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 24

You knew Camps, didn't you?” asked one of them.

"Camps? A tall chap with a black mustache?”

“That's him. A switchman.”

“Ah yes, I remember now.”

“Well, he's dead.”

“Oh? When did he die?”

“After that business about the rats.”

“You don't say so! What did he die of?"

"I couldn't say exactly. Some kind of fever. Of course, he never was what you might call fit. He got abscesses under the arms, and they did him in, it seems.”

"Still, he didn't look that different from other people.”

"I wouldn't say that. He had a weak chest and he used to play the trombone in the town band. It's hard on the lungs, blowing a trombone.”

“Ah, if you've got weak lungs, it don't instrument like that.” do you any good, blowing down a big

After jotting down this dialogue Tarrou went on to speculate why Camps had joined a band when it was so clearly inadvisable, and what obscure motive had led him to risk his life for the sake of parading the streets on Sunday mornings. We gather that Tarrou was agreeably impressed by a little scene that took place daily on the balcony of a house facing always several his window. His room at the hotel looked on to a small side street and there were always several cats sleeping in the shadow of the walls. Every day, soon after lunch, at a time when most people stayed indoors, enjoying a siesta, a dapper little old man stepped out on the balcony on the other side of the street. He had a soldierly bearing, very erect and affected a military style of dressing; his snow-white hair was always brushed to perfect smoothness. Leaning over the balcony he would call: Pussy! Pussy! in a voice at once haughty and endearing. The cat blinked up at him with sleep-pale eyes, but made no move as yet. He then proceeded to tear some paper into scraps and let them fall into the street;  interested by the fluttering shower of white butterflies, the cats came forward, lifting tentative paws toward the last scraps of paper. Then, taking careful aim, the old man would spit vigorously at the cats and, whenever a liquid missile hit the quarry, would beam with delight.

Lastly, Tarrou seemed to have been quite fascinated by the commercial character of the town, whose aspect, activities, and even pleasures all seemed to be dictated by considerations of business. This idiosyncrasy-the term he uses in his diary-was warmly approved of by Tarrou; indeed, one of his appreciative comments ends on the exclamation: “At last!”

These are the only passages in which our visitor's record, at this period, strikes a seemingly personal note. Its significance and the earnestness behind it might escape the reader on a casual perusal. For example, after describing how the discovery of a dead rat led the hotel cashier to make an error in his bill, Tarrou added: “Query: How contrive not to waste one's time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one's days on an uneasy chair in a dentist's waiting-room; by remaining on one's balcony all a Sunday afternoon; by listening to lectures in a language one doesn't know; by traveling by the longest and least-convenient train routes, and of course standing all the way; by lining pat the box-office of theaters and then not buying a seat; and so forth.”

《鼠疫》

作者：阿尔贝•加缪 （法国）

第24页

“您认识坎普斯这个人，对吧？”，一个售票员问道。

“坎普斯？那个高个子、黑胡子的，是吗？”

“就是他，过去在铁道上扳道岔的。”

“对，没错。”

“可是，他死了。”

“啊！什么时候死的呢？”

“在那老鼠事件之后。”

“唉，他到底生的是什么病？”

“不清楚，他当时发烧。不过，他的身体本来就不好。在他的腋下长了脓肿，他没能挺住。”

“可是看上去他的健康状况和别人没有两样啊！”

“不，他的肺部比较弱，他还参加过市军乐队，一直吹长号。长号这玩意儿是伤身体的。”

“唉，”另一个人最后说：“一个有肺部毛病的人就不该再吹长号了。”

  塔鲁写下了这些细节后提出了疑问：坎普斯明明知道参加市军乐队对自己有害处，但为什么仍然参加了？又有什么深奥的理由使他冒着生命的危险去参加星期日的游行演奏？

  接下去是记述塔鲁所看到的窗户对面阳台上时常出现的情况。对于这一点，他似乎很有好感。原来他的房间面向一条小小的横街，那里的墙影下经常睡着几只猫儿。每天吃完午饭，当面临炎热天气下的全城的人们正在室内午睡的时候，马路对面的阳台上就会出现一个矮老头儿，他长着一头梳理得整整齐齐的白发，穿着军人式的服装，身体别直，相当庄重。他用并不亲切但相当柔和的声音“咪咪，咪咪”地呼唤着那些猫儿。但猫儿只是张一张惺忪的睡眼，看了他一下，依然一动不动 。于是乎，那老者在小街的上空将一张张小纸条撕碎，用散落下去的、如同飞舞的白蝴蝶的碎纸条去吸引这些猫咪。由于被眼前的景象吸引，猫儿们立起身来，犹豫而又好奇地把爪子伸向最后还在飘落的纸条。矮老头就对着猫儿们吐出唾沫。倘若有一口吐中了猫儿，他就会开心地笑起来。

塔鲁最后好像还是被这座城市的商业魅力所吸引住了。他喜欢这个城市的市容、繁华，甚至连娱乐都好像是受生意买卖的需要所支配的。这个特点---塔鲁的日记本里就是这样写的---获得塔鲁的赞赏。于是在他的某一段颂扬的文字里是用这样的感叹作为结束语的：“总算不虚此行！”在这位旅客的这一时期的日记里，似乎只有这些地方才是出于他本人的真情。不过要看出这些笔记的意义和严肃性还是困难的。另外一段笔记的内容也是如此。比如，在记述一个旅馆出纳员由于发现了一只死老鼠而记错了账目后，塔鲁比平时较为潦草的加了这些话：“问题：如果不浪费时间，怎么办？答案：到漫长的时间里去体验。方法：在牙医的候诊室里，坐在不舒服的椅子上过上整整的一天；在自家的阳台上度过星期日的下午；去听别人用听不懂的语言来讲演；在选定的一条路程最远而又最不方便的铁路线上旅行，当然还得是站着；去剧院售票处排队而没有买到票等等。”

【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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中华诗词学会会员、中国经典文学网特约作家、台湾采薇出版社资深顾问、奥地利英文网Sinopress特聘专栏作家、欧华新移民作家协会会员、加拿大高校文学社周同题作者、海外華英总顾问，北美翰苑社长兼总编。

琬乔：朗诵爱好者，喜欢用声音传递世间一切美好与热爱！