名著·娜娜 - 第15章


目 录 上一节 下一节

  告诉他我演完这一幕就下来……我要叫他吃我的耳光。"

   Fontan had rushed forward, shouting:

  丰唐匆匆跑过来,连声说道:

   "Madame Bron, just listen. Please listen, Madame Bron. I want you to send up six bottles of champagne between the acts.""

  布龙太太,听我说……听清楚啦,布龙太太……幕间休息时,拿六瓶香槟酒来。"

   But the callboy had again made his appearance. He was out of breath, and in a singsong voice he called out:

  催场员又气喘吁吁地来了,他上气不接下气地说:

   "All to go on the stage! It's your turn, Monsieur Fontan. Make haste, make haste!""

  大家都上场啦!……丰唐先生,轮到你上场喽!快点!快点!"

  知道喽,知道喽,我就去,巴里约老爹。"丰唐惊慌失措地回答着。

   And he ran after Mme Bron and continued:

  随后,他跑上去追着布龙太太,又叮嘱一遍:

   "You understand, eh? Six bottles of champagne in the greenroom between the acts. It's my patron saint's day, and I'm standing the racket.""

  嗯?!说定了,六瓶香槟酒,幕间休息时拿来,送到演员休息室……今天是我的圣名瞻礼日,由我付钱。"

   Simonne and Clarisse had gone off with a great rustling of skirts. Everybody was swallowed up in the distance, and when the passage door had banged with its usual hollow sound a fresh hail shower was heard beating against the windows in the now-silent greenroom. Barillot, a small, pale-faced ancient, who for thirty years had been a servant in the theater, had advanced familiarly toward Mignon and had presented his open snuffbox to him. This proffer of a pinch and its acceptance allowed him a minute's rest in his interminable career up and down stairs and along the dressing-room passage. He certainly had still to look up Mme Nana, as he called her, but she was one of those who followed her own sweet will and didn't care a pin for penalties. Why, if she chose to be too late she was too late! But he stopped short and murmured in great surprise:

  只听裙子一阵窸窣响,西蒙娜和克拉利瑟走了。屋子里又寂静下来。当朝向走廊的门发出一声闷响关上后,又下起阵雨来,雨滴打在窗户的玻璃上,发出啪啪的响声,打破了演员休息室的一片沉静。巴里约这个面色苍白的矮老头,在剧院里跑龙套已经三十年了,他随便地走近米尼翁,把打开的鼻烟盒递给他。他总是在楼梯上和化妆室的走廊里奔走如梭,他献上鼻烟盒,让人吸吸鼻烟,这样他就好休息片刻。还有娜娜太太棗他是这样称呼她的,他还没有叫她呢,她是一贯自由放任,我行我素,对处罚毫不在乎,总是想误场就误场。他去叫她时却停下了脚步,他很惊讶,喃喃地说:

   "Well, I never! She's ready; here she is! She must know that the prince is here.""

  瞧!她准备上场啦,她出来了……她大概知道王子来了。"

  娜娜果真出现在走廊里,她身穿女鱼贩子服装,胳膊、面孔白皙,眼睛下面抹了两块玫瑰红斑。她没有进来,只向米尼翁和福什利点点头。

   "How do? You're all right?""

  你们好,你们都好吧?"

   Only Mignon shook her outstretched hand, and she hied royally on her way, followed by her dresser, who almost trod on her heels while stooping to adjust the folds of her skirt. In the rear of the dresser came Satin, closing the procession and trying to look quite the lady, though she was already bored to death.

  只有米尼翁去握了她伸过来的手。随后,娜娜继续神态庄重地往前走,女服装员一步不离地跟在她后面,不时弯下身子,抹平她裙子上的皱褶,萨丹殿后,紧跟在服装员的后面;她竭力装出一副情绪正常的样子,实际上她心里烦恼透了。

   "And Steiner?" asked Mignon sharply."

  斯泰内呢?"米尼翁突然问道。

   "Monsieur Steiner has gone away to the Loiret," said Barillot, preparing to return to the neighborhood of the stage. "I expect he's gone to buy a country place in those parts.""

  斯泰内先生昨天到卢瓦雷去了,"巴里约正要回到舞台上去时,说道,"我想他要在那儿买一座乡间别墅。"

  啊!对了,我知道,是为娜娜买的。"

