月亮与六便士【中英字幕】

"The millsof God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small, " he said, somewhatimpressively.

Mrs. Stricklandand Mrs. Ronaldson looked down with a slightly pious expression whichindicated, I felt sure, that they thought the quotation was from Holy Writ.Indeed, I was unconvinced that Robert Strickland did not share their illusion.I do not know why I suddenly thought of Strickland's son by Ata. They had toldme he was a merry, light-hearted youth. I saw him, with my mind's eye, on theschooner on which he worked, wearing nothing but a pair of dungarees; and atnight, when the boat sailed along easily before a light breeze, and the sailorswere gathered on the upper deck, while the captain and the supercargo lolled indeck-chairs, smoking their pipes, I saw him dance with another lad, dancewildly, to the wheezy music of the concertina. Above was the blue sky, and thestars, and all about the desert of the Pacific Ocean.

A quotationfrom the Bible came to my lips, but I held my tongue, for I know that clergymenthink it a little blasphemous when the laity poach upon their preserves. MyUncle Henry, for twenty-seven years Vicar of Whitstable, was on these occasionsin the habit of saying that the devil could always quote scripture to hispurpose. He remembered the days when you could get thirteen Royal Natives for ashilling.

 “上帝的磨盘转动很慢，但是却磨得很细，”罗伯特说，颇有些道貌岸然的样子。

思特里克兰德太太和朵纳尔德逊太太满腹虔诚地低下头来。我一点儿也不怀疑，这母女两人所以表现得这么虔诚是因为她们都认为罗伯特刚才是从《圣经》上引证了一句话①。说实在的，就连罗伯特本人是否绝对无此错觉，我也不敢肯定。不知为什么，我突然想到爱塔给思特里克兰德生的那个孩子。听别人说，这是个活泼、开朗、快快活活的小伙子。在想象中，我仿佛看见一艘双桅大帆船，这个年轻人正在船上干活儿，他浑身赤裸，只在腰间围着一块粗蓝布；天黑了，船儿被清风吹动着，轻快地在海面上滑行，水手们都聚集在上层甲板上，船长和一个管货的人员坐在帆布椅上自由自在地抽着烟斗。思特里克兰德的孩子同另一个小伙子跳起舞来，在暗哑的手风琴声中，他们疯狂地跳着。头顶上是一片碧空，群星熠熠，太平洋烟波淼茫，浩瀚无垠。

①罗伯特所说“上帝的磨盘”一语，许多外国诗人学者都曾讲过。美国诗人朗费罗也写过类似诗句，并非出自《圣经》。

《圣经》上的另一句话也到了我的唇边，但是我却控制着自己，没有说出来，因为我知道牧师不喜欢俗人侵犯他们的领域，他们认为这是有渎神明的。我的亨利叔叔在威特斯台柏尔教区做了二十七年牧师，遇到这种机会就会说：魔鬼要干坏事总可以引证《圣经》。他一直忘不了一个先令就可以买十三只大牡蛎的日子。

She went to thedoor and called them. There entered a tall man in khaki, with the parson'scollar, handsome in a somewhat heavy fashion, but with the frank eyes that Iremembered in him as a boy. He was followed by his sister. She must have beenthe same age as was her mother when first I knew her, and she was very likeher. She too gave one the impression that as a girl she must have been prettierthan indeed she was.

"I supposeyou don't remember them in the least, " said Mrs. Strickland, proud andsmiling. "My daughter is now Mrs. Ronaldson. Her husband's a Major in theGunners. "

"He's byway of being a pukka soldier, you know, " said Mrs. Ronaldson gaily."That's why he's only a Major. "

I remembered myanticipation long ago that she would marry a soldier. It was inevitable. Shehad all the graces of the soldier's wife. She was civil and affable, but shecould hardly conceal her intimate conviction that she was not quite as otherswere. Robert was breezy.

"It's abit of luck that I should be in London when you turned up, " he said."I've only got three days' leave. "

"He'sdying to get back, " said his mother.

"Well, Idon't mind confessing it, I have a rattling good time at the front. I've made alot of good pals. It's a first-rate life. Of course war's terrible, and allthat sort of thing; but it does bring out the best qualities in a man, there'sno denying that. "

Then I toldthem what I had learned about Charles Strickland in Tahiti. I thought itunnecessary to say anything of Ata and her boy, but for the rest I was asaccurate as I could be. When I had narrated his lamentable death I ceased. Fora minute or two we were all silent. Then Robert Strickland struck a match andlit a cigarette.

