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《《华氏451度》——别让精神世界变得荒芜》
Fahrenheit 451
One two three four five six seven days. And as many times he came out of the house and Clarisse was there somewhere in the world. Once he saw her shaking a walnut tree, once he saw her sitting on the lawn knitting a blue sweater, three or four times he found a bouquet of late flowers on his porch ), or a handful of chestnuts ) in a little sack ), or some autumn leaves neatly pinned to a sheet of white paper and thumbtacked ) to his door. Every day Clarisse walked him to the corner …
"Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you. And because we know each other."
"You make me feel very old and very much like a father."
"Now you explain," she said, "why you haven't any daughters like me, if you love children so much?"
"I don't know."
"You're joking!"
"I mean—" He stopped and shook his head. "Well, my wife, she … she just never wanted any children at all."
The girl stopped smiling. "I'm sorry. I really thought you were having fun at my expense ). I'm a fool."
"No, no," he said. "It was a good question. It's been a long time since anyone cared enough to ask. A good question."
"Let's talk about something else. Have you ever smelled old leaves? Don't they smell like cinnamon )? Here. Smell."
"Why, yes, it is like cinnamon in a way."
She looked at him with her clear dark eyes. "You always seem shocked."
"It's just I haven't had time—"
"Did you look at the stretched-out billboards ) like I told you?"
"I think so. Yes." He had to laugh.
"Your laugh sounds much nicer than it did."
"Does it?"
"Much more relaxed."
He felt at ease and comfortable. "Why aren't you in school? I see you every day wandering around."
"Oh, they don't miss me," she said. "I'm anti-social, they say. I don't mix. It's so strange. I'm very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn't it? Social to me means talking about things like this." She rattled ) some chestnuts that had fallen off the tree in the front yard. "Or talking about how strange the world is.
Being with people is nice. But I don't think it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk, do you? An hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription ) history or painting pictures, and more sports, but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don't; they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film-teacher. That's not social to me at all. They run us so ragged ) by the end of the day we can't do anything but go to bed or head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break windowpanes ) in the Window Smasher place or wreck ) cars in the Car Wrecker place with the big steel ball … I guess I'm everything they say I am, all right.
I haven't any friends. That's supposed to prove I'm abnormal. But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?"
"You sound so very old."
"Sometimes I'm ancient. I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid. My uncle says his grandfather remembered when children didn't kill each other. But that was a long time ago when they had things different. They believed in responsibility, my uncle says.
Do you know, I'm responsible. I was spanked ) when I needed it, years ago. And I do all the shopping and house-cleaning by hand. "
"But most of all," she said, "I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going. Sometimes I even go to the Fun Parks and ride in the jet cars when they race on the edge of town at midnight and the police don't care as long as they're insured. As long as everyone has ten thousand insurance, everyone's happy. Sometimes I sneak around and listen in subways. Or I listen at soda fountains ), and do you know what?"
"What?"
"People don't talk about anything."
"Oh, they must!"
"No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming-pools mostly and say how swell )! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else. And most of the time in the cafes they have the jokeboxes ) on and the same jokes most of the time, or the musical wall ) lit and all the coloured patterns running up and down, but it's only colour and all abstract. And at the museums, have you ever been? All abstract.
That's all there is now. My uncle says it was different once. A long time back sometimes pictures said things or even showed people."
