Three hundred and thirty-six dinners at 83 centimes, three hundred and thirty-six suppers at 38 centimes, chocolate to such as are entitled to it; how much is there to be made on the contract?

THE VALENOD OF BESANCON

每顿八十三生丁的午餐三百三十六顿,每顿三十八生丁的晚餐三百三十六顿,有资格享用者享用的巧克力;承包出去能赚多少!

贝藏松的瓦尔诺

He saw from a distance the cross of gilded iron over the door; he went towards it slowly; his legs seemed to be giving way under him. 'So there is that hell upon earth, from which I can never escape!' Finally he decided to ring. The sound of the bell echoed as though in a deserted place.

他远远地看见门上的镀金铁十字架,慢慢走近,两条腿好像不听使唤了。“这儿就是进去就出不来的那座人间地狱了!”最后他还是拉了门铃。铃声好像在一个荒僻的地方回响。

After ten minutes, a pale man dressed in black came and opened the door to him. Julien looked at him and at once lowered his gaze. This porter had a singular physiognomy. The prominent green pupils of his eyes were convex as those of a cat's; the unwinking contours of his eye lids proclaimed the impossibility of any human feeling; his thin lips were stretched and curved over his protruding teeth. And yet this physiognomy did not suggest a criminal nature, so much as that entire insensibility which inspires far greater terror in the young. The sole feeling that Julien's rapid glance could discern in that long, smug face was a profound contempt for every subject that might be mentioned to him, which did not refer to another and a better world.

过了十分钟,一个脸色苍白身穿黑衣的人来给他开门。于连看了看他,立刻垂下眼睛。这个看门人相貌奇特。眼珠突出,绿色,圆如猫眼;眼皮周边不动,表示不可能有任何同情心;嘴唇薄,呈半圆形,裹在前突的牙齿上。然而,这相貌显示的并非罪恶,而是那种彻底的冷漠,它远比罪恶更让年轻人感到恐怖。于连匆匆一瞥,能从这张虚诚的长脸上猜,到的唯一感情,乃是极度轻蔑人们可能跟他说的与天国利益无关的那些话。

Julien raised his eyes with an effort, and in a voice which the palpitation of his heart made tremulous explained that he wished to speak to M. Pirard, the Director of the Seminary. Without a word, the man in black made a sign to him to follow. They climbed two flights of a wide staircase with a wooden baluster, the warped steps of which sloped at a downward angle from the wall, and seemed on the point of collapse. A small door, surmounted by a large graveyard cross of white wood painted black, yielded to pressure and the porter showed him into a low and gloomy room, the whitewashed walls of which were adorned with two large pictures dark with age. There, Julien was left to himself; he was terrified, his heart throbbed violently; he would have liked to find the courage to weep. A deathly silence reigned throughout the building.

于连鼓了鼓劲,抬起眼睛,说他想求见神学院院长彼拉先生,那声音由于心跳而颤抖。黑衣人不说话,示意跟他走。他们爬了两层楼,宽阔的楼梯装有木栏杆,楼梯板己经弯曲变形,朝着与墙壁完全相反的方向倾斜,仿佛随时都会倒坍,一扇小门,门上有一个公墓用的漆成黑色的白木大十字架。这扇门很困难地打开,看门人让他进入一个阴暗低矮的房间,墙壁刷了白灰,挂着两幅大画,因年久而发黑。于连被单独留下;他给吓呆了,心剧烈地跳动;他要是敢哭,一定会感到幸福,死一般的沉寂宠罩着整座房子。

After a quarter of an hour, which seemed to him a day, the sinister porter reappeared on the threshold of a door at the other end of the room, and, without condescending to utter a word, beckoned to him to advance. He entered a room even larger than the first and very badly lighted. The walls of this room were whitewashed also; but they were bare of ornament. Only in a corner by the door, Julien noticed in passing a bed of white wood, two straw chairs and a little armchair made of planks of fir-wood without a cushion. At the other end of the room, near a small window with dingy panes, decked with neglected flowerpots, he saw a man seated at a table and dressed in a shabby cassock; he appeared to be in a rage, and was taking one after another from a pile of little sheets of paper which he spread out on his table after writing a few words on each. He did not observe Julien's presence. The latter remained motionless, standing in the middle of the room, where he had been left by the porter, who had gone out again shutting the door behind him.

