【赫临译笔】理发师六哥的故事2 - 心云驛站

二十年来，我哥哥一直和这个人在一起，帮他照看房子，管理事务。二十年后，他慷慨的恩人去世了，没有留下继承人。因此，他所有的财产归了王子，他们甚至剥夺了本该属于我哥哥的那一部分。现在，我哥哥像以前一样贫穷，于是他决定坐上大篷车，和一群朝圣者去麦加碰运气。不幸的是，他们的大篷车遭到贝都因人袭击和抢劫，这些朝圣者都变成了囚犯。我哥哥成为了一个人的奴隶，他的主人每天都打他，希望以此迫使他提供一笔赎金。尽管，正如沙卡白克指出，这一点儿用途也没有，因为他的亲属和他一样贫穷。最后，贝都因人厌倦了折磨他，用骆驼把他运到了一个光秃秃的山顶，把他丢在那儿，让他自生自灭。一个去巴格达的商队告诉我他们发现了他，我赶去营救，把可怜的哥哥带回这个城市。

“我当然别无选择，只能服从。我出去漂泊了几年，直到听说这个哈里发去世，才匆忙回到巴格达，却发现我所有的哥哥都去世了。这时我才去给你们已经听说过的这个年轻的跛子提供服务。你瞧，他对我如此忘恩负义，他宁愿离开巴格达，也不愿再见到我。我到处找他，直到今天，在我最意想不到的时候，我遇到了他，他还是和以往一样对我怒气冲冲。说着，裁缝继续讲述已经讲过的跛子和理发师的故事。

“当理发师，“他继续说：“讲完故事时，我们得出结论，这个年轻人说他是个话匣子一点也没错。然而，我们想留下他，共享我们的盛宴。直到下午祈祷时，我们一直在吃饭。然后，这群人就分手了，我回到店里工作。

“在这期间，醉醺醺的小驼背来到我面前，唱着歌，打着手鼓。我把他带回家，去逗我妻子开心。她请他吃晚饭。吃鱼时，一根刺卡在他喉咙里，尽管我们尽力了，他还是很快就死去了。这太突然了，我们吓昏了头，为了转移对我们的怀疑，我们把它的尸体抬到一个犹太医生的家里。他把它放到承办商的家里，而承办商又把它放在大街上，在那里，人们都以为他是被一个富商害死的。

喀什葛尔的苏丹王愉快地听着这个故事，这使裁缝和他的朋友们都充满了希望。“我必须承认，”他大声说：“我对理发师和他哥哥们的故事的兴趣超过跛子和小丑的故事。但在我放你们四人回家，把小驼背妥善安葬之前，我想见见这个为你们赢得宽恕的理发师。既然他就在这个城市里，派个人和你一起立刻把他找来。

“这当然很令人惊讶，”当他听完后，大声说道：“但我想检查一下尸体。”然后，他跪下，把小驼背的头放在膝盖上，仔细观察。他突然爆发出一阵大笑，这使我们都向后倒去。当他恢复镇定能够开口时，他转向苏丹王，说：“这个人和我一样是活的，”他说：“看我的。”他边说边从衣袋里取出个小药箱，在小驼背脖子上涂了些香脂药膏。然后，他撬开小驼背的嘴，用一把钳子把鱼刺从他喉咙里夹出来。这时小驼背打了个喷嚏，伸了个懒腰，睁开了眼睛。

苏丹王还有所有目睹这一切的人，不知哪一个更值得祟拜，到底是小驼背的体质好，还是理发师的技术好。小驼背死了一整夜和多半天，现在大家都把理发师看成伟人。殿下希望小驼背的历史被记录下来，放在理发师档案的旁边，这样它就会永远留在人们的记忆中。他并没有到此为止，为了让人们忘却所经历过的一切，他让裁缝，医生，承办商，富商当场从他衣柜里取一件长袍穿上，然后让他们回家。至于理发师，他赐给他一大笔养老金，并让他留在自己身边。

