主题：【Jacky 园】阿尔卑斯山上的离婚

An Alpine Divorce

阿尔卑斯山上的离婚

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      In some natures there are no half-tones; nothing but raw primary colours. John Bodman was a man who was always at one extreme or the other. This probably would have mattered little had he not married a wife whose nature was an exact duplicate of his own.

    人的品性有时候没有“中间调”，只有几个“原色”。约翰·博德曼就是这么一个人，常常走极端。这本来应该没什么，但可惜，他的妻子的脾性和他就像一个模子刻出来的。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      Doubtless there exsits in this world precisely the right woman for any given man to marry and vice and verse; but when you consider that a human being has the opportunity of being acquainted with only a few hundred people, and out of the few hundred that there are but a dozen or less whom he knows intimately, and out of the dozen, one or two friends at most, it will easily be seen, when we remember the number of millions who inhabit this world; that probably, since the earth was created, the right man has never yet met the right woman. The mathmatical chances are all against such a meeting, and this is the reason that divorce courts exsit. Marriage at best is but a compromise, and if two poeple happen to be united who are of uncompromising nature there is trouble.

    毋庸置疑，这世上，任何男人都确乎有一个合适的女人等待和他成家，反之亦然。但是如果你考虑一下：每个人仅有机会结识几百个人而已，在结识的这几百个人之中又至多只和十几个人熟络，在熟络的这十几个人之中又最多只有一两个知心朋友；而你要知道居住在这世上的人有多少个百万，所以不难理解：自地球存在以来，这合适的男人极有可能从来就没有遇到过他那合适的女人。从概率上来讲，这样相遇的机会微乎其微，这也许正是离婚法庭存在的原因。婚姻至多不过是一种妥协，而如果恰好两位个性上拒不妥协的人结合了，那么麻烦就来了。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      In the lives of these two young people there was no middle distance. The result was bound to be either love or hate, and in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Bodman it was hate of the most bitter and arrogant kind.

    两个这样的人的生活没有什么中间态，其结局注定只能是爱或只能是恨，而就博德曼夫妇的例子而言，他们到头来有的是那种最刻骨最傲慢的恨。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      In some parts of the world incompatibility of temper is considered a just cause for obtaining a divorce, but in England no such subtle distinction is made, and so until the wife became criminal, or the man became both criminal and cruel, these two were linked together by a bond that only death could sever. Nothing can be worse that this state of things, and the matter was only made the more helpless by the fact that Mrs. Bodman lived a blameless life, and her husband was no worse, but rather better, than the majortity of men. Perhaps, however, that statement held only up to a certain point, for John Bodman had reached a state of mind in which he resolved to get rid of his wife at all hazards. If he had been a poor man he would probably have deserted her, but he was rich, and a man cannot freely leave a prospering business because his domestic life happens not to be happy.

    在这世界上的某些地方，夫妻性格不合能够成为双方离婚的正当理由，但是在英格兰，这种理由却行不通，所以如果妻子没犯罪，或丈夫没犯罪并为人粗暴，那么二者的婚姻关系将一直维系下去，直至其中一方死亡。没有比这种事情更糟糕的了，更坏事的是博德曼太太为人无可指摘，而她丈夫并不比一般人差，实际上比大多数男人都要好。然而，也许那种状态只能维系到某种程度，因为约翰·博德曼已经忍无可忍，下定决心要摆脱妻子，不管付出什么代价。如果他是个穷人，也许他会抛弃她，但他很富有，而一个人不能因为家庭生活碰巧不幸福就轻易放弃一份蒸蒸日上的事业。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      When a man's mind dwells too much on any one subject, no one can tell just how far he will  go. The mind is a delicate instrument, and even the law recognises that it is easily thrown from its balance. Bodman's friends--for he had friends--claim that his mind was unhinged; but neither his friends or his enemies suspected the truth of the episode, which turned out to be the most important, as it was the most ominous, event in his life.

    一个人的心思要是太专注于任何一件事情，没有人能判定他最后会做出什么来。理智是一个脆弱的天平，连法律都承认它容易失衡。博德曼的朋友——他确实有几个朋友——事后声称他精神错乱；但不论是他的朋友，还是仇视他的人，都未对事件的真实性产生过怀疑。结果表明，这次事件是博德曼一生中最致命的事，因为让他最倒霉。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      Whether John Bodman was sane or insane at the time he made up his mind to murder his wife, will never be known, but there was certainly craftiness in the method he devised to make the crime appear the resualt of an accident. Nevertheless, cunning is often a quality in a mind that has gone wrong.