   Mignon had grown suddenly serious. Oh, that Steiner! He had promised Rose a fine house in the old days! Well, well, it wouldn't do to grow angry with anybody. Here was a position that would have to be won again. From fireplace to console table Mignon paced, sunk in thought yet still unconquered by circumstances. There was no one in the greenroom now save Fauchery and himself. The journalist was tired and had flung himself back into the recesses of the big armchair. There he stayed with half-closed eyes and as quiet as quiet could be, while the other glanced down at him as he passed. When they were alone Mignon scorned to slap him at every turn. What good would it have done, since nobody would have enjoyed the spectacle? He was far too disinterested to be personally entertained by the farcical scenes in which he figured as a bantering husband. Glad of this short-lived respite, Fauchery stretched his feet out languidly toward the fire and let his upturned eyes wander from the barometer to the clock. In the course of his march Mignon planted himself in front of Potier's bust, ooked at it without seeming to see it and then turned back to the window, outside which yawned the darkling gulf of the courtyard. The rain had ceased, and there was now a deep silence in the room, which the fierce heat of the coke fire and the flare of the gas jets rendered still more oppressive. Not a sound came from the wings: the staircase and the passages were deadly still.That choking sensation of quiet, which behind the scenes immediately precedes the end of an act, had begun to pervade the empty greenroom. Indeed, the place seemed to be drowsing off through very breathlessness amid that faint murmur which the stage gives forth when the whole troupe are raising the deafening uproar of some grand finale.

  米尼翁脸色变得阴沉。这个斯泰内,曾经许愿给罗丝买座公馆!过去的事还说它干啥!算了,犯不着跟任何人闹别扭,另找机会就是了。米尼翁心绪不宁,但仍然露出高傲的样子,在壁炉和蜗形脚桌子之间踱来踱去。现在演员休息室里只剩下他和福什利两人了。新闻记者疲惫不堪,深深躺在一张大扶手椅里。他静静地呆在那儿,眼皮半睁半闭,米尼翁踱步走过他面前时,总要瞟他一眼。每当只有他们两人在一起时,米尼翁压根儿不想对他拍拍打打;既然没有一个人看到这个场面,拍拍打打有什么意思呢?由他自己扮演嘲弄人的丈夫这种角色,仅仅为了给自己取乐,实在毫无意思。福什利可以这样休息几分钟,他很高兴。他懒洋洋地把脚伸到炉火前,眼睛凝望上方,从晴雨表一直望到挂钟。米尼翁踱步时,突然在波蒂埃的半身像前停下脚步,心不在焉地看着那尊半身像,然后转过身,回到窗户前面,窗外院子里一块地方黑洞洞的。雨已停了,屋里一片沉静,炭火和煤气灯的火焰般的光芒散发出大量热量,使屋里更加寂静了。听不到后台一点声音。楼梯上和各条走廊里死一般地沉静。这是一幕戏接近尾声时的令人窒息的寂静,这时全体演员在台上用震耳欲聋的声音进行最后的演唱,阒无一人的演员休息室在一片令人窒息的嗡嗡声中沉睡了。

   "Oh, the cows!" Bordenave suddeniy shouted in his hoarse voice."

  啊,这些家伙!"突然,博尔德纳夫用嘶哑的嗓子叫道。

   He had only just come up, and he was already howling complaints about two chorus girls who had nearly fallen flat on the stage because they were playing the fool together. When his eye lit on Mignon and Fauchery he called them; he wanted to show them something. The prince had just notified a desire to compliment Nana in her dressing room during the next interval. But as he was leading them into the wings the stage manager passed.

  他刚来到,便破口大骂两个女群众演员,因为她们装傻,差点跌在舞台上。当他瞥见米尼翁和福什利时,便跟他俩打招呼,告诉他们王子刚才表示,在幕间休息时,他要到娜娜的化妆室来,向她表示祝贺。但是,就在他带着米尼翁和福什利走向舞台时,舞台监督走了过来。

   "Just you find those hags Fernande and Maria!" cried Bordenave savagely."

  你去狠狠地惩罚一下费尔南德和玛丽亚这两个废物!"博尔德纳夫气急败坏地说道。

  随后,他平静下来,竭力摆出一副高贵家长的尊严架势,他用手帕揩揩脸,接着说道:

   "I am now going to receive His Highness.""

  我去迎接王子殿下。"

   The curtain fell amid a long-drawn salvo of applause. Then across the twilight stage, which was no longer lit up by the footlights, there followed a disorderly retreat. Actors and supers and chorus made haste to get back to their dressing rooms while the sceneshifters rapidly changed the scenery. Simonne and Clarisse, however, had remained "at the top," talking together in whispers. On the stage, in an interval between their lines, they had just settled a little matter. Clarisse, after viewing the thing in every light, found she preferred not to see La Faloise, who could never decide to leave her for Gaga, and so Simonne was simply to go and explain that a woman ought not to be palled up to in that fashion! At last she agreed to undertake the mission.

