To Victoria Ocampo

獻(xiàn)給維多利亞·奧坎波①

In his A History of the World War (page 212), Captain Liddell Hart reports that a planned offensive by thirteen British divisions, supported by fourteen hundred artillery pieces, against the German line at Serre-Montauban, scheduled for July 24, 1916, had to be postponed until the morning of the 29th. He comments that torrential rain caused this delay一which lacked any special significance. The following deposition, dictated by, read over, and then signed by Dr. Yu Tsun, former teacher ofEnglish at the Tsingtao Hochschule, casts unsuspected light upon this event. The first two pages are missing.

利德爾·哈特寫的《歐洲戰(zhàn)爭史》第二百一十二頁有段記載诀艰，說是十三個英國師(有一千四百門大炮支援)對塞爾一蒙托邦防線的進(jìn)攻原定于1916年7月24日發(fā)動野崇，后來推遲到29日上午暖途。利德爾·哈特上尉解釋說延期的原因是滂沱大雨，當(dāng)然并無出奇之處苍柏。青島大學(xué)前英語教師余準(zhǔn)博士的證言，經(jīng)過記錄、復(fù)述、由本人簽名核實玲昧，卻對這一事件提供了始料不及的說明。證言記錄缺了前兩頁篮绿。

…and I hung up the phone. Immediately I recollected the voice that had spoken in German. It was that of Captain Richard Madden. Madden, in Viktor Runeberg's office, meant the end of all our work and一though this seemed a secondary matter, or should have seemed so to me一of our lives also. His being there meant that Runeberg had been arrested or murdered.② Before the sun set on this same day, I ran the same risk. Madden was implacable. Rather, to be more accurate, he was obliged to be implacable. An Irishman in the service of England, a man suspected of equivocal feelings if not of actual treachery, how could he fail to welcome and seize upon this extraordinary piece of luck: the discovery, capture and perhaps the deaths of two agents of Imperial Germany?

我掛上電話聽筒孵延。我隨即辨出那個用德語接電話的聲音。是理查德·馬登的聲音亲配。馬登在維克多·魯納伯格的住處尘应，這意味著我們的全部辛勞付諸東流，我們的生命也到了盡頭——但是這一點是次要的吼虎，至少在我看來如此犬钢。這就是說，魯納伯格已經(jīng)被捕思灰，或者被殺玷犹。②在那天日落之前，我也會遭到同樣的命運洒疚。馬登毫不留情箱舞。說得更確切一些，他非心狠手辣不可拳亿。作為一個聽命于英國的愛爾蘭人晴股，他有辦事不熱心甚至叛賣的嫌疑，如今有機(jī)會挖出日耳曼帝國的兩名間諜肺魁，拘捕或者打死他們电湘，他怎么會不抓住這個天賜良機(jī)，感激不盡呢?

I went up to my bedroom. Absurd though the gesture was, I closed and locked the door. I threw myself down on my narrow iron bed, and waited on my back. The never changing rooftops filled the window, and the hazy six o'clock sun hung in the sky. It seemed incredible that this day, a day without warnings or omens, might be that of my implacable death. In despite of my dead father, in despite of having been a child in one of the symmetrical gardens of Hai Feng, was I to die now?

我上樓進(jìn)了自己的房間鹅经，可笑地鎖上門寂呛，仰面躺在小鐵床上。窗外還是慣常的房頂和下午六點鐘被云遮掩的太陽瘾晃。這一天既無預(yù)感又無朕兆贷痪，成了我大劫難逃的死日，簡直難以置信蹦误。雖然我父親已經(jīng)去世劫拢，雖然我小時候在海豐一個對稱的花園里待過，難道我現(xiàn)在也得死去?

Then Ireflected that all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me…The almost unbearable memory of Maddens long horseface put an end to these wandering thoughts.

隨后我想强胰，所有的事情不早不晚偏偏在目前都落到我頭上了舱沧。多少年來平平靜靜，現(xiàn)在卻出了事偶洋；天空熟吏、陸地和海洋人數(shù)千千萬萬，真出事的時候出在我頭上……馬登那張叫人難以容忍的馬臉在我眼前浮現(xiàn)，驅(qū)散了我的胡思亂想牵寺。

In the midst of my hatred and terror (now that it no longer matters to me to speak of terror, now that I have outwitted Richard Madden, now that my neck hankers for the hangman's noose), I knew that the fast-moving and doubtless happy soldier did not suspect that I possessed the Secret一the name of the exact site of the new British artillery park on the Ancre. A bird streaked across the misty sky and, absently, I turned it into an airplane and then that airplane into many in the skies of France, shattering the artillery park under a rain of bombs. If only my mouth, before it should be silenced by a bullet, could shout this name in such a way that it could be heard in Germany…My voice, my human voice, was weak. How could it reach the ear of the Chief? The ear of that sick and hateful man who knew nothing of Runeberg or of me except that we were in Staffordshire. A man who, sitting in his arid Berlin office, leafed infinitely through newspapers, looking in vain for news from us. I said aloud, "I must flee."

