本帖最后由 ヮ成熟、羙° 于 2014-6-20 17:56 编辑
小驼背2 荷叶/译 但当他克服了最初的恐惧以后，他开始想办法度过难关。他抓起小驼背，把他抱到大街上，让他斜靠在一家商店的墙上，然后偷偷地溜回家，一次也没敢回头。 在日出前几分钟，一个给宫中供给各种必需品的基督徒富商，狂欢了一夜，正离开家，要去沐浴。虽然他已烂醉如泥，可还清醒地知道黎明近在眼前，所有的回教徒不久就要去做祈祷。因此他步履匆匆，以免在路上遇到去清真寺的回教徒，见到自己这种状况，会被当成酒鬼送进监狱。匆忙之中，他撞在小驼背身上，小驼背重重地压在他身上。富商以为自己正受到小偷袭击，一拳将小驼背打倒在地。然后，一边不停地打这个倒下的人，一边大声呼救。 本区的警察局长跑步过来，发现一个基督徒正在虐待一个回教徒。“你在干什么？”他气愤地质问。 “他想打劫我，”富商回答：“我差点被他憋死。 “好了，你已经报了仇，”警察局长边说，边抓住了他的胳膊，“快滚吧！” 他一边说，一边伸出手，要扶小驼背起来，但小驼背一点也不动。“哦！”他走近一看，接着说：“一个基督徒就是用这种方式对待回教徒的！”他紧紧抓住富商，把他带到督察面前。督察把他投入监狱，等着法官起床后审理此案。这一切使富商恢复了清醒，他越想越不能理解，只打了几拳，小驼背怎么就死了呢。 富商正在思索这个问题，他被传唤到警察局长面前，受到讯问，他无法抵赖自己的罪行。因为小驼背是苏丹王的私人小丑，警察局长决定先问问主人再判富商的死刑。他来到王宫，请求觐见苏丹王，把事情原原本本讲了一遍，苏丹王只是说：“一人基督徒杀死一个回教徒不可原谅，履行你的职责吧。” 因此，警察局长命令竖起一个绞刑架。他派人沿城市的大街小巷叫喊：那一天，有个基督徒将会因为杀死了一个回教徒而被绞死。 当一切准备就绪，富商被从监狱里提出来，带到绞刑架下。当行刑者把绳子紧紧套在这个不幸的人脖子上，正要把他吊到空中时，苏丹王的承办商冲出人群，喘着粗气对刽子手大声喊道： “停下，停下。不要这样匆忙。杀人的是我，不是他。” 警察局长也在场维持秩序，他问了承办商几个问题。承办商把小驼背的死原原本本讲了一遍，并讲述了他是如何把小驼背弄到这个地方来，然后被富商发现了。 他对警察局长说：“你要杀的是个无辜的人，因为他不可能去杀死一个已经死掉的人。杀死一个回教徒已经很糟糕了，我不可能让一个无辜的人代我受罚而良心不受谴责。” 承办商说话的声音很大，所有人都听到了。即使警察局长不愿意，他也不能不释放富商了。 “把绳子从基督徒的脖子上解下，”他转向刽子手，命令道：“把这个人绞死，根据他自己的交待，他是凶手。” 刽子手照办了，正在往他脖子上套绳子，一个犹太医生的声音阻止了他，他恳求先停下，因为他有重要的话要说。这时他挤过人群，来到警察局长面前。 附：原文 But when he had got over the first shock he began to think of some way out of the difficulty, andseizing the hunchback in his arms he carried him out into the street, andleaning him against the wall of a shop he stole back to his own house, without once looking behind him. A few minutes before the sun rose, a rich Christian merchant, who supplied the palace with all sorts of necessaries, left his house, after a night of feasting, to go tothe bath. Though he was very drunk, he was yet sober enough to know that the dawn was at hand, and that all good Mussulmen would shortly be going to prayer.So he hastened his steps lest he should meet some one on his way to the mosque,who, seeing his condition, would send him to prison as a drunkard. In his hastehe jostled against the hunchback, who fell heavily upon him, and the merchant,thinking he was being attacked by a thief, knocked him down with one blow ofhis fist. He then called loudly for help, beating the fallen man all thewhile. The chief policeman of the quarter came running up, and found a Christian ill-treating a Mussulman."What are you doing?" he asked indignantly. "He tried to rob me," replied the merchant, "and very nearly choked me." "Well, youhave had your revenge," said the man, catching hold of his arm."Come, be off with you!" As he spoke he heldout his hand to the hunchback to help him up, but the hunchback never moved."Oho!" he went on, looking closer, "so this is the way aChristian has the impudence totreat a Mussulman!" and seizing the merchant in a firm grasp he took himto the inspector of police, who threw him into prison till the judge should beout of bed and ready to attend to his case. All this brought the merchant tohis senses, but the more he thought of it the less he could understand how the hunchback could have died merely from the blows he had received. The merchant wasstill pondering on this subject when he was summoned before the chief of policeand questioned about his crime, which he could not deny. As the hunchback was one of the Sultan's private jesters, the chief of police resolved to defersentence of death until he had consulted his master. He went to the palace to demand an audience, and told his story to the Sultan, who only answered, "There is no pardon for a Christian who kills a Mussulman. Do your duty." So the chief of police ordered a gallows tobe erected, and sent criers to proclaim in every street in the city that aChristian was to be hanged that day for having killed a Mussulman. When all was ready the merchant was brought from prison and led to the foot of the gallows. The executioner knotted the cord firmly round the unfortunate man's neck and was just about to swing him into the air, when the Sultan's purveyor dashed throughthe crowd, and cried, panting, to the hangman, "Stop, stop,don't be in such a hurry. It was not he who did the murder, it wasI." The chief ofpolice, who was present to see that everything was in order, put several questions to the purveyor, who told him the whole story of the death of the hunchback, and how he had carried the body to the place where it had been foundby the Christian merchant. "You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocent man, forit is impossible that he should have murdered a creature who was dead already.It is bad enough for me to have slain a Mussulman without having it on my conscience that a Christian who is guiltless should suffer through myfault." Now the purveyor's speech had been made in a loud voice, and was heard by all the crowd, and evenif he had wished it, the chief of police could not have escaped setting the merchant free. "Loose the cords from the Christian's neck," he commanded, turning to theexecutioner, "and hang this man in his place, seeing that by his own confession he is the murderer." The hangman did ashe was bid, and was tying the cord firmly, when he was stopped by the voice of the Jewish doctor beseeching him to pause, for he had something very important to say. When he had fought hisway through the crowd and reached the chief of police. | 
发表于 2014-6-20 17:53:16
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