【暗色吸蜜鹦鹉】《有个原住民小孩》(三)

《走出非洲》双语图形版本连续8个

英文版的原作者是(丹麦)凯伦布里克森(Karen Blixen)。

中文翻译版于1989年在吴少秋兄主持下由广东旅游出版社出版。原创照片由广东摄影师许欣和陈嘉实地摄影并提供。在此一并鸣谢。

本次选段是关于作者和一个非洲土著小孩的故事，挺有意思的。

诚然我尽心尽力，但他的病情似乎没有起色。一次有一次，我给他清洗、包扎伤口，除此之外，无能为力。就这样拖了很久。有时候，旧疮口好了，新疮口又出现了。最后，我决定还是把他送进苏格兰教会医院。

As far as my doctoring of him went, things did not, however, look hopeful. For a long time I kept on washing and bandaging his leg, but the disease was beyond me. From time to time he would grow a little better, and then the sores would break out in new places. In the end I made up my mind to take him to the hospital of the Scotch Mission.

我的决定够吓人的，后果难以预料，卡曼特一定想了很多很多——他自己是不愿意去的。他的经历和人生哲学决定了他不会做出过多的抗争。但当我开车把他送到教会，把他留在宽大的医院大楼里，置身子完全陌生和神秘的环境时，他开始颤抖个不停。

This decision of mine for once was sufficiently fatal, and had in it enough possibilities, to make an impression on Kamante––he did not want to go. He was prevented by his career and his philosophy from protesting much against anything, but when I drove him to the Mission, and delivered him there in the long hospital building, in surroundings entirely foreign and mysterious to him, he trembled.

苏格兰教会和法国罗马天主教教会都是我的邻居。苏格兰教会在西北十二英里远的地方，海拔高度比农场高五百英尺。法国罗马天主教教会在东面十英里的地方，地势比较平坦，海拔高度比农场低五百英尺。我本来对传教机构不抱好感，但我和这两个教会的私人关系都还不错。令人遗憾的是，这两家教会居然会成为死对头。

I had the Church of Scotland Mission as a neighbour twelve miles to the North West, five hundred feet higher than the farm; and the French Roman Catholic Mission ten miles to the East, on the flatter land, and five hundred feet lower. I did not sympathize with the Missions, but personally I was on friendly terms with them both, and regretted that between themselves they should live in a state of hostility.

法国神父是我最要好的朋友。我常常在礼拜天早上和法拉骑马去听他们作弥撒，一半是为了练练法语，一半是为了骑马在去教会的路上好好玩玩。那条路穿过林业部的古老的种植园，园里金合欢树清晨散发出的新鲜浓厚的香甜味道令人精神焕发。

The French Fathers were my best friends. I used to ride over with Farah, to hear Mass with them on Sunday morning, partly in order to speak French again, and partly because it was a lovely ride to the Mission. For a long way the road ran through the Forest Department’s old wattle plantation, and the virile fresh pinaceous scent of the wattletrees was sweet and cheering in the mornings.

罗马教堂不管建在哪里，都可以把它的本色带到那里，这不是常人能做到的。整座教堂都是法国神父自己设计，并在当地教民的帮助下建造起来的，他们以此为豪是有道理的。教会拥有一座在这块殖民地历史最悠久、管理良好的咖啡园。教会就位于这座咖啡园的中央。走进大院，拾梯而上，平台顶端，耸立着高大、造型优美、屋顶建有一座钟楼的教堂。教堂的两侧分别是教会的拱顶饭堂和修道院的房子。至于教会学校和磨坊，都在河边。进入教堂大院前，还要过一座拱桥。教堂建筑全是用灰色石头砌成的，你策马离开使，回头欣赏大地中的美丽景致，真会以为置身于瑞士南部的一个州，或者意大利的北部。

It was an extraordinary thing to see how the Church of Rome was carrying her atmosphere with her wherever she went. The Fathers had planned and built their Church themselves, with the assistance of their Native congregation, and they were with reason very proud of it. There was here a fine big grey Church with a bell tower on it; it was laid out on a broad courtyard, above terraces and stairs, in the midst oftheir coffee plantation, which was the oldest in the Colony and very skilfully run. On the two other sides of the court were the arcaded Refectory and the Convent buildings, with the school and the mill down by the river, and to get into the drive up to the Church you had to ride over an arched bridge. It was all built in grey stone, and as you came riding down upon it, it looked neat and impressive in the landscape, and might have been lying in a Southern canton of Switzerland, or in the North of Italy.

