Smiley's People汉译31整合6

agent124

第二章


The second of the two events that brought George Smiley from his retirement occurred a few weeks after the first, in early autumn of the same year: not in Paris at all, but in the once ancient, free, and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, now almost pounded to death by the thunder of its own prosperity; yet it remains true that nowhere does the summer fade more splendidly than along the gold and orange banks of the Alster, which nobody as yet has drained or filled with concrete. George Smiley, needless to say, had seen nothing of its languorous autumn splendour. Smiley, on the day in question, was toiling obliviously, with whatever conviction he could muster, at his habitual desk in the London Library in St. James’s Square, with two spindly trees to look at through the sash-window of the reading-room. The only link to Hamburg he might have pleaded—if he had afterwards attempted the connection, which he did not—was in the Parnassian field of German baroque poetry, for at the time he was composing a monograph on the bard Opitz, and trying loyally to distinguish true passion from the tiresome literary convention of the period.
让退休的乔治·斯迈利重新出山的第二起事件发生在第一起事件的几个星期之后，时间是同年的初秋。这次不是在巴黎，而是在汉堡。一个曾经古老，自由的汉萨同盟（中世纪由中欧和北欧的商人行会和集镇组成的商业和防御联盟。汉堡全称Hanseatic city of Hamburg，即“汉萨同盟城市汉堡”。——译注）城市，如今更繁荣了，但同时发展建设的雷霆之力也把城市击倒了，使它失去了原来的魅力。不过，在阿尔斯特河（汉堡标志之一————译注），河水还没有抽干，河床也没有用水泥填充。河岸上金色和橙色交替辉印，这夏天最后一抹的美色，还没有别的地方可以与之相比。乔治·斯迈利不用说从没见过这里暖风熏得游人醉的壮丽秋色。事件发生的当天，他正在圣詹姆斯广场的伦敦图书馆里，坐在他惯常使用的书桌前，努力抱着某种信念，忘我地辛勤工作。透过阅览室的窗棂，可以看到两棵细长的大树。尽管他事后并没有试图把他当时做的事和汉堡联系起来，但假设他这样做的话，最多也只能说，他正在研究的德国巴洛克诗歌艺术能和德国城市汉堡沾上一点边。当时他正在撰写关于奥皮茨（Martin Opitz（1597-1639），德国17世纪上半叶诗歌的重要代表人物之一——译注）的一部专论，并努力将真正的创作热情和那个时代令人厌倦的文学传统区分开来。

The time in Hamburg was a few moments after eleven in the morning, and the footpath leading to the jetty was speckled with sunlight and dead leaves. A candescent haze hung over the flat water of the Aussenalster and through it the spires of the eastern bank were like green stains dabbed on the wet horizon. Along the shore, red squirrels scurried, foraging for the winter. But the slight and somewhat anarchistic-looking young man standing on the jetty wearing a track suit and running shoes had neither eyes nor mind for them. His red-rimmed gaze was locked tensely upon the approaching steamer, his hollow face darkened by a two-day stubble. He carried a Hamburg newspaper under his left arm, and an eye as perceptive as George Smiley’s would have noticed at once that it was yesterday’s edition, not today’s. In his right hand he clutched a rush shopping basket better suited to the dumpy Madame Ostrakova than to this lithe, bedraggled athlete who seemed any minute about to leap into the lake. Oranges peeked out of the top of the basket, a yellow Kodak envelope with English printing lay on top of the oranges. The jetty was otherwise empty, and the haze over the water added to his solitude. His only companions were the steamer timetable and an archaic notice, which must have survived the war, telling him how to revive the half-drowned; his only thoughts concerned the General’s instructions, which he was continuously reciting to himself like a prayer.
汉堡当时的时间是上午11点多钟。通往码头的人行道上洒满了阳光和枯叶。外阿尔斯特湖（是阿尔斯特河所形成的两个人工湖中较大的一个——译注）平静的水面上笼罩着一层白茫茫的雾气，透过雾气，东岸的尖塔就像点缀在湿润地平线上的绿色斑点。红松鼠在湖畔急匆匆地来回穿梭，寻找过冬的食物。站在码头上的这位瘦小的年轻人根本不理会这些景物，他的心思不在这些东西上。他穿着运动服和跑鞋，看起来有点无政府主义，胡子两天没刮，瘦削的脸看上去更黑了，眼圈发红，紧张地盯着正在靠岸的汽船。他左臂下夹着一份汉堡的报纸，像乔治·斯迈利那样敏锐的眼睛会立刻发现那是昨天的报纸，不是今天的。他右手攥着一个蔺草购物篮，这个购物篮更适合身材矮小的奥斯特拉科娃夫人，而不是这位身体柔软，蓬头垢面，似乎随时会跃入湖中的运动员。篮子顶端露出几只橙子，橙子上放着一个印有英文的黄色柯达信封。码头上只有他一个人，水面上的雾霾使他孤身一人的形象更加突出。
唯一陪伴他的是汽船时刻表和一张陈旧的告示。这张告示一定经历了战争的洗礼，上面写着如何让淹得半死的人苏醒过来。他什么都不想，只想着将军的指示，像祷告一样不断地自言自语背诵着。