一刻钟以后,他觉得过了一整天,那个相貌可怖的看门人出现在房间另一端的一个门口,还是不肯说话,只示意他往前走,他进入一个房间,比刚才那间还大,光线很差。墙也刷成白色,但是没有家具。只是在靠门的一角,于连经过时见有一张白木床,两把草垫椅子,一把没有坐垫的枞木小扶手椅。在房间另一端,在一扇玻璃发黄、窗台上摆着赃兮兮的花瓶的小窗户旁边,他发现一个人身穿一件破旧的道袍,坐在桌子前面;他好像很生气,面前一大堆方纸片,他一张张拿起,写上几个字,然后理好放在桌子上。他没有觉察到于连进来,于连在房间中央站着不动,看门人把他留在那几之后就出去了,并关上了门。

Ten minutes passed in this fashion; the shabbily dressed man writing all the time. Julien's emotion and terror were such that he felt himself to be on the point of collapsing. A philosopher would have said, perhaps wrongly: 'It is the violent impression made by ugliness on a soul created to love what is beautiful.'

十分钟就这样过去了,穿着破烂的那个人一直在写。于连又激动又害怕,好像立刻就要倒下。—位哲学家会说,也许他错了:这是丑给予一个生来爱美的灵魂的强烈印象。

The man who was writing raised his head; Julien did not observe this for a moment, and indeed, after he had noticed it, still remained motionless, as though turned to stone by the terrible gaze that was fixed on him.Julien's swimming eyes could barely make out a long face covered allover with red spots, except on the forehead, which displayed a deathly pallor. Between the red cheeks and white forehead shone a pair of little black eyes calculated to inspire terror in the bravest heart. The vast expanse of his forehead was outlined by a mass of straight hair, as black as jet.

写字的人抬起了头;过了一会儿,于连才觉察到,甚至他看见了之后,依然呆立不动,仿佛受不住望着他的那可怕的目光,魂飞魄散了一般。于连的眼睛模糊不清,依稀看见一张长脸,上面布满红色的斑点,只是前额还让人看见一片死一般的苍白。红色的脸颊和白色的前额之间,闪动着两只黑黑的小眼睛,足以令最勇敢的人胆寒。这前额宽广的轮廓被一片厚、直、煤玉般黑的头发勾勒出来。

'Are you coming nearer, or not?' the man said at length impatiently.

“请走近些,行还是不行?”那人终于说话,很不耐烦。

Julien advanced with an uncertain step, and at length, ready to fall to the ground and paler than he had ever been in his life, came to a halt a few feet away from the little table of white wood covered with scraps of paper.

于连步子不稳地往前走了走,眼看着要倒,脸色是从未有过的苍白,终于在距摆满方纸片的小白木桌三步远的地方外下了。

'Nearer,' said the man.

“再近些,”那人说。

Julien advanced farther, stretching out his hand as though in search of something to lean upon.

于连又往前走了走,伸着手,仿佛要找什么东西好扶着。

'Your name?'

“您的名字?”

'Julien Sorel.'

“于连·索莱尔。”

'You are very late,' said the other, once more fastening upon him a terrible eye.

“您大大地迟到了,”那个人说,又用一种可怕的目光盯住他。

Julien could not endure this gaze; putting out his hand as though to support himself, he fell full length upon the floor.

于连受不了这目光,伸手像要扶住什么,一下子直挺挺地倒在地板上。

The man rang a bell. Julien had lost only his sense of vision and the strength to move; he could hear footsteps approaching.

那人摇铃。于连只是眼睛不能用,没有力气动弹,还听得见有脚步声走近。

He was picked up and placed in the little armchair of white wood. He heard the terrible man say to the porter:

有人把他扶起,让他坐在白木小扶手椅上。他听见那个可怕的人对看门人说:

'An epileptic, evidently; I might have known it.'

