旅行的藝術(shù):動機 Ⅲ 異國情調(diào)-2

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從傳統(tǒng)意義上看，異國情調(diào)一詞更多地是同耍蛇人、閨閣、光塔、駱駝、露天集市，以及由一個蓄著八字須的仆人從高處倒進托盤上小玻璃杯內(nèi)的薄荷茶等等聯(lián)系在一起，它們遠比上面提及的荷蘭指示牌豐富多彩。

The word exotic has traditionally been attached to more colourful things than Dutch signs: among them, to snake charmers, harems, minarets, camels, souks and mint tea poured from a great height into a tray of small glasses by a mustachioed servant.

19世紀上半葉，異國情調(diào)一詞成了中東的代名詞。1829年，維克多·雨果出版了他的組詩《東方集》。在詩序中，就有這樣的表述：“我們所有的人都比以前更為關(guān)注東方。東方已然是眾多人魂縈夢繞的地方，也是本書作者向往之地。”

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the term became synonymous with the Middle East. When Victor Hugo published his cycle of poems Les Orientales in 1829, he could declare in the preface, 'We are all much more concerned with the Orient than ever before. The Orient has become a subject of general preoccupation-to which the author of this book has deferred.'

雨果的詩具有歐洲東方文學(xué)的基本題材，如海盜、帕夏 [3] 、蘇丹、香料和托缽僧人等。詩中的人物用小玻璃杯喝薄荷茶。像《天方夜譚》、瓦爾特·司各特 [4] 的東方題材的小說以及拜倫 [5] 的《異教徒》等文學(xué)作品一樣，他的詩作很快贏得了讀者的喜愛。1832年1月，尤金·德拉克洛瓦動身去北非，期冀其繪畫創(chuàng)作能捕捉東方的異國情調(diào)。到丹吉爾后，未及3個月，他就穿起了當?shù)氐姆棧⒃趯懡o他弟弟的信尾署名為“你的：非洲人”。

Hugo's poems featured the staples of European Orientalist literature: pirates, pashas, sultans, spices, moustaches and dervishes. Characters drank mint tea from small glasses. His work found an eager audience-as did the Arabian Nights , the Oriental novels of Walter Scott and Byron's The Giaour . In January 1832, Eugène Delacroix set off for North Africa to capture the exoticism of the Orient in painting. Within three months of arriving in Tangier, he was wearing local dress and signing himself in letters to his brother as 'your African'.

更有甚者，歐洲的一些公共場所看上去也越來越具有東方情調(diào)。1833年9月14日，魯昂附近的塞納河畔擠滿了人群，他們在為法國軍艦盧索赫號歡呼。該艦從埃及亞歷山大港起航，正往巴黎方向逆水上行。軍艦上有一座方尖碑，用專門的支架固定著。它來自底比斯神殿，人們把它吊運到船上，準備用它作協(xié)和廣場前的交通島。

Even European public places were becoming more Oriental in appearance. On 14 September 1833, a crowd lined the banks of the Seine near Rouen and cheered as a French navy boat, the Louxor , sailed upstream to Paris on its way from Alexandria bearing, in a specially constructed hold, the giant obelisk lifted from the temple complex at Thebes, destined for a traffic island on the Place de la Concorde.

在這群人中有一位心事重重的12歲男孩，他就是古斯塔夫·福樓拜 [6] 。福樓拜的最大夢想便是離開魯昂，到埃及去趕駱駝，并在后宮中找到一位有著橄欖膚色，上唇帶著一絲幽怨的女孩，并為她獻出自己的童貞。

One of those standing in the crowd was a moody twelve-year-old boy named Gustave Flaubert, whose greatest wish was to leave Rouen, become a camel driver in Egypt and lose his virginity in a harem to an olive-skinned woman with a trace of down on her upper lip.

這個12歲的男孩對魯昂——事實上，對整個法國——充滿了輕蔑。他在寫給學(xué)校時的朋友舍瓦利耶的信中表示，對這所謂的“優(yōu)秀文明”他只有蔑視，盡管這個文明已經(jīng)制造出了“鐵路、監(jiān)獄、奶油餡餅、忠誠和斷頭臺”，并以此自傲。他的生活“徒勞乏味，毫無新意，并充滿艱辛”。他在日記中寫道：“我常希望自己斃掉過路的行人。我太無聊了，實在是太太無聊了！”在創(chuàng)作中，他常常會涉及到在法國，特別是魯昂生活的無聊。“今天我簡直是無聊透頂了，”在一個糟透了的星期天行將結(jié)束時，他這樣寫道。“外省的景色是多么的迷人，生活在那里的人們又是多么的有趣。他們談?wù)摰氖嵌愘M、道路的修整……。‘鄰居’是一個多么美妙的字眼。為了強調(diào)‘鄰居’在社會生活中的重要性，它永遠都應(yīng)該是大寫的‘鄰居’（NEIGHBOUR）。”

The twelve-year-old held Rouen-and indeed the whole of Francein profound contempt. As he put it to his schoolfriend Ernest Chevalier, he had only disdain for this 'good civilization' which prided itself on having produced 'railways, poisons, cream tarts, royalty and the guillotine'. His life was 'sterile, banal and laborious'. 'Often I'd like to be able to blow the heads off passers-by,' he told his diary. 'I am bored, I am bored, I am bored.' He returned repeatedly to the theme of how boring it was to live in France and especially in Rouen. 'Today my boredom was terrible,' he reported at the end of one bad Sunday. 'How beautiful are the provinces and how chic are the comfortably off who live there. Their talk is…of taxes and road improvements. The neighbour is a wonderful institution. To be given its full social due, his position should always be written in capitals: NEIGHBOUR.'

