0803翻譯：就英法聯軍遠征中國給巴特勒上尉的信（雨果/程增厚）

05-25

Translation: Letter to Captain Butler on Anglo-French Troops Expedition to China (Victor Hugo/Cheng Zenghou – translator to Chinese)

(assembled by: alexcwlin; reviewed by: Adam Lam)

先生:

"To Captain Butler

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您徵求我對遠征中國的意見。

You ask my opinion, Sir, about the China expedition.

您認為這次遠征是體面的，出色的。多謝您對我的想法予以重視。在您看來，打著維多利亞女王和拿破崙皇帝雙重旗號對中國的遠征，是由法國和英國共同分享的光榮，而您想知道，我對英法的這個勝利會給予多少讚譽?

You consider this expedition to be honourable and glorious, and you have the kindness to attach some consideration to my feelings; according to you, the China expedition, carried out jointly under the flags of Queen Victoria and the Emperor Napoleon, is a glory to be shared between France and England, and you wish to know how much approval I feel I can give to this English and French victory.

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既然您想了解我的看法，那就請往下讀吧：

Since you wish to know my opinion, here it is:

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在世界的某個角落，有一個世界奇蹟。這個奇蹟叫圓明園。

There was, in a corner of the world, a wonder of the world; this wonder was called the Summer Palace.

藝術有兩個來源，一是理想，理想產生歐洲藝術；一是幻想，幻想產生東方藝術。

Art has two principles, the Idea, which produces European art, and the Chimera, which produces oriental art.

圓明園在幻想藝術中的地位就如同巴特農神廟在理想藝術中的地位。

The Summer Palace was to chimerical art what the Parthenon is to ideal art.

一個幾乎是超人的民族的想像力所能產生的成就盡在於此。

All that can be begotten of the imagination of an almost extra-human people was there.

和巴特農神廟不一樣，這不是一件稀有的、獨一無二的作品；

It was not a single, unique work like the Parthenon.

這是幻想的某種規模巨大的典範，如果幻想能有一個典範的話。

It was a kind of enormous model of the chimera, if the chimera can have a model.

請您想像有一座言語無法形容的建築，某種恍若月宮的建築，這就是圓明園。

Imagine some inexpressible construction, something like a lunar building, and you will have the Summer Palace.

請您用大理石，用玉石，用青銅，用瓷器建造一個夢，用雪松做它的屋架，給它上上下下綴滿寶石，披上綢緞，這兒蓋神殿，那兒建後宮，造城樓，裡面放上神像，放上異獸，飾以琉璃，飾以琺琅，飾以黃金，施以脂粉，請同是詩人的建築師建造一千零一夜的一千零一個夢，再添上一座座花園，一方方水池，一眼眼噴泉，加上成群的天鵝、朱鷺和孔雀，總而言之，請假設人類幻想的某種令人眼花繚亂的洞府，其外貌是神廟、是宮殿，那就是這座名園。

Build a dream with marble, jade, bronze and porcelain, frame it with cedar wood, cover it with precious stones, drape it with silk, make it here a sanctuary, there a harem, elsewhere a citadel, put gods there, and monsters, varnish it, enamel it, gild it, paint it, have architects who are poets build the thousand and one dreams of the thousand and one nights, add gardens, basins, gushing water and foam, swans, ibis, peacocks, suppose in a word a sort of dazzling cavern of human fantasy with the face of a temple and palace, such was this building.

為了創建圓明園，曾經耗費了兩代人的長期勞動。

The slow work of generations had been necessary to create it.

這座大得猶如一座城市的建築物是世世代代的結晶。為誰而建?

This edifice, as enormous as a city, had been built by the centuries, for whom?

為了各國人民。

For the peoples.

因為，歲月創造的一切都是屬於人類的。

For the work of time belongs to man.

過去的藝術家、詩人、哲學家都知道圓明園；伏爾泰就談起過圓明園。

Artists, poets and philosophers knew the Summer Palace; Voltaire talks of it.

