IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His story will be told here. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name－in contrast to the names of other gifted abominations, de Sade’s, for instance, or Saint-Just’s, Fbuche’s, Bonaparte’s, etc.－has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, to wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent.十八世紀，在法國曾出現過一個人。那時代人才輩出，也不乏天才和殘暴的人物。此人便是最有天才和最殘暴的人物之一。這兒要講的就是這個人的故事。他名叫讓一巴蒂斯特﹒格雷諾耶。與其他天才怪傑，例如德﹒薩德、聖鞠斯特、富歇、波拿巴的名字相反，他的名字今天已被人遺忘，這肯定不是因為格雷諾耶在自高自大、蔑視人類和殘忍方面，簡而言之，在不信神方面化這些更有名氣的陰險人物略遜一籌，而是因為他的天才和他的野心僅僅局限在歷史上沒有留下痕跡的領域：氣味的短暫的王國。
- []a.1. 可惡的,令人討厭的2. 【口】糟透的,極差的,惡劣的
- []n.[C]1. 大人物,要人2. 人3. (小說等中的)人物,角色
- []n.1. 【舊】厭惡,憎恨[U]2. 令人厭惡的事情[C]
- []ph.1. (通常指品質)低於預料、預期的2. 缺乏的
- []n.1. 不願與人來往者;厭世者
- []ad.1. 簡潔地;簡便地
- []n.[C]1. 領土,領地;領土權2. (政府或私人的)所有地,地產3. 領域,範圍
- []a.1. 轉瞬間的;短暫的
- []n.[C]1. 【書】王國;國土,領土2. 界,領域;範圍[P1][(+of)]
In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust, the bedrooms of greasy sheets, damp feather beds, and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries, and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of onions, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease. The rivers stank, the marketplaces stank, the churches stank, it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. The peasant stank as did the priest, the apprentice as did his master’s wife, the whole of the aristocracy stank, even the king himself stank, stank like a rank lion, and the queen like an old goat, summer and winter. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition, and so there was no human activity, either constructive or destructive, no manifestation of germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. 在我們所說的那個時代，各個城市裡始終瀰漫著我們現代人難以想像的臭氣。街道散發出糞便的臭氣，屋子後院散發著尿臭，樓梯間散發出腐朽的木材和老鼠的臭氣，廚房瀰漫著爛菜和羊油的臭味；不通風的房間散發著霉臭的塵土氣味，臥室發出沾滿油脂的床單、潮濕的羽絨被的臭味和夜壺的刺鼻的甜滋滋的似香非臭的氣味。壁爐裡散發出硫磺的臭氣，制革廠裡散發出苛性鹼的氣味，屠宰場裡飄出血腥臭味。人散發出汗酸臭氣和未洗的衣服的臭味，他們的嘴裡呵出腐臭的牙齒的氣味，他們的胃裡嗝出洋蔥汁的臭味；倘若這些人已不年輕，那麼他們的身上就散發出陳年干酪、酸牛奶和腫瘤病的臭味。河水、廣場和教堂臭氣熏天，橋下和宮殿裡臭不可聞。農民臭味像教土，學徒臭味跟師傅的老婆同樣，整個貴族階級都臭，甚至國王也散發出臭氣，他臭得像猛獅，而王后臭得像一隻老母羊，夏天和冬天都是如此。因為在十八世紀，細菌的破壞性分解尚未受到限制，人的任何活動，無論是破壞性的還是建設性的，生命的萌生和衰亡的表現，沒有哪一樣是不同臭味聯繫在一起的。
- []n.1. 統治;支配[U]2. 在位期間,統治時期[C]
- []n.1. 惡臭vt.1. 使散發惡臭
- []a.1. 可想到的,可想像的;可理解的;可相信的
- []n.1. 糞肥;肥料[U]vt.1. 給...施肥
- []n.1. 庭院;天井[C]
- []a.1. 腐敗的;衰退的;崩塌的
- []n.[C]1. 客廳;起居室2. (旅館中的)休息室,接待室
- []a.1. 不新鮮的,腐壞的;污濁的
- []a.1. 油污的,沾有油脂的2. 油膩的,多脂的;滑溜的
- []a.1. (氣味等)有刺激性的;辣的2. 辛辣的;尖刻的
- []ph.1. 便壺,夜壺
- []n.[U]1. 【化】硫(磺)2. 硫磺色,黃綠色
- []a.1. 腐蝕性的;苛性的2. 刻薄的,譏諷的,尖利刺人的
- []n.1. 鹼液
