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【書摘】蓋爾芒特家那邊—外祖母之死 (Death of Grandmother) 3-2
2017/05/28 00:27:23瀏覽494|回應0|推薦7
【書摘】蓋爾芒特家那邊外祖母之死 (Death of Grandmother) 3-2
Peut-être ceux que hante d’habitude l’effroi de la singularité particulière à la mort, trouveront-ils quelque chose de rassurant à ce genre de mort-là – à ce genre de premier contact avec la mort – parce qu’elle y revêt une apparence connue, familière, quotidienne. Un bon déjeuner l’a précédée et la même sortie que font des gens bien portants. Un retour en voiture découverte se superpose à sa première atteinte ; si malade que fût ma grand’mère, en somme plusieurs personnes auraient pu dire qu’à six heures, quand nous revînmes des Champs-Élysées, elles l’avaient saluée, passant en voiture découverte, par un temps superbe.
......

Et si Legrandin nous avait regardés de cet air étonné, c’est qu’à lui comme à ceux qui passaient alors, dans le fiacre où ma grand’mère semblait assise sur la banquette, elle était apparue sombrant, glissant à l’abîme, se retenant désespérément aux coussins qui pouvaient à peine retenir son corps précipité, les cheveux en désordre, l’oeil égaré, incapable de plus faire face à l’assaut des images que ne réussissait plus à porter sa prunelle. Elle était apparue, bien qu’à côté de moi, plongée dans ce monde inconnu au sein duquel elle avait déjà reçu les coups dont elle portait les traces quand je l’avais vue tout à l’heure aux Champs-Élysées, son chapeau, son visage, son manteau dérangés par la main de l’ange invisible avec lequel elle avait lutté.
(l’édition Gallimard, Paris, 1946-47)

也許那些日夜懼怕死亡突然降臨的人會發現這一類死亡或與死亡的初次接觸並不十分可怕因為它們具有人所熟悉的、親切和習以為常的外表。死前享用了一頓豐盛的午餐,飯後和健康人一樣出門遊玩。乘坐敞著車篷的馬車回家,途中死亡對你首次襲擊。儘管外祖母病得很重,也總會有幾個人說,在六點鐘看見我們從香榭麗舍大街回家,還同外祖母打了招呼,馬車敞著車篷,天氣很好。
……
勒格朗丹神色驚異地凝視我們,是因為他和其他過路人一樣,認為我外祖母坐在馬車上,卻在向深淵滑去。外祖母拼力抓住坐墊,竭力使身軀不下沉。她頭髮蓬亂,目光茫然,行人魚貫而過,但她的瞳孔卻映不出任何圖像。她坐在我身邊,卻似已經沉入了一個陌生的世界。剛才,在香榭麗舍大街上,我已經目睹她遭受到那個世界的襲擊,依然能看到痕跡:她的帽子,她的臉,她的大衣,被一個看不見的天神弄得亂七八糟,她同天神進行了搏鬥。
(p.351~352 追憶似水年華 III蓋爾芒特家那邊 聯經版 1992)

Perhaps those who are haunted as a rule by the fear of the utter strangeness of death will find something reassuring in this kind of death—in this kind of first contact with death—because death thus assumes a known, familiar guise of everyday life. A good luncheon has preceded it, and the same outing that people take who are in perfect health. A drive home in an open carriage comes on top of its first onslaught; ill as my grandmother was, there were, after all, several people who could testify that at six o’clock, as we came home from the Champs-Elysées, they had bowed to her as she drove past in an open carriage, in perfect weather.
……
And if Legrandin had looked back at us with that astonished air, it was because to him, as to the other people who passed us then, in the cab in which my grandmother was apparently seated she had seemed to be foundering, sliding into the abyss, clinging desperately to the cushions which could barely arrest the downward plunge of her body, her hair in disorder, her eye wild, unable any longer to face the assault of the images which its pupil was not strong enough now to bear. She had appeared to them, although I was still by her side, submerged in that unknown world somewhere in which she had already received the blows, traces of which she still bore when I looked up at her a few minutes earlier in the Champs-Elysées, her hat, her face, her cloak left in disorder by the hand of the invisible angel with whom she had wrestled.
(Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff)

Perhaps people who are normally haunted by the fear of the utter strangeness of death will find something reassuring about this kind of death
about this kind of initial contact with deathin that it assumes a known, familiar, everyday character. It has been preceded by a good lunch and the same sort of outing that is made by perfectly healthy people. A drive home in an open carriage covers up its first attack; ill as my grandmother was, there were still several people who could bear witness to the fact that at six o’clock, as we returned from the Champs-Élysées, they had raised their hats to her as she drove by in an carriage, on a beautiful day.
……
And if Legrandin had looked at us with astonishment on his face, it was because to him, as to others who passed us at the time, in the cab in which my grandmother was apparently sitting back, she had seemed to be sinking down, slithering into the abyss, desperately clinging to the cushions, which could scarcely hold back the impetus of her falling body, her hair disheveled, a distraught look in her eyes, which were no longer capable of focusing on the onrush of images their pupils could bear no more. She had seemed, even with me sitting beside her, to be plunged into that unknown world in which she had already received the blows whose marks I had noticed earlier in the Champs-Élysées, when I saw her hat, her face, her coat thrown into disarray by the hand of the invisible angel with whom she had wrestled.
(Translated by Mark Treharne)

( 知識學習隨堂筆記 )
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