13 The Postcards

13 明信片

……I'm imposing a severe censorship on myself……

……我对自己实施严格的检查制度……

Several days went by without any word from the philosophy teacher. Tomorrow was Thursday, May 17-- Norway's national day. School would be closed on the 18th as well.

好几天过去了，哲学老师都没有来信。明天就是五月十七日星期四，挪威的国庆日了。学校从这天起放假，一直放到十八日。

As they walked home after school Joanna suddenly exclaimed, "Let's go camping!"

放学回家途中，乔安突然说：“我们去露营吧！”

Sophie's immediate reaction was that she couldn't be away from the house for long. But then she said, "Sure, why not?"

苏菲本来想说她不能离家太久，但不知怎的，她却说道：“好呀！”

A couple of hours later Joanna arrived at Sophie's door with a large backpack. Sophie had packed hers as well, and she also had the tent. They both had bedrolls and sweaters, groundsheets and flashlights, large-size thermos bottles and plenty of their favorite food.

几个小时后，乔安背了一个大登山背包来到苏菲家门口。苏菲已经打包完毕。她带了一顶帐篷，他们两人也都各自带了睡袋、毛衣、睡垫、手电筒、大热水瓶，以及很多心爱的食物。

When Sophie's mother got home around five o'clock, she gave them a sermon about what they must and must not do. She also insisted on knowing where they were going to set up camp.

五点钟左右，苏菲的妈妈回到家。她谆谆告诫两人，要求她们遵守一些应该注意的事项。她并且坚持要知道她们扎营的地点。

They told her they intended to make for Grouse Top. They might be lucky enough to hear the mating call of the grouse next morning.

于是，她们告诉她两人计划到松鸡顶去。如果运气好的话，也许第二天早上可以听到松鸡求偶的叫声。

Sophie had an ulterior motive for choosing that particular spot. She thought that Grouse Top must be pretty close to the major's cabin. Something was urging her to return to it, but she didn't dare go alone.

事实上，苏菲之所以选择去松鸡顶是有“阴谋”的。在她印象中，松鸡顶离少校的小木屋不远。她心里有一股冲动要回到那座木屋，不过她也明白自己不敢一个人去。

The two girls walked down the path that led from the little cul-de-sac just beyond Sophie's garden gate. They chatted about this and that, and Sophie enjoyed taking a little time off from everything having to do with philosophy.

于是，她们两人从苏菲家花园门口那条小小的死巷子出发，沿着一条小路走下去。一路上，她们谈天说地。苏菲觉得暂时不用思考哲学之类问题的感觉还真不错。

By eight o'clock they had pitched their tent in a clearing by Grouse Top. They had prepared themselves for the night and their bedrolls were unfolded. When they had eaten their sandwiches, Sophie asked, "Have you ever heard of the major's cabin?"

探险八点时，她们已经在松鸡顶上的一块平地搭好帐篷，准备过夜了。她们的睡袋已经打开。吃完三明治后，苏菲说；“乔安，你有没有听说过少校的小木屋？”

"The major's cabin?"

“少校的小木屋？”

"There's a hut in the woods somewhere near here …… by a little lake. A strange man lived there once, a major, that's why it's called the major's cabin."

“这附近的树林里有一座木屋……就在一座小湖边。以前曾经有一个怪人住在那里，是一个少校。所以人家才叫它‘少校的小木屋’。”

"Does anyone live there now?"

“现在有没有人住呢？”

"Do you want to go and see?"

“我们去看看好不好？”

"Where is it?"

“在哪里呢？”

Sophie pointed in among the trees.

苏菲指着树林间。

Joanna was not particularly eager, but in the end they set out. The sun was low in the sky.

乔安不是非常热衷，但最后她们还是去了。这时夕阳已经低垂天际。

They walked in between the tall pine trees at first, but soon they were pushing their way through bush and thicket. Eventually they made their way down to a path. Could it be the path Sophie had followed that Sunday morning?

最初，她们在高大的松树间走着，不久就经过一片浓密的灌木林，最后走到了下面的一条小路。苏菲心想，这是我星期天早上走的那条路吗？

It must have been--almost at once she could point to something shining between the trees to the right of the path.

一定是的。她几乎立刻就看到路右边的树林间有某个东西在闪烁。

"It's in there," she said.

“就在那儿。”她说。

They were soon standing at the edge of the small lake. Sophie gazed at the cabin across the water. All the windows were now shuttered up. The red building was the most deserted place she had seen for ages.

