中国雨巷文学社

青香蕉-朗诵者：鱼鱼

青 香 蕉（文化散文）

作者：【美】唐纳德·巴奇尔德

译者：韩崇文

朗诵：逐浪鑫海、鱼鱼

     尽管想来随处都可能见到那种青香蕉，不过在我的印象中，我与它的初次遭遇却始于巴西内地的一条起伏的山路上。记得当时我的老旧的吉普车正在风景迷人的乡间缓缓蠕行，忽然，水箱开始漏水——而距离最近的修车点也不下十里之遥。由于发动机过热，无奈我只得停在邻近的村落。那里只有一家小店，以及稀稀落落的几户人家。人们过来围观时，水箱仍在不停喷射着涓涓细流。“这个嘛，——简单得很，”说话的是个男人。他打发一个男孩跑去取些青香蕉，然后拍拍我的肩，似乎要我放心，一切都会很顺利。“青——香蕉！”他微微笑道。所有人都表示赞同。

   我们漫无目的地闲聊着，但我始终还是对他们究竟会将青香蕉派何用场心存疑虑。不过问问题会暴露我的无知，因此我索性欣赏起乡野的景致来。放眼望去，只见巨石穿空，宛如里约的面包山，环绕在我们周围。“看没看见那块高高的岩石？”男人忽然问道。他指向一块黑黝黝的高耸入云的岩石，说道：“那块岩石，就是世界中心的标志。”

   我向他望去，看他是否在开我的玩笑。然而他的表情相当严肃。他反过来询视着我，似乎唯恐我领会不到他言语中的分量。这种情况下，我知道，需要我做些认同的表示。“世界的——中心？”我重复道，试图让他感到我即使不是完全接受，倒也至少颇感兴趣。他点点头，答道：“不折不扣的中心。这里所有的人都知道。”

   就在那时，男孩取来了给我的青香蕉。男人将其中一个一分为二，并将切出的断面贴按在水箱漏水处。在金属表面，香蕉遇热熔融为胶状，倾刻间堵住了漏处。对于我的不胜惊奇，似乎所有人的笑声中都不无嘲讽。他们为水箱重新加满水，并另给我几个青香蕉沿途备用。一小时过后，我动用了一次这种青香蕉，此后，便安然直抵目的地。当地的修车人笑着问我：“谁教你的？——用青香蕉？”我道出那个村子的名字。“他们有没有让你看一块标志着世界中心的岩石？”他又问道。“我爷爷就来自那地方，”不待我答完，他接着说道，“毫无疑问的中心。这里所有的人都知道。”

     身为受过美式教育的幸运儿，我还从未对这种青青的香蕉稍加留意过，只当它是一种时令未至尚未成熟的水果，如此而已。突然间，在那条山路上，它的“时令”与我的需要交融在一起。然而略加思索以后，我领悟到，这种青青的香蕉原来一直都生长在那里，时间可以远溯至其源起之日。那个村子里的人多年以来早就知道。然而直至这次偶遇，我才了解到那里人们的独到的智慧，以及青香蕉特有的潜在功用。长久以来，我一直醉心于教育家们惯于称作“顿悟”的那种瞬间，就在那一刻，我知道，我刚刚同时经历了两次那种混沌初开的体验。

   至于对那块标志着世界中心的岩石的疑虑，略加思索后也算烟消云散了。起初，我当然怀疑他们的说法，因为我知道这一事实，就是世界的中心，被界定在新英格兰的什么地方。毕竟，“我祖辈就来自那地方。”但是渐渐地，我意识到他们的信仰其实并不乏根据，他们的观念也颇具普遍性，最终，我默认了他们的看法。其实，我们也同样自觉不自觉地将所谓的“中心”限定于那些特别之处：在那里，我们了解他人，也为他人所熟知；在那里，事情无论巨细，于我们却都显得至关重要；在那里，我们有着特定的身份，以及特别的意义。譬如说家庭，学校，城镇，或是别的什么地方。

   我于是渐渐悟出一个再简单不过的道理。就是每个地方，就生活于其中的人们而言，都有着特别的意义；每个地方，其实都代表着世界的中心。诸如此类的中心数不胜数，没有哪个学者或旅人能够游历无遗。然而，一旦你终于涉足于别一个中心，或许你就能够领略到足以令你受用一生的风景。

   世界文明的园林中，充满着我们所始料不及的青香蕉，它们各有其特有的意义及价值。它们始终生息在那里，年复一年，并且日臻成熟，或许它们是在耐心守候着人们的光临。是的，那些青香蕉正在邀请着我，也邀请着你：快离开你们自己的世界中心吧，去饱览异域的风情。

The Green Banana

 By Donald Batchelder

Although it might have happened anywhere, my encounter with the green banana started on a steep mountain road in the central area of Brazil. My ancient jeep was straining up through beautiful countryside when the radiator began to leak, and I was ten miles from the nearest mechanic. The over-heated engine forced me to stop at the next village, which consisted of a small store and a few houses that were scattered here and there. People came over to look. They could see three fine streams of hot water spouting from holes in the jacket of the radiator. "That's easy to fix, "a man said. He sent a boy running for some green bananas. He patted me on the shoulder, assuring me that everything would work out."Green bananas," he smiled. Everyone agreed.

