《龐貝》书评

好書！好書！

罗伯特·哈里斯的Pompeii实在是一部精彩至极的历史惊险小说，其文字内蕴丰富，不像有些美国畅销小说家那样文字寡淡、无甚滋味；台湾译本略微看了数页，发觉出版商节选的试阅篇章都很妙，足以引起多数读者的阅读兴趣，并在恰好处告诉你：节选完毕，请去自己买本看看吧。读者心痒痒，于是就去火速购得一本，看了个痛快。麥思偉先生的译文称得上是佳译。然而，有限时间里的翻译和有限时间内的阅读一样，都有着固有的缺憾，原文的信息会或多或少地丢失，《庞贝》也不例外。我挑出了两段话，加以说明一下。第一眼看出的毛病，是“他的曾祖父從第十二軍團「揮舞雷電者」的武器部門被馬可士．阿格利巴徵召來”中的“武器部门”，不清不楚，原文是ballista section，即罗马军团里的投石车部队。第二处，“ 比羅馬城的還偉大”，我起初以为是原文是greater，看了后才知道是longer，显然是译者看走眼了，将“更长”变成了“更伟大”。其余小错，我都在英文处用红色标注了出来，“fancy handles”，是“花里胡哨的头衔”，译成“附庸风雅”过于泛泛。Kidding，在这里并非“开玩笑”的意思，而是“欺骗（谁）、糊弄（谁）”。 “比艾提利亞更光榮的呢”，“Attilia”后面要加上“家族”，后面的“他们”最好也改成“他们家族”。“一个建造水利的王朝”，严格说来应是“建立在水利之上的王朝”。最后，关于“at the end of a long spur”，译者是理解成“在半島底端的”，但我有不同的看法，这句话其实是形容从水渠里六十多里長途奔来的水流，而庞贝是渠水抵达的终点。当然，这点只是我的猜想而已。龐貝 作者：羅伯特．哈里斯 譯者 麥思偉工程師的名字叫艾提利，全名叫馬可士．艾提利．普林穆斯，但叫他艾提利就行了。他是個講求實際的人，從來沒有時間像同胞們一樣附庸風雅。名字加上什麼「豺狼虎豹」、「天神美人」的，這種名字到底是在開誰的玩笑啊？何況有什麼名字在他這一行的歷史上比艾提利亞更光榮的呢？他們都已經有了四代的水渠工程師。他的曾祖父從第十二軍團「揮舞雷電者」的武器部門被馬可士．阿格利巴徵召來建造朱莉亞水渠，他的祖父規劃阿尼歐水渠，他父親完成克羅蒂亞水渠，利用七里長的拱柱將水引進埃斯奎里丘，在啟用典禮當天，把水渠像銀地毯似地攤開在皇帝腳下。現在他二十七歲，被送到南部的坎帕尼亞，掌理奧古斯塔水渠。一個建造水利的王朝！他對著黑暗眨眼。啊，奧古斯塔是多麼偉大的工程！歷史上最偉大的工程壯舉之一。管理它，是一種榮耀。在海灣對面遙遠的某處，亞平寧松林密佈的山頂上，水渠收集森林的泉水將水往西送，沿著蜿蜒的地下水道、穿過峽谷間一座座的水道橋，經由巨大的水管把水運過山谷，一路往下送到坎帕尼亞平原，然後繞過遠處的維蘇威山，往南到拿波里的海岸，最後沿著米西諾半島的脊幹到沙塵滿天的海軍港，六十多里的距離，整段距離每一百碼只有兩吋的落差。這是全世界最長的引水渠道，比羅馬城的還偉大，而且更複雜。那條它在北方的姊妹渠道只負責供應城市用水。奧古斯塔曲折的水渠則是巔峰之作，他們稱之為「母管」──灌育拿波里灣沿岸不下九個城鎮。為首的是在半島底端的龐貝，然後是諾拉、阿塞拉、亞提拉、拿波里、波佐利、庫邁、巴亞，最後是米西諾。Attilius was the engineer's name – Marcus Attilius Primus, to lay it out in full, but plain Attilius would have satisfied him. A practical man, he had never had much time for all these fancy handles his fellow countrymen went in for. ('Lupus', 'Panthera', 'Pulcher' – 'Wolf', 'Leopard', 'Beauty' – who in hell did they think they were kidding?) Besides, what name was more honourable in the history of his profession than that of the gens Attilia, aqueduct engineers for four generations? His great-grandfather had been recruited by Marcus Agrippa from the ballista section of Legion XII 'Fulminata' and set to work building the Aqua Julia. His grandfather had planned the Anio Novus. His father had completed the Aqua Claudia, bringing her into the Esquiline Hill over seven miles of arches, and laying her, on the day of her dedication, like a silver carpet at the feet of the Emperor. Now he, at twenty-seven, had been sent south to Campania and given command of the Aqua Augusta.A dynasty built on water!He squinted into the darkness. Oh, but she was a mighty piece of work, the Augusta – one of the greatest feats of engineering ever accomplished. It was going to be an honour to command her. Somewhere far out there, on the opposite side of the bay, high in the pine-forested mountains of the Appenninus, the aqueduct captured the springs of the Serinus and bore the water westwards – channelled it along sinuous underground passages, carried it over ravines on top of tiered arcades, forced it across valleys through massive syphons – all the way down to the plains of Campania, then around the far side of Mount Vesuvius, then south to the coast at Neapolis, and finally along the spine of the Misenum peninsula to the dusty naval town, a distance of some sixty miles, with a mean drop along her entire length of just two inches every one hundred yards. She was the longest aqueduct in the world, longer even than the great aqueducts of Rome and far more complex, for whereas her sisters in the north fed one city only, the Augusta's serpentine conduit – the matrix, as they called it: the motherline – suckled no fewer than nine towns around the Bay of Neapolis: Pompeii first, at the end of a long spur, then Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Neapolis, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae and finally Misenum.