名著·查太莱夫人的情人 - 第6节


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  那年冬天,蔑克里斯来这儿住了几天,他是个年轻的爱尔兰人,他写的剧本在美国上演,赚过一笔大钱。曾经有一个时候,他受过伦敦时髦社会很热烈的欢迎;因为他所写的都是时髦社会的剧本。后来,这般时髦社会的人们,渐渐地明白了自己实在被这达布林的流氓所嘲弄了,于是来了一个反动。蔑克里斯这个字成为最下流、最被轻视的宇了。他们发觉他是反对英国的,这一点,在发觉的人看来,是罪大恶极的。从此,伦敦和时髦社会把他诟骂得体无完肤,把他象一件脏东西似的丢在垃圾桶里。

   Nevertheless Michaelis had his apartment in Mayfair, and walked down Bond Street the image of a gentleman, for you cannot get even the best tailors to cut their low-down customers, when the customers pay.

  可是蔑克里斯却住在贵族助梅惠区里,而且走过帮德街时,竟是仪表堂堂,俨然贵绅;因为只要你有钱,纵令你是个下流人。最好的裁缝师也不会拒绝你的光顾的。"

   Clifford was inviting the young man of thirty at an inauspicious moment in thyoung man's career. Yet Clifford did not hesitate. Michaelis had the ear of a few million people, probably; and, being a hopeless outsider, he would no doubt be grateful to be asked down to Wragby at this juncture, when the rest of the smart world was cutting him. Being grateful, he would no doubt do Clifford good' over there in America. Kudos! A man gets a lot of kudos, whatever that may be, by being talked about in the right way, especially over there'. Clifford was a coming man; and it was remarkable what a sound publicity instinct he had. In the end Michaelis did him most nobly in a play, and Clifford was a sort of popular hero. Till the reaction, when he found he had been made ridiculous.

  这个三十岁的青年,虽然正在走着倒霉运气,但是克利福却不犹豫地把他请到勒格贝来。蔑克里斯大概拥有几百万的听众;而正当他现在被时髦社会所遗弃不时,居然被请到勒格贝来,他无疑地是要感激的。既然他心中感激,那么他无疑地便要帮助克利福在美国成名起来,不露马脚的吹嘘,是可以使人赫然出名的,不管出的是什么名--尤其是在美国,克利福是个未来的作家,而且是个很慕虚名的人。还有一层便是蔑克里斯曾把他在一出剧本里描写得伟大高贵,使克利福成了一种大众的英雄--直至他发觉了自己实在是受人嘲弄了的时候为止。

   Connie wondered a little over Clifford's blind, imperious instinct to become known: known, that is, to the vast amorphous world he did not himself know, and of which he was uneasily afraid; known as a writer, as a first-class modern writer. Connie was aware from successful, old, hearty, bluffing Sir Malcolm, that artists did advertise themselves, and exert themselves to put their goods over. But her father used channels ready-made, used by all the other R. A.s who sold their pictures. Whereas Clifford discovered new channels of publicity, all kinds. He had all kinds of people at Wragby, without exactly lowering himself. But, determined to build himself a monument of a reputation quickly, he used any handy rubble in the making.

  克利福这种盲目的、迫切的沽名钓誉的天性,他这种要使那浮游无定的大干世界--其实这种世界是他自己所不认识而且惧怕的--知道他,知道他是一个作家,一个第一流的新作家的天性,是有点使康妮惊异的。从她的强壮的、善于引答人彀的老父亲麦尔肯爵士本身,康妮知道艺术家们也是用吹牛方法使自己的货色抬高的。但是她的父亲用的是些老方法,这些老方法是其他皇家艺术学会的会员们兜售他们的作品时所通用的。至于克利福呢,他发现各种各样的新宣传方法。他把各种各样的人请到勒格贝来,他虽则不至于奴颜婶膝,但是他因为急于成名,所以凡是可用的手段都采用了。

   Michaelis arrived duly, in a very neat car, with a chauffeur and a manservant. He was absolutely Bond Street! But at right of him something in Clifford's county soul recoiled. He wasn't exactly... not exactly...in fact, he wasn't at all, well, what his appearance intended to imply. To Clifford this was final and enough. Yet he was very polite to the man; to the amazing success in him. The bitch-goddess, as she is called, of Success, roamed, snarling and protective, round the half-humble, half-defiant Michaelis' heels, and intimidated Clifford completely: for he wanted to prostitute himself to the bitch-goddess, Success also, if only she would have him.

  蔑克里斯坐着一部漂亮的汽车,带了一个车夫和一个男仆来到了,他穿得漂亮极了;但是一看见了他,克利福的乡绅的心里便感到一种退缩。这蔑克里斯并不是……不确是……其实一点也不是……表里一致的。这一点在克利福看来是毫无疑义了,可是克利福对他是很有礼貌的;对他的惊人的成功是含着无限羡慕的。所谓"成功"的财神,在半谦卑半傲慢的蔑克里斯的脚跟边,张牙舞爪地徘徊着,保护着他。把克利福整个威吓着了;因为他自己也是想卖身与财神,也想成功的,如果她肯接受他的话。

  金钱!"他说。"金钱是一种天性,弄钱是一个男子所有的天赋本能。不论你干什么:都是为钱;不论你弄什么把戏,也是为钱,这是你的天性中一种永久的事。你一旦开始了赚钱,你便继续赚下去;直至某种地步,我想。"

   But you've got to begin,' said Clifford. "

  但是你得会开始才行。"克利福说。

   Oh, quite! You've got to get in. You can do nothing if you are kept outside. You've got to beat your way in. Once you've done that, you can't help it.' "

