英文小说连载《朗读者The Reader》8&9实用两篇
导读:教书育人楷模,更好地指导自己的学习,让自己不断成长。让我们一起到百文网一起学习吧!下面百文网网的小编给你们带来了《英文小说连载《朗读者The Reader》8&9》供考生们参考。
英文小说连载《朗读者The Reader》Part 2 Chapter 1
W HY DID you not unlock the doors? The presiding judge put the question to one defendant after another. One after the other, they gave the same answer. They couldnt unlock the doors. Why? They had been wounded when the bombs hit the priests house. Or they had been in shock as a result of the bombardment. Or they had been busy after the bombs hit, with the wounded guard contingent, pulling them out of the rubble, bandaging them, taking care of them. They had not thought about the church, had not seen the fire in the church, had not heard the screams from the church.
The judge made the same statement to one defendant after another. The record indicated otherwise. This was deliberately phrased with caution. To say that the record found in the SS archives said otherwise would be wrong. But it was true that it suggested something different. It listed the names of those who had been killed in the priests house and those who had been wounded, those who had brought the wounded to a field hospital in a truck, and those who had accompanied the truck in a jeep. It indicated that the women guards had stayed behind to wait out the end of the fires, to prevent any of them from spreading and to prevent any attempts to escape under the cover of the flames. It referred to the death of the prisoners.
The fact that the names of the defendants appeared nowhere in the report suggested that the defendants were among the female guards who had remained behind. That these guards had remained behind to prevent attempts at escape indicated that the affair didnt end with the rescue of the wounded from the priests house and the departure of the transport to the field hospital. The guards who remained behind, the report indicated, had allowed the fire to rage in the church and had kept the church doors locked. Among the guards who remained behind, the report indicated, were the defendants.
No, said one defendant after the other, that is not the way it was. The report was wrong. That much was evident from the fact that it mentioned the obligation of the guards to prevent the fires from spreading. How could they have carried out that responsibility? It was ridiculous, as was the other responsibility of preventing attempted escapes under the cover of the fires. Attempted escapes? By the time they no longer had to worry about their own people and could worry about the others, the prisoners, there was no one left to escape. No, the report completely ignored what they had done and achieved and suffered that night. How could such a false report have been filed? They didnt know.
Until it was the turn of the plump and vicious defendant. She knew. Ask that one there! She pointed at Hanna. She wrote the report. Shes the guilty one, she did it all, and she wanted to use the report to cover it up and drag us into it.
The judge asked Hanna. But it was his last question. His first was Why did you not unlock the doors?
We were . . . we had . . . Hanna was groping for the answer. We didnt have any alternative.
You had no alternative?
Some of us were dead, and the others had left. They said they were taking the wounded to the field hospital and would come back, but they knew they werent coming back, and so did we. Perhaps they didnt even go to the hospital, the wounded were not that badly hurt. We would have gone with them, but they said they needed the room for the wounded, and anyway they didnt . . . they werent keen to have so many women along. I dont know where they went.
What did you do?
We didnt know what to do. It all happened so fast, with the priests house burning and the church spire, and the men and the cart were there one minute and gone the next, and suddenly we were alone with the women in the church. They left behind some weapons, but we didnt know how to use them, and even if we had, what good would it have done, since we were only a handful of women? How could we have guarded all those women? A line like that is very long, even if you keep it as tight together as possible, and to guard such a long column, you need far more people than we had. Hanna paused. Then the screaming began and got worse and worse. If we had opened the doors and they had all come rushing out . . .
The judge waited a moment. Were you afraid? Were you afraid the prisoners would overpower you?
That they would . . . no, but how could we have restored order? There would have been chaos, and we had no way to handle that. And if theyd tried to escape . . .
Once again the judge waited, but Hanna didnt finish the sentence. Were you afraid that if they escaped, you would be arrested, convicted, shot?
We couldnt just let them escape! We were responsible for them . . . I mean, we had guarded them the whole time, in the camp and on the march, that was the point, that we had to guard them and not let them escape. Thats why we didnt know what to do. We also had no idea how many of the women would survive the next few days. So many had died already, and the ones who were still alive were so weak . . .
