海外頭條總編審 王 在 軍 （中國(guó)）
海外頭條副編審 Wendy溫迪（英國(guó)）
海 外 頭 條總 編 火 鳳 凰 （海外）
圖片選自百度
英文誦讀：龔如仲（美國(guó)）
中文播音：琬 喬（中國(guó)）
The Plague
By Albert Camus（France）
Page 41
When Rieux entered the room, the old man was sitting up in bed, at his usual occupation, counting out dried peas from one pan to another. On seeing his visitor he looked up, beaming with delight.
“Well, doctor? It's cholera, isn't it?”
“Where on earth did you get that idea from?”
“It's in the paper, and the radio said it, too.”
“No, it's not cholera.”
“Anyhow,” the old man chuckled excitedly, “the big bugs are laying it on thick. Got the jitters, haven't they?”
“Don't you believe a word of it,” the doctor said.
He had examined the old man and now was sitting in the middle of the dingy little dining-room. Yes, despite what he had said, he was afraid. He knew that in this suburb alone eight or ten unhappy people, cowering over their buboes, would be awaiting his visit next morning. In only two or three cases had incision of the buboes caused any improvement. For most of them it would mean going to the hospital, and he knew how poor people feel about hospitals. “I don't want them trying their experiment on him,” had said the wife of one of his patients. But he wouldn't be experimented on; he would die, that was all. That the regulations now in force were inadequate was lamentably clear. As for the “specially equipped” wards, he knew what they amounted to: two out buildings from which the other patients had been hastily evacuated, whose windows had been hermetically sealed, and round which a sanitary cordon had been set. The only hope was that the outbreak would die a natural death; it certainly wouldn't be arrested by the measures the authorities had so far devised.
Nevertheless, that night the official communiqué was still optimistic. On the following day Ransdoc announced that the rules laid down by the local administration had won general approval and already thirty sick persons had reported. Castel rang up Rieux.
"How many beds are there in the special wards?”
“Eighty.”
“Surely there are far more than thirty cases in the town?”
“Don't forget there are two sorts of cases: those who take fright, and those-they're the majority-who don't have time to do so.”
“I see. Are they checking up on the burials?”
“No. I told Richard over the phone that energetic measures were needed, not just words; we'd got to set up a real barrier against the disease, otherwise we might just as well do nothing.”
“Yes? And what did he say?”
“Nothing doing. He hadn't the powers. In my opinion, it's going to get worse.”
That was so. Within three days both wards were full. According to Richard, there was talk of requisitioning a school and opening an auxiliary hospital. Meanwhile Rieux continued incising buboes and waiting for the anti-plague serum. Castel went back to his old books and spent long hours in the public library.
“Those rats died of plague,” was his conclusion, “or of something extremely like it. And they've loosed on the town tens of thousands of fleas, which will spread the infection in geometrical progression unless it's checked in time.”
Rieux said nothing.
