放逐在宇宙之外——Wakefield

賞析/ 李科

納撒尼爾·霍桑(Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804～1864)，是美國文學史上最偉大的小說家之一。他出生于美國馬薩諸塞州塞勒姆市。霍桑大學就讀于緬因州的鮑登學院，畢業后隱居故鄉，專注于讀書寫作，蟄居長達12年之久。1837年，霍桑出版了短篇小說集《重述的故事》(Twice-Told Tales)，獲得了眾多批評家的認可，奠定了他浪漫文學大師的文壇地位?；羯５拇碜鬟€有《紅字》(The Scarlet Letter)、《七個尖頂的閣樓》(The House of Seven Gables)和《福谷傳奇》(The Blithedale Romance)等長篇小說。他擅長在小說中深入挖掘人物的內心世界，探討人性本質?！锻朔茽柕隆?Wakefield)選自其短篇小說集《重述的故事》，是其中較有影響的一篇。

Excerpts1)

In some old magazine or newspaper I recollect a story, told as truth, of a man—let us call him Wakefield—who absented himself for a long time from his wife. The fact, thus abstractedly stated, is not very uncommon, nor—without a proper distinction of circumstances—to be condemned either as naughty or nonsensical. Howbeit2), this, though far from the most aggravated, is perhaps the strangest instance on record of marital delinquency3); and, moreover, as remarkable a freak as may be found in the whole list of human oddities. The wedded couple lived in London. The man, under pretence of going a journey, took lodgings in the next street to his own house, and there, unheard of by his wife or friends, and without the shadow of a reason for such self-banishment, dwelt upwards of twenty years. During that period, he beheld his home every day, and frequently the forlorn4) Mrs. Wakefield. And after so great a gap in his matrimonial5) felicity6)—when his death was reckoned certain, his estate settled, his name dismissed from memory, and his wife, long, long ago, resigned to her autumnal7) widowhood—he entered the door one evening, quietly, as from a days absence, and became a loving spouse till death….

What sort of a man was Wakefield? We are free to shape out our own idea, and call it by his name. He was now in the meridian8) of life; his matrimonial affections, never violent, were sobered into a calm, habitual sentiment; of all husbands, he was likely to be the most constant, because a certain sluggishness9) would keep his heart at rest, wherever it might be placed. He was intellectual, but not actively so; his mind occupied itself in long and lazy musings10), that ended to no purpose, or had not vigor to attain it; his thoughts were seldom so energetic as to seize hold of words. Imagination, in the proper meaning of the term, made no part of Wakefields gifts. With a cold but not depraved11) nor wandering heart, and a mind never feverish with riotous thoughts, nor perplexed with originality, who could have anticipated that our friend would entitle himself to a foremost place among the doers of eccentric deeds? Had his acquaintances been asked, who was the man in London the surest to perform nothing today which should be remembered on the morrow12), they would have thought of Wakefield. Only the wife of his bosom13) might have hesitated. She, without having analyzed his character, was partly aware of a quiet selfishness that had rusted into his inactive mind; of a peculiar sort of vanity, the most uneasy attribute about him; of a disposition to craft, which had seldom produced more positive effects than the keeping of petty secrets, hardly worth revealing; and, lastly, of what she called a little strangeness, sometimes, in the good man. This latter quality is indefinable, and perhaps non-existent.

Let us now imagine Wakefield bidding adieu14) to his wife. It is the dusk of an October evening. His equipment is a drab15) great-coat, a hat covered with an oilcloth, top-boots, an umbrella in one hand and a small portmanteau16) in the other. He has informed Mrs. Wakefield that he is to take the night coach17) into the country. She would fain18) inquire the length of his journey, its object, and the probable time of his return; but, indulgent to his harmless love of mystery, interrogates him only by a look. He tells her not to expect him positively by the return coach, nor to be alarmed should he tarry19) three or four days; but, at all events, to look for him at supper on Friday evening. Wakefield himself, be it considered, has no suspicion of what is before him. He holds out his hand, she gives her own, and meets his parting kiss, in the matter-of-course way of a ten years matrimony; and forth goes the middle-aged Mr. Wakefield, almost resolved to perplex his good lady by a whole weeks absence. After the door has closed behind him, she perceives it thrust20) partly open, and a vision of her husbands face, through the aperture21), smiling on her, and gone in a moment. For the time, this little incident is dismissed without a thought. But, long afterwards, when she has been more years a widow than a wife, that smile recurs, and flickers across all her reminiscences of Wakefields visage22). In her many musings, she surrounds the original smile with a multitude of fantasies, which make it strange and awful: as, for instance, if she imagines him in a coffin, that parting look is frozen on his pale features; or, if she dreams of him in heaven, still his blessed spirit wears a quiet and crafty smile. Yet, for its sake, when all others have given him up for dead, she sometimes doubts whether she is a widow.

