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骑马而去的女子(外研社双语读库)
D. H. 劳伦斯 |
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本书由外研社授权掌阅科技电子版制作与发行
版权所有 · 侵权必究 |
第一章
She had thought that this marriage, of all marriages, would be an adventure. Not that the man himself was exactly magical to her. A little, wiry, twisted fellow, twenty years older than herself, with brown eyes and greying hair, who had come to America a scrap of a wastrel, from Holland, years ago, as a tiny boy, and from the gold—mines of the west had been kicked south into Mexico, and now was more or less rich, owning silver—mines in the wilds of the Sierra Madre: it was obvious that the adventure lay in his circumstances, rather than his person. But he was still a little dynamo of energy, in spite of accidents survived, and what he had accomplished he had accomplished alone. One of those human oddments there is no accounting for.
她曾以为在所有的婚姻中，这次婚姻将是一场冒险。倒不是那个男人本身对她极具魔力。他矮小、精瘦、古怪，大她二十岁，棕眼，头发灰白，许多年前还是个小男孩时，就从荷兰来美国混，后来从西部的金矿被赶到南部，去了墨西哥，靠金矿他现在或多或少算是有钱人了，在西拉马德雷德荒地有银矿。所以很明显，危险之处在于他的生活环境，而不是他本人。然而他还是的精力还是相当地充沛，尽管历尽磨难，他的一切都是靠自己得来的。这也是一件无法解释的人类怪事之一。
When she actually saw what he had accomplished, her heart quailed. Great green—covered, unbroken mountain—hills, and in the midst of the lifeless isolation, the sharp pinkish mounds of the dried mud from the silver—works. Under the nakedness of the works, the walled—in, one—storey adobe house, with its garden inside, and its deep inner verandah with tropical climbers on the sides. And when you looked up from this shut—in flowered patio, you saw the huge pink cone of the silver—mud refuse, and the machinery of the extracting plant against heaven above. No more.
当她目睹了他的成就时，她心生畏惧。被绿色覆盖的高山，绵延的山丘，在荒无人烟的地方，从采银厂运出的淡粉色干土堆鲜明地显现出来。在光秃秃的工厂下面，围墙圈着砖坯平房，里面有个花园，屋檐下有深深的走廊，侧面爬满热带爬藤。从花丛围满的封闭式露台看去，你会看到大块的粉红圆锥形废泥和顶天放着的提取植物的机器。没了。
To be sure, the great wooden doors were often open. And then she could stand outside, in the vast open world. And see great, void, tree—clad hills piling behind one another, from nowhere into nowhere. They were green in autumn time. For the rest, pinkish, stark dry, and abstract.
当然，巨大的木门是常开着的。接着她会站在外面，在旷野里。看高高的、空旷的、被树木覆盖的山丘，绵延相连，没有首尾。在秋天它们是绿色的。其他时候，是淡粉的、干巴巴的、抽象的。
And in his battered Ford car her husband would take her into the dead, thrice—dead little Spanish town forgotten among the mountains. The great, sundried dead church, the dead portales, the hopeless covered market—place, where, the first time she went, she saw a dead dog lying between the meat stalls and the vegetable array, stretched out as if for ever, nobody troubling to throw it away. Deadness within deadness.
她的丈夫会开着他破旧的福特车，带她去那个死气沉沉的、超级死气沉沉的、被遗忘在山峦里的西班牙小镇。那宏伟的、被太阳晒干了的、了无生趣的教堂，那死寂的大门，那无可救药的市场。第一次去那里的时候，她看到了一只死狗躺在肉摊和一排蔬菜摊的过道之间，伸长四肢，好像永远都不会有人费劲扔了它。死气里透着死气。
Everybody feebly talking silver, and showing bits of ore. But silver was at a standstill. The great war came and went. Silver was a dead market. Her husband's mines were closed down. But she and he lived on in the adobe house under the works, among the flowers that were never very flowery to her.
每个人都悄声地谈论银子，拿出小块的矿石。但是银矿业止步不前。大战局势未定。银业已经停滞。她丈夫的银矿关闭了。但是她和他还生活在工厂下的砖坯房里，花丛围绕，她却从不觉得足够繁花似锦。
She had two children, a boy and a girl. And her eldest, the boy, was nearly ten years old before she aroused from her stupor of subjected amazement. She was now thirty—three, a large, blue—eyed, dazed woman, beginning to grow stout. Her little, wiry, tough, twisted, brown—eyed husband was fifty—three, a man as tough as wire, tenacious as wire, still full of energy, but dimmed by the lapse of silver from the market, and by some curious inaccessibility on his wife's part.