Hanna realized that what she was saying wasnt doing her case any good. But she couldnt say anything else. She could only try to say what she was saying better, to describe it better and explain it. But the more she said, the worse it looked for her. Because she was at her wits end, she turned to the judge again.
What would you have done?
But this time she knew she would get no answer. She wasnt expecting one. Nobody was. The judge shook his head silently.
Not that it was impossible to imagine the confusion and helplessness Hanna described. The night, the cold, the snow, the fire, the screaming of the women in the church, the sudden departure of the people who had commanded and escorted the female guardshow could the situation have been easy? But could an acknowledgment that the situation had been hard be any mitigation for what the defendants had done or not done? As if it had been a car accident on a lonely road on a cold winter night, with injuries and totaled vehicles, and no one knowing what to do? Or as if it had been a conflict between two equally compelling duties that required action? That is how one could imagine what Hanna was describing, but nobody was willing to look at it in such terms.
Did you write the report?
We all discussed what we should write. We didnt want to hang any of the blame on the ones who had left. But we didnt want to attract charges that we had done anything wrong either.
So youre saying you talked it through together. Who wrote it?
You! The other defendant pointed at Hanna.
No, I didnt write it. Does it matter who did?
A prosecutor suggested that an expert be called to compare the handwriting in the report and the handwriting of the defendant Schmitz.
My handwriting? You want my handwriting? . . .
The judge, the prosecutor, and Hannas lawyer discussed whether a persons handwriting retains its character over more than fifteen years and can be identified. Hanna listened and tried several times to say or ask something, and was becoming increasingly alarmed. Then she said, You dont have to call an expert. I admit I wrote the report.
您为什么不把门打开?
审判长一个接一个地向每个被告都提出同样的问题,每个被告都给予了同样的回答:她们无法打开。为什么?有的说,当炸弹击中教士住宅时,她受伤了。有的说,她被轰炸吓得呆若木鸡。有的说,在轰炸之后,她要照料受伤的警卫队员和其他受伤的女看守,她把她们从废墟中救出来,为她们包扎,护理她们。有的说,她没有想到教堂,她不在教堂附近,没有看到教堂着火,也没听见从教堂里传来的呼救声。
审判长一个接一个地警告她们:报告读上去可全不是这么回事。这是经过深思熟虑后的一种谨慎表达方式。如果说从纳粹党卫队的档案里发现的报告所记载的是另外一回事;那就错了。但报告读上去的确是另一番情形。报告里指名道姓地提到谁在教土住宅里被炸死了,谁受了伤,谁把伤员用货车送到了一家野战医院,还有谁乘坐军用吉普车陪送。报告提到,女看守们被留了下来,目的是让她们等候大火烧尽,防止火势蔓延和阻止囚犯们趁火逃跑。报告中也提到了囚犯们的死亡。
被告们的名字不在名单里面,这说明她们属于留下来的女看守之列。既然把女看守们留下来是为了阻止囚犯们逃跑,这说明从教士住宅抢救伤员并把他们送到野战医院的工作还没有全部结束。从报告中可以看出,那些留守下来的女看守让教堂里的大火肆意疯狂地燃烧,并坚持不打开教堂的大门。在那些被留下来的女看守中间,正如从报告中可以看到的那样,有这几位被告在内。
不,根本不是这么回事。被告们一个接着一个地这样说。他们说那篇报告是错的。报告里讲,被留下的女看守的任务是阻止火势的蔓延,只凭这一点就可以看到那篇报告的荒谬。她们怎么能来完成这项任务。这是胡说八道,而且另外的一项任务,即阻止囚犯趁火逃跑,同样也是胡说八道。阻止逃跑?好像她们不必要照料自己人了似的,也好像不能去照料囚犯了似的,好像没有任何人可以跑掉似的。不!那篇报告把她们那天晚上的所作所为,她们的功绩和所遭受的痛苦,完全颠倒了。怎么会有这样一篇如此错误的报告?她们也都自称不知道。
轮到那位慢条斯理、尖酸刻毒的被告人时,她说她知道。您问她吧!她用手指着汉娜说:是她写的那篇报告,她有罪,只她一人有罪,她在报告中隐瞒了自己而想把我们扯进去。
审判长就此问了汉娜,不过,那是他的最后的问题。他的第一个问题是:您为什么没有把门打开?
