On the Street (Excerpt)街上（節(jié)選）

約翰·班維爾　趙喜梅/譯介

【導讀】約翰·班維爾（1945— ），愛爾蘭小說家、編劇、戲劇改編作家、電影劇本作家，其小說《證詞》（The Book of Evidence）曾入圍布克獎提名，2005年憑借第14部小說《?！罚═he Sea）獲得布克獎。他還斬獲不少其他重要獎項，包括卡夫卡獎（2011）、愛爾蘭筆會獎（2013）、澳大利亞國家文學獎（2013）、奧地利王子獎（2014）等。他曾以本杰明·布萊克（Benjamin Black）為筆名，創(chuàng)作了主角為奎爾克（Quirke）的犯罪小說系列。2007年，班維爾入選英國皇家文學學會。“街上”節(jié)選自班維爾的散文集《光陰拾碎——都柏林回憶錄》（Time Pieces： A Dublin Memoir，2016）第四章。人的記憶不一定是連貫的，往往以碎片形式嵌于我們的腦中。那些可撿拾的記憶片段，是隨著時間逐漸深刻的人生經(jīng)驗；我們年輕時錯過不少“熟視之若無睹也”的事物，所幸，歲月會賦予我們辯識真善美的智慧，那些險些被記憶拋卻的終將會被撿起。本文作者對喬治王朝風格的都柏林的情感可謂后知后覺，他帶著一半遺憾與一半幸運為讀者當向?qū)В呓执┫?，讓我們領(lǐng)略這座城市的前世今生。

I could not have lived in a lovelier location. The view from the Natural History Museum along Merrion Square and Mount Street to St Stephens Church—the Pepper Canister， as it is fondly called—is one of the most handsome and dignified prospects in any of the worlds cities that I know or have visited. Leinster， originally Kildare， House， which is now the seat of government， was built in the 1740s by the Earl of Kildare， James FitzGerald， in an unfavoured and marshy area south of the river Liffey. Poor though the site might be， the canny earl predicted that fashion would soon follow him， and he was right： before the end of the century the bulk of the citys aristocracy had moved southwards across the river. The result was that in the following century， rich redoubts such as Henrietta Street and Rutland Square would fall into decrepitude and be sold off to rack-renting landlords， so that much of the north inner city was transformed into one of the worst slums in Europe. Meanwhile， on the south side of the river there grew up around Leinster House a grid of elegant streets and boulevards， a large number of which are still intact and in use today， though most of the fine old houses have been given over to office space.

我不可能住到比這兒還好的地方了。從自然歷史博物館沿梅里恩廣場和芒特街往前，直至圣斯蒂芬大教堂——即人們戲稱的胡椒罐教堂——這一帶，在我所知道的或造訪過的世界任何城市里，都是風景絕佳的。倫斯特（舊稱基爾代爾）府，現(xiàn)今的政府所在，建于18世紀40年代，創(chuàng)建人為基爾代爾伯爵詹姆斯·菲茨杰拉德。府邸地處利菲河以南沒人喜歡的沼澤區(qū)。盡管選址可能不很理想，老謀深算的伯爵預言，他將引領(lǐng)潮流——他還真說對了：18世紀末，大批城市貴族南遷至河對岸。結(jié)果，隨后的一個世紀，亨麗埃塔街和拉特蘭廣場等富人庇護所將逐漸敗落，被售予賺取高額租銀的房東；如此，北部內(nèi)城的大部分地區(qū)便淪為歐洲最糟糕的貧民窟。與此同時，河南的倫斯特府周邊有了縱橫交錯的雅致街巷和林蔭大道，現(xiàn)今好多仍然完好如初，照舊發(fā)揮作用，只不過精美的老宅大多變成了辦公場所。

A lot of the Georgian city was still standing when I first came to live there， but a lot of it was gone， too. It is a fact， as Maurice Craig pointed out as recently as 1992， that ‘much more of Dublin survives， and in reasonable order， than might be deduced from listening to the lamentations of those who deplore its destruction， but all the same， in the postwar years and up to the end of the 1960s， the city was subjected to appalling bouts of officially sanctioned destruction. The ultra-nationalist ideologues who ran the country then had scant regard for the delights of Georgian architecture， and indeed many of them would have seen Georgian Dublin as a despised monument to our British conquerors， who had been driven out in the War of Independence at the start of the 1920s. Hence permissions were liberally given for large-scale despoliation of， in Yeatss words， ‘many ingenious lovely things. A particularly deplorable instance of urban mutilation was the demolition of a large stretch of the south side of Fitzwilliam Street， to make way for the building of the Electricity Supply Boards headquarters—one of the developments that Daithí Hanly had so passionately opposed. Had the state coffers been in a more healthy state， it is likely that many other such streets would have been razed to make way for the New Brutalism. There was even a plan to fill in the Grand and Royal Canals and build super-roads over them， with sewers underneath. And the bosky green heart of delightful Merrion Square， which was then the property of the Catholic Church， barely escaped having a monster cathedral erected on it， at the behest of the unspeakable Archbishop McQuaid.

