盛开在油墨香里的大蒜花:受害者与旁观者的角度
四)受害者与旁观者的角度
小说《德古拉》是公认的经典,作者一改古代神话和传说中的丑陋、低智商的吸血鬼形象,塑造了一个聪明、冷酷、具有异性魅力的吸血鬼,使德古拉成为吸血鬼的代名词。当今诸多影视作品里的吸血鬼基本都是按照这个套路创作的。其次,作者“伪造”了以不同人物口吻写的日记,将这些日记“拼凑”成一部小说,让读者在阅读的过程中产生了“实时体验”。这种写作手法增强了小说的悬念和恐怖气氛,无疑是成功的。
既然是日记拼成的小说,一切形式的记录难免掺杂着主观色彩,我们来整理一下小说中不同人物对德古拉的印象。
最早见到德古拉的是在律师行工作的乔纳森·哈克(Jonathan Harker),小说的第一章和第二章,乔纳森·哈克在日记中写到, “一辆四匹马拉的马车从我们身后赶上来,停在了我们的马车旁边。透过我们的灯光,我可以看见那些是黝黑的上等马。驾驶它们的是一个高个子男人,留着长长的棕色胡子,戴着一顶大大的黑帽子,这似乎遮盖了他的脸。当他转向我们时,我只能看见一双非常明亮闪烁的眼睛,在灯光下似乎是红色的。” “他边说边微笑着,灯光照在他的线条僵硬的嘴上,嘴唇很红,有着白如象牙的尖利的牙齿。”“ 车夫扶我上车,一只手像一只铁钳似地夹住我的胳膊,他的力气真是大的惊人。” “当他们沉入黑暗中时,我感到一阵奇怪的寒意,一种孤独的感觉包围了我。不过很快,一个斗篷披在了我的肩上,一块毯子盖在了我的膝盖上,车夫用出色的德语说— ” – 请注意,这个车夫是说德语的外国人。
(a caleche, with four horses, drove up behind us, overtook us, and drew up beside the coach. I could see from the flash of our lamps as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal-black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man, with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from us. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight, as he turned to us……As he spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory…… the driver helping me with a hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel. His strength must have been prodigious…… As they sank into the darkness I felt a strange chill, and a lonely feeling come over me. But a cloak was thrown over my shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the driver said in excellent German-)
马车来到了德古拉伯爵的古堡前,“车夫跳下车,伸出手扶我下车。我再一次注意到他那超凡的力气。他的手像一只钢制虎钳,只要他愿意,随时可以夹碎我的手。”(the driver jumped down and held out his hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his prodigious strength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had chosen.)
大门打开后,德古拉出现了,乔纳森并没有意识眼前的德古拉就是他刚才见到的那个车夫,因为两个人的外表不太一样。乔纳森观察到:“里面站着一个高个子的老人,除了长长的白胡须,面部其他地方刮的很干净,从头到脚都披着黑色,周身没有任何别的颜色。他手里拿着一盏没有灯罩的古董银灯,火焰在大门口的冷风中闪烁着微光,投下长长的晃动的阴影。老人恭敬地用右手打着手势招呼我进去,说着出色的英语,但语调很奇怪。” “他没有走上前迎接我,而是像一座雕像站着,似乎他的欢迎姿态将他固定在了石头上。然而,在我越过门槛的那一刻,他冲动地向前移步,伸出他的手握住我的手,力量之大,使我畏缩了。我感觉到这只手很冰,更像是死人的手,而不是活人的手。”
(Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without a chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation. …… He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead than a living man. )
乔纳森吃完德古拉为他准备的晚餐后,坐在火炉旁边的椅子上,一边抽着主人递过来的雪茄,一边观察他,“他的面部线条鲜明,像鹰,薄薄的鼻梁凸出,鼻孔呈深深的拱形,前额高高隆起,太阳穴四周的头发稀疏,但其他地方的头发很浓密。他的眉毛非常浓,几乎要在鼻根处连成一线,浓密的头发似乎卷成一团。据我所见,掩盖在浓密的胡须下的那张嘴纹丝不动,看起来很残酷,白色的牙齿特别锋利,突出在嘴唇上方,鲜红的嘴唇显示出他这个年纪的男人的惊人生命力。还有,他的耳朵是苍白的,顶端非常尖。下巴宽阔有力,脸颊虽然瘦削却结实。整张脸显得异常苍白。当他将手放在膝盖上时,我借着火光观察他的手背,它们似乎很白皙精致。但是近看起来,我不禁注意到它们很粗糙,宽大,手指短粗。奇怪的是,他的手心有毛发。指甲又长又细,修剪得很尖。伯爵向我靠过来并且用他的手触碰我时,我无法抑止地颤抖起来。可能是他呼出的气息很难闻,我产生了一种难以掩饰的恐怖的恶心感。”
(His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.
Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine. But seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse, broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal. )
“伯爵微笑着,嘴唇贴着牙龈向后咧开,露出了奇怪的又长又尖似犬的牙齿。”
(The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely)
那晚乔纳森只睡了几个小时,起床后,他对着窗户旁边的修面镜刮胡子时,伯爵突然出现在他身边,“但是镜子里却没有他的影子!”(But there was no reflection of him in the mirror!)。乔纳森不小心割破了下巴,“但是那一刻,我看到伤口已经流了一点血,血顺着我的下巴往下滴 ……当伯爵看到我的脸时,他的眼中燃烧着一种恶魔般的愤怒,他突然抓住了我的喉咙。我闪开了,他的手碰到了串着十字架上的念珠。这使他的脸色立刻变了,愤怒消逝得如此之快,以至于我简直不敢相信它曾经存在过。”
(But at the instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was trickling over my chin. ……When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there. )
第三章,乔纳森继续在日记里记录他的观察:“当德古拉伯爵在说话的时候,他的眼神和举止让我意识到自己是一个囚徒,而且我别无选择。伯爵从我的鞠躬中看到了他的胜利,从我脸上的忧虑表情中看到了他的控制权,因为他立刻开始使用它们了,不过用的是他那种柔和的,不可抗拒的方式。”(while Count Dracula was speaking, there was that in his eyes and in his bearing which made me remember that I was a prisoner, and that if I wished it I could have no choice. The Count saw his victory in my bow, and his mastery in the trouble of my face, for he began at once to use them, but in his own smooth, resistless way. )
乔纳森被伯爵禁锢期间,更奇怪的事情发生了:三位美丽的女吸血鬼在夜间来到他的床边,试图挑逗睡梦中的他。“但是就在那一瞬间,另一种感觉像闪电一样迅速穿过了我。我意识到伯爵的存在,他仿佛被愤怒的风暴所笼罩。当我不由自主睁开眼睛时,看到他的强壮的手抓住了那位美丽女人的细长脖子,用力向后拉,他蓝色的眼睛充满了愤怒,洁白的牙齿“咯咯”作响,白皙的双颊泛着激动的红光。哦,伯爵!我从未想象过这样的愤怒,即使对地狱里的魔鬼来说。他的两只眼睛炽热燃烧着,闪烁着鲜红的光,仿佛地狱之火在双眸后面燃着。他的脸死人般苍白,脸上的线条像拉丝一样坚硬。鼻子上方连接成一线的浓密的眉毛像膨胀的白热的金属棒。”(But at that instant, another sensation swept through me as quick as lightning. I was conscious of the presence of the Count, and of his being as if lapped in a storm of fury. As my eyes opened involuntarily I saw his strong hand grasp the slender neck of the fair woman and with giant's power draw it back, the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passion. But the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to the demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing. The red light in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell fire blazed behind them. His face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wires. The thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metal.)
第四章,乔纳森发现伯爵睡在一个装着泥土的箱子里,“但是他看起来年轻了大半,他的白色须发变成了深铁灰色。脸颊饱满了,白皙的皮肤透着红润。嘴巴比以往任何时候都更红,因为嘴唇上有鲜红的血块,血从嘴角顺着下巴和脖子滴下来。甚至那双深陷的, 燃烧的眼睛都好像嵌在鼓起的肌肉里,眼皮和眼袋都膨胀起来。这个可怕的生物仿佛全身充满了血液,他像一个肮脏的吸血鬼躺在那里,吃饱肚皮后筋疲力尽。”(but looking as if his youth had been half restored. For the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey. The cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath. The mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran down over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. )
从以上这些日记片段可以看出:乔纳森与德古拉相处的时间最长,有过近距离的接触和交谈,因而他对德古拉的描述是最详尽的。相比之下,其他几个角色对德古拉的描述就简略很多。
第八章,德古拉第一次攻击露西时,露西的好友米娜(Mina,后来成为乔纳森的妻子)看见了他“白色的脸和一双红色的发光的眼睛”(a white face and red, gleaming eyes)。第十三章,米娜陪着丈夫去海德公园散步,发现丈夫盯着“一个又高又瘦的男人,有一个形同鸟喙的鼻子,黑色的唇须和尖尖的胡须”, “他的相貌不善。坚硬,残酷,感性,洁白的大牙齿像动物的牙齿一样尖利,在鲜红的嘴唇的衬托下,牙齿显得更白了”。( a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard, who was also observing the pretty girl …… His face was not a good face. It was hard, and cruel, and sensual, and big white teeth, that looked all the whiter because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal's.)
有趣的是,米娜形容德古拉的鼻子像“鸟喙”(beaky),而小说开篇乔纳森说德古拉长着鹰钩鼻(aquiline)。可见每一个人因为生活圈子和成长环境的不同,对同一事物的描述也是不同的。我曾经读过一位资深刑侦人员撰写的办案心得,他总结说,受害人直接描述嫌疑人的时候,描绘出来的形象往往是凶狠的,夸张的,而路人描述出来的形象有可能差别很大,这与角度、心理等诸多因素有关。作者斯托克在“杜撰”不同角色写的日记时,分寸感把握的非常好,有点像大侦探在写推理小说。
除了变化成各种人物,德古拉还会变成动物和大自然中的元素。第八章中,他化身为海上的雾(mist, sea fog),米娜看到的在月光下飞行的巨大蝙蝠也是他;第十一章中,他变成一只瘦骨嶙峋的大灰狼来袭击露西……