她走到门口去招呼他们。走进来一个穿卡其服的高大男人，脖子上系着牧师戴的硬领。这人生得身材魁梧，有一种壮健的美，一双眼睛仍然和他童年时期一样真挚爽朗。跟在他后面的是他妹妹；她这时一定同我初次见到她母亲时年龄相仿。她长得非常象她母亲，也给人这样的印象：小时候长得一定要比实际上更漂亮。

“我想你一定一点儿也不记得他俩了，”思特里克兰德太太说，骄傲地笑了笑。“我的女儿现在是朵纳尔德逊太太了，她丈夫是炮兵团的少校。”

“他是一个真正从士兵出身的军人，”朵纳尔德逊太太高高兴兴地说，“所以现在刚刚是个少校。”

我想起很久以前我的预言：她将来一定会嫁一个军人。看来这件事早已注定了。她的风度完全是个军人的妻子。她对人和蔼亲切，但另一方面她几乎毫不掩饰自己内心的信念，她同一般人是有所不同的。罗伯特的情绪非常高。

“真是太巧了，你这次来正赶上我在伦敦，”他说，“我只有三天假。”

“他一心想赶快回去，”他母亲说。

“啊，这我承认，我在前线过得可太有趣儿了。我交了不少朋友。那里的生活真是顶呱呱的。当然了，战争是可怕的，那些事儿大家都非常清楚。但是战争确实能表现出一个人的优秀本质，这一点谁也不能否认。”

这以后我把我听到的查理斯·思特里克兰德在塔希提的情形给他们讲了一遍。我认为没有必要提到爱塔和她生的孩子，但是其余的事我都如实说了。在我谈完他惨死的情况以后我就没有再往下说了。有一两分钟大家都没有说话。后来罗伯特·思特里克兰德划了根火柴，点着了一支纸烟。

"I hope hedidn't bore you, " she said, when the door closed behind him. "Ofcourse it's a nuisance sometimes, but I feel it's only right to give people anyinformation I can about Charlie. There's a certain responsibility about havingbeen the wife of a genius. "

She looked atme with those pleasant eyes of hers, which had remained as candid and assympathetic as they had been more than twenty years before. I wondered if shewas making a fool of me.

"Of courseyou've given up your business, " I said.

"Oh, yes," she answered airily. "I ran it more by way of a hobby than for anyother reason, and my children persuaded me to sell it. They thought I wasovertaxing my strength. "

I saw that Mrs.Strickland had forgotten that she had ever done anything so disgraceful as towork for her living. She had the true instinct of the nice woman that it isonly really decent for her to live on other people's money.

"They'rehere now, " she said. "I thought they'd, like to hear what you had tosay about their father. You remember Robert, don't you? I'm glad to say he'sbeen recommended for the Military Cross. "

 “我希望这个人没有使你感到厌烦，”当门在凡·布施·泰勒的身背后关上以后，思特里克兰德太太说。“当然了，有时候也实在让人讨厌，但是我总觉得，有人来了解查理斯的情况，我是应该尽量把我知道的提供给人家的。作为一个伟大天才的未亡人，这该是一种义务吧。”

她用她那一对可爱的眼睛望着我，她的目光非常真挚，非常亲切，同二十多年以前完全一样。我有点儿怀疑她是不是在耍弄我。

“你那个打字所大概早就停业了吧？”我说。

“啊，当然了，”她大大咧咧地说，“当年我开那家打字所主要也是为了觉得好玩，没有其他什么原因。后来我的两个孩子都劝我把它出让给别人。他们认为太耗损我的精神了。”

我发现思特里克兰德太太已经忘记了她曾不得不自食其力这一段不光彩的历史。同任何一个正派女人一样，她真实地相信只有依靠别人养活自己才是规矩的行为。

“他们都在家，”她说，“我想你给他们谈谈他们父亲的事，他们一定很愿意听的。你还记得罗伯特吧？我很高兴能够告诉你，他的名字已经提上去，就快要领陆军十字勋章了。”

"Whatwonderful cushions you have, " said Mr. Van Busche Taylor.

