双语阅读 | 波拉尼奥《又一个俄罗斯故事》

波拉尼奥的文字仿佛有魔力。自从几个月前读了《重返暗夜》，直到现在，那些怪异又生动的小故事还会时不时跳进我的脑海。

今天选取《重返暗夜》中的一个短篇《又一个俄罗斯故事》，来比较一下中英译本的共通与不同之处，看看有哪些让人意想不到的用词？

Once, after a conversation with a friend about the mercurial nature of art, Amalfitano told a story he’d heard in Barcelona. The story was about a sorche, a rookie, in the Spanish Blue Division, which fought in the Second World War, on the Russian Front, with the German Northern Army Group to be precise, in the vicinity of Novgorod.

这士兵是个矮个子的西班牙塞维利亚人，瘦得像根木棍，蓝眼睛，为生计所迫（他不是迪奥尼西奥·里德鲁埃霍(2)那种人，也不是托马斯·萨尔瓦多(3)那种人，该敬纳粹军礼的时候他就敬，但他不是严格意义上的法西斯分子或长枪党人）才到了苏联。在这儿，不知道是谁开的头，有人对他喊：新兵蛋子，过来！或者喊：新兵蛋子，干这个！干那个！于是，这个塞维利亚人的脑海里就留下了“新兵蛋子”这个词。但在他的脑海深处，在这个辽阔、孤寂的地方，因为时间的推移以及充满惊恐的日常生活，“新兵蛋子”变成了“领唱者”(4)。我不知道怎么会发生这种事，猜测是某种童年时代的心理机制被唤醒了，一些幸福的记忆等待着被召回的契机。

The rookie was a little guy from Seville, blue-eyed and thin as a rake, and more or less by accident (he was no Dionisio Ridruejo, not even a Tomás Salvador; when he had to give the Roman salute, he did, but he wasn’t really a fascist or a Falangist at heart) he ended up in Russia. And there, for some reason, someone started calling him sorche for short: Over here, sorche, or: Sorche, do this, Sorche, do that, so the word lodged itself in the guy’s head, but in the dark part of his head, and in that capacious and desolate place, with passing time and the daily panicking, it was somehow transformed into chantre, cantor. How this happened I don’t know, let’s just say that some connection dormant since childhood was reactivated, some pleasant memory that had been waiting for its chance to return.

于是，这个安达卢西亚(5)人常常思考自己作为领唱者的责任和义务，尽管从自身来讲他一点也不明白领唱者这个词的含义，没人告诉他这是指大教堂里唱诗班的领唱。但是，值得注意的是，通过这样把自己想成领唱者的行为，他真的在某种程度上变成了领唱者。在可怕的1941年冬天，他当上了圣诞颂歌的领唱者，与此同时，苏联人正在粉碎德军250师的进攻。在他的记忆里，那几天充满了噪声（低沉的、持续不断的噪声）和一种存在于地下的、有点失焦的欢乐。他们唱着，但似乎声音总是后于甚至先于歌手唇部、喉咙、眼部的动作发出，这些部位常常滑动在一种静悄悄的缝隙里，滑动在非常短暂但同样令人感到奇怪的旅途中。

So the Andalusian came to think of himself as being a cantor and having a cantor’s duties, although he had no conscious idea of what the word meant, and couldn’t have said that it referred to the leader of a church or cathedral choir. And yet, and this is the remarkable thing, by thinking of himself as a cantor, he somehow turned himself into one. During the terrible winter of ’41, he took charge of the choir that sang carols while the Russians were hammering the 250th Regiment. He remembered those days as full of noise (muffled, constant noises) and an underground, slightly unfocused joy. They sang, but it was as if the voices were lagging behind or even anticipating the movements of the singers’ lips, throats and eyes, which in their own brief but peculiar journeys often slipped into a kind of silent crevice.

此外，这位塞维利亚人表现得像个勇士，逆来顺受，尽管后来他的脾气随着时间的推移变得越来越暴躁。

The Andalusian carried out his other duties with courage and resignation, although over time, he did become embittered.

不久以后，他就尝到流血的滋味了。一天下午，他不小心受了伤，住进里加军事医院，待了两周，受到第三帝国女护士的照顾，这些女子个个身强力壮，满面笑容，对他眼睛的颜色表示难以置信；他还受到西班牙志愿者的照顾，她们可能是何塞·安东尼奥(6)的姐妹、嫂子或者远房表姐妹，个个丑陋之极。

He soon paid his dues in blood. One afternoon he was wounded, more or less accidentally, and spent two weeks in the military hospital in Riga, under the care of robust, smiling German women, nursing for the Reich, who couldn’t believe the color of his eyes, and some extremely ugly volunteer nurses from Spain, probably sisters or sisters-in-law or distant cousins of José Antonio.