“看样子他是癫痫病犯了,这下可全了。”

When Julien was able to open his eyes, the man with the red face was again writing; the porter had vanished. 'I must have courage,' our hero told himself, 'and above all hide my feelings.' He felt a sharp pain at his heart. 'If I am taken ill, heaven knows what they will think of me.' At length the man stopped writing, and with a sidelong glance at Julien asked:

于连能睁眼了,那个红脸人又写上了,看门人已经不见。“我得鼓起勇气,”我们的主人公说,“尤其要藏住我的感觉(他感到一阵强烈 的恶心);如果我出了意外,天知道人们会把我怎么想。”那人终于不写了,斜眼看着于连:

'Are you in a fit state to answer my questions?'

“您能回答我的问话了吗?”

'Yes, Sir,' said Julien in a feeble voice.

“是的,先生,”于连有气无力地答道。

'Ah! That is fortunate.'

“啊!这太好了。”

The man in black had half risen and was impatiently seeking for a letter in the drawer of his table of fir-wood which opened with a creak. He found it, slowly resumed his seat, and once more gazing at Julien, with an air which seemed to wrest from him the little life that remained to him:

黑衣人半直起身,吱地一声拉开纵木桌的抽屉,很不耐烦地找一封信。他找到了,慢慢地坐下,又看了看于连,那神气像是要把于连仅余 的生命夺走:

'You are recommended to me by M. Chelan, who was the best cure in the diocese, a good man if ever there was one, and my friend for the last thirty years.'

“您是谢朗先生荐来的,他显教区最好的本堂神甫,世上仅有的有德之人,我三十年的朋友。”

'Ah! It is M. Pirard that I have the honour to address,' said Julien in a feeble voice.

“啊!我是在荣幸地和彼拉先生谈话,”于连用半死不活的声音说。

'So it seems,' said the Director of the Seminary, looking sourly at him.

“那还用说,”神学院院长顶了他一句,生气地看了看他。

The gleam in his little eyes brightened, followed by an involuntary jerk of the muscles round his mouth. It was the physiognomy of a tiger relishing in anticipation the pleasure of devouring its prey.

他那小眼睛突然加倍地明亮,嘴角的肌肉不自主地动了动。那正是老虎事先品味吞噬猎物的乐趣时的样子。

'Chelan's letter is short,' he said, as though speaking to himself.

“谢朗的信很短,”他像是自言自语,“聪明人无须多言,现在的人不会写短信了。”他高声念道:

'Intelligenti pauca; in these days, one cannot write too little.' He read aloud:

'"I send you Julien Sorel, of this parish, whom I baptised nearly twenty years ago; his father is a wealthy carpenter but allows him nothing. Julien will be a noteworthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard. Memory, intelligence are not wanting, he has the power of reflection. Will his vocation last? Is it sincere?"'

“我向您介绍本堂区的于连·索莱尔,我为他施洗已近二十年,他是一个富裕木匠的儿子,然乃父什么也不给他。于连将是天主的葡萄园 里一名出色的工人。记忆力、理解力不乏,思考力亦有。他的志向将会持久吗?真诚吗?”

'Sincere!' repeated the abbe Pirard with an air of surprise, gazing at Julien; but this time the abbe's gaze was less devoid of all trace of humanity. 'Sincere!' he repeated, lowering his voice and returning to the letter:

“真诚!”彼拉神甫带着一种惊奇的神气重复道,看了看于连,不过神甫的目光不像刚才那样毫无人性了,“真诚!”他放低声音重复道,又念:

'"I ask you for a bursary for Julien; he will qualify for it by undergoing the necessary examinations. I have taught him a little divinity, that old and sound divinity of Bossuet, Arnault, Fleury. If the young man is not to your liking, send him back to me; the Governor of our Poorhouse, whom you know well, offers him eight hundred francs to come as tutor to his children. Inwardly I am calm, thank God. I am growing accustomed to the terrible blow. Vale et me ama."'