我又恨又怕(我已經(jīng)騙過了理查德·馬登悍引，只等上絞刑架，承認(rèn)自己害怕也無所謂了)帽氓，心想那個把事情搞得一團(tuán)糟吗铐、自鳴得意的武夫肯定知道我掌握秘密。準(zhǔn)備轟擊昂克萊的英國炮隊所在地的名字杏节。一只鳥掠過窗外灰色的天空唬渗，我在想像中把它化為一架飛機(jī)，再把這架飛機(jī)化成許多架奋渔，在法國的天空精確地投下炸彈镊逝，摧毀了炮隊。我的嘴巴在被一顆槍彈打爛之前能喊出那個地名嫉鲸，讓德國那邊聽到就好了……我血肉之軀所能發(fā)的聲音太微弱了撑蒜。怎么才能讓它傳到頭頭的耳朵?那個病懨懨的討厭的人，只知道魯納伯格和我在斯塔福德郡玄渗，在柏林閉塞的辦公室里望眼欲穿等我們的消息座菠，沒完沒了地翻閱報紙……我得逃跑，我大聲說藤树。

I sat up on the bed, in senseless and perfect silence, as if Madden was already peering at me. Something一perhaps merely a desire to prove my total penury to myself一made me empty out my pockets. I found just what I knew I was going to find. The American watch, the nickel-plated chain and the square coin, the key ring with the useless but compromising keys to Runeberg's office, the notebook, a letter which I decided to destroy at once (and which I did not destroy), a five shilling piece, two single shillings and some pennies, a red and blue pencil, a handkerchief一and a revolver with a single bullet. Absurdly I held it and weighed it in my hand, to give myself courage. Vaguely I thought that a pistol shot can be heard for a great distance.

我毫無必要地悄悄起來浴滴，仿佛馬登已經(jīng)在窺探我。我不由自主地檢查一下口袋里的物品岁钓，也許僅僅是為了證實自己毫無辦法升略。我找到的都是意料之中的東西。那只美國掛表屡限，鎳制表鏈和那枚四角形的硬幣品嚣，拴著魯納伯格住所鑰匙的鏈子，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)沒有用處但是能構(gòu)成證據(jù)钧大，一個筆記本翰撑，一封我看后決定立即銷毀但是沒有銷毀的信，假護(hù)照啊央，一枚五先令的硬幣眶诈，兩個先令和幾個便士，一枝紅藍(lán)鉛筆劣挫，一塊手帕和裝有一顆子彈的左輪手槍册养。我可笑地拿起槍，在手里掂掂压固，替自己壯膽。我模糊地想靠闭，槍聲可以傳得很遠(yuǎn)帐我。

In ten minutes I had developed my plan. The telephone directory gave me the name of the one person capable of passing on the information. He lived in a suburb of Fenton, less than half an hour away by train.

不出十分鐘坎炼，我的計劃已考慮成熟。電話號碼簿給了我一個人的名字拦键，惟有他才能替我把情報傳出去：他住在芬頓郊區(qū)谣光，不到半小時的火車路程。

I am a timorous man. I can say it now, now that I have brought my incredibly risky plan to an end. It was not easy to bring about, and I know that its execution was terrible. I did not do it for Germany 一no! Such a barbarous country is of no importance to me, particularly since it had degraded me by making me become a spy. Furthermore, I knew an Englishman一a modest man一who, for me, is as great as Goethe. I did not speak with him for more than an hour, but during that time, he was Goethe.

我是個怯懦的人芬为。我現(xiàn)在不妨說出來萄金，因為我已經(jīng)實現(xiàn)了一個誰都不會說是冒險的計劃。我知道實施過程很可怕媚朦。不氧敢，我不是為德國干的。我才不關(guān)心一個使我墮落成為間諜的野蠻的國家呢询张。此外孙乖，我認(rèn)識一個英國人——一個謙遜的人——對我來說并不低于歌德。我同他談話的時間不到一小時份氧，但是在那一小時中間他就像是歌德……

I carried out my plan because I felt the Chief had some fear of those of my race, of those uncountable forebears whose culmination lies in me. I wished to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies. Besides, I had to escape the Captain. His hands and voice could, at any moment, knock and beckon at my door.

我之所以這么做唯袄，是因為我覺得頭頭瞧不起我這個種族的人——瞧不起在我身上匯集的無數(shù)先輩。我要向他證明一個黃種人能夠拯救他的軍隊蜗帜。此外恋拷，我要逃出上尉的掌心。他隨時都可能敲我的門厅缺，叫我的名字梅掠。

Silently, I dressed, took leave of myself in the mirror, went down the stairs, sneaked a look at the quiet street, and went out. The station was not far from my house, but I thought it more prudent to take a cab. I told myself that I thus ran less chance of being recognized. The truth is that, in the deserted street, I felt infinitely visible and vulnerable. I recall that I told the driver to stop short of the main entrance.

我悄悄地穿好衣服，對著鏡子里的我說了再見店归，下了樓阎抒，打量一下靜寂的街道，出去了消痛∏胰火車站離此不遠(yuǎn)，但我認(rèn)為還是坐馬車妥當(dāng)秩伞。理由是減少被人認(rèn)出的危險逞带；事實是在闃無一人的街上，我覺得特別顯眼纱新，特別不安全展氓。我記得我吩咐馬車夫不到車站人口處就停下來。

I got out with a painful and deliberate slowness.I was going to the village of Ashgrove, but took a ticket for a station further on. The train would leave in a few minutes, at eight-fifty. I hurried, for the next would not go until half past nine. There was almost no one on the platform. I walked through the carriages. I remember some farmers, a woman dressed in mourning, a youth deep in Tacitus' Annals and a wounded, happy soldier.

我磨磨蹭蹭下了車脸爱，我要去的地點是阿什格羅夫村遇汞，但買了一張再過一站下的車票。這趟車馬上就開：八點五十分。我得趕緊空入，下一趟九點半開車络它。月臺上幾乎沒有人。我在幾個車廂看看：有幾個農(nóng)民歪赢，一個服喪的婦女化戳，一個專心致志在看塔西佗的《編年史》的青年，一個顯得很高興的士兵埋凯。

At last the train pulled out. A man I recognized ran furiously, but vainly, the length of the platform. It was Captain Richard Madden. Shattered, trembling, I huddled in the distant corner of the seat, as far as possible from the fearful window.