弥撒结束后，热情友好的法国教父会在教堂门口等我出来，领我穿过院子，来到宽敞凉爽的饭堂，请我喝一小杯葡萄酒。坐在那里听他们讲述他们所知道的一切发生在殖民地、包括它最偏僻角落的事情。那感觉，绝对的无与伦比。他们也必然会借助无拘无束的闲话，想方设法从你口里套出你掌握的全部新闻，就像一小群静不下来的褐色蜜蜂——他们也确实都长着又长又密的胡子——紧紧地钉在花上吸蜜。他们对殖民地生活充满了兴趣，但与此同时，他们不过是逆来顺受的乐天派，为了服从某种神秘的最高意志，用法国人的方式，背井离乡来到这里。你难免会想到，假如没有这种神秘的权威，那些法国神父，连同灰色石头筑成的教堂和高大的钟楼，连同全部的拱形建筑、学校乃至他们的井井有条的种植园和教会的其他组成部分，都会不复存在。一声解散令下，这些能动的或不能动的都会马上把殖民地的事物抛在脑后，齐齐径直飞返巴黎。

The friendly Fathers lay in wait for me at the Church door, when Mass was over, to invite me to un petit verre de vin , across the courtyard in the roomy and cool Refectory; there it was wonderful to hear how they knew of everything that was going on in the Colony, even to the remotest corners of it. They would also, under the disguise of a sweet and benevolent conversation, draw from you any sort of news that you might possibly have in you, like a small lively group of brown, furry bees,–for they all grew long, thick beards,–hanging on to a flower for its store of honey. But while they were so interested in the life of the Colony, they were all the time in their own French way exiles, patient and cheerful obeisants to some higher orders of a mysterious nature. If it had not been for the unknown authority that kept them in the place, you felt they would not be there, neither would the Church of grey stone with the tall bell tower, nor the arcades, the school or any other part of their neat plantation and Mission station. For when the word of relief had been given, all of these would leave the affairs of the Colony to themselves and take a bee line back to Paris.

我去教堂和饭堂时一直守候着坐骑的法拉，在回农场的途中肯定会注意到我的兴致盎然。他本人是穆罕默德的虔诚信徒，滴酒不沾，但他把弥撒和葡萄酒皆视作我宗教信仰的组成仪式。

Farah, who had been holding the two ponies while I had been to Church, and to the Refectory, on the way back to the farm would notice my cheerful spirits,–he was himself a pious Mohammedan and did not touch alcohol, but he took the Mass and the wine as coordinant rites of my religion.

法国教父有时会骑摩托车来农场吃早饭。他们常给我讲拉封丹的寓言故事，并就咖啡种植问题提供宝贵建议。

The French Fathers sometimes rode on their motor bicycles to the farm and lunched there, they quoted the fables of Lafontaine to me, and gave me good advice on my coffee plantation.

我对苏格兰教会却了解不深。苏格兰教会所在地地势较高，视野开阔，美景无限，四周的基库尤村尽收眼底。尽管如此，它还是让我觉得它有眼无珠，什么都看不见。苏格兰教会的人不遗余力地动员原住民换上欧洲人的服装，无论怎么看，这在任何方面都不会给任何人带来任何好处。但苏格兰教会的附属医院却无疑是一流的。我在非洲期间，主持该院工作的亚瑟医生是一位乐施善助、精明能干的脑科医生。我农场里不少人的性命，都是这间医院救的。

The Scotch Mission I did not know so well. There was a splendid view, from up there, over all the surrounding Kikuyu country, but all the same the Mission station gave me an impression of blindness, as if it could see nothing itself. The Church of Scotland was working hard to put the Natives into European clothes, which, I thought, did them no good from any point of view. But they had a very good hospital at the Mission, and at the time when I was there, it was in charge of a philanthropic, clever head doctor, Dr. Arthur. They saved the life of many of the people from the farm.

卡曼特在苏格兰教会留医三个月期间，我只见过他一面。那天，我骑马去基库尤火车站的路上，途经教会医院，注意到院子里的卡曼特。其他正在康复的病人三三两两地聚在一起，他却独自站在一旁。那天，他的病已经大有好转，人跑得动了。他一眼看见我，便向我跑来，然后隔着篱笆伴着我向前跑，一直跑到院子的尽头。在篱笆的另一侧，他不停地跑呀，跑呀，就像你骑马跑过马圈时里头跟着跑的小驹子一样。他的目光盯在我的坐骑上，但一声不吭。跑到院子的边缘后，他不得不停下脚步。我扭头向后看，他一动不动地站着，昂着头，目不转睛地凝视着我，真真正正像一头目送主人远去的小马驹。我向他连连挥手，刚开始，他没有做出丝毫的反应，突然，他的两条胳膊刷地伸向天空，端端的就像两杆长矛，但也就是举了那么一下。

At the Scotch Mission they kept Kamante for three months. During that time I saw him once. I came riding past the Mission on my way to the Kikuyu railway station, and the road here for a while runs along the hospital grounds. I caught sight of Kamante in the grounds, he was standing by himself at a little distance from the groups of other convalescents. By this time he was already so much better that he could run. When he saw me he came up to the fence and ran with me as long as it was following the road. He trotted along, on his side of the fence, like a foal in a paddock when you pass it on horseback, and kept his eyes on my pony, but he did not say a word. At the corner of the hospital grounds he had to stop, and when as I rode on, I looked back, I saw him standing stock still, with his head up in the air, and staring after me, in the exact manner of a foal when you ride away from it. I waved my hand to him a couple of times, the first time he did not react at all, then suddenly his arm went straight up like a pump spear, but he did not do it more than once.