贝克特：《死亡想象》
上一篇 / 下一篇 2014-10-15 20:01:42 / 个人分类：译文
这么短一篇文章，翻译了五六个小时。。。唉。翻译得不好，敬求大神指正。
死亡想象
贝克特【爱尔兰】
翻译：梁上
想象吧：没有一丝生命的地方，你说“啪，这没什么困难，想象力还没死呢。“是的，死亡，好，想象死亡的想象。岛屿，海域，湛蓝，翠绿，正要看过去就消失了，无休无止地——省略。直至全白的白色圆形大厅。
没有入口，但走进去，测量。直径三尺，地面到拱顶三尺。两个成直角的直径AB CD分白色地面为两个半圆ACB和BDA。躺在地上两具白色的身体，每一个占据一个半圆。拱顶和环形墙壁也是白色，从开始处算起高度十八英寸。返回，出去，一个普通的圆形建筑，全白的白度，回去，叩击，全都是坚硬的，一个环形，就像想象中的骨戒。这使得一切都那么白的光看不到光源，所有的光线都是同样的白色光泽，地面，墙面，拱顶，身体，没有阴影。
强烈的热，触感是热的但并不灼人，身体出汗。退出到外面，倒退着，小的纺织物消失，上升，消失，全白，下降，回去，无声，热，白色，等一下，灯光减弱，所有的黑暗一齐生长，地面，墙壁，拱顶，身体，20秒，所有的灰色，灯熄灭，一切消失。同时温度下降，达到最低，冰点，在同一时刻黑色降临，这可能看起来很陌生。等等吧，或长或短，光热回来了，所有的白色生长，温度也是，地面，墙面，拱顶，身体，20秒，所有的灰色，直至下降开始时的初始水平。或长或短，因为可能受到干扰，经验表明了，下降结束与上升开始之间，停滞的长短不一，从第二部分到看起来本该发生的，在其他时间，其他的地方，一次永恒。
对另一个停顿，我们作同样的观察，上升的结束和下降开始之间。两个极限，在持续的过程中它们是完全稳定的，一开始在温度上可能显得很奇怪。这也是可能的，经验表明，上升和下降的过程在任何时候短暂停顿，并将之标记为一个暂停，或长或短，在恢复之前，或者会逆转，上升的现在下降，下降的上升，上升与下降在轮到它们时会完成或短暂停止，标记为一个暂停，恢复之前，或再逆转之前，如此等等，直到终于一个或另一个极端达到为止。上升和下降的这种变化，结合为无尽的节奏，共同出席从白色和热到黑色和冷的过程，反之亦然。仅有两个极限情况是稳定的，同时这种稳定由往复的振动强调，以在一些中间阶段暂停发生时进行观察，无论其程度和持续时间。然后，所有振动，地面，墙面，拱顶，身体，灰白或铅灰色，或在两者之间，就像它可能是的样子。
但总体来说，经验表明，这种不确定的过程是不常见的。而最经常的是，当光开始衰退，并且热量随之衰退时，运动是持续而不间断的，直到在一些20秒的空白，达到了漆黑，同一瞬间，所谓冰点。在相反的运动中我们给出同样的定论，热和白色。另一个最常见的状况是下降或上升具有不同长度的在这些发热的灰色中的而不在运动的任何时刻逆转的停顿。但无论它的不确定性，返回到暂时的平静迟早是会发生这一点似乎可以放心，就目前而言，在黑色的黑暗或一片白色，与随之而来的温度里，世界仍然保持避免持久的喧哗。在理想的空隙后或许会奇迹般地重新发现它不再是完全一样的，然而从这个角度来看，没有其它的情况。
外部都是像以前一样，视线中小的纺织物像是偶然的事件，其白色在周围的白色中融化。但是继续，简短暂时平息和永不重复的风波。光和热保持相关联，就好像由相同的仍然找不到的源头发出。两具身体还在地面上，弯曲成3的形状，靠在B点墙上的头，在A处墙上的臀部，顶在B和C之间的墙上的膝盖，顶在C和A之间的脚，也就是说，内接于半圆ACB，与白色的地面融为一体，如果不是奇怪的有着不完美的白色的长发的话，女人的白色身体。同样，内接于另一个半圆，头在A点靠着墙，臀部在B点，他的膝盖在A和D之间，他的脚在D和B间，这个伴侣。
在他们的右侧，双方的右侧，两个身体背靠背，头靠着臀部。嘴唇夹着一面镜子，结雾。他们用自己的左手抱住其左腿，位置稍低于膝盖，用右手和左胳膊肘上面一点的部分。在这不断变化的光里，它的伟大的白色的平静现在如此罕见而短暂，这检验起来是不容易的。他们可能不能很好地承受的汗水和镜子，被误认为是死气沉沉的，但并不，由于左眼在不可估量的间隔里的突然大幅度地睁开，并凝视，超出了人类极限的不眨眼的凝视。有穿透力的淡蓝色，在开始的时候效果是惊人的。两个从未一起凝视，除了曾有一次，当一个人的身体开始与另一个重叠，大约10秒。不胖不瘦，不大不小，身体似乎完整丙处于十分良好的状态，通过对表面的被曝光的观察判断得知。面部也是同样，假设两边为一个整体，看起来似乎并没有什么必需品的需要。在他们的绝对寂静和痉挛性变化的光的对比是惊人的，在开始的时候，因为一个人将仍然记得当时自己为这对比产生了惊讶。很明显，但是如从一千个微小迹象中指出的那样，时间已经太长了以至于无法想象，他们并非处于睡眠之中。
