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
英语诵读：龚如仲（美国）
中文播音：琬 乔（中国）
《鼠疫》第27页
作者：阿尔贝-加缪（法国）
英文诵读：龚如仲 （美国）
中文播音：琬 乔（中国）
“热得难熬，”他说，“但这对支气管倒挺不错。”
热得的确难熬，其程度正如发烧一样。整个城市在发烧，这至少是里厄医生当时的印象。那天早上他去费代尔布街，参加科塔尔自杀未遂事件的调查。但是他觉得自己这种感觉毫无根据。所以产生这种印象，他认为原因在于焦躁的情绪和大量的心事在纠缠着他，因此他觉得必须快点使自己的头脑镇定下来。
他抵达那儿的时候，警官还没有到。格朗在楼梯口等着，他们决定先到格朗家去，把门开着。这位市府职员住两间房，陈设很简单。令人注目的只有一只白本书架，上面放着两三本字典，还有一块黑板，上面写着虽已拭去一半但还能认得出来的“植花的小径”等字样。据格朗说，科塔尔昨晚睡得很好。但早上醒来，头部痛得不能动弹。格朗显得疲倦和心烦，不住在房里踱来踱去，把桌上一只装满稿纸的大文件夹，打开了又合起来。
他告诉医生，他对科塔尔不太熟悉，只是认为他有点小积蓄。科塔尔是个古怪的人。他们之间长时期来只有楼梯上相遇时打个招呼的关系。
“我只跟他谈过两次话。几天以前，我在楼梯口打翻了一盒带回家来的粉笔，有红色的也有蓝色的。这时，科塔尔走到楼梯口，帮我拾起来。他还问我，要这些不同颜色的粉笔作什么用。”
格朗于是向他解释：他想重新学点拉丁文。自从离开中学后，他已经忘记得差不多了。
“对呀！”他对医生说，“有人向我保证：这对更好地掌握法语的词义是有益的。”
他就把拉丁文的单词写在黑板上，用蓝粉笔再抄一遍词尾的变化——性、数、格的变化和变位，又用红粉笔抄写那不变的部分。
“我不知道科塔尔是否懂得，但是他对这表示感兴趣，并向我要了一支红粉笔。我当时感到有点奇怪，但这毕竟……当然我没想到他会用它来完成他的计划。”
里厄正在问他第二次谈话的内容是什么，但是警官带着秘书来到了。他首先要听听格朗的陈述。医生发觉格朗在谈到科塔尔时，总是称他为“绝望者”。他甚至一度用上“致命的决定”这种词儿。他们讨论了自杀的原因，格朗却显得咬文嚼字。最后大家同意选用“内心痛苦”一词。警官问从科塔尔的态度上是否事先一点也看不出他的所谓“决定”。
THE PLAGUE
By ALBERTCAMUS
page 27
It cooks you,” he said. “Just the thing for asthma.”
Certainly it “cooked you,” but exactly like a fever. Indeed, the whole town was running a temperature; such anyhow was the impression Dr. Rieux could not shake off as he drove to the rue Faidherbe for the inquiry into Cottard' s attempted suicide. That this impression was unreasonable he knew, and he attributed it to nervous exhaustion; he had certainly his full share of worries just at present. In fact, it was high time to put the brakes on and try to get his nerves into some sort of order.
On reaching his destination he found that the police inspector hadn't turned up yet. Grand, who met him on the landing, suggested they should wait in his place, leaving the door open. The municipal clerk had two rooms, both very sparsely furnished. The only objects to catch the eye were a bookshelf on which lay two or three dictionaries, and a small blackboard on which one could just read two half-obliterated words: "flowery avenues.”
Grand announced that Cottard had had a good night. But he'd waked up this morning with pains in his head and feeling very low. Grand, too, looked tired and overwrought; he kept pacing up and down the room, opening and closing a portfolio crammed with sheets of manuscript that lay on the table. Meanwhile, however, he informed the doctor that he really knew very little about Cottard but believed him to have private means in a small way. Cottard was a queer bird. For a long while their relations went no farther than wishing each other goodday when they met on the stairs.
“I've only had two conversations with him. Some days ago, I upset a box of colored chalks I was bringing home, on the landing. They were red and blue chalks. Just then Cottard came out of his room, and he helped me pick them up. He asked me what I wanted colored chalks for.”
Grand had then explained to him that he was trying to brush up his Latin. He'd learned it at school, of course, but his memories had grown blurred.
“You see, doctor, I've been told that a knowledge of Latin gives one a better understanding of the real meanings of French words.”
So he wrote Latin words on his black-board, then copied out again in blue chalk the part of each word that changed in conjugation or declension, and in red chalk the part of the word that never varied.
“I'm not sure if Cottard followed this very clearly, but he seemed interested and asked me for a red chalk. That rather surprised me, but after all-Of course I couldn't guess the use he'd put it to.”
Rieux asked what was the subject of their second conversation. But just then the inspector came, accompanied by a clerk, and said he wished to begin by hearing Grand's statement. The doctor noticed that Grand, when referring to Cottard, always called him “the unfortunate man,” and at one moment used even the expression “his grim resolve.” When discussing the possible motives for the attempted suicide, Grand showed an almost finical anxiety over his choice of words. Finally he elected for the expression “a secret grief.” The inspector asked if there had been anything in Cottard' s manner that suggested what he called his “intent to felo-de-se.”
【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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琬乔：朗诵爱好者，喜欢用声音传递世间一切美好与热爱！