  在经久不息的雷鸣般的掌声中,幕布徐徐降落下来,演员们随即乱哄哄地退场。舞台上的光线昏昏暗暗,因为台口的成排脚灯已经熄灭了。主要演员和群众演员仓促回到他们的化妆室里,置景工人们火速撤走布景。然而,西蒙娜和克拉利瑟仍然滞留在舞台的后边,在悄声谈话。刚才演出时,她们利用念台词中间的空隙时间,商定了一件事情。克拉利瑟经过一番周密考虑,不想去见拉法卢瓦兹,这个人下不了决心放弃她,去与加加要好。西蒙娜将去向他解释,一个男人不能这样缠住一个女人不放。最后,她答应去转达克拉利瑟拜托的事。

   Then Simonne, in her theatrical laundress's attire but with furs over her shoulders, ran down the greasy steps of the narrow, winding stairs which led between damp walls to the porter's lodge. This lodge, situated between the actors' staircase and that of the management, was shut in to right and left by large glass partitions and resembled a huge transparent lantern in which two gas jets were flaring.There was a set of pigeonholes in the place in which were piled letters and newspapers, while on the table various bouquets lay awaiting their recipients in close proximity to neglected heaps of dirty plates and to an old pair of stays, the eyelets of which the portress was busy mending. And in the middle of this untidy, ill-kept storeroom sat four fashionable, white-gloved society men. They occupied as many ancient straw-bottomed chairs and, with an expression at once patient and submissive, kept sharply turning their heads in Mme Bron's direction every time she came down from the theater overhead, for on such occasions she was the bearer of replies. Indeed, she had but now handed a note to a young man who had hurried out to open it beneath the gaslight in the vestibule, where he had grown slightly pale on reading the classic phrase--how often had others read it in that very place!--"Impossible tonight, my dearie! I'm booked!" La Faloise sat on one of these chairs at the back of the room, between the table and the stove. He seemed bent on passing the evening there, and yet he was not quite happy. Indeed, he kept tucking up his long legs in his endeavors to escape from a whole litter of black kittens who were gamboling wildly round them while the mother cat sat bolt upright, staring at him with yellow eyes.

  于是,西蒙娜还没有脱下演喜歌剧中的洗衣妇的戏服,就披了件皮袄,踏上那道狭窄的旋转楼梯,这道楼梯的梯级上满是油垢,两边的墙壁很潮湿,楼梯直通到门房室。这个房间位于供演员上下的楼梯与通往经理室的楼梯之间,左右两边是两大块玻璃隔板,看上去颇像一只硕大的透明灯笼,里边点着两盏闪闪发光的煤气灯。房间的一只架子上,堆满了信件和报纸,桌子上放着几束等人来取的鲜花,旁边是一些忘记拿走的脏盘子,还有一件女门房正在锁补扣眼的旧女短上衣。在这间杂乱无章的楼梯下的小房间的中间,几位上流社会的先生戴着手套,衣冠整齐,坐在四张旧草垫椅子上,个个露出一副漫不经心、听其自然的样子。每当布龙太太带着答复从舞台上下来,他们便迅速转过头来看看。这一次她刚把一封信交给一个年轻人,他迅即走到前厅里,在煤气灯光下,匆匆忙忙打开信,霎时脸色微微变白。他看到信里仍然是那句话,他在这个地方这样的信不知收到过多少次了:"今天晚上不行,亲爱的,我有事。"拉法卢瓦兹坐在里边的一张椅子上,椅子在桌子和炉子中间;他似乎决心夜里呆在那儿不走了,然而,他有些局促不安,他把两条腿缩回来,因为一窝小黑猫在他身边拼命钻来钻去,那只老母猫则坐在他的后边,用它的黄眼睛盯着他看。

   "Ah, it's you, Mademoiselle Simonne! What can I do for you?" asked the portress."

  哟!是你呀,西蒙娜小姐,你有什么事吗?"女门房问道。

  西蒙娜请她把拉法卢瓦兹叫出来。但是,布龙太太不能马上为她效劳,因为她在楼梯口,安放了一长溜柜子,开了一个小酒吧,幕间休息时,那些群众演员都来这儿喝酒。这时就有五六个大汉,还穿着"黑球咖啡馆"化装舞会里穿的服装,他们渴得要命,在那里匆匆忙忙喝酒,布龙太太忙得晕头转向。壁柜里点着一盏煤气灯,一张锡面桌子和几块搁板,搁板上面摆着已开了盖子的酒瓶。只要把这个脏乎乎的房间的门一打开,就有一股浓浓的酒味飘出来,里面还掺杂着门房室里的残羹剩菜的怪味和桌子上鲜花的扑鼻香味。

   "Well now," continued the portress when she had served the supers, "is it the little dark chap out there you want?""

  那么,"女门房接待完群众演员后,说道,"你要找的是那边那个棕色头发的矮个子先生吗?"

   "No, no; don't be silly!" said Simonne. "It's the lanky one by the side of the stove. Your cat's sniffing at his trouser legs!""

  不是他,别叫错人!"西蒙娜说道,"是坐在炉子旁边的那个瘦子,你的母猫正在闻他的裤子呢。"

   And with that she carried La Faloise off into the lobby, while the other gentlemen once more resigned themselves to their fate and to semisuffocation and the masqueraders drank on the stairs and indulged in rough horseplay and guttural drunken jests.

