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第三章

"I was born, " he said, "at Elizondo, in the valley of Baztan. My name is Don Jose Lizzarrabengoa, and you know enough of Spain, sir, to know at once, by my name, that I come of an old Christian and Basque stock. I call myself Don, because I have a right to it, and if I were at Elizondo I could show you my parchment genealogy. My family wanted me to go into the church, and made me study for it, but I did not like work. I was too fond of playing tennis, and that was my ruin. When we Navarrese begin to play tennis, we forget everything else. One day, when I had won the game, a young fellow from Alava picked a quarrel with me. We took to our maquilas 1, and I won again. But I had to leave the neighborhood. I fell in with some dragoons, and enlisted in the Almanza Cavalry Regiment. Mountain folks like us soon learn to be soldiers. Before long I was a corporal, and I had been told I should soon be made a sergeant, when, to my misfortune, I was put on guard at the Seville Tobacco Factory. If you have been to Seville you have seen the great building, just outside the ramparts, close to the Guadalquivir; I can fancy I see the entrance, and the guard room just beside it, even now. When Spanish soldiers are on duty, they either play cards or go to sleep. I, like an honest Navarrese, always tried to keep myself busy. I was making a chain to hold my priming—pin, out of a bit of wire: all at once, my comrades said, 't here's the bell ringing, the girls are coming back to work. 'You must know, sir, that there are quite four or five hundred women employed in the factory. They roll the cigars in a great room into which no man can go without a permit from the Veintiquatro 2, because when the weather is hot they make themselves at home, especially the young ones. When the work—girls come back after their dinner, numbers of young men go down to see them pass by, and talk all sorts of nonsense to them. Very few of those young ladies will refuse a silk mantilla, and men who care for that sort of sport have nothing to do but bend down and pick their fish up. While the others watched the girls go by, I stayed on my bench near the door. I was a young fellow then—my heart was still in my own country, and I didn't believe in any pretty girls who hadn't blue skirts and long plaits of hair falling on their shoulders. 3And besides, I was rather afraid of the Andalusian women. I had not got used to their ways yet; they were always jeering one—never spoke a single word of sense. So I was sitting with my nose down upon my chain, when I heard some bystanders say, ' Here comes the gitanella! 'Then I lifted up my eyes, and I saw her! It was that very Carmen you know, and in whose rooms I met you a few months ago.

我出生在,他说,巴斯坦谷地的埃利松多。我叫唐何塞•利萨拉本戈亚,如果先生对西班牙了解甚多的话,一听到我的名字就知道我来自一个世代信奉基督教的家庭,是巴斯克血统。我说自己的姓氏带有唐字,因为我有权利这么叫,要是我现在还在埃利松多,我可以让您看看我们记载在羊皮卷上的家谱。家里人希望我去教堂工作,让我学习相关的东西,但我不喜欢在那里呆着。我太喜欢打网球了,网球成了我的祸根。我们纳瓦拉人一打起网球来,就忘记了一切。有一天,我赢了一局比赛,一个从阿拉瓦来的小伙子和我吵了一架。我们动用了马基拉,我又赢了。可是我因此不得不离开了家乡。我在路上碰见了些龙骑兵,就参加了阿尔曼萨骑兵团。像我们这样的山里人很快就能学会打仗。不久我就升为下士,人家还说我很快就能升中士。不幸的是,我一下子又被调到塞维利亚烟厂当警卫去了。如果您去过塞维利亚,您应该见过烟厂那座高大的厂房,就在城墙外边,靠近瓜达尔基维尔河;我现在都还能想象得出那个大门和大门旁边的警卫室。其他西班牙士兵值班的时候,不是打牌就是睡觉。不过我是个老实的纳瓦拉人,所以我总是忙个不停。我正在用线圈做条链子,栓住火枪的通针。突然,同伴们喊道: ‘钟响啦,姑娘们要回来工作啦。’ 先生,您要知道这家烟厂有四、五百名女工呢。她们在一间大房子里卷烟,没有二十四号人物的允许,男人们不得擅自进入。因为天气炎热时,女工们会穿着随便,尤其是年轻的女工们。每当年轻女工吃完饭回来,许多小伙子就会特意出去等她们从门口路过,和她们说各种各样挑逗的话。要是有小伙送上一条丝绸披肩头纱,很少有女孩会拒绝;那些喜欢玩这种伎俩的男人们只需弯腰就能钓到他们想要的鱼。其他人都在观察路过的姑娘,我还是老老实实地坐在门边的长凳上。当时我也是个年轻的小伙子,只是我心念家乡,一直觉得只有穿着蓝裙子、长辫子披肩的女孩才是漂亮的。另外,我其实很怕安达卢西亚的女人。我并不习惯她们的说话方式,她们总是嘲笑别人——没有一句正经话。所以,当时我只顾低头做我的链子,突然我听见有人喊道: ‘吉普赛小姑娘来啦!’ 抬头一看,我见到了她!她就是您认识的那个卡门,几个月前我就是在她的房间里遇见了您。