列車終于開動点楼。我認(rèn)識的一個男人匆匆跑來，一直追到月臺盡頭白对，可是晚了一步掠廓。是理查德·馬登上尉。我垂頭喪氣躏结、忐忑不安却盘，躲開可怕的窗口，縮在座位角落里媳拴。

From utter terror I passed into a state of almost abject happiness. I told myself that the duel had already started and that I had won the first encounter by besting my adversary in his first attack-even if it was only for forty minutes一by an accident of fate. I argued that so small a victory prefigured a total victory. I argued that it was not so trivial, that were it not for the precious accident of the train schedule, I would be in prison or dead. I argued, with no less sophism, that my timorous happiness was proof that I was man enough to bring this adventure to a successful conclusion. From my weakness I drew strength that never left me.

我從垂頭喪氣變成自我解嘲的得意黄橘。想到我的決斗已經(jīng)開始，即使全憑僥幸搶先了四十分鐘屈溉，躲過了對手的攻擊塞关，我也贏得了第一個回合。我想這一小小的勝利預(yù)先展示了徹底成功子巾。我想勝利不能算小帆赢，如果沒有火車時刻表給我的寶貴的搶先一著，我早就給關(guān)進(jìn)監(jiān)獄或者給打死了线梗。我不無詭辯地想椰于，我怯懦的順利證明我能完成冒險事業(yè)。我從怯懦中汲取了在關(guān)鍵時刻沒有拋棄我的力量仪搔。

I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, that soon only soldiers and bandits will be left. To them I offer this advice: Whosoever would undertake some atrocious enterprise should act as if it were already accomplished, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.

我預(yù)料人們越來越屈從于窮兇極惡的事情瘾婿；要不了多久世界上全是清一色的武夫和強(qiáng)盜了；我要奉勸他們的是烤咧；做窮兇極惡的事情的人應(yīng)當(dāng)假想那件事情已經(jīng)完成偏陪，應(yīng)當(dāng)把將來當(dāng)成過去那樣無法挽回。

Thus Iproceeded, while with the eyes of a man already dead, I contemplated the fluctuations of the day which would probably be my last, and watched the diffuse coming of night.

我就是那樣做的煮嫌，我把自己當(dāng)成已經(jīng)死去的人笛谦，冷眼觀看那一天，也許是最后一天的逝去和夜晚的降臨昌阿。

The train crept along gently, amid ash trees. It slowed down and stopped, almost in the middle of a field. No one called the name of a station. "Ashgrove?" I asked some children on the platform. "Ashgrove," they replied. I got out.

列車在兩旁的檔樹中徐徐行駛饥脑。在荒涼得像是曠野的地方停下恳邀，沒有人報站名。是阿什格羅夫嗎?我問月臺上幾個小孩。阿什格羅夫灸叼，他們回答說。我便下了車。

A lamp lit the platform, but the children's faces remained in a shadow. One of them asked me: "Are you going to Dr. Stephen Albert's house?" Without waiting for my answer, another said: "The house is a good distance away but you won't get lost if you take the road to the left and bear to the left at every crossroad." I threw them a coin (my last), went down some stone steps and started along a deserted road. At a slight incline, the road ran downhill. It was a plain dirt way, and overhead the branches of trees intermingled, while a round moon hung low in the sky as if to keep me company.

月臺上有一盞燈光照明祸憋，但是小孩們的臉在陰影中。有一個小孩問我：您是不是要去斯蒂芬·艾伯特博士家?另一個小孩也不等我回答习劫，說道：他家離這兒很遠(yuǎn)叙谨，不過您走左邊那條路，每逢交叉路口就往左拐瓤鼻，不會找不到的秉版。我給了他們一枚錢幣(我身上最后的一枚)，下了幾級石階茬祷，走上那條僻靜的路清焕。路緩緩下坡。是一條泥土路祭犯，兩旁都是樹秸妥，枝椏在上空相接，低而圓的月亮仿佛在陪伴我走沃粗。

For a moment I thought that Richard Madden might in some way have divined my desperate intent. At once I realized that this would be impossible. The advice about turning always to the left reminded me that such was the common formula for finding the central courtyard of certain labyrinths. I know something about labyrinths. Not for nothing am I the greatgrandson of Ts'ui Pen. He was Governor of Yunnan and gave up temporal power to write a novel with more characters than there are in the Hung Lou Meng, and to create a maze in which all men would lose themselves. He spent thirteen years on these oddly assorted tasks before he was assassinated by a stranger. His novel had no sense to it and nobody ever found his labyrinth.

有一陣子我想理查德·馬登用某種辦法已經(jīng)了解到我鋌而走險的計劃粥惧。但我立即又明白那是不可能的。小孩叫我老是往左拐最盅，使我想起那就是找到某些迷宮的中心院子的慣常做法突雪。我對迷宮有所了解：我不愧是彭取的曾孫，彭取是云南總督涡贱，他辭去了高官厚祿咏删，一心想寫一部比《紅樓夢》人物更多的小說，建造一個誰都走不出來的迷宮问词。他在這些龐雜的工作上花了十三年工夫督函，但是一個外來的人刺殺了他，他的小說像部天書戏售，他的迷宮也無人發(fā)現(xiàn)侨核。

Under the trees of England I meditated on this lost and perhaps mythical labyrinth. I imagined it untouched and perfect on the secret summit of some mountain; I imagined it drowned under rice paddies or beneath the sea; I imagined it infinite, made not only of eight-sided pavilions and of twisting paths but also of rivers, provinces and kingdoms…I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars. Lost in these imaginary illusions I forgot my destiny一that of the hunted. For an undetermined period of time I felt myself cut off from the world, an abstract spectator. The hazy and murmuring countryside, the moon, the decline of the evening, stirred within me. Going down the gently sloping road I could not feel fatigue. The evening was at once intimate and infinite.