"Do youlike them?" she said, smiling. "Bakst, you know. "

And yet on thewalls were coloured reproductions of several of Strickland's best pictures, dueto the enterprise of a publisher in Berlin.

"You'relooking at my pictures, " she said, following my eyes. "Of course,the originals are out of my reach, but it's a comfort to have these. Thepublisher sent them to me himself. They're a great consolation to me. "

"They mustbe very pleasant to live with, " said Mr. Van Busche Taylor.

"Yes;they're so essentially decorative. "

"That isone of my profoundest convictions, " said Mr. Van Busche Taylor."Great art is always decorative. "

Their eyesrested on a nude woman suckling a baby, while a girl was kneeling by their sideholding out a flower to the indifferent child. Looking over them was awrinkled, scraggy hag. It was Strickland's version of the Holy Family. Isuspected that for the figures had sat his household above Taravao, and thewoman and the baby were Ata and his first son. I asked myself if Mrs.Strickland had any inkling of the facts.

Theconversation proceeded, and I marvelled at the tact with which Mr. Van BuscheTaylor avoided all subjects that might have been in the least embarrassing, andat the ingenuity with which Mrs. Strickland, without saying a word that wasuntrue, insinuated that her relations with her husband had always been perfect.At last Mr. Van Busche Taylor rose to go. Holding his hostess' hand, he madeher a graceful, though perhaps too elaborate, speech of thanks, and left us.

 “你这些靠垫真是太了不起了，”凡·布施·泰勒先生说。

“你喜欢吗？”她笑着说，“巴克斯特①设计的，你知道。”

①雷昂·尼古拉耶维奇·巴克斯特（1866—1924），俄罗斯画家和舞台设计家。

但是墙上还挂着几张思特里克兰德的最好画作的彩色复制品；这该归功于柏林一家颇具野心的印刷商。

“你在看我的画呢，”看到我的目光所向，她说，“当然了，他的原画我无法弄到手，但是有了这些也足够了。这是出版商主动送给我的。对我来说真是莫大的安慰。”

“每天能欣赏这些画，实在是很大的乐趣，”凡·布施·泰勒先生说。

“一点儿不错。这些画是极有装饰意义的。”

“这也是我的一个最基本的看法，”凡·布施·泰勒先生说，“伟大的艺术从来就是最富于装饰价值的。”

他们的目光落在一个给孩子喂奶的裸体女人身上，女人身旁还有一个年轻女孩子跪着给小孩递去一朵花，小孩却根本不去注意。一个满脸皱纹、皮包骨的老太婆在旁边看着她们。这是思特里克兰德画的神圣家庭。我猜想画中人物都是他在塔拉窝村附近那所房子里的寄居者，而那个喂奶的女人和她怀里的婴儿就是爱塔和他们的第一个孩子。我很想知道思特里克兰德太太对这些事是不是也略知一二。

谈话继续下去。我非常佩服凡·布施·泰勒先生的老练；凡是令人感到尴尬的话题，他完全回避掉。我也非常惊奇思特里克兰德太太的圆滑；尽管她没有说一句不真实的话，却充分暗示了她同自己丈夫的关系非常融睦，从来没有任何嫌隙。最后，凡·布施·泰勒先生起身告辞，他握着女主人的一只手，向她说了一大篇优美动听、但未免过于造作的感谢词，便离开了我们。

When I wasushered into the drawing-room I found that Mrs. Strickland had a visitor, andwhen I discovered who he was, I guessed that I had been asked to come at justthat time not without intention. The caller was Mr. Van Busche Taylor, anAmerican, and Mrs. Strickland gave me particulars with a charming smile ofapology to him.

"You know,we English are so dreadfully ignorant. You must forgive me if it's necessary toexplain. " Then she turned to me. "Mr. Van Busche Taylor is thedistinguished American critic. If you haven't read his book your education hasbeen shamefully neglected, and you must repair the omission at once. He'swriting something about dear Charlie, and he's come to ask me if I can helphim. "

Mr. Van BuscheTaylor was a very thin man with a large, bald head, bony and shining; and underthe great dome of his skull his face, yellow, with deep lines in it, lookedvery small. He was quiet and exceedingly polite. He spoke with the accent ofNew England, and there was about his demeanour a bloodless frigidity which mademe ask myself why on earth he was busying himself with Charles Strickland. Ihad been slightly tickled at the gentleness which Mrs. Strickland put into hermention of her husband's name, and while the pair conversed I took stock of theroom in which we sat. Mrs. Strickland had moved with the times. Gone were theMorris papers and gone the severe cretonnes, gone were the Arundel prints thathad adorned the walls of her drawingroom in Ashley Gardens; the room blazedwith fantastic colour, and I wondered if she knew that those varied hues, whichfashion had imposed upon her, were due to the dreams of a poor painter in aSouth Sea island. She gave me the answer herself.