    谋杀妻子时，约翰·博德曼的神智是清醒还是不清醒，现在已无从得知，但既然他能把谋杀方案设计成看起来像是意外事件，这充分说明他当时脑子还很好使。不过，小伎俩一般是人的心术开始不正了才耍。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      Mrs. Bodman well knew how much her presence afflicted her husband, but her nature was as relentless as his, and her hatred of him was, if possible, more bitter than his hatred of her. Wherever he went she accompanied him, and perhaps the idea of murder would never have occured to him if she had not been so persistent in forcing her presence upon him at all times and on all occasions. So when he announced to her that he intended to spend the month of July in Switzerland, she said nothing, but made her preparations for the journey. On this occasion he did not pretest, as was usual with him, and so to Switzerland this silent couple departed.

    博德曼太太非常清楚，她的存在搅得丈夫心神不宁，可她的脾气顽拗得跟他不相上下，而她对他的恨恐怕比他对她的恨还更入骨。不管他去哪儿，她都跟着。要不是每一次每一个场合她都强行随从的话，他也许永远不会生出这谋杀之念。就这样，他一跟她说七月份打算去瑞士度假，她二话不说就打点行李。往常他总会阻拦，这回他没有，于是这对无话可说的夫妇动身去了瑞士。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      There is a hotel near the mountain-tops which stands on a ledge over one of the great glaciers. It is a mile and a half above the level of the sea, and it stands alone, reached by a toilsome road that zigzags up the mountain for six miles. There is a wonderful view of snow-peaks and glaciers from the verandahs of this hotel, and in the neighbourhood are many picturesque walks to points more or less dangerous. 

    瑞士多冰川，有一间旅馆便坐落于最大之一的冰川的脊架，离山峰只几步之遥。旅馆海拔高1.5英里，孑然独立，仅一条长为6里、盘旋而上的崎岖山路可通达。从旅馆回廊观赏积雪覆盖的山峰及交错相连的冰川，一派盛景；左近小道遍布，沿路风光如画，有些终点不甚危险，有些终点危险有加。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      John Bodman knew the hotel well, and in happier days he had been intimately acquainted with the vicinity. Now that the thought of murder arose in his mind, a certain spot two miles distant from this inn continually haunted him. It  was a point of view overlooking everything, and its extremity was protected by a low and crumbling wall. He arose one morning at four o'clock, slipped unnoticed out of the hotel, and went to this point, which was locally named Hanging Outlook. His memory had served him well. It was exactly the spot, he said to himself. The mountain which rose up behind it was wild and precipitous. There were no inhabitants near to overlook the place. The distant hotel was hidden by a shoulder of rock. The mountains on the other side of the valley were too far away to make it possible for any casual tourist or native to see what was going on on the Hanging Outlook. Far down in the valley the only town in view seemed like a collection of little toy house.

    约翰·博德曼对这家旅馆熟得很，以前日子还挺幸福的时候他常来这一带。如今既然已生谋杀之念，他就总是不由自主地想起这儿的某个地方。那地方离客栈足有2英里，是处景点，俯瞰周围，一壁破败的矮墙充当外沿栏杆。某天凌晨四点，他起了床，偷偷溜出旅馆，来到了这儿——当地人叫“了望角”。他的印象丝毫没差，找过来是驾轻就熟。真是天造地设的下手之地，他对自己说。“了望角”背靠的山荒芜而陡峭；往上无人居住，所以没人会从上看着这里；旅馆在2里开外，还被山肩遮掉了；山谷另一边的那些山又离得够远，就算有旅客或当地人无心爬上去了，也看不清这边“了望角”在发生什么；山谷下面就一座市镇，也很远，房屋看起来小得像玩具搭的。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      One glance over the crumbling wall at the edge was generally sufficient for a visitor of even the strongest nerves. There was a sheer drop of more than a mile straight down, and at the distant bottom were jagged rocks and stunted trees that looked, in the blue haze, like shrubbery.

      "This is the spot," said the man to himself, "and tomorrow morning is the time."

    站在边沿朝墙外望，胆子再大的游客也不敢看第二眼。峭壁陡直而下，深1600多米，底下怪石林立，杂树乱生，蓝色晨雾笼罩下，看来像丛灌木。

    “就是这里了！”他想，“而且明天早上正是时候！”

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      John Bodman had planned his crime as grimly and relentlessly, and as coolly, as ever he had concocted a deal on the Stock Exchange. There was no thought in his mind of mercy for his unconscious victim. His hatred had carried him far.

    约翰·博德曼谋算着他的罪行，冷酷，无情，沉着，一如他在证券交易所策划大宗交易。对于那位还蒙在鼓中的即将受害者，他心中没有一丝怜悯。厌恨让他丧失所有理智。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”

      The next morning after breakfast, he said to his wife: "I intend to take a walk in the mountains. Do you wish to come with me?"

      "Yes," she answered briefly.

      "Very well, then," he said: "I shall be ready at nine o'clock."

      "I shall be ready at nine o'clock," she repeated after him.  

    第二天，用过早餐，他对妻子说：“我想去山里面走走。你想不想跟我一起去？”

    “嗯，”她很干脆。

    “那就好，”他说：“我9点出门。”

    “我9点出门，”她重复道。

“永远不要小看女同志知道吗，她们什么事都干得出来......”