“我请求您给于连一份助学金;他会经过必要的考试而得到的。我教过他一点神学,即博须坎、阿尔诺、弗勒里的古老、有益的神学。如果此人不合适,请即送回我处;您很熟悉的那位乞丐收容所所长愿出八百法郎聘他为孩子们的家庭教师。——我的内心是平静的,感谢天主。我已习惯于可怕的打击。Valeetme ama。”

The abbe Pirard, relaxing the speed of his utterance as he came to the signature, breathed with a sigh the word 'Chelan.'

彼拉神甫念到签名,放慢了声音,叹了口气,念出“谢朗”两个字。

'He is calm,' he said; 'indeed, his virtue deserved that reward; God grant it to me, when my time comes!'

“他是平静的,”他说,“的确,他的德行当得起这个酬报;但愿到了那一天,天主也能给我同样的酬报。”

He looked upwards and made the sign of the Cross. At the sight of this holy symbol Julien felt a slackening of the profound horror which, from his entering the building, had frozen him.

他望着天,划了个十字。看到这个神圣的手势,于连感到那种一进入这座房子就让他周身冰凉的极度恐惧开始缓解了。

'I have here three hundred and twenty-one aspirants for the holiest of callings,' the abbe Pirard said at length, in a severe but not hostile tone; 'only seven or eight have been recommended to me by men like the abbe Chelan; thus among the three hundred and twenty-one you will be the ninth. But my protection is neither favour nor weakness, it is an increase of precaution and severity against vice. Go and lock that door.'

“我这里有三百二十一个期望从事最神圣的职业的人,”彼拉神父终于说道,口吻严厉却并不凶恶,“只有七、八个是谢朗神甫那样的人 推荐来的,因此,在这三百二十一个人当中,您将是第九位。不过,我的保护既非偏袒,亦非姑息,而是对罪孽加倍的关注和严厉。去锁上门。”

Julien made an effort to walk and managed not to fall. He noticed that a little window, near the door by which he had entered, commanded a view of the country. He looked at the trees; the sight of them did him good, as though he had caught sight of old friends.

于连走得艰难,总算没有倒。他注意到门旁有一扇小窗户,开向田野。他望了望那些树,仿佛看见了老朋友,感到很舒服。

'Loquerisne linguam latinam? (Do you speak Latin?)' the abbe Pirard asked him as he returned.

“Loquerisenlinguamlatinam?(您能说拉丁语吗?)”他回来时,彼拉神甫问。

'Ita, pater optime (Yes, excellent Father),' replied Julien, who was beginning to come to himself. Certainly nobody in the world had appeared to him less excellent than M. Pirard, during the last half-hour.

“Ita,pateroptime(是的,我杰出的神甫),”于连答道,缓过来一点了。当然,这一个钟头以来,他觉得世上没有人比彼拉神父更不 杰出了。

The conversation continued in Latin. The expression in the abbe's eyes grew gentler; Julien recovered a certain coolness. 'How weak I am,' he thought, 'to let myself be imposed upon by this show of virtue! This man will be simply a rascal like M. Maslon'; and Julien congratulated himself on having hidden almost all his money in his boots.

谈话继续用拉丁语进行。神甫的眼睛的表情渐渐变得温柔,于连也恢复了几分冷静。“我真软弱,”他想,“竟让这美德的外表吓住了:此人不过是马斯隆先生一类的骗子罢了。”于连庆幸已把差不多全部的钱都藏在了靴子里。

The abbe Pirard examined Julien in theology, and was surprised by the extent of his knowledge. His astonishment increased when he questioned him more particularly on the Holy Scriptures. But when he came to questions touching the doctrine of the Fathers, he discovered that Julien barely knew the names of Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Basil, etc., etc.

彼拉神甫考察于连的神学,对其知识的广度感到惊讶。特别问到《圣经》,就更感到惊讶了。但是,问到那些教宗的学说时,他发现于连几乎连圣杰洛姆、圣奥古斯丁、圣波纳凡杜、圣巴齐尔等人的名字都茫然无知。

'In fact,' thought the abbe Pirard, 'here is another instance of that fatal tendency towards Protestantism which I have always had to rebuke in Chelan. A thorough, a too? horough acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures.'

