一个很短的故事 海明威 翻译

一个小故事

在帕多瓦一个很热的夜晚，他们将他抬到屋顶，这样他就可以看到全镇的景象了。天空中飞过一些雨燕。过了一会，天色暗下去了，探照灯亮起来了。其他人便带着酒瓶子下去了。他和路姿可以听到他们在下面的阳台上。在这样一个闷热的晚上，路姿看上去清爽可人。路姿连值了三个月的夜班。他们也乐得她这样做。她会为他准备手术床，以便他们为他手术，他们也会开些“灌肠还是衷肠”的玩笑。每当这个时候，他会在麻醉中努力控制自己，免得自己说漏了嘴。等到他拄拐后，他便常常给病友量体温，这样路姿就不需要在半夜起床了。这里患者不多，他们都知道这一点，因为他们也很喜欢路姿。他从过道往回走，满脑子都是在他床上的路姿。

在他重返前线之前，他们去了教堂祈祷。那里昏暗寂静，另一些人也在祈祷。他们想结婚，却没有出生证明，也没有足够时间去做结婚公告。他们感觉仿佛已经结婚，但是他们想要每个人都知道，这样他们就不会失去它了。

路姿给他写了很多封信，但直到休战后，他才收到。十五封捆成一捆，送抵前线，他按日期分类，一口气读完。在信里，她说了医院的情况，说她很爱他不能没有他，每个夜里她都痛苦地思念他。

休战后，他决定回家找份工作，这样他们才会结婚。但路姿不愿回家，直到他可以找到好工作，他们在纽约相聚。他们说好，他不喝酒，不去看望亲戚朋友，一门心思找工作结婚。在帕多瓦开往米兰的火车上，他们发生争吵，原因在于她不愿立刻回家。在终将分别的时候，他们在米兰火车站吻别，但争吵没有结束。他对这样的分别方式感到很难过。

他乘船从热那亚到美国。路姿则回到了波尔带诺开了一家医院。那里寂寞多雨，有一队冲锋队驻扎在那里。冬天，居住在这样一个多雨泥泞的小镇，军队的少校向她求爱了。虽然她不曾了解意大利人，但她仍写信寄往美国，告诉他，他们只不过是少男少女的情事。她很抱歉，他可能现在还无法理解，但总有一天，他会原谅她感谢她，她期待着，之前她未曾想过，她会在春天里结婚。她一如既往地爱着他，但是她知道那不过是少男少女的情事。她祝福他，他会有一个远大前程，她觉得这样对两个人都是最好的归宿。

少校在春日里没有娶她，以后也没有。路姿寄往美国的信也石沉大海。不久，在乘坐一辆穿越林肯公园的出租车时，他从百货公司的售货小姐那里，染上了淋病。

文章背景：

海明威是迷茫一代的代表作家。他的作品大多是战争对于人的创伤，而精神上的创伤远远比肉体的伤害更加难以治愈。他的文字极简。但他也是“冰上理论”的代表。他的小说，往往只写八分之一，剩下的八分之七由读者自己去领会。这篇故事很短，但却有很多细节耐人寻味。在翻译的时候要更加注重对于作者这种情感的理解，才能更好的驾驭文字。

原文： A Very Short Story

Ernest Hemingway

One hot evening in Padua they carried him up onto the roof and he could look out over the top of the town. There were chimney swifts in the sky. After a while it got dark and the searchlights came out. The others went down and took the bottles with them. He and Luz could hear them below on the balcony. Luz sat on the bed. She was cool and fresh in the hot night.

Luz stayed on night duty for three months. They were glad to let her. When they operated on him she prepared him for the operating table; and they had a joke about friend or enema. He went under the anesthetic holding tight on to himself so he would not blab about anything during the silly, talky time. After he got on crutches he used to take the temperatures so Luz would not have to get up from the bed. There were only a few patients, and they all knew about it. They all liked Luz. As he walked back along the halls he thought of Luz in his bed.

Before he went back to the front they went into the Duomo and prayed. It was dim and quiet, and there were other people praying. They wanted to get married, but there was not enough time for the banns, and neither of them had birth certificates. They felt as though they were married, but they wanted every one to know about it, and to make it so they could not lose it.

Luz wrote him many letters that he never got until after the armistice. Fifteen came in a bunch to the front and he sorted them by the dates and read them all straight through. They were all about the hospital, and how much she loved him and how it was impossible to get along without him and how terrible it was missing him at night.

After the armistice they agreed he should go home to get a job so they mighty be married. Luz would not come home until he had a good job and could come to New York to meet her. It was understood he would not drink, and he did not want to see his friends or any one in the States. Only to get a job and be married. On the train from Padua to Milan they quarreled about her not being willing to come home at once. When they had to say good-bye, in the station at Milan, they kissed good-bye, but were not finished with the quarrel. He felt sick about saying good-bye like that.

He went to America on a boat from Genoa. Luz went back to Pordenone to open a hospital. It was lonely and rainy there, and there was a battalion of arditi （冲锋队）quartered in the town. Living in the muddy, rainy town in the winter, the major of the battalion made love to Luz, and she had never known Italians before, and finally wrote to the States that theirs had been only a boy and girl affair. She was sorry, and she knew he would probably not be able to understand, but might some day forgive her, and be grateful to her, and she expected, absolutely unexpectedly, to be married in the spring. She loved him as always, but she realized now it was only a boy and girl love. She hoped he would have a great career, and believed in him absolutely. She knew it was for the best.

The major did not marry her in the spring or any other time. Luz never got an answer to the letter to Chicago about it. A short time after he contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park.