人們常說：希臘有巴特農神廟，埃及有金字塔，羅馬有斗獸場，巴黎有聖母院，而東方有圓明園。

People spoke of the Parthenon in Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, the Coliseum in Rome, Notre-Dame in Paris, the Summer Palace in the Orient.

要是說，大家沒有看見過它，但大家夢見過它。

If people did not see it they imagined it.

這是某種令人驚駭而不知名的傑作，在不可名狀的晨曦中依稀可見。宛如在歐洲文明的地平線上瞥見的亞洲文明的剪影。

It was a kind of tremendous unknown masterpiece, glimpsed from the distance in a kind of twilight, like a silhouette of the civilization of Asia on the horizon of the civilization of Europe.

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這個奇蹟已經消失了。

This wonder has disappeared.

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有一天，兩個強盜闖進了圓明園。

One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace.

一個強盜洗劫，另一個強盜放火。

One plundered, the other burned.

似乎得勝之後，便可以動手行竊了。

Victory can be a thieving woman, or so it seems.

他們對圓明園進行了大規模的劫掠，贓物由兩個勝利者均分。

The devastation of the Summer Palace was accomplished by the two victors acting jointly.

我們看到，這整個事件還與額爾金〔額爾金父子是著名的英國殖民主義者。小額爾金曾任英國駐加拿大總督，1860年10月，英法聯軍火燒圓明園的罪魁之一。老額爾金曾任外交官員，參加毀壞希臘雅典巴特農神廟的行動，並掠走該神廟的精美大理石雕像。）的名字有關，

Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which inevitably calls to mind the Parthenon.

這名字又使人不能不憶起巴特農神廟。從前對巴特農神廟怎麼干，現在對圓明園也怎麼干，只是更徹底，更漂亮，以至於蕩然無存。

What was done to the Parthenon was done to the Summer Palace, more thoroughly and better, so that nothing of it should be left.

我們所有大教堂的財寶加在一起，也許還抵不上東方這座了不起的富麗堂皇的博物館。

All the treasures of all our cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient.

那兒不僅僅有藝術珍品，還有大堆的金銀製品。

It contained not only masterpieces of art, but masses of jewelry.

豐功偉績!收穫巨大!

What a great exploit, what a windfall!

兩個勝利者，一個塞滿了腰包，這是看得見的，另一個裝滿了箱篋。

One of the two victors filled his pockets; when the other saw this he filled his coffers.

他們手挽手，笑嘻嘻地回到歐洲。

And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away.

這就是這兩個強盜的故事。

Such is the story of the two bandits.

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我們歐洲人是文明人，中國人在我們眼中是野蠻人。

We Europeans are the civilized ones, and for us the Chinese are the barbarians.

這就是文明對野蠻所乾的事情。

This is what civilization has done to barbarism.

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將受到歷史制裁的這兩個強盜，一個叫法蘭西，另一個叫英吉利。

Before history, one of the two bandits will be called France; the other will be called England.

不過，我要抗議，感謝您給了我這樣一個抗議的機會。

But I protest, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity!

治人者的罪行不是治於人者的過錯；

the crimes of those who lead are not the fault of those who are led;

政府有時會是強盜，而人民永遠也不會是強盜。

Governments are sometimes bandits, peoples never.

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法蘭西帝國吞下了這次勝利的一半贓物，今天，帝國居然還天真地以為自己就是真正的物主，把圓明園富麗堂皇的破爛拿來展出。

The French empire has pocketed half of this victory, and today with a kind of proprietorial naivety it displays the splendid bric-a-brac of the Summer Palace.

我希望有朝一日，解放了的乾乾淨淨的法蘭西會把這份戰利品歸還給被掠奪的中國。

I hope that a day will come when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China.

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現在，我證實，發生了一次偷竊，有兩名竊賊。

Meanwhile, there is a theft and two thieves. I take note.

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先生，以上就是我對遠征中國的全部讚譽。

This, Sir, is how much approval I give to the China expedition."

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維克多·雨果

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1861年11月25日於高城居

Hauteville House,

25 November, 1861

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附註：

(1) 英文部分是原著來自互聯網。