二 名译欣赏：块肉余生述

【原文】

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life,or whether that station will be held by anybody else,these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life,I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday,at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike,and I began to cry,simultaneously.

In consideration of the day and hour of my birth,it was declared by the nurse,and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted,first,that I was destined to be unlucky in life；and secondly,that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits；both these gifts inevitably attaching,as they believed,to all unlucky infants of either gender,born towards the small hours on a Friday night.

I need say nothing here,on the first head,because nothing can show better than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsified by the result. On the second branch of the question,I will only remark,that unless I ran through that part of my inheritance while I was still a baby,I have not come into it yet. But I do not at all complain of having been kept out of this property；and if anybody else should be in the present enjoyment of it,he is heartily welcome to keep it.

I was born with a caul,which was advertised for sale,in the newspapers,at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether sea-going people were short of money about that time,or were short of faith and preferred cork jackets,I don't know；all I know is,that there was but one solitary bidding,and that was from an attorney connected with the bill-broking business,who offered two pounds in cash,and the balance in sherry,but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higher bargain. Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a dead loss—for as to sherry,my poor dear mother's own sherry was in the market then—and ten years afterwards,the caul was put up in a raffle down in our part of the country,to fifty members at half-a-crown a head,the winner to spend five shillings. I was present myself,and I remember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused,at a part of myself being disposed of in that way. The caul was won,I recollect,by an old lady with a hand-basket,who,very reluctantly,produced from it the stipulated five shillings,all in halfpence,and twopence halfpenny short—as it took an immense time and a great waste of arithmetic,to endeavour without any effect to prove to her. It is a fact which will be long remembered as remarkable down there,that she was never drowned,but died triumphantly in bed,at ninety-two. I have understood that it was,to the last,her proudest boast,that she never had been on the water in her life,except upon a bridge；and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she,to the last,expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others,who had the presumption to go “meandering” about the world. It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences,tea perhaps included,resulted from this objectionable practice. She always returned,with greater emphasis and with an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection,“Let us have no meandering.”

Not to meander myself,at present,I will go back to my birth.

I was born at Blunderstone,in Suffolk,or “there by”,as they say in Scotland. I was a posthumous child. My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this world six months,when mine opened on it. There is something strange to me,even now,in the reflection that he never saw me；and something stranger yet in the shadowy remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his white grave-stone in the churchyard,and of the indefinable compassion I used to feel for it lying out alone there in the dark night,when our little parlour was warm and bright with fire and candle,and the doors of our house were—almost cruelly,it seemed to me sometimes—bolted and locked against it.

【译文1】

块肉余生述

林 纾 译

大卫考伯菲而曰：余在此一部书中，是否为主人翁者，诸君但逐节下观，当自得之。余欲自述余之生事，不能不溯源而笔诸吾书。余诞时在礼拜五夜半十二句钟，闻人言，钟声丁丁时，正吾开口作呱呱之声。

似此礼拜五日，又值十二点时，凡邻媪乳母之有高识者，皆言时日非良，不为此子之福，后此且白昼见鬼，具鬼眼也。盖在礼拜五夜中生儿，初不能免此二事。

至第一事，但观吾书所叙述，诸君足知吾艰，无复待辨。若云见鬼，则少时愚昧，或且见之；若既长成，实无所见。

吾诞生在色佛克县之白伦得司东村，且为饮血之孤儿。方吾张眼能视时，正去吾父瞑目长逝可六阅月，凡吾所有之知觉，但知门外新坟，即为亡亲瘗骨之地。每经冬令，屋中炉火烘人，而吾父三尺断坟，乃闭诸门外严寒风里。

【译文2】

大卫·考坡菲

张谷若 译

在记叙我的平生这部书里，说来说去，我自己是主人公呢，还是扮那个角色的另有其人呢，开卷读来，一定可见分晓。为的要从我一生的开始，来开始我一生的记叙，我就下笔写道：我生在一个星期五夜里十二点钟。别人这样告诉我，我自己也这样相信。据说那一会儿，的钟声，和呱呱的啼声，恰好同时并作。

