本文英语部分选自唐纳德·巴塞尔姆作品
The School
唐纳德·巴塞尔姆
（1）Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that ... that was part of their education, to see how, you know, the root systems ... and also the sense of responsibility, taking care of things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
嗯，我们让所有这些孩子出去种树，看，因为我们认为……这是他们教育的一部分，看看如何，你知道，根系……还有责任感，照顾事情，承担个人责任。你知道我的意思。树都死了。它们是橘子树。我不知道他们为什么死，他们只是死了。土壤可能有问题，或者我们从苗圃里得到的东西不是最好的。我们抱怨过。所以我们在那里有三十个孩子，每个孩子都有自己的小树要种，我们有三十棵死树。所有这些孩子看着这些棕色的小棍子，都很沮丧。
（2）It wouldn’t have been so bad except that just a couple of weeks before the thing with the trees, the snakes all died. But I think that the snakes – well, the reason that the snakes kicked off was that ... you remember, the boiler was shut off for four days because of the strike, and that was explicable. It was something you could explain to the kids because of the strike. I mean, none of their parents would let them cross the picket line and they knew there was a strike going on and what it meant. So when things got started up again and we found the snakes they weren’t too disturbed.
如果不是在树上的事情发生前几周，蛇都死了，情况就不会这么糟了。但我认为这些蛇——嗯，蛇开始的原因是……你记得，锅炉因为罢工被关闭了四天，这是可以解释的。因为罢工，你可以向孩子们解释这件事。我的意思是，他们的父母都不会让他们越过纠察线，他们知道罢工正在进行，这意味着什么。所以当事情重新开始的时候，我们发现蛇并没有受到太大的干扰。
（3）With the herb gardens it was probably a case of overwatering, and at least now they know not to overwater. The children were very conscientious with the herb gardens and some of them probably ... you know, slipped them a little extra water when we weren’t looking. Or maybe ... well, I don’t like to think about sabotage, although it did occur to us. I mean, it was something that crossed our minds. We were thinking that way probably because before that the gerbils had died, and the white mice had died, and the salamander ... well, now they know not to carry them around in plastic bags.
对于草本植物园来说，这可能是过度浇水的情况，至少现在他们知道不要过度浇水。孩子们对菜园很认真，其中一些可能……你知道，当我们不注意的时候，给他们多浇了一点水。或者也许……嗯，我不喜欢考虑破坏活动，尽管它确实发生在我们身上。我的意思是，这是我们脑海中闪过的东西。我们这样想可能是因为在那之前沙鼠已经死了，白鼠也死了，蝾螈也死了……好吧，现在他们知道不要用塑料袋携带它们。
（4）Of course we expected the tropical fish to die, that was no surprise. Those numbers, you look at them crooked and they’re belly-up on the surface. But the lesson plan called for a tropical fish input at that point, there was nothing we could do, it happens every year, you just have to hurry past it.
当然，我们预料到热带鱼会死亡，这并不奇怪。那些数字，你看它们歪歪扭扭的，表面上都是肚子鼓起来的。但当时的课程计划要求输入热带鱼，我们无能为力，每年都会发生这样的情况，你只需要赶快过去。
（5）We weren’t even supposed to have a puppy.
我们甚至不应该养小狗。
（6）We weren’t even supposed to have one, it was just a puppy the Murdoch girl found under a Gristede’s truck one day and she was afraid the truck would run over it when the driver had finished making his delivery, so she stuck it in her knapsack and brought it to the school with her. So we had this puppy. As soon as I saw the puppy I thought, Oh Christ, I bet it will live for about two weeks and then... And that’s what it did. It wasn’t supposed to be in the classroom at all, there’s some kind of regulation about it, but you can’t tell them they can’t have a puppy when the puppy is already there, right in front of them, running around on the floor and yap yap yapping. They named it Edgar – that is, they named it after me. They had a lot of fun running after it and yelling, “Here, Edgar! Nice Edgar!” Then they’d laugh like hell. They enjoyed the ambiguity. I enjoyed it myself. I don’t mind being kidded. They made a little house for it in the supply closet and all that. I don’t know what it died of. Distemper, I guess. It probably hadn’t had any shots. I got it out of there before the kids got to school. I checked the supply closet each morning, routinely, because I knew what was going to happen. I gave it to the custodian.
我们甚至不应该有一只小狗，这只是一天默多克女孩在格里斯泰德的卡车下发现的小狗，她担心司机送货完毕后卡车会碾过它，所以她把它放在背包里，带到学校。所以我们有了这只小狗。当我看到小狗时，我想，哦，妈耶，我打赌它会活两周左右，然后……它就是这样做的。这根本就不应该在教室里，有一些规定，但你不能告诉他们，当小狗已经在那里，就在他们面前，在地板上跑来跑去，“汪汪汪汪”地叫着的时候，他们就不能养小狗了。他们给它取名为埃德加，也就是说，他们以我的名字命名。他们在后面追着它跑，喊着：“这里，埃德加！好埃德加！”然后他们会大笑不止。他们喜欢这种模棱两可的感觉。我自己也很喜欢。我不介意被人取笑。他们在储藏室等地方为它建造了一个小房子。我不知道它死于什么。我想是瘟疫。因为它可能没有被任何枪击中。我在孩子们上学之前就把它弄出来了。我每天早上都会例行检查衣柜，因为我知道会发生什么。我把它交给了保管人。
（7）And then there was this Korean orphan that the class adopted through the Help the Children program, all the kids brought in a quarter a month, that was the idea. It was an unfortunate thing, the kid’s name was Kim and maybe we adopted him too late or something. The cause of death was not stated in the letter we got, they suggested we adopt another child instead and sent us some interesting case histories, but we didn’t have the heart. The class took it pretty hard, they began (I think, nobody ever said anything to me directly) to feel that maybe there was something wrong with the school. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the school, particularly, I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. It was just a run of bad luck. We had an extraordinary number of parents passing away, for instance. There were I think two heart attacks and two suicides, one drowning, and four killed together in a car accident. One stroke. And we had the usual heavy mortality rate among the grandparents, or maybe it was heavier this year, it seemed so. And finally the tragedy.
