他们已不再变老（2018）

‘It seemed to cling to everything.
甚至当你在吃饭时 你都可以尝出来
When you were having your food, you could taste it.’
到处弥漫着恶臭 尸横遍野
‘The awful stench and bits of human bodies lying about,
天天如此
it became an everyday thing.
你会想 下一个就轮到你了
You thought, “Well, it’ll be
但这有什么关系
your turn next. What does it matter?”‘
哪里有坟墓或者尸体 哪里就有老鼠
‘Wherever there was a grave or a body, there were rats.’
它们既肥又大
‘They were all big, fat ones
我们很清楚 它们为什么肥得流油
and we knew where they got their fat from.’
令人讨厌的动物 渗进坟里
‘Unpleasant animals, because of the filtration into the graves.’
它们靠尸体为生 爬进防空洞里
‘They used to feed on the dead and come in the dugouts,
找一些残羹剩饭
pick up scraps in there.’
我在战壕底醒来
‘I woke up at the bottom of the trench
觉得脸上有什么东西暖暖的
and felt something warm on my face
有颗小心脏在砰砰砰砰砰地跳动
and a little heart went bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.
这个恶魔逃走时
The devil scratched my face with the
用它的后腿划破了我的脸
claws of his hind feet as he took off.’
我们不断开枪射击它们 击打它们
‘We’d try and shoot them, hit them,
杀死它们 追捕它们
kill them, chase them,
无所不用其极
do anything.’
等待你的还有毒气
‘Then you’ve got gas.’
会有绿色的烟雾朝我们席卷而来
‘We saw this green cloud coming toward us,
在地面上缓慢翻腾前进
just rolling slowly along the ground.’
有人♥大♥叫 毒气
‘They’d shout, “Gas!”
然后我们必须拿出面罩
and we had to take our mask out and
在两到三秒钟内戴上它
stick it on in two or three seconds.’
这是光气 紧接着 会有芥子气
‘Yes, it was phosgene gas. Later on, there was mustard gas.
这种气体作用强烈
That was very effective.
我从来没见过一个只是轻度中毒的人
I never saw a “slightly gassed” man.’
如果你来不及拿防毒面具
If you couldn’t get your gas mask,
也可以撒尿在手帕上
you were to pee on your handkerchief
然后用手帕捂住嘴鼻
and stuff this round your nose and mouth.’
说实话我不太喜欢
‘I don’t mind admitting I didn’t think
撒尿在手帕上
much of urinating on handkerchiefs,
于是我就跑到一个战壕厕所里
so I went into one of the trench latrines
把脸埋到粪桶里
and I stuck my head in the bucket.
说实话 那时候我实在憋不下去了
I’ll tell you, I couldn’t hold my breath any more,
就抬起头
came up,
猛吸一口气 再把脸埋进去
took a good breath of air, down again.’
很快我们就被
‘We were very soon enveloped in
浓厚 黄色 肮脏的气体包裹了
this thick, yellow, filthy cloud.’
我们越想摆脱眼睛的刺痛感
‘The more we tried to get rid of the
情况往往越糟糕
stinging in our eyes, the worse it got.’
我一度沉思
‘I thought deeply of what the effect
失明后会变得怎么样
of blindness was going to be.’
提取血凝块和注射生理盐水
‘But the extraction of clotted blood and the injection of saline
能缓解很大的疼痛
could alleviate a lot of the trouble
当我自己被毒气熏倒时
and, as I was gassed myself,
我就有经验之谈了
I can speak from experience.’
一到冬天 天气进一步恶化
‘In the wintertime, as the weather deteriorated,
战壕变得越来越潮湿
so the trenches got more and more sodden with water
大量积水使战壕几乎变成了沟渠
until they just became ditches.’
刚开始水只是在我们脚边打转
‘The water was swirling about our feet
之后它越升越高
and rising higher and higher
一直涨到了我们胸口
until it reached our chests.
我们面临的是冻伤
Our difficulty was frostbite.
长筒胶靴里灌满了水
Our gumboots filled with water
早上醒来 我们根本脱不掉它
and, in the mornings, we could not strip them off,
因为靴子被冰粘在脚上了
because they were frozen to our feet.’
战壕里的双脚
‘When you’re talking about trench feet,
就意味着坏疽
you’re talking about gangrene.
从前线撤下伤员 砍掉他们的腿
Send him straight down the line. Hack the legs off.’
快来帮帮我们
Give us a hand with that.
当水重新被土地吸收时
‘When the water had soaked into the earth,
战壕底就满是泥浆
the floors of the trenches were just paved with liquid mud
它的效果和胶水一样
and that became like glue.’
这是种古怪的 有粘性的土
‘It was a curious, sucking kind of mud.
真的非常粘稠
Very viscous indeed.
