The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

∷蔣素華 選注

這是一個關(guān)于孤獨的故事。美國南方的一個小鎮(zhèn)子里有兩個聾啞人——辛格和安東尼帕洛斯。他們一個高一個矮；一個瘦一個胖。辛格是一名銀器雕刻工，安東尼帕洛斯在他的表兄弟開的水果店里打工。兩人住在一起十年了，出雙入對，形影不離。每天下班回到宿舍，辛格總是興奮地用手比劃著向安東尼帕洛斯講述白天發(fā)生的事情，但安東尼帕洛斯對朋友的講述從來不做出任何反應(yīng)。后者最感興趣的是食物，他們一個做飯一個洗碗，然后一起下棋。直到有一天，安東尼帕洛斯的表兄把他送進了精神病院，從此辛格的生活產(chǎn)生了巨大的轉(zhuǎn)折。

女作者卡森·麥卡勒斯出生于1917年，22歲便完成《心是孤獨的獵手》，這是她的第一部長篇小說，也是她一舉成名之作和最具震撼力的代表作品。

In the town there were two mutes（聾啞人）, and they were always together.Early every morning they would came out from the house where they lived and walked arm in arm down the street to work.The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way （領(lǐng)路） was an obese（肥胖的）and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily（凌亂地）into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless grey sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and lips that curved（使彎曲，使成弧形）in a gentle, stupid smile.

The other mute was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate（整潔的）and very soberly（樸素地）dressed.

Every morning the two friends walked silently together until they reached the main street of the town.Then when they came to a certain fruit and candy store they paused for a moment on the sidewalk outside. The Greek, Spiros Antonapoulos, worked for his cousin, who owned this fruit store. His job was to make candies and sweets, uncrate（從板條箱中取出） the fruits, and to keep the place clean. The thin mute, John Singer, nearly always put his hand on his friend’s arm and looked for a second into his face before leaving him. Then after this goodbye Singer crossed the street and walked on alone to the jewellery store where he worked as a silverware engraver（銀器雕工）.

In the late afternoon the friends would meet again.Singer came back to the fruit store and waited until Antonapoulos was ready to go home. The Greek would be lazily unpacking a case of peaches or melons, or perhaps looking at the funny paper in the kitchen behind the store where he cooked. Before their departure Antonapoulos always opened a paper sack he kept hidden during the day on one of the kitchen shelves. Inside were stored various bits of food he had collected—a piece of fruit, samples of candy, or the butt-end （根端） of a liverwurst （肝泥香腸）. Usually before leaving Antonapoulos waddled （蹣跚地走） gently to the glassed case in the front of the store where some meats and cheeses were kept. He glided（悄悄走，溜走） to open the back of the case and his fat hand groped （摸索） lovingly for some particular dainty （美味） inside which he had wanted. Sometimes his cousin who owned the place did not see him. But if he noticed he stared at his cousin with a warning in his tight, pale face. Sadly Antonapoulos would shuf fle the morsel （少量食物） from one corner of the case to the other. During these times Singer stood very straight with his hands in his pockets and looked in another direction. He did not like to watch this little scene between the two Greeks. For,excepting drinking and a certain solitary （唯一的）secret pleasure, Antonapoulos loved to eat more than anything else in the world.

In the dusk the two mutes walked slowly home together. At home Singer was always talking to Antonapoulos. His hands shaped the words in a swift series of designs. His face was eager and his grey-green eyes sparkled brightly. With his thin, strong hands he told Antonapoulos all that had happened during the day.

Antonapoulos sat back lazily and looked at Singer.It was seldom that he ever moved his hands to speak at all—and then it was to say that he wanted to eat or to sleep or to drink. These three things he always said with the same vague, fumbling （笨拙的） signs. At night, if he were not too drunk, he would kneel down before his bed and pray awhile. Then his plump （圓胖的） hands shaped the words ‘Holy Jesus’, or ‘God’, or‘Darling Mary’.These were the only words Antonapoulos ever said. Singer never knew just how much his friend understood of all the things he told him. But it did not matter.

卡森·麥卡勒斯經(jīng)典照

They shared the upstairs of a small house near the business section of the town. There were two rooms. On the oil stove in the kitchen Antonapoulos cooked all of their meals. There were straight, plain kitchen chairs for Singer and an over-stuffed sofa for Antonapoulos. The bedroom was furnished mainly with a large double bed covered with eiderdown （鳧絨，鴨絨） comfort for the big Greek and a narrow iron cot（簡易床）for Singer.

Dinner always took a long time, because Antonapoulos loved food and he was very slow. After they had eaten, the big Greek would lie back on his sofa and slowly lick over each one of his teeth with his tongue, either from a certain delicacy or because he did not wish to lose the savour （味道） of the meal—while Singer washed the dishes.

Sometimes in the evening the mutes would play chess. Singer had always greatly enjoyed this game, and years before he had tried to teach it to Antonapoulos.At first his friend could not be interested in the reasons for moving the various pieces about on the board. Then Singer began to keep a bottle of something good under the table to be taken out after each lesson. The Greek never got on to the erratic（古怪的） movements of the knights and the sweeping mobility of the queens, but he learned to make a few set, opening moves. He preferred the white pieces and would not play if the black men were given him. After the first moves Singer worked out the game by himself while his friend looked on drowsily （昏昏欲睡地，懶洋洋地）. If Singer made brilliant attacks on his own men so that in the end the black king was killed, Antonapoulos was always very proud and pleased.

