【書摘】在斯萬家那邊—斯萬的愛情 (Swann in love) 5
D’ailleurs on commençait à éteindre partout. Sous les arbres des boulevards, dans une obscurité mystérieuse, les passants plus rares erraient, à peine reconnaissables. Parfois l’ombre d’une femme qui s’approchait de lui, lui murmurant un mot à l’oreille, lui demandant de la ramener, fit tressaillir Swann. Il frôlait anxieusement tous ces corps obscurs comme si parmi les fantômes des morts, dans le royaume sombre, il eût cherché Eurydice.
……
Elle s’attendait si peu à le voir qu’elle eut un mouvement d’effroi. Quant à lui, il avait couru Paris non parce qu’il croyait possible de la rejoindre, mais parce qu’il lui était trop cruel d’y renoncer. Mais cette joie que sa raison n’avait cessé d’estimer, pour ce soir, irréalisable, ne lui en paraissait maintenant que plus réelle ; car, il n’y avait pas collaboré par la prévision des vraisemblances, elle lui restait extérieure ; il n’avait pas besoin de tirer de son esprit pour la lui fournir – c’est d’elle-même qu’émanait, c’est elle-même qui projetait vers lui – cette vérité qui rayonnait au point de dissiper comme un songe l’isolement qu’il avait redouté, et sur laquelle il appuyait, il reposait, sans penser, sa rêverie heureuse. Ainsi un voyageur arrivé par un beau temps au bord de la Méditerranée, incertain de l’existence des pays qu’il vient de quitter, laisse éblouir sa vue, plutôt qu’il ne leur jette des regards, par les rayons qu’émet vers lui l’azur lumineux et résistant des eaux.
(p.227~228, Éditions Gallimard, 1987)
這時四面八方的燈火都紛紛熄滅了。在林蔭大道的樹蔭下，在神秘莫測的黑影中，越來越稀少的行人在躑躅，幾乎分辨不出來。不時有個女人的身影走到斯萬跟前，在他耳邊嘟嚷兩句，請他送她回家，把斯萬嚇了一跳。他惶惶不安地從這些暗淡的身子邊擦過，彷彿是在黑暗的王國，在鬼魂叢中尋找歐律狄克一般。
……
她根本沒有想到會在此時此地碰上他，因此大吃一驚。而他呢他跑遍了整個巴黎城，也並不是因為他認為有可能碰上她，而是因為要是死掉這顆心的話，對他自己未免過殘酷了。他的理智一直認為今晚這份快樂是不可能實現的了，現在它卻成了再現實不過的東西；他自己並沒有去忖度種種可能來促成這份快樂的實現，它純粹是外來的東西；他也用不著絞盡腦汁來賦予它以現實性，這現實性是它自己產生出來的，是自己向他投來的。這個現實光芒四射，驅散了像夢幻一樣飄蕩在他心中的孤獨之感；而在這個現實之上，他在無意之中構築起幸福的遐想。這就像一個在晴朗的日子到達地中海岸的旅客一樣，對他剛離開的地方是否存在有所懷疑，這時他不去回顧這些地方，卻聽任迎面而來的海水的既明亮又始終如一的蔚藍色的光芒照得自己眼花繚亂。
(p.251~253 追憶似水年華 I 在斯萬家那邊 聯經版 1992)
說這話的當口，四周的店鋪陸續都熄燈關門了。林蔭大道的大樹下，顯得幽黑而神秘，寥落的大街上依稀還能看到幾個行人的身影。時而有個女人的身影湊近他的身旁，耳語般地對他說，讓他把她帶回家去，把斯萬聽得嚇一大跳。他忐忑不安地從這些黑黲黲的身影邊上擦過，猶如在冥界的鬼魂當中尋找歐律狄刻。
……
她沒想到會見到他，不由得嚇了一跳。他呢，這樣跑遍巴黎城也並不是當真以為有可能遇見她，而只是因為就此放棄實在心有不甘。然而這份他在這今晚上始終以為無法得到的快樂，此刻在他看來卻顯得分外實在；他對這一快樂僅僅考慮過它的可能性而已，所以它對他而言仍然是外在的；他無須憑借想像去感知它的存在，它本身就是實實在在的現實，就是向他噴薄而出的現實，這一現實光芒四射，如夢一般驅散了他為之憂心的孤獨，他憑依這一現實，不假思索地張開了幸福的幻想之翼。這就好比一個旅客在陽光明媚之際來到地中海岸邊，對他剛離開的那些地方究竟是否存在，心頭猶自感到茫然，但他隨即收起視線，迎著閃閃發亮、拍岸而來的海水，聽任這片蔚藍色的光芒照花自己的眼睛。
(p.256~258 追尋逝去的時光 I 去斯萬家那邊 上海譯文版 周克希譯 2004)
Meanwhile the restaurants were closing, and their lights began to go out. Under the trees of the boulevards there were still a few people strolling to and fro, barely distinguishable in the gathering darkness. Now and then the ghost of a woman glided up to Swann, murmured a few words in his ear, asked him to take her home, and left him shuddering. Anxiously he explored every one of these vaguely seen shapes, as though among the phantoms of the dead, in the realms of darkness, he had been searching for a lost Eurydice.
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She had so little expected to see him that she started back in alarm. As for him, he had ransacked the streets of Paris, not that he supposed it possible that he should find her, but because he would have suffered even more cruelly by abandoning the attempt. But now the joy (which, his reason had never ceased to assure him, was not, that evening at least, to be realised) was suddenly apparent, and more real than ever before; for he himself had contributed nothing to it by anticipating probabilities,—it remained integral and external to himself; there was no need for him to draw on his own resources to endow it with truth—it was from itself that there emanated, it was itself that projected towards him that truth whose glorious rays melted and scattered like the cloud of a dream the sense of loneliness which had lowered over him, that truth upon which he had supported, nay founded, albeit unconsciously, his vision of bliss. So will a traveller, who has come down, on a day of glorious weather, to the Mediterranean shore, and is doubtful whether they still exist, those lands which he has left, let his eyes be dazzled, rather than cast a backward glance, by the radiance streaming towards him from the luminous and unfading azure at his feet.
(Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff )
Lights were beginning to go out all around him. Under the trees on the boulevards, in a mysterious darkness, fewer people wandered past, barely recognizable. Now and then the shadow of a woman coming up to him, murmuring a word in his ear, asking him to take her home, would make Swann start. He brushed anxiously against all those dim bodies as if, among the phantoms of the dead, in the kingdom of darkness, he were searching for Eurydice.
……
She had so little expected to see him that she recoiled in fear. And he himself had run all over Paris not because he thought it was possible to find her, but because it was too hard for him to give up the search. But the joy which his reason had continued to believe was beyond realization that night only seemed even more real now; for since he had not collaborated with it by foreseeing its probabilities, it remained external to him; he did not need to reach into his mind to furnish it with truth, the truth emanated from it, was projected by it toward him, that truth whose radiance dispelled like a dream the isolation he had so dreaded, that truth on which he now based, on which he now rested, without thinking, his happy reverie. In the same way, a traveler arriving at the Mediterranean shore on a day of fine weather, no longer certain that the lands he has just left behind really exist, allows his vision to be dazzled, rather than looking at them himself, by the rays of light emitted in his direction by the luminous, resistant azure of the waters.
(Translated by Lydia Davis)
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