L. G. Durrell - Mountolive (Excerpt) 汉译

He entered the penumbra of the storm slowly, marveling at the light, at the horizon drawn back like a bow. Odd gleams of sunshine scattered rubies upon the battleships in the basin (squatting under their guns like horned toads). It was the ancient city again; he felt its pervading melancholy under the rain as he crossed it on his way to the Summer Residence. The brilliant unfamiliar lighting of the thunderstorm recreated it, giving it a spectral, story-book air-broken pavements made of tinfoil, snail-shells, cracked horn, mica; earth-brick buildings turned to the colour of ox-blood; the lovers wandering in Mohammed Ali Square, disoriented by the unfamiliar rain, disconsolate as untuned instruments; the clicking of violet trams along the sea-front among the tatting of palm-fronds. The desuetude of an ancient city whose streets were plastered with the wet blown dust of the surrounding desert. He felt it all anew, letting it extend panoramically in his consciousness-the moan of a liner edging out towards the sunset bar, or the trains which flowed like a torrent of diamonds towards the interior, their wheels chattering among the shingle ravines and the powder of temples long since abandoned and silted up……

蒙搭里夫慢慢地走进了那风暴的明暗相交的处所，惊奇地望着那拉紧像一把弓似的明亮的地平线。夕阳的残照有如红宝石的点点金光，洒向停泊在小海湾中的兵舰上（那些兵舰像有角的蟾蜍一般蹲踞在突出的大炮之下）。重又来到了这个古城。当他横过此城走向大使馆的消夏别墅去时，在大雨淋漓之下，他感觉到这城中弥漫着忧郁的感觉。大雷雨中那不习见的电光，使这城市面目一新，给了它一种非现实的童话一般的容貌。用锡箔、贝壳、碎角、云母铺成的破烂的铺道。土砖的房子变成了带黑的深红色。情侣们在穆罕默德·阿里方场散步，由于不习见的雨而使他们迷失方向，有如弹着走了调的乐器听来很不舒服一样，他们的情绪非常不好。沿着海岸线，在梭织花边似的棕榈叶的树荫下走着的紫色电车的轧轧声。这个古城好像要被废弃的样子，它的街道上涂满了从四周围沙漠中吹来的湿的尘土。这一切的情景他又重新充分地感到了，让那全景在目地在他心中扩展开去。——一条定期轮船向着落日的港口徐徐移动出去的声音，或是像钻石的奔流一般向着内陆流去的火车，它们的车轮在满布鹅卵石的峡谷上，和很久已绝人烟，早为淤泥充塞的庙宇的废墟上辘辘地奔驰着。