寄往美洲的一句话

资费

The Tariff

在1909年，寄往美洲的一个字，抵得上法亚尔岛短工干满三天的所得。在奥尔塔的亚速尔与大西洋电报公司柜台上方，那块搪瓷招牌上写的倒不是这个，上面标的是雷伊斯；但在整栋楼里，十六年来一直坐在这块招牌底下的伊内斯·古拉特，是唯一会定期把价格换算成工钱天数的人。二楼的英国人算账用的是英镑。他们坐在上面，把股票行情、船运电报以及汉堡船东订婚的喜讯从一个大洲传递到另一个大洲。因为在奥尔塔近海的海底，连接欧洲和美洲的缆线在此交汇；而这座除了海风、鲸鱼和优良海港外一无所有的岛屿，就像是线路正中央打的一个结。

In the year 1909 one word to America cost as much as a day labourer on the island of Faial earned in three days. That was not how it was put on the enamel board above the counter of the Azores & Atlantic Telegraph Company in Horta, where it was put in réis, but Inês Goulart, who had sat beneath that board for sixteen years, was the only person in the building who regularly converted the price into labourers’ wages. The Englishmen on the first floor reckoned in pounds. They sat up there to pass stock prices, shipping reports and the engagements of Hamburg shipowners from one continent to the other, for on the seabed off Horta the cables between Europe and America met, and the island, which owned nothing but wind, whales and a good harbour, lay like a knot in the middle of the line.

底楼的营业柜台是对当地居民的通融。派女人坐柜台，是因为女人的薪水只要一半；而派这个女人，则是因为她通晓三门语言，而且谁也吓不住她，不管是船长还是寡妇。

The counter on the ground floor was a concession to the locals. It had been given to a woman because a woman cost half as much, and to this woman because she read three languages and was impressed by nobody, neither by captains nor by widows.

那时候，法亚尔岛半数的年轻人都生活在马萨诸塞州的新贝德福德，他们先是在捕鲸船上当水手，后来又守在棉纺厂的织布机前。他们往家里汇钱，母亲们则想知道钱收到了没有、他们是否还活着。一封信要在路上走一个月。一封电报只要一个小时，但算上地址，就要花掉整整一周甚至更长时间的苦工。

Half the sons of Faial were living at that time in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they had first manned the whaling ships and now stood at the looms of the cotton mills. They sent money, and their mothers wanted to know whether it had arrived and whether they were still alive. A letter took a month. A telegram took an hour and, the address included, a week’s work or more.

1901年冬天，塞德罗斯的一位寡妇来到柜台前，手里攥着寄两个字的钱，想告诉儿子汇款收到了，屋顶修好了，复活节前不用再寄钱来了。伊内斯端详着那些硬币，又看了看这个女人，建议她随下一班邮船给儿子寄封信。信里就写，今后 figos ，也就是无花果，指的正是这句话。没有人会对无花果起疑。寡妇当时以为这是施了法术，回去讲给了自己的妹妹听。

In the winter of 1901 a widow from Cedros had stood at the counter with the money for two words in her hand, wanting to tell her son that his remittance had come, the roof was mended and he need send nothing more before Easter. Inês had looked at the coins, then at the woman, and had advised her to write the son a letter by the next post. It should say that figos , figs, would from now on mean exactly that sentence. Nobody had anything against figs. The widow had taken it for witchcraft and told her sister.

八年之后，柜台下放着一本记了三百零九条黑封皮账本，而在新贝德福德的本腾库特先生那里，也有一本一模一样、一字不差的账本。他是皮库岛人，是位船舶供料商，伊内斯从未见过他，八年来两人通信的口吻，旁人通常只有在结了婚后才会用到。他在电报局有登记过的简短地址，其余的一切全由账本解决。 Figos ：钱收到了。 Chuva ，雨水：暂时别寄。 Telhado ，屋顶：我们需要钱，而且要快。 Atum ，金枪鱼：生了男孩，健康。 Sardinha ：生了女孩，健康。这一点在生了女儿的母亲们中间屡屡引发抗议，伊内斯总是回上一句：资费又不是她定的。名字加一个字，完事。顺着深海线缆传过去的那些内容，读起来活像一个神思恍惚的菜贩子开出的订货单。