我在英國的樹下思索著那個失落的迷宮：我想像它在一個秘密的山峰上原封未動’，被稻田埋沒或者淹在水下灌灾，我想像它廣闊無比搓译，不僅是一些八角涼亭和通幽曲徑，而是由河川锋喜、省份和王國組成……我想像出一個由迷宮組成的迷宮些己，一個錯綜復(fù)雜豌鸡、生生不息的迷宮，包羅過去和將來段标，在某種意義上甚至牽涉到別的星球涯冠。我沉浸在這種虛幻的想像中，忘掉了自己被迫捕的處境逼庞。在一段不明確的時間里蛇更，我覺得自己抽象地領(lǐng)悟了這個世界。模糊而生機(jī)勃勃的田野赛糟、月亮派任、傍晚的時光，以及輕松的下坡路璧南，這一切使我百感叢生掌逛。傍晚顯得親切、無限司倚。

The road kept descending and branching off, through meadows misty in the twilight. A high-pitched and almost syllabic music kept coming and going, moving with the breeze, blurred by the leaves and by distance.

道路繼續(xù)下傾豆混，在模糊的草地里岔開兩支。一陣清越的樂聲抑揚頓挫动知，隨風(fēng)飄蕩皿伺，或近或遠(yuǎn)，穿透葉叢和距離拍柒。

I thought that a man might be an enemy of other men, of the differing moments of other men, but never an enemy of acountry: not of fireflies, words, gardens, streams, or the West wind.

我心想心傀，一個人可以成為別人的仇敵，成為別人一個時期的仇敵拆讯，但不能成為一個地區(qū)脂男、螢火蟲、字句种呐、花園宰翅、水流和風(fēng)的仇敵。

Meditating thus I arrived at a high, rusty iron gate. Through the railings I could see an avenue bordered with poplar trees and also a kind of summer house or pavilion. Two things dawned on me at once, the first trivial and the second almost incredible: the music came from the pavilion and that music was Chinese. That was why I had accepted it fully, without paying it any attention. I do not remember whether there was a bell, a push-button, or whether I attracted attention by clapping myhands. The stuttering sparks of the music kept on.

我這么想著爽室，來到一扇生銹的大鐵門前汁讼。從欄桿里，可以望見一條林陰道和一座涼亭似的建筑阔墩。我突然明白了兩件事嘿架，第一件微不足道，第二件難以置信啸箫；樂聲來自涼亭耸彪，是中國音樂。正因為如此忘苛，我并不用心傾聽就全盤接受了蝉娜。我不記得門上是不是有鈴唱较，是不是我擊掌叫門。像火花進(jìn)濺似的樂聲沒有停止召川。

But from the end of the avenue, from the main house, a lantern approached; a lantern which alternately, from moment to moment, was crisscrossed or put out by the trunks of the trees; a paper lantern shaped like a drum and colored like the moon. A tall man carried it. I could not see his face for the light blinded me.

然而南缓，一盞燈籠從深處房屋出來，逐漸走近：一盞月白色的鼓形燈籠荧呐，有時被樹干擋住汉形。提燈籠的是個高個子。由于光線耀眼坛增，我看不清他的臉获雕。

He opened the gate and spoke slowly in my language.

他打開鐵門薄腻，慢條斯理地用中文對我說：

"I see that the worthy Hsi P'eng has troubled himself to see to relieving my solitude. No doubt you want to see the garden?"

“看來彭熙情意眷眷收捣，不讓我寂寞。您準(zhǔn)也是想?yún)⒂^花園吧?”

Recognizing the name of one of our consuls, I replied, somewhat taken aback.

我聽出他說的是我們一個領(lǐng)事的姓名庵楷，我莫名其妙地接著說：

"The garden?"

“花園?”

"The garden of forking paths."

“小徑分岔的花園罢艾。”

Something stirred in my memory and I said, with incomprehensible assurance:

我心潮起伏尽纽，難以理解地肯定說：

"The garden of my ancestor, Ts'ui Pen."

“那是我曾祖彭取的花園咐蚯。”

"Your ancestor? Your illustrious ancestor? Come in."

“您的曾祖?您德高望重的曾祖?請進(jìn)弄贿，請進(jìn)春锋。”

The damp path zigzagged like those of my childhood. When we reached the house, we went into a library filled with books from both East and West. I recognized some large volumes bound in yellow silk-manuscripts of the Lost Encyclopedia which was edited by the Third Emperor of the Luminous Dynasty. They had never been printed. A phonograph record was spinning near a bronze phoenix. I remember also a rose-glazed jar and yet another, older by many centuries, of that blue color which our potters copied from the Persians…

潮濕的小徑彎彎曲曲差凹，同我兒時的記憶一樣期奔。我們來到一間藏著東方和西方書籍的書房。我認(rèn)出幾卷用黃絹裝訂的手抄本危尿，那是從未付印韻明朝第三個皇帝下詔編纂的《永樂大典》的佚卷呐萌。留聲機(jī)上的唱片還在旋轉(zhuǎn)，旁邊有一只青銅鳳凰谊娇。我記得有一只紅瓷花瓶肺孤，還有一只早幾百年的藍(lán)瓷，那是我們的工匠模仿波斯陶器工人的作品……

Stephen Albert was watching me with a smile on his face. He was, as I have said, remarkably tall. His face was deeply lined and he had gray eyes and a gray beard. There was about him something of the priest, and something of the sailor. Later, he told me he had been a missionary in Tientsinbefore he "had aspired to become a Sinologist."

斯蒂芬·艾伯特微笑著打量著我济欢。我剛才說過赠堵，他身材很高，輪廓分明法褥，灰眼睛茫叭，灰胡子。他的神情有點像神甫挖胃，又有點像水手杂靶；后來他告訴我梆惯，“在想當(dāng)漢學(xué)家之前，他在天津當(dāng)過傳教士吗垮《饴穑”

We sat down, I upon a large, low divan, he with his back to the window and to a large circular clock. I calculated that my pursuer, Richard Madden, could not arrive in less than an hour. My irrevocable decision could wait.