"She was wearing a very short skirt, below which her white silk stockings—with more than one hole in them—and her dainty red morocco shoes, fastened with flame—coloured ribbons, were clearly seen. She had thrown her mantilla back, to show her shoulders, and a great bunch of acacia that was thrust into her chemise. She had another acacia blossom in the corner of her mouth, and she walked along, swaying her hips, like a filly from the Cordova stud farm. In my country anybody who had seen a woman dressed in that fashion would have crossed himself. At Seville every man paid her some bold compliment on her appearance. She had an answer for each and all, with her hand on her hip, as bold as the thorough gipsy she was. At first I didn't like her looks, and I fell to my work again. But she, like all women and cats, who won't come if you call them, and do come if you don't call them, stopped short in front of me, and spoke to me.

她穿着一条小短裙,露出白丝袜,袜子破了不止一个洞呢。脚上穿着一双精致的摩洛哥红鞋,系着火红的鞋带,十分引人注目。她故意把披肩头纱拨到身后,露出她的肩膀和无袖宽内衣上的金合欢花。她的嘴角还衔着一朵金合欢花,只见她扭着臀部走来,活像一匹科尔多瓦小母马。谁要是在我的家乡见着这样打扮的女子,非得气得画十字不可。然而,在塞维利亚,每个人对她的姿色都要大胆地恭维一番。她对每个人的恭维都会回应,还把手放在腰间,一副大胆而放肆的吉普赛人的模样。刚开始我并不喜欢她的样子,所以我又重新开始我的工作。但是,所有的女人和猫都一样,越是叫她们,她们越是不来;越是不搭理她们,她们反而还愿意跑过来。她也一样,她在我面前停了下来,对我说话。

'Compadre, ' said she, in the Andalusian fashion, 'won't you give me your chain for the keys of my strong box? '

‘伙计,’ 她用安达卢西亚的口气对我说, ‘把你的链条送给我吧,我好挂保险箱的钥匙,可以吗? '

'It's for my priming—pin, ' said I.

‘这是我挂通针用的。’ 我回答道。

‘Your priming—pin! 'she cried, with a laugh.

‘你的通针!’ 她笑道,

'Oho! I suppose the gentleman makes lace, as he wants pins! '

‘哦!我还以为这位先生要做花边,所以要用针呢! '

"Everybody began to laugh, and I felt myself getting red in the face, and couldn't hit on anything in answer.

所有的人都开始大笑;我的脸红了,但是我找不到任何话来回答她。

'Come, my love! ' she began again, 'make me seven ells of lace for my mantilla, my pet pin—maker! '

‘好吧,宝贝!’ 她又开始说了, ‘给我的披肩头纱做七厄尔花边吧,我心爱的制针郎! '

"And taking the acacia blossom out of her mouth she flipped it at me with her thumb so that it hit me just between the eyes. I tell you, sir, I felt as if a bullet had struck me. I didn't know which way to look. I sat stock—still, like a wooden board. When she had gone into the factory, I saw the acacia blossom, which had fallen on the ground between my feet. I don't know what made me do it, but I picked it up, unseen by any of my comrades, and put it carefully inside my jacket. That was my first folly.

