介绍:
(点击右边黑三角下拉有中英配文）
David Caravaggio—an absurd name for you, of course ...” The English patient says.
“At least I have a name.”
“Yes.”
Caravaggio sits in Hana’s chair. Afternoon sun fills the room, revealing the swimming motes.
“大卫•卡拉瓦焦—对你来说是个滑稽可笑的名字，当然……”
“至少我有个名字。”
“是的。”
卡拉瓦焦坐在哈纳的椅子上。午后的阳光照亮整个房间。
The Englishman turns to him.
“There’s a painting by Caravaggio, done late in his life. David with the Head of Goliath. In it, the young warrior holds at the end of his outstretched arm the head of Goliath, ravaged and old. But that is not the true sadness in the picture. It is assumed that the face of David is a portrait of the youthful Caravaggio and the head of Goliath is a portrait of him as an older man, how he looked when he did the painting. Youth judging age at the end of its outstretched hand. The judging of one’s own mortality. I think when I see him at the foot of my bed that Kip is my David.”
英国人转向他。
“有——幅卡拉瓦焦的画，他下半生画的，叫《大卫和歌利亚的头》，年轻的勇士提着歌利亚的头，又老又丑。但这不是这幅画里真正的悲哀。在这幅画上，大卫的脸是年轻的卡拉瓦焦的肖像，而歌利亚的头是他年老时的肖像。从他伸出的手臂来看，他是个青年，因此可以看到—个人有生之年的变化。当我看见基普站在我的床边时，我想他就是我的大卫。”
Caravaggio sits there in silence, thoughts lost among the floating motes. War has unbalanced him and he can return to no other world as he is, wearing these false limbs that morphine promises. He is a man in middle age who has never become accustomed to families. All his life he has avoided permanent intimacy. He has been a man who slips away, in the way lovers leave chaos, the way thieves leave reduced houses.
卡拉瓦焦默默地坐在那儿，思绪随着尘埃飘落。战争使他的个性丕变，他的四肢因为注射吗啡的关系而变得麻木，他无法再回到其它的世界。他是个中年男子，从来不曾习惯家庭生活。在他的一生当中，他始终在逃避长久的亲密关系。他已经成了一个逃避责任的人，就像情人离开混乱，就像小偷离开已掠夺过的屋子。
He watches the man in the bed. He needs to know who this Englishman from the desert is, and reveal him for Hana’s sake.
他注视着躺在床上的那个人。他要知道这个从沙漠里来的英国人是谁。为了哈纳，他要揭开他的身分。
“Tell me, is it possible to love someone who is not as smart as you are?” , in a belligerent morphine rush, wanted the mood of argument. “This is something that has concerned me most of my sexual life—which began late, I must announce to this select company. In the same way the sexual pleasure of conversation came to me only after I was married. I had never thought words erotic. Sometimes I really do like to talk more than fuck. Sentences. Buckets of this buckets of that and then buckets of this again. The trouble with words is that you can really talk yourself into a corner. Whereas you can’t fuck yourself into a corner.”
“告诉我，你有没有可能爱上一个没有你那么聪明的人?”卡拉瓦焦像犯了毒瘾似的激动起来，他渴望一种争论的气氛，“在我的性生活中，这个问题常使我感到不安——我的性生活开始得很晚，我得向这群杰出的朋友们说明。同样关于性问题的闲谈，也只是在婚后才使我感到愉快。我从未想过谈话也能引起性欲。有时我对谈话的兴趣真的大于做爱。问题是，谈话过多会使人陷入困境，而自慰却不会使人陷入困境。”
“That’s a man talking,” muttered Hana.
“Well, I haven’t,” Caravaggio continued, “maybe you have, How old are you, Kip?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Older than Hana. Could you fall in love with her if she wasn’t smarter than you? I mean, she may not be smarter than you. But isn’t it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? Think now. She can be obsessed by the Englishman because he knows more. We’re in a huge field when we talk to that guy. We don’t even know if he’s English.
那是男人的说法。”哈纳嘟哝着。
“好吧，我不是这个意思。”卡拉瓦焦继续说道，“也许你是这么想的，你多大，基普?”
“二十六岁。”
“比哈纳大。如果她没有你聪明，你会爱上她吗?我的意思是，她也许没有你聪明。但是你是不是会为了要爱她，而把她想象得比你聪明?你想想，她之所以被那个英国人迷住了，是因为他懂得更多。我们和那家伙谈话时，就像置身于广阔的战场上。我们甚至不知道他是不是英国人。
Hana got up and went behind him and put her arm around his neck.
