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雙語·月亮與六便士 第五十四章

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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As we walked along I refected on a circumstance which all that I had lately heard about Strickland forced on my attention. Here, on this remote island, he seemed to have aroused none of the detestation with which he was regarded at home, but compassion rather;and his vagaries were accepted with tolerance.To these people, native and European, he was a queer fsh, but they were used to queer fsh, and they took him for granted;the world was full of odd persons, who did odd things;and perhaps they knew that a man is not what he wants to be, but what he must be.In England and France he was the square peg in the round hole, but here the holes were any sort of shape, and no sort of peg was quite amiss.I do not think he was any gentler here, less selfsh or less brutal, but the circumstances were more favourable.If he had spent his life amid these surroundings he might have passed for no worse a man than another.He received here what he neither expected nor wanted among his own people-sympathy.

I tried to tell Captain Brunot something of the astonishment with which this flled me, and for a little while he did not answer.

“It is not strange that I, at all events, should have had sympathy for him,”he said at last,“for, though perhaps neither of us knew it, we were both aiming at the same thing.”

“What on earth can it be that two people so dissimilar as you and Strickland could aim at?”I asked, smiling.

“Beauty.”

“A large order,”I murmured.

“Do you know how men can be so obsessed by love that they are deaf and blind to everything else in the world?They are as little their own masters as the slaves chained to the benches of a galley. The passion that held Strickland in bondage was no less tyrannical than love.”

“How strange that you should say that!”I answered.“For long ago I had the idea that he was possessed of a devil.”

“And the passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace.It urged him hither and thither.He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless.There are men whose desire for truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world.Of such was Strickland, only beauty with him took the place of truth.I could only feel for him a profound compassion.”

“That is strange also. A man whom he had deeply wronged told me that he felt a great pity for him.”I was silent for a moment.“I wonder if there you have found the explanation of a character which has always seemed to me inexplicable.How did you hit on it?”

He turned to me with a smile.

“Did I not tell you that I, too, in my way was an artist?I realized in myself the same desire as animated him. But whereas his medium was paint, mine has been life.”

Then Captain Brunot told me a story which I must repeat, since, if only by way of contrast, it adds something to my impression of Strickland. It has also to my mind a beauty of its own.

Captain Brunot was a Breton, and had been in the French Navy. He left it on his marriage, and settled down on a small property he had near Quimper to live for the rest of his days in peace;but the failure of an attorney left him suddenly penniless, and neither he nor his wife was willing to live in penury where they had enjoyed consideration.During his seafaring days he had cruised the South Seas, and he determined now to seek his fortune there.He spent some months in Papeete to make his plans and gain experience;then, on money borrowed from a friend in France, he bought an island in the Paumotus.It was a ring of land round a deep lagoon, uninhabited, and covered only with scrub and wild guava.With the intrepid woman who was his wife, and a few natives, he landed there, and set about building a house, and clearing the scrub so that he could plant coconuts.That was twenty years before, and now what had been a barren island was a garden.

“It was hard and anxious work at frst, and we worked strenuously, both of us. Every day I was up at dawn, clearing, planting, working on my house, and at night when I threw myself on my bed it was to sleep like a log till morning.My wife worked as hard as I did.Then children were born to us, first a son and then a daughter.My wife and I have taught them all they know.We had a piano sent out from France, and she has taught them to play and to speak English, and I have taught them Latin and mathematics, and we read history together.They can sail a boat.They can swim as well as the natives.There is nothing about the land of which they are ignorant.Our trees have prospered, and there is shell on my reef.I have come to Tahiti now to buy a schooner.I can get enough shell to make it worth while to fsh for it, and, who knows?I may fnd pearls.I have made something where there was nothing.I too have made beauty.Ah, you do not know what it is to look at those tall, healthy trees and think that every one I planted myself.”

“Let me ask you the question that you asked Strickland. Do you never regret France and your old home in Brittany?”

“Some day, when my daughter is married and my son has a wife and is able to take my place on the island, we shall go back and fnish our days in the old house in which I was born.”

“You will look back on a happy life,”I said.

“évidemment, it is not exciting on my island, and we are very far from the world-imagine, it takes me four days to come to Tahiti-but we are happy there.It is given to few men to attempt a work and to achieve it.Our life is simple and innocent.We are untouched by ambition, and what pride we have is due only to our contemplation of the work of our hands.Malice cannot touch us, nor envy attack.Ah, mon cher monsieur, they talk of the blessedness of labour, and it is a meaningless phrase, but to me it has the most intense signifcance.I am a happy man.”