很快地她们就到了小湖边。苏菲站在那儿，看着对岸的木屋。红色的小木屋如今门窗紧闭，一片荒凉景象。

Joanna turned toward her. "Do we have to walk on the water?"

乔安转过身来，看着她。

"Of course not. We'll row."

“我们要怎么过湖？用走的吗？”

Sophie pointed down into the reeds. There lay the rowboat, just as before.

“当然不了，我们可以划船过去。”苏菲指着下面的芦苇丛。小舟就像从前一般躺在那儿。

"Have you been here before?"

“你来过吗？”

Sophie shook her head. Trying to explain her previous visit would be far too complicated. And then she would have to tell her friend about Alberto Knox and the philosophy course as well.

苏菲摇摇头。她不想提上次的事，因为那太复杂了，怎么也说不清楚。同时，如果说了，她也不得不告诉乔安有关艾伯特和哲学课的事。

They laughed and joked as they rowed across the water. When they reached the opposite bank, Sophie made sure they drew the boat well up on land.

她们划船过湖，一路说说笑笑。当她们抵达对岸时，苏菲特别小心地把小舟拉上岸。

They went to the front door. As there was obviously nobody in the cabin, Joanna tried the door handle.

她们走到小屋的前门。屋里显然没有人，因此乔安试着转动门柄。

"Locked…… you didn't expect it to be open, did you?"

“锁住了……你不会以为门是开着的吧？”

"Maybe we can find a key," said Sophie.

“也许我们可以找到钥匙。”

She began to search in the crevices of the stonework foundation.

于是她开始在屋子底下的石缝间搜寻。

"Oh, let's go back to the tent instead," said Joanna after a few minutes.

几分钟后，乔安说：“算了，我们回帐篷去吧，”

But just then Sophie exclaimed, "Here it is! I found it!"

就在这时，苏菲叫了一声：“我找到了，就在这儿！”

She held up the key triumphantly. She put it in the lock and the door swung open.

她得意地高举着那把钥匙。然后，她把它插进锁里，门就开了。

The two friends sneaked inside as if they were up to something criminal. It was cold and dark in the cabin.

两人蹑手蹑脚地走进去，好像做什么坏事一般。木屋里又冷又黑。

"We can't see a thing!" said Joanna.

“什么也看不到！”乔安说。

But Sophie had thought of that. She took a box of matches out of her pocket and struck one. They only had time to see that the cabin was deserted before the match went out. Sophie struck another, and this time she noticed a stump of candle in a wrought-iron candlestick on top of the stove. She lit it with the third match and the little room became light enough for them to look around.

不过，苏菲是有备而来。她从口袋里拿出了一盒火柴擦亮一根。在火光熄灭之前的那一刹那，她们看清楚小屋内空无一人。苏菲擦亮另一根火柴，这次她注意到炉子上有一座锻铁做的烛台，上面有半截蜡烛。她用第三根火柴把蜡烛点亮，于是小屋里才有了一点光线，让她们可以看清四周。

"Isn't it odd that such a small candle can light up so much darkness?" said Sophie.

“这样一根小小的蜡烛却可以照亮如此的黑暗，这不是很奇怪吗？”苏菲说。

Her friend nodded.

乔安点点头。

"But somewhere the light disappears into the dark," Sophie went on. "Actually, darkness has no existence of its own. It's only a lack of light."

“不过你看在某个地方光芒就消失了。”她继续说。“事实上黑暗本身是不存在的。它只是缺少光线的照射罢了。”

Joanna shivered. "That's creepy! Come on, let's go……"

乔安打了一个冷颤。“有点恐怖耶！我们走吧！”

"Not before we've looked in the mirror."

“我们要看看镜子才能走。”

Sophie pointed to the brass mirror hanging above the chest of drawers, just as before.

苏菲指着依旧挂在五斗柜上方的那面铜镜。

"That's really pretty!" said Joanna.

“很漂亮耶！”乔安说。

"But it's a magic mirror."

“可是它是一面魔镜。”

 "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

“魔镜！魔镜！告诉我，这世界上谁最美丽？”

"I'm not kidding, Joanna. I am sure you can look in it and see something on the other side."

“乔安，我不是开玩笑。我敢说只要你看着它，就会看到镜子里有东西。”

"Are you sure you've never been here before? And why is it so amusing to scare me all the time?"

“你确定你没来过吗？还有，你为什么那么喜欢吓我？”

Sophie could not answer that one.

苏菲答不出来。

"Sorry."

“对不起。”

Now it was Joanna who suddenly discovered something lying on the floor in the corner. It was a small box. Joanna picked it up.