收生的护士和左邻右舍的几位女圣人（她们还没法儿和我亲身结识以前好几个月，就对我发生了强烈的兴趣了），看到我生在那样一个日子和那样一个时辰，就煞有介事地喧嚷开了，说我这个人，第一，命中注定要事事倒霉；第二，赋有异禀能看见鬼神。她们相信，凡是不幸生在星期五深更半夜的孩子，不论是姑娘还是小子，都不可避免地要具有这两种天赋。

关于第一点，我无需在这儿多说什么。因为那句预言，结果是其应如响呢，还是一点也没应验呢，没有比我这部传记能表达得更明白的了。至于她们提的那第二点，我只想说，我这份从胎里带来的“家当”，如果不是我在襁褓之中还不记事的时候就都叫我挥霍完了，那顶到现在，它还没轮到我的名下呢。不过这份“家当”，虽然一直地没能到我手里，我却丝毫没有抱怨的意思；不但如此，万一另有人现在正享受着这份财富，我还热烈地欢迎他好好地把它守住了呢。

我下生的时候，带有头膜，这个头膜，曾在报上登过广告，要以十五几尼的廉价出售。当时航海的人，囊中缺乏金钱，买不起这件东西呢，还是心中缺乏信念，情愿要软木做的救生衣呢，我不得而知。我只知道，应征出价的，只有孤零零的一个人，还是个和经纪期票有关的代讼师。他只出两磅现钱，剩下的买价，全用雪里酒准折。比他这个条件再多要求一点，那就连对他担保，说这件东西准能使他免遭溺死之祸，他也都不接受。这样一来，我们只好完全干赔广告费，把广告撤回；因为，说到雪里，我那可怜、亲爱的母亲自己也有这种酒正在市上求售呢。十年以后，这个头膜，在我的家乡那一块儿，用抓彩的方式出脱了：抓彩的一共五十个人，每人出半克朗，得彩的出五先令。抓彩的时候，我也在场。我现在记得，我当时看着我自己身上的一部分，用这种方式出脱了，觉得很不得劲儿，心里不知道怎么着才好。我还记得，抓着了那个头膜的是一个老太太。她提着个小篮子，万般无奈的样子从篮子里掏出了那规定好了的五先令，都是半便士的零钱，还少给了两便士半，因为费了很大的工夫和很大的劲儿，算给她听，说她的钱不够数，她到底还是没明白。她倒是果真并没淹死，而是活到了九十二岁的高龄，洋洋得意寿终正寝的。这件事，在我们那一带，都认为了不起，过了许多年还都不忘。据我的了解，这个老太太，一直到死的时候，老是骄傲地自夸，说她这一辈子，除了过桥，就从来没打水上面走过；并且，她一直到死，喝着茶的时候（她极爱喝茶），老气忿忿地说那些航海一类的人，不怕上帝见罪，竟敢大胆，像野马一样，绕世界“乱跑”一气。你跟她说，有些日常离不开的东西，茶也许得包括在内，都是这些她认为乱跑一气的人跑出来的，她却不论怎么也不能懂。她老是用“咱们不要乱跑”这句话回答你，回答的时候，还永远是斩钉截铁的口气，永远是自以为是、理直气壮的样子。

现在，我自己也不要像野马一样“乱”说一气了，还是言归正传，接着说我怎样下生好啦。

我生在萨福克郡的布伦得屯，或者像在苏格兰的说法，生在布伦得屯“那方近左右”。我是个背生儿。我睁开眼睛看见天日的时候，我父亲已经闭上眼睛不见天日有六个月了。我自己的父亲，竟会没看见我，即便现在，我一想起来，都起一种怪异之感。我父亲在教堂墓地里的白色墓碑，在我那刚刚懂事的幼小心灵里，引起了种种联想；我们那个小起坐间，炉火熊熊，烛光煌煌，而我们家里所有的门却都又拴着，又锁着，把我父亲的坟，凄凉孤寂地屏在外面一片昏暝的寒夜里（我有时觉得，那简直地是残酷），这种情况，在我那幼小的心灵里，也引起了一种难以名状的怜愍之情：这种种联想和这种怜愍之情，我现在模模糊糊地回忆起来，尤其起一种怪异之感。