讀點好英文:The Shawshank Redemption 肖申克的救贖

The Shawshank Redemption 肖申克的救贖

[美]斯蒂芬·金（Stephen King）

銀行家安迪，被當(dāng)作殺害妻子的兇手送上法庭。妻子的不忠、律師的奸詐、法官的誤判、獄警的兇暴、典獄長的貪心與卑鄙，將正處在而立之年的安迪一下子從人生的巔峰推向了世間地獄。而獄中發(fā)生的一系列事情迫使忍無可忍的安迪終于在一個雷電交加的夜晚，越獄而出，重獲自由。當(dāng)翌日典獄長打開安迪的牢門時，發(fā)現(xiàn)他已不翼而飛，預(yù)感到末日來臨的典獄長在檢察人員收到安迪投寄的罪證之前，畏罪自殺。

There's a guy like me in every state and federal prison in America, I guess—I'm the guy who can get it for you. Tailor-made cigarettes, a bag of reefer, if you're partial to that, a bottle of brandy to celebrate your son or daughter's high school graduation, or almost anything else……within reason, that is.It wasn't always that way.

I came to Shawshank when I was just twenty, and I am one of the few people in our happy little family who is willing to own up to what he did. I committed murder.I put a large insurance policy on my wife, who was three years older than I was, and then I fixed the brakes of the Chevrolet coupe her father had given us as a wedding present.It worked out exactly as I had planned, except I hadn't planned on her stopping to pick up the neighbour woman and the neighbour woman's infant son on the way down Castle Hill and into town.The brakes let go and the car crashed through the bushes at the edge of the town common, gathering speed.Bystanders said it must have been doing fifty or better when it hit the base of the Civil War statue and burst into flames.

I also hadn't planned on getting caught, but caught I was. I got a season's pass into this place.Maine has no death penalty, but the district attorney saw to it that I was tried for all three deaths and given three life sentences, to run one after the other.That fixed up any chance of parole I might have, for a long, long time.The judge called what I had done‘a(chǎn) hideous, heinous crime’，and it was, but it is also in the past now.You can look it up in the yellowing files of the Castle Rock Call, where the big headlines announcing my conviction look sort of funny and antique next to the news of Hitler and Mussolini and FDR's alphabet soup agencies.

Have I rehabilitated myself, you ask?I don't know what that word means, at least as far as prisons and corrections go. I think it's a politician's word.It may have some other meaning, and it may be that I will have a chance to find out, but that is the future……something cons teach themselves not to think about.I was young, good-looking, and from the poor side of town.I knocked up a pretty, sulky, headstrong girl who lived in one of the fine old houses on Carbine Street.Her father was agreeable to the marriage if I would take a job in the optical company he owned and“work my way up”.I found out that what he really had in mind was keeping me in his house and under his thumb, like a disagreeable pet that has not quite been housebroken and which may bite.Enough hate eventually piled up to cause me to do what I did.Given a second chance I would not do it again, but I'm not sure that means I am rehabilitated.

Anyway, it's not me I want to tell you about;I want to tell you about a guy named Andy Dufresne. But before I can tell you about Andy, I have to explain a few other things about myself.It won't take long.

As I said, I've been the guy who can get it for you here at Shawshank for damn near forty years. And that doesn't just mean contraband items like extra cigarettes or booze, although those items always top the list.But I've gotten thousands of other items for men doing time here, some of them perfectly legal yet hard to come by in a place where you've supposedly been brought to be punished.There was one fellow who was in for raping a little girl and exposing himself to dozens of others;I got him three pieces of pink Vermont marble and he did three lovely sculptures out of them—a baby, a boy of about twelve, and a bearded young man.He called them The Three Ages of Jesus, and those pieces of sculpture are now in the parlour of a man who used to be governor of this state.

Or here's a name you may remember if you grew up north of Massachusetts—Robert Alan Cote. In 1951 he tried to rob the First Mercantile Bank of Mechanic Falls, and the hold-up turned into a bloodbath—six dead in the end, two of them members of the gang, three of them hostages, one of them a young state cop who put his head up at the wrong time and got a bullet in the eye.Cote had a penny collection.Naturally they weren't going to let him have it in here, but with a little help from his mother and a middleman who used to drive a laundry truck, I was able to get it to him.I told him, Bobby, you must be crazy, wanting to have a coin collection in a stone hotel full of thieves.He looked at me and smiled and said, I know where to keep them.They'll be safe enough.Don't you worry.And he was right.Bobby Cote died of a brain tumour in 1967，but that coin collection has never turned up.