我們落了座；我坐在一張低矮的長沙發(fā)上烁登，他背朝著窗口和一個落地圓座鐘怯屉。我估計一小時之內(nèi)追捕我的理查德·馬登到不了這里。我的不可挽回的決定可以等待饵沧。

"A strange destiny," said Stephen Albert, "that of Ts'ui Pen一Governor of his native province, learned in astronomy, in astrology and tireless in the interpretation of the canonical books, a chess player, a famous poet and a calligrapher. Yet he abandoned all to make a book and a labyrinth. He gave up all the pleasures of oppression, justice, of a well-stocked bed, of banquets, and even of erudition, and shut himself up in the Pavilion of the Limpid Sun for thirteen years. At his death, his heirs found only a mess of manuscripts. The family, as you doubtless know, wished to consign them to the fire, but the executor of the estate一a Taoist or a Buddhist monk一insisted on their publication."

“彭取的一生真令人驚異锨络，”斯蒂芬·艾伯特說±俏“他當(dāng)上家鄉(xiāng)省份的總督羡儿，精通天文、占星是钥、經(jīng)典詮詁掠归、棋藝，又是著名的詩人和書法家：他拋棄了這一切悄泥，去寫書虏冻、蓋迷宮。他拋棄了炙手可熱的官爵地位弹囚、嬌妻美妾厨相、盛席瓊筵，甚至拋棄了治學(xué)鸥鹉，在明虛齋閉戶不出十三年蛮穿。他死后，繼承人只找到一些雜亂無章的手稿宋舷。您也許知道绪撵，他家里的人要把手稿燒掉；但是遺囑執(zhí)行人——一個道士或和尚——堅持要刊行祝蝠∫粽”

"Those of the blood of Ts'ui Pen," I replied, "still curse the memory of that monk. Such a publication was madness. The book is a shapeless mass of contradictory rough drafts. I examined it once upon a time: the hero dies in the third chapter, while in the fourth he is alive. As for that other enterprise of Ts'ui Pen…h(huán)is Labyrinth…”

“彭寂的后人，”我插嘴說绎狭，“至今還在責(zé)怪那個道士细溅。刊行是毫無道理的儡嘶。那本書是一堆自相矛盾的草稿的匯編喇聊。我看過一次：主人公在第三回里死了，第四回里又活了過來蹦狂。至于彭取的另一項工作誓篱，那座迷宮……”

"Here is the Labyrinth," Albert said, pointing to a tall, laquered writing cabinet. "An ivory labyrinth?" I exclaimed. "A tiny labyrinth indeed…!”

“那就是迷宮朋贬，”他指著一個高高的漆柜說〈芙荆“一個象牙雕刻的迷宮锦募！”我失聲喊道×诙簦“一座微雕迷宮……”

"A symbolic labyrinth," he corrected me. "An invisible labyrinth of time. I, a barbarous Englishman, have been given the key to this transparent mystery. After more than a hundred years most of the details are irrecoverable, lost beyond all recall, but it isn't hard to image what must have happened. At one time, Ts'ui Pen must have said; 'I am going into seclusion to write a book,' and at another, 'I am retiring to construct a maze.' Everyone assumed these were separate activities. No one realized that the book and the labyrinth were one and the same. The Pavilion of the Limpid Sun was set in the middle of an intricate garden. This may have suggested the idea of a physical maze.

“一座象征的迷宮糠亩，”他糾正我說∽佳椋“一座時間的無形迷宮赎线。我這個英國蠻子有幸悟出了明顯的奧秘。經(jīng)過一百多年之后糊饱，細(xì)節(jié)已無從查考垂寥，但不難猜測當(dāng)時的情景。彭取有一次說：我引退后要寫一部小說济似。另一次說：我引退后要蓋一座迷宮矫废。人們都以為是兩件事；誰都沒有想到書和迷宮是一件東西砰蠢。明虛齋固然建在一個可以說是相當(dāng)錯綜的花園的中央；這一事實使人們聯(lián)想起一座實實在在的迷宮唉铜。

"Ts'ui Pen died. In all the vast lands which once belonged to your family, no one could find the labyrinth. The novel's confusion suggested that it was the labyrinth. Two circumstances showed me the direct solution to the problem. First, the curious legend that Ts'ui Pen had proposed to create an infinite maze, second, a fragment of a letter which I discovered."

彭取死了台舱；在他廣闊的地產(chǎn)中間，誰都沒有找到迷宮潭流。兩個情況使我直截了當(dāng)?shù)亟鉀Q了這個問題竞惋。一是關(guān)于彭寂打算蓋一座絕對無邊無際的迷宮的奇怪的傳說。二是我找到的一封信的片斷灰嫉〔鹜穑”

Albert rose. For a few moments he turned his back to me. He opened the top drawer in the high black and gilded writing cabinet. He returned holding in his hand a piece of paper which had once been crimson but which had faded with the passage of time: it was rose colored, tenuous, quadrangular. Ts'ui Pen's calligraphy was justly famous. Eagerly, but without understanding, I read the words which a man of my own blood had written with a small brush: "I leave to various future times, but not to all, my garden of forking paths." I handed back the sheet of paper in silence. Albert went on:

艾伯特站起來。他打開那個已經(jīng)泛黑的金色柜子讼撒，背朝著我有幾秒鐘之久浑厚。他轉(zhuǎn)身時手里拿著一張有方格的薄紙，原先的大紅已經(jīng)退成粉紅色根盒。彭寂一手好字名不虛傳钳幅。我熱切然而不甚了了地看著我一個先輩用蠅頭小楷寫的字：我將小徑分岔的花園留諸若干后世(并非所有后世)。我默默把那張紙還給艾伯特炎滞。他接著說：

"Before I discovered this letter, I kept asking myself how a book could be infinite. I could not imagine any other than a cyclic volume, circular. A volume whose last page would be the same as the first and so have the possibility of continuing indefinitely. I recalled, too, the night in the middle of The Thousand and One Nights when Queen Scheherezade, through a magical mistake on the part of her copyist, started to tell the story of The Thousand and One Nights, with the risk of again arriving at the night upon which she will relate it, and thus on to infinity. I also imagined a Platonic hereditary work, passed on from father to son, to which each individual would add a new chapter or correct, with pious care, the work of his elders.

