寻找薇薇安·迈尔

《启示录四骑士》
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
我也许字的发音
and I’m probably not pronouncing
不怎么正确
the word right, and…
那声音抑扬顿挫
There’s the lilting sound of it, you know?
“我搞不懂
“I don’t really know
“你要我做什么
“what you want me to do,
“但你必须做 结束了还要再来
“but you have to do it and come over later,
“到时就一切都没事啦”
“and then everything will be okay.”
她的声音 上去又下来
Her voice, it seemed like it went up and down.
你知道我说的吗
You know what I’m saying?
她发的母音比法语母音稍长
Her vowels were longer in duration than French vowels.
你知道 这就是…
I mean, you know, this is the… I did a
我的硕士论文就是关于法语母音音长的
my master’s thesis was on vowel duration in French,
所以我是懂点背景的
so I had a little bit of background in it.
我认为有人把自己的英语口音圆润化了
I believe it’s someone who had polished their English accent,
然后丢了些法语口音
having then lost some of their French accent.
你不会想看我的毕业论文的 所以…
You don’t want to see a copy of my dissertation, so…
真的 你不想看
No, you don’t, really.
我问她的名字
I asked her her name.
她顿了顿 我记得
She kind of paused. I remember that.
她说 “叫我史密斯吧”
And she said, “Call me Smith.”
非常明显
I mean, it was very clear
她不想告诉我她的名字
she didn’t want to tell me her name.
我心想 “奇怪耶”
I thought, “This is weird.”
她一直都是我们客户
She had been a customer of ours.
宾迪·比特曼
说真的 她是个讨厌鬼
She was a pain in the neck, to be truthful.
我们为她保留货品长达一年
We held things for her for as long as a year.
我们问她 “你什么名字”
We would say, “What’s your name?”
“我不告诉你”
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“没名字 我们没法保留”
“Well, we can’t keep it without a name.”
“好吧 V·史密斯小姐”
“All right, Miss V. Smith.”
V·史密斯小姐
You know, ha ha ha, Miss V. Smith.
很明显她不是V·史密斯小姐
It was patently obvious that she was not Miss V. Smith.
我们就说 “好吧 那电♥话♥号♥码”
And we’d say, “Okay, phone number.”
“我没电♥话♥”
“I don’t have a phone.”
“如有必要 我们怎么
“Well, how are we gonna get in touch with you
“跟你取得联络”
“if we need to?”
“不用啊”
“Well, you won’t.”
她为什么给我们假名
Why was she giving us a fake name?
我们并没有想太多
We didn’t think as much about it as you are.
现在看来 她的名字拼写也不同
Now, she spelled her name differently.
少女时期 迈尔里有个B
There’s B as in boy Maier.
迈尔拼写的每种可能组合
Every possible combination of ways you could spell Maier
麦尔 迈尔 脉尔
Meyer, Maier, Mayer.
我们总是叫她迈尔小姐
We always called her Miss Maier.
迈尔斯小姐
Miss Maiers.
她说 “叫我薇薇”
She said, “Call me Viv.”
你永远不会叫这个女人”薇薇”的啦
You would never have called this woman “Viv.”
薇薇安
Vivian.
没人叫她薇薇
Nobody called her Viv?
没 都叫薇薇安
No, Vivian.
为什么你不告诉别人真名
Why wouldn’t you want to tell people your real name?
我问她是做什么的
I asked her what she did,
她的回答让我终生难忘
and her answer was another thing I’ll never forget.
“我是个间谍”
“I’m sort of a spy.”
她真是这么说的
That’s exactly what she said.
我还记得她这么说的样子 还言犹在耳
I can still see her and hear her saying it.
非常奇怪吧
It was so odd.
我觉得唯一这么说的人
I think the only person who says that
绝对不会是间谍
is somebody who’s definitely not a spy.
你为什么这么说
Why would you say that?
也许她想成为别人
Maybe she wanted to be somebody else.
我们很多人怎么做
A lot of us do that.
她如果没有保姆这份工作
If she did not have this job as the babysitter,
她的生活方式就很容易理解
her lifestyle would have been very understandable.