她有两个孩子，一男一女。老大是男孩，在她从混沌中觉醒的时候将近十岁了。如今她是个三十三岁，身材高大，蓝眼睛，迷茫的女人，开始发福了。她矮小、结实、精瘦、古怪的丈夫五十三岁，和电线一样结实，和电线一样固执，还是那么精力充沛，但是为着银市的萧条，和妻子又有些莫名的隔阂而略显消沉。
He was a man of principles, and a good husband. In a way, he doted on her. He never quite got over his dazzled admiration of her. But essentially, he was still a bachelor. He had been thrown out on the world, a little bachelor, at the age of ten. When he married he was over forty, and had enough money to marry on. But his capital was all a bachelor's. He was boss of his own works, and marriage was the last and most intimate bit of his own works.
他是一个有原则的人，是一个好丈夫。某种程度上，他宠爱她。他从不停止对她的欣赏。但是本质上，他还是个单身汉。十岁的时候，他还是个小单身汉，就被遗弃到这个世界上。他结婚时过四十了，有钱结婚过下去了。但是他的内心还是单身汉。他掌控自己的事业，而婚姻是他最后的、最私人的事业。
He admired his wife to extinction, he admired her body, all her points. And she was to him always the rather dazzling Californian girl from Berkeley, whom he had first known. Like any sheik, he kept her guarded among those mountains of Chihuahua. He was jealous of her as he was of his silver—mine: and that is saying a lot.
他对妻子的欣赏举世无双，他欣赏她的身体，她所有的观点。对他而言，她永远都是第一次认识时那个耀眼的、来自伯克利的加州女孩。在奇瓦瓦的群山中，他像酋长一样，把她至于保护之中。他像呵护她的银矿一样呵护她：这可说明了很多。
At thirty—three she really was still the girl from Berkeley, in all but physique. Her conscious development had stopped mysteriously with her marriage, completely arrested. Her husband had never become real to her, neither mentally nor physically. In spite of his late sort of passion for her, he never meant anything to her, physically. Only morally he swayed her, downed her, kept her in an invincible slavery.
三十三岁了，在所有方面，她还真的还是那个来自伯克利的女孩，只除了外表。她的思想从结婚就神奇地停止了发展，完全地停滞了。她的丈夫对她而言，从来都不是真实的存在，无论是精神上还是生理上。除了他对她迟来的激情之类，生理上，他于她而言什么都不是。只不过在精神上，他左右她，打击她，让她绝对地臣服。
So the years went by, in the adobe house strung round the sunny patio, with the silver—works overhead. Her husband was never still. When the silver went dead, he ran a ranch lower down, some twenty miles away, and raised pure—bred hogs, splendid creatures. At the same time, he hated pigs. He was a squeamish waif of an idealist, and really hated the physical side of life. He loved work, work, work, and making things. His marriage, his children, were something he was making, part of his business, but with a sentimental income this time.
多少年过去了，洒满阳光的天井四周，围着砖房，前面是银厂。她丈夫从来就停不下来。银市停顿，他就在大概二十里开外的低洼之地种植果园，养殖纯种公猪，很好养的牲畜。同时，他又厌恶猪。他是个容易受刺激而又羸弱的理想主义者，实在痛恨生活中物质的一面。他喜欢工作，工作，工作，喜欢制造东西。他的婚姻，他的孩子们，都是他制造出来的，是他事业的一部分，只不过收益的是情感方面。
Gradually her nerves began to go wrong: she must get out. She must get out. So he took her to El Paso for three months. And at least it was the United States.
渐渐地，她的精神方面开始出现问题：她必须走出去。她一定要走出去。所以他带她到爱帕索待了三个月。至少那里还是美国。
But he kept his spell over her. The three months ended: back she was, just the same, in her adobe house among those eternal green or pinky—brown hills, void as only the undiscovered is void. She taught her children, she supervised the Mexican boys who were her servants. And sometimes her husband brought visitors, Spaniards or Mexicans or occasionally white men.
