文/欧内斯特·海明威 译介/卢伟

There were many ways of walking down to the river from the top of the rue Cardinal Lemoine.The shortest one was straight down the street but it was steep and it brought you out, after you hit the flat part and crossed the busy traffic of the beginning of the Boulevard St.-Germain, onto a dull part where there was a bleak, windy stretch of river bank with the Halle aux Vins on your right.This was not like any other Paris market but was a sort of bonded warehouse where wine was stored against the payment of taxes and was as cheerless from the outside as a military depot or a prison camp.

从勒穆瓦纳红衣主教路这头出发，步行到河边有很多路线。最短的路线就是沿着这条街一直往下走，不过路有点儿陡，到平地后穿过车水马龙的圣日耳曼大道路口，就到了河边。这片河岸没什么看头，风劲景萧。右手边是“酒库”，跟巴黎其他的市场不同，这是一个保税仓库，存在这里的红酒不用缴税；从外面看上去，它就跟兵站或战俘营似的沉闷无趣。

2Across the branch of the Seine was the Île St.-Louis with the narrow streets and the old, tall, beautiful houses, and you could go over there or you could turn left and walk along the quais with the length of the Île St.-Louis and then Notre-Dame and Île de la Cité opposite as you walked.

2塞纳河的支流对面是圣路易岛。岛上街道狭窄，房屋古老高大，非常漂亮。你可以过河去岛上看看，也可以直接左转，沿着滨河路走过与圣路易岛平行的这段路，对面就是巴黎圣母院和西岱岛了。

3In the bookstalls along the quais you could sometimes find American books that had just been published for sale very cheap.The Tour D’Argent restaurant had a few rooms above the restaurant that they rented in those days, giving the people who lived there a discount in the restaurant, and if the people who lived there left any books behind there was a bookstall not far along the quai where the valet de chambre sold them and you could buy them from the proprietress for a very few francs.She had no confidence in books written in English, paid almost nothing for them, and sold them for a small and quick profit.

3滨河路上有些小书摊，有时会卖新出版的美国书，价格很便宜。那时候，银塔餐厅楼上的几个房间往外出租，房客在餐厅吃饭给打折。房客走的时候，要是有书没带走，侍者就会拿去卖给附近滨河路上的一个书摊。只要几个法郎，就能从女摊主那里买下这些书。她吃不准英语书能值多少钱，以几乎白拿的价格收购，只想早点出手小赚一笔。

4“Are they any good?” she asked me after we had become friends.

“Sometimes one is.”

“How can anyone tell?”

“I can tell when I read them.”

“But still it is a form of gambling.And how many people can read English?”

4“这些书好吗？”跟女摊主熟悉之后，她问我。

“偶尔能碰到一本好的。”“怎么知道好不好呢？”

“我一读就知道了。”

“那还得碰运气啊。再说，有几个人看得懂英语啊？”

“留着这些书，等我来翻翻。”

“那可不行，我不能老留着它们。你又不常来，有时候好长时间不来一次。我得尽早卖掉。没人知道这些书到底好不好。要是最后发现不好，可就再也卖不掉了。”

“Save them for me and let me look them over.”

“No.I can’t save them.You don’t pass regularly.You stay away too long at a time.I have to sell them as soon as I can.No one can tell if they are worthless.If they turn out to be worthless, I would never sell them.”

“How do you tell a valuable French book?”

“First there are the pictures.Then it is a question of the quality of the pictures.Then it is the binding.If a book is good,the owner will have it bound properly.All books in English are bound, but bound badly.There is no way of judging them.”

“那你怎么知道一本法语书好还是不好呢？”

“先看有没有插图，再看插图的质量，最后看装订。要是书好，原来的主人会好好装订一下。可英语书都是装订了的，不过装订得不咋地，没法判断书好不好。”

5After that bookstall near the Tour D’Argent there were no others that sold American and English books until the quai des Grands Augustins.There were several from there on to beyond the quai Voltaire that sold books they bought from employees of the left bank hotels and especially the Hotel Voltaire which had a wealthier clientele than most.One day I asked another woman stall-keeper who was a friend of mine if the owners ever sold the books.

5过了银塔餐厅附近的这个书摊，一直到大奥古斯丁滨河路，就没有卖美国书或英国书的书摊了。从那里到伏尔泰滨河路还有几个书摊，他们的书都是从左岸那些酒店的雇员那里收来的，尤其是伏尔泰酒店，房客最是有钱。有个女摊主也跟我很熟了。有一天，我问她这些书是不是被主人卖掉的。

6“No,” she said.“They are all thrown away.That is why one knows they have no value.”

“Friends give them to them to read on the boats.”

“Doubtless,” she said.“They must leave many on the boats.”

6“不是。”她说，“都是原来的主人扔掉的。可见这些书没什么价值。”

“是朋友送给他们坐船的时候读的吧。”

“很有可能。”她说，“肯定扔了不少在船上。”

“是啊。”我说，“船运公司把它们收集起来，装订一下，就成了船上的藏书了。”

“They do,” I said.“The line keeps them and binds them and they become the ships’ libraries.”

“That’s intelligent,” she said.“At least they are properly bound then.Now a book like that would have value.” ■

“这办法倒是聪明。”她说，“起码那些书能装订得像个样子。那样的话，就能值点儿钱了。” □