吴仲湛英文小说翻译选

 

 

The Sun Also Rises

太阳照常升起

Ernest Haimingway

[美] 欧内斯特．海明威 著

吴仲湛　译

 

Book One

第一部

Chapter One

第一章

 

    Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton. There was a certain inner comfort in knowing he could knock down anybody who was snooty to him, although, being very shy and a thoroughly nice boy, he never fought except in the gym. He was Spider Kelly's star pupil. Spider Kelly taught all his young gentlemen to box like featherweights, no matter whether they weighed one hundred and five or two hundred and five pounds. But it seemed to fit Cohn. He was really very fast. He was so good that Spider promptly overmatched him and got his nose permanently flattened. This increased Cohn's distaste for boxing, but it gave him a certain satisfaction of some strange sort, and it certainly improved his nose. In his last year at Princeton he read too much and took to wearing spectacles. I never met any one of his class who remembered him. They did not even remember that he was middleweight boxing champion.

    罗伯特•科恩曾经是普林斯顿大学的中量级拳击冠军。可别以为一个拳击头衔就能给我深刻印象，然而它之于科恩却太重要了。他对拳击一点也不中意，实话实说，他很讨厌，但是他仍痛苦而又全面地学打拳，以此抵御作为一个犹太人，在普林斯顿被对待时所感到的低贱而羞惭的情感。在他的心底里有一种舒畅，就是体会到他能够把任何鄙视他的人打倒在地，尽管他是这样一个羞怯腼腆而又生性厚道的好小伙，除了在健身房里，他从不与人斗殴。他是史拜德•凯利的得意门生，史拜德•凯利把他所有莘莘学子都当作次轻量级拳手来教，不管他们体重一百零五磅，还是二百零五磅。不过这似乎很对科恩的口味，他身手的确非常敏捷，他学得这么好，以致史拜德立马安排他跟超强手较量，结果给他留下一个永久扁平的鼻子。这件事倍增科恩对拳击的恶感，但也给了他某种奇异的满足，从而确保他的鼻子状况得到改善。在普林斯顿的最后一年，他读书过多，不得不戴上眼镜。我从未遇见过任何一位他班上记得他的同学，他们甚至想不起曾过有一位中量级拳击冠军的他。

 

    I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together, and I always had a suspicion that perhaps Robert Cohn had never been middleweight boxing champion, and that perhaps a horse had stepped on his face, or that maybe his mother had been frightened or seen something, or that he had, maybe, bumped into something as a young child, but I finally had somebody verify the story from Spider Kelly. Spider Kelly not only remembered Cohn. He had often wondered what had become of him.

   我信不过一切貌似坦荡单纯的人，特别是当他们所讲的故事天衣无缝的时候。所以我始终心存疑惑：或许罗伯特•科恩从来没得过中量级拳击冠军，或许有哪匹马碰巧践踏了他的脸庞；要不或许他的母亲十月怀胎时受到惊吓或者看见某种灵异，要不或许他幼年时鼻子撞在什么东西上。不过最终还是有人从史拜德•凯利教练那里证实了那些故事，并告诉了我，史拜德•凯利不单记得科恩，还常纳闷他后来变成什么样子了。

 

    Robert Cohn was a member, through his father, of one of the richest Jewish families in New York, and through his mother of one of the oldest. At the military school where he prepped for Princeton, and played a very good end on the football team, no one had made him race-conscious. No one had ever made him feel he was a Jew, and hence any different from anybody else, until he went to Princeton. He was a nice boy, a friendly boy, and very shy, and it made him bitter. He took it out in boxing, and he came out of Princeton with painful self-consciousness and the flattened nose, and was married by the first girl who was nice to him. He was married five years, had three children, lost most of the fifty thousand dollars his father left him, the balance of the estate having gone to his mother, hardened into a rather unattractive mould under domestic unhappiness with a rich wife; and just when he had made up his mind to leave his wife she left him and went off with a miniature-painter. As he had been thinking for months about leaving his wife and had not done it because it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself, her departure was a very healthful shock.