  啊,当然呀,你得进到里面去,如果你不能进去,便什么也不行,你得打出一条进路;一旦有了进路,你就可以前行无阻了。"

   But could you have made money except by plays?' asked Clifford. "

  但是除了写剧本外,还有弄钱的方法么?"克利福问道。

   Oh, probably not! I may be a good writer or I may be a bad one, but a writer and a writer of plays is what I am, and I've got to be. There's no question of that.' "

  啊,大概没有了!我也许是个好作家,或者是个坏作家,但我总是一个戏剧作家,我不能成为别的东西。这是毫无疑义的。"

  你以为你必定要成为一个成功的戏剧作家么?"康妮问道。

   There, exactly!' he said, turning to her in a sudden flash. There's nothing in it! There's nothing in popularity. There's nothing in the public, if it comes to that. There's nothing really in my plays to make them popular. It's not that. They just are like the weather...the sort that will have to be...for the time being.' "

  对了,的确!"他突然地回转头去向她说:"那是没有什么的!成功没有什么,甚至大众也没有什么。我的戏剧里,实在没有什么可使戏剧成功的东西。没有的。它们简直就是成功的戏剧罢了,和天气一样……是一种不得不这样的东西……至少目前是这样。"

   He turned his slow, rather full eyes, that had been drowned in such fathomless disillusion, on Connie, and she trembled a little. He seemed so old...endlessly old, built up of layers of disillusion, going down in him generation after generation, like geological strata; and at the same time he was forlorn like a child. An outcast, in a certain sense; but with the desperate bravery of his rat-like existence.

  他的沉溺在无底的幻灭中的迟钝而微突的眼睛,转向康妮望着,她觉得微微战栗起来。他的样于是这样的老……无限的老;他似乎是个一代一代的幻灭累积而成的东西,和地层一样;而同时他又象个孤零的小孩子。在某种意义上,他是个被社会唾弃的人,但是他却象一只老鼠似的竭力挣扎地生活着。

   At least it's wonderful what you've done at your time of life,' said Clifford contemplatively. "

  总之,在你这样年纪已有这种成就。是可惊的。"克利福沉思着说。'

   I'm thirty...yes, I'm thirty!' said Michaelis, sharply and suddenly, with a curious laugh; hollow, triumphant, and bitter. "

  我今年三十岁了……是的,三十岁了!"蔑克里斯一边锐敏地说,一边怪异地笑着,这笑是空洞的,得意的,而又带苦味的。

  你还是独身一个人么?"康妮问道。

   How do you mean? Do I live alone? I've got my servant. He's a Greek, so he says, and quite incompetent. But I keep him. And I'm going to marry. Oh, yes, I must marry.' "

  你问的是什么意思?你问我独自生活着么?我却有个仆人。据她自己说,她是个希腊人,这是个什么也不会做的家伙。但是我却留着他,而我呢,我要结婚了。啊,是的,我定要结婚了。"

   It sounds like going to have your tonsils cut,' laughed Connie. Will it be an effort?' "

  你把结婚说得好象你要割掉你的扁桃腺似的。"康妮笑着说,"难道结婚是这样困难的么?"

   He looked at her admiringly. Well, Lady Chatterley, somehow it will! I find... excuse me... I find I can't marry an Englishwoman, not even an Irishwoman...'

  他景慕地望着她,"是人,查太莱夫人,那是有点困难的!我觉得……请你原谅我这句话……我觉得我不能跟一个英国女子,甚至不能跟一个爱尔兰女于结婚……"

   Try an American,' said Clifford. "

  那么娶-个美国女子!"克利福说。

  啊,美国女子!"他空洞地笑了起来,"不,我会叫我的仆人替我找个土耳其女人,或者一个……一个什么近于东方的女人。"

   Connie really wondered at this queer, melancholy specimen of extraordinary success; it was said he had an income of fifty thousand dollars from America alone. Sometimes he was handsome: sometimes as he looked sideways, downwards, and the light fell on him, he had the silent, enduring beauty of a carved ivory Negro mask, with his rather full eyes, and the strong queerly-arched brows, the immobile, compressed mouth; that momentary but revealed immobility, an immobility, a timelessness which the Buddha aims at, and which Negroes express sometimes without ever aiming at it; something old, old, and acquiescent in the race! Aeons of acquiescence in race destiny, instead of our individual resistance. And then a swimming through, like rats in a dark river. Connie felt a sudden, strange leap of sympathy for him, a leap mingled with compassion, and tinged with repulsion, amounting almost to love. The outsider! The outsider! And they called him a bounder! How much more bounderish and assertive Clifford looked! How much stupider!

  这个奇特的、沮丧的、大成大就的人,真使康妮觉得奇怪。人说,单在美国方面,他就有五万金元的进款。有时他是漂亮的,当他向地下或向旁边注视时,光线照在他的上面,他象一个象牙雕刻的黑人似的,有着一种沉静持久的美。他的眼睛有点突出,眉毛浓厚而奇异地糨曲着,嘴部紧缩而固定,这种暂时的但是显露的镇静,是佛所有意追求而黑人有时超自然流露出来的,是一种很老的、种族所默认的东西!多少世代以来,它就为种族的命运所默认,而不顾我们个别的反抗。然后,悄悄地浮游而度,象一只老鼠在一条黑暗的河里一样。康妮突然奇异地对他同情起来。她的同情里有怜悯,却也带点憎恶,这种同情差不多近于爱情了。这个受人排挤、受人唾弃的人!人们说他浅薄无聊!但是克利福比他显得浅薄无聊得多,自作聪明得多!而且蠢笨得多呢。

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名著·查太莱夫人的情人 - 第6节