I've gotten men chocolates on Valentine's Day;I got three of those green milkshakes they serve at McDonald's around St Paddy's Day for a crazy Irishman named O'Malley;I even arranged for a midnight showing of Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones for a party of twenty men who had pooled their resources to rent the films……although I ended up doing a week in solitary for that little escapade. It’s the risk you run when you’re the guy who can get it.

I've gotten reference books and fuck-books, joke novelties like handbuzzers and itching powder, and on more than one occasion I've seen that a long-timer has gotten a pair of panties from his wife or his girlfriend……and I guess you'll know what guys in here do with such items during the long nights when time draws out like a blade. I don't get all those things gratis, and for some items the price comes high.But I don't do it just for the money;what good is money to me?I’m never going to own a Cadillac car or fly off to Jamaica for two weeks in February.I do it for the same reason that a good butcher will only sell you fresh meat:I got a reputation and I want to keep it.The only two things I refuse to handle are guns and heavy drugs.I won’t help anyone kill himself or anyone else.I have enough killing on my mind to last me a lifetime.

我猜美國每個州立監(jiān)獄和聯(lián)邦監(jiān)獄里，都有像我這樣的人物，不論什么東西，我都能弄到手。無論是高級香煙或大麻（如果你有此偏好的話），或弄瓶白蘭地來慶祝兒子或女兒高中畢業(yè)，總之差不多任何東西……我的意思是說，只要在合理范圍內(nèi)，我是有求必應(yīng)；可是很多情況不一定都是合情合理的。

我剛滿20歲就進了肖申克監(jiān)獄。在這個快樂的小家庭中，我是少數(shù)幾個肯痛痛快快承認自己干了什么的人。我犯了謀殺罪。我為大我三歲的太太投保了一筆數(shù)目龐大的壽險，然后在她父親送我們的結(jié)婚禮物——一輛雪佛蘭轎車的剎車上動了手腳。一切都按我的計劃進行，只是沒料到她會在從城堡山上下來進鎮(zhèn)的路上把鄰居太太和她的小兒子載上。結(jié)果剎車失靈，車速越來越快，沖到路邊的樹叢，撞上了一座內(nèi)戰(zhàn)紀(jì)念雕像的底座而轟然起火。目擊者說，當(dāng)時的車速足有每小時50英里。

我也沒料到自己居然會被逮住，最后鋃鐺入獄，在這里長期服刑。緬因州沒有死刑，但檢察官認為我應(yīng)為三條人命負責(zé)，數(shù)罪并罰，判了我三個無期徒刑。這樣一來，我在很長一段時間內(nèi)，都不可能有機會假釋了。法官還在判決書上寫著：罪行重大，死有余辜。的確如此，不過現(xiàn)在這些事都過去了。你可以去查查城堡巖的舊報紙檔案，有關(guān)我的判決當(dāng)時是地方報紙的頭條新聞，與希特勒、墨索里尼以及羅斯福手下那些字母開頭的特工人員的新聞并列，現(xiàn)在看來，實在有點可笑，也早已成為老掉牙的舊聞了。

你問我，我改過自新了嗎？我甚至不知道什么叫改過自新，至少我不曉得那在監(jiān)獄里代表什么意思，我認為那只是政客愛用的字眼，這個詞也許有一些其他的含義，也許有那么一天，我會明白它的含義，但那是將來的事了……而將來是囚犯不愿意去想的。當(dāng)年的我出身貧窮，但年輕英俊。我讓一個富家女珠胎暗結(jié)，她出身卡賓街的豪華宅邸，漂亮嬌縱，但老是悶悶不樂。她父親同意讓我們結(jié)婚，條件是我得在他的眼鏡公司工作，“靠自己的實力往上爬?！焙髞砦野l(fā)現(xiàn)，他真正的用意是要讓我隨時都在他的監(jiān)控下，就像管著家里的不太聽話還會咬人的貓狗一樣。我的怨恨經(jīng)年累月，越積越深，終于出手造成了這樣的后果。如果再給我一次機會，我絕對不會重蹈覆轍，但我不確定這樣是否表示我已經(jīng)痛改前非了。

