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盛开在油墨香里的大蒜花:狼妈与虎妈的较量

盛开在油墨香里的大蒜花:狼妈与虎妈的较量

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(十一)狼妈与虎妈的较量

195812月,为酝酿写作历史剧《蔡文姬》,郭沫若读了《胡笳十八拍》。他发现历史上对这首出色的长诗究竟是否为蔡文姬所作有很多争辩。他仔细地研究了一番这篇作品,联想到自己也有类似的惨痛人生经历,标明了自己的看法:“我倒要替《胡笳十八拍》呼吁一下。务必请大家读它一两遍,那是多么深切动人的作品呵!那象滚滚不尽的海涛,那象喷发着融岩的活火山,那么用整个的灵魂吐诉出来的绝叫。我是坚决相信那一定是蔡文姬作的,没有那种亲身经历的人,写不出那样的文字来……”他甚至说:“但我觉得就是李太白也拟不出,他还没有那样的气魄,没有那样沉痛的经验。”“像《胡笳十八拍》,无论从形式或内容上,那种不羁而雄浑的气魄,滚滚怒涛一样不可遏抑的悲愤,绞肠滴血般的痛苦,绝不是六朝人乃至隋、唐人所能企及的。”

作为一位已过不惑之年、曾在人生的浪潮里沉沉浮浮苦苦挣扎的母亲,我在翻译《科利奥兰纳斯》中伏伦妮娅的最经典的长白时,竟然产生了与郭沫若相类似的共鸣。第五幕第三场,科利奥兰纳斯和昔日的敌人塔勒斯·奥菲狄乌斯一道进攻罗马,所有前去求和的人都遭到了拒绝。最后,他的母亲和妻儿亲自出面,母亲伏伦妮娅在敌军阵营前跪求儿子,发出了“用整个的灵魂吐诉出来的绝叫”,现奉上部分经典片段:

 

科利奥兰纳斯:

“奥菲狄乌斯,还有你们这些伏尔斯人,到这儿来。我不会私下听来自罗马的任何言语。您想要什么?”

CORIOLANUS

Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we’ll

Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request?

伏伦妮娅:

“即使我们沉默不语,我们的服饰和身体状况,也泄露了自你遭放逐后,我们过着怎样的生活。请你想一想,我们到这儿来,比世间所有的女人们都不幸。因为我们看见了你,本该眼里洋溢着喜悦,心中跳跃着欣慰,现在却痛苦流泪,因恐惧悲伤而颤栗。母亲、妻子和孩子,看着她的儿子、她的丈夫和他的父亲亲手撕裂他的祖国的腑脏。你的敌意是可怜的我们最大的死罪,你使我们不能向神明祈祷,这本是我们唯一的安慰。我们该怎样,哎,我们该怎样为自己的祖国祈祷呢?如果你赢了,我们该去哪里呢,我们该去哪里呢?哎,我们要么失去我们的国家,我们亲爱的保姆,要么失去你,我们在国内的安慰。虽然我们有自己的愿望,无论哪一方获胜,我们都将不可避免地面临悲剧:或者是你这个叛徒戴着镣铐走过我们的大街,或者是你趾高气扬地践踏在祖国的废墟上,双手沾着妻儿的鲜血。至于我自己,孩子,我不打算由战争来决定命运。如果我不能说服你为双方达成一个互利的协定,使你放弃彻底毁灭一方,那么我绝不让你侵犯你的国家相信我,你绝不可以- 除非你从亲生母亲的身子践踏过去。”

VOLUMNIA

Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment

And state of bodies would bewray what life

We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself

How more unfortunate than all living women

Are we come hither: since that thy sight,

which should

Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance

with comforts,

Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow;

Making the mother, wife and child to see

The son, the husband and the father tearing

His country’s bowels out. And to poor we

Thine enmity’s most capital: thou barr’st us

Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort

That all but we enjoy; for how can we,

Alas, how can we for our country pray.

Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory,

Whereto we are bound? alack, or we must lose

The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,

Our comfort in the country. We must find

An evident calamity, though we had

Our wish, which side should win: for either thou

Must, as a foreign recreant, be led

With manacles thorough our streets, or else

triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin,

And bear the palm for having bravely shed

Thy wife and children’s blood. For myself, son,

I purpose not to wait on fortune till

These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee

Rather to show a noble grace to both parts

Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner

March to assault thy country than to tread—

Trust to’t, thou shalt not—on thy mother’s womb,

That brought thee to this world.