我被领进客厅以后才发现屋里还有一位客人。当我了解了这位客人的身份以后，我猜想思特里克兰德太太约我在这个时间来，不是没有目的的。这位来客是凡·布施·泰勒先生，一位美国人；思特里克兰德太太一边表示歉意地对他展露着可爱的笑容，一边详细地给我介绍他的情况。

“你知道，我们英国人见闻狭窄，简直太可怕了。如果我不得不做些解释，你一定得原谅我。”接着她转过来对我说：“凡·布施·泰勒先生就是那位美国最有名的评论家。如果你没有读过他的著作，你的教育可未免太欠缺了；你必须立刻着手弥补一下。泰勒先生现在正在写一点儿东西，关于亲爱的查理斯的。他特地来我这里看看我能不能帮他的忙。”

凡·布施·泰勒先生身体非常削瘦，生着一个大秃脑袋，骨头支棱着，头皮闪闪发亮；大宽脑门下面一张脸面色焦黄，满是皱纹，显得枯干瘦小。他举止文静，彬彬有礼，说话时带着些新英格兰州口音。这个人给我的印象非常僵硬刻板，毫无热情；我真不知道他怎么会想到要研究查理斯·思特里克兰德来。思特里克兰德太太在提到她死去的丈夫时，语气非常温柔，我暗自觉得好笑。在这两人谈话的当儿，我把我们坐的这间客厅打量了一番。思特里克兰德太太是个紧跟时尚的人。她在阿施里花园旧居时那些室内装饰都不见了，墙上糊的不再是莫里斯墙纸，家具上套的不再是色彩朴素的印花布，旧日装饰着客厅四壁的阿伦德尔图片也都撤下去了。现在这间客厅是一片光怪陆离的颜色，我很怀疑，她知道不知道她把屋子装点得五颜六色的这种风尚都是因为南海岛屿上一个可怜的画家有过这种幻梦。对我的这个疑问她自己作出了回答。

The time camefor my departure from Tahiti. According to the gracious custom of the island,presents were given me by the persons with whom I had been thrown in contact --baskets made of the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, mats of pandanus, fans; andTiare gave me three little pearls and three jars of guava-jelly made with herown plump hands. When the mail-boat, stopping for twenty-four hours on its wayfrom Wellington to San Francisco, blew the whistle that warned the passengersto get on board, Tiare clasped me to her vast bosom, so that I seemed to sinkinto a billowy sea, and pressed her red lips to mine. Tears glistened in hereyes. And when we steamed slowly out of the lagoon, making our way gingerlythrough the opening in the reef, and then steered for the open sea, a certainmelancholy fell upon me. The breeze was laden still with the pleasant odours ofthe land. Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again.A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitabledeath.

Not much morethan a month later I was in London; and after I had arranged certain matterswhich claimed my immediate attention, thinking Mrs. Strickland might like tohear what I knew of her husband's last years, I wrote to her. I had not seenher since long before the war, and I had to look out her address in thetelephone-book. She made an appointment, and I went to the trim little house onCampden Hill which she now inhabited. She was by this time a woman of hard onsixty, but she bore her years well, and no one would have taken her for morethan fifty. Her face, thin and not much lined, was of the sort that agesgracefully, so that you thought in youth she must have been a much handsomerwoman than in fact she was. Her hair, not yet very gray, was becominglyarranged, and her black gown was modish. I remembered having heard that hersister, Mrs. MacAndrew, outliving her husband but a couple of years, had left moneyto Mrs. Strickland; and by the look of the house and the trim maid who openedthe door I judged that it was a sum adequate to keep the widow in modestcomfort.