我们在我们要汉娜在寻找答案,我们不知道该怎样帮助他们才是。
你们不知道该怎样帮助他们才是?
我们当中的一些人死掉了,一些人开小差了。他们说,他们要把伤员送往野战医院,然后再返回来。但是他们心里明白他们不会再回来了,我们对此也十分清楚。也许他们根本就没去野战医院,伤员们的伤势并非十分严重。他们还说,伤员需要地方,他们正好没有什么东西正好不愿带着这么多的女人一起走,否则我们也一起走了。我不知道他们去了哪儿。
您都干了什么?
我们不知道该做什么,一切都发生得很快。教士住宅起火了,还有教堂的塔顶。男人们,还有小汽车开始时还都在,随后他们就离开了。转眼之间只剩下我们和教堂里的女囚。他们给我们留下了一些武器,但是我们不会用。假使我们会用它们的话,这对我们几个女人来说又能帮上什么忙呢?我们该如何看守住这么多的女囚呢?走起路来长长的一列,就是紧凑一起也够长的,看守这样长的队伍,需要比我们这几个女人多得多的人力。汉娜稍稍停顿了一下,然后她们开始喊叫起来,而且越来越严重。如果我们此时把门打开让所有的人都跑出来的话
审判长等了一会问:您害怕吗?您害怕被囚犯们战胜吗?
囚犯会把我们不,不会。但是,我们怎样才能使她们重新就范呢?那一定会乱作一团的,我们一定对付不了这种局面,而且一旦她们企图逃跑的话
审判长又等了一会儿,但是,汉娜没有把那句话说完。您害怕一旦逃跑的事情发生,您会被捕,会被判决,会被枪毙吗?
我们当然不会轻易地让她们逃跑的,我们就是干这个的我的意思是我们一直都在看守她们,在集中营,在行军的路上。我们看守她们的意义所在正是不让她们逃跑。正因为如此,我们才不知道如何做是好,我们也不知道有多少囚犯在后来的日子里能活下来。已经死了那么多了,剩下这些活着的也已经如此虚弱
汉娜注意到,她所说的事情无助于事,但是她又没别的可说。她只能尽力而为他说好她所要说的事情,更好地去描述,去解释。但是她说得越多,事情对她就越糟糕。由于她感到进退维谷,就又转向了审判长问道:
要是您的话会怎么做呢?
但是,这一次她自己也知道她不会得到回答。她不期待回答,没有人期望得到一个回答。审判长默不作声地摇着头。
不是人们对汉娜所描述的那种不知所措和无助的情形无法想象。那个夜晚的情景:寒冷,冰雪,大火,教堂里女人的喊叫,那些曾命令她们和陪同她们的人的逃之夭夭。在这样的情况下,把囚犯放出来该会是什么样子呢!但是,认为当时这些被告的处境确实很难就可以相对减轻她们的罪责吗?人们就可以对她们的行为不那么感到震惊了吗?就可以把它看做是在一个寒冷的冬夜里,在一条人烟稀少的道路上发生的一场造成人员伤亡的车祸,而认为人们在这种情况下本来不知道如何是好?或者,这是不是反映了我们都应该担负的两种责任之间的矛盾呢?人们可以这样做,但是人们不愿意去想象汉娜所描述的情景。
报告是您写的吗?
我们在一起商量了该写什么,我们不想把责任都推到那些开小差的人的身上,但是我们也不想把责任都揽到我们自己身上。
您说,你们一起商量了。谁执的笔呢?
称!另外的那位被告又用手指着汉娜。
不,我没有写。谁写的,这重要吗?