只有杂音，啊，没有其他，在这种沉默里，而在同一时刻猎物的眼睛无限小的颤抖被瞬间抑制。让他们在那儿吧，出着汗，并冰冷，还有其他更好的地方。不，生命结束，没有了，没有什么别的地方，而且毫无疑问，现在，不断重新发现，那白点已遗失在一片白色之中，看看他们是否仍然静静地躺在那场风暴的压力中，或者在更糟糕的风暴里，或永远在黑色的黑暗里，或是宏大的不变的白色，并且看看，如果没有，那他们在做什么。
Imagination Dead Imagine
Samuel Beckett
No trace anywhere of life, you say, pah, no difficulty there, imagination not dead yet, yes, dead, good, imagination dead imagine. Islands, waters, azure, verdure, one glimpse and vanished, endlessly, omit. Till all white in the whiteness the rotunda.
No way in, go in, measure. Diameter three feet, three feet from ground to summit of the vault. Two diameters at right angles AB CD divide the white ground into two semicircles ACB BDA. Lying on the ground two white bodies, each in its semicircle. White too the vault and the round wall eighteen inches high from which it springs. Go back out, a plain rotunda, all white in the whiteness, go back in, rap, solid throughout, a ring as in the imagination the ring of bone. The light that makes all so white no visible source, all shines with the same white shine, ground, wall, vault, bodies, no shadow.
Strong heat, surfaces hot but not burning to the touch, bodies sweating. Go back out, move back, the little fabric vanishes, ascend, it vanishes, all white in the whiteness, descend, go back in. Emptiness, silence, heat, whiteness, wait, the light goes down, all grows dark together, ground, wall, vault, bodies, say twenty seconds, all the greys, the light goes out, all vanishes. At the same time the temperature goes down, to reach its minimum, say freezing-point, at the same instant that the black is reached, which may seem strange. Wait, more or less long, light and heat come back, all grows white and hot together, ground, wall, vault, bodies, say twenty seconds, all the greys, till the initial level is reached whence the fall began. More or less long, for there may intervene, experience shows, between end of fall and beginning of rise, pauses of varying length, from the fraction of the second to what would have seemed, in other times, other places, an eternity.