We chattered casually while all the time I was wondering what they could possibly do to my radiator with their green bananas. I did not ask them, though, as that would show my ignorance, so I talked about the beauty of the land that lay before our eyes. Huge rock formations, like Sugar Loaf in Rio,rose up all around us. "Do you see that tall one right over there?"asked the man, pointing to a particularly tall, slender pinnacle of dark rock. "That rock marks the center of the world."

I looked to see if he was teasing me, but his face was serious. He, in turn, inspected me carefully, as if to make sure I grasped the significance of his statement. The occasion called for some show of recognition on my part. "The center of the world?" I repeated, trying to show interest if not complete acceptance. He nodded.  "The absolute center. Everyone around here knows it." 

At that moment the boy returned with an armful of green bananas. The man cut one in half and pressed the cut end against the radiator jacket. The banana melted into a glue against the hot metal, stopping the leaks instantly. I was so astonished at this that I must have looked rather foolish and everyone laughed. They then refilled my radiator and gave me extra bananas to take along in case my radiator should give me trouble again. An hour later, after using the green banana once more, my radiator and I reached our destination. The local mechanic smiled. "Who taught you about the green banana?" I gave him the name of the village. "Did they show you the rock marking the center of the world?" he asked. I assured him they had. "My grandfather came from there," he said. "The exact center. Everyone around here has always known about it."

As a product of American education, I had never paid the slightest attention to the green banana, except to regard it as a fruit whose time had not yet come. Suddenly, on that mountain road, its time had come to meet my need. But as I reflected on it further, I realized that the green banana had been there all along. Its time reached back to the very origins of the banana. The people in that village had known about it for years. It was my own time that had come, all in relation to it. I came to appreciate the special genius of those people, and the special potential of the green banana. I had been wondering for some time about what educators like to call "learning moments" and I now knew I had just experienced two of them at once.

It took me a little longer to fully grasp the importance of the rock which the villagers believed marked the center of the world. I had at first doubted their claim, as I knew for a fact that the center was located somewhere else in New England. After all, my grandfather had come from there. But gradually I realized the village people had a very reasonable belief and I agreed with them. We all tend to regard as the center that special place where we are known, where we know others, where things mean much to us, and where we ourselves have both identity and meaning: family, school, town and local region could all be our center of the world.

The lesson which gradually dawned on me was actually very simple. Every place has special meanings for the people in it,and in a certain sense every  place represents the center of the world. The world has numerous such centers, and no one student or traveler can experience all of them. But once a conscious breakthrough to a second center is made, a life-long perspective and collection can begin.

The cultures of the world are full of unexpected green bananas with special value and meaning. They have been there for ages, ripening slowly, perhaps waiting patiently for people to come along to encounter them. In fact, a green banana is waiting for all of us if we would leave our own centers of the world in order to experience other places.

朗读者简介：

逐浪鑫海:一个有着浪漫情怀的文青，常有其诗歌、散文见诸报刊、杂志和网络。个人作品在全国诗歌大赛上获得二等奖。著有诗集《让我走进你的世界》。现为某市职工文化阅读会会长，作家协会会员。2020年辽宁省六位特别感人学习之星之一，2020年全国全民百姓学习之星。

鱼鱼:一名虔诚的文学爱好者，致力于以声音推介传播文学佳作。头条账号：乔伊读书；微信公众号：不期而遇你的美吖。

译者简介：

韩崇文，中国翻译协会专家会员、中华诗词学会会员、中国音乐文学学会会员、中国诗歌学会会员；中国石油作家协会会员；中国雨巷文学社作家团队成员、杭州文学研究院研究员；辽宁葫芦岛市作家协会会员、市文艺理论评论家协会会员、市音乐家协会会员。

正高级职称，硕研学历、本科毕业于复旦大学。业余从事歌曲翻译与文学翻译，迄今已译介166首国外经典歌曲与诗歌。译作散见于公众号“好诗如风”“辽之河”“英语口语交流”等、视频号“经典精译-韩崇文”、抖音“国外经典歌曲精译”（抖音号:tanxiaojian684）以及都市头条“杭州文学研究院”，还曾被“英语世界”“商务印书馆英语编辑室”等公众号收录。

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2024年 12月5日