还有一个韩国孤儿，这个班通过“帮助孩子”计划收养了他，所有的孩子每个月都会带来一个季度的收入，这就是我们的想法。这是一件不幸的事，孩子的名字是Kim，也许我们收养他太晚了，或者什么的。我们收到的信中没有说明死因，他们建议我们改收养另一个孩子，并寄给我们一些有趣的病历，但我们没有勇气。全班都很难接受，他们开始（我想，从来没有人直接对我说过话）觉得学校可能有问题。但我不认为学校有什么问题，尤其是，我看到的更好，我看到了更糟。这只是一连串的厄运。例如，我们有非常多的父母去世。我想有两次心脏病发作，两次自杀，一次溺水，四次一起死于车祸。一次冲程。我们的祖父母死亡率很高，或者今年似乎更高。最后是悲剧。
（8）The tragedy occurred when Matthew Wein and Tony Mavrogordo were playing over where they’re excavating for the new federal office building. There were all these big wooden beams stacked, you know, at the edge of the excavation. There’s a court case coming out of that, the parents are claiming that the beams were poorly stacked. I don’t know what’s true and what’s not. It’s been a strange year.
悲剧发生时，马修·韦恩和托尼·马夫罗戈多正在挖掘新的联邦办公大楼。你知道，所有这些大木梁都堆放在挖掘的边缘。由此引发了一场官司，家长们声称横梁堆放不当。我不知道什么是真的，什么不是。这是奇怪的一年。
（9）I forgot to mention Billy Brandt’s father who was knifed fatally when he grappled with a masked intruder in his home.
我忘了提及比利·勃兰特的父亲，他在家里与一名蒙面入侵者搏斗时被刀刺死。
（10）One day, we had a discussion in class. They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony, where did they go? And I said, I don’t know, I don’t know. And they said, who knows? and I said, nobody knows. And they said, is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said no, life is that which gives meaning to life. Then they said, but isn’t death, considered as a fundamental datum, the means by which the taken-for-granted mundanity of the everyday may be transcended in the direction of –
一天，我们在课堂上进行了讨论。他们问我，他们去哪里了？树、蝾螈、热带鱼、埃德加、罂粟和妈妈、马修和托尼，他们去了哪里？我说，我不知道，我也不知道。他们说，谁知道呢？我说，没人知道。他们说，死亡是赋予生命意义的东西吗？我说不，生命是赋予生命意义的东西。然后他们说，但不是死亡，死亡被视为一个基本的数据，日常生活中被视为理所当然的世俗可以被超越的方式——
（11）I said, yes, maybe.
They said, we don’t like it.
I said, that’s sound.
They said, it’s a bloody shame!
I said, it is.
They said, will you make love now with Helen (our teaching assistant) so that
we can see how it is done? We know you like Helen.
I do like Helen but I said that I would not.
We’ve heard so much about it, they said, but we’ve never seen it.
I said I would be fired and that it was never, or almost never, done as a
demonstration. Helen looked out the window.
They said, please, please make love with Helen, we require an assertion of
value, we are frightened.
我说，是的，也许吧。
他们说，我们不喜欢它。
我说，这很好。
他们说，真是太遗憾了！
我说，是的。
他们说，你现在能和海伦（我们的助教）做舒服的事吗？这样我们就可以看看是怎么做的了？我们知道你喜欢海伦。
我确实喜欢海伦，但我说过我不会。
他们说，我们听说过很多，但我们从未见过。
我说我会被解雇，而且从来没有，或者几乎从来没有，做过示威。海伦向窗外望去。
他们说，请，请和海伦做舒服的事，我们需要一个价值的主张，我们很害怕。
（12）I said that they shouldn’t be frightened (although I am often frightened) and that there was value everywhere. Helen came and embraced me. I kissed her a few times on the brow. We held each other. The children were excited. Then there was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and the new gerbil walked in. The children cheered wildly.
我说他们不应该害怕（尽管我经常害怕），到处都有价值。海伦过来拥抱了我。我在她的额头上吻了几下。我们互相拥抱。孩子们很兴奋。然后有人敲门，我打开门，新沙鼠走了进来。孩子们疯狂地欢呼。
【解析】
这个故事就是一段充满戏剧性的独白，展现了巴塞尔姆标志性的幽默和在文体形式上的出色尝试。在这个看似荒诞的故事里，橘树、小动物、收养的孩子都接二连三死了，学校里的孩子们感到困惑，不停地追问老师，就此展开对死亡、对生活意义的讨论等。
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