Same remark for the other pause, between end of rise and beginning of fall. The extremes, as long as they last, are perfectly stable, which in the case of the temperature may seem strange, in the beginning. It is possible too, experience shows, for rise and fall to stop short at any point and mark a pause, more or less long, before resuming, or reversing, the rise now fall, the fall rise ,these in their turn to be completed, or to stop short and mark a pause, more or less long, before resuming, or again reversing, and so on, till finally one or the other extreme is reached. Such variations of rise and fall, combining in countless rhythms, commonly attend the passage from white and heat to black and cold, and vice versa. The extremes alone are stable as is stressed by the vibration to be observed when a pause occurs at some intermediate stage, no matter what its level and duration. Then all vibrates, ground, wall, vault, bodies, ashen or leaden or between the two, as may be.
But on the whole, experience shows, such uncertain passage is not common. And most often, when the light begins to fail, and along with it the heat, the movement continues unbroken until, in the space of some twenty seconds, pitch black is reached and at the same instant say freezing-point. Same remark for the reverse movement, towards heat and whiteness. Next most frequent is the fall or rise with pauses of varying length in these feverish greys, without at any moment reversal of the movement. But whatever its uncertainties the return sooner or later to a temporary calm seems assured, for the moment, in the black dark or the great whiteness, with attendant temperature, world still proof against enduring tumult. Rediscovered miraculously after what absence in perfect voids it is no longer quite the same, from this point of view, but there is no other.
Externally all is as before and the sighting of the little fabric quite as much a matter of chance, its whiteness merging in the surrounding whiteness. But go in now briefer lulls and never twice the same storm. Light and heat remain linked as though supplied by the same source of which still no trace. Still on the ground, bent in three, the head against the wall at B, the arse against the wall at A, the knees against the wall between B and C, the feet against the wall between C and A, that is to say inscribed in the semicircle ACB, merging in the white ground were it not for the long hair of strangely imperfect whiteness, the white body of a woman finally. Similarly inscribed in the other semicircle, against the wall his head at A, his arse at B, his knees between A and D, his feet between D and B, the partner.
On their right sides therefore both and back to back head to arse. Hold a mirror to their lips, it mists. With their left hands they hold their left legs a little below the knee, with their right hands their left arms a little above the elbow. In this agitated light, its great white calm now so rare and brief, inspection is not easy. Sweat and mirror notwithstanding they might well pass for inanimate but for the left eyes which at incalculable intervals suddenly open wide and gaze in unblinking exposure long beyond what is humanly possible. Piercing pale blue the effect is striking, in the beginning. Never the two gazes together except once, when the beginning of one overlapped the end of the other, for about ten seconds. Neither fat nor thin, big nor small, the bodies seem whole and in fairly good condition, to judge by the surfaces exposed to view. The faces too, assuming the two sides of a piece, seem to want nothing essential. Between their absolute stillness and the convulsive light the contrast is striking, in the beginning, for one who still remembers having been struck by the contrary. It is clear however, from a thousand little signs too long to imagine, that they are not sleeping.
Only murmur ah, no more, in this silence, and at the same instant for the eye of prey the infinitesimal shudder instantaneously suppressed. Leave them there, sweating and icy, there is better elsewhere. No, life ends and no, there is nothing elsewhere, and no question now of ever finding again that white speck lost in whiteness, to see if they still lie still in the stress of that storm, or of a worse storm, or in the black dark for good, or the great whiteness unchanging, and if not what they are doing.
No way in, go in, measure. Diameter three feet, three feet from ground to summit of the vault. Two diameters at right angles AB CD divide the white ground into two semicircles ACB BDA. Lying on the ground two white bodies, each in its semicircle. White too the vault and the round wall eighteen inches high from which it springs. Go back out, a plain rotunda, all white in the whiteness, go back in, rap, solid throughout, a ring as in the imagination the ring of bone. The light that makes all so white no visible source, all shines with the same white shine, ground, wall, vault, bodies, no shadow.