一二三四五六七天。很多次他一走出家门，总能发现克拉丽丝的踪影。有一次，他看到她正在摇晃着一棵胡桃树。还有一次，他看到她坐在草坪上织着一件蓝毛衣。还有三四次，他在自家门廊上发现一束快要谢了的花 ，或是一把装在小小麻布袋里的栗子，又或是发现自家门上钉着一张白纸，一些秋叶整齐地固定在上面。每一天，克拉丽丝都会陪他一起走到街角……
“为什么，”一次他在地铁口问道，“我觉得自己已经认识你好久了？”
“因为我喜欢你呀，”她答道，“而且我也不想向你索取什么。还因为我们了解彼此。”
“你让我觉得自己很老，就像一个父亲。”
“那你解释一下，”她说，“你这么喜欢孩子，为什么没有一个像我似的女儿呢？”
“我不知道。”
“你在开玩笑！”
“我的意思是——”他停下来，摇了摇头，“嗯，我的妻子，她……她就是一点都不想要孩子。”
女孩收起了笑容。“对不起。我以为你刚刚是在拿我开玩笑。我是个笨蛋。”
“不，不，”他连忙说道，“问得好。已经好久没人关心这些，愿意问我这样的问题了。是个好问题。”
“我们来聊点别的事吧。你有没有闻过枯叶？它们闻起来是不是很像肉桂？来，闻闻看。”
“啊，是呀，确实有点像肉桂的气味。”
她用那对清澈的深色眼睛望着他：“你好像总是显得很吃惊。”
“那是因为我没有时间——”
“你有没有像我说的那样看那些拉长的广告牌？”
“我想算是有。没错。”他忍不住笑了起来。
“你的笑声听起来比以前可爱多了。”
“是吗？”
“轻松了许多。”
他感觉很自在，也很舒坦。“你为什么不去学校呢？我见你每天都在到处转悠。”
“哦，他们不会想我的，”她说。“他们说我反社交。我不合群。这太奇怪了。其实我很喜欢社交的。这完全取决于你对社交的定义，不是吗？对我来说，社交就是谈论像这样事情。”她把从前院树上掉下来的栗子晃得嘎嘎作响。“或者讨论这个世界有多么奇怪。和人们待在一起很愉快。但我觉得把一伙人聚在一起却不让他们说话可不是社交，你觉得呢？一小时的电视课程，一小时的篮球课、棒球课或跑步，然后是一小时的历史录像或画画，接着又是运动，但是你知道吗，我们从不问问题，至少大部分人不问。他们会把答案直接咻咻咻丢给你，然后我们就那样呆坐四个小时，听屏幕上的老师讲课。那对我来说根本不是社交。
一天下来，他们把我们搞得筋疲力尽，到了晚上我们什么都做不了，只能去睡觉，要么就去趣味公园欺负周围的人，或者去砸窗馆砸窗户，到毁车馆用大钢球毁汽车……我想我就是他们所说的那样，好吧。我没有任何朋友。那应该能证明我不正常。但是我认识的人不是大喊大叫，就是疯了似地乱跳，要么就相互厮打。你有没有注意到现在人们都是怎样地互相伤害？”
“你听起来像是已经一大把年纪了。”
“有时候我很老成。我害怕同龄的孩子。他们相互残杀。过去也一直都是这样吗？我叔叔说不是。单去年一年，我就有六个朋友被枪杀。还有十个在失事车辆中 死掉了。我怕他们，他们也因此不喜欢我。我叔叔说在他祖父的记忆中孩子们不会相互残杀。不过那是很久以前的事了，那时候和现在不同。我叔叔说那时的人信奉责任。你知道吗，我现在很有责任心的。几年前，我还因缺乏责任心挨过打。现在我亲手做所有购物和打扫房间的事情。”
“但最重要的是，”她说，“我喜欢观察别人。有时候我会成天待在地铁上，观察人们，听他们说话。我就是想弄明白他们是谁，想要什么，要到哪去。有时候我会去趣味公园，在午夜坐在他们的喷气式汽车里跟着他们一起在城镇边缘赛车，只要他们买了保险，警察是不会管的。人们只要买了一万元的保险，那就谁都没意见 。有时候我会悄悄蹓跶，在地铁里听别人讲话。或者在冷饮柜台边听别人讲话，但你知道吗？”
“知道什么？”
“人们什么都没说。”
“哦，他们一定说了什么！”
“不，什么都没。他们大多数时候会提到各种汽车、衣服或者泳池，然后赞叹说‘真了不起’！但是他们说的都是一样的事，每个人说来说去都没什么不同。在咖啡店，他们大多开着笑话机，听的笑话也大都是一样的，或者开着音乐墙，各种彩色图案来回变幻，但那只不过是颜色，全都是抽象的。还有在博物馆，你去过吗？全都是抽象的东西，现在里面只有这样的东西了。我叔叔说以前不是这样的。很久以前，图片是有含义的，上面甚至还有人物。”
文章摘自：《新东方英语·中学生》杂志2017年5月号