- []n.1. 製革廠;鞣皮廠
- []vt.1. 使凍結;使凝結2. 使固定;使癱瘓
- []vi.1. 腐爛,腐壞;腐朽,破損[(+away/down)]2. 腐敗,墮落;衰敗
- []a.1. 有腐臭油脂味的;腐臭的;令人作嘔的
- []a.1. 腫瘤的;像腫瘤的
- []n.[C]1. 農夫,小耕農2. 【口】鄉下人;粗野的人
- []n.[C]1. 學徒,徒弟2. 見習生3. 初學者,生手
- []n.1. (總稱)貴族[the S][G]2. 特權階級;上層社會[the S][G]
- []vt.1. 妨礙;阻礙[(+from)]
- []n.1. 細菌
- []n.[U]1. 分解2. 腐爛
- []n.1. 顯示,表明;證實[U]2. 示威運動[C]
- []vi.1. 發芽;生長2. 形成;產生
- []vi.1. 腐朽,腐爛;蛀蝕2. 衰敗;衰退
And of course the stench was foulest in Paris, for Paris was the largest city of France. And in turn there was a spot in Paris under the sway of a particularly fiendish stench: between the rue aux Fers and the rue de la Ferronnerie, the Cimetiere des Innocents to be exact. For eight hundred years the dead had been brought here from the Hôtel-Dieu and from the surrounding parish churches, for eight hundred years, day in, day out, corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches, stacked bone upon bone for eight hundred years in the tombs and charnel houses. Only later － on the eve of the Revolution, after several of the grave pits had caved-in and the stench had driven the swollen graveyard’s neighbors to more than mere protest and to actual insurrection － was it finally closed and abandoned. Millions of bones and skulls were shoveled into the catacombs of Montmartre and in its place a food market was erected. 當然，巴黎最臭，因為巴黎是法國最大的城市。而在巴黎市內，又有一個地方，即在弗爾大街和鑄鐵廠大街之間，也就是聖嬰公墓，那裡其臭無比，簡直像地獄一樣臭。八百年間，人們把主官醫院和附近各教區的死者往這裡送；八百年間，每天都有數十具屍體裝在手推車上運來，倒在長長的坑裡；八百年間，在墓穴和屍骨存放所裡，屍骨堆積得一層又一層。直至後來，在法國革命前夕，幾個理屍坑危險地塌陷以後，從公墓裡溢出的臭氣不僅引起附近居民的抗議，而且導致他們真正起來暴動，這時這地方才被封鎖起來，被廢棄了，千百萬塊屍骨和頭蓋骨才被鏟出，運到蒙馬將奪牌地下墓地，人們在這地方建起了一個食品．交易市場。
- []a.1. 骯髒的,污濁的2. 惡臭的;(食物)腐敗的
- []vi.1. 搖動,搖擺2. 歪,傾斜3. 動搖;轉向
- []a.1. 惡魔似的;殘忍的2. 極壞的
- []vt.1. 懊悔,後悔,悔恨;悲嘆
- []ph.1. 堂區教堂
- []n.[C]1. 屍體2. 殘骸
- []ph.1. 藏骸所,積骨堂
- []n.1. 窪坑,凹處;地窖
- []n.1. 起義;暴動;造反;叛亂[C][U]
- []n.[C]1. 鏟子,鐵鍬vt.1. 用鏟鏟(起);用鐵鍬挖2. 把...扔進(或塞進)
- []n.1. 地下墓地;陵寢
- []ph.1. 代替某人;在某人的立場上
- []a.1. 直立的,垂直的,豎起的vt.1. 使豎立,使豎直2. 樹立;建立,設立
Here, then, on the most putrid spot in the whole kingdom, Jean-Baptiste Grenouilie was born on July 17, 1738. It was one of the hottest days of the year. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard, squeezing its putrefying vapor, a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn, out into the nearby alleys. When the labor pains began, Grenouille’s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers, scaling whiting that she had just gutted. The fish, ostensibly taken that very morning from the Seine, already stank so vilely that the smell masked the odor of corpses.