一位律师建议请一位鉴定专家对报告的字体和被告人史密兰女士的字体进行比较鉴定。
我的字体?您想要我的字体
审判长、那位律师还有汉娜的辩护律师在讨论了一个人的字体超过十五年之后是否还能保持它的同一性,是否还能让人辨认出来。汉娜注意听着,几次想插话说什么,或者要问什么,越来越坐立不安。最后她说:您不需要请鉴定专家,我承认报告是我写的。
英文小说连载《朗读者The Reader》Part 2 Chapter 2
THE GERMAN version of the book that the daughter had written about her time in the camps did not appear until after the trial. During the trial the manuscript was available, but to those directly involved. I had to read the book in English, an unfamiliar and laborious exercise at the time. And as always, the alien language, unmastered and struggled over, created a strange concatenation of distance and immediacy. I worked through the book with particular thoroughness and yet did not make it my own. It remained as alien as the language itself.
Years later I reread it and discovered that it is the book that creates distance. It does not invite one to identify with it and makes no one sympathetic, neither the mother nor the daughter, nor those who shared their fate in various camps and finally in Auschwitz and the satellite camp near Cracow. It never gives the barracks leaders, the female guards, or the uniformed security force clear enough faces or shapes for the reader to be able to relate to them, to judge their acts for better or worse. It exudes the very numbness I have tried to describe before. But even in her numbness the daughter did not lose the ability to observe and analyze. And she had not allowed herself to be corrupted either by self-pity or by the self-confidence she had obviously drawn from the fact that she had survived and not only come through the years in the camps but given literary form to them. She writes about herself and her pubescent, precocious, and, when necessary, cunning behavior with the same sobriety she uses to describe everything else.
Hanna is neither named in the book, nor is she recognizable or identifiable in any way. Sometimes I thought I recognized her in one of the guards, who was described as young, pretty, and conscientiously unscrupulous in the fulfillment of her duties, but I wasnt sure. When I considered the other defendants, only Hanna could be the guard described. But there had been other guards. In one camp the daughter had known a guard who was called Mare, also young, beautiful, and diligent, but cruel and uncontrolled. The guard in the camp reminded her of that one. Had others drawn the same comparison? Did Hanna know about it? Did she remember it? Was that why she was upset when I compared her to a horse?
The camp near Cracow was the last stop for mother and daughter after Auschwitz. It was a step forward; the work was hard, but easier, the food was better, and it was better to sleep six women to a room than a hundred to a barracks. And it was warmer; the women could forage for wood on the way from the factory to the camp, and bring it back with them. There was the fear of selections, but it wasnt as bad as at Auschwitz. Sixty women were sent back each month, sixty out of around twelve hundred; that meant each prisoner had a life expectancy of twenty months, even if she only possessed average strength, and there was always the hope of being stronger than the average. Moreover, there was also the hope that the war would be over in less than twenty months.
The misery began when the camp was closed and the prisoners set off towards the west. It was winter, it was snowing, and the clothing in which the women had frozen in the factory and just managed to hold out in the camp was completely inadequate, but not as inadequate as what was on their feet, often rags and sheets of newSPAper tied so as to stay on when they stood or walked around, but impossible to make withstand long marches in snow and ice. And the women did not just march; they were driven, and forced to run. Death march? asks the daughter in the book, and answers, No, death trot, death gallop. Many collapsed along the way; others never got to their feet again after nights spent in barns or leaning against a wall. After a week, almost half the women were dead.
The church made a better shelter than the barns and walls the women had had before. When they had passed abandoned farms and stayed overnight, the uniformed security force and the female guards had taken the living quarters for themselves. Here, in the almost deserted village, they could commandeer the priests house and still leave the prisoners something more than a barn or a wall. That they did it, and that the prisoners even got something warm to eat in the village seemed to promise an end to the misery. The women went to sleep. Shortly afterwards the bombs fell. As long as the steeple was the only thing burning, the fire could be heard in the church, but not seen. When the tip of the steeple collapsed and crashed down onto the rafters, it took several minutes for the glow of the fire to become visible. By then the flames were already licking downwards and setting clothes alight, collapsing burning beams set fire to the pews and pulpit, and soon the whole roof crashed into the nave and started a general conflagration.