但是他对她的影响还在。三个月结束了：她人回来了，和以前一样，在她的砖房里，待在常年的绿色或粉褐山丘之间，空虚，唯一没有被发现就是空虚。她管教孩子，管理墨西哥僮仆。有时候他丈夫带客人回来，西班牙人或者墨西哥人，偶尔也有白人。
He really loved to have white men staying on the place. Yet he had not a moment's peace when they were there. It was as if his wife were some peculiar secret vein of ore in his mines, which no one must be aware of except himself. And she was fascinated by the young gentlemen, mining engineers, who were his guests at times. He, too, was fascinated by a real gentleman. But he was an old—timer miner with a wife, and if a gentleman looked at his wife, he felt as if his mine were being looted, the secrets of it pryed out.
他十分喜欢有白人呆在这个地方。尽管他们在的时候，他就没有一刻安宁。他的妻子就好像是他矿里的秘密矿脉，没人可以知道，只除了他。她会被有时来做客的年轻绅士，也就是采矿工程师迷住。他也为真正的绅士所吸引。但他是个有妻室的前辈矿主，如果这些绅士看他的妻子，他觉得好似自己的矿藏被抢掠了，秘密不保了。
It was one of these young gentlemen who put the idea into her mind. They were all standing outside the great wooden doors of the patio, looking at the outer world. The eternal, motionless hills were all green, it was September, after the rains. There was no sign of anything, save the deserted mine, the deserted works, and a bunch of half—deserted miner's dwellings.
就是他们之一让她有这些想法的。当时他们正站在天井高大的木门前，看着外面的世界。九月的雨后，亘永不动的山峦满是绿色。没有其他东西的任何痕迹，除了废弃的矿井，废弃的工厂和半废弃的矿主们的居所。
"I wonder, " said the young man, "what there is behind those great blank hills. "
“我好奇” 那个年轻人说到 “这些大山背后是什么地方。”
"More hills, " said Lederman. "If you go that way, Sonora and the coast. This way is the desert—you came from there—And the other way, hills and mountains.”
“更多的山” 列德曼说。 “如果你向那边走，是索诺拉州和海湾去。往这边是沙漠——你就是从那里来的——往别的方向是丘陵和高山。”
"Yes, but what lives in the hills and mountains? Surely there is something wonderful? It looks so like nowhere on earth: like being on the moon.”
“是啊，但是在那些丘陵和高山里有什么活物？当然有没有好玩意儿？那边看上去完全不像是在地球上：像月球。”
"There's plenty of game, if you want to shoot. And Indians, if you call them wonderful.”
是个打猎的好地方，如果你想打猎的话。还有印第安人，如果你觉得他们好的话。”
"Wild ones? "
“没开化的部落吗？”
"Wild enough. "
“没开化的很。”
"But friendly? "
“那友善吗？”
"It depends. Some of them are quite wild, and they don't let anybody near. They kill a missionary at sight. And where a missionary can't get, nobody can.”
“不一定。有些挺粗野的，他们不让人靠近。看到传教士就杀。而传教士都去不了的地方，就没人能去了。”
"But what does the government say? "
“那政府是怎么说的？”
"They're so far from everywhere, the government leaves 'em alone. And they're wily; if they think there'll be trouble, they send a delegation to Chihuahua and make a formal submission. The government is glad to leave it at that.”
“政府就鞭长莫及了，根本就不管他们。他们挺滑头的；如果他们认为有麻烦，就会派代表去奇瓦瓦，正式地表示臣服。政府也就乐得如此。”
"And do they live quite wild, with their own savage customs and religion? "
“他们就过那种原始的生活，遵守野蛮人的风俗和宗教？”
"Oh, yes. They use nothing but bows and arrows. I've seen them in town, in the Plaza, with funny sort of hats with flowers round them, and a bow in one hand, quite naked except for a sort of shirt, even in cold weather—striding round with their savage's bare legs.”
“噢，对呀。他们只用弓箭。我在镇上就见过他们，在集市里面，戴着滑稽的帽子，上面插着花。他们一手拿弓，全身就穿了一件衬衫样的衣服，甚至冬天也只穿这个——露着他们的野腿大步走。”
"But don't you suppose it's wonderful, up there in their secret villages?”
“可是你不觉得这很棒吗，待在他们的秘密的村庄里？”
"No. What would there be wonderful about it? Savages are savages, and all savages behave more or less alike: rather low—down and dirty, unsanitary, with a few cunning tricks, and struggling to get enough to eat.”
“哪儿呀，哪有什么好的？野蛮人就是野蛮人，所有野蛮人的举止都差不多：下作，肮脏，不讲卫生，会耍花招，挣扎着求个温饱。”
"But surely they have old, old religions and mysteries—it must be wonderful, surely it must.”