The two mutes had no other friends, and except when they worked they were alone together. Each day was very much like any other day, because they were alone so much that nothing ever disturbed them.Once a week they would go to the library for Singer to withdraw a mystery book and on Friday night they attended a movie. Then on pay-day they always went to the ten-cent photograph shop above the Army and Navy Store so that Antonapoulos could have his picture taken. These were the only places where they made customary visits. There were many parts in the town that they had never even seen.

The town was in the middle of the deep South（美國南方腹地）. The summers were long and the months of winter cold were very few. Nearly always the sky was a glassy （光亮透明的）, brilliant azure （蔚藍的）and the sun burned down riotously （放縱地） bright.Then the light, chill rains of November would come, and perhaps later there would be frost and some short months of cold. The winters were changeable, but the summers always were burning hot. The town was a fairly large one.On the main street there were several blocks of two and three-storey shops and business of fices. But the largest buildings in the town were the factories, which employed a large percentage of the population. These cotton mills were big and flourishing （興旺的） and most of the workers in the town were very poor. Often in the faces along the streets there was the desperate look of hunger and of loneliness.

But the two mutes were not lonely at all. At home they were content to eat and drink, and Singer would talk with his hands eagerly to his friend about all that was in his mind. So the years passed in this quiet way until Singer reached the age of thirty-two and had been in the town with Antonapoulos for ten years.

Then one day the Greek became ill. He sat up in bed with his hands on his fat stomach and big, oily tears rolled down his cheeks. Singer went to see his friend’s cousin who owned the fruit store, and also he arranged for leave from his own work. The doctor made out a diet for Antonapoulos and said that he could drink no more wine.Singer rigidly enforced（強制實行，堅持） the doctor’s orders. All day he sat by his friend’s bed and did what he could to make the time pass quickly, but Antonapoulos only looked at him angrily from the corners of his eyes and would not be amused.

The Greek was very fretful（焦燥的）, and kept finding fault with the fruit drinks and food that Singer prepared for him. Constantly he made his friend help him out of bed so that he could pray. His huge buttocks would sag down（松弛，下垂）over his plump（豐滿的）little feet when he kneeled. He fumbled with his hands to say ‘Darling Mary’and then held to the small brass cross（銅制的十字架）tied to his neck with a dirty string. His big eyes would wall up to the ceiling with a look of fear in them, and afterwards he was very sulky（生氣的）and would not let his friend speak to him.

Singer was patient and did all that he could. He drew little pictures, and once he made a sketch of his friend to amuse him. This picture hurt the big Greek’s feelings, and he refused to be reconciled（和解，安慰）until Singer had made his face very young and handsome and coloured his hair bright yellow and his eyes china blue. And then he tried not to show his pleasure.

Singer nursed his friend so carefully that after a week Antonapoulos was able to return to his work. But from that time on there was a difference in their way of life. Trouble came to the two friends.

Antonapoulos was not ill any more, but a change had come in him. He was irritable（易怒的，急躁的） and no longer content to spend the evenings quietly in their home.When he would wish to go out Singer followed along close behind him. Antonapoulos would go into a restaurant,and while they sat at the table he slyly（狡猾地，偷偷摸摸地）put lumps of sugar, or a pepper-shaker, or pieces of silverware in his pocket. Singer always paid for what he took and there was no disturbance. At home he scolded Antonapoulos, but the big Greek only looked at him with a bland smile.

The months went on and these habits of Antonapoulos grew worse. One day at noon he walked calmly out of the fruit store of his cousin and urinated（小便）in public against the wall of the First National Bank Building across the street. At times he would meet people on the sidewalk whose faces did not please him, and he would bump into these persons and push at them with his elbows and stomach. He walked into a store one day and hauled out（拖出） a floor lamp without paying for it, and another time he tried to take an electric train he had seen in a showcase.

For Singer this was a time of great distress. He was continually marching Antonapoulos down to the courthouse during lunch hour to settle these infringements（違反） of the law. Singer became very familiar with the procedure of the courts and he was in a constant state of agitation（激動不安）. The money he had saved in the bank was spent for bail（保釋） and fines. All of his efforts and money were used to keep his friend out of jail because of such charges as theft, committing public indecencies（下流，無禮）, and assault and battery （人身攻擊，暴力毆打）.

The Greek cousin for whom Antonapoulos worked did not enter into these troubles at all. Charles Parker (for that was the name this cousin had taken) let Antonapoulos stay on at the store, but he watched him always with his pale, tight face and he made no effort to help him. Singer had a strange feeling about Charles Parker. He began to dislike him.

Singer lived in continual turmoi（混亂，騷動） and worry. But Antonapoulos was always bland, and no matter what happened the gentle, flaccid （遲緩的） smile was still on his face. In all the years before it had seemed to Singer that there was something very subtle and wise in this smile of his friend. He had never known just how much Antonapoulos understood and what he was thinking.Now in the big Greek’s expression Singer thought that he could detect something sly and joking. He would shake his friend by the shoulders until he was very tired and explain things over and over with his hands. But nothing did any good.

卡森·麥卡勒斯

All of Singer’s money was gone and he had to borrow from the jeweller for whom he worked. On one occasion he was unable to pay bail（保釋金）for his friend and Antonapoulos spent the night in jail. When Singer came to get him out the next day he was very sulky. He did not want to leave. He had enjoyed his dinner of sowbelly（腌豬肉） and cornbread with syrup poured over it. And the new sleeping arrangements and his cellmates（同牢房的人）pleased him.

They had lived so much alone that Singer had no one to help him in his distress. Antonapoulos let nothing disturb him or cure him of his habits. At home he sometimes cooked the new dish he had eaten in the jail,and on the streets there was never any knowing just what he would do.

And then the final trouble came to Singer.