
blue, always of the most supple flowing texture. I
ventured to say something
of
the
kind
to
her,
when
she
laughed
at
my
clumsy
compliment
and
said
I
had
better
take
to
writing fashion articles
instead of political leaders.
< br>在餐厅里，
我同另外三个男人围坐在一张桌子旁，
而劳拉
同一对夫妇及他们的女儿一块儿坐
在离我不远的地方。
我可以观
察她而不让她发觉，
这使我觉得开心，
因为我可以像看电影一<
/p>
样地欣赏她优雅的动作，
不论是举杯送到唇边，
< br>还是扭头与邻座交谈，
抑或是用她那纤细的
手指从烟盒中
夹取香烟的动作。
我向来不太会欣赏也不大注意女人的衣着，
但
我却有这样的
印象：
劳拉白天总穿着灰色和白色的衣服，
因而当别人被热带的高温烘烤得红光满面时，
她
看上去却给人一种清爽的感觉。
到了晚间，她又总是穿着深红、橄榄绿、深蓝等色调柔
和富
丽、
质料柔软光滑的衣服。
当我不
揣冒昧地将这话对她讲时，
她对我这种笨拙的恭维报以开
心的大
笑，还说我最好不再写什么政坛人物的述评文章而改行专写时装评论算了。
The tall Colonel whose name is
Dalrymple seems a nice chap . He and I and Laura
and a Chinese
woman improbably galled
Mme Merveille have made up a Bridge-tour and thus
beguile ourselves
for an hour or so
after dinner while others dance on deck. The
Colonel, who is not too offensively
an
Empire-builder, sometimes tries to talk to me
about public affairs; he says he used to read me,
and is rather charmingly deferential ,
prefacing his remarks by 'Of course it's not for
me to suggest
to you…
or
foreign policy should be handled. He is by no
means stupid or ill-informed; a little opinionated
perhaps, and just about as far to the
Right as anybody could go, but I like him, and try
not to tease
him by putting forward
views which would only bring a puzzled look to his
face. Besides, I do not
want to become
involved in discussion. I observe with amusement
how totally the concerns of the
world,
which once absorbed me to the exclusion of all
else except an occasional relaxation with
poetry or music, have lost interest for
me eve to the extent of a bored distaste.
Doubtless some
instinct impels me
gluttonously to cram these the last weeks of my
life with the gentler things I
never
had
time
for,
releasing
some
suppressed
inclination
which
in
fact
was
always
latent.
Or
maybe
Laura's unwitting influence has called it out.
※
那个名叫达里波的高个子上校看样
子是个好相处的人。他和我同劳拉及一个竟被人
称呼为麦尔维尔夫人的中国妇女凑成一桌
桥牌，四人搭档。这样，
晚饭后，当其他的人在甲
板上跳舞时，
我们便用打牌来消遣个把小时。
上校不是个令人讨厌的帝国的卫
道士，
他经常
找我谈论一些国家大事。
他说他以前常读我写的文章；他说话温文尔雅，彬彬有礼，一开口
总是先来上一句
“当然，
我没有资格建议您……”
接下来他就
会明确地谈他该如何处置关于
某项国内或外交事务的意见。他决不算愚笨，也绝谈不上孤
陋寡闻，只是可能有一点偏执，
政治思想上极端右倾保守，
但我
对他颇有好感，
因而尽量不提出一些只会使他露出困惑的神
色的
见解，以免使他难堪。况且，我也不想陷入讨论的旋涡。我有趣地发觉，自己过去除偶
尔
借诗歌或音乐消遣放松一下外，
一心专注的世界大事现在不仅是索然无味，
而且简直是令
人厌烦了。
这无疑是自己受某种本能的
驱使，
要贪婪地用一些过去无暇享受的赏心乐事来填
补自己生命
中的最后几周，
释放那些在过去虽受到压抑但一直潜伏在自己心中的欲望。
也许
是劳拉的无意的影响唤起了我心中的欲望。
Dismissive as Pharisee, I regarded as
moonlings all those whose life was lived on a less
practical
plane. Protests about damage
to 'natural beauty' froze me wit,
and
could spare no regrets for a lake dammed into
hydraulic use for the benefit of an industrial
city in the Midlands. And so it was for
all things. A hard materialism was my creed,
accepted as a
law
of
progress;
any
ascription
of
disinterested
motives
aroused
not
only
my
suspicion
but
my
scorn.
※
过去，我像法利赛人一样自以为是，轻视别人。只要别人的生活不像我这么讲求实
际，我就把他们看作月球居民。
对于人们因“大自然的美”遭到破坏而提出
的抗议我嗤之以
鼻，
因为我相信文明的进步的合理性。
对于为了利用水力使内地某个工业城市受益而在某个
湖泊上筑起拦湖大坝
这种事情我根本不觉得遗憾。
对一切事物我都是这种态度。
我信
仰绝对
的实用主义，
并将其看作是人类进步的自然法则。
任何人若标榜自己的行为出于无私的动机，
那不仅会引起我的怀疑，而
且会引起我的轻蔑。
And now see how I
stand, as sentimental and sensitive as any old
maid doing water-colour s of
sunsets! I
once flattered myself that I was an adult man; I
now perceive that I am gloriously and
abolescently silly. A new Clovis,
loving what I have despised, and suffering from
calf-love into the
bar gain, I want my
till of beauty before I go. Geographically I did
not care and scarcely know
where I am.