“但是他们又很古老，很古老的宗教还有那些神神道道——肯定不错，肯定。”
"I don't know about mysteries—howling and heathen practices, more or less indecent. No, I see nothing wonderful in that kind of stuff. And I wonder that you should, when you have lived in London or Paris or New York—”
“我不知道那些个神神道道——嚎叫还有异教徒的一些做法，多少有些不雅。不，我看不出这些东西有什么好的。我怀疑，你会觉得好玩的，要是你住在伦敦或者巴黎或者纽约——”
"Ah, everybody lives in London or Paris or New York—” said the young man, as if this were an argument.
“哦，每个住在伦敦，伦敦，纽约的人” ——那个年轻人说，好像和人辩论一样。
And his peculiar vague enthusiasm for unknown Indians found a full echo in the woman's heart. She was overcome by a foolish romanticism more unreal than a girl's. She felt it was her destiny to wander into the secret haunts of these timeless, mysterious, marvellous Indians of the mountains.
他对于未知的印第安人特别而模糊的着迷在她心中引起了共鸣。她被一种傻乎乎的、比少女的浪漫情怀要不真实的浪漫情怀所征服。她感到命中注定她会陷入对永恒的、神秘的、新奇的、住在群山里的印第安人的秘密迷思之中。
She kept her secret. The young man was departing, her husband was going with him down to Torreon, on business: —would be away for some days. But before the departure, she made her husband talk about the Indians: about the wandering tribes, resembling the Navajo, who were still wandering free; and the Yaquis of Sonora: and the different groups in the different valleys of Chihuahua State.
她保守着自己的秘密。那个年轻人已经离开，她的丈夫和他一道去托雷翁出差——要离开一段日子。不过在离开前，她让丈夫给她讲了讲印第安人：关于流浪的部落，和纳瓦霍人很像，纳瓦霍人到现在都还在流浪；索诺拉的雅基族，和奇瓦瓦州不同的山谷里住着不同的部落。
There was supposed to be one tribe, the Chilchuis, living in a high valley to the south, who were the sacred tribe of all the Indians. The descendants of Montezuma and of the old Aztec or Totonac kings still lived among them, and the old priests still kept up the ancient religion, and offered human sacrifices—so it was said. Some scientists had been to the Chilchui country, and had come back gaunt and exhausted with hunger and bitter privation, bringing various curious, barbaric objects of worship, but having seen nothing extraordinary in the hungry, stark village of savages.
应该有这么一个部落，其尔垂部落，住在南部的高山，是全印第安人的神圣部落。摩特祖玛和阿兹特克的后裔或者托托纳克的国王还和他们住在一起，老祭司们还保留着古老的宗教，还保持着人祭——据说是这样。有些科学家去过其尔垂村，回来的时候，憔悴而疲惫，饥肠辘辘，一文不名，带回了各种各样古怪的、野蛮人崇拜的物件，然而在这个饥馑荒凉的野蛮人村庄里，倒是没有见到什么特别离奇的事情。
Though Lederman talked in this off—hand way, it was obvious he felt some of the vulgar excitement at the idea of ancient and mysterious savages.
尽管莱德曼只是随口谈论，很明显，他觉察谈论古老又神秘的野蛮人带来了些粗俗的刺激。
"How far away are they? " she asked.
“他们有多远？” 她问。
"Oh—three days on horseback—past Cuchitee and a little lake there is up there.”
“哦——骑马三天的路程——穿过库奇提和一个湖泊，往上走就是。”
Her husband and the young man departed. The woman made her crazy plans. Of late, to break the monotony of her life, she had harassed her husband into letting her go riding with him, occasionally, on horseback. She was never allowed to go out alone. The country truly was not safe, lawless and crude.
她丈夫和那个年轻人出发了。她有了些疯狂的计划。近来，为了打破她的生活的枯燥，她磨着她丈夫准她偶尔和他一起骑在马背上。她从不准单独外出。这里确实不安全，是无法无天的荒蛮之地。
But she had her own horse, and she dreamed of being free as she had been as a girl, among the hills of California.
但她有自己的马，从孩提起，她就梦想着自由自在地在加州山间漫行。
Her daughter, nine years old, was now in a tiny convent in the little half—deserted Spanish mining—town five miles away.
她女儿，九岁，当时在一个半废弃的西班牙矿区小镇的小女修道院里，在五公里之外。
"Manuel, " said the woman to her house—servant, "I 'm going to ride to the convent to see Margarita, and take her a few things. Perhaps I shall stay the night in the convent. You look after Freddy and see everything is all right till I come back.”