  布龙太太听清楚后就把拉法卢瓦兹带到前厅里,而另外几位先生只好无可奈何地继续等待。那几个穿戏服的群众演员正沿着楼梯边走边喝酒,他们互相打闹,用醉汉的嘶哑嗓门说说笑笑。

   On the stage above Bordenave was wild with the sceneshifters, who seemed never to have done changing scenes. They appeared to be acting of set purpose--the prince would certainly have some set piece or other tumbling on his head.

  在楼上的舞台上,博尔德纳夫正在对布景工人大发雷霆,他们还未把布景撤完。他们是故意这样做的,好在王子来时,让一个背景屏碰到他的头上。

  往上拉!往上拉!"工头大声嚷道。

   At length the canvas at the back of the stage was raised into position, and the stage was clear. Mignon, who had kept his eye on Fauchery, seized this opportunity in order to start his pummeling matches again. He hugged him in his long arms and cried:

  背景幕布终于拉上去了,舞台上空空的。米尼翁一直盯住福什利,又抓住机会对他又推又撞。他用粗壮的胳膊把他挟得紧紧的,大声嚷道:

   "Oh, take care! That mast just missed crushing you!""

  当心啊!这根吊杆差点把你砸碎喽。"

   And he carried him off and shook him before setting him down again. In view of the sceneshifters' exaggerated mirth, Fauchery grew white. His lips trembled, and he was ready to flare up in anger while Mignon, shamming good nature, was clapping him on the shoulder with such affectionate violence as nearly to pulverize him.

  接着,他把福什利抱起来,摇来摇去,然后把他放到地上。福什利见布景工们捧腹大笑,气得脸色发白;他的嘴唇颤抖着,他刚要翻脸时,米尼翁又装出一副好人的样子,亲热地拍着他的肩膀,差点把他拍成二截,他说道:

   "I value your health, I do!" he kept repeating. "Egad! I should be in a pretty pickle if anything serious happened to you!""

  我可关心你的健康啊!……唉呀!你要有个三长两短,我也完啦。"

  这时只听一阵低语声:"王子!王子!"于是,每个人都把目光转向大厅的小门口。但是大伙看见的只是博尔德纳夫的圆滚滚的肩背和他那屠夫般的脖子。他频频点头哈腰,弯腰时,背上的肉鼓得高高的。随后,王子出现了。他身材高大,身体健壮,胡子金黄,皮肤白里透红,颇具风流、健壮公子哥儿的高雅气派。他的四肢健壮发达,从他那合身的礼服上可以看出来。他身后跟着缪法伯爵和德·舒阿尔侯爵。剧院的这块地方光线暗淡,这几个人被大批竞相观看王子者的晃动的影子淹没了。面对这位王后之子,未来的王位继承人,博尔德纳夫讲话时用耍狗熊人的语调,装得很激动,声音颤颤抖抖。他反复说道:

   "If His Highness will have the goodness to follow me--would His Highness deign to come this way? His Highness will take care!""

  请殿下跟我来……请殿下走这边……请殿下当心……"

   The prince did not hurry in the least. On the contrary, he was greatly interested and kept pausing in order to look at the sceneshifters' maneuvers. A batten had just been lowered, and the group of gaslights high up among its iron crossbars illuminated the stage with a wide beam of light. Muffat, who had never yet been behind scenes at a theater, was even more astonished than the rest. An uneasy feeling of mingled fear and vague repugnance took possession of him. He looked up into the heights above him, where more battens, the gas jets on which were burning low, gleamed like galaxies of little bluish stars amid a chaos of iron rods, connecting lines of all sizes, hanging stages and canvases spread out in space, like huge cloths hung out to dry.

  王子从容不迫,兴致甚浓,不时停下脚步,观看布景工人干活。他们刚把布景照明灯放下来,这排煤气灯外面都罩着铁丝网,吊在高处时可向舞台洒下一大片亮光。缪法从未到过戏院后台,因此特别感到惊奇,又有点不自在,心里几分踌躇又几分害怕。他抬头仰望舞台上空,上面还有一些布景照明灯,灯头都捻小了,宛如一群淡蓝色的小星星在闪烁,上面的一切都显得杂乱无章,布景格架、粗细不一的电线、吊梁、升在上空的幕布乱糟糟地挂在舞台上面,幕布像晾晒着的大床单。

   "Lower away!" shouted the foreman unexpectedly."

  放下!"布景工头突然叫道。

   And the prince himself had to warn the count, for a canvas was descending. They were setting the scenery for the third act, which was the grotto on Mount Etna. Men were busy planting masts in the sockets, while others went and took frames which were leaning against the walls of the stage and proceeded to lash them with strong cords to the poles already in position. At the back of the stage, with a view to producing the bright rays thrown by Vulcan's glowing forge, a stand had been fixed by a limelight man, who was now lighting various burners under red glasses. The scene was one of confusion, verging to all appearances on absolute chaos, but every little move had been prearranged. Nay, amid all the scurry the whistle blower even took a few turns, stepping short as he did so, in order to rest his legs.

