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雙語·月亮與六便士 第四十九章

所屬教程:譯林版·月亮與六便士

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2022年04月27日

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I lived at the H?tel de la Fleur, and Mrs.Johnson, the proprietress, had a sad story to tell of lost opportunity.After Strickland’s death certain of his effects were sold by auction in the market-place at Papeete, and she went to it herself because there was among the truck an American stove she wanted.She paid twenty-seven francs for it.

“There were a dozen pictures,”she told me,“but they were unframed, and nobody wanted them. Some of them sold for as much as ten francs, but mostly they went for fve or six.Just think, if I had bought them I should be a rich woman now.”

But Tiaré Johnson would never under any circumstances have been rich.She could not keep money.The daughter of a native and an English sea-captain settled in Tahiti, when I knew her she was a woman of fifty, who looked older, and of enormous proportions.Tall and extremely stout, she would have been of imposing presence if the great good-nature of her face had not made it impossible for her to express anything but kindliness.Her arms were like legs of mutton, her breasts like giant cabbages;her face, broad and feshy, gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness, and vast chin succeeded to vast chin.I do not know how many of them there were.They fell away voluminously into the capaciousness of her bosom.She was dressed usually in a pink Mother Hubbard, and she wore all day long a large straw hat.But when she let down her hair, which she did now and then, for she was vain of it, you saw that it was long and dark and curly;and her eyes had remained young and vivacious.Her laughter was the most catching I ever heard;it would begin, a low peal in her throat, and would grow louder and louder till her whole vast body shook.She loved three things-a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man.To have known her is a privilege.

She was the best cook on the island, and she adored good food. From morning till night you saw her sitting on a low chair in the kitchen, surrounded by a Chinese cook and two or three native girls, giving her orders, chatting sociably with all and sundry, and tasting the savoury messes she devised.When she wished to do honour to a friend she cooked the dinner with her own hands.Hospitality was a passion with her, and there was no one on the island who need go without a dinner when there was anything to eat at the H?tel de la Fleur.She never turned her customers out of her house because they did not pay their bills.She always hoped they would pay when they could.There was one man there who had fallen on adversity, and to him she had given board and lodging for several months.When the Chinese laundryman refused to wash for him without payment she had sent his things to be washed with hers.She could not allow the poor fellow to go about in a dirty shirt, she said, and since he was a man, and men must smoke, she gave him a franc a day for cigarettes.She used him with the same affability as those of her clients who paid their bills once a week.

Age and obesity had made her inapt for love, but she took a keen interest in the amatory affairs of the young. She looked upon venery as the natural occupation for men and women, and was ever ready with precept and example from her own wide experience.

“I was not fifteen when my father found that I had a lover,”she said.“He was third mate on the Tropic Bird. A good-looking boy.”

She sighed a little. They say a woman always remembers her frst lover with affection;but perhaps she does not always remember him.

“My father was a sensible man.”

“What did he do?”I asked.

“He thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then he made me marry Captain Johnson. I did not mind.He was older, of course, but he was good-looking too.”

Tiaré-her father had called her by the name of the white, scented fower which, they tell you, if you have once smelt, will always draw you back to Tahiti in the end, however far you may have roamed-Tiaré remembered Strickland very well.

“He used to come here sometimes, and I used to see him walking about Papeete. I was sorry for him, he was so thin, and he never had any money.When I heard he was in town, I used to send a boy to fnd him and make him come to dinner with me.I got him a job once or twice, but he couldn't stick to anything.After a little while he wanted to get back to the bush, and one morning he would be gone.”

Strickland reached Tahiti about six months after he left Marseilles. He worked his passage on a sailing vessel that was making the trip from Auckland to San Francisco, and he arrived with a box of paints, an easel, and a dozen canvases.He had a few pounds in his pocket, for he had found work in Sydney, and he took a small room in a native house outside the town.I think the moment he reached Tahiti he felt himself at home.Tiaré told me that he said to her once:

“I'd been scrubbing the deck, and all at once a chap said to me:‘Why, there it is.'And I looked up and I saw the outline of the island. I knew right away that there was the place I'd been looking for all my life.Then we came near, and I seemed to recognize it.Sometimes when I walk about it all seems familiar.I could swear I've lived here before.”

“Sometimes it takes them like that,”said Tiaré.“I’ve known men come on shore for a few hours while their ship was taking in cargo, and never go back.And I’ve known men who came here to be in an offce for a year, and they cursed the place, and when they went away they took their dying oath they’d hang themselves before they came back again, and in six months you’d see them land once more, and they’d tell you they couldn’t live anywhere else.”

我住在鮮花賓館,約翰遜太太是這家賓館的女老板,她總是向人訴說她痛失良機(jī)的悲傷故事。在斯特里克蘭死后,他的一些遺物在帕皮提的市場上被拍賣。她親自跑了一趟,因為在拍賣品中有一個美國造的爐子她想要,她付了二十七法郎購得這個爐子。

“那兒還有十幾幅畫,”她告訴我,“但是這些畫都沒畫框,沒人想要它們,有些畫最多十法郎就賣掉了,但大多數(shù)畫只賣到五六個法郎,你想想看,如果我當(dāng)初買下它們,現(xiàn)在就成富婆了?!?/p>