她取下嘴边的金合欢花,用手指一弹,正中我的眉心。先生,跟您说吧,我当时的感觉就像被子弹打中一样。我不知道该往哪里看。我坐在那里,一动不动,像个木板。她走进工厂后,这朵金合欢花已经掉在了地上,在我两脚之间。我不知道自己中了什么邪,我把花捡了起来,趁同伴们不注意,小心翼翼地塞进了我的夹克里。那是我干的第一件蠢事。

"Two or three hours later I was still thinking about her, when a panting, terrified—looking porter rushed into the guard—room. He told us a woman had been stabbed in the great cigar—room, and that the guard must be sent in at once. The sergeant told me to take two men, and go and see to it. I took my two men and went upstairs. Imagine, sir, that when I got into the room, I found, to begin with, some three hundred women, stripped to their shifts, or very near it, all of them screaming and yelling and gesticulating, and making such a row that you couldn't have heard God's own thunder. On one side of the room one of the women was lying on the broad of her back, streaming with blood, with an X newly cut on her face by two strokes of a knife. Opposite the wounded woman, whom the best—natured of the band were attending, I saw Carmen, held by five or six of her comrades. The wounded woman was crying out, 'A confessor, a confessor! I' m killed! 'Carmen said nothing at all. She clinched her teeth and rolled her eyes like a chameleon. ' What's this? 'I asked.

两三个小时后,我还是在想她。这时,一个大惊失色的看门人气喘吁吁地跑来警卫室。他告诉我们一名女工在那个卷烟大厅里被刺伤了,要警卫员立刻过去。中士叫我带两个人去看看。我带了两个人上楼。先生,可想而知,当我走进这间屋子时,我一下子发现三百多名女工都只穿着衬衣或类似衬衣的工作服,所有人都在尖叫、大喊、指手画脚、争吵不休,置身这番喧闹之中就算上帝亲自打雷你都听不到。在屋子里的另一头,一名女工躺在地上,四脚朝天,浑身是血,她的脸上还有两道被小刀新划伤的十字形刀口。几位好心的女工正在照料这位受伤者,而在她们对面,卡门已经被另外五六个同伴拽住了。受伤的女工哭喊着: ‘告解神父!告解神父!我要死啦!’ 卡门一声不吭。她咬紧牙关,眼珠像变色蜥蜴一样不停地转动。 ‘发生了什么事?’ 我问道。

I had hard work to find out what had happened, for all the work—girls talked at once. It appeared that the injured girl had boasted she had money enough in her pocket to buy a donkey at the Triana Market. 'Why, ' said Carmen, who had a tongue of her own, 'can't you do with a broom? ' Stung by this taunt, it may be because she felt herself rather unsound in that particular, the other girl replied that she knew nothing about brooms, seeing she had not the honor of being either a gipsy or one of the devil's godchildren, but that the Senorita Carmen would shortly make acquaintance with her donkey, when the Corregidor took her out riding with two lackeys behind her to keep the flies off. 'Well, ' retorted Carmen, 'I'll make troughs for the flies to drink out of on your cheeks, and I'll paint a draught—board on them! ' 4And thereupon, slap, bank! She began making St. Andrew's crosses on the girl's face with a knife she had been using for cutting off the ends of the cigars.

所有的姑娘们同时和我说话,我费了九牛二虎之力才弄明白是怎么回事。原来这位受伤的女工夸口说她口袋里的钱多得可以在特里亚纳集市买下一头驴。 ‘怎么,’ 多嘴多舌的卡门问道, ‘你有把扫把还不够吗?’ 这名女工被卡门的奚落刺痛,很可能当时她自己也觉得自己的话漏洞百出。于是她反唇相讥,说卡门对扫把的事情一无所知,因为自己没有卡门这么幸运,既不是吉普赛人也不是恶魔的教女。不过,卡门小姐很快就能和她的毛驴相识,因为镇长就要带她出去游街,还有两个跟班的在她后面给她赶苍蝇。 ‘行啊,’ 卡门又开始反击道, ‘让我先在你脸上挖几道水槽给苍蝇喝水,然后再在你脸上画个三桅船吧!’ 随即卡门啪地打了过去!她开始用切烟头的小刀在对方脸上划了几个圣安德烈十字架。