  王子不得不提醒伯爵注意。一块幕布正慢慢落下来。他们又忙着布置第三幕布景,即埃特纳火山的一个山洞。一些人把一根根柱子插在布景滑槽里,另一些人则去把放在舞台几面墙边的框架拿过来,然后用粗绳子绑在柱子上。为了使火神的炽热的炼铁炉发出火光,一个照明工人安置了一个灯具撑架,他点燃了撑架上的罩着红玻璃的灯头。那里是一片混乱景象,但这只是表面上的,在那里连最细微的动作都是事先安排好的;然而,在这片忙乱之中,那个提台词的人却迈着细步踱来踱去,活动一下腿脚。

  殿下使我受宠若惊,"博尔德纳夫说道,并不停地点头哈腰,"我们的剧院不算大,但是凡是我们能做到的我们尽力做到……现在,请殿下跟我来……"

   Count Muffat was already making for the dressing-room passage. The really sharp downward slope of the stage had surprised him disagreeably, and he owed no small part of his present anxiety to a feeling that its boards were moving under his feet. Through the open sockets gas was descried burning in the "dock." Human voices and blasts of air, as from a vault, came up thence, and, looking down into the depths of gloom, one became aware of a whole subterranean existence. But just as the count was going up the stage a small incident occurred to stop him. Two little women, dressed for the third act, were chatting by the peephole in the curtain. One of them, straining forward and widening the hole with her fingers in order the better to observe things, was scanning the house beyond.

  缪法伯爵已经向通演员化妆室的走廊走去。舞台的坡度相当大,不禁使他大吃一惊,但他更担心的是他脚下的那块地,他觉得它是活动的。从布景滑槽的槽缝望下去,可以看见下面燃着的煤气灯,下面是一派地下生活的景象,看下去像黑沉沉的深渊,人声可闻,并刮着微风,风像从地窖中吹出来似的。可是当他再往上走时,有一件事情使他止步了。两个身穿戏服准备演第三幕的小娘儿们,在幕布的孔眼前闲聊。其中一人挺着腰,用手指把幕眼扒大,想看个清楚,她正在向场内四下张望。

   "I see him," said she sharply. "Oh, what a mug!""

  我看见他了,"她突然说道,"哦!这副面孔!"

   Horrified, Bordenave had much ado not to give her a kick. But the prince smiled and looked pleased and excited by the remark. He gazed warmly at the little woman who did not care a button for His Highness, and she, on her part, laughed unblushingly. Bordenave, however, persuaded the prince to follow him. Muffat was beginning to perspire; he had taken his hat off. What inconvenienced him most was the stuffy, dense, overheated air of the place with its strong, haunting smell, a smell peculiar to this part of a theater, and, as such, compact of the reek of gas, of the glue used in the manufacture of the scenery, of dirty dark nooks and corners and of questionably clean chorus girls. In the passage the air was still more suffocating, and one seemed to breathe a poisoned atmosphere, which was occasionally relieved by the acid scents of toilet waters and the perfumes of various soaps emanating from the dressing rooms. The count lifted his eyes as he passed and glanced up the staircase, for he was well-nigh startled by the keen flood of light and warmth which flowed down upon his back and shoulders. High up above him there was a clicking of ewers and basins, a sound of laughter and of people calling to one another, a banging of doors, which in their continual opening and shutting allowed an odor of womankind to escape--a musky scent of oils and essences mingling with the natural pungency exhaled from human tresses. He did not stop. Nay, he hastened his walk: he almost ran, his skin tingling with the breath of that fiery approach to a world he knew nothing of.

  博尔德纳夫气极了,憋住气才没有朝她屁股上猛踢一脚。然而,听了这句话,王子却莞尔一笑,样子显得既高兴又激动。他打量着那个蔑视王子殿下的小娘儿们,可她仍放肆地笑呢。博尔德纳夫只好请殿下跟他走。缪法伯爵热得满头流汗,他脱下帽子;特别使他感到不舒适的,是令人窒息的空气。这空气既混浊又闷热,里面还掺杂着一股浓烈的气味。这是后台传出来的气味,有煤气的气味,有布景上的胶水的气味,有阴暗角落里的脏味,还有女群众演员的不干净的内衣的气味。走廊里的空气更闷得人透不过气来;那是化妆用过的水的酸味,肥皂味,呼吸排出来的气味。伯爵一边走着,一边抬起头来,向楼梯间看了一眼,里边放射出一道亮光,并有一阵热浪向他的后颈扑来。上面响着面盆的碰撞声、笑声、呼唤声和门不停开开关关的砰砰声,从门里飘出一阵阵女人身上发出的香味,这是化妆品的麝香味掺杂着头发上难闻的气味。伯爵没有停下来,反而加快了脚步,几乎达到了跑步的速度,他对刺激性的东西非常敏感。他带着寒战走了,因为他从这个火热的缺口,看到了一个他所陌生的世界。

   "A theater's a curious sight, eh?" said the Marquis de Chouard with the enchanted expression of a man who once more finds himself amid familiar surroundings."