在這兒，就在這整個王國最臭的地方，一七三八年七月十七日，讓一巴蒂斯特﹒格雷諾耶來到了這個世界上。那一天是這一年最熱當中之一。炎熱像鉛塊一樣壓在公墓上，擠散出其腐敗氣味在周遭巷弄，蒸氣散發著爛瓜和燒焦的獸角混合在一道的氣味。格雷諾耶的母親在臨產陣痛開始時，正站立在弗爾大街的一個魚攤旁，為早些時候掏去內臟的鯉魚刮魚鱗。這些魚據說是早晨才從塞納河拖來的，可是此時已經散發出陣陣惡臭，它們的臭味已經把屍體的臭味淹沒了。
Grenouille’s mother, however, perceived the odor neither of the fish nor of the corpses, for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled, besides which her belly hurt, and the pain deadened all susceptibility to sensate impressions. She only wanted the pain to stop; she wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible. It was her fifth. She had effected all the others here at the fish booth, and all had been stillbirths or semi-stillbirths, for the bloody meat that had emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already, nor had lived much longer, and by evening the whole mess had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river. It would be much the same this day, and Grenouille’s mother, who was still a young woman, barely in her mid-twenties, and who still was quite pretty and had almost all her teeth in her mouth and some hair on her head and-except for gout and syphilis and a touch of consumption-suffered from no serious disease, who still hoped to live a while yet, perhaps a good five or ten years, and perhaps even to marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children... Grenouille’s mother wished that it were already over. And when the final contractions began, she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth, as she had done four times before, and cut the newborn thing’s umbilical cord with her butcher knife. But then, on account of the heat and the stench, which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable, numbing something-like a field of lilies or a small room filled with too many daffodils-she grew faint, toppled to one side, fell out from under the table into the street, and lay there, knife in hand.
格雷諾耶的母親既沒有注意到魚的臭味，也沒有注意到屍體的臭味，因為她的鼻子已經遲鈍到麻木的程度，何況她的身子正疼，而疼痛使她的感官接受外界刺激的能力完全喪失了。她一心一意指望疼痛能夠停止，指望令人討厭的分娩能盡快結束。這是她生的第五胎。五次她都是在這兒魚攤旁完成的，五次生的都是死胎或半死胎，因為在這兒生下來的血淋淋的肉，同撂在那裡的魚肛腸沒有多大區別，而且也沒活多久，到了晚上，不管是魚肛腸，還是生下來的肉，或是其他的東西，都被統統鏟走，裝在手推車上運往公墓或是倒進河裡。今天這一次看來又是如此。格雷諾耶的母親還是個青年婦女，二十五歲，還相當漂亮，嘴裡牙齒差不多都在，頭上還有些頭髮，除了痛風、梅毒和輕度肺結核外，沒有患什麼嚴重的疾病，她希望能夠長壽，或許再活上五年或十年，或許甚至能夠結一次婚。作個手工業者的受人尊敬的填房，或是…格雷諾耶的母親希望一切很快過去。當分娩陣痛開始時，她蹲到宰魚台下，在那兒像前五次那樣生產，用宰魚刀割去剛生下來的東西的臍帶。但是隨後因為炎熱和臭氣--她並沒有聞到臭氣的臭，而是聞到一股令人難以忍受的、麻醉人的氣味；她覺得，就像一塊田裡的百合花，或是像一間狹小的房間養了太多的水仙花產生的氣味--她暈了過去，向一邊跌倒，從宰魚台下跌到路中央，並在那裡躺著，手裡握著宰魚刀。
Tumult and turmoil. The crowd stands in a circle around her, staring, someone hails the police. The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. Slowly she comes to.
人們呼喊著，奔跑著，圍觀的人站成圈子，有人把警察叫來了。格雷諾耶的母親依然躺在路上，手裡握著那把刀。後來她慢慢地甦醒過來。
What has happened to her?
"你出了什麼事？"
“Nothing.”
"沒事。"
What is she doing with that knife?
"你拿刀幹什麼？"
“Nothing.”
"不幹什麼。"
Where does the blood on her skirt come from?
"你裙子上的血哪兒來的？"
“From the fish.”
"宰魚沾上的。"
She stands up, tosses the knife aside, and walks off to wash.
