马克吐温短篇小说——生命中的五个恩惠

      我的译文 2005-11-10 8:27

马克·吐温

1
在生命之初,善良的仙女提着篮子而来,她说:
"这里是礼物。拿一件,把其它的留下。要仔细,慎重地选择;哦,要慎重地选择!因为它们中只有一件是有价值的。"
礼物有五个:名誉,爱情,财富,快乐,死亡。小伙子热切地说:
"无须考虑";他选择了"快乐"。
小伙子走入这个世界,竭力寻找他所喜爱的快乐。但每次都是短暂而令人失望的,都是徒劳无益的;而且每次,离去了,都嘲笑他。最后他说:"这些年我都虚度了。只要我能再选一次,我会慎重选择的。"

2
仙女出现了,她说:
"还剩下四件礼物。再选一次;哦,记住——时间飞逝,其中只有一件是宝贵的。"
男人考虑了很久,然后选择了"爱情";他没有注意到从仙女眼中流出的泪水。
很多很多年以后,在一个空屋子里,男人坐在棺材旁。他沉思,他说:"一个接一个,她们都离我而去;现在她躺在这里,最亲爱的,也是最后一个。孤寂一次又一次地袭击我;为了那背信弃义的商人——爱情,曾出售给我的每一小时的幸福,我已付出了上千小时的悲伤。我发自内心地诅咒他。"

3
"再选一次。"是仙女在说。"这些年已给了你教训——一定是这样的。还剩下三件礼物。其中只有一件有价值——记住它,然后仔细挑选吧。"
男人思考了很久,然后选择了"名望";仙女叹息着离开了。
一年年过去,她又来了,站在男人身后,此时他正独自坐在黄昏之中,思索着。仙女知道他在想什么:
"我的名字曾响遍全世界,每张嘴都说着赞美它的话,对我来说这似乎太好了,但只有那么一小会儿。那是多么短暂的一段时间啊!然后是贬低;然后是诽谤;然后是憎恨;然后是迫害。然后是嘲笑,它是结局的开始。最后来到的是怜悯,它是名望的葬礼。哦,声誉的辛酸和痛苦!先是诽谤的目标,最后就成了轻视和同情的对象。"

4
"还是再选一次吧。"是仙女的声音。"还剩下两件礼物。别灰心。从一开始就只有一件是宝贵的,它仍在这里。"
"财富——它就是力量!我以前真是瞎了眼!"男人说。"现在,在最后,这一辈子将活得有价值。我要浪费,滥用,炫耀。那些嘲笑我和看不起我的人将在我面前的泥里爬,我要用他们的妒忌来喂饱我饥饿的心灵。我将拥有所有的奢华享受,所有的欢乐,所有的举止魅力,所有人类认为可贵的身体的满足。我要买,买,买!敬重,尊敬,尊重,敬仰——每一件平凡世界的市场里所能提供的生命的廉价恩惠。我已失去了许多时间,在此以前的选择都是糟糕的,但让那些都过去吧;那时我无知,只能选取那些表面看来是最好的东西。"
短短的三年过去了,有一天,这个男人坐在一间简陋的阁楼里发抖。他憔悴而苍白,两眼深陷,穿得破衣烂衫;他正在啃干面包皮,还咕哝道:
"诅咒世界上所有的恩惠,因为那都是嘲弄和镀了金的谎言!这一切都说错了。它们不是恩惠,只是些要还的债。快乐,爱情,名望,财富:它们只是永恒真实的暂时伪装——它们是痛苦,悲伤,耻辱,贫穷。仙女说得对;在她的所有礼物中只有一件是宝贵的,只有一件有价值。我现在知道了其它那些是多么无聊、便宜、低劣,同那无价的一件相比——它可贵、甜蜜、温和,它使残害身体的痛苦、吞噬心灵的耻辱和悲伤都沉浸在无梦的、永久的睡眠中。把它拿来!我厌倦了。我要休息。"

5
仙女来了,再次带来了四件礼物,但却缺少了死亡。她说:
"我把它给了一位母亲的宝贝,一个小孩。他很无知,但却相信我,向我询问并选择了它。你不曾向我询问过该选什么。"
"哦,我这个可怜人!我还剩什么了?"
"那是你甚至都不配得到的:老年的放肆攻击。"
1902


附原文
The Five Boons of Life

by Mark Twain

Chapter I

In the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:
"Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary, chose wisely; oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable."
The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth said, eagerly:
"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure.
He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youth delights in. But each in its turn was short-lived and disappointing, vain and empty; and each, departing, mocked him. In the end he said: "These years I have wasted. If I could but choose again, I would choose wisely.

Chapter II

The fairy appeared, and said:
"Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember-- time is flying, and only one of them is precious."
The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears that rose in the fairy's eyes.
After many, many years the man sat by a coffin, in an empty home. And he communed with himself, saying: "One by one they have gone away and left me; and now she lies here, the dearest and the last. Desolation after desolation has swept over me; for each hour of happiness the treacherous trader, Love, has sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of my heart of hearts I curse him."

Chapter III

"Choose again." It was the fairy speaking.
"The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts remain. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily."
The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went her way.
Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat solitary in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:
"My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Then came envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution. Then derision, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all came pity, which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown! target for mud in its prime, for contempt and compassion in its decay."

Chapter IV

"Chose yet again." It was the fairy's voice.
"Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but one that was precious, and it is still here."
"Wealth--which is power! How blind I was!" said the man. "Now, at last, life will be worth the living. I will spend, squander, dazzle. These mockers and despisers will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed my hungry heart with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all enchantments of the spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds dear. I will buy, buy, buy! deference, respect, esteem, worship--every pinchbeck grace of life the market of a trivial world can furnish forth. I have lost much time, and chosen badly heretofore, but let that pass; I was ignorant then, and could but take for best what seemed so."
Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in a mean garret; and he was gaunt and wan and hollow-eyed, and clothed in rags; and he was gnawing a dry crust and mumbling:
"Curse all the world's gifts, for mockeries and gilded lies! And miscalled, every one. They are not gifts, but merely lendings. Pleasure, Love, Fame, Riches: they are but temporary disguises for lasting realities--Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty. The fairy said true; in all her store there was but one gift which was precious, only one that was not valueless. How poor and cheap and mean I know those others now to be, compared with that inestimable one, that dear and sweet and kindly one, that steeps in dreamless and enduring sleep the pains that persecute the body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind and heart. Bring it! I am weary, I would rest."

Chapter V

The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting. She said:
"I gave it to a mother's pet, a little child. It was ignorant, but trusted me, asking me to choose for it. You did not ask me to choose."
"Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?"
"What not even you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age."
1902

我对这篇译文很没把握,我知道一定会有很多错误的地方——这里有些我已经发现了,但不知如何去改。我现将译文与原文在这里一并贴出,希望英语好的朋友给予我批评指正。
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