就福樓拜而言，對東方的凝視能幫助他從自己的生活環(huán)境中解脫出來，暫時將那種富足卻委瑣的生活以及世俗的思維定勢拋于腦后。對中東的描寫充斥于他早期的創(chuàng)作和通信。1836年，他才15歲（他還在學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)，但一直幻想如何刺殺魯昂市長），便創(chuàng)作了小說《憤怒與無助》。福樓拜通過小說的主人公歐姆林先生表現(xiàn)出了他對東方的幻想和渴望：“啊，東方！東方熱辣的太陽，東方澄碧的藍天，東方金色的光塔……還有那跋涉在沙漠之上的駱駝商旅；啊，東方！……東方有著棕褐橄欖般膚色的女人！”

It was as a source of relief from the prosperous pettiness and civic-mindedness of his surroundings that Flaubert contemplated the Orient. References to the Middle East pervaded his early writings and correspondence. In Rage et impuissance , a story written in 1836 when he was fifteen (he was at school and fantasized about killing the mayor of Rouen), the author projected his Eastern fantasies on to his central character, Monsieur Ohmlin, who longed for: 'The Orient with her burning sun, her blue skies, her golden minarets … her caravans through the sands; the Orient! … the tanned, olive skin of Asiatic women!'

1839年（福樓拜當時正迷上拉伯雷[7] 的作品，并想很大聲地放屁，讓整個魯昂的人都能聽見），他創(chuàng)作了另一部作品《一個愚者的回憶錄》，小說帶有自傳色彩，其主人公在回顧年輕時對中東的向往時有這樣的描述：“我夢想著穿越南方大片的土地，到遙遠的地方旅行；在夢想中，我看見了東方，她有一望無垠的沙漠、宮殿，宮殿里滿是掛著銅鈴的駱駝……我還看見了藍色的大海，碧澄的天，銀色的細沙和有著棕褐色皮膚的女人，她們眼里射出熱辣的火，她們和我交談時有著天國美女的溫柔。”

In 1839 (Flaubert was reading Rabelais and wanted to fart loudly enough for all Rouen to hear), he wrote another story, Les Mémoires d'un fou , whose autobiographical hero looked back on a youth spent yearning for the Middle East: 'I dreamt of faraway journeys through the lands of the South; I saw the Orient, her vast sands and her palaces teeming with camels wearing brass bells … I saw blue seas, a pure sky, silvery sand and women with tanned skin and fiery eyes who could whisper to me in the language of the Houris.'

1841年（福樓拜已經(jīng)離開魯昂，遵從父親的意愿在巴黎學(xué)習(xí)法律），他又完成了小說《十一月》。小說的主人公成天將自己想象成東方的商人，無暇關(guān)注鐵路、資產(chǎn)階級的文明和律師：“啊！騎在駝背上！前方，是紅艷的天空，棕褐色的沙漠；在燃燒的地平線上，是起伏的沙丘，延伸到無窮的遠方……夜幕降臨，人們搭起帳篷，給駱駝喝水，生起篝火以驅(qū)走胡狼，但耳邊還是能夠聽到在沙漠深處胡狼凄厲的嗷叫；到了早上，人們在綠洲給葫蘆灌滿水。”

Two years later (by which time Flaubert had left Rouen and was studying law in Paris, in deference to his father's wishes), he wrote another story, Novembre , whose hero had no time for railways, bourgeois civilization or lawyers-but identified with the traders of the East instead: 'Oh! To be riding now on the back of a camel! Ahead of you, a red sky and brown sands, on the burning horizon, the undulating landscape stretches out into infinity … In the evening, one puts up the tents, waters the dromedaries and lights fires to scare off the jackals that one can hear wailing far off in the desert; and in the morning, one fills the gourds at the oasis.'