我初到此處，這座喬治王朝風格的城市還保留著許許多多舊時的風物，不過丟失的也不少。事實上，如莫里斯·克雷格1992年指出的那樣，“聽到那些痛恨拆除者的哀嘆，可能會以為都柏林沒剩什么了，其實都柏林保留下來的東西要多得多，并且井然有序”；盡管如此，戰(zhàn)后及至20世紀60年代末，這座城市經(jīng)歷了數(shù)次駭人的官方拆毀。那個時候，極端民族主義意識形態(tài)擁護者掌控國家，蔑視喬治王朝風格建筑的趣味，實際上，他們中的很多人將喬治王朝風格的都柏林視為我們英國征服者可恥的歷史見證，盡管20世紀20年代初的獨立戰(zhàn)爭早已驅(qū)趕了征服者。因此，就有了大規(guī)模的自由掠奪令，掠奪葉芝所說的“許許多多巧奪天工的美好事物”。有一起城市破壞案例尤令人震驚，即菲茨威廉街南邊的大片拆毀，為的是騰出地方修建供電局總部——這是達西·漢利極力反對的開發(fā)項目之一。倘若市府財政有更多結(jié)余，很可能其他更多類似的街道會被夷為平地，助長建筑的新粗野主義。甚至還有一個計劃要填平大運河和皇家運河，上建高速公路，下修排水系統(tǒng)。美麗的梅里恩廣場那時隸屬天主教會，廣場中心地帶林木繁茂，也差點未能逃脫建一座丑陋教堂的命運，那曾是臭名昭著的大主教麥奎德的要求。

In 1969， Green Property—my Mount Street landlords， as it happened—a development company with strong links to the ruling Fianna Fáil party， were given permission by the then Minister for Local Government to knock down a large chunk of Hume Street， another fine example of Georgian architecture， that leads from Ely Place on to St Stephens Green. When the plan became public， the buildings were promptly occupied by a band of architectural students， who in time were joined by a number of public figures， including Garret FitzGerald， a Member of Parliament who would later become Taoiseach， and the future President of Ireland， Mary Robinson. However， late one night Green Property sent in a demolition crew， who destroyed the roofs and much of the interiors of the houses. In the end the company was compelled to erect fake Georgian buildings on the spot—‘unconvincing paraphrases masquerading as replicas， in Maurice Craigs disdainful judgement—while the rest of the street was saved.

1969年，綠色物業(yè)——恰巧為本人的芒特街房東——一家與愛爾蘭共和黨有著牢靠關(guān)系的開發(fā)公司，經(jīng)當時的地方政府部部長批準，拆除了休姆街相當大的一片建筑，這里由伊利廣場直通圣斯蒂芬綠地，為喬治王朝風格建筑的另一優(yōu)秀范例。拆除計劃一經(jīng)公布，這里旋即為一批建筑系的學生占領(lǐng)，許多公眾人物緊接著也加入其中，包括后來成為愛爾蘭總理的國會議員加勒特·菲茨杰拉德和未來的愛爾蘭總統(tǒng)瑪麗·羅賓遜。然而，一天深夜，綠色物業(yè)派來拆遷組，掀翻了屋頂，房子內(nèi)部破壞得也十分嚴重。最終，該公司被責令于原址仿建喬治王朝風格的建筑——莫里斯·克雷格對這種做法很是嗤之以鼻，他評價道：“不能令人信服的套用，權(quán)且喬裝為復制品。”——所幸街上的其他部分被保存下來。

Strangely， perhaps， none of this seems to have had much effect on me. The truth is， I had little interest in Dublins past， and not much in its present， either， if it came to that. What was it to me that in its days of glory Dublin had been the second city of the British Empire—‘the finest classical city in Europe， according to the architectural historian Mark Girouard—or that it was unique in having two major canals， or that the Duke of Wellington had been born in Merrion Street opposite what is now the Department of the Taoiseach？ For me， as a writer in the making， the fact was that Joyce had seized upon the city for his own literary purposes and in doing so had used it up， as surely as Kafka did with the letter K， and consequently the place was of no use to me as a backdrop for my fiction. True， some of my early short stories take place in an identifiable Dublin， but they could as well have been set in London， or Paris—or Moscow， for that matter. It was not until much later， when I invented my dark brother Benjamin Black， that I saw the potential of 1950s Dublin as a setting for his noir novels.