The daughter thinks the women could have saved themselves if they had immediately gotten together to break down one of the doors. But by the time they realized what had happened and was going to happen, and that no one was coming to open the doors, it was too late. It was completely dark when the sound of the falling bombs woke them. For a while they heard nothing but an eerie, frightening noise in the steeple, and kept absolutely quiet, so as to hear the noise better and figure out what it was. That it was the crackling and snapping of a fire, that it was the glow of flames that flared up now and again behind the windows, that the crash above their heads signaled the spreading of the fire from the steeple to the roofall this the women realized only once the rafters began to burn. They realized, they screamed in horror, screamed for help, threw themselves at the doors, shook them, beat at them, screamed.
When the burning roof crashed into the nave, the shell of the walls acted like a chimney. Most of the women did not suffocate, but burned to death in the brilliant roar of the flames. In the end, the fire even burned its glowing way through the ironclad church doors. But that was hours later.
Mother and daughter survived because the mother did the right thing for the wrong reasons. When the women began to panic, she couldnt bear to be among them anymore. She fled to the gallery. She didnt care that she was closer to the flames, she just wanted to be alone, away from the screaming, thrashing, burning women. The gallery was narrow, so narrow that it was barely touched by the burning beams. Mother and daughter stood pressed against the wall and saw and heard the raging of the fire. Next day they didnt dare come down and out of the church. In the darkness of the following night, they were afraid of not finding the stairs and the way out. When they left the church in the dawn of the day after that, they met some of the villagers, who gaped at them in silent astonishment, but gave them clothing and food and let them walk on.
那位女儿写的关于她在集中营生活的那本书的德文版,在法庭审判结束后才出版。虽然在法庭审理期间已经有草稿,但是,只有与此案有关的人才能得到。我只好读英文版的,这对当时的我来说是件非同寻常和颇为吃力的事情。运用一门尚未完全掌握的外语,总会让人产生一种特有的若即若离、似是而非的感觉。尽管人们特别仔细认真地读过那本书,但仍旧没把它变为自己的东西。就像对书写它的这门外语一样,人们对它的内容也感到陌生。
多年以后,我又重读了那本书,并且发现,这种距离感是书本身造成的。它没能让你从中辨认出任何人,也不使任何人让你同情,包括那母女俩以及和她们一起在不同的集中营里呆过,最后在奥斯威辛和克拉科夫遭受了共同命运的那些人。无论是集中营元老、女看守,还是警卫,他们的形象都不鲜明,以致人们无法褒贬他们的行为。书中充斥着我在前面已经描述过的那种麻木不仁。然而,在这种麻木不仁中,那位女儿并没有失去记录和分析事实的能力。她没有垮下来,她的自怜和由此产生的自觉意识没有使她垮下来。她活下来了,集中营里的那几年,她不但熬过来了,而且还用文学形式又把它再现了出来。她冷静客观地描述一切,描写她自己v她的青春期和她的早熟,如果必要的话还有她的机智。
书中既没有出现汉娜的名字,也没有任何东西可以让人联想到或辨认出她。有时候,我认为书中的某一位年轻漂亮的女看守就是汉娜:执行任务时认真到丧尽天良的地步,但是,我又不能肯定。如果我仔细地对照一下其他被告的话,那个女看守又只能是汉娜。但是书中还有其他女看守。在一所集中营里,那位女儿领教了一位被称做牡马的女看守的厉害,她年轻漂亮,俗尽职守,残酷无情,放荡不羁,正是这些令作者回忆起了这个集中营里这一位女看守。其他人也做过这种比喻吗?汉娜知道这些吗?当我把她比喻为一匹马时,她是不是回想起了这些,因而触及了她的要害?