在福樓拜看來，幸福和東方是可以互換的兩個詞。有一段時期，學(xué)業(yè)的壓力，失戀的打擊，父母的期望，以及一直可以聽到農(nóng)民抱怨的糟糕透頂?shù)奶鞖猓ㄟB續(xù)兩周不停歇的雨水沖沒了魯昂附近的田地，還淹死了幾頭牛），這一切都讓福樓拜感到絕望。他在寫給舍瓦利耶的信中說：“盡管我夢想的生活是如此美好，充滿詩意，是如此的廣闊，為愛所包圍，但現(xiàn)實中，我的生活將會和別人一樣，單調(diào)，愚蠢，中規(guī)中矩。我將到法學(xué)院念書，然后取得律師資格，最終在外省的某個小鎮(zhèn)，如伊沃托或迪耶普，當上一名受人尊敬的地區(qū)助理律師……可憐的快要發(fā)瘋的年輕人，還在夢想著榮耀、愛情、桂冠、旅行和東方！”

In Flaubert's mind, the word happiness became interchangeable with the word Orient . In a moment of despair over his studies, his lack of romantic success, the expectations of his parents, the weather and the accompanying complaints of farmers (it had been raining for two weeks and several cows had drowned in flooded fields near Rouen), Flaubert wrote to Chevalier, 'My life, which I dream will be so beautiful, so poetic, so vast, so filled with love, will turn out to be like everyone else's-monotonous, sensible, stupid. I'll attend law school, be admitted to the bar, and end up as a respectable assistant district attorney in a small provincial town, such as Yvetot or Dieppe … Poor madman, who dreamt of glory, love, laurels, journeys, the Orient.'

那些生活在北非沿海地區(qū)、沙特阿拉伯、埃及、巴勒斯坦和敘利亞的人們可能不曾料到，他們棲身的土地，在一位年輕的法國人眼里竟然是一切美好事物的朦朧化身。這位年輕人驚嘆道：“萬歲，太陽！萬歲，橘樹、棕櫚樹、蓮花！還有那鋪著大理石的涼亭，涼亭里有用木板隔成的小間，專供墜入情網(wǎng)的年輕人談情說愛！……我是否永遠看不到那古城里的墓群，在那里，薄暮時分，有成群的駱駝靠著墓穴憩息，還能聽到地底下墓穴里國王們的木乃伊旁狼狗的嚎叫？”

The people who lived along the coasts of North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine and Syria might have been surprised to learn that their lands had been grouped by a young Frenchman into a vague synonym for all that was good. 'Long live the sun, long live orange trees, palm trees, lotus flowers and cool pavilions paved in marble with wood-panelled chambers that talk of love!' he exclaimed. 'Will I never see necropolises where, towards evening, when the camels have come to rest by their wells, hyenas howl from beneath the mummies of kings?'

他能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)他的夢想，因為25歲時，父親突然辭世，留給他一筆財產(chǎn)，使他得以擺脫那似乎早已命定的小資產(chǎn)者的生活，從此不必聽那些關(guān)于淹死的牛的無聊抱怨。他立即著手安排一次埃及之旅，參與他的計劃的還有坎普，他的好友，也是同學(xué)，和他一樣對東方充滿激情，并愿意將此種激情付諸實踐，踏上通向東方的旅程。

As it happened, he would, for when Gustave was twentyfour, his father died unexpectedly, leaving him a fortune that allowed him to side-step the bourgeois career and attendant small-talk about drowned cattle he had seemed destined for. He began at once to plan an Egyptian trip, assisted in the task by his friend Maxime du Camp, a fellow student who shared his passion for the East and combined it with the practical turn of mind that was a necessary requirement for anyone wishing to undertake a journey there.

兩位東方迷1849年10月底離開巴黎，從馬賽上船，經(jīng)歷了海上驚濤駭浪的顛簸后，于11月中旬抵達亞歷山大。“船再過兩個小時就要到埃及的海岸了。我們隨軍需官到了船頭，可以看見阿拔斯王朝帕夏的宮殿，從蔚藍的地中海望去，它像是一個黑色的圓穹，”福樓拜在給母親的信中寫道。“太陽正從它的穹頂下落。我便是透過，或者說正是在這像是熔化在海面上的銀色輝光里得獲我對東方的第一眼印象。不久海岸變得清晰起來，最早看見的是岸上的兩只駱駝，它們的主人牽著它們；隨后，看見的是碼頭上一些安然垂釣的阿拉伯人。在一片震耳欲聾的喧囂聲中我們開始上岸了：你左右都能聽到黑人男人的聲音，黑人女人的聲音，駱駝的叫聲，纏著頭巾的人的聲音，棒喝的聲音，還有粗嗄刺耳的喊叫聲，總之，你能想象多鬧便有多鬧。還有那眾多的色彩，我像大啖稻草的驢子般，狼吞虎咽著眼前的五光十色。”

The two Oriental enthusiasts left Paris at the end of October 1849 and, after a stormy sea crossing from Marseilles, arrived in Alexandria in the middle of November. 'When we were two hours out from the coast of Egypt I went into the bow with the chief quartermaster and saw the seraglio of Abbas Pasha like a black dome on the blue of the Mediterranean,' Flaubert reported to his mother. 'The sun was beating down on it. I had my first sight of the Orient through, or rather in, a glowing light that was like melted silver on the sea. Soon the shore became distinguishable, and the first thing we saw on land was a pair of camels led by their driver; then, on the dock, some Arabs peacefully fishing. Landing took place amid the most deafening uproar imaginable: negroes, negresses, camels, turbans, cudgellings to right and left, and ear-splitting guttural cries. I gulped down a whole bellyful of colours, like a donkey filling himself with hay.'