There are no signposts in the sea.
可是看看现在的我吧，竟然像一个老处女正用水彩画着西下的残阳，十分地多愁善感
!
我曾
自诩为老成持重，现在却意识到自己原来这
么幼稚无知。就像那个改弦易辙的克洛维一样，
我竟然对自己过去所鄙视的一切开始热爱
起来，
并且还要遭受少年初恋的痛苦。
我想在离开
人世之前尽情享受一切美好的东西。我不知道也不想知道自己身处何方。茫茫大海无路标。
The young moon lies on her back
tonight as is her habit in the tropics, and as, I
think, is suitable if
not seemly for a
virgin. Not a star but might not shoot down and
accept the invitation to become
her
lover. When all my fellow-passengers have finally
dispersed to bed, I creep up again to the
deserted deck and slip into the
swimming pool and float, no longer what people
believe me to be,
a middle-aged
journalist taking a holiday on an ocean-going
liner, but a liberated being, bathed in
() mythological water s, an Endymion
young and strong, with a god for his father and a
vision of
the world inspired from
Olympus. All weight is lifted from my limbs; 1 am
one with the night; I
understand the
meaning of pantheism . How my friends would laugh
if they knew I had come to
this!
To
have
discarded
,
as
I
believe,
all
usual
frailties
,
to
have
become
incapable
of
envy,
ambition, malice , the
desire to score off my neighbour, to enjoy this
purification even as I enjoy
the clean
voluptuousness of the warm breeze on my skin and
the cool support of the water. Thus, I
imagine,
must
the
pious
feel
cleansed
on
leaving
the
confessional
after
the
solemnity
of
absolution .
※
今夜的一弯新月仰面斜躺在天空，这是月亮在热带地区常见的姿势。在我看来，这
种姿势对一个少女来说虽说有些不雅，
但却还是适宜的。
< br>没有哪一颗星星不愿飞射下来接受
邀请做她的情人。
当船
上的其他乘客最后一个个都回舱就寝之后，
我一个人又悄悄爬上空荡
荡的甲板，
滑人游泳池，
在水面上浮游着。
这时我已不再是人们所熟悉的那位在远洋海轮上
度假的中年记者了，
而是一个无拘无束的沐浴着天池神水的自由快乐的人，
就像神话中那位
有天神作父亲并有一双奥林匹斯山诸神所赐的观察人世的慧眼的年轻健壮的恩底弥翁。
我只
觉身体四肢轻飘飘的没有任何重量，
并且
和夜的世界合为一体。
我悟出了泛神论的真正意义。
我的那些朋
友们若知道我已变成这样，他们不知会笑成什么样子
!
在享受着
这暖风浴肤，凉
水托体所带来的清新快感时，我相信我的心灵也得到了净化，丢弃了凡人
皆有的种种弱点，
变得不会嫉妒，没有野心，没有恶意，与世无争。照我想象，那些虔诚
的教徒在做完庄严的
忏悔仪式离开忏悔室时，他们心灵得到净化的感觉一定就像我此时的
感觉一样。
Sometimes Laura and I
lean over the taffrail , and that is happiness. It
may be by daylight, looking
at the sea,
rippled with little white ponies, or with no
ripples at all but on-ly the lazy satin of blue,
marbled at the edge where the passage
of our ship has disturbed it. Or it may be at
night, when the
sky surely seems
blacker than ever at home and the stars more
golden. I recall a phrase from the
diary of a half-
literate
soldier, ‘ The stars seemed little cuts in the
black cover, through which a
bright
beyond was seen.' Sometimes these untaught
scribblers have a way of putting things.
※
有时，劳拉和我一起倚在船尾栏杆上，这对我是一种幸福。倘
是在白天，我们凭栏
远眺大海，
只见海面上时而翻卷起白色的浪
花，
时而平静得宛若一幅微微飘动起伏着的蓝色
缎面，完全见不
到翻起的浪花，只有我们的轮船驶过之处才泛起一道道如大理石般的波纹。
若是在夜晚，
我们翘首望天，这儿的夜空比故乡的更黑，
星光却显得更加璀璨。此时此景令
我不由想起一个粗通文墨的士兵在日记中写的这样一句话：
“星星看起来就
像一个黑锅盖上
挖的许多小窟窿，透过这些小窟窿可以看见锅盖外面的亮光。
”有时候那些没念过书的人信
笔涂鸦写的东西倒也有那么两下子。
The wireless told us today that
there is fog all over England.
