第三十章 第三章 四对四
第三章 四对四
如今很难想象，四十五年前，大学生和女工们到乡间远足是怎样一番光景。巴黎的近郊已不再是从前那样；在半世纪内，人们称之为巴黎郊区生活的面貌已完全改变；从前有杜鹃鸟的地方，如今有铁路；从前有渡船的地方，如今有汽船；如今人们说起费康，就像当年说起圣克卢一样。1862年的巴黎，是一座以法兰西为郊区的城市。
当时，四对情侣诚心诚意地把那个时代一切可能的乡间娱乐都经历了一番。假期开始了，那是一个温暖晴朗的夏日。前一天，唯一会写字的风流女以四人名义给多罗米埃写了这样一句话："这是从幸福中脱身的好时辰。"因此他们清晨五点钟就起了床。然后乘公共马车去圣克卢，看了看干涸的瀑布，惊叹道："这有水的时候一定很美！"他们在黑头饭店吃了早餐，那时卡斯坦还没有在那里出现过；他们在喷泉大道的五株树下玩投环游戏；他们登上第欧根尼灯笼；他们在塞夫勒桥的轮盘赌场赌了杏仁饼；他们在帕托摘了花束；在内伊买了芦笛；到处吃苹果馅饼；玩得非常开心。
姑娘们唧唧喳喳地说笑着，像飞出笼子的莺雀。那真是快乐的狂欢。她们不时轻轻拍打小伙子们。清晨的沉醉！可爱的年华！蜻蜓的翅膀在颤动。啊，无论你是谁，你难道不记得吗？你有没有拨开树枝，为了后面那个可爱的人儿通过而钻过灌木丛？你有没有笑着滑下被雨打湿的斜坡，心爱的女人拉着你的手喊道："啊，我的新靴子！成什么样子了！"
我们马上要说，这场快乐的障碍——阵雨，在这场愉快的聚会中缺席了，尽管风流女出发时用权威而母性的口吻说过："小路上有蛞蝓在爬——这是下雨的征兆，孩子们。"
四个姑娘都美得惊人。当时一位著名的老古典派诗人，一个也有位埃蕾奥诺雷的好好先生，骑士拉布伊斯先生，那天在圣克卢的栗树下散步时，看到她们上午十点钟左右经过，不禁喊道："她们多了一个，"他想到的是美惠三女神。风流女，布拉什维尔的女友，那位二十三岁的"老小姐"，跑在前面，穿过葱翠的树枝，跳过沟渠，疯狂地踩着灌木丛，以年轻母山羊的精神主持着这场欢宴。泽菲娜和达莉娅，偶然的美貌使她们互相映衬、互相补充，她们从不分开，与其说是出于友谊，不如说是出于卖俏的本能，彼此依偎着，摆出英国式的姿态；那时最初一批纪念册刚刚出现，忧郁对女人来说正开始萌芽，如同后来拜伦主义对男人一样；温柔性别的头发开始伤感地下垂。泽菲娜和达莉娅的头发卷成圆髻。利斯托利埃和法梅伊正忙着谈论他们的教授，向芳汀解释德尔文古先生和布隆多先生之间的区别。
布拉什维尔仿佛生来就是为了在星期天用胳膊携带风流女那条特努厂制造、镶单边的仿印度披肩。
多罗米埃跟在后面，统领着这群人。他非常快活，但可以感到他身上有一种统治力；他的欢乐中有发号施令的意味；他主要的装饰是一条南京棉布大象腿裤，带有铜丝编的脚带；他手里拄着一根值两百法郎的粗藤手杖，而由于他一切都不忌，嘴里叼着一支叫作雪茄的奇怪东西。他什么都不忌，他抽烟。
"那个多罗米埃真了不起！"其他人怀着崇敬说。"瞧瞧那裤子！那气派多足！"
至于芳汀，她真是赏心悦目。她那漂亮的牙齿显然蒙受了上帝的恩赐——笑容。她宁愿把那顶缝制草帽配着长白色带子拿在手里，而不是戴在头上。她那厚厚的金发，天然地卷曲着，容易散开，需要不停地整理，仿佛是为了让加拉蒂亚在柳树下奔跑而生的。她那玫瑰色的嘴唇絮絮叨叨地说着迷人话。她的嘴角妖娆地向上翘起，仿佛古代埃里戈内面具的样子，似乎在鼓励大胆的行为；但她那长长的、朦胧的睫毛却谨慎地垂下来，仿佛要对脸下半部分的欢乐叫停。她的整个穿着有一种难以形容的和谐与动人之处。她穿着丁香色细布衣裙，脚下是一双红棕色小半筒靴，靴带在她那双漂亮的白镂空长袜上交叉成X形，还穿着那种马赛发明的细布短上衣，名叫"卡内祖"，是"八月十五"的变音，按卡内比埃尔的发音方式说出来，意味着好天气、炎热和正午。其他三位，如我们已说过的，不那么胆怯，毫无遮掩地穿着低领连衣裙，在夏天，在缀花的帽子下，显得非常优雅迷人；但在这身大胆的装束旁边，金发芳汀那件半透明的"卡内祖"，既含而不露，又若隐若现，似乎在展现出一种端庄的诱惑力，而由那位有着海水般绿眼睛的塞特子爵夫人主持的著名爱情法庭，或许会在贞洁奖的竞争中，把卖俏奖颁给这件"卡内祖"。最巧妙的设计有时是最明智的。这确实会发生。
面庞光彩照人，侧影精致，深蓝色的眼睛，沉甸甸的眼皮，弓形的小脚，手腕和脚踝形状优美，白色的肌肤上，这里那里可见蓝色的血管脉络，喜悦，年轻鲜嫩的面颊，埃吉纳的朱诺般结实的喉咙，强壮而柔韧的颈背，仿佛库斯图雕塑的肩头，透过细布可见中间那个妖娆的窝；被梦幻冷却的欢快；雕塑般的，精美绝伦的——这就是芳汀；在这些女性的饰物和丝带下面，可以窥见一尊雕像，而在这尊雕像中有一个灵魂。
芳汀很美，但自己并不很意识到这点。那些罕见的梦想家，神秘的美的祭司，他们默默地以完美对照一切，会在这个小小的女工身上，透过她巴黎风韵的透明外壳，瞥见古代神圣的和谐。这个民女有纯正的出身。她在两个方面都很美——风格和节奏。风格是理想的形式；节奏是理想的运动。
我们说芳汀是欢乐；她也是贞洁。
对于一个仔细观察她的人来说，从她身上，在她那如花年龄、季节和恋情的陶醉中，散发出的是一种无法抗拒的矜持和谦逊的表情。她始终带着一点惊愕。这种纯洁的惊愕正是区别普绪克和维纳斯的那点差异。芳汀有修长、洁白、纤细的手指，就像用金针拨动圣火灰烬的贞女。虽然她不会拒绝多罗米埃任何要求，正如我们将来会有足够的机会看到的那样，但她在平静时的面容，却是无上的处女相；在某些时刻，一种严肃乃至几乎严峻的尊严会突然笼罩她，没有什么比看到欢乐突然在那里熄灭，沉思毫无过渡地接替快活更奇特、更令人不安了。这种突然的、有时极其强烈的庄严，宛如女神的轻蔑。她的额头、鼻子、下巴呈现出那种轮廓的平衡，这完全不同于比例的平衡，由此产生了面容的和谐；在鼻底到上唇之间那个非常特征的距离中，她有一种难以察觉的、迷人的皱褶，那是贞洁的神秘标志，正是这种皱褶让巴巴鲁萨爱上了在伊康宝藏中发现的一尊狄安娜像。
爱情是一种过错；就算是吧。芳汀是飘浮在过错之上的无辜。
It is hard nowadays to picture to one’s self what a pleasure-trip of
students and grisettes to the country was like, forty-five years ago.
The suburbs of Paris are no longer the same; the physiognomy of what
may be called circumparisian life has changed completely in the last
half-century; where there was the cuckoo, there is the railway car;
where there was a tender-boat, there is now the steamboat; people speak
of Fécamp nowadays as they spoke of Saint-Cloud in those days. The
Paris of 1862 is a city which has France for its outskirts.