  嗯!剧院真是个奇怪的地方。"舒阿尔侯爵说道,他很愉快,神态就像在自己家里一样。

  博尔德纳夫终于来到了走廊尽头的娜娜的化妆室。他不慌不忙地把门上的把手一扭,然后,自己让到一边,说道:

   "If His Highness will have the goodness to enter--""

  殿下请进……"

   They heard the cry of a startled woman and caught sight of Nana as, stripped to the waist, she slipped behind a curtain while her dresser, who had been in the act of drying her, stood, towel in air, before them.

  这时,听见一个女人惊叫一声,随后,只见娜娜裸露着上半身,很快躲到帷幕后面,正在替她擦身子的女服装员只好拿着毛巾,举着手,呆在那里。

   "Oh, it IS silly to come in that way!" cried Nana from her hiding place. "Don't come in; you see you mustn't come in!""

  啊,这样进来不好!"娜娜躲在里面叫道,"别进来,你们不知道不能进来吗?"

   Bordenave did not seem to relish this sudden flight.

  博尔德纳夫见她躲着不出来似乎有些不高兴。

  别躲开,亲爱的,这没啥关系,"他说道,"是王子殿下,来吧,别耍孩子脾气。"

   And when she still refused to make her appearance--for she was startled as yet, though she had begun to laugh--he added in peevish, paternal tones:

  见娜娜还是不肯出来,仍有些害怕,但已开始笑了,博尔德纳夫便用慈父般的严厉的粗暴口气说道:

   "Good heavens, these gentlemen know perfectly well what a woman looks like. They won't eat you.""

  我的老天爷!这些先生都知道女人是什么样子。他们不会吃掉你的。"

   "I'm not so sure of that," said the prince wittily."

  这可不一定。"王子巧妙地说道。

   With that the whole company began laughing in an exaggerated manner in order to pay him proper court."An exquisitely witty speech--an altogether Parisian speech," as Bordenave remarked.Nana vouchsafed no further reply, but the curtain began moving. Doubtless she was making up her mind. Then Count Muffat, with glowing cheeks, began to take stock of the dressing room. It was a square room with a very low ceiling, and it was entirely hung with a light-colored Havana stuff. A curtain of the same material depended from a copper rod and formed a sort of recess at the end of the room, while two large windows opened on the courtyard of the theater and were faced, at a distance of three yards at most, by a leprous-looking wall against which the panes cast squares of yellow light amid the surrounding darkness. A large dressing glass faced a white marble toilet table, which was garnished with a disorderly array of flasks and glass boxes containing oils, essences and powders. The count went up to the dressing glass and discovered that he was looking very flushed and had small drops of perspiration on his forehead. He dropped his eyes and came and took up a position in front of the toilet table, where the basin, full of soapy water, the small, scattered, ivory toilet utensils and the damp sponges, appeared for some moments to absorb his attention. The feeling of dizziness which he had experienced when he first visited Nana in the Boulevard Haussmann once more overcame him. He felt the thick carpet soften under foot, and the gasjets burning by the dressing table and by the glass seemed to shoot whistling flames about his temples. For one moment, being afraid of fainting away under the influence of those feminine odors which he now re-encountered, intensified by the heat under the low-pitched ceiling, he sat down on the edge of a softly padded divan between the two windows. But he got up again almost directly and, returning to the dressing table, seemed to gaze with vacant eyes into space, for he was thinking of a bouquet of tuberoses which had once faded in his bedroom and had nearly killed him in their death. When tuberoses are turning brown they have a human smell.

  大家都笑起来了,而且笑得有些夸张,显然是为了讨好王子。正如博尔德纳夫所说,这是一句妙语,一句完全巴黎式的妙语。娜娜虽然没有回答,只见帷幕动了,她大概已打定主意出来。这时缪法伯爵脸上涨得通红,仔细察看这间化妆室。这是一间方方正正的房子,屋顶很低,四周墙壁上全挂着浅栗色的装饰布。帷幔也是同样的料子,吊在一根铜杆上,把屋子后边隔成一个小间。两扇宽大的窗户朝向剧院的庭院,离窗户最多三公尺远处,有一堵斑斑点点的围墙。夜色中,屋子里的灯光,透过窗户上的玻璃,射出一块块方形黄色光亮,映在那堵围墙上。一面大穿衣镜对着一张白色大理石梳妆台,上面乱七八糟地摆放着一些装头油、香水和香粉的瓶子和水晶盒子。伯爵走近穿衣镜,看见自己脸色发红,额头上沁出小滴汗珠;他走到梳妆台前面,立在那儿,眼睛向下看,洗脸池内盛满了肥皂水,象牙小用具乱散着,海绵湿漉漉的,一时间,他似乎看得出神了。他头一次到奥斯曼大街娜娜家里拜访她时,他头脑中产生的令人眼花缭乱的景象,现在又浮现在他的脑际。在他的脚下,他感到化妆室的厚厚的地毯变软了;梳妆台上方和穿衣镜上方燃着的煤气灯,似乎在他的太阳穴周围咝咝作响。他又闻到了这种女人的气味,这气味在低矮的天花板下变得热乎乎的,浓度似乎增加了百倍。一阵子他害怕被这种气味熏倒,便坐到摆在两扇窗户之间的一张软垫长沙发上。但是他马上又站起来,回到梳妆台前,什么也不看,眸子模模糊糊,回忆起昔日在他的卧室里凋谢的一束晚香玉,他差点被它的香味熏死。晚香玉凋谢时,会散发出人体的气味。