"The case was quite clear. I took hold of Carmen's arm. 'Sister mine, ' I said civilly, 'you must come with me. ' She shot a glance of recognition at me, but she said, with a resigned look: 'Let's be off. Where is my mantilla? ' She put it over her head so that only one of her great eyes was to be seen, and followed my two men, as quiet as a lamb. When we got to the guardroom the sergeant said it was a serious job, and he must send her to prison. I was told off again to take her there. I put her between two dragoons, as a corporal does on such occasions. We started off for the town. The gipsy had begun by holding her tongue. But when we got to the Calle de la Serpiente—you know it, and that it earns its name by its many windings—she began by dropping her mantilla on to her shoulders, so as to show me her coaxing little face, and turning round to me as well as she could, she said:

案情一目了然。我抓住卡门的胳膊。 ‘姐妹,’ 我礼貌地说, ‘跟我走一趟吧。’ 她瞄了我一眼,认出了我,于是顺从地看着我说: ‘走吧。我的披肩头纱到哪去了?’ 她戴上披肩头纱,只露出一只大眼睛,跟在我的两个警卫后面,安静得像只小羊羔。到了警卫室,中士说情节严重,必须把她送进监狱。中士又让我送她进监狱。我让她走在两个龙骑兵中间。下士遇到这种情况,通常都是像我这样做的。我们向镇上出发了。这个吉普赛姑娘刚开始很沉默。但是,当我们到达蛇街——您知道的,这条街弯弯曲曲,真是名副其实——她就撩开她的披肩头纱,将它移至肩膀处,这样就能让我看见她诱人的小脸蛋,并极力朝向我,她说:

'Oficial mio, where are you taking me to? '

‘长官,您要带我去哪里? '

'To prison, my poor child, ' I replied, as gently as I could, just as any kind—hearted soldier is bound to speak to a prisoner, and especially to a woman.

‘去监狱,可怜的孩子。’ 我极尽温柔地回答她,就像好兵优待俘虏一样,特别是对待女俘虏的时候。

‘Alack! What will become of me! Senor Oficial, have pity on me! You are so young, so good—looking. 'Then, in a lower tone, she said, ' Let me get away, and I'll give you a bit of the bar lachi, that will make every woman fall in love with you! '

‘唉!我在那里会变成个什么样子啊!长官先生,可怜可怜我吧!您这么年轻,长得又好。’ 然后,她放低音调对我说: ‘让我逃走,我送您一块巴尔拉奇,它会让每一个姑娘都爱上您! '

"The bar lachi, sir, is the loadstone, with which the gypsies declare one who knows how to use it can cast any number of spells. If you can make a woman drink a little scrap of it, powdered, in a glass of white wine, she'll never be able to resist you. I answered, as gravely as I could:

巴尔拉奇,先生,是天然磁石。吉普赛人声称不论是谁只要知道怎么用它,就可以为所欲为。比方说,如果您让一个女子喝了掺了这块巴尔拉奇粉末的白葡萄酒,她就再也无法拒绝您了。我十分严肃地回答了她:

'We are not here to talk nonsense. You'll have to go to prison. Those are my orders, and there's no help for it! '

‘别和我说这么多废话。你必须去监狱。这是命令,求我也没用! '

"We men from the Basque country have an accent which all Spaniards easily recognize; on the other hand, not one of them can ever learn to say Bai, jaona! 5

西班牙其他地方的人很容易辨认出我们巴斯克人的口音;不过,他们怎么也学不会说 ‘巴依,哈噢那’ 。

"So Carmen easily guessed I was from the Provinces. You know, sir, that the gypsies, who belong to no particular country, and are always moving about, speak every language, and most of them are quite at home in Portugal, in France, in our Provinces, in Catalonia, or anywhere else. They can even make themselves understood by Moors and English people. Carmen knew Basque tolerably well.

所以卡门很容易就猜测出我来自特权省份。您知道,先生,吉普赛人并没有他们自己确定的国家,他们经常迁移,会说各种语言,不过他们大部分居住在葡萄牙、法国、住在我们的特权省份、加泰罗尼亚等国家和地区。甚至摩尔人和英国人都能听懂他们的话。卡门的巴斯克语相当流利。

'Laguna ene bihotsarena, comrade of my heart, ' said she suddenly. 'Do you belong to our country? '

‘我的意中人,我的心肝宝贝。’ 她突然用巴斯克语对我说, ‘我们是同乡吗? '

"Our language is so beautiful, sir, that when we hear it in a foreign country it makes us quiver. I wish, " added the bandit in a lower tone, "I could have a confessor from my own country. "

我们的家乡话实在是太美妙啦,先生,在外地听到家乡话实在让人激动呀。我希望,这位 ‘土匪’ 放低声音加了一句,我能有一个来自我家乡的告解神父。

After a silence, he began again.