据无线电广播，今天全英格兰弥漫着大雾。
Sometimes we follow a coastline, it may
be precipitous bluffs of grey limestone rising
sheer out of
the sea, or a low-lying
arid stretch with miles of white sandy beach, and
no sign of habitation, very
bleachedand
barren.
These
coasts
remind
me
of
people;
either
they
are
forbidding
and
unapproachable , or else they present
no mystery and show all they have to give at a
glance, you
feel the country would
continue to be flat and featureless however far
you penetrated inland. What
I like best
are the stern cliffs, with ranges of mountains
soaring behind them, full of possibilities,
peaks
to
be
scaled
only
by
the
most
daring.
What
plants
of
the
high
altitudes
grow
unravished
among
their
crags
and
valleys?
So
do
I
let
my
imagination
play
over
the
recesses
of
Laura's
Character,
so
austere
in
the
foreground but
nurturing
what
treasures
of
tenderness, like
delicate
flowers, for the discovery of the
venturesome.
※
有时，我们的轮船沿着海岸线航行
。时而是突拔而起的石灰岩峭壁，时而是地势低
洼连绵数英里的茫茫沙滩，渺无人迹，凄
惨荒凉。这种海岸景象使我联想到这样一些人，
他
们或者是令人
望而生畏，难以接近，或者是无秘可隐，让人一眼就可看穿。看见这些海岸，
你会产生这
样的感觉：不论你向内陆腹地深人多远，那里的土地都将和岸边一样平淡无奇。
我最喜爱
的是岸边的那些悬崖峭壁及其背后的那高耸云端、
神秘莫测的峰峦叠嶂，
那山峰只
有最英勇无畏的人才能够攀登上去。
在崇山峻
岭之间人迹未至的石隙和幽谷中生长着的是一
些什么样的高原植物呢
?
我也这样地让自己的想象力尽情地探索劳拉性格深处的秘密。她的
性情表面上严肃冷峻，
但她内心里却蕴育着丰富温柔的情感，
< br>宛如娇嫩的花朵，
等待着勇士
去发现。
< br>
My fellow-passengers
apparently do not share my admiration.
‘
Drearee sorter
cowst,' said an Australian.
‘
Makes you Iong for a bit of
green. '
同船的其他乘客们显然不能以我这样的眼
光去欣赏海岸上的景色。
“这海岸
景象真是荒凉，
”一位澳大利亚人说。
“它让人渴望见到一点绿
色。
”
Darkness
falls,
and
there
is
nothing
but
the
intermittent
g1eam
of
a
1iahthouse
on
a
solitary
promontory .
※
夜幕降临，四野茫茫，唯见一处荒凉的岬角的一座灯塔上的航标灯忽明忽暗地闪烁
着。
We rounded just
such a cape towards sunset, the most easterly
point of a continent, dramatically
high
and lonely, a great purple mountain overhung by a
great purple cloud. The sea had turned to a
corresponding dusk of lavender .
Aloofad on the top, the yellow 1iaht revolved,
steady, warning; I
wondered what mortal
controlled it, in what must be one of the
loneliest, most forbidding spots on
Earth.
Haunted
too,
for
many
wrecks
had
piled
up
on the
reefs
in
the
past,
when
there
was
no
beacon to guide them.
※
日落时分，我们的轮船正好绕过这
样一个海角，它位于一块大陆的最东端，是一座
孤峰高耸的紫色大山，
< br>山顶上笼罩着大片紫色的云雾。
海水也相应地变成了淡紫色。
山顶上，
黄色的航标灯不停地旋转着，
向过往船只发出警示
信号。
我心中好奇，
在这也许称得上世界
上最荒僻最危险的地方，究竟是什么样的人在那里看守着灯塔呢
?
那一带还是鬼魂出没的地
方，因为在过去没有指航灯指航的岁月里，那儿的礁石上堆
满了遇难船只的残骸。
The Colonel
joined us.
‘
How would you care for that
man's job?' he said.
‘
I suppose he sets relieved
every so often?'
‘
On the contrary, he refuses
ever to leave. He is an Italian, and he has been
there for years
and years, with a
native woman for his only company. Most people
would think him crazy, but I
must say I
find it refreshing to think there are still a few
odd fish left in the world.
上校来到了我们身边。
“你觉得那人的职业怎样
?
’
’他问道。
“大概
经常有人来换班吧
?
’
’
< br>“恰恰相反，他一直不肯离开那儿。他是个意大利人，在那儿守了好多好多年了，与他
作伴的只有一个当地妇女。
一般人大概都会觉得他这人古怪，
但我一想到世上居然还剩着这
样几个怪人，就感到挺惬意。
”
This is the unexpected kind
of remark that makes me like the Colonel; there is
a touch of rough
poetry about him. I
like also the out-of-the-way information which he
imparts from time to time
without
insistence;
he
has
traveled
much,
and
has
used his
eyes
and
kept
his
ears
open.
I
have
discovered also that he knows quite a
lot about sea-birds; he puts me right about the
different sorts
of gull, and tells me
very nicely that that couldn't possibly be an
albatross , not in these waters.