“I am sure you deserve to be,”I smiled.

“I wish I could think so. I do not know how I have deserved to have a wife who was the perfect friend and helpmate, the perfect mistress and the perfect mother.”

I refected for a while on the life that the Captain suggested to my imagination.

“It is obvious that to lead such an existence and make so great a success of it, you must both have needed a strong will and determined character.”

“Perhaps;but without one other factor we could have achieved nothing.”

“And what was that?”

He stopped, somewhat dramatically, and stretched out his arm.

“Belief in God. Without that we should have been lost.”

Then we arrived at the house of Dr. Coutras.

當我們一路走去的時候,我思索著斯特里克蘭的狀況。最近我聽說了不少有關他的情況,但最讓我關注的還是這個環(huán)境。在這里,這個遙遠的島嶼上,他似乎不會引起人們的絲毫厭惡,相反還會贏得同情,這與在他家鄉(xiāng)的情景迥然不同。他的奇行怪癖能夠被容忍,被接受。對于這里的人們——無論當?shù)厝诉€是歐洲人,他是個怪人,但是他們對于種種怪人都習以為常了,所以對他也就見怪不怪了。這個世界上本來充滿了怪人,這些人常有非常之舉,也許這里的人能夠理解,一個人不是他自己想成為那樣的人,而是他必須是那樣的人。在英格蘭和法國,他好比是方楔子被敲進了圓窟窿,總是與大眾格格不入,而在這里,有著各種形狀的窟窿,任何形狀的楔子都能找到合適的窟窿。我并不認為他在這兒脾氣就變得溫和了,就不那么自私或者殘忍了,我只能說這兒的環(huán)境更加適宜他了。如果他最初就在這樣的環(huán)境中度過一生的話,他在別人眼中也不會是那么糟糕的人,他在這兒收到了在他自己人那里既沒有指望,也絕不會想到的東西——那就是同情。

我試圖告訴布魯諾船長,我心中充滿了某種讓我吃驚的東西。他一時半刻并沒有回答我。

“這一點兒也不奇怪,不管怎么樣,我都應該對他有著同情,”他最后說道,“因為,雖然可能我們倆都不知道具體是什么東西,但我們的目標是同樣的。”

“這到底是什么東西呀,像你和斯特里克蘭是截然不同的兩個人,竟然會目標一致?”我笑著問道。

“美?!?/p>

“太高深了?!蔽亦止玖艘痪洹?/p>

“你知道陷入愛情之中的人是什么樣的嗎?他們除了愛情,對世界上的其他任何事情都視而不見,充耳不聞。他們不再是自己的主人,而是像在大帆船的木凳上被鎖住的奴隸,在身不由己地劃著船。牢牢捆綁住斯特里克蘭的激情,就像專斷的愛情一樣,而且還有過之而無不及?!?/p>

“聽你這么說,多奇怪呀!”我回答道,“因為老早以前,我認為他是被魔鬼附身了呢?!?/p>

“斯特里克蘭內(nèi)心的激情正是一種創(chuàng)造美的激情,讓他不得安生。它催促他不得不東奔西走。他就像一個永恒的朝圣者,魂牽夢縈的是那一塊圣地,而心中盤踞的魔鬼又是那么無情。有那么一些人,他們追求真理的欲望是如此強烈,以至于為了獲得真理,他們不惜把他們世界的基礎掀得天翻地覆。斯特里克蘭就是這樣的人,只不過在他那里,美取代了真理的位置,我對他唯一的感覺就是深深的同情。”

“這聽上去也挺奇怪。一個曾被斯特里克蘭深深傷害過的人也跟我說過,他對斯特里克蘭有著很多同情。”我沉默了一會兒,“我很想知道你是否已經(jīng)找到了對一個人的解釋,而這個人對我來說,似乎一直也無法解釋。你是怎么想到這些道理的?”