我离开塔希提的日子已经到了。根据岛上好客的习惯，凡是萍水相逢和我有一面之识的人临别时都送给我一些礼物——椰子树叶编的筐子、露兜树叶织的席、扇子……。蒂阿瑞给我的是三颗小珍珠和用她一双胖手亲自做的三罐番石榴酱。最后，当从惠灵顿开往旧金山的邮船在码头停泊了二十四小时，汽笛长鸣，招呼旅客上船的时候，蒂阿瑞把我搂在她肥大的胸脯里（我有一种掉在波涛汹涌的大海中的感觉），眼睛里闪着泪珠，把她的红嘴唇贴在我的嘴上。轮船缓缓驶出咸水湖，从珊瑚礁的一个通道小心谨慎地开到广阔的海面上，这时，一阵忧伤突然袭上我的心头。空气里仍然弥漫着从陆地飘来的令人心醉的香气，塔希提离我却已经非常遥远了。我知道我再也不会看到它了。我的生命史又翻过了一页；我觉得自己距离那谁也逃脱不掉的死亡又迈近了一步。

一个月零几天以后，我回到了伦敦。我把几件亟待处理的事办好以后，想到思特里克兰德太太或许愿意知道一下她丈夫最后几年的情况，便给她写了一封信。从大战前很长一段日子我们就没有见面了，我不知道她这时住在什么地方，只好翻了一下电话簿才找到她的地址。她在回信里约定了一个日子，到了那一天，我便到她在坎普登山的新居——一所很整齐的小房子——去登门造访。这时思特里克兰德太太已经快六十岁了，但是她的相貌一点儿也不显老，谁也不会相信她是五十开外的人。她的脸比较瘦，皱纹不多，是那种年龄很难刻上凿痕的面孔，你会觉得年轻时她一定是个美人，比她实际相貌要漂亮得多。她的头发没有完全灰白，梳理得恰合自己的身份，身上的黑色长衫样子非常时兴。我仿佛听人说过，她的姐姐麦克安德鲁太太在丈夫死后几年也去世了，给思特里克兰德太太留下一笔钱。从她现在的住房和给我们开门的使女的整齐利落的样子看，我猜想这笔钱是足够叫这位寡妇过着小康的日子的。

The colourswere so strange that words can hardly tell what a troubling emotion they gave.They were sombre blues, opaque like a delicately carved bowl in lapis lazuli,and yet with a quivering lustre that suggested the palpitation of mysteriouslife; there were purples, horrible like raw and putrid flesh, and yet with a glowing,sensual passion that called up vague memories of the Roman Empire ofHeliogabalus; there were reds, shrill like the berries of holly -- one thoughtof Christmas in England, and the snow, the good cheer, and the pleasure ofchildren -- and yet by some magic softened till they had the swooningtenderness of a dove's breast; there were deep yellows that died with anunnatural passion into a green as fragrant as the spring and as pure as thesparkling water of a mountain brook. Who can tell what anguished fancy madethese fruits? They belonged to a Polynesian garden of the Hesperides. There wassomething strangely alive in them, as though they were created in a stage ofthe earth's dark history when things were not irrevocably fixed to their forms.They were extravagantly luxurious. They were heavy with tropical odours. Theyseemed to possess a sombre passion of their own. It was enchanted fruit, totaste which might open the gateway to God knows what secrets of the soul and tomysterious palaces of the imagination. They were sullen with unawaited dangers,and to eat them might turn a man to beast or god. All that was healthy andnatural, all that clung to happy relationships and the simple joys of simplemen, shrunk from them in dismay; and yet a fearful attraction was in them, and,like the fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they were terriblewith the possibilities of the Unknown.

At last Iturned away. I felt that Strickland had kept his secret to the grave.

" Voyons,Rene, mon ami, " came the loud, cheerful voice of Madame Coutras,"what are you doing all this time? Here are the aperitifs. Ask Monsieur ifhe will not drink a little glass of Quinquina Dubonnet. "

"Volontiers, Madame, " I said, going out on to the verandah.

The spell wasbroken.

