海外头条总编审   王 在 军   （中国）

海外头条副编审 Wendy温迪（英国）

海 外 头 条总 编   火 凤  凰 （海外）

图片选自百度

英文诵读：龚如仲（美国）

中文诵读：琬   乔（中国）

The Plague 

By Albert Camus 

Page 20

On April 28, when the Ransdoc Bureau announced that 8,000 rats had been collected, a wave of something like panics wept the town. There was a demand for drastic measures, the authorities were accused of slackness, and people who had houses on the coast spoke of moving there, early in the year thought it was. But next day the bureau informed them that the phenomenon had abruptly ended and the sanitary service had collected only a trifling number of rats. Everyone breathed more freely.

It was, however, on this same day, at noon, that Dr. Rieux, when parking his car in front of the apartment house where he lived, noticed the concierge coming toward him from the end of the street. He was draggling himself along, his head bent, arms and legs curiously splayed out, with the jerky movements of a clockwork doll. The old man was leaning on the arm of a priest whom the doctor knew. It was Father Paneloux, a learned and militant Jesuit, whom he had met occasionally and who was very highly thought of in our town, even in circles quite in different to religion. Rieus waited for the two men to draw up to him. M. Michel’s eyes were fever-bright and he was breathing wheezily. The old man explained that, feeling “a bit off color,” he had gone out to take the air. But he had started feeling pains in all sorts of places---in his neck, armpits, and groin---and had been obliged to turn back and ask Father Paneloux to give him an arm.

“It’s just swellings,” he said. “I must have strained myself somehow”.

Leaning out of the window of the car, the doctor ran his hand over the base of Michel’s neck; a hard lump, like a knot in wood, had formed there.

“Go to bed at once, and take your temperature. I’ll come to see you this afternoon.”

When the old man had gone, Rieux asked Father Paneloux what he made of the queer business about the rats.“Oh， I suppose it’s an epidemic they’ve been having.”The Father’s eyes were smiling behind his big round glasses.

After lunch, while Riex was reading for the second time the telegram his wife had sent from the sanatorium, announcing her arrival, the phone rang. It was one of his former patients, a clerk in the Municipal Office, ringing him up. He had suffered for a long time from a constriction of aorta, and, as he was poor, Rieux had charged no fee. “Thanks, doctor, for remembering me. But this time it’s somebody else. The man next door has had an accident. Please come at once”. He sounded out of breath.

Rieux thought quickly: yes, he could see the concierge afterwards. A few minutes later he was entering a small house the rue Faidherbe, on the out skirts of the town. Halfway up the drafty, foul-smelling stairs, he saw Jeseph Grand, the clerk, hurrying down to meet him. He was a man of about fifty years of age, tall and drooping, with narrow shoulders, thin limbs, and a yellowish mustache. 

“He looks better bow,” he told Rieux, “but I really thought his number was up”. He blew his nose vigorously. 

On the top floor, the third, Rieux noticed something scrawled in red chalk on a door on the left:”Come in, I’ve hanged myself”.

《鼠疫》第20页

作者：（法国）阿尔贝-加缪

然而，四月二十八日，情报资料局宣布收集到了约八千只死老鼠，人们的焦虑到达了顶峰。有人呼吁采取严厉措施，有人谴责当局，有些海滨住户已经在说要搬家了。但第二天，情报资料局宣布这个现象突然停止了，灭鼠所只收集到了一小批死老鼠。城里人松了口气。

　　可就在那天中午十二点，里厄医生把车停在楼门前的时候，发现门房正从路那头吃力地走来，脑袋朝前耷拉着，手脚岔开，像个木偶。老头挽着一位牧师的胳膊，医生认识这位牧师。牧师名叫帕纳卢，是耶稣会教士，知识渊博，人也活跃，在我们这个城市里很受尊敬，即使在那些对宗教抱着淡漠态度的人们中间也是如此。医生等着他们过来。老米歇尔两眼发光，呼吸的时候嘶嘶直喘气。他觉得不太舒服，想呼吸些新鲜空气，但脖子、腋下和腹股沟痛得他朝回走，要帕纳卢神甫扶他一把。

　　米歇尔说：“有几个肿块，很难受。”

　　医生侧过身体，胳膊伸出车门，用手指摸了摸米歇尔伸过来的脖子：那里出现了一种类似木头结节的东西。

　　“去床上躺着吧，量下体温，下午我来看你。”

　　门房走后，里厄问帕纳卢神甫对于老鼠事件的想法。

　　“哦！肯定是瘟疫。”神甫说。他的眼睛在镜片后面笑。

　　吃完午饭，里厄重读那份疗养所打来的通知他妻子到达的电报时，电话铃响了。是他的一位老患者打来的，这人是市政府的一位职员，长期饱受主动脉瓣狭窄症的折磨，因为穷，里厄不收他的钱。

　　他说：“是我，你还记得我。但这次是别人。快来，我邻居家出事了。”

　　他说话时喘不过气来。里厄想到了门房，决定稍后去看他。过了几分钟，医生就来到了郊区费代尔布街上的一幢矮房子跟前。走了一半那又阴又臭的楼梯，他碰到了约瑟夫·格朗，就是那个职员，下楼来接他。这人五十来岁，留着黄色的小胡子，高个子，驼背，肩膀狭窄，四肢瘦长。

　　他到了里厄跟前，说：“他好些了，我还以为他完了呢。”

　　他抽抽鼻子。里厄在三楼（最高层）左边门上看到了用红粉笔写的几个字：“进来吧，我上吊了。”

【作者简介】龚如仲（Ralph) 中国对外经济贸易大学英语系毕业。曾任铁道部援建坦赞铁路工作组总部英语翻译，中国国际广播电台英语部播音员、记者，外贸部中国轻工业品进出口总公司驻美国公司总裁，澳大利亚利富集团驻美国公司总裁，外贸部中国基地总公司驻美国公司总裁，美国TA国际有限公司驻北京办事处首席代表

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