“在發(fā)現(xiàn)這封信之前敢艰，我曾自問：在什么情況下一部書才能成為無限。我認(rèn)為只有一種情況册赛，那就是循環(huán)不已钠导、周而復(fù)始震嫉。書的最后一頁要和第一頁雷同，才有可能沒完沒了地連續(xù)下去牡属。我還想起一千零一夜正中間的那一夜责掏，山魯佐德王后(由于抄寫員神秘的疏忽)開始一字不差地敘說一千零一夜的故事，這一來有可能又回到她講述的那一夜湃望，從而變得無休無止换衬。我又想到口頭文學(xué)作品，父子口授证芭，代代相傳瞳浦，每一個新的說書人加上新的章回或者虔敬地修改先輩的章節(jié)。

"These conjectures gave me amusement, but none seemed to have the remotest application to the contradictory chapters of Ts'ui Pen. At this point, I was sent from Oxford the manuscript you have just seen.

我潛心琢磨這些假設(shè)废士，但是同彭取自相矛盾的章回怎么也對不上號叫潦。正在我困惑的時候，牛津給我寄來您見到的手稿官硝。

"Naturally, my attention was caught by the sentence, 'I leave to various future times, but not to all, my garden of forking paths: I had no sooner read this, than I understood. The Garden of Forking Paths was the chaotic novel itself. The phrase 'to various future times, but not to all' suggested the image of bifurcating in time, not in space. Rereading the whole work confirmed this theory. In all fiction, when a man is faced with alternatives he chooses one at the expense of the others. In the almost unfathomable Ts'ui Pen, he chooses一simultaneously一all of them. He thus creates various futures, various times which start others that will in their turn branch out and bifurcate in other times. This is the cause of the contradictions in the novel.

很自然矗蕊，我注意到這句話：我將小徑分岔的花園留諸若干后世(并非所有后世)。我?guī)缀醍?dāng)場就恍然大悟氢架；小徑分岔的花園就是那部雜亂無章的小說傻咖；若干后世(并非所有后世)這句話向我揭示的形象是時間而非空間的分岔。我把那部作品再瀏覽一遍岖研，證實了這一理論卿操。在所有的虛構(gòu)小說中，每逢一個人面臨幾個不同的選擇時孙援，總是選擇一種可能害淤，排除其他；在彭寂的錯綜復(fù)雜的小說中拓售，主人公卻選擇了所有的可能性窥摄。這一來，就產(chǎn)生了許多不同的后世础淤，許多不同的時間崭放，衍生不已，枝葉紛披值骇。小說的矛盾就由此而起莹菱。

"Fang, let us say, has a secret. A stranger knocks at his door. Fang makes up his mind to kill him. Naturally there are various possible outcomes. Fang can kill the intruder, the intruder can kill Fang, both can be saved, both can die and so on and so on. In Ts'ui Pen's work, all the possible solutions occur, each one being the point of departure for other bifurcations. Sometimes the pathways of this labyrinth converge. For example, you come to this house; but in other possible pasts you are my enemy; in others my friend. If you will put up with my atrocious pronunciation, I would like to read you a few pages of your ancestor's work."

比如說，方君有個秘密吱瘩；一個陌生人找上門來道伟；方君決心殺掉他。很自然，有幾個可能的結(jié)局：方君可能殺死不速之客蜜徽，可能被他殺死祝懂，兩人可能都安然無恙，也可能都死拘鞋，等等砚蓬。在彭寂的作品里，各種結(jié)局都有盆色；每一種結(jié)局是另一些分岔的起點灰蛙。有時候，迷宮的小徑匯合了：比如說隔躲，您來到這里摩梧，但是某一個可能的過去，您是我的敵人宣旱，在另一個過去的時期仅父，您又是我的朋友。如果您能忍受我糟糕透頂?shù)陌l(fā)音浑吟，咱們不妨念幾頁笙纤。”

His countenance, in the bright circle of lamplight, was certainly that of an ancient, but it shone with something unyielding, even immortal.

在明快的燈光下组力，他的臉龐無疑是一張老人的臉省容，但有某種堅定不移的、甚至是不朽的神情忿项。

With slow precision, he read two versions of the same epic chapter. In the first, an army marches into battle over a desolate mountain pass. The bleak and somber aspect of the rocky landscape made the soldiers feel that life itself was of little value, and so they won the battle easily. In the second, the same army passes through a palace where a banquet is in progress. The splendor of the feast remained a memory throughout the glorious battle, and so victory followed.

他緩慢而精確地朗讀同一章的兩種寫法蓉冈。其一，一支軍隊翻越荒山投入戰(zhàn)斗轩触；困苦萬狀的山地行軍使他們不惜生命，因而輕而易舉地打了勝仗家夺；其二脱柱，同一支軍隊穿過一座正在歡宴的宮殿，興高采烈的戰(zhàn)斗像是宴會的繼續(xù)拉馋，他們也奪得了勝利榨为。

With proper veneration I listened to these old tales, although perhaps with less admiration for them in themselves than for the fact that they had been thought out by one of my own blood, and that a man of a distant empire had given them back to me, in the last stage of a desperate adventure, on a Western island. I remember the final words, repeated at the end of each version like a secret command: "Thus the heroes fought, with tranquil heart and bloody sword. They were resigned to killing and to dying."

