为何没人收藏我的作品？

Why Does Nobody Collect Me?

为何没人收藏我的作品？

Robert Benchley

罗伯特.本奇利

作者简介

罗伯特.本奇利（Robert Benchley，1889—1945），散文作家、幽默作家、著名演员，《生活》（Life）和《纽约客》（The New Yorker）杂志戏剧评论家。

本奇利1912年毕业于哈佛大学。他经常把自己生活中的挫折拿出来大书特书。其作品包括《所有的事》（Of All Things）、《我不知所措的十年》（My Ten Years in a Quandary）等，大多嘲讽了中产阶级生活的可恶之事。他还制作并主演过多部喜剧短片，其中短片《如何入睡》（How to Sleep）曾获奥斯卡奖。

本文最初发表于1934年9月的《版本记录》（The Colophon），后收入1947年威廉.塔哥（William Targ）编撰的《爱书人的欢宴》（Carrousel for Bibliophiles）。作者不乏自嘲地发问“我比海明威年纪大，作品也比他多得多。......为啥就没人关注呢？”文中充满了反话和双关语，滑稽逗趣的文字令人捧腹。

Some months ago, while going through an old box of books looking for a pressed nasturtium, I came across a thin volume which, even to my dreamer’s instinct, seemed worth holding out, if only for purposes of prestige.

It was a first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, the edition brought out in Paris by the Three Mountains Press in 1924, while Hemingway was just “Old Ernie” who lived over the sawmill in the rue Notre Dames des Champs. I knew that it must be worth saving, because it said in the front that the edition consisted of one hundred and seventy copies, of which mine was number thirty-nine. That usually means something.

几个月前，为了寻找一朵夹在书里的旱金莲，我翻了一整箱旧书。在箱子里，我发现了一本薄薄的小册子。梦想家的直觉告诉我，如果为了使自己显得有面子，这本书值得珍藏。

那是欧内斯特•海明威《在我们的时代里》的初版本，1924年由巴黎三山出版社出版。当时，海明威还只是住在圣母院大街锯木厂楼上的“老欧尼”。我知道这本书值得收藏，因为书前写着，该书首印170本，我这本编号39。通常来说，这意义非凡。

It so happened that, a few weeks later, “Old Ernie” himself was using my room in New York as a hide-out from literary columnists and reporters during one of his stop-over visits between Africa and Key West. On such all-too-rare occasions he lends an air of virility to my dainty apartment which I miss sorely after he has gone and the furniture has been repaired.

More to interrupt his lion-hunting story than anything else, I brought out my copy of In Our Time and suggested that, in memory of happy days around the Anis Del Oso bowl at the Closerie des Lilas, it might be the handsome thing for him to inscribe a few pally sentiments on the fly-leaf. Not, as I took pains to explain to him, that I was a particular admirer of his work, so much as that I wanted to see if he really knew how to spell.

巧的是几周后，“老欧尼”在从非洲到基维斯特[1]的途中到我家短暂停留，躲避那些文学专栏作家和记者。这段不同寻常的日子里，他为我雅致的公寓增添了不少男子气概。他离开后，家具整修了一番。我心酸地怀念起公寓过去的样子。

为了不让他安心写那篇猎狮故事[2]，我拿出《在我们的时代里》，建议他在扉页上写几句友情赠言，纪念我们在丁香园咖啡馆喝着茴香酒度过的欢乐时光。我告诉他，这事挺显风度。我煞费苦心地向他说明，自己是他的狂热粉丝。而事实上，我更想看他会不会拼写。

Encouraged by my obviously friendly tone, he took a pen in his chubby fist, dipped it in a bottle of bull’s blood, and wrote the following:

To Robert (“Garbage Bird”) Benchley,

hoping that he won’t wait for prices

to reach the peak—

from his friend,

Ernest (“—”) Hemingway

The “Garbage Bird” reference in connection with me was a familiarity he had taken in the past to describe my appearance in the early morning light of Montparnasse on certain occasions. The epithet applied to himself, which was unprintable except in Ulysses, was written deliberately to make it impossible for me to cash in on the book.

Then, crazed with success at defacing In Our Time, he took my first edition of A Farewell to Arms and filled in each blank in the text where Scribner’s had blushed and put a dash instead of the original word. I think that he supplied the original word in every case. In fact, I am sure of it.

On the fly-leaf of this he wrote:

To R. (G). B. from E. (—). H.

Corrected edition. Filled-in blanks.

Very valuable. Sell quick.