“Don’t do this, okay, David?”
“We’ve already got one crazy talker upstairs.”
“Look at us—we sit here like the filthy rich in their filthy villas up in the filthy hills when the city gets too hot. It’s nine in the morning—the old guy upstairs is asleep. Hana’s obsessed with him. I am obsessed with the sanity of Hana, I’m obsessed with my ‘balance,’ and Kip will probably get blown up one of these days. Why? For whose sake? He’s twenty-six years old. The British army teaches him the skills and the Americans teach him further skills and the team of sappers are given lectures, are decorated and sent off into the rich hills. You are being used, boyo, as the Welsh say. I’m not staying here much longer. I want to take you home.
哈纳站起来，走到他身后，搂着他的脖子。
“别这样，好吗?大卫?”
“我们楼上已经有一位说疯话的人了。”
“看看我们——我们就坐在这里，就像那些肮脏的阔佬，在城里太热时，他们就上了肮脏的山，住进肮脏的破别墅里。现在是早上九点钟——楼上的老家伙在睡觉。哈纳被他迷住了，我被哈纳的通情达理迷住了，我被我的平衡迷住了，而基普有一天也许会被炸死。为什么?为了谁?他才二十六岁。英国军队教给他这种技能，而美国人教给他更多的技术，工兵部队受训后，被授军衔，被派往山里。你被利用于，小伙子，就像威尔斯人说的。我在这里待不久了，我要带你回家。”
“Stop it.” Hana said “He’ll survive.”
“The sapper who got blown up the other night, what was his name?” Caravaggio asked.
“Sam Hardy.” Kip went to the window and looked out, leaving their conversation.
“The trouble with all of us is we are where we shouldn’t be. What are we doing in Africa, in Italy? What is Kip doing dismantling bombs in orchards, for God’s sake? What is he doing fighting English wars? The armies indoctrinate you and leave you here and they fuck off somewhere else to cause trouble, inky-dinky parlez-vous. We should all move out together.”
“住口，他会活下去的。”
“那天被炸死的那个工兵，叫什么名字?”
“山姆哈弟。”基普走到窗边，看着窗外，不去管他们谈什么。
“我们的问题在于我们待在不该待的地方。我们在非洲干什么?我们在意大利干什么?基普为什么要在果园里拆炸弹?为了上帝吗?他为何要卷入英国的战争? 军队给你灌输信仰，然后把你扔在这儿，然后他们又到别的地方作孽去了。你只是个微不足道的小东西。我们都应该离开这儿。”
“We can’t leave the Englishman.”
“The Englishman left months ago, Hana, he’s with the Bedouin or in some English garden，He doesn’t know where the fuck he is.
“You think I’m angry at you, don’t you? Because you have fallen in love. Don’t you? A jealous uncle. I’m terrified for you. I want to kill the Englishman, because that is the only thing that will save you, get you out of here. And I am beginning to like him. Desert your post. How can Kip love you if you are not smart enough to make him stop risking his life?”
“我们不能扔下英国人不管。”
“那个英国人几个月前就走了，哈纳，他现在正和贝都因人在—起，或待在开满草夹竹桃和狗屎的英国花园里。
他连自己在哪里都不知道。
“你认为我在生你的气，对吗?因为你坠人情网了，是吗?你把我当作一个嫉妒的叔叔。我是在为你担心。我要杀掉那个英国人，因为这是惟一能拯救你，使你离开这里的办法。但我开始喜欢他了。抛开你的包袱，如果你不聪明点儿，说服基普结束他的冒险生涯，他怎么会爱你?”
“Because. Because he believes in a civilised world. He’s a civilised man.”
“First mistake. The correct move is to get on a train, go and have babies together. Be irresponsible. Luck runs out.”
Hana was pouring milk into her cup. As she finished she moved the lip of the jug over Kip’s hand and continued pouring the milk over his brown hand and up his arm to his elbow and then stopped. He didn’t move it away.
“因为他对文明世界有着坚定的信念，他是个文明人。”
“你错了。正确的行动应该是坐上火车离去，一起生养孩子。别负什么责任了。好运不会长久的。”
哈纳往她的杯子里倒牛奶，当她倒满了，她便把壶嘴放在基普手上，继续把牛奶倒进他棕色的手掌里，再往上沿着他的手臂到他的手肘，然后停在那儿，他没有挪开。
----每周一/三/五晚更---- 【文本翻译均为电台英伦好声音读给你听所有，转载请联系播主并注明】
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