我?guī)е缇吹男那槁犞@些古老的故事，更使我驚異的是想出故事的人是我的祖先煌茴，為我把故事恢復(fù)原狀的是一個遙遠(yuǎn)帝國的人随闺，時間在一場孤注一擲的冒險過程之中，地點是一個西方島國蔓腐。我還記得最后的語句矩乐，像神秘的戒律一樣在每種寫法中加以重復(fù)：英雄們就這樣戰(zhàn)斗，可敬的心胸?zé)o畏無懼，手中的鋼劍凌厲無比散罕，只求殺死對手或者沙場捐軀分歇。

At that moment I felt within me and around me something invisible and intangible pullulating. It was not the pullulation of two divergent, parallel, and finally converging armies, but an agitation more inaccessible, more intimate, prefigured by them in some way. Stephen Albert continued:

從那一刻開始，我覺得周圍和我身體深處有一種看不見的欧漱、不可觸摸的躁動职抡。不是那些分道揚鑣的、并行不悖的误甚、最終匯合的軍隊的躁動缚甩，而是一種更難掌握、更隱秘的窑邦、已由那些軍隊預(yù)先展示的激動擅威。斯蒂芬·艾伯特接著說：

"I do not think that your illustrious ancestor toyed idly with variations. I do not find it believable that he would waste thirteen years laboring over a never ending experiment in rhetoric. In your country the novel is an inferior genre; in Ts'ui Pen's period, it was a despised one. Ts'ui Pen was a fine novelist but he was also a man of letters who, doubtless, considered himself more than a mere novelist. The testimony of his contemporaries attests to this, and certainly the known facts of his life confirm his leanings toward the metaphysical and the mystical. Philosophical conjectures take up the greater part of his novel. I know that of all problems, none disquieted him more, and none concerned him more than the profound one of time. Now then, this is the only problem that does not figure in the pages of The Garden. He does not even use the word which means time. How can these voluntary omissions be explained?"

“我不信您顯赫的祖先會徒勞無益地玩弄不同的寫法。我認(rèn)為他不可能把十三年光陰用于無休無止的修辭實驗奕翔。在您的國家裕寨，小說是次要的文學(xué)體裁；那時候被認(rèn)為不登大雅派继。彭寂是個天才的小說家宾袜，但也是一個文學(xué)家，他絕不會認(rèn)為自己只是個寫小說的驾窟。和他同時代的人公認(rèn)他對玄學(xué)和神秘主義的偏愛庆猫，他的一生也充分證實了這一點。哲學(xué)探討占據(jù)他小說的許多篇幅绅络。我知道月培，深不可測的時間問題是他最關(guān)心、最專注的問題恩急∩夹螅可是《花園》手稿中惟獨沒有出現(xiàn)這個問題。甚至連時間這個詞都沒有用過衷恭。您對這種故意回避怎么解釋呢?”

I proposed various solutions, all of them inadequate. We discussed them. Finally Stephen Albert said:

我提出幾種看法此叠；都不足以解答。我們爭論不休随珠；斯蒂芬·艾伯特最后說：

"In a guessing game to which the answer is chess, which word is the only one prohibited?"

“設(shè)一個謎底是‘棋’的謎語時灭袁，謎面惟一不準(zhǔn)用的字是什么?”

I thought for a moment and then replied: "The word is chess."

我想一會兒后說： “‘棋’字〈翱矗”

"Precisely," said Albert. "The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous guessing game, or parable, in which the subject is time. The rules of the game forbid the use of the word itself. To eliminate a word completely, to refer to it by means of inept phrases and obvious paraphrases, is perhaps the best way of drawing attention to it. This, then, is the tortuous method of approach preferred by the oblique Ts'ui Pen in every meandering of his interminable novel. I have gone over hundreds of manuscripts, I have corrected errors introducedby careless copyists, I have worked out the plan from this chaos, I have restored, or believe I have restored, the original. I have translated the whole work. I can state categorically that not once has the word time been used in the whole book.

“一點不錯茸歧，”艾伯特說∠陨颍“小徑分岔的花園是一個龐大的謎語软瞎，或者是寓言故事，謎底是時間，這一隱秘的原因不允許手稿中出現(xiàn)‘時間’這個詞铜涉。自始至終刪掉一個詞智玻，采用笨拙的隱喻、明顯的迂回芙代，也許是挑明謎語的最好辦法吊奢。彭取在他孜孜不倦創(chuàng)作的小說里，每有轉(zhuǎn)折就用迂回的手法纹烹。我核對了幾百頁手稿页滚，勘正了抄寫員的疏漏錯誤，猜出雜亂的用意铺呵，恢復(fù)裹驰、或者我認(rèn)為恢復(fù)了原來的順序，翻譯了整個作品片挂；但從未發(fā)現(xiàn)有什么地方用過‘時間’這個詞幻林。

"The explanation is obvious. The Garden of Forking Paths is a picture, incomplete yet not false, of the universe such as Ts'ui Pen conceived it to be. Differing from Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not think of time as absolute and uniform. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing, ever spreading network of diverging, converging and parallel times. This web of time一the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries一embraces every possibility. We do not exist in most of them. In some you exist and not I, while in others I do, and you do not, and in yet others both of us exist. In this one, in which chance has favored me, you have come to my gate. In another, you, crossing the garden, have found me dead. In yet another, I say these very same words, but am an error, a phantom."