  快点儿!"博尔德纳夫提醒道,他把头探到帷幕里边。

   The prince, however, was listening complaisantly to the Marquis de Chouard, who had taken up a hare's-foot on the dressing table and had begun explaining the way grease paint is put on. In a corner of the room Satin, with her pure, virginal face, was scanning the gentlemen keenly, while the dresser, Mme Jules by name, was getting ready Venus' tights and tunic. Mme Jules was a woman of no age. She had the parchment skin and changeless features peculiar to old maids whom no one ever knew in their younger years. She had indeed shriveled up in the burning atmosphere of the dressing rooms and amid the most famous thighs and bosoms in all Paris. She wore everlastingly a faded black dress, and on her flat and sexless chest a perfect forest of pins clustered above the spot where her heart should have been.

  这时,王子正在津津有味地听德·舒阿尔侯爵讲话,他从梳妆台上拿起一只小粉扑,解释怎样上白底粉。萨丹呆在一个角落里,脸上呈现出处女般的纯洁面容,正在打量这些先生;那个服装员朱勒太太正在准备爱神的紧身内衣。朱勒太太看不出有多大年纪,她面容枯槁,表情呆板,如同那些年轻时谁也没见过是什么样子的老姑娘。朱勒太太是在化妆室的灼热空气中才变得憔悴的,她生活在巴黎最有名的大腿和胸脯中间。她总是穿着一件褪色的黑长袍,她的胸部扁平,没有一点女性特征,在胸部的心脏部位别了许多别针。

   "I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said Nana, drawing aside the curtain, "but you took me by surprise.""

  请你们原谅,先生们,"娜娜一边扒开帷幕一边说道:"刚才没出来是因为没有准备好……"

   They all turned round. She had not clothed herself at all, had, in fact, only buttoned on a little pair of linen stays which half revealed her bosom. When the gentlemen had put her to flight she had scarcely begun undressing and was rapidly taking off her fishwife's costume. Through the opening in her drawers behind a corner of her shift was even now visible. There she stood, bare-armed, bare-shouldered, bare-breasted, in all the adorable glory of her youth and plump, fair beauty, but she still held the curtain with one hand, as though ready to draw it to again upon the slightest provocation.

  大家都转过身子。她身上没穿衣服,刚刚才把一件薄纱小胸衣的扣子扣好,胸部似隐似现。这几位先生不期而至时,她还没完全卸完戏装,便匆匆脱下女鱼贩子衣服,拔腿就跑。裤子后面,还露出衬衫的一个角,她光着双臂,光着肩膀,裸露着乳房,显示了这位令人倾慕的丰腴金发女郎的丰采。她用一只手抓住帷幕不放,万一受到一点惊吓,就立即拉上帷幕。

   "Yes, you took me by surprise! I never shall dare--" she stammered in pretty, mock confusion, while rosy blushes crossed her neck and shoulders and smiles of embarrassment played about her lips."

  我说的是真话,我没有准备好,我绝不敢……"她期期艾艾地说道,露出一副羞愧的神态,脖子涨得红红的,脸上堆满尴尬的微笑。

  行啦,这几位先生觉得这样挺好的!"博尔德纳夫嚷道。

   But she still tried the hesitating, innocent, girlish game, and, shivering as though someone were tickling her, she continued:

  她仍然装出一副天真少女的忸忸怩怩的样子,扭动着身子,像被人搔痒似的,连连说道:

   "His Highness does me too great an honor. I beg His Highness will excuse my receiving him thus--""

  殿下对我太赏光了……我这个样子来接待殿下,请殿下宽谅……"

   "It is I who am importunate," said the prince, "but, madame, I could not resist the desire of complimenting you.""

  我是不速之客,"王子说道,"不过,夫人,我怎么也摆脱不了来向您祝贺的愿望……"

   Thereupon, in order to reach her dressing table, she walked very quietly and just as she was through the midst of the gentlemen, who made way for her to pass.She had strongly marked hips, which filled her drawers out roundly, while with swelling bosom she still continued bowing and smiling her delicate little smile. Suddenly she seemed to recognize Count Muffat, and she extended her hand to him as an old friend. Then she scolded him for not having come to her supper party. His Highness deigned to chaff Muffat about this, and the latter stammered and thrilled again at the thought that for one second he had held in his own feverish clasp a little fresh and perfumed hand. The count had dined excellently at the prince's, who, indeed, was a heroic eater and drinker. Both of them were even a little intoxicated, but they behaved very creditably. To hide the commotion within him Muffat could only remark about the heat.