真正的问题是 她为什么做这种工作
The real question is, why did she do this kind of work?
她的睿智和她的观点
Her intelligence and her views on things,
把自己的工作保密似乎
there was something very precious to her
对她来说很重要
about keeping them secret.
薇薇安也许是看不起那些雇佣
Vivian may have looked down, so to speak, on the employers
她做这种低薪工作的雇主
who were hiring her for this lowpaying kind of work.
她把自己看成穷♥人♥
She identified with the poor.
她说她不看医生
I mean, she said she doesn’t go to a doctor.
她没有任何医疗保险
She doesn’t have any medical insurance.
我说 “你…你会担心这个吗”
And I said, “Are you… are you worried about that?”
她说 “穷♥人♥穷到死不起”
And she said, “The poor are too poor to die.”
她告诉我她第一次来纽约时
She told me that when she first came to New York,
是去一家做缝纫的血汗工厂上班
she went to work in a sewing sweatshop.
有一天她意识到她想做点别的事
She realized one day that she wanted to do something
可以去外面的世界
where she could be outside and in the world, out and about,
看得见太阳 所以她做了保姆
and see the sun, so she took up nannying.
她觉得这工作给她一定的自♥由♥
She felt that it gave her a certain amount of freedom.
有人提供住所给她
Somebody else was providing the shelter for her.
她不用太卖♥♥力工作
She wasn’t having to work so hard
只要收支可以相抵
just to make ends meet.
所以她有自♥由♥时间用来摄影
So she had some free time for her photographic endeavors.
1959年
1959.
薇薇安告诉雇主 “我要去世界旅行
Vivian told her employer, “I’m going to travel the world,
“我8个月后回来”
“and I’ll be back in eight months.”
她去了曼谷 印度 泰国
She went to Bangkok, India, Thailand,
埃及 也门
Egypt, Yemen,
南美洲所有国家
all of South America.
她独自旅行
She traveled by herself…
就她和她的相机
Just her and her camera.
她的世界旅行拍了几千张照片
There are thousands of photos from her world travels.
你认为薇薇安会喜欢
Do you think Vivian would like
她引发的关注吗
the attention that she’s getting?
我觉得她是一个很…不知道
I think she was a very… I don’t know.
应该不会吧
I don’t think so.
我觉得她是个很重隐私的人
I think she was more of a very private person.
我是觉得她可能会把这些
I don’t… l think she might have seen this
看成是对她的侵犯你知道
as kind of an intrusion, you know?
我会不由自主地觉得有点不舒服或内疚
I can’t help but to feel a little uncomfortable or guilty
曝光了一个不愿曝光的人的作品
exposing the work of a person who did not want to be exposed.
她非常神秘
She was so secretive.
我觉得她会愿意自己的艺术作品受到尊崇
I think that she would like her artwork to be honored,
但我觉得她个人不会喜欢
But I don’t think she personally would have liked
引人注目
being in the limelight.
我觉得不会
I don’t.
她绝不会让这种事发生的
She would never have let this happen
绝不会让自己出名
had she known about it.
不会 她绝不会这么做
No, she never would have let it.
那是她的宝贝
Sheshethat was her babies.
她不会把她的宝贝拿出来现
She wouldn’t have put her babies on display.
但我不认为所有她拍的那些照片
But I don’t think she took all those photographs
是为了埋没在尘埃里
for them to just dissolve into dust.
我觉得她拍那些照片是要被看到
I think she took those photographs to be seen.
我发现事件的神秘性
I find the mystery of it more interesting
比她的作品本身更有意思
than her work itself.
我想知悉更多关于这个人的事蹟
I’d love to know more about this person.
光是透过她的作品你办不到
And I don’t think you can do that through her work.
所以她什么都没告诉你
So she didn’t tell you anything
关于她来自哪里 她的背景
about where she came from, her background?
你什么都不了
You didn’t know anything?
没人打听吗
Nobody pried into that?
没有 真的没有
No, I not really.
你知道关于薇薇安任何事情
Did you know anything about Vivian,
她的家人 她的过去吗
her family, her past’?
不知
No.
很不可思议 不是吗