顯而易見，小徑分岔的花園是彭取心目中宇宙的不完整音念、然而絕非虛假的形象沪饺。您的祖先和牛頓、叔本華不同的地方是他認(rèn)為時間沒有同一性和絕對性闷愤。他認(rèn)為時間有無數(shù)系列整葡，背離的、匯合的和平行的時間織成一張不斷增長讥脐、錯綜復(fù)雜的網(wǎng)遭居。由互相靠攏、分歧旬渠、交錯或者永遠(yuǎn)互不干擾的時間織成的網(wǎng)絡(luò)包含了所有的可能性俱萍。在大部分時間里，我們并不存在告丢；在某些時間鼠次，有你而沒有我；在另一些時間芋齿，有我而沒有你；再有一些時間成翩，你我都存在觅捆。目前這個時刻，偶然的機(jī)會使您光臨舍間麻敌；在另一個時刻栅炒，您穿過花園，發(fā)現(xiàn)我已死去；再在另一個時刻赢赊，我說著目前所說的話乙漓，不過我是個錯誤，是個幽靈释移。

"In all of them," I enunciated, with a tremor in my voice. "I deeply appreciate and am grateful to you for the restoration of Ts'ui Pen's garden."

“在所有的時刻叭披，”我微微一震說，“我始終感謝并且欽佩你重新創(chuàng)造了彭取的花園玩讳∩”

"Not in all," he murmured with a smile. "Time is forever dividing itself toward innumerable futures and in one of them I am your enemy."

“不可能在所有的時刻，”他一笑說熏纯⊥耄“因為時間永遠(yuǎn)分岔，通向無數(shù)的將來樟澜。在將來的某個時刻误窖，我可以成為您的敵人≈确。”

Once again I sensed the pullulation of which I have already spoken. It seemed to me that the dew-damp garden surrounding the house was infinitely saturated with invisible people. All were Albert and myself, secretive, busy and multiform in other dimensions of time. I lifted my eyes and the short nightmare disappeared. In the black and yellow garden there was only a single man, but this man was as strong as a statue and this man was walking up the path and he was Captain Richard Madden.

我又感到剛才說過的躁動霹俺。我覺得房屋四周潮濕的花園充斥著無數(shù)看不見的人。那些人是艾伯特和我萍膛，隱蔽在時間的其他維度之中吭服，忙忙碌碌，形形色色蝗罗。我再抬起眼睛時艇棕，那層夢魘似的薄霧消散了。黃黑二色的花園里只有一個人串塑，但是那個人像塑像似的強(qiáng)大沼琉，在小徑上走來，他就是理查德·馬登上尉桩匪。

"The future exists now," I replied. "But I am your friend. Can I take another look at the letter?"

“將來已經(jīng)是眼前的事實打瘪，”我說∩店迹“不過我是您的朋友闺骚。我能再看看那封信嗎?”

Albert rose from his seat. He stood up tall as he opened the top drawer of the high writing cabinet. For a moment his back was again turned to me. I had the revolver ready. I fired with the utmost care: Albert fell without a murmur, at once. I swear that his death was instantaneous, as if he had been struck by lightning.

艾伯特站起身。他身材高大妆档，打開了那個高高柜子的抽屜僻爽；有幾秒鐘工夫，他背朝著我贾惦。我已經(jīng)握好手槍胸梆。我特別小心地扣下扳機(jī)：艾伯特當(dāng)即倒了下去敦捧，哼都沒有哼一聲。我肯定他是立刻喪命的碰镜，是猝死兢卵。

What remains is unreal and unimportant. Madden broke in and arrested me. I have been condemned to hang. Abominably, I have yet triumphed! The secret name of the city to be attacked got through to Berlin. Yesterday it was bombed. I read the news in the same English newspapers which were trying to solve the riddle of the murder of the learned Sinologist Stephen Albert by the unknown Yu Tsun. The Chief, however, had already solved this mystery. He knew that my problem was to shout, with my feeble voice, above the tumult of war, the name of the city called Albert, and that I had no other course open to me than to kill someone of that name. He does not know, for no one can, of my infinite penitence and sickness of the heart.

其余的事情微不足道，仿佛一場夢绪颖。馬登闖了進(jìn)來秽荤，逮捕了我。我被判絞刑菠发。我很糟糕地取得了勝利：我把那個應(yīng)該攻擊的城市的保密名字通知了柏林王滤。昨天他們進(jìn)行轟炸，我是在報上看到的滓鸠。報上還有一條消息說著名漢學(xué)家斯蒂芬·艾伯特被一個名叫余準(zhǔn)的陌生人暗殺身死雁乡，暗殺動機(jī)不明，給英國出了一個謎糜俗。柏林的頭頭破了這個謎踱稍。他知道在戰(zhàn)火紛飛的時候我難以通報那個叫艾伯特的城市的名稱，除了殺掉一個叫那名字的人之外悠抹，找不出別的辦法珠月。他不知道(誰都不可能知道)我的無限悔恨和厭倦。

①維多利亞·奧坎波(1891—1979)楔敌，阿根廷散文作家啤挎、文學(xué)評論家。曾編輯《南方》雜志卵凑，著有(證言》庆聘、《弗吉尼亞·吳爾夫論》等。

②A malicious and outlandish statement. In point of fact, Captain Richard Madden had been attacked by the Prussian spy Hans Rabener, alias Viktor Runeberg, who drew an automatic pistol when Madden appeared with orders for the spy's arrest. Madden, in self defense, had inflicted wounds of which the spy later died. - Note by the manuscript editor.

②荒誕透頂?shù)募僭O(shè)勺卢。普魯士間諜漢斯·拉本納斯伙判，化名維克多，魯納伯格黑忱，用自動手槍襲擊持證前來逮捕他的理查德·馬登上尉宴抚。后者出于自衛(wèi)，擊傷魯納伯格甫煞，導(dǎo)致了他的死亡菇曲。

（完）?