粘性超强 会把你紧紧粘住
Very tenacious. It stuck to you.’
如果有人要到后方取口粮
‘If one had to go to the rear for rations,
那就是一场滑溜溜的噩梦
well, that was just a nightmare journey, slithering about.
当雨下的很大 在很滑的遮泥板上
When it was pouring with rain, and on slippery duckboards,
听到的话真的是开了眼了
the language was really edifying.
你能听到从来未曾想过的词汇
You heard words that you never dreamed existed.
你滑下挡泥板的话 你就会陷进
And, if you slipped off the duckboards, you sank into
能分解人和骡子尸体的泥泞之中
the mud of decomposed bodies of humans and mules,
那就是你的死期了
and that was the end of you.
那男孩陷进了这一大♥片♥泥的海洋 挣扎着
The boy was in the middle of this huge sea of mud, struggling,
我们什么也做不了
and we couldn’t do a thing.
没有办法能救到他
There was no hope of getting to him.
他脸上的的神情
The look on the lad’s face, and he was
他还是个小男孩 真的让人可怜
only a mere boy, was really pathetic.
我见过有人陷进去在泥里等死
I’ve seen men sinking into the mud and dying in the slime.
那绝对让我的心都碎了
I think it absolutely finished me off.
应该是很安静的 然后
It was supposed to be quiet, then you
你能听见一些喝醉的德国人说
might get some drunken German say,
今天就干掉他们 然后倾泻他所有的火力
“I’m gonna give ’em hell today,” open up with all his batteries
把几百个人都吓一跳
and catch hundreds of people unaware.
这就是他们所谓的”坚守阵地”
That was what they called “holding a line”.
我们在一个跟文明世界
We were in conditions that isolated us
与世隔绝的地方
completely from civilisation.
在这泥潭里我们变得如此退化 如此孤立
We got so degenerate, so isolated, living in this mud.
你能跟一只兔子感同身受
And you could sympathise with how a rabbit must feel,
因为我们跟兔子一样被人类猎杀
because we were hunted by mankind just the same as a rabbit.
你知道你们的命在彼此手中
You knew your lives were in one another’s hands
所以你们变得如此团结
and it united you closely and you didn’t
没有什么能让阻挡你们
let anything interfere with that.
在你视线所及的地方你知道发生了什么
You knew what was going on within your vision.
除此之外你什么都不知道
Beyond that, you hadn’t got a clue.
你不关心战争走势如何 是不是要赢了
You didn’t care how the war was going, whether you were winning.
跟你好像都没关系
You weren’t bothered with that at all.
你活得跟流浪汉一样 也不去擦亮扣子了
You lived like tramps. You didn’t polish any buttons.
随你穿你想穿的也没人在意
You wore any uniform bits that you liked and nobody worried.
他们只关心你还能不能继续打仗
All they were concerned with was that you were fit to fight.
如果没什么事的话 就开始聊人生
If nothing’s happened, you’d chat about life,
他从哪来 你从哪来
where he came from, where you came from.
一切都很友善
Everything was friendly.
每个人都变得亲切的要命
There was a terrific lot of kindness in a way to each person.
当没那么多战事的时候
When the war was not very active,
在前线还是挺有趣的
it was really rather fun to be in the front line.
也不怎么危险
It was not very dangerous.
像是男孩们放假出门野营一样
A sort of out-of-door camping holiday with the boys
还有一丝危险让它更加有趣
with a slight spice of danger to make it interesting.’
我们有时会突袭战壕 可能还能抓个俘虏
We used to raid the trenches and get a prisoner if possible.’
一次突袭战嚎
On a typical trench raid,
可能会有八个人参加
there’d be perhaps eight in the party.
要去突袭的话
If you were going to make a raid,
晚上会有人来传信
somebody would cut a passage through the wire at night.
只有静悄悄的
The only way to do it was silently…
才能去突袭 也是这么安排的
…to rush it, and that was the arrangement.’
从壕里爬出来的德国人
We would bayonet the Germans coming out
我们用刺刀刺死他们
on their hands and knees out the dugout,
打爆他们的头 再往里扔几个炸♥弹♥
we’d smack them over the head, and throw in a couple of bombs.
有三种方式来干掉他
There were three ways of getting rid of him.
刀死他 绞死他 刺死他
One was to knife him, garrotte him, or to bayonet him.
最安静的方法是
The quietest was a quick wrap around
扼住他喉咙在后心来一刀
the throat and a knife into the back.
我把左轮扔向那个小男孩
I threw the revolver at poor little Rudolph.
他大概才18岁 正好砸到他脸上
He was only about 18. I hit him in the face with it.
他尖叫着冲过来 我就在那时打到了他
He screamed and came back at me and that’s when I got him.
用一把维利信♥号♥♥枪