这幅画的着色非常怪异，叫人感到心神不宁，其感觉是很难确切说清的。浓浊的蓝色是不透明的，有如刻工精细的青金石雕盘，但又颤动着闪闪光泽，令人想到生活的神秘悸动；紫色象腐肉似的叫人感到嫌恶，但与此同时又勾起一种炽热的欲望，令人模糊想到亥里俄嘉巴鲁斯①统治下的罗马帝国；红色鲜艳刺目，有如冬青灌木结的小红果——一个人会联想英国的圣诞节，白雪皑皑，欢乐的气氛和儿童的笑语喧哗——，但画家又运用自己的魔笔，使这种光泽柔和下来，让它呈现出有如乳鸽胸脯一样的柔嫩，叫人神怡心驰；深黄色有些突兀地转成绿色，给人带来春天的芳香和溅着泡沫的山泉的明净。谁能知道，是什么痛苦的幻想创造出这些果实的呢？该不是看管金苹果园的赫斯珀里得斯三姐妹②在波利尼西亚果园中培植出来的吧！奇怪的是，这些果实都象活的一样，仿佛是在混沌初开时创造出来的，当时任何事物还都没有固定的形体，丰实肥硕，散发着浓郁的热带气息，好象具有一种独特的忧郁的感情。它们是被施展了魔法的果子，任何人尝了就能打开通向不知道哪些灵魂秘密的门扉，就可以走进幻境的神秘宫殿。它们孕育着无法预知的危险，咬一口就可能把一个人变成野兽，但也说不定变成神灵。一切健康的、正常的东西，淳朴人们所有的一切美好的情谊、朴素的欢乐都远远地避开了它们；但它们又具有莫大的诱惑力，就象伊甸园中能分辨善恶的智慧果一样，能把人带进未知的境界。

①一名埃拉嘉巴鲁斯（205？—222），罗马帝国皇帝。

②根据希腊神话，赫斯珀里得斯姐妹负责看管赫拉女神的金苹果树，并有巨龙拉冬帮助守卫。

最后，我离开了这幅画。我觉得思特里克兰德一直把他的秘密带进了坟墓。

“喂，雷耐，亲爱的①，”外面传来了库特拉斯太太的兴高采烈的响亮的声音，“这么半天，你在干什么啊？开胃酒②已经准备好了。问问那位先生③愿意不愿意喝一小杯规那皮杜邦内酒。”

①②③原文为法语。

“当然愿意，夫人④，”我一边说一边走到阳台上去。

④原文为法语。

图画的魅力被打破了。

"I thinkStrickland knew it was a masterpiece. He had achieved what he wanted. His lifewas complete. He had made a world and saw that it was good. Then, in pride andcontempt, he destroyed, it. "

"But Imust show you my picture, " said Dr. Coutras, moving on.

"Whathappened to Ata and the child?"

They went tothe Marquesas. She had relations there. I have heard that the boy works on oneof Cameron's schooners. They say he is very like his father in appearance."

At the doorthat led from the verandah to the doctor's consulting-room, he paused andsmiled.

"It is afruit-piece. You would think it not a very suitable picture for a doctor'sconsulting-room, but my wife will not have it in the drawing-room. She says itis frankly obscene. "

"Afruit-piece!" I exclaimed in surprise.

We entered theroom, and my eyes fell at once on the picture. I looked at it for a long time.

It was a pileof mangoes, bananas, oranges, and I know not what. and at first sight it was aninnocent picture enough. It would have been passed in an exhibition of thePost- Impressionists by a careless person as an excellent but not veryremarkable example of the school; but perhaps afterwards it would come back tohis recollection, and he would wonder why. I do not think then he could everentirely forget it.

“我想思特里克兰德也知道这是一幅杰作。他已经得到了自己所追求的东西。他可以说死而无憾了。他创造了一个世界，也看到自己的创造多么美好。以后，在骄傲和轻蔑的心情中，他又把它毁掉了。”

“我还是得让你看看我的画，”库特拉斯医生说，继续往前走。

“爱塔同他们的孩子后来怎样了？”

“他们搬到马尔奎撒群岛去了。她那里有亲属。我听说他们的孩子在一艘喀麦隆的双桅帆船上当水手。人们都说他长得很象死去的父亲。”

走到从阳台通向诊疗室的门口，库特拉斯医生站住，对我笑了笑。

“我的画是一幅水果静物画。你也许觉得诊疗室里挂着这样一幅画不很适宜，但是我的妻子却绝对不让它挂在客厅里。她说这张画给人一种猥亵感。”

“水果静物会叫人感到猥亵？”我吃惊地喊起来。

我们走进屋子，我的眼睛立刻落到这幅画上。很久很久我一直看着它。

画的是一堆水果：芒果、香蕉、桔子，还有一些我叫不出名字的东西。第一眼望去，这幅画一点儿也没有什么怪异的地方。如果摆在后期印象派的画展上，一个不经心的人会认为这是张满不错的、但也并非什么杰出的画幅，从风格上讲，同这一学派也没有什么不同。但是看过以后，说不定这幅画就总要回到他的记忆里，甚至连他自己也不知道为什么。据我估计，从此以后他就永远也不能把它忘掉了。

"Destroyed?"I cried.