克拉科夫集中营是那母女俩去奥斯威辛的最后一站。相比之下,到那里算是改善。那儿的活虽然繁重,但是生活容易些,伙食好些,而且六个人睡在一个房间总也比上百号人睡在一间临时搭建的木板房里要好。房里也暖和一些,女犯们可以从工厂回集中营的路上捡一些木材带回来。人们恐怕被挑选出来,但是这种恐惧感也不像在奥斯威辛那样严重。每个月有六十名女犯要被送回去,这六十名是从大约一千二百名中被挑选出来的。这样一来,人们只需拥有一般体力就有希望继续活二十个月,而且,人们甚至可以希望其体力超过一般水平。此外,人们也可以期望这场战争在不到二十个月的时间里就会结束。
随着集中营的被解散和囚犯的西迁,悲惨再次降临。当时正值隆冬时节,冰天雪地。女囚们身上穿的衣服在工厂里已是薄不可耐,在集中营里尚能让人承受,但是在冰天雪地里就不足以抵寒了。她们的鞋子就更惨了,它们通常是用破布或报纸做的,这样的鞋在站立和慢走时还能不散架子,但是在冰天雪地里进行长途跋涉就不可能不散架子了。那些女人不仅仅要长途跋涉,她们常被驱赶着小跑。向死亡进军?那位女儿在书中这样问道并回答道,不,是赶死,是向死亡飞奔!许多人在路上就垮掉了,又有许多人在粮仓里,或者在一面墙下过夜后就再也爬不起来了。一个星期之后,这些妇女中几乎一半都死掉了。
教堂要比那些女囚此前的栖身之处粮仓或墙下要好多了。在这之前,当她们经过被遗弃的庭院并在那过夜时,警卫队和女看守们就分别占据能住人的房间。但在这里,一个正在被遗弃的村庄,看守们住进了教士住宅,而让女囚们住进了一个比粮仓和墙角好得多的教堂里。她们这样做了。在村子里她们甚至还得到了热汤喝,好像结束这种痛苦不堪的生活变得有希望了。这些妇女就这样入睡了。随后不久炸弹就落了下来。教堂的塔尖在燃烧时,在教堂里面只能听得见燃烧声却看不见火焰。塔尖坍塌并砸到屋架后,又过了几分钟才看得见火光,随后火焰也一点一点地蹿了进来,点燃了衣服。燃烧着的房梁掉下来点燃了座椅和布道坛。屋架很快塌人大堂,一切都熊熊燃烧了起来。
那位女儿认为,如果那些女人马上齐心协力地砸开其中的一扇门的话,她们还是可以得救的。但是当她们明白过来,知道发生了什么事,什么事将要发生,以及没人给她们开门时,为时已晚。当击中教堂的炸弹把她们惊醒时,正值漆黑的夜晚,有好一会儿工夫,她们只听得见塔顶上的一种令人奇怪和惊恐杂音。为了能更好地听清楚、弄明白那杂音是怎么一回事,她们都屏住了呼吸。那是火焰发出劈劈啪啪的声音,火光时而在窗后闪烁,那是投在她们头顶上的炸弹,那意味着大火由塔顶蔓延到了房顶,女人们直到屋架上的火焰明显地看得见的时候,才意识到这些。她们一旦意识到了这些,就开始大喊大叫,她们惊慌失措呼喊救命,向大门冲去,一边叫喊,一边拼命地摇撼和捶打着大门。
当燃烧的房顶轰轰隆隆地塌到教堂里面时,教堂里面的墙皮脱落下来使火势更旺,就像一座壁炉一样。大多数女人并不是窒息而死,而是被熊熊燃烧的大火给活活烧死的。最后,大火甚至烧透、烧红了教堂的铁皮大门,不过那是几个小时之后的事情了。那母女俩能活下来,完全是侥幸。当那些女人陷入惊慌失措时,她们也在其中。由于实在无法忍受,她们逃到了教堂的廊台上。尽管她们在那儿离火焰更近,但是这无所谓,她们只想单独呆着,远离那些吱哇乱叫的、挤来又挤去的、浑身上下着火的女人。廊台上很狭窄,狭窄到燃烧着的房顶都没有触及到它。母女俩紧紧地挨在一起,站在墙边,看着。听着那大火的肆意燃烧。就是第二天她们都不敢走下台阶来,不敢走出去。夜幕降临后,在黑暗中又担心害怕摸不到台阶,找不到路。在第三天的黎明时分,当她们从教堂里走出来时,遇到了几位村民。村民们不知所措,目瞪口呆地凝视着她们而说不出话来。他们给了她们衣物和食物,然后让她们逃走了。