信号员

一

I

“喂！下面的人！”

“HALLOA! Below there!”

听见有人这样朝他喊话时，他正站在信号房门口，手里拿着一面旗，旗子卷在短短的旗杆上。按地形来看，人们会以为他不可能弄不清声音是从哪个方向传来的；可他并没有抬头望向我所站的位置，也就是几乎在他头顶上方的陡峭深堑顶端，而是转过身去，朝铁路线的下方望去。他这样做的样子有些异乎寻常，但我怎么也说不出究竟异在何处。我只知道，它足以引起我的注意，尽管他身处深深的堑沟里，身影被压得很短，又笼在阴影中，而我在他上方很高的地方，整个人沉浸在怒红的落日余晖里，我得用手遮住眼睛，才看得见他。

When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all.

“喂！下面！”

“Halloa! Below!”

他望过铁路线下方之后，又转回身来，抬起眼睛，看见了高高在上的我。

From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him.

“有没有一条小路，可以让我下来和你说话？”

“Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?”

他抬头望着我，没有回答；我低头望着他，也不想马上再重复那个无谓的问题去催他。就在这时，大地和空气中传来一阵隐约的震动，很快变成猛烈的搏动，一股迎面而来的冲力使我往后一缩，仿佛它有力量把我拽下去。那列疾驰的火车喷出的蒸汽升到我这个高度，从我身旁掠过，又贴着原野飘散而去。我再往下看时，只见他正把列车经过时亮出的那面旗重新卷起来。

He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went by.

我又问了一遍。他停了一会儿，似乎一直在全神贯注地打量我，然后用卷起的旗子指向与我同一高度、约两三百码外的一处。我朝下喊了一声：“好的！”便向那个地方走去。我仔细四下察看，果然发现一条粗糙的之字形小路凿在坡上，通向下方，我便沿着它走下去。

I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called down to him, “All right!” and made for that point. There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path notched out, which I followed.

那道深堑极深，而且异常陡峭。它是从湿冷黏滑的岩石中开出来的，越往下走，岩壁越是渗水湿滑。因此我觉得这段路相当长，足够我回想起他指路时那种奇特的神情，仿佛既不情愿，又像是迫不得已。

The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the path.

我沿着之字形的小路下到足以再次看见他的地方时，发现他正站在两条铁轨之间，就在火车刚才驶过的那条线上，姿态像是在等我出现。他的左手托着下巴，左肘搁在横过胸前的右手上。那姿态充满期待与戒备，我不禁停了片刻，感到诧异。

When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and that left elbow rested on his right hand, crossed over his breast. His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness that I stopped a moment, wondering at it.

我继续往下走，踏上铁路的平地，向他走近，这才看清他是个肤色黝黑发黄的人，留着深色的胡须，眉毛相当浓重。他的岗位所在之处，是我所见过的最孤寂、最阴郁的地方。两边是滴水的嶙峋石壁，除了一线天空，什么也望不见；朝一个方向看去，只有这座巨大地牢蜿蜒曲折的延伸；朝另一个方向看，较近的景象则止于一盏阴沉的红灯，以及一座更阴森的黑色隧道入口，那粗大厚重的建筑带着一种野蛮、压抑、令人望而生畏的气息。这个地方几乎照不到阳光，空气里有一股泥土般致命的气味；冷风又不断灌过，吹得我浑身发凉，仿佛已离开了这个自然的世界。

I resumed my downward way, and stepping out upon the level of the railroad, and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.

他还没有动，我已走到伸手便可碰到他的距离。他的目光依旧没有从我脸上移开，只后退了一步，抬起了手。

Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.

我说，这是个寂寞的岗位，我在上面往下看的时候，就被它吸引住了。我想，有访客来大概是件稀罕事；但愿不是不受欢迎的稀罕事？在他眼里，我不过是个一辈子被关在狭小天地里的人，如今终于获得自由，对这些宏大的工程重新产生了兴趣。我就是这个意思对他说的；不过我所用的措辞，我自己也不太有把握，因为一来我本来就不擅长开启话头，二来这个人身上有某种东西让我胆怯。

This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the terms I used; for, besides that I am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.

他朝隧道口附近的红灯投去极其奇特的一瞥，又把它四周都看了一遍，仿佛那里少了什么东西，然后才看向我。

He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel’s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and then looked at me.