不過，我真正想說的不是我自己的事，而是安迪·杜佛尼的故事。但在我開始說安迪的故事之前，還得先說幾件關(guān)于我的事情，反正不會花太多工夫。

正如我剛才所說，差不多40年來，在肖申克監(jiān)獄里，我有辦法幫你弄到任何東西。除了永遠名列前茅的香煙和酒等違禁品之外，我還有辦法弄到上千種其他東西，給這兒的人打發(fā)時間用。許多東西都是合法的，只是在這樣一個懲罰人的地方是弄不到的。例如，有個家伙強暴了一個小女孩，還涉及幾十件其他的案子。我給他找了三塊粉紅色的佛蒙特大理石，他雕了三座可愛的雕像，一個嬰兒、一個12歲男孩，還有一個長胡須的年輕人，他稱這些雕像為“耶穌的三個不同時期”，現(xiàn)在這些雕像已經(jīng)成為前任州長客廳中的擺設(shè)了。

如果你生長在北馬薩諸塞州的話，一定能想起這個名字——羅伯特·艾倫·科特。他在1951年，企圖搶劫莫堪尼克弗市第一商業(yè)銀行，結(jié)果那次搶劫演變成血腥事件，死了六個人，包括兩個強盜、三名人質(zhì)，還有一個是年輕警察，他在錯誤的時間把頭伸了出去，一顆子彈射中了他的眼睛?？铺赜惺占X幣的嗜好。監(jiān)獄自然不會準(zhǔn)他將收藏品帶進來，但在他母親和洗衣房卡車司機的幫助下，我還是替他弄到了他想要的東西。我告訴他：你一定是瘋了，竟然想在這個滿是盜賊的石頭旅館中收藏錢幣。他笑著對我說：“我知道該把錢幣藏在哪里，絕對安全，你別擔(dān)心?！彼f得沒錯。直到1967年，他死于腦瘤時，他所收藏的錢幣始終沒有現(xiàn)過身。

我在情人節(jié)設(shè)法為獄友弄到巧克力；在圣帕迪日為一個叫歐邁利的瘋狂愛爾蘭人弄到三杯麥當(dāng)勞的綠色奶昔；我甚至還安排了一次午夜劇場，為20個人放映《深喉》和《瓊斯小姐體內(nèi)的魔鬼》。他們?yōu)樽膺@些電影花光了積蓄……雖然我因為這些越軌行動被關(guān)了一周禁閉，但要維持“神通廣大”的英名，就必須冒這樣的風(fēng)險。

我還能弄到參考書和黃色書刊、會讓人發(fā)癢的粉末之類的惡作劇新奇玩意兒，甚至替被判長期徒刑的家伙弄到太太或女朋友的內(nèi)褲……我猜你也知道這些人究竟是如何度過如刀割似的漫漫長夜了。這些東西并非免費的，有些東西代價不菲。但我絕不是光為錢來干這些事。金錢對我又有何用呢？我既無法擁有一輛凱迪拉克，更不能在二月天飛到牙買加去度假。因為與一個好屠夫只賣新鮮肉一樣，我想得到個好名聲并保持下去。只有兩種東西，我絕對不碰，一是槍械，一是毒品。我不會幫助任何人自殺或殺人。在我的有生之年，心里纏繞著太多的殺戮了。

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them.

——Montaigne

生命的價值不在于能活多少天，而在于我們?nèi)绾问褂眠@些日子。

——蒙田

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

斯蒂芬·金是恐怖小說大師的代表。他于1947年9月21日出生于美國緬因州波特蘭的一個貧困家庭。后來去州立大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)英國文學(xué)，畢業(yè)后開始寫作。20世紀(jì)70年代中期聲名漸起，被《紐約時報》譽為“現(xiàn)代恐怖小說大師”。自20世紀(jì)80年代以來，他的小說總是名列各大暢銷書排行榜榜首。1979年，在他32歲時，成為全世界作家中首屈一指的億萬富翁。斯蒂芬·金的作品超越了傳統(tǒng)的恐怖小說，他不靠具體的意象來獲得恐怖效果，而是通過對事件氣氛的營造來震懾讀者。

單詞注解

commit[kE5mit]v.犯（罪），做（錯事）

penalty[5penlti]n.處罰；刑罰

antique[An5ti:k]adj.古代的，古老的；年代久遠的

rehabilitate[7ri:hE5biliteit]v.（使）復(fù)興；（使）恢復(fù)原狀

hostage[5hCstidV]n.人質(zhì)；抵押品

reference[5refrEns]n.提及；涉及

名句大搜索

我猜美國每個州立監(jiān)獄和聯(lián)邦監(jiān)獄里，都有像我這樣的人物，不論什么東西，我都能弄到手。

如果再給我一次機會，我絕對不會重蹈覆轍，但我不確定這樣是否表示我已經(jīng)痛改前非了。

我不會幫助任何人自殺或殺人。在我的有生之年，心里纏繞著太多的殺戮了。