And then, unexpectedly, the infant under the gutting table begins to squall. They have a look, and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child. They pull it out. As prescribed by law, they give it to a wet nurse and arrest the mother. And since she confesses, openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish, just as she had with those other four by the way, she is tried, found guilty of multiple infanticide, and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve.
她站起來，把刀子扔掉，走開去洗身子。就在這時，宰魚台下那才生下來的東西出乎意料地哭了起來。大家朝檯子下看去，發現新生兒就在魚肚腸和砍下的魚頭中間，上面停了一堆蒼蠅，於是便把他拖了出來。人們照章辦事，把嬰兒托付給一個乳母，而母親則被捕了。由於她供認不諱，而且是毫無顧慮地承認，她確實是想像前五次那樣做法，把生下來的東西撂在宰魚台下任其死去，於是人們就對她起訴，她因為多次殺嬰罪而被判處死刑。幾星期後，她在沙灘廣場上被斬首。
By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. It was too greedy, they said, sucked as much as two babies, deprived the other sucklings of milk and them, the wet nurses, of their livelihood, for it was impossible to make a living nursing just one babe. The police officer in charge, a man named La Fosse, instantly wearied of the matter and wanted to have the child sent to a halfway house for foundlings and orphans at the far end of the rue Saint-Antoine, from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which, for reasons of economy, up to four infants were placed at a time; since therefore the mortality rate on the road was extraordinarily high; since for that reason the porters were urged to convey only baptized infants and only those furnished with an official certificate of transport to be stamped upon arrival in Rouen; since the babe Grenouille had neither been baptized nor received so much as a name to inscribe officially on the certificate of transport; since, moreover, it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house, which would have been the only way to dodge the other formalities... thus, because of a whole series of bureaucratic and administrative difficulties that seemed likely to occur if the child were shunted aside, and because time was short as well, officer La Fosse revoked his original decision and gave instructions for the boy to be handed over on written receipt to some ecclesiastical institution or other, so that there they could baptize him and decide his further fate. He got rid of him at the cloister of Saint-Merri in the rue Saint-Martin. There they baptized him with the name Jean-Baptiste. And because on that day the prior was in a good mood and the eleemosynary fund not yet exhausted, they did not have the child shipped to Rouen, but instead pampered him at the cloister’s expense. To this end, he was given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie who lived in the rue Saint-Denis and was to receive, until further notice, three francs per week for her trouble.
這嬰兒在這期間已經換了三個乳母。沒有哪個願意長期收養他。據說這是因為他吃得太多，一人吸吮兩個人的奶水，把供其他嬰兒的奶都吸光，因而就剝奪了乳母維持生活的手段，因為乳母光是餵養一個嬰兒無利可圖。主管的警官，一個叫拉富斯的男子，對這事情感到厭煩，打算讓人把這小孩送到聖安托萬大街的棄嬰和孤兒收容所；從那兒出發，每天都有一批小孩轉送到魯昂的國立大育嬰堂。但是當時運送都是靠腳夫使用韌皮編的背簍進行的，為了提高效率，每隻背簍一次裝進多達四個嬰兒；因此在運送途中死亡率特別高。由於這個緣故，背簍的搬運者被通知只能運送受過洗禮的嬰兒，而且這些嬰兒必須有在魯昂蓋章的正規運送證。由於格雷諾耶這嬰兒既未受洗禮，又沒有二個名字可以正正規規地填在運送證上；再說，警察局不允許把一個沒有名字的小孩棄置於收容所的門口--若是這麼做，就會使完成其他手續都變得多餘了，也就是說，由於運送小孩可能產生的一系列行政技術方面的困難，同時也由於時間緊迫，警官拉富斯只好放棄了他原來的打算，把這男嬰交給一個教會機構，換取了一張收條，這樣，人家可以在那裡為這小孩洗禮，並對他以後的命運做出安排。於是人家把他交給聖馬丁大街的聖梅裡修道院。他在那兒受洗禮，被取名讓一巴蒂斯特。因為修道院院長這一天情緒特佳，而且他的慈善基金尚未用完，所以這小孩就沒有送到魯昂，而是由修道院出錢請人餵養。於是他被交給住在聖德尼大街的一個名叫讓娜﹒比西埃的乳母，為此她每週獲得三個法郎的報酬。