或許有些奇怪，這些歷史事件并未對我造成太大的影響。事實是，我并不太在意都柏林的過去，對它的現(xiàn)在也沒那么感興趣，如果一定得談現(xiàn)在的話。都柏林輝煌時曾是大英帝國的第二大城市——按照建筑歷史學家馬克·吉魯阿爾的說法，都柏林是“歐洲最好的古典城市”——或者，它因擁有兩條大運河而得天獨厚，又或者，惠靈頓公爵就出生在如今愛爾蘭總理府對面的梅里恩街上——而這些對我有什么意義呢？于我，一個成長中的作家，我知道的是，喬伊斯為了自己的文學旨趣使這個城市為他所用，直至利用殆盡，就像卡夫卡對字母K的使用那樣，因此，都柏林這個地方在我的小說寫作中用作背景也沒什么意義了。沒錯，我早期的一些短篇故事看得出來發(fā)生在都柏林，但它們也可以發(fā)生于倫敦或巴黎或莫斯科。直到很久以后，當我以虛構(gòu)的神秘老兄本杰明·布萊克之名開始創(chuàng)作，我才發(fā)現(xiàn)可以將20世紀50年代的都柏林作為其名下黑色懸疑小說的背景。

Thus in this wise I largely ignored Dublin， as I had largely ignored Wexford. Again， I seek to comfort and perhaps even exonerate myself with the thought that this is what artists do， the imagination being their only true place in which richly to live. But am I convinced？ Some years ago I was asked to contribute to a collection of six-word ‘stories， along the lines of Hemingways masterpiece—one of the best things he ever wrote： ‘For sale： baby shoes， never worn. My contribution to the volume may seem facetious， but it contains a serious and bitter truth： ‘Should have lived more， written less.

就這樣，我大致上忽略了都柏林，就如我極大地忽略了韋克斯福德郡那樣。又一次，我試著以藝術(shù)家就該如此來自我安慰，甚至自我開脫，以為想象是藝術(shù)家可以充實生活的唯一真實所在。可是，我被說服了嗎？若干年前，我應邀撰寫一個六字“故事”集，類似海明威的杰作——他曾寫過的最好的作品之一：“售：嬰兒鞋，全新?！蔽业耐陡寤蛟S顯得滑稽，但包含一個嚴肅且痛苦的事實：“本該多活、少寫?！?/p>

Yet I was happy in those early years， after my aunt died and I took over her ninety-nine-year lease on the Mount Street flat—happier， indeed， than I realised at the time. And how I loved my particular patch of Dublin. I recognise now that for all my cosmopolitan as-pirations， mine was essentially a small-town sensibility， and that Baggotonia was my ideal Wexford-sized vicinity， beyond the borders of which I ventured with reluctance. Thus I remained disgracefully ignorant of， for instance， the medieval quarters of the city， around Swifts St Patricks Cathedral and Guinnesss brewery， or， on the north side， the even older village of Howth and environs—although eventually I was to settle there， in the days when it was still a thriving fishing village; I recall taking my two young sons for walks along the west pier and seeing fishermen in wooden clogs packing kegs of salted herring for export to Britain and Scandinavia; those scenes hang in my memory， colourful and busy and antiquated， like genre pieces by one of the minor Dutch masters.

不過，姑媽去世后我接手了她在芒特街99年租期的公寓，最初幾年我過得很快樂——事實上，比我那時意識到的還要快樂。我是那么熱愛為我專用的那一小塊都柏林。如今我認識到，盡管我有世界主義的都市理想，但本質(zhì)上我具有的就是小城情感，巴格特奧尼亞是我理想中同韋克斯福德那般大小的地區(qū)，這個區(qū)域外的地方我是不大樂意去冒險的。因此，非常慚愧，我對這個城市的中世紀風格建筑區(qū)了解甚少，比如斯威夫特擔任過牧師的圣帕特里克大教堂和吉尼斯啤酒廠周邊，或者北邊年代更久的霍斯村及附近地區(qū)——盡管我最后于此定居，那個時候它還是一個正在發(fā)展的漁村。猶記得帶兩個年幼的兒子沿西堤散步，看見穿著木屐的漁夫們一桶桶地裝著出口英國和斯堪的納維亞的咸鯡魚；那些情景經(jīng)常在我腦中縈回，多彩、繁忙而古舊，像某個不知名的荷蘭畫師筆下的浮世繪碎片。

Of the suburbs I knew nothing at all， and recoiled from the prospect of all those acres of housing estates and soot-blackened factories， dotted here and there with littered patches of green where Traveller children galloped bareback on piebald ponies， and where in my overheated imagination of such places wild-eyed young men with Brylcreemed hair engaged in gang warfare， and wives were beaten and girls were got in the family way， and at night the barn-sized pubs throbbed with a drunken din， and life in general was irredeemably squalid.

關(guān)于都柏林的城郊，我壓根兒一無所知，想象中的情景令我卻步：成片的住宅區(qū)和煤煙熏黑的工廠，綠地上隨處可見垃圾堆放，游牧民兒童騎在無鞍的花斑小馬上飛奔；在我的想入非非中，那樣的地方，抹了百利發(fā)蠟的不安分的年輕人忙著打群架，妻子老挨打，女孩們未婚先孕，夜間谷倉大的酒吧里充斥著酒醉的喧鬧聲，總之，那里的生活骯臟污穢得不可救藥。

What a prissy and purblind young man I was， a snob with nothing to be snobbish about.

我曾是一個那么刻板拘謹、遲鈍愚笨的小子，一個不知憑什么自命不凡的勢利鬼。

（譯者單位：北京科技大學外國語學院）