" Maisoui; did you not know?"

"Howshould I know? It is true I had never heard of this work; but I thought perhapsit had fallen into the hands of a private owner. Even now there is no certainlist of Strickland's paintings. "

"When hegrew blind he would sit hour after hour in those two rooms that he had painted,looking at his works with sightless eyes, and seeing, perhaps, more than he hadever seen in his life before. Ata told me that he never complained of his fate,he never lost courage. To the end his mind remained serene and undisturbed. Buthe made her promise that when she had buried him -- did I tell you that I dughis grave with my own hands, for none of the natives would approach theinfected house, and we buried him, she and I, sewn up in three pareos joinedtogether, under the mango-tree -- he made her promise that she would set fireto the house and not leave it till it was burned to the ground and not a stickremained. "

I did not speakfor a while, for I was thinking. Then I said:

"Heremained the same to the end, then. "

"Do youunderstand? I must tell you that I thought it my duty to dissuade her. "

"Evenafter what you have just said?"

"Yes; forI knew that here was a work of genius, and I did not think we had the right todeprive the world of it. But Ata would not listen to me. She had promised. Iwould not stay to witness the barbarous deed, and it was only afterwards that Iheard what she had done. She poured paraffin on the dry floors and on thepandanus-mats, and then she set fire. In a little while nothing remained butsmouldering embers, and a great masterpiece existed no longer.

“怎么，毁掉了？”我喊起来。

“是啊①。你不知道吗？”

①原文为法语。

“我怎么会知道？我没听说过这些作品倒是事实，但是我还以为它们落到某个私人收藏家手里去了呢。思特里克兰德究竟画了多少画儿，直到今天始终没有人编制出目录来。”

“自从眼睛瞎了以后他就总是一动不动地坐在那两间画着壁画的屋子里，一坐就是几个钟头。他用一对失明的眼睛望着自己的作品，也许他看到的比他一生中看到的还要多。爱塔告诉我，他对自己的命运从来也没有抱怨过，他从来也不沮丧。直到生命最后一刻，他的心智一直是安详、恬静的。但是他叫爱塔作出诺言，在她把他埋葬以后——我告诉你没有，他的墓穴是我亲手挖的，因为没有一个土人肯走近这所沾染了病菌的房子，我们俩把他埋葬在那株芒果树底下，我同爱塔，他的尸体是用三块帕利欧缝在一起包裹起来的——他叫爱塔保证，放火把房子烧掉，而且要她亲眼看着房子烧光，在每一根木头都烧掉以前不要走开。”

半天半天我没有说话；我陷入沉思中，最后我说：

“这么说来，他至死也没有变啊。”

“你了解吗？我必须告诉你，当时我觉得自己有责任劝阻她，叫她不要这么做。”

“后来你真是这样说了吗？”

“是的。因为我知道这是一个伟大天才的杰作，而且我认为，我们是没有权利叫人类失去它的。但是爱塔不听我的劝告。她已经答应过他了。我不愿意继续待在那儿，亲眼看着那野蛮的破坏活动。只是事情过后我才听人说，她是怎样干的。她在干燥的地板上和草席上倒上煤油，点起一把火来。没过半晌，这座房子就变成了焦炭，一幅伟大的杰作就这样化为灰烬了。”

"Iscarcely know. It was strange and fantastic. It was a vision of the beginningsof the world, the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve -- que sais-je? -- it was ahymn to the beauty of the human form, male and female, and the praise ofNature, sublime, indifferent, lovely, and cruel. It gave you an awful sense ofthe infinity of space and of the endlessness of time. Because he painted thetrees I see about me every day, the cocoa-nuts, the banyans, the flamboyants,the alligator-pears, I have seen them ever since differently, as though therewere in them a spirit and a mystery which I am ever on the point of seizing andwhich forever escapes me. The colours were the colours familiar to me, and yetthey were different. They had a significance which was all their own. And thosenude men and women. They were of the earth, and yet apart from it. They seemedto possess something of the clay of which they were created, and at the sametime something divine. You saw man in the nakedness of his primeval instincts,and you were afraid, for you saw yourself. "