But our business is with the husband. We must hurry after him along the street, ere23) he lose his individuality, and melt into the great mass of London life. It would be vain searching for him there. Let us follow close at his heels, therefore, until, after several superfluous turns and doublings, we find him comfortably established by the fireside of a small apartment, previously bespoken24). He is in the next street to his own, and at his journeys end. He can scarcely trust his good fortune, in having got thither25) unperceived—recollecting that, at one time, he was delayed by the throng, in the very focus of a lighted lantern; and, again, there were footsteps that seemed to tread behind his own, distinct from the multitudinous tramp around him; and, anon26), he heard a voice shouting afar, and fancied that it called his name. Doubtless, a dozen busybodies had been watching him, and told his wife the whole affair. Poor Wakefield! Little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world! No mortal eye but mine has traced thee.27)

1. 節選部分選自小說的前半部分，對主人公威克菲爾德進行了介紹并描述了其最初離家出走的情況。

2. howbeit [ha??bi??t] adv. [古語]盡管如此

3. delinquency [d??l??kw?nsi] n. 不端行為

4. forlorn [f?(r)?l??(r)n] adj. 被遺棄的

5. matrimonial [?m?tr??m??ni?l] adj. 婚姻的，與婚姻有關的

6. felicity [f??l?s?ti] n. 幸福，福氣

7. autumnal [???t?mn(?)l] adj. 已過中年的

8. meridian [m??r?di?n] n. (健康、精力的)全盛期

9. sluggishness [?sl?ɡ??n?s] n. 懶怠

10. musing [?mju?z??] n. 沉思，冥想

11. depraved [d??pre?vd] adj. 墮落的

12. morrow [?m?r??] n. 次日

13. bosom [?b?z(?)m] n. 親密的關系

14. adieu [??dju?] n. 告別，離別

15. drab [dr?b] adj. 土褐色的

16. portmanteau [p??(r)t?m?nt??] n. 旅行皮箱

17. coach [k??t?] n. 四輪大馬車

18. fain [fe?n] adv. 欣然，樂意地

19. tarry [?t?ri] vi. 逗留；耽擱

20. thrust [θr?st] vt. (用力)推

21. aperture [??p?(r)t??(r)] n. 縫隙

22. visage [?v?z?d?] n. 容貌

23. ere [e?(r)] conj. 在……以前

24. bespoken [b??sp??k?n] adj. 預訂的

25. thither [?????(r)] adv. 到那邊

26. anon [??n?n] adv. 不久，之后

27. 在這句話中，有幾個單詞用的是古語的形式，其中knowest = knows，thou = you (主格)，thine = your，thee = you (賓格)。

作品賞析

美國小說大師納撒尼爾·霍桑的《威克菲爾德》講述了一則離奇的故事。一位住在倫敦的已婚男子告訴妻子自己要出門幾天，隨即搬到隔壁街道，不肯與家人再通音訊。20年后的某一天，就像他離開時一樣，他一聲不響地回到了妻子身邊，直到終老。

“丈夫離家出走”這樣的故事情節，在小說和影視作品中并不少見：可能是丈夫愛上了別的女性，與對方開始了新的生活；也可能是丈夫厭倦了一成不變的婚姻生活，一個人去浪跡天涯。但小說《威克菲爾德》的特殊之處在于，主人公威克菲爾德離家出走并沒有明確的理由，只是一時興起。而且，所謂離家，依然是住在同一個街區，離自己的家只有一個路口的距離，但主人公就這樣與妻子咫尺天涯地生活了20年。

威克菲爾德是個循規蹈矩的老實人，既沒有風流倜儻的外表，也沒有一顆花花公子的心。他和妻子結婚十年，妻子賢惠忠貞，無可挑剔。是什么阻止了威克菲爾德的回歸，使他突發奇想的惡作劇變成了一道無法彌合的鴻溝，將他和妻子隔絕開來？如果我們仔細閱讀小說，將會發現，答案是因為威克菲爾德不滿意自己離家出走后周圍人所表現出的鎮靜。他渴望的是無條件的愛，希望屬于他的這一片天空能夠因為他這顆星體發生的悄然位移而引發巨大的震動。