    从家族树的父系看，罗伯特•科恩是纽约市非常富有的犹太家庭之一里的一员，而从母系看，他是一个古老世家的后裔。在进普林斯顿大学之前，他到军事学校读预科，是该校美式橄榄队里特别出色的边锋。没有人令他产生种族意识，甚至没人使他感觉自己是个犹太人，而与别人迥异——直到他来到普林斯顿。他是个好小伙，一个友善的男生，非常害羞，这令他痛苦。在拳击中，他将这种情绪发泄出来。他带着沉痛的自省和一个扁平的鼻子离开了普林斯顿大学，并与头一个对他示好的姑娘结了婚。婚后五年，他有三个小孩，几乎花光了老爸留给他的五万美金，而不动房产那部分归他老妈所有。在和原先很有钱的妻子过着不开心的家庭生活的重压下，他变成一个令人生厌的家伙。就在他下定决心要离开妻子的时候，她却弃他而去，跟一位电影动画画家出走了。由于他好几个月里一直煎虑着要离开妻子，只因感到让她失去他太冷酷了，才没有这么做，所以，她的离家出走反倒是一次康复的震作。

   

    The divorce was arranged and Robert Cohn went out to the Coast. In California he fell among literary people and, as he still had a little of the fifty thousand left, in a short time he was backing a review of the Arts. The review commenced publication in Carmel, California, and finished in Provincetown, Massachusetts. By that time Cohn, who had been regarded purely as an angel, and whose name had appeared on the editorial page merely as a member of the advisory board, had become the sole editor. It was his money and he discovered he liked the authority of editing. He was sorry when the magazine became too expensive and he had to give it up.

     离婚办妥后，罗伯特•科恩便启程去西海岸。在加利福尼亚州，他投入到文学人的圈子，由于那笔五万美金的遗产还稍有剩余，短暂时间他资助了一家艺术评论杂志。该杂志创刊于加利福尼亚的卡默尔市，停刊于马萨诸塞州的普罗文斯敦。此时的科恩已被奉作一个纯洁的天使，他的名字出现在刊物的扉页上，属于顾问团的一员，后来却变成了唯一的编辑。正是因为他的金钱令他发现自己喜欢编辑这行当，所以当杂志开销过大，他不得不将其放弃时，便感到十分惋惜。

 

    By that time, though, he had other things to worry about. He had been taken in hand by a lady who hoped to rise with the magazine. She was very forceful, and Cohn never had a chance of not being taken in hand. Also he was sure that he loved her. When this lady saw that the magazine was not going to rise, she became a little disgusted with Cohn and decided that she might as well get what there was to get while there was still something available, so she urged that they go to Europe, where Cohn could write. They came to Europe, where the lady had been educated, and stayed three years. During these three years, the first spent in travel, the last two in Paris, Robert Cohn had two friends, Braddocks and myself. Braddocks was his literary friend. I was his tennis friend. 

    然而，此时他已另有别事操心：他被一位冀望与杂志齐飞的女郎捏于股掌之中。她非常强悍给力，科恩始终没有一丝机会能够摆脱被她掌控的手心。当然，他也确信自己爱着她。当女郎发现杂志已经一蹶不振时，就有点厌弃科恩的意思，心底里暗想，不如趁有东西可捞的时候，狠狠地捞他一把。于是，她竭力怂恿俩人到欧洲去，在那里科恩也可以写作。他们到她曾受过教育的欧洲去了，呆了三年。这三年期间，头一年在旅行中度过，后两年住在巴黎。罗伯特•科恩结识了两个朋友：布莱多克斯和我本人。布莱多克斯是他的文学朋友，而我则是他的网球伙伴。

 

    The lady who had him, her name was Frances, found toward the end of the second year that her looks were going, and her attitude toward Robert changed from one of careless possession and exploitation to the absolute determination that he should marry her. During this time Robert's mother had settled an allowance on him, about three hundred dollars a month. During two years and a half I do not believe that Robert Cohn looked at another woman. He was fairly happy, except that, like many people living in Europe, he would rather have been in America, and he had discovered writing. He wrote a novel, and it was not really such a bad novel as the critics later called it, although it was a very poor novel. He read many books, played bridge, played tennis, and boxed at a local gymnasium.

    这位掌控科恩的女郎名叫弗朗西丝，在第二年年底她突然发现自己姿色日衰，徐娘半老，于是一反常态，从过去漫不经心掌控并掠夺科恩，变成决然断然要他娶她。此时，罗伯特的母亲已决定拨款给他作生活费，每月约三百美金。在这两年半时间内，我敢保证罗伯特•科恩没看上别的女人。他可幸福着呢，除了一点，与许多住在欧洲的美国人一样，他宁可还是住在美国，何况他发现了自己还能写点东西呢。他写了一部小说，一部不怎么样的小说，可也毕竟不像后来有些评论家所说的那么糟。他博览群书，打桥牌，打网球，还到当地一个健身房去打拳。

 

    I first became aware of his lady's attitude toward him one night after the three of us had dined together. We had dined at l'Avenue's and afterward went to the Cafe de Versailles for coffee. We had several _fines_ after the coffee, and I said I must be going. Cohn had been talking about the two of us going off somewhere on a weekend trip. He wanted to get out of town and get in a good walk. I suggested we fly to Strasbourg and walk up to Saint Odile, or somewhere or other in Alsace. "I know a girl in Strasbourg who can show us the town," I said.

