杨绛·《窗帘》英译

窗帘

杨绛

人不怕挤。尽管摩肩接踵，大家也挤不到一处。像壳里的仁，各自各。像太阳光里飞舞的轻尘，各自各。凭你多热闹的地方，窗对着窗。各自人家，彼此不相干。只要挂上一个窗帘，只要拉过那薄薄一层，便把别人家隔离在千万里以外了。

隔离，不是断绝。窗帘并不堵没窗户，只在彼此间增加些距离——欺哄人招引人的距离。窗帘并不盖没窗户，只隐约遮掩——多么引诱挑逗的遮掩！所以，赤裸裸的窗口不引人注意，而一角掀动的窗帘，惹人窥探猜测，生出无限兴趣。

赤裸裸，可以表示天真朴素。不过，如把天真朴素做了窗帘的质料，做了窗帘的颜色，一个洁白素净的帘子，堆叠着透明的软纱，在风里飘曳，这种朴素，只怕比五颜六色更富有魅力，认真要赤裸裸不加遮饰，除非有希腊神像那样完美的身体，有天使般纯洁的灵魂。培根（Bacon）说过：“赤裸裸是不体面的；不论是赤露的身体，或赤露的心。”人从乐园里驱逐出来的时候，已经体味到这句话了。

所以赤裸裸的真实总需要些掩饰。白昼的阳光，无情地照彻了人间万物，不能留下些幽暗让人迷惑，让人梦想，让人希望。如果没有轻云薄雾把日光筛漏出五色霞彩来，天空该多么单调枯燥！

隐约模糊中，才容许你做梦和想象。距离增添了神秘。看不见边际，变为没边没际的遥远与辽阔。云雾中的山水，暗夜的星辰，希望中的未来，高超的理想，仰慕的名人，心许的“相知”，——隔着窗帘，惝怳迷离，可以产生无限美妙的想象。如果你嫌恶窗帘的间隔，冒冒失失闯进门、闯到窗帘后面去看个究竟，赤裸裸的真实只怕并不经看。像丁尼生（Tennyson）诗里的“夏洛特女郎”（The Lady of Shalott），看厌了镜中反映的世界，三步跑到窗前，望一望真实世界。她的镜子立即破裂成两半，她毁灭了以前快乐而无知的自己。

人家挂着窗帘呢，别去窥望。宁可自己也挂上一个，华丽的也好，朴素的也好。如果你不屑挂，或懒得挂，不妨就敞着个赤裸裸的窗口。不过，你总得尊重别人家的窗帘。

Window Curtains

Yang Jiang

People are not afraid of crowding. Though shoulder to shoulder and close upon each other’s heels, people don’t jam together. Like peas in a pod, each one has his own space; like dusty clouds dancing in the sun, each has his own sphere. However bustling a place is, families have nothing to do with each other although their windows are face to face. A curtain on a window, when that thin layer is drawn down, you can easily put the other family into a distance of a ten thousand li.

Barriers are not disconnections. A curtain doesn’t block up the window; it only increases the distance between the inside and the outside – a deceiving, tempting distance. The curtain doesn’t cover up the window either, only obscuring it – what an enticing obscurity! Thus a window fully open doesn’t attract attention, whereas a curtain with a fluttering corner arouses curiosity and conjecture, boundlessly tantalizing.

Nakedness may show innocence and simplicity. However, if we turn the innocence and simplicity into the material and color of a curtain, the result is a clean, white curtain, pleated with soft gauze, flapping in the breeze, much more charming than multicolored stuff. If you really want to be naked, you ought to have the perfect bodies of the Greek deities and the pure souls of angels. Bacon said, “Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body.” When they left the Garden of Eden, humankind understood the meaning of these words.

Therefore, naked truth should be somewhat covered. The blazing sunlight, which ruthlessly beats down on everything in the world, do not leave shadows that allow one to be mystified, to dream and to hope. Without light clouds and thin hazes sieving the sunshine and creating a colorful glow, how boring the sky would be!

Only in dimness and obscurity can one dream and give play to the imagination. Distance increases mystery. We are lost in a boundless remoteness, calling to mind mountains and rivers obscured in mist and clouds, stars on a dark night, the future in our hopes, a transcendental ideal, celebrities worshipped from afar, and a “friend” in one’s wishful thinking. Similarly, the barrier of a window curtain obscures and mystifies, inducing endless speculation. Whereas if you burst through the barrier and invade the area behind the curtain, I am afraid the naked truth in there may not be an uplifting sight. The Lady of Shalott in Tennyson’s poem is fed up with the world in the mirror, so in three steps she rushes to the window to see the real world. At once her mirror cracks from side to side, and she has forever lost her happy and innocent self.

See, there’s a curtain on that window, don’t go and peep. Better hang one out yourself, be it colorful or plain. If you don’t want to stoop to hanging out curtains and can’t be bothered with the trouble, feel free to leave your window wide open. But to respect other people’s window curtains.

（哈金 译）