沉默一阵后, ‘他’ 又开始说了:

'I belong to Elizondo, ' I answered in Basque, very much affected by the sound of my own language.

‘我是埃利松多人。’ 听到自己家乡的语言我心里很激动,于是我用巴斯克语回答了她。

'I come from Etchalar, ' said she (that's a district about four hours' journey from my home). 'I was carried off to Seville by the gypsies. I was working in the factory to earn enough money to take me back to Navarre, to my poor old mother, who has no support in the world but me, besides her little barratcea6with twenty cider—apple trees in it.

‘我来自埃查拉(埃查拉地区离我们家有四个小时的路程)。’ 她说, ‘我是被吉普赛人带到塞利维亚的。我在这家烟厂工作,等我赚够了钱,我就会回纳瓦拉,回到我可怜的妈妈身边。她有一个种了二十棵酿酒用的苹果树的小巴拉查,除此之外我就是她活在世上的唯一支撑。

Ah! if I were only back in my own country, looking up at the white mountains! I have been insulted here, because I don't belong to this land of rogues and sellers of rotten oranges; and those hussies are all banded together against me, because I told them that not all their Seville jacques7, and all their knives, would frighten an honest lad from our country, with his blue cap and his maquila! Good comrade, won't you do anything to help your own countrywoman? '

啊!要是我能回到家乡就好了,就看看那白皑皑的山峰也好啊!我在这里被人辱骂,就因为我不是本地人,和这些卖橘子的小贩骗子不是一类人;那些荡妇联合起来对付我,就因为我告诉她们并不是所有的雅克在塞维利亚舞动他们的刀子就能吓倒我们家乡戴着蓝帽、挥动马基拉的老实小伙子!好老乡,难道不帮一帮自己的同乡吗? '

"She was lying then, sir, as she has always lied. I don't know that that girl ever spoke a word of truth in her life, but when she did speak, I believed her—I couldn't help myself. She mangled her Basque words, and I believed she came from Navarre. But her eyes and her mouth and her skin were enough to prove she was a gipsy. I was mad, I paid no more attention to anything, I thought to myself that if the Spaniards had dared to speak evil of my country, I would have slashed their faces just as she had slashed her comrade's. In short, I was like a drunken man, I was beginning to say foolish things, and I was very near doing them.

她在撒谎,先生,她一直都在撒谎。我不知道她这辈子是否说过一句真话,可是,不论她说什么,我总是相信她——情不自禁地相信她。她说的巴斯克语很烂,可我还是相信她就是纳瓦拉人。其实她的眼睛、嘴巴、皮肤都足以表明她是吉普赛人。我一定是疯了,什么也不顾。我告诉自己对于任何敢说我的家乡坏话的西班牙人,我都要撕破他们的脸,就像她之前划破同事的脸一样。总之,我就像喝醉酒一样,开始说些蠢话,马上就要做蠢事了。

‘If I were to give you a push and you tumbled down, good fellow—countryman, 'she began again in Basque, 't hose two Castilian recruits wouldn't be able to keep me back. '

‘要是我推你一下,你就跌倒了,我的好老乡。’ 她又用巴斯克语说, ‘那两个卡斯蒂利亚兵就没法阻止我逃跑。’

"Faith, I forgot my orders, I forgot everything, and I said to her, 'Well, then, my friend, girl of my country, try it, and may our Lady of the Mountain help you through. '

我的天!我忘了我的使命,忘了一切。我对她说: ‘那好吧,朋友,我的同乡姑娘,我们试试吧,愿山的女神助你渡过难关。’

"Just at that moment we were passing one of the many narrow lanes one sees in Seville. All at once Carmen turned and struck me in the chest with her fist. I tumbled backward, purposely. With a bound she sprang over me, and ran off, showing us a pair of legs! People talk about a pair of Basque legs! but hers were far better—as fleet as they were well—turned. As for me, I picked myself up at once, but I stuck out my lance8crossways and barred the street, so that my comrades were checked at the very first moment of pursuit. Then I started to run myself, and they after me—but how were we to catch her? There was no fear of that, what with our spurs, our swords, and our lances.