 

…….

 

科利奥兰纳斯:

 看见孩子和女人的脸,容易生出妇人之仁。我已经坐得太久了。”(起立。)

CORIOLANUS

Not of a woman’s tenderness to be,

Requires nor child nor woman’s face to see.

I have sat too long.

 

He rises.

伏伦妮娅:

“ 不,不要这样离开我们。如果我们请求你为了拯救罗马人而毁灭了你所臣事的伏尔斯人,那么你可以谴责我们毒害了你的信誉。不,我们只是请求你为双方和解,伏尔斯人可以说,‘我们已经表示了慈悲’,罗马人可以说,‘我们收到了恩典’,双方同时向你致敬欢呼,‘祝福你缔结和平!’ 你知道,我的伟大的儿子,战争的结果是不能确定的,可是这一点是确定的:如果你征服了罗马,你所得到的利益,就是一个不断被重复诅咒的骂名,史书上将要记载,‘这个人本来是很伟大的,可是他在最后一次的行动里亲手涂抹去了他的英名,毁灭了他的国家,他的名字永遭后世的憎恶。’ 同我说话吧,儿子。你渴望得到极高的荣誉,就应该效仿神的恩典,虽然用雷声撕裂了云层,却只用闪电劈开一棵橡树。你为什么不说话呢?你以为对自己受过的委屈耿耿于怀是一个高尚人的美好的品行吗?儿媳,你说话呀,他不在乎你的哭泣呢。你也说话呀,孩子,也许你的天真会比我们的理由更令他感动。世上没有一个男人和母亲的关系这样亲密,可是他现在却让我像一个戴着脚枷的囚犯一样絮絮叨叨。你从来不曾对你亲爱的母亲表示过一点尊敬,她却像只爱着自己的头胎雏儿的可怜的母鸡似的,咕咕叫着送你上战场,看你满载荣誉安全归家。如果我的请求是不正当的,你可以轻蔑地打发我回去;否则你就是不诚实的,诸神将要惩罚你,因为你没有对你的母亲尽义务。他转身去了,女士们,跪下来,让我们用屈膝羞辱他。他的科利奥兰纳斯的姓氏上更多的是骄傲,而没有对我们的一点怜悯。跪下来,完了,这是我们最后的哀求。我们现在要回到罗马去,和我们的邻人们死在一起。不,等一下,这个孩子不知道自己要什么,只是陪着我们下跪举手,这给我们的请愿提供的力量多过你有勇气否认的。来,我们走吧。这个家伙有一个伏尔斯的母亲,他的妻子在科利奥里,他的孩子也许像他一样。给我们一个答复:我要等我们的城市在大火中焚烧以后才会停止发声,那时候我没什么好说的了。”

VOLUMNIA

Nay, go not from us thus.

If it were so that our request did tend

To save the Romans, thereby to destroy

The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us,

As poisonous of your honour: no; our suit

Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces

May say ‘This mercy we have show’d;’ the Romans,

This we received;’ and each in either side

Give the all-hail to thee and cry ‘Be blest

For making up this peace!’ Thou know’st, great son,

The end of war’s uncertain, but this certain,

That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit

Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name,

Whose repetition will be dogg’d with curses;

Whose chronicle thus writ: ‘The man was noble,

But with his last attempt he wiped it out;

Destroy’d his country, and his name remains

To the ensuing age abhorr’d.’ Speak to me, son:

Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour,

To imitate the graces of the gods;

To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o’ the air,

And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt

That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak?

Think’st thou it honourable for a noble man

Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you:

He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy:

Perhaps thy childishness will move him more

Than can our reasons. There’s no man in the world

More bound to ’s mother; yet here he lets me prate

Like one i’ the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life

Show’d thy dear mother any courtesy,

When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,

Has cluck’d thee to the wars and safely home,

Loaden with honour. Say my request’s unjust,

And spurn me back: but if it be not so,

Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee,

That thou restrain’st from me the duty which

To a mother’s part belongs. He turns away:

Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees.

To his surname Coriolanus ’longs more pride

Than pity to our prayers. Down: an end;

This is the last: so we will home to Rome,

And die among our neighbours. Nay, behold ’s:

This boy, that cannot tell what he would have

But kneels and holds up bands for fellowship,

Does reason our petition with more strength

Than thou hast to deny ’t. Come, let us go:

This fellow had a Volscian to his mother;

His wife is in Corioli and his child

Like him by chance. Yet give us our dispatch:

I am hush’d until our city be a-fire,

And then I’ll speak a little.