  这时,她要到梳妆台那边去,便穿着衬裤不慌不忙地从先生们中间穿过,他们连忙给她让路。她的臀部很大,把裤子撑得鼓鼓的;胸脯隆起,嘴角上挂着甜蜜的微笑,边走边向大家致意。突然间,她似乎认出了缪法伯爵,她像朋友一样向他伸出手去。尔后,她埋怨他不来参加她的夜宵。王子殿下竟忘了自己的身份,与缪法开玩笑。缪法支支吾吾,激动得打着哆嗦,他刚才用他热乎乎的手握了她的小手,那手刚刚用香水洗过,还有点凉呢。伯爵在王子家里饱餐了一顿,王子也是个能吃善饮的人。现在两人都有几分醉意,但是他们的举止还很得体。缪法为了不让自己流露出内心的激动,便找出一句话来打打岔:

  老天爷!这儿真热,"他说道,"夫人,这么热,您在这儿是怎么过的。"

   And conversation was about to ensue on this topic when noisy voices were heard at the dressing-room door. Bordenave drew back the slide over a grated peephole of the kind used in convents. Fontan was outside with Prulliere and Bosc, and all three had bottles under their arms and their hands full of glasses. He began knocking and shouting out that it was his patron saint's day and that he was standing champagne round. Nana consulted the prince with a glance. Eh! Oh dear, yes! His Highness did not want to be in anyone's way; he would be only too happy! But without waiting for permission Fontan came in, repeating in baby accents:

  大家正要谈这个话题时,化妆室门外传来了一阵吵吵嚷嚷的声音。博尔德纳夫拉开门上修道院式的带铁格子的小木板。原来是丰唐来了,他后面还跟着普律利埃尔和博斯克,三个人的腋下都夹着酒瓶,手里拿着酒杯。丰唐敲敲门,大声说今天是他的圣名瞻礼日,他买了几瓶香槟酒请客。娜娜瞧了瞧王子,看看他的意见如何。他会同意吧!如果殿下不想干涉他们进来,她就太高兴了。但是,还没等到王子开口,丰唐就进来了,他用咬字不清的语调连连说道:

   "Me not a cad, me pay for champagne!"Then all of a sudden he became aware of the prince's presence of which he had been totally ignorant. He stopped short and, assuming an air of farcical solemnity, announced:"

  我可不是阿巴贡,我来付香槟酒的帐……"突然间,他发现了王子殿下,原来他不知道王子殿下在那儿。于是,他突然收住话头,露出一副丑角的郑重神态,说道:

   "King Dagobert is in the corridor and is desirous of drinking the health of His Royal Highness.""

  达戈贝尔特国王在走廊里,他请求和王子殿下碰杯。"

   The prince having made answer with a smile, Fontan's sally was voted charming. But the dressing room was too small to accommodate everybody, and it became necessary to crowd up anyhow, Satin and Mme Jules standing back against the curtain at the end and the men clustering closely round the half-naked Nana. The three actors still had on the costumes they had been wearing in the second act, and while Prulliere took off his Alpine admiral's cocked hat, the huge plume of which would have knocked the ceiling, Bosc, in his purple cloak and tinware crown, steadied himself on his tipsy old legs and greeted the prince as became a monarch receiving the son of a powerful neighbor. The glasses were filled, and the company began clinking them together.

  王子嫣然一笑,大家都觉得这个场面太妙了。然而,化妆室太小了,容纳不了这么多人。大家不得不挤一挤,萨丹和朱勒太太被挤到屋子最后面,紧靠帷幕,男人们则挤在半裸体的娜娜的周围。三个男演员还穿着第二幕的服装。普律利埃尔脱下了瑞士海军上将的帽子,如果不脱下帽子,帽顶上的大长翎毛会被天花板触断。博斯克身着紫红色外套,头戴白铁皮王冠,他那两条醉汉的腿好不容易才站稳,接着向王子施了礼,俨然是一位君主在接待一个强大邻国的王子。大家的酒杯里都斟得满满的,现在开始碰杯。

  为殿下干杯!"博斯克老头郑重说道。

   "To the army!" added Prulliere."

  为军队干杯!"普律利埃尔补充道。

   "To Venus!" cried Fontan."

  为爱神干杯!"丰唐高声叫道。

   The prince complaisantly poised his glass, waited quietly, bowed thrice and murmured:

  王子很有礼貌地频频举杯。他等待着,行了三次礼,喃喃说道:

   "Madame! Admiral! Your Majesty!""

  夫人……海军上将……陛下……"

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名著·娜娜 - 第15章