就在那时,我们路过了塞维利亚许多蜿蜒的小巷中的一处。突然,卡门转身,并在我的胸口打了一拳。我故意向后跌了下去。她轻轻一跳,从我身上跃过,然后就逃跑了,我们只看到了她的双腿。大家都说巴斯克人的腿很灵敏!她的双腿不仅灵活、敏捷,而且线条优美。我马上站了起来,伸出长矛,横着挡住了街道,这样另外两名士兵就无法在第一时间追赶卡门。随后我赶紧先跑去追卡门,他们俩跟在我后面——可是我们怎么可能追得上她呢?我们穿着马刺,佩戴着剑和长矛,想要追上她是不可能的。

"In less time than I have taken to tell you the story the prisoner had disappeared. And besides, every gossip in the quarter covered her flight, poked scorn at us, and pointed us in the wrong direction. After a good deal of marching and countermarching, we had to go back to the guard—room without a receipt from the governor of the jail.

在给您讲述这个过程所用的时间内,这个入狱者已经消失得无影无踪。此外,这一地区的所有爱说长道短的人都掩护她逃跑,大家都嘲笑我们,还把我们指向错误的方向。我们来回找了很久都没有找到她,于是不得不在没有拿到监狱长的回执的情况下就回了警卫室。

"To avoid punishment, my men made known that Carmen had spoken to me in Basque; and to tell the truth, it did not seem very natural that a blow from such a little creature should have so easily overthrown a strong fellow like me. The whole thing looked suspicious, or, at all events, not over—clear. When I came off guard I lost my corporal's stripes, and was condemned to a month's imprisonment. It was the first time I had been punished since I had been in the service. Farewell, now, to the sergeant's stripes, on which I had reckoned so surely!

为了逃避处罚,我的两个手下的士兵说卡门和我说了几句巴斯克语;而且说句实话,我这么强壮一男子汉怎么会抵不住像卡门这么一个弱女子的一下攻击呢,的确很奇怪。整个经过看起来很可疑,或者说,怎么看都太明显了。我被撤除了警卫的职务,下士头衔也没了,还被判坐牢一个月。这是我第一次在服役期间受处罚。现在我只能和我的中士军衔说再见了,本来我还以为这个军衔我拿定了。

"The first days in prison were very dreary. When I enlisted I had fancied I was sure to become an officer, at all events. Two of my compatriots, Longa and Mina, are captains—general, after all. Chapalangarra was a colonel, and I have played tennis a score of times with his brother, who was just a needy fellow like myself. 'Now, ' I kept crying to myself, 'all the time you served without being punished has been lost. Now you have a bad mark against your name, and to get yourself back into the officers' good graces you'll have to work ten times as hard as when you joined as a recruit. ' And why have I got myself punished? For the sake of a gipsy hussy, who made game of me, and who at this moment is busy thieving in some corner of the town. Yet I couldn't help thinking about her. Will you believe it, sir, those silk stockings of hers with the holes in them, of which she had given me such a full view as she took to her heels, were always before my eyes? I used to look through the barred windows of the jail into the street, and among all the women who passed I never could see one to compare with that minx of a girl—and then, in spite of myself, I used to smell the acacia blossom she had thrown at me, and which, dry as it was, still kept its sweet scent. If there are such things as witches, that girl certainly was one.

在监狱的头几天很郁闷。还记得我刚入伍的时候,我已经设想自己无论怎样都注定会成为一名长官了。如今,我的两个同胞,隆加、米纳已经是上校了。查帕兰加拉也是上校了。他哥哥和我一样是个穷光蛋,曾经和我打过许多次网球。 ‘现在,’ 我不停地对着自己哭诉, ‘服役中无过错的记录已经成了过去。一旦你有了不良记录,想要重新恢复自己的好名声要付出的努力就是做新兵时的十倍。’ 话说回来,我为什么会受到处罚?都是因为一个吉普赛荡妇,她捉弄了我。这时她还不知道在镇上的哪个角落里干些偷鸡摸狗的勾当呢!可是我还是忍不住想她。您信吗先生,她逃跑时,袜子和袜子上的那些破洞我看得清清楚楚,那情景时常浮现在我的眼前。在监狱里,我常常隔着栅栏看窗外的街景,望着来来回回走过的女人,总觉得没有一个比得上那个轻佻的姑娘;我总是不由自主地去闻一闻她扔给我的那朵金合欢花。虽然花已经枯了,可是余香尚存。如果世上真的有女巫,那个姑娘肯定是其中一个。