但是蒂亞瑞·約翰遜無論在什么情況下也成不了富婆的,她存不住錢。她的母親是一個當(dāng)?shù)氐呐?,父親是一個定居在塔希提島上的英國船長。當(dāng)我認(rèn)識她時,她已經(jīng)有五十歲上下,但看上去更老,非常的富態(tài),個頭高大,特別胖,如果不是一張臉上透出慈祥,而且充滿善意的話,看上去會是威風(fēng)凜凜的。她的胳膊就像小羊腿,乳房就像兩棵巨大的洋白菜,大臉盤子滿是肥肉,給你一種印象,幾乎像是不太雅觀的裸體,肥肥的下巴一層疊著一層,我都不知道究竟有多少層。肥大的下巴都垂到了寬寬的胸脯上。她通常穿著粉色的罩衫,整天戴著一頂大草帽。但是當(dāng)她把頭發(fā)松垂下來的時候——她時不時地這樣做,因為她對自己的頭發(fā)很是自鳴得意——你能看到她的頭發(fā)很長,烏黑而且卷曲著;她的眼睛還保持青春色彩和活潑靈動,她的笑聲是我所聽到過的笑聲中最吸引人的,剛開始笑的時候,好像喉嚨中有顆位置較低的珍珠,然后笑聲越來越大,直到她整個碩大的身軀都開始在晃動了。她平生有三愛——笑話、葡萄酒和帥哥。能結(jié)識她,真是三生有幸。

她還是島上最好的廚師,喜歡美食。從早到晚,你都能看見她坐在廚房的矮椅子上,一名中國廚師和兩三個當(dāng)?shù)氐呐D(zhuǎn),她一邊在發(fā)號施令,一邊同所有各色人等聊著天,還一邊品嘗她設(shè)計出的各種美食。當(dāng)她想對一位朋友表示一下敬意的時候,會親自下廚露上兩手。好客是她的天性,但凡鮮花賓館有一口吃的,島上的人就不用擔(dān)心晚飯沒有著落。她絕對不會因為客人付不起賬單而把他們趕出賓館。她總有一種希望,當(dāng)他們能付得起的時候,他們一定會付清的。有一次一個住店的男人落魄了,她一連好幾個月給這個人提供食宿。當(dāng)一個中國洗衣工因為這個客人付不起洗衣費而拒絕再給他洗衣服時,她把他的衣服和自己的衣服裹在一起送到洗衣房。她無法容忍這位貧窮的家伙穿著臟襯衣出門。她說,既然他是個男人,而男人非抽煙不可,她每天會給他一法郎去買煙。她對這個客人和那些一周一次準(zhǔn)時付賬單的客人一樣和藹客氣。

她的年齡和過度肥胖使她不能再談情說愛了,但她對年輕人的戀愛和浪漫事卻格外感興趣,認(rèn)為情欲是飲食男女天然的需要,甚至還時刻準(zhǔn)備著以自己這方面豐富的閱歷作為箴言總結(jié)和行為榜樣。

“我還不到十五歲的時候,我父親就發(fā)現(xiàn)我有了一個情人?!彼f,“他是熱帶鳥號船上的三副,長得很帥氣?!?/p>

她輕輕嘆了口氣,他們說女人總是會念念不忘她的第一個情人。然而,也許她是個例外,不能總記得清他的模樣。

“我父親是個明智的人?!?/p>

“他做了什么了?”我問道。

“他幾乎把我揍個半死,差點要了我的命。后來,他又把我嫁給了約翰遜船長,我并不介意,雖然他歲數(shù)要大得多,當(dāng)然了,他長得也很不錯。”

蒂亞瑞——她父親給她取的這個名字,意思是白色的、有香味的花朵,這里的人們告訴你,如果你聞過一次它的花香,最終總會被吸引到塔希提島,無論你漂泊得有多遠(yuǎn)——蒂亞瑞對斯特里克蘭記得非常清楚。

“他過去有時來這兒,我也曾見他在帕皮提來回溜達(dá),我挺可憐他,他那么瘦,口袋里從來沒有半毛錢。只要我聽說他在鎮(zhèn)上,我經(jīng)常會派侍者去找他,讓他來和我一起吃飯。我也給過他一兩份工作,但他堅持不了多久,過一段時間他就想重返叢林,說不定哪天早上自己說回就回了?!?/p>

斯特里克蘭在離開馬賽大約六個月后來到了塔希提島,他在一艘從奧克蘭開往舊金山的帆船上做水手。他到達(dá)時,隨身帶著一盒顏料、一個畫架和十幾張畫布。他口袋里有一些英鎊,是他在悉尼打零工掙的,他在鎮(zhèn)外一個當(dāng)?shù)厝说姆孔永镒饬艘粋€小房間。我認(rèn)為在他踏上塔希提島的那一刻,他找到了家的感覺。蒂亞瑞告訴我,有一次斯特里克蘭對她說:

“我一直在擦洗甲板,突然間有個家伙對我說:‘嗨,就在那兒?!姨痤^,看到一片島的輪廓,我馬上知道那個地方就是我這輩子一直在苦苦尋找的地方,當(dāng)我們靠得近了一些的時候,我似乎認(rèn)出了它。有時候當(dāng)我在島上四處溜達(dá)的時候,周圍的一切都是那么熟悉,我敢發(fā)誓我以前一定在這兒生活過?!?/p>

“有時,這個小島確實能給人這種感覺,”蒂亞瑞說道,“我就聽說過,一些船正在上貨,有些水手登岸待上幾個小時后,就再也沒有回到船上。我還聽說有些人來這兒任職一年,他們對這個地方罵罵咧咧,離開時發(fā)下毒誓,寧可上吊也不回來了??稍龠^六個月,你卻會再次看到他們上岸,而且他們會告訴你他們在別的地方簡直生活不下去?!?/p>

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