Twenty years passed by, and my brother was still living with the Barmecide, looking after hishouse, and managing his affairs. At the end of that time his generous benefactor died without heirs, so all his possessions went to the prince. They even despoiled my brother of those that rightly belonged to him,and he, now as poor as he had ever been in his life, decided to cast in his lotwith a caravan ofpilgrims who were on their way to Mecca.Unluckily, the caravan was attacked and pillaged by the Bedouins, and thepilgrims were taken prisoners. My brother became the slave of a man who beathim daily, hoping to drive him to offer a ransom, although, as Schacabac pointed out, it was quite useless trouble, as his relations were as poor ashimself. At length the Bedouin grew tired of tormenting, and sent him on acamel to the top of a high barren mountain, where he left him to take hischance. A passing caravan, on its way to Bagdad,told me where he was to be found, and I hurried to his rescue, and brought himin a deplorable condition back to the town.

"I had of course no choice but to obey, and travelled about for several years until I heard of the death of the Caliph, when I hastily returned to Bagdad,only to find that all my brothers were dead. It was at this time that I rendered to the young cripple the important service of which you have heard,and for which, as you know, he showed such profound ingratitude, that he preferred rather to leave Bagdad than to run the risk of seeing me. I sought him long from place to place, but it was only to-day, when I expected it least,that I came across him, as much irritated with me as ever"-- So saying thetailor went on to relate the story of the lame man and the barber, which has already been told.

"When the barber," he continued, "had finished his tale, we came to the conclusion that the young man had been right, when he had accused him of being a great chatter-box. However, we wished to keep him with us, and share ourfeast, and we remained at table till the hour of afternoon prayer. Then the company broke up, and I went back to work in my shop.

"It was during this interval that the little hunchback, half drunk already, presented himself before me, singing and playing on his drum. I took him home, to amuse my wife,and she invited him to supper. While eating some fish, a bone got into his throat, and in spite of all we could do, he died shortly. It was all so sudden that we lost our heads, and in order to divert suspicion from ourselves, wecarried the body to the house of a Jewish physician. He placed it in the chamber of the purveyor,and the purveyor propped it up in the street, where it was thought to have been killed by the merchant.

The Sultan of Kashgar listened with an air of pleasure which filled the tailor and his friends with hope. "I must confess," he exclaimed, "that I am much more interested in the stories of the barber and his brothers, and of the lame man, than in that of my own jester. But before I allow you all four toreturn to your own homes, and have the corpse of the hunchback properly buried,I should like to see this barber who has earned your pardon. And as he is inthis town, let an usher go with you at once in search of him."

The usher and thetailor soon returned, bringing with them an old man who must have been at least ninety years of age. "O Silent One," said the Sultan, "I am told that you know many strange stories. Will you tell some of them tome?"

"It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it all, "but I should like to examine the body." He then knelt down, and took the head onhis knees, looking at it attentively. Suddenly he burst into such loud laughter that he fell right backwards, and when he had recovered himself enough tospeak, he turned to the Sultan. "The man is no more dead than I am,"he said; "watch me." As he spoke he drew a small case of medicines from his pocket and rubbed the neck of the hunchback with some ointment made of balsam. Next he opened the dead man's mouth, and by the help of a pair of pincers drew the bone from his throat. At this the hunch-back sneezed,stretched himself and opened his eyes.

The Sultan and allthose who saw this operation did not know which to admire most, theconstitution of the hunchback whohad apparently been dead for a whole night and most of one day, or the skill ofthe barber, whom everyone now began to look upon as a great man. His Highness desired that the history of the hunchback should be written down, and placed inthe archives beside that of the barber, so that they might be associated in people's minds to the end of time. And he did not stop there; for in order towipe out the memory of what they had undergone, he commanded that the tailor,the doctor, the purveyor and the merchant, should each be clothed in hispresence with a robe from his own wardrobe before they returned home. As forthe barber, he bestowed on him a large pension, and kept him near his own person.