    我头一回留意到这位女郎对他的态度，是在一天晚上我们仨一块儿吃完饭之后。我们先在“大马路饭店”吃饭，然后到“凡尔赛咖啡屋”喝咖啡。喝过咖啡我们又喝了几杯法国白兰地，我就说我该走了。科恩刚才一直在谈我俩外出，到什么地方去作一次周末旅行。他想离开闹市区，好生远足一番。我提议飞去斯特拉斯堡，从那儿步行到圣奥代尔，或者别的地方，或者阿尔萨斯的某处。我说：“我有个认识的姑娘在斯特拉斯堡，她可以带咱观光城市，”

 

    Somebody kicked me under the table. I thought it was accidental and went on: "She's been there two years and knows everything there is to know about the town. She's a swell girl."

    有人在桌子底下踢了我一脚。我起初以为是无意中碰到，接着说：“她在那儿已经住了两年，凡是你想了解的一切她都知道。真是位可爱的姑娘。”

    I was kicked again under the table and, looking, saw Frances, Robert's lady, her chin lifting and her face hardening.

    在桌子下面我又被踢了一脚，一看，只见弗朗西丝，就是罗伯特的女人，正撅着下巴，板着脸孔。

    "Hell," I said, "why go to Strasbourg? We could go up to Bruges, or to the Ardennes."

    “真混，”我说，“干嘛到斯特拉斯堡去呢？咱们可以上布鲁日，或者到阿登森林去嘛。”

    Cohn looked relieved. I was not kicked again. I said good-night and went out. Cohn said he wanted to buy a paper and would walk to the corner with me. "For God's sake," he said, "why did you say that about that girl in Strasbourg for? Didn't you see Frances?"

    科恩看来松了口气，而我也没再挨踢。我道声晚安往外走。科恩说他要去买份报纸，陪我走到大街的拐角。“看在上帝份上，”他说，“你提斯特拉斯堡的那姑娘干嘛？难道你没看见弗朗西丝的脸色？”

 

    "No, why should I? If I know an American girl that lives in Strasbourg what the hell is it to Frances?"

    “没有，我干嘛要？我认识一个住在斯特拉斯堡的美国妞，关弗朗西丝什么屁事？”

    "It doesn't make any difference. Any girl. I couldn't go, that would be all."

    “反正都一样，不管是哪个妞。总而言之，我去不了。”

    "Don't be silly."

    “别犯傻。”

    "You don't know Frances. Any girl at all. Didn't you see the way she looked?"

    “你不了解弗朗西丝，反正不管哪个妞。你没看见她那副脸色吗？”

    "Oh, well," I said, "let's go to Senlis."

    “嘿，好吧，”我说，“那咱去森利吧。”

    "Don't get sore."

    “你别恼火。”

    "I'm not sore. Senlis is a good place and we can stay at the Grand Cerf and take a hike in the woods and come home."

    “我才不生气呢。森利是个好地方，咱们可以住在‘麇鹿大饭店’，到树林里远足一次，然后回家。”

    "Good, that will be fine."  

    “好啊，蛮有意思的。”

    "Well, I'll see you to-morrow at the courts," I said.

    “好吧，明天网球场上见，”我说。

    "Good-night, Jake," he said, and started back to the cafe.

    “晚安，杰克，”他说着朝咖啡馆走回去。

 

    "You forgot to get your paper," I said.  

    “你忘了买报纸啦，”我说。

    "That's so." He walked with me up to the kiosque at the corner. "You are not sore, are you, Jake?" He turned with the paper in his hand.

    “真是的。”他陪我走到大街拐角的报亭。“你真的不生气吗，杰克？”他手里拿着报纸，转身问。

    "No, why should I be?"

    “不，我干嘛要生气？”

    "See you at tennis," he said. I watched him walk back to the cafe holding his paper. I rather liked him and evidently she led him quite a life.

    “网球场上见，”他说。我看着他手里拿着报纸走回咖啡馆。我挺喜欢他的，但显然弗朗西丝弄得他日子很难受。

 

（第一章结束）