我的语气中充满了友好。在这显而易见的怂恿下，他用胖乎乎的手攥住一支笔，往牛血红酒[3]里蘸了蘸，一挥而就：

致罗伯特•（“废鸟”）•本奇利：

希望他没盼着

书价一飞冲天

好友：欧内斯特•（“——”）•海明威

“废鸟”是他以前给我起的绰号，用来形容我某次在蒙帕纳斯晨光映照下的模样。他自己的外号更是不登大雅之堂，只有在《尤利西斯》里才可能出现。他故意把那个绰号写上扉页，是存心不让我拿书卖钱。

成功“糟蹋”完《在我们的时代里》的面目之后，海明威意犹未尽，又把我的《永别了，武器》[4]初版本拿出来，把书里被删的词逐一还原。这些词曾让斯克里布纳出版社脸红心跳，全被该社换成了破折号。我猜想，他大概把每个词都改了回来。事实上，我很确信。

他在扉页上写道：

E. (——). H. 致 R. (G). B.[5]

修订版。补全空白。

非常值钱。祝速卖。

Now, oddly enough, I had never considered selling either book. I had known, in a general way, that a first edition of The Gutenberg Bible would be worth money, and that, if one could lay hands on an autographed copy of Canterbury Tales, it would be a good idea to tuck it away, but that a first edition of one of Ernie’s books could be the object of even Rabelaisian jesting as to its commercial value surprised and, in a vague sort of way, depressed me. Why are not my works matters for competitive bidding in the open market?

I am older than Hemingway, and have written more books than he has. And yet it is as much as my publishers and I can do to get people to pay even the list price for my books, to say nothing of a supplementary sum for rare copies. One of my works, Love Conquers All, is even out of print, and yet nobody shows any interest in my extra copy. I have even found autographed copies of my books in secondhand book shops, along with My Life and Times by Buffalo Bill. Doesn’t anybody care?

奇怪的是，我从未想过卖掉其中任何一本。我知道，《古登堡圣经》的初版一般都很值钱，而且如果谁能搞到签名版的《坎特伯雷故事集》，最好还是把它藏起来。不过，欧尼的初版书竟能卖到如此天价，足以成为拉伯雷式的笑话。我在吃惊之余，还感到莫名的郁闷。为什么我的作品公开拍卖就叫不上价呢？

我比海明威年长，作品也比他多。我和出版商竭尽全力，期待读者哪怕按标价付款也好。指望他们为稀缺版本多付点钱，就更是奢望了。我的大作《爱征服一切》几乎绝版，但我手头的存货却没人感兴趣。我甚至发现自己签过名的书躺在二手书店里，就在布法罗•比尔的《我的生活与时代》旁边。难道就没人在乎吗？

What is there about me and my work that repels collectors? I am handsome, in an unusual sort of way, and speak French fluently, even interspersing some of my writings with French phrases. True, some of my copy, as it goes to the printer, is not strictly orthodox in spelling and punctuation, but the proof-readers have always been very nice about it, and, by the time my books are out, there is nothing offensive to the eye about them. And yet I have been told by hospital authorities that more copies of my works are left behind by departing patients than those of any other author. It does seem as if people might at least take my books home with them.

...

But, until the collecting public comes to its senses, I seem to be saddled, not only with a set of mutilated galleys, but about twenty-five rare copies of my earlier works, each unique in its way. Possibly Hemingway would like them in return for the two books of his own that he has gone to so much trouble to render unsalable for me.

我和我的作品究竟哪里不好，吓跑了收藏者？从某个特殊角度看，我长得挺帅，我能说一口流利的法语，甚至能用法语为作品稍加点缀。的确，我的一些作品付梓之时，拼写和标点有点小毛病，但校对员都没抱怨什么。而且书出版以后，那些小错也不怎么碍眼。不过，医院负责人告诉我，出院病人留下的书里，我的作品总比别人的多。我还以为，人们至少会把我的书带回家呢。

……

不过看来直到收藏者普遍意识到我作品的价值，我将一直身负重担。我的重担包括一套残缺不全的校样，以及25本我的早期作品，每本都是“与众不同”的稀有版本。或许海明威愿意收藏我的上述大作，来报答我收藏他那两本被题词糟蹋、无法脱手的小书。

医院负责人告诉我，出院病人留下的书里，我的作品总比别人的多。我还以为，人们至少会把我的书带回家呢。

Robert Benchley 罗伯特•本奇利

[1] 基维斯特（Key West），美国佛罗里达群岛最南边的一个岛屿和城市，是著名的旅游胜地。海明威的许多作品都在这里写成。

[2] “猎狮故事”指《非洲的青山》。1933年，海明威偕妻子和朋友去非洲狩猎，回来后便写了这部纪实作品。

[3] 牛血红酒，匈牙利埃格尔出产的著名红酒。

[4] 《永别了，武器》，海明威的代表作。

[5] R. (G). B.为罗伯特.“废鸟”.本奇利 [Robert (“Garbage Bird”) Benchley]的缩写，E. (——). H.为欧内斯特.“——”.海明威 [Ernest (“—”) Hemingway]的缩写。