《道林·格雷的畫像》是一部充滿魔幻色彩的小說。天生俊美異常的道林·格雷因看見了畫家霍爾沃德給他畫的和本人一樣大的肖像,發現了自己的驚人之美,又聽信了亨利勛爵的吹噓,開始為自己的韶華易逝,美貌難以持久這樣的事實而感到痛苦。他希望那幅畫像可以代替自己承擔歲月和心靈的負擔,而自己卻保持青春貌美。而這個不切實際的愿望卻莫名其妙地得以實現。一天晚上,他粗暴地對待了自己愛的女演員西比爾·韋恩,回到家里他就發現畫像上出現了殘忍的表情——原來畫像開始隨著道林·格雷心靈的變化而改變了。第二天,西比爾·韋恩因失戀自殺,格雷卻在亨利勛爵的花言巧語下將韋恩的死看成是一個浪漫故事。從此他便一天一天墮落,干了許多腐朽不堪的事情,把身邊的朋友情人都一一弄得身敗名裂。而畫像也隨之變得愈加丑陋猙獰。后來他殺死了好友——畫家霍爾沃德,并銷毀其尸體。他曾經的戀人西比爾·韋恩的弟弟在二十年后來找他算帳,但卻莫名其妙地意外身亡。畫像成了他的護身符,代替了他承受所有的罪惡,而他依舊青春韶秀。格雷希望自己的罪惡永遠免于敗露,于是打算毀掉記錄了他衰敗的容貌和罪行的畫像。就在他把刀子插進畫像的同時,他卻橫死在自己的手上。
《道林·格雷的畫像》是英國“唯美主義”藝術運動倡導人奧斯卡·王爾德的唯一一部小說。奧斯卡·王爾德(1854—1900),劇作家、詩人、散文家,是19世紀與大劇作家蕭伯納齊名的英國才子。其作品中,如The Happy Prince(《快樂王子》)、The Nightingale and the Rose(《夜鶯與薔薇》)、The Devoted Friend(《忠實的朋友》)都是膾炙人口的名篇。
本篇節選自《道林·格雷的畫像》的最后一章。
It was a lovely night, so warm that he threw his coat over his arm and did not even put his silk scarf round his throat. As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young men in evening dress passed him. He heard one of them whisper to the other, “That is Dorian Gray.” He remembered how pleased he used to be when he was pointed out, or stared at, or talked about. He was tired of hearing his own name now.
When he reached home, he found his servant waiting up for him. He sent him to bed, and threw himself down on the sofa in the library, and began to think over some of the things that Lord Henry had said to him. Was it really true that one could never change? He felt a wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood—his rose-white boyhood, as Lord Henry had once called it. He knew that he had1)tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and 2)given horror to his fancy. The curiously carved mirror that Lord Henry had given to him, so many years ago now, was standing on the table, and the white-limbed Cupids laughed round it as of old. He took it up, as he had done on that night of horror when he had first noted the change in the fatal picture, and with wild, tear- 3)dimmed eyes looked into its polished shield. Then he 4)loathed his own beauty, and 5)flinging the mirror on the floor, crushed it into silver 6)splinters beneath his heel. It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for. But for those two things, his life might have been free from stain. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery. What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts. Why had he worn its 7)livery? Youth had spoiled him.
He took the lamp from the table and crept upstairs. As he unbarred the door, a smile of joy 8)flitted across his strangely young-looking face and lingered for a moment about his lips.
那是個宜人的夜晚,暖暖的,于是他把外套搭在手臂上,連絲巾也沒圍上。當他抽著煙散步回家時,兩個穿著晚禮服的年輕男子與他擦肩而過。他聽見其中一個向同伴低聲說道:“那就是道林·格雷。”這要放在以前,被人認出,或凝視,或談論時,會讓他得意開懷。然而現在,他對別人提起他的名字只感到厭煩。
到家時,他發現仆人正在等他。他讓仆人回去休息,然后就癱倒在書房的沙發上,回想亨利勛爵對他說過的那些話。難道一個人真的就永遠都無法改變嗎?(編者注:此指“走回正道”)他抑制不住內心對重返純真少年時代的渴望——像亨利勛爵曾經形容的那樣,他那如白玫瑰那般純潔的少年時代。他知道自己已經滿身污穢,現在他腦子里充斥的都是墮落和假象所帶來的恐懼。亨利勛爵多年前贈送給他的那個有著奇特雕花的鏡子,此刻立在桌上,那個白色羽翼的丘比特仍像過往那樣地笑著。他拿起鏡子看著里面的映像,就像那個恐怖的夜晚,他第一次發現那幅關乎到他命運的畫像上的變化后那般,用瘋狂的淚眼注視這光滑的鏡面。他開始憎惡自己的美貌了,將鏡子摔到地上,然后用腳將它踩得粉碎。毀掉他的就是他的美貌,他一直全心渴求的美貌和青春。如果不是這兩樣東西,他的生命也許還是純潔無暇的。如今,他的美貌于他來說,只是一個假面,而他的青春則成了一個笑話。青春歸根到底是什么?青澀、未盡成熟的時期,心緒淺淡、思想病態的日子。為什么他偏要披著這青春的軀殼?青春早已毀掉了他。
他從桌上拿起油燈,輕輕地走上樓去。當他開門的時候,一抹笑意掠過他那年輕得異常的臉蛋,在他的嘴角停留了片刻。
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