“事实上,”彼拉神甫想,“这就是我一向指责谢朗的致命的新教倾向。对《圣经》的深入了解,过于深入的了解。”

(Julien had just spoken to him, without having been questioned on the subject, of the true date of authorship of Genesis, the Pentateuch, etc.)

(于连刚刚不待问就谈到这一主题,谈到《创世纪》和《五经》的真正写作时间。)

'To what does all this endless discussion of the Holy Scriptures lead,' thought the abbe Pirard, 'if not to private judgment, that is to say to the most fearful Protestantism? And, in conjunction with this rash learning, nothing about the Fathers that can compensate for this tendency.'

“此种对于《圣经》的无休止的论辩,”彼拉神甫想,“除了引向个人研究,即最可恶的新教教义,还会引向什么呢?而且除了这种轻率 的学问之外,对于能够抵消这种倾向的教宗们一无所知。”

But the astonishment of the Director of the Seminary knew no bounds when, questioning Julien as to the authority of the Pope, and expecting the maxims of the ancient Gallican church, he heard the young man repeat the whole of M. de Maistre's book.

问到教皇的权威时,神学院院长的惊讶更是没有边际了,他本来以为于连会答以古代法国教会的一些训戒,谁想年轻人却向他大背德·迈斯特先生的书。

'A strange man, Chelan,' thought the abbe Pirard; 'has he given him this book to teach him to laugh at it?'

“这谢朗真是个怪人,”彼拉神甫想;“让他看这本书是为了教他如何嘲笑这本书吗?”

In vain did he question Julien, trying to discover whether he seriously believed the doctrine of M. de Maistre. The young man could answer him only by rote. From this moment, Julien was really admirable, he felt that he was master of himself. After a prolonged examination it seemed to him that M. Pirard's severity towards him was no more than an affectation. Indeed, but for the rule of austere gravity which, for the last fifteen years, he had imposed on himself in dealing with his pupils in theology, the Director of the Seminary would have embraced Julien in the name of logic, such clarity, precision, and point did he find in the young man's answers.

他询问于连,想看出他是否真的相信德·迈斯特先生的理论,但是白费力气。年轻人只是根据记忆来回答。从这时起,于连确实很不错, 他觉得能够控制自己了。经过长时间的考试,他觉得彼拉先生对他的严厉不过是做做样子罢了。事实上,神学院院长十五年来给自己定下对待学神学的学生要庄重严厉的原则,否则他早以逻辑的名义拥抱于连了,他觉得于连的回答何等清晰、准确、鲜明啊。

'This is a bold and healthy mind,' he said to himself, 'but corpus debile (a frail body).

“果然是一个精神勇敢而健全的人,”他对自己说,“只是cor-pusdebile(身体虚弱)。”

'Do you often fall like that?' he asked Julien in French, pointing with his finger to the floor.

“您常常这样摔倒吗?”他用法语问于连,同时用手指了指地板。

'It was the first time in my life; the sight of the porter's face paralysed me,' Julien explained, colouring like a child.

“这是有生以来第一次,看门人的脸把我吓坏了,”于连的脸红得像个孩子。

The abbe Pirard almost smiled.

彼拉神甫几乎要微笑了。

'Such is the effect of the vain pomps of this world; you are evidently accustomed to smiling faces, positive theatres of falsehood. The truth is austere, Sir. But is not our task here below austere also? You will have to see that your conscience is on its guard against this weakness: Undue sensibility to vain outward charms.

“这就是世间浮华所产生的后果;看来您已习惯了笑脸,那是谎言的真正舞台。真理是严峻的,先生。而我们在此间的任务不也是严峻的 吗?您必须注意使您的良心警惕这种弱点:对外表的无用的优美过于敏感。

'Had you not been recommended to me,' said the abbe Pirard, returning with marked pleasure to the Latin tongue, 'had you not been recommended to me by a man such as the abbe Chelan, I should address you in the vain language of this world to which it appears that you are too well accustomed. The entire bursary for which you apply is, I may tell you, the hardest thing in the world to obtain. But the abbe Chelan has earned little, by fifty-six years of apostolic labours, if he cannot dispose of a bursary at the Seminary.'