《鼠疫》
作者：阿爾貝?加繆（法國(guó)）
第41頁(yè)
譯者：龔如仲（Ralph）
當(dāng)里厄大夫進(jìn)入房間時(shí)，坐在床上的那位氣喘病患者老人正用他那“本行不忘”的方式，數(shù)著一盤干豆子，然后把數(shù)好的豆子挪到另一盤里。一見到他所尊敬的貴客，老人家非常開心。
“嗨，大夫是您??？這禍害是霍亂，對(duì)吧？”
“您是從世界上哪個(gè)角落里聽到這個(gè)說法的？”
“報(bào)紙上有報(bào)道，而且收音機(jī)里也說過這件事啊。”
“不！這不是霍亂。”
“不管怎么樣吧，”老人家激動(dòng)地笑著說道，“這些頭頭們也太夸張了吧，都讓人們不知所措了，不是嗎？”
“您不要相信種種傳言，”醫(yī)生說道。
醫(yī)生對(duì)這位已經(jīng)坐在他家里那間邋遢的小小飯?zhí)美锏睦先思疫M(jìn)行了檢查。醫(yī)生心里想到：是啊，不管這位老人家說了什么，其實(shí)他是害怕啊。醫(yī)生知道，就在這個(gè)郊區(qū)，已經(jīng)有八個(gè)或十個(gè)不幸的人被他們自己的淋巴管炎的癥狀嚇得夠嗆，他們等著醫(yī)生次日上午去他們家中作進(jìn)一步的診治。只有兩三個(gè)患者的淋巴管切開后，經(jīng)治療，有了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)起色，他們當(dāng)中的大多數(shù)人必須入院治療。醫(yī)生知道，入院治療對(duì)窮人們來(lái)說意味著什么?！拔铱刹辉敢馑麄儼盐业恼煞虍?dāng)成試驗(yàn)品，”這些病人中間的一位妻子說道。但是，醫(yī)生必須在他身上作試驗(yàn)，否則他只有死路一條。那些正在執(zhí)行的尚不完備的規(guī)定非常清楚。醫(yī)生知道“特殊裝備”病房的真正含義是：兩棟從其他病人那里緊急騰出來(lái)的病房，窗戶被牢牢地封住，病房外面拉起了衛(wèi)生警戒線。唯一的希望是：疫情的爆發(fā)只是引起自然死亡；它不是被當(dāng)局所發(fā)布的強(qiáng)制性措施所抑制。
盡管如此，那天晚上，官方的公報(bào)依然是樂觀的。到了第二天，蘭斯多克宣布：地方當(dāng)局所制定的那些規(guī)定得到了普遍認(rèn)可，又有三十個(gè)病號(hào)出現(xiàn)?？ㄋ固貭柈?dāng)即給里厄大夫打電話。
“特殊病房有多少個(gè)床位？”
“八十張?！?/p>
“啊，但城里遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出三十個(gè)病人吧？”
“請(qǐng)您不要忘記，當(dāng)下有兩種類型的病號(hào)：一種人是非?？謶?；而另一種人，他們可是大多數(shù)， 他們來(lái)不及申報(bào)?！?/p>
“哦，我明白了。埋葬尸體有人監(jiān)督嗎？”
“沒有！我已經(jīng)通過電話告訴理查德積極有效的措施是必須的，不能光說空話；我們必須對(duì)瘟疫建立切實(shí)的防止蔓延的壁壘，否則等于白干，沒有用處?！?/p>
“是??？那么他是怎么說的？”
“什么也沒有說，因?yàn)樗麤]有這個(gè)權(quán)限。依我所見，事態(tài)正在惡化?！?/p>
確實(shí)如此。僅僅三天后，所有的病房都爆滿了。據(jù)理查德說，政府正在征用一所學(xué)校來(lái)安排病房，同時(shí)要開啟一所輔助治療醫(yī)院。與此同時(shí)，里厄大夫繼續(xù)切開病人的淋巴管作緊急治療，并等待著抗鼠疫血清的到來(lái)?？ㄋ固貭栍秩ゲ殚喫呐f書本，并在公立圖書館里待得很久很久。
“這些老鼠是死于鼠疫，”這就是卡斯特爾的結(jié)論，“或者是與鼠疫極為相似的病菌。這個(gè)城里，老鼠身上成千上萬(wàn)的跳蚤正以幾何級(jí)數(shù)的速度傳播著鼠疫，必須及時(shí)檢查！”
里厄醫(yī)生默默無(wú)語(yǔ)。
【作者簡(jiǎn)介】龔如仲 (Ralph) , 中國(guó)對(duì)外經(jīng)濟(jì)貿(mào)易大學(xué)英語(yǔ)系畢業(yè)。曾任鐵道部援建坦贊鐵路工作組總部英語(yǔ)翻譯, 中國(guó)國(guó)際廣播電臺(tái)英語(yǔ)部播音員、記者, 外貿(mào)部中國(guó)輕工業(yè)品進(jìn)出口總公司駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 澳大利亞利富集團(tuán)駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 外貿(mào)部中國(guó)基地總公司駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 美國(guó)TA國(guó)際有限公司駐北京辦事處首席代表。
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