The four couples conscientiously went through with all the country
follies possible at that time. The vacation was beginning, and it was a
warm, bright, summer day. On the preceding day, Favourite, the only one
who knew how to write, had written the following to Tholomyès in the
name of the four: “It is a good hour to emerge from happiness.” That is
why they rose at five o’clock in the morning. Then they went to
Saint-Cloud by the coach, looked at the dry cascade and exclaimed,
“This must be very beautiful when there is water!” They breakfasted at
the _Tête-Noir_, where Castaing had not yet been; they treated
themselves to a game of ring-throwing under the quincunx of trees of
the grand fountain; they ascended Diogenes’ lantern, they gambled for
macaroons at the roulette establishment of the Pont de Sèvres, picked
bouquets at Pateaux, bought reed-pipes at Neuilly, ate apple tarts
everywhere, and were perfectly happy.
The young girls rustled and chatted like warblers escaped from their
cage. It was a perfect delirium. From time to time they bestowed little
taps on the young men. Matutinal intoxication of life! adorable years!
the wings of the dragonfly quiver. Oh, whoever you may be, do you not
remember? Have you rambled through the brushwood, holding aside the
branches, on account of the charming head which is coming on behind
you? Have you slid, laughing, down a slope all wet with rain, with a
beloved woman holding your hand, and crying, “Ah, my new boots! what a
state they are in!”
Let us say at once that that merry obstacle, a shower, was lacking in
the case of this good-humored party, although Favourite had said as
they set out, with a magisterial and maternal tone, _“The slugs are
crawling in the paths,—a sign of rain, children.”_
All four were madly pretty. A good old classic poet, then famous, a
good fellow who had an Éléonore, M. le Chevalier de Labouisse, as he
strolled that day beneath the chestnut-trees of Saint-Cloud, saw them
pass about ten o’clock in the morning, and exclaimed, “There is one too
many of them,” as he thought of the Graces. Favourite, Blachevelle’s
friend, the one aged three and twenty, the old one, ran on in front
under the great green boughs, jumped the ditches, stalked distractedly
over bushes, and presided over this merry-making with the spirit of a
young female faun. Zéphine and Dahlia, whom chance had made beautiful
in such a way that they set each off when they were together, and
completed each other, never left each other, more from an instinct of
coquetry than from friendship, and clinging to each other, they assumed
English poses; the first _keepsakes_ had just made their appearance,
melancholy was dawning for women, as later on, Byronism dawned for men;
and the hair of the tender sex began to droop dolefully. Zéphine and
Dahlia had their hair dressed in rolls. Listolier and Fameuil, who were
engaged in discussing their professors, explained to Fantine the
difference that existed between M. Delvincourt and M. Blondeau.