Eight years later there lay under the counter a black ledger with three hundred and nine entries, and a second one, identical word for word, stood in New Bedford with Senhor Bettencourt, a ship’s chandler from Pico whom Inês had never seen and with whom she had corresponded for eight years in a tone other people save for marriage. He had a registered short address, and everything else was the book’s business. Figos : the money has come. Chuva , rain: send nothing for now. Telhado , roof: we need money, and soon. Atum , tuna: a boy, healthy. Sardinha : a girl, healthy, which had repeatedly led to protests from the mothers of daughters, whom Inês met with the remark that she did not set the tariff. Name and word, done. What ran through the deep sea read like the order of a very absent-minded greengrocer.

楼上守着机器的是康沃尔人，他们传递这些词，就像流水线上搬运煤块一样。首席电报员曾问过一句，葡萄牙人平日里到底还吃不吃别的东西。而本腾库特和伊内斯则每通一次邮——不是一个月，而是来回两个月——就要为每一个新词争论一番：比如 chuva 对庄稼人来说算不算好事；来自皮库岛的字眼靠不靠得住； vinho 该代表婚礼还是受洗。光是为 vinho ，两人就几乎争论了一整年。

Upstairs at the instruments sat men from Cornwall who passed these words along the way one passes along coal. The chief telegraphist had once asked whether the Portuguese ate anything else at all. She and Bettencourt, on the other hand, quarrelled by every post, which took not one month but two there and back, over each new entry: whether chuva did not rather mean something good to a farmer, whether a word from Pico could be trusted, whether vinho should stand for a wedding or for a christening. Over vinho they had failed to agree for almost a year.

最沉重的一条记在第一页，因为那是他们最早用到的词汇之一。 Nevoeiro ，浓雾：人没了。她选这个词，是因为大雾从港口漫上来时，对岸岛上的皮库大山就会消失不见，过后又会重新浮现。这虽不能抚平当事人的创伤，但好歹算是一种体面。带着 nevoeiro 字样的纸条，她从不让跑腿打杂的小厮去送。那是她亲自送去的。在法亚尔岛，大家渐渐明白，伊内斯·古拉特在大白天关上柜台、光着头走上巷子意味着什么。每当她走过，人们就会从窗前退开身子。

The heaviest entry stood on the first page, because it had been one of the first to be needed. Nevoeiro , fog: he is dead. She had chosen the word because in fog Pico vanished from view from the harbour, the great mountain on the neighbouring island, and afterwards was there again, which was no comfort to those concerned but was at least a kind of decency. A nevoeiro was not carried by the errand boy. She brought that herself. On Faial people knew by now what it meant when Inês Goulart shut the counter in the middle of the day and went up the lane without a hat, and as she passed they stepped back from their windows.

在账本后方隔着一张白纸的地方，还记着另外三十一个词，那些只属于个别家庭，她从不给外人看。那是人们背对着门、在柜台前悄声对她说的。在弗拉门戈斯的一户人家里， Areia ，沙子，意思是：这孩子不是你的。而在另一户人家里， Sal ，盐，则意味着：把钱寄给我，别给她。公司会把所有电报的底单在地下室里保存十二年。这些底单连同账本，拼凑出了一部完整的海岛编年史，甚至包括了全岛绝不愿在任何青史上被读到的那部分秘密。

At the back of the book, separated by a blank leaf, stood thirty-one further words which applied only to single families and which she showed to nobody. They had been whispered to her at the counter, with backs turned to the door. Areia , sand, meant in one family in Flamengos: the child is not yours. Sal , salt, meant in another: send it to me, not to her. The company kept the carbon copies of all telegrams in the cellar for twelve years. Together with the book they made up a complete chronicle of the island, including everything the island did not wish to read in any chronicle.

1909年夏天，伦敦有人注意到，亚速尔群岛出口的无花果，竟然比岛上结出来的还要多。

In the summer of 1909 someone in London noticed that the Azores were exporting more figs than grew there.