在離家出走的當天，威克菲爾德就在盼望著有人能夠注意到他的意圖。他一邊和妻子說要到鄉下住上三五天，一邊擔心妻子會發現他在撒謊。其實，他的擔心中掩藏著渴望，渴望妻子能夠注意到他這一刻的與眾不同。他的妻子卻只是“以十年夫妻理所當然的方式，接受了他臨別的一吻”。離開家后，威克菲爾德并沒有立刻去新公寓，而是在城里兜了個很大的圈子。這樣做的目的是甩掉跟蹤的人。他一廂情愿地以為整個世界都在向他行注目禮，緊盯著他的一舉一動。

威克菲爾德的離家出走，并不是成年人式的深思熟慮的結果，而是孩子式的任性。孩子總是想當然地以為自己應該是世界的中心。想要媽媽抱，要不到就會嚎啕大哭；想要玩具車，要不到可能就會大發脾氣；想要人們的關注，要不到可能就會生出離家出走的念頭：“當大人發現我失蹤了，肯定會萬分著急，即刻會來找我。”其實，成人世界的情感和孩子所理解的不一樣。成人世界的情感不是先驗的、無條件的，沒有誰可以不用付出便擁有他人無休止的關注。可惜當威克菲爾德領會到這一點的時候，他的心已經被深深地傷害了。

威克菲爾德原打算離家出走一星期。在這一周之內，他一次次在舊家附近徘徊，希望妻子、女仆以及聽差，無論是誰，至少有人能夠體現出對他離家的關注。事與愿違，周圍人的生活平靜如昨。為此他惱羞成怒：“他好生悶氣，脾氣有時候也挺固執，眼下因為太太對自己的失蹤不夠重視，犟脾氣又上來了。不把她嚇個半死就決不回去?！比缢?，妻子為他遲遲不歸開始愁眉不展，一天比一天蒼白，甚至病倒了。然而，還沒有等他決定是否該回家，妻子就康復了。危機過去，她習慣了沒有他的日子，生活平靜淡然。十年后，他們再相遇，熙攘的人潮把她擠進他的懷里，她抬頭望向他，并沒有認出這就是曾經和自己同床共枕了十年的人。

在《威克菲爾德》中，霍桑寫出了人類親密關系之中的孤獨。英文中，alone與lonely這兩個單詞都表示“孤獨的”，但兩者卻有著很大的區別，前者側重于指一個人獨居，后者強調的則是內心的孤獨感。人們可以一個人住在荒原而絲毫不覺得寂寞；也可能置身于熱鬧的狂歡舞會，卻感受到形單影只。熙攘人群中的孤獨有時比離群索居更可怕、更難耐。路上的人行色匆匆，有誰曾留意過擦肩而過的人中是否有熟悉的面孔？夫妻、同事、朋友——人與人的命運以某種方式聯系在一起，但這并不表示就一定會彼此惦念、彼此關懷。的確，小說中的威克菲爾德任性而自私，但是細想他的動機，不過是貪戀愛與關注，他其實是個可憐人。當然，我們沒有理由指責他的妻子，畢竟是他拋棄她在前，又有什么資格要求她無條件的專注與癡情。

《威克菲爾德》有個貌似和諧的結尾。在某個寒冷的秋夜，威克菲爾德仰望舊居二樓的窗戶，在那里看到了壁爐溫暖的火光和妻子的身影。他爬上樓梯，推開了門，走進屋，回到了婚姻生活之中。不過，我們都清楚地知道，威克菲爾德的回歸不是勝利，而是妥協。因為他和妻子之間，除了昔日那份并不濃烈的感情，又加上了20年的陌生。

特蕾莎修女(Mother Teresa of Calcutta)曾經說過：“我們有時會以為貧困是沒有飯吃、沒有衣穿、無家可歸。但最可怕的貧困其實是沒有人需要我們、愛我們、關懷我們。”人類是渺小的、卑微的，所以才如此渴望被關注、被牢記、被深愛。如果沒有人惦念和懷想，從這個世界消失是一件多么簡單的事情，就像是在無垠的宇宙中，一顆小行星被某個黑洞所吞噬，宇宙平穩地運轉著，仿佛什么也沒有發生過。然而，人與人之間的惦念與懷想依靠的是心與心之間的一根線，它是如此纖細，經不住懷疑與試煉的反復拉扯。所以，珍惜身邊的人，握緊彼此的手，不要輕言別離，哪怕別離的距離只隔著一條短短的街道。如果線斷了，人就會被放逐在親密關系之外，成為宇宙間無家可歸的棄兒。