Dr. Coutrasshrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"You willlaugh at me. I am a materialist, and I am a gross, fat man -- Falstaff, eh? --the lyrical mode does not become me. I make myself ridiculous. But I have neverseen painting which made so deep an impression upon me. Tenez, I had just thesame feeling as when I went to the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There too I was awedby the greatness of the man who had painted that ceiling. It was genius, and itwas stupendous and overwhelming. I felt small and insignificant. But you areprepared for the greatness of Michael Angelo. Nothing had prepared me for theimmense surprise of these pictures in a native hut, far away from civilisation,in a fold of the mountain above Taravao. And Michael Angelo is sane andhealthy. Those great works of his have the calm of the sublime; but here,notwithstanding beauty, was something troubling. I do not know what it was. Itmade me uneasy. It gave me the impression you get when you are sitting nextdoor to a room that you know is empty, but in which, you know not why, you havea dreadful consciousness that notwithstanding there is someone. You scoldyourself; you know it is only your nerves -- and yet, and yet. . . In a littlewhile it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you arehelpless in the clutch of an unseen horror. Yes; I confess I was not altogethersorry when I heard that those strange masterpieces had been destroyed. "

“我说不太清楚。他的画奇异而荒诞，好象是宇宙初创时的图景——伊甸园，亚当和夏娃……我怎么知道呢①？是对人体美——男性和女性的形体——的一首赞美诗，是对大自然的颂歌；大自然，既崇高又冷漠，既美丽又残忍……它使你感到空间的无限和时间的永恒，叫你产生一种畏惧的感觉。他画了许多树，椰子树、榕树、火焰花、鳄梨……所有那些我天天看到的；但是这些树经他一画，我再看的时候就完全不同了，我仿佛看到它们都有了灵魂，都各自有一个秘密，仿佛它们的灵魂和秘密眼看就要被我抓到手里，但又总是被它们逃脱掉。那些颜色都是我熟悉的颜色，可是又有所不同；它们都具有自己的独特的重要性。而那些赤身裸体的男男女女，他们既都是尘寰的、是他们揉捏而成的尘土，又都是神灵。人的最原始的天性赤裸裸地呈现在你眼前，你看到的时候不由得感到恐惧，因为你看到的是你自己。”

①原文为法语。

库特拉斯医生耸了一下肩膀，脸上露出笑容。

“你会笑我的。我是个实利主义者，我生得又蠢又胖——有点儿象福斯塔夫②，对不对？——抒情诗的感情对我是很不合适的。我在惹人发笑。但是我真的还从来没有看过哪幅画给我留下这么深的印象。说老实话③，我看这幅画时的心情，就象我进了罗马塞斯廷小教堂一样。在那里我也是感到在天花板上绘画的那个画家非常伟大，又敬佩又畏服。那真是天才的画，气势磅礴，叫人感到头晕目眩。在这样伟大的壁画前面，我感到自己非常渺小，微不足道。但是人们对米开朗基罗的伟大还是有心理准备的，而在这样一个土人住的小木房子里，远离文明世界，在俯瞰塔拉窝村庄的群山怀抱里，我却根本没想到会看到这样令人吃惊的艺术作品。另外，米开朗基罗神智健全，身体健康。他的那些伟大作品给人以崇高、肃穆的感觉。但是在这里，虽然我看到的也是美，却叫我觉得心神不安。我不知道那究竟是什么，但它确实叫我不能平静。它给我一种印象，仿佛我正坐在一间空荡荡的屋子隔壁，我知道那间屋子是空的，但不知为什么，我又觉得里面有一个人，叫我惊恐万状。你责骂你自己吧；你知道这只不过是你的神经在作祟——但是，但是……过一小会儿，你就再也不能抗拒那紧紧捕捉住你的恐惧了。你被握在一种无形的恐怖的掌心里，无法逃脱。是的，我承认当我听到这些奇异的杰作被毁掉的时候，我并不是只觉得遗憾的。”

②莎士比亚戏剧《亨利四世》中人物，身体肥胖，喜爱吹牛。

③原文为法语。