(注:stock,中世纪欧洲的一种刑具,它用木桩和木板做成,中间留有孔洞,还配有锁链,用来将犯人的脚踝和手腕固定在刑具上示众。众人可以大声辱骂、嘲弄犯人,甚至朝犯人投掷烂蔬菜、臭鸡蛋、小便啥的。犯人无法躲避,只能眼睁睁地接受众人的羞辱。)

 

我一边在键盘上敲打着这一大段译文,一边默默垂泪。世上总有些文字,让你读到便觉心生附同,因为你们有着类似的感悟、历练和体会。我读懂了一位罗马女贵族缱绻的爱子之情,赤诚的爱国之心、痛断肝肠的哀切、慷慨赴死的决然……

科利奥兰纳斯被母亲的一番话打动了,握住她的手沉默了一阵,终于下了决心:“哦,妈妈,妈妈!你做了什么?瞧,天堂都裂开了,神明在俯视,他们在嘲笑这一场悖逆的情景。哦,我的妈妈!妈妈!你替罗马赢得了一场开心的胜利。但是,对您的儿子来说相信我,哦,相信我,被您打败的儿子已经处于致命的危险当中。但是,让它来吧。奥菲狄乌斯,虽然我不能为你作战,可是我愿意为双方斡旋和平方案。好奥菲狄乌斯,如果你处于我的位置,你会不听母亲的话?会不答应她吗?奥菲狄乌斯。”

CORIOLANUS

O mother, mother!

What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope,

The gods look down, and this unnatural scene

They laugh at. O my mother, mother! O!

You have won a happy victory to Rome;

But, for your son,—believe it, O, believe it,

Most dangerously you have with him prevail’d,

If not most mortal to him. But, let it come.

Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars,

I’ll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius,

Were you in my stead, would you have heard

A mother less? or granted less, Aufidius?

 奥菲狄乌斯只好无可奈何地说:“ 我心里非常感动。”(I was moved withal.

 

于是科利奥兰纳斯停战撤军,罗马人保全了国土城市,狡猾的奥菲狄乌斯气得咬牙切齿,对几位密谋者说:“正是,为了这一次的事情,我一定要尽全力对付他。单单凭妇人的几滴和谎言一样一钱不值的眼泪,他就出卖了我们在这次伟大的行动中付出的血汗和精力。他非死不可,他的没落才会使我重新掌权。”(第五幕第六场)

There was it:

For which my sinews shall be stretch’d upon him.

At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are

As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour

Of our great action: therefore shall he die,

And I’ll renew me in his fall.

在奥菲狄乌斯的默许下,几个愤怒的伏尔斯人突袭了科利奥兰纳斯,用利剑将他剁成肉酱。这个结局是科利奥兰纳斯在决定听从母亲的阵前劝告时就预料到的,可他选择勇敢地面对,悲剧的死亡照见了他非凡的贵族品格。

 

读完整部作品后,我认为伏伦妮娅是古罗马时代一位伟大的母亲,她品德高尚、刚毅坚强、含辛茹苦抚育独子,狼妈式的育子观体现了古罗马人尚武的传统。她让我想起了中国的孟母,“昔 孟 母 ,择 邻 处,子 不 学,断 机 杼”,从慎始、励志、敦品、勉学以至于约礼、成金,数十年如一日,不但成就了孟子,还为后世的中国母亲留下一套完整的教子方案。我在加拿大生活了二十多年,发现本地的很多白人父母难以理解中国虎妈们的狂热的“名校情结”和“常春藤情结”。中国虎妈们为了让孩子顺利就读排名靠前的小学和中学,一窝蜂地在好学区买房,还把孩子送进各种课外辅导班,时间安排得满满的这些无非是古时孟母故事的现代演绎罢了。反过来,中国虎妈们则很难接受西方母亲的“放养式”教育法。我们可以对妈妈们的教育理念持保留态度,却不能否认一点:每一个女人,当她成为母亲之后,就意味着开始了为全家奋斗、奉献、牺牲的艰辛的人生历程。能做到这些的,无论是古罗马狼妈还是中国虎妈,都是天底下最好的母亲。

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来源: 文学城-南小鹿
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