他笑著轉向我說:

“我沒告訴過你,以我的方式,我也是個藝術家嗎?我自己認識到,同我一樣的欲望也在他心中涌動,但是他的媒介是繪畫,而我的媒介是生活?!?/p>

后來布魯諾船長又給我講了一個故事,這個故事在此我要重述一遍。因為哪怕就是從對比的角度出發(fā),它也會為我對斯特里克蘭的印象中增添些東西。在我看來,這個故事本身也有美的內(nèi)涵。

布魯諾船長是布列塔尼人,曾經(jīng)在法國海軍里當過兵。他結婚以后就離開了軍隊,定居在靠近坎佩爾的一棟不大的房產(chǎn)中,打算就這樣平平安安地度過余生。但是替他打理一切投資的代理人生意失敗,突然之間,他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已經(jīng)身無分文。他和他妻子都不愿在本來還享有一定身份地位的地方,過一種赤貧的生活。當他在海上當兵時,他曾坐著軍艦巡游過南太平洋,于是他決定去那里碰碰運氣。他花了好幾個月的時間在帕皮提實施計劃和積累經(jīng)驗,再后來,他從在法國的一位朋友那里借了一筆錢,他在包莫圖斯群島中買了一個島嶼,島上有一片環(huán)形的陸地,在陸地中間是一個很深的環(huán)礁湖。島上沒有人住,只覆蓋著灌木叢和野生番石榴[107],帶著一個大無畏的女人——他的妻子,還有幾個當?shù)厝?,踏上了這塊土地,開始修建房屋,清理灌木叢,以便種上椰子樹。二十年光陰荏苒,現(xiàn)在那個荒蕪的小島已經(jīng)變成了小花園。

“一開始,那是一項艱巨而又令人擔憂的工程,我們兩個人都拼死拼活地工作。每天天一亮我就起床了,清除灌木,種植作物,修繕房屋,到了晚上,我一倒在床上,就像一條死狗一樣一覺睡到早晨。我妻子工作得跟我一樣辛苦。后來,我們又有了孩子,第一胎是個兒子,接下來又生了個女兒。我和我妻子把我們所知道的全部知識都教給他們。我們有一架鋼琴,是從法國托運過來的。她教他們彈鋼琴和說英語,而我教他們拉丁文和數(shù)學,我們一塊兒讀歷史書。孩子們能劃小船,像當?shù)厝艘粯佑斡竞馨簦瑢u上的一切都了然于心。我們種下的各種樹木蓬勃生長,在礁石上養(yǎng)殖的貝類繁衍得也很快。我這次到塔希提島來是為了買一艘縱帆船。用這艘船我能撈到足夠多的蚌類,說不準能把買船的錢賺回來,誰知道呢?我可能撈到一些珍珠呢。我已經(jīng)白手起家了。我也創(chuàng)造了美。啊,你不了解,當看到這些高大挺拔的大樹,想想它們每一棵都是我親手種下的,那是一種什么樣的心情?!?/p>

“我問一個你曾經(jīng)問過斯特里克蘭的同樣問題:你一點兒也不后悔離開法國,一點兒也不懷念你布列塔尼的老家嗎?”

“有那么一天,當我的女兒嫁了人,我的兒子娶了妻,能夠取代我在島上的位置的時候,我和老伴會回到故土,在我出生的老屋中度過我們最后的歲月。”

“你那時再回首過去,會感到生活很幸福?!蔽艺f道。

“那是肯定的[108],在我那個小島上,日子過得很平淡,我們和外界相隔遙遠——試想一下,要來到塔希提島,我得在海上航行四天——但是在那里我們非常開心。只有少數(shù)人能夠嘗試一種工作,還能取得非凡成就。我們的生活簡單和淳樸。我們不會受到野心的攛掇,如果說我們也有自豪的話,那就是僅僅靠我們的雙手,我們就能有這么多的成果。我們既不會有惡意的困擾,也不會有嫉妒的抨擊。啊,我親愛的先生[109],也許有人認為‘勞動帶來幸?!蔷浜翢o意義的空話,但對我來說,這句話有著最為重大的含義,因為我就是這樣一個幸福的人。”

“我敢肯定,這句話對你恰如其分,你理應得到幸福?!蔽倚χf。

“我希望自己也能這么想。我不知道自己積了什么德,得到了這樣一位好妻子,她是我絕佳的朋友和幫手,絕妙的愛人,也是孩子們的完美母親。”

船長的這一番話,在我的頭腦中浮現(xiàn)了一種新的人生觀,我思索了好一會兒。

“很顯然,在那種生活條件下,你們還取得了成功,你們夫婦倆一定有強烈的意愿和堅強的意志。”

“可能是這樣吧,但是如果沒有另外一種因素,我們也可能一事無成。”

“那是什么因素?”

他停下了腳步,帶有某種戲劇色彩地張開了雙臂。

“相信上帝,沒有這個信仰我們早就迷失了。”

說話間,我們來到庫特拉斯醫(yī)生家門前。

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