"One day the jailer came in, and gave me an Alcala roll. 9

一天,监狱看守进来给了我一块阿尔卡拉卷式面包。

'Look here, ' said he, 't his is what your cousin has sent you. '

‘拿着,’ 他说, ‘这是你表妹给你的。’

"I took the loaf, very much astonished, for I had no cousin in Seville. It may be a mistake, thought I, as I looked at the roll, but it was so appetizing and smelt so good, that I made up my mind to eat it, without troubling my head as to whence it came, or for whom it was really intended.

我接过面包,感到很吃惊,我在塞维利亚根本就没有表妹。看着这块面包,我想可能是弄错了。不过这面包闻着香极了,激起了我的食欲。我并没有多想它是从哪里来的或是本来要给谁的,我就决定先把它吃了再说。

"When I tried to cut it, my knife struck on something hard. I looked, and found a little English file, which had been slipped into the dough before the roll had been baked. The roll also contained a gold piece of two piastres. Then I had no further doubt—it was a present from Carmen. To people of her blood, liberty is everything, and they would set a town on fire to save themselves one day in prison. The girl was artful, indeed, and armed with that roll, I might have snapped my fingers at the jailers. In one hour, with that little file, I could have sawn through the thickest bar, and with the gold coin I could have exchanged my soldier's cloak for civilian garb at the nearest shop. You may fancy that a man who has often taken the eaglets out of their nests in our cliff would have found no difficulty in getting down to the street out of a window less than thirty feet above it. But I didn't choose to escape. I still had a soldier's code of honor, and desertion appeared to me in the light of a heinous crime. Yet this proof of remembrance touched me. When a man is in prison he likes to think he has a friend outside who takes an interest in him. The gold coin did rather offend me; I should have very much liked to return it; but where was I to find my creditor? That did not seem a very easy task.

当我切面包的时候,刀子碰到了硬硬的东西。我看了看,发现了一片英式小锉刀,这应该是面包还没烘烤前夹入生面团的。面包里还有一枚两皮阿斯特金币。毫无疑问,这是卡门给我的礼物。对她这个血统的人来说,自由就是一切。只要能少坐一天牢,要她放把火把整个城镇给烧了她都愿意。这个姑娘的确很狡猾,有了那块面包,对付监狱看守简直易如反掌。有了那块小锉刀,我就可以在一个小时内把最粗的铁栏杆锯断,再用那块金币在最近的店里把我的这身军装换成平民打扮。您可以想象一下,一个经常在悬崖峭壁掏鹰巢抓小鹰的人想要从不到三丈高的窗口跳到街道上,其实是没有任何困难的。但是我并不想逃跑。我还保持着一份军人的荣誉,因此逃跑对我来说更是罪大恶极。不过这至少表示她还记得我,我很感动。一个人坐牢时,总是会想着外边有一个朋友还关心、在乎他。但是那枚金币让我很不愉快;我很想尽快还掉;不过我能到哪里去找我的债主呀?那可不是件简单的事。

"After the ceremony of my degradation I had fancied my sufferings were over, but I had another humiliation before me. That came when I left prison, and was told off for duty, and put on sentry, as a private soldier. You can not conceive what a proud man endures at such a moment. I believe I would have just as soon been shot dead—then I should have marched alone at the head of my platoon, at all events; I should have felt I was somebody, with the eyes of others fixed upon me.

撤职手续办完后,我以为我的痛苦遭遇就此结束了,没想到还有另外一桩蒙羞的事等着我。那是在我离开监狱后,上级派我值班,要我像列兵一样站岗哨。您无法想象一个自尊心极强的人如何忍受这样的煎熬。我想我还不如被枪毙了算了,至少枪毙时我一个人走在队伍前,我可以自我感觉自己是个人物,其他人都注视着我。 eLM/ZRVRKJJaWTdZBxq5cSeboVEH1cMzwgfixQMxC7EFy5O8P81LtMrmBX6bHIDu

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