“曼纽” 她对她的马僮说道， “我要骑马去修道院看玛格丽特，给她带些东西。我也许会在那里过夜。你照顾好弗莱德，照应所有事情，等我回来。”
"Shall I ride with you on the master's horse, or shall Juan? " asked the servant.
“要我陪您一起骑老爷的马去吗，或者尤安陪您去？” 仆人问道。
"Neither of you. I shall go alone. "
“你们两个不用去。我自己去。”
The young man looked her in the eyes, in protest. Absolutely impossible that the woman should ride alone!
那小伙子抗议地直视她的眼睛。她自己单独骑马过去简直完全不可能！
"I shall go alone, " repeated the large, placid—seeming, fair—complexioned woman, with peculiar overbearing emphasis. And the man silently, unhappily yielded.
“我自己去，” 那个看上去很温和的、高大的、面容姣好的女人用特别强制的语气强调了一遍。他缄默地、不爽地屈服了。
"Why are you going alone, mother? " asked her son, as she made up parcels of food.
“为什么你要一个人去呢，妈妈？” 当她在打包食物时，她儿子问她。
"Am I never to be let alone? Not one moment of my life? " she cried, with sudden explosion of energy. And the child, like the servant, shrank into silence.
“我就不能自己做点什么？一刻也不行？” 她突然间大力叫道。和马僮一样，孩子瑟缩着沉默了。
She set off without a qualm, riding astride on her strong roan horse, and wearing a riding suit of coarse linen, a riding skirt over her linen breeches, a scarlet neck—tie over her white blouse, and a black felt hat on her head. She had food in her saddle—bags, an army canteen with water, and a large, native blanket tied on behind the saddle. Peering into the distance, she set off from her home. Manuel and the little boy stood in the gateway to watch her go. She did not even turn to wave them farewell.
她没有一点疑惧地出发了，跨骑着她健壮的杂色马，穿着粗麻骑装，骑马衬衫配亚麻马裤，鲜红色领结衬白罩衫，头戴黑毡帽。鞍囊里装着食物和装了水的军用水壶，一大张当地毛毯捆在马鞍后面。她望向远处，从家里出发了。曼纽和她儿子站在门廊目送她。她甚至都没有回头向他们挥手告别。
But when she had ridden about a mile, she left the wild road and took a small trail to the right, that led into another valley, over steep places and past great trees, and through another deserted mining—settlement. It was September, the water was running freely in the little stream that had fed the now—abandoned mine. She got down to drink, and let the horse drink too.
然而当她骑了一公里之后，她没有走大路，而是走了右面的一条小路，去往另一个山谷，经过陡峭的地区和高大的树木，穿过另一处荒废的矿区。九月天，水灾溪涧里自由地流淌，灌满如今荒废的矿井。她下马去喝水，也让马饮水。
She saw natives coming through the trees, away up the slope. They had seen her, and were watching her closely. She watched in turn. The three people, two women and a youth, were making a wide detour, so as not to come too close to her. She did not care. Mounting, she trotted ahead up the silent valley, beyond the silver—works, beyond any trace of mining. There was still a rough trail, that led over rocks and loose stones into the valley beyond. This trail she had already ridden, with her husband. Beyond that she knew she must go south.
她看到土著人穿过树林，上了斜坡。他们看见她了，走近观察她。她也观察他们。一共有三个人，两个女人和一个年轻人，绕了一大段路，避免离她太近。她不在意。上马之后，她策马向前往静谧的山谷小跑过去，穿过银矿场，穿过所有有矿井踪迹的地方。那里还有一条轨迹，把岩石和松动的石头运到山谷去。这条轨迹她骑过，和她丈夫一起。除此之外，她知道她必须往南走。
Curiously she was not afraid, although it was a frightening country, the silent, fatal—seeming mountain—slopes, the occasional distant, suspicious, elusive natives among the trees, the great carrion birds occasionally hovering, like great flies, in the distance, over some carrion or some ranch house or some group of huts.
有意思的是，她不害怕，尽管这是一个令人害怕的国度，静瘆瘆的，有看上去要命的像山似的斜坡，树林里远处偶尔有疑惑排外的土著人，间或有巨大的食腐鸟，像大苍蝇一样，盘旋在远处的某块腐肉或某处平房，或者某些棚屋的上方。
As she climbed, the trees shrank and the trail ran through a thorny scrub, that was trailed over with blue convolvulus and an occasional pink creeper. Then these flowers lapsed. She was nearing the pine—trees.