“如果推荐您来的,”彼拉神甫带着明显的愉快又说起了拉丁文,“如果推荐您来的不是谢朗神甫那样的人,我就用人世间的您过于习惯的那种浮华的语言跟您谈话了。我要对您说,您要求的全额助学金乃是世上最难得到的东西。但是,谢朗神甫使徒般工作了五十六年,假使他不能在神学院里支配一份助学金,那他得到的报酬就未免太少了。”

After saying these words, the abbe Pirard advised Julien not to join any secret society or congregation without his consent.

说完这些话,彼拉神甫告诫于连,不经他同意,不要参加任何团体或秘密修会。

'I give you my word of honour,' said Julien with the heartfelt warmth of an honest man.

“我用名誉保证,”于连说,像个正直的人那样心花怒放。

The Director of the Seminary smiled for the first time.

神学院院长第一次笑了。

'That expression is not in keeping here,' he told him; 'it is too suggestive of the vain honour of men of the world, which leads them into so many errors and often into crime. You owe me obedience in virtue of the seventeenth paragraph of the Bull Unam Ecclesiam of Saint Pius V. I am your ecclesiastical superior. In this house to hear, my dearly beloved son, is to obey. How much money have you?'

“这个词在这里不合适,”他说,“它太让人想起世间人们的虚荣了,正是这种虚荣引导他们犯下那么多错误,常常还犯下罪恶。根据圣 庇护五世的UnamEcclesiam谕旨第十七段,您应该对我有绝对服从的义务。我是您教会里的尊长。在这座房子里,听见,我亲爱的儿子,就是服从。您有多少钱?”

('Now we come to the point,' thought Julien, 'this is the reason of the "dearly beloved son".')

“果然不出所料,”于连心想,“叫亲爱的儿子就为的是这个。”

'Thirty-five francs, Father.'

“三十五法郎,我的神甫。”

'Keep a careful note of how you spend your money; you will have to account for it to me.'

“仔细记下钱是怎么用的,要向我汇报。”

This exhausting interview had lasted three hours. Julien was told to summon the porter.

这次艰难的会见长达三个钟头;于连把看门人叫来。

'Put Julien Sorel in cell number 103,' the abbe Pirard told the man.

“把于连·索莱尔安置在一O三室,”彼拉神甫对那人说。

As a special favour, he was giving Julien a room to himself.

出于很大的器重,他让于连独居一室。

'Take up his trunk,' he added.

“把他的箱子提过去,”他补了一句。

Julien lowered his eyes and saw his trunk staring him in the face; he had been looking at it for three hours and had never seen it.

于连垂下眼睛,看见他的箱子就在门前;他三个钟头以来一直在看它,居然没有认出它来。

On arriving at No. 103, which was a tiny room eight feet square on the highest floor of the building, Julien observed that it looked out towards the ramparts, beyond which one saw the smiling plain which the Doubs divides from the city.

到了一0三室,这是这座房子最上一层的一十八尺见方的小房间,于连注意到房间朝向城墙,越过城墙可以看见美丽的平原,杜河在它和 市区之间流过。

'What a charming view!' exclaimed Julien; in speaking thus to himself he was not conscious of the feeling implied by his words. The violent sensations he had experienced in the short time that he had spent in Besancon had completely drained his strength. He sat down by the window on the solitary wooden chair that was in his cell, and at once fell into a profound slumber. He did not hear the supper bell, nor that for Benediction; he had been forgotten.

“多么迷人的景色:“于连叫了起来;他这样自言自语,但是感觉不到这些词表达的东西。在他来到贝藏松这段短短的时间里,他的感觉太强烈,把他的体力都耗尽了。他在窗口附近、斗室内唯一一把木椅上坐下,立刻酣睡起来。他没有听见晚餐的钟声,也没有听见圣体降福仪式的钟声;别人把他忘了。

When the first rays of the sun awakened him next morning, he found himself lying upon the floor.

第二天早上,当第一道阳光将他照醒时,发现自己躺在地板上。