等到他出院的时候，发生了一件对这位塞维利亚人造成严重后果的事情：他没拿到前往正确目的地的车票，他们给了他一张去党卫队兵营的路条，那里距离他原来的部队有三百公里。到了那里以后，他身边是德国人、奥地利人、拉脱维亚人、立陶宛人、丹麦人、挪威人和瑞典人，个个比他高大、强壮，他试图用简单的德语解释清楚这个错误的派遣，但是党卫队的人对他的事拖延不办，在查明问题的这段时间里，派他打扫兵营，让他拿着水桶和抹布擦洗一幢巨大的长方形木质建筑的地板，那是扣押、审讯和酷刑拷打各种囚徒的地方。

When he was discharged, a confusion occurred that was to have grave consequences for the Andalusian: instead of giving him a ticket to the right destination, they shunted him off to the barracks of an SS battalion two hundred miles from his regiment. There, among Germans, Austrians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, all much taller and stronger than him, he tried to explain the confusion in his rudimentary German, but the SS officers brushed him off, and while it was being sorted out, they gave him a broom and made him sweep the barracks, then a bucket and a rag to clean the floor of the enormous rectangular wooden building in which they held, interrogated and tortured prisoners of all sorts.

这位塞维利亚人虽然对现状不满，但非常认真自觉地执行着这项新任务，在新的兵营里，时间日复一日地流逝，吃的比从前好，也不用冒什么危险，因为党卫队兵营被安排在后方就是要对付那些所谓“匪徒”的。于是，“新兵”一词在他脑海深处再次变得清晰起来。他想：我是个新兵，是个刚入伍的新兵蛋子，应该接受命运的安排。渐渐地，“领唱者”这个词消失不见了，但是在有些傍晚，浩瀚的天际让他心中充满怀念，怀念家乡塞维利亚，领唱者的声音渐渐消失在远方，天晓得远方什么地方。有一次，他听见几个德国兵在唱歌，想起了“领唱者”这个词；又有一次，他听见有个男孩在树丛后面唱歌，又想起了“领唱者”，这一次更清晰了，但是当他去树丛后面寻找的时候，那孩子已经不在那里了。

Not entirely resigned to his lot, but performing his new tasks conscientiously, the Andalusian watched the time go by in his new barracks, where he ate much better than before and was not exposed to any new dangers, since the SS battalion had been stationed well behind the lines, to combat what they called “outlaws.” Then, in the dark part of his head, the word sorche became legible again. I’m a sorche, he said, a rookie, and I should accept my fate. Little by little, the word chantre disappeared, although some afternoons, under a limitless sky that filled him with nostalgia for Seville, it resonated still, somewhere, lost in the beyond. Once he heard some German soldiers singing, and he remembered the word; another time there was a boy singing behind a thicket, and again he remembered it, more clearly this time, but when he went around to the other side of the bushes, the boy was gone.

有一天，注定要发生的事情真的发生了。党卫队兵营被苏联骑兵团袭击并占领了，这是一种说法；另外一种说法是这是敌后游击队干的。战斗时间很短，德国人从一开始就处于劣势。一小时后，苏联人发现那个塞维利亚人藏在那座长方形的建筑里，身穿党卫队后备军的军服，身边是这里不久前所发生的残忍暴行的证据。就像人们说的那样，抓了个现行。他们立刻把他捆在党卫队用来刑讯的椅子上，椅子腿和扶手上都有绑带。对苏联人的提问，他都用西班牙语回答说听不懂，还说在这里他只是个听差的。他本想说德语，可是只会三五句话，那些苏联人一句德语也不会说。一番拳打脚踢之后，他们去找一个会说德语的苏联人，那人正在这座长方形建筑的另外一间牢房里审讯囚徒。在那些苏联人回来之前，这个塞维利亚人听到了枪声。他明白苏联人正在杀害党卫队的人，因此对毫发无损地走出这里也不抱什么希望了。但枪声一停，他又感到一丝活下来的希望。那个会说德语的苏联人问他在这里干什么，什么职务，哪一级军衔。塞维利亚人试图用德语解释明白，但并不成功。于是，苏联人撬开他的嘴巴，用德国人夹人体别的部位的火钳拉扯他的舌头。他疼得泪流满面，差不多是喊叫着说出一个词：coño(7)。伸进嘴里的火钳让这句西班牙语飞向空中时变了音，他号叫出的词听起来像“kunst”。

One fine day, what was bound to happen happened. The barracks of the SS battalion came under attack and were captured, some say by a Russian cavalry regiment, though others claim it was a group of partisans. The fighting was brief and the Germans were at a disadvantage from the start. After an hour the Russians found the Andalusian hidden in the rectangular building, wearing the uniform of an SS auxiliary and surrounded by evidence of the atrocities committed there not so long ago. Caught red-handed, so to speak. They attached him to one of the chairs that the SS used for interrogations, with straps on the legs and the armrests, and to every question from the Russians he replied in Spanish that he didn’t understand and was just a dogsbody there. He also tried to say it in German, but he barely knew four words of that language and his interrogators knew none at all. After a quick session of slapping and kicking, they went to get a guy who could speak German and was questioning prisoners in another of the rectangular building’s cells. Before they came back, the Andalusian heard shots, and knew they were killing some of the SS, which put an end to any hopes he might have had of getting out of there unharmed. And yet, when the shooting stopped, he clung to life again with every fiber of his being. The Russian who knew German asked him what he was doing there, what his job was and his rank. The Andalusian tried to explain, in German, but it was no use. Then the Russians opened his mouth, and with a pair of pincers, which the Germans had used on other body parts, they started pulling and squeezing his tongue. The pain made his eyes water, and he said, or rather shouted, the word coño, cunt. The pincers in his mouth distorted the expletive which came out, in his howling voice, as Kunst.