Strong heat, surfaces hot but not burning to the touch, bodies sweating. Go back out, move back, the little fabric vanishes, ascend, it vanishes, all white in the whiteness, descend, go back in. Emptiness, silence, heat, whiteness, wait, the light goes down, all grows dark together, ground, wall, vault, bodies, say twenty seconds, all the greys, the light goes out, all vanishes. At the same time the temperature goes down, to reach its minimum, say freezing-point, at the same instant that the black is reached, which may seem strange. Wait, more or less long, light and heat come back, all grows white and hot together, ground, wall, vault, bodies, say twenty seconds, all the greys, till the initial level is reached whence the fall began. More or less long, for there may intervene, experience shows, between end of fall and beginning of rise, pauses of varying length, from the fraction of the second to what would have seemed, in other times, other places, an eternity.
Same remark for the other pause, between end of rise and beginning of fall. The extremes, as long as they last, are perfectly stable, which in the case of the temperature may seem strange, in the beginning. It is possible too, experience shows, for rise and fall to stop short at any point and mark a pause, more or less long, before resuming, or reversing, the rise now fall, the fall rise ,these in their turn to be completed, or to stop short and mark a pause, more or less long, before resuming, or again reversing, and so on, till finally one or the other extreme is reached. Such variations of rise and fall, combining in countless rhythms, commonly attend the passage from white and heat to black and cold, and vice versa. The extremes alone are stable as is stressed by the vibration to be observed when a pause occurs at some intermediate stage, no matter what its level and duration. Then all vibrates, ground, wall, vault, bodies, ashen or leaden or between the two, as may be.
But on the whole, experience shows, such uncertain passage is not common. And most often, when the light begins to fail, and along with it the heat, the movement continues unbroken until, in the space of some twenty seconds, pitch black is reached and at the same instant say freezing-point. Same remark for the reverse movement, towards heat and whiteness. Next most frequent is the fall or rise with pauses of varying length in these feverish greys, without at any moment reversal of the movement. But whatever its uncertainties the return sooner or later to a temporary calm seems assured, for the moment, in the black dark or the great whiteness, with attendant temperature, world still proof against enduring tumult. Rediscovered miraculously after what absence in perfect voids it is no longer quite the same, from this point of view, but there is no other.
Externally all is as before and the sighting of the little fabric quite as much a matter of chance, its whiteness merging in the surrounding whiteness. But go in now briefer lulls and never twice the same storm. Light and heat remain linked as though supplied by the same source of which still no trace. Still on the ground, bent in three, the head against the wall at B, the arse against the wall at A, the knees against the wall between B and C, the feet against the wall between C and A, that is to say inscribed in the semicircle ACB, merging in the white ground were it not for the long hair of strangely imperfect whiteness, the white body of a woman finally. Similarly inscribed in the other semicircle, against the wall his head at A, his arse at B, his knees between A and D, his feet between D and B, the partner.
On their right sides therefore both and back to back head to arse. Hold a mirror to their lips, it mists. With their left hands they hold their left legs a little below the knee, with their right hands their left arms a little above the elbow. In this agitated light, its great white calm now so rare and brief, inspection is not easy. Sweat and mirror notwithstanding they might well pass for inanimate but for the left eyes which at incalculable intervals suddenly open wide and gaze in unblinking exposure long beyond what is humanly possible. Piercing pale blue the effect is striking, in the beginning. Never the two gazes together except once, when the beginning of one overlapped the end of the other, for about ten seconds. Neither fat nor thin, big nor small, the bodies seem whole and in fairly good condition, to judge by the surfaces exposed to view. The faces too, assuming the two sides of a piece, seem to want nothing essential. Between their absolute stillness and the convulsive light the contrast is striking, in the beginning, for one who still remembers having been struck by the contrary. It is clear however, from a thousand little signs too long to imagine, that they are not sleeping.
Only murmur ah, no more, in this silence, and at the same instant for the eye of prey the infinitesimal shudder instantaneously suppressed. Leave them there, sweating and icy, there is better elsewhere. No, life ends and no, there is nothing elsewhere, and no question now of ever finding again that white speck lost in whiteness, to see if they still lie still in the stress of that storm, or of a worse storm, or in the black dark for good, or the great whiteness unchanging, and if not what they are doing.