懂德语的那个苏联人吃惊地望着他。塞维利亚人不停地喊叫着kunst，kunst，疼得直哭。“kunst”这个词在德语里是“艺术”的意思。那个会两种语言（俄语和德语）的军人听懂了这个词，于是说道：这个婊子养的是艺术家之类的人。给塞维利亚人上刑的大兵们抽出了火钳，带下一小块舌头上的肉。有一瞬间苏联人被这个发现迷住了，他们呆在那里。“艺术”这个词让野兽变得温顺起来。就这样，苏联人像被驯服的野兽一样宽慰地喘了一口气，等待着什么指示。与此同时，新兵蛋子满嘴是血，大量唾液混着鲜血一起吞咽下去，他感觉呼吸困难，喘不过气来。从“coño”变成“kunst”，一下子救了他的命。等到他从长方形建筑里走出来的时候，正是傍晚，但是阳光刺伤了他的眼睛，仿佛是在正午。

The Russian who knew German looked at him in puzzlement. The Andalusian was yelling Kunst, Kunst and crying with pain. In German, the word Kunst means art, and that was what the bilingual soldier was hearing, and he said, This son of a bitch must be an artist or something. The guys who were torturing the Andalusian removed the pincers along with a little piece of tongue and waited, momentarily hypnotized by the revelation. The word art. Art, which soothes the savage beast. And so, like soothed beasts, the Russians took a breather and waited for some kind of signal while the rookie bled from the mouth and swallowed his blood liberally mixed with saliva, and choked. The word coño transformed into the word Kunst, had saved his life. When he came out of the rectangular building, it was dusk, but the light stabbed at his eyes like midday sun.

他跟着为数不多的俘虏一道被带走了。不久以后，有个懂西班牙语的苏联人听他讲述了身世。最后，他被送进了西伯利亚的一处俘虏集中营，而他意外遇见的那些凶狠的党卫队战友都被枪毙了。他在西伯利亚一直待到五十年代末。1957年他在巴塞罗那定居了。有时，他会开口讲讲那些战争中的小故事，口气十分幽默。有时，他会张开嘴巴让任何想看的人看看那缺了舌尖的舌头。已经几乎看不出什么异样了。大家说到他舌头已经正常的时候，他就解释说：舌头会随着时间生长的。阿玛尔菲塔诺本人并不认识这位塞维利亚人。但是当他听说这个故事的时候，这位塞维利亚人还住在巴塞罗那一间看门人的小屋子里。

They took him away along with the few remaining prisoners, and before long he was able to tell his story to a Russian who knew some Spanish, and he ended up in a prison camp in Siberia while his accidental partners in iniquity were executed. He was in Siberia until well into the fifties. In 1957 he settled in Barcelona. Sometimes he’d open his mouth and cheerfully tell his tales of war. Sometimes he’d open his mouth and show whoever wanted a look the place where a chunk was missing from his tongue. You could hardly see it. The Andalusian explained that over the years it had grown back. Amalfitano didn’t know him personally. But when he heard the story, the guy was still living in a janitor’s apartment in Barcelona.

(1) 蓝色师（División Azul），西班牙陆军中的正式名称为西班牙志愿师，德军中的正式名称为德意志国防军第250师，是“二战”期间协助德军对苏联作战的一支西班牙志愿军。

(2) 迪奥尼西奥·里德鲁埃霍（Dionisio Ridruejo，1912—1975），西班牙诗人、长枪党人，曾任佛朗哥政府内阁宣传部部长，1941—1942年跟随蓝色师在东线作战。

(3) 托马斯·萨尔瓦多（Tomás Salvador，1921—1984），西班牙作家、记者。1941—1943年跟随蓝色师到过苏德战场前线。

(4) 原文为chantre，意指教堂唱诗班的领唱者，与sorche（新兵）这个词读音相近。

(5) 安达卢西亚（Andalucía），西班牙南部的一个自治区，首府位于塞维利亚。

(6) 何塞·安东尼奥（José Antonio，1903—1936），西班牙长枪党创始人，西班牙内战时在狱中被处决。佛朗哥上台后多次赞扬其壮烈牺牲，并追授公爵爵位。

250师 the 250th Regiment

简单的德语 rudimentary German

有点失焦的欢乐 slightly unfocused joy

党卫队兵营 SS battalion

听差的 dogsbody

凶狠的（党卫队）战友 partners in iniquity

艺术的奇妙特征 mercurial nature of art

瘦得像根木棍 thin as a rake

暴躁 embittered

尝到流血的滋味 paid his dues in blood

脑海里留下...单词 the word lodged itself in the guy’s head

打发某人去... shunt sb off to...

将某人丢在一旁 brush sb off

查明某事 sth be sorted out

扣押、审讯和酷刑拷打 hold, interrogate and torture

对现状不满 not entirely resigned to his lot

抓了个现行 caught red-handed