这回是乔安突然发现靠墙角的地板上有个东西。那是个小盒子，乔安把它捡了起来。

"Postcards," she said.

“是明信片耶！”她说。

Sophie gasped.

苏菲吃了一惊。

"Don't touch them! Do you hear--don't you dare touch them!"

“别碰它！你听到了吗？千万不要碰！”

Joanna jumped. She threw the box down as if she had burnt herself. The postcards were strewn all over the floor. The next second she began to laugh.

乔安跳了起来，像被火烧到一样赶紧把盒子丢掉。结果明信片撒了一地。乔安随即笑了起来。

"They're only postcards!" Joanna sat down on the floor and started to pick them up.

“只不过是一些明信片罢了！”乔安坐在地板上，开始把那些明信片捡起来。

After a while Sophie sat down beside her.

过了一会儿，苏菲也坐在她身旁。

"Lebanon …… Lebanon …… Lebanon …… They are all postmarked in Lebanon," Joanna discovered.

“黎巴嫩……黎巴嫩……黎巴嫩……他们全都盖着黎巴嫩的邮戳。”乔安说。

"I know," said Sophie.

“我知道。”苏菲说。

Joanna sat bolt upright and looked Sophie in the eye.

乔安猛然坐直，看着苏菲的眼睛。

"So you have been here before!"

“原来你到过这里。”

"Yes, I guess I have."

“是的，我想是吧！”

It suddenly struck her that it would have been a whole lot easier if she had just admitted she had been here before. It couldn't do any harm if she let her friend in on the mysterious things she had experienced during the last few days.

苏菲突然想到，如果她承认来过这里，事情会变得容易得多。即使她让乔安知道最近这几天来发生在她身上的神秘事情，也不会有什么坏处的。

"I didn't want to tell you before we were here."

“我们来之前，我并不想让你知道。”

Joanna began to read the cards.

乔安开始看那些明信片。

"They are all addressed to someone called Hilde Moller Knag."

“这些卡片都是写给一个名叫席德的人。”

Sophie had not touched the cards yet.

苏菲没碰那些卡片。

"What address?"

“地址是什么？”

Joanna read: "Hilde Moller Knag, c/o Alberto Knox, Lillesand, Norway."

乔安念了出来：“挪威Lillesand，请艾伯特代转席德。”

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. She was afraid they would say c/o Sophie Amundsen.

苏菲松了一口气。她刚才还怕信上会写“请苏菲代转”。

She began to inspect them more closely.

她开始仔细检查这些明信片。

"April 28 …… May 4 …… May 6 …… May 9 …… They were stamped a few days ago."

“你看，四月二十八日……五月四日……五月六日……五月九日……这些邮票都是前几天才贴的。”

"But there's something else. All the postmarks are Norwegian! Look at that…… UN Battalion …… the stamps are Norwegian too!"

“还有，上面盖的通通都是挪威的邮戳！你再看……联合国部队……连邮票也是挪威的！”

"I think that's the way they do it. They have to be sort of neutral, so they have their own Norwegian post office down there."

“我想他们大概都是这样。为了要感觉自然一些，他们在那边也设了他们专用的挪威邮局。”

"But how do they get the mail home?"

“但他们是怎么把信寄回家的呢？”

"The air force, probably."

“也许是通过空军吧！”

Sophie put the candlestick on the floor, and the two friends began to read the cards. Joanna arranged them in chronological order and read the first card:

苏菲把烛台放在地板上，两人开始看这些明信片。乔安把它们按照时间先后的顺序排好，先读第一张：

Sophie picked up the next card:

苏菲拿起了第二张：

The two friends sat breathless with excitement. Neither of them spoke, they just read what was written on the cards:

苏菲与乔安坐在那儿，兴奋得几乎喘不过气来。两人都没有开口，专心看着明信片。

When they had read six cards, there was only one left. It read:

他们一连读了六张，现在只剩下最后一张了。上面写道：

After reading the last card, Joanna and Sophie sat quite still staring wildly at each other. Joanna was holding Sophie's wrist in a tight grip.

读了最后一张明信片后，乔安与苏菲静静坐着不动，彼此瞪大了眼睛对望。乔安紧紧地抓着苏菲的手腕。

"I'm scared," she said.

“我有点害怕。”她说。

"So am I."

“我也是。”

"When was the last card stamped?"

“最后一张明信片盖的是什么时候的邮戳？”

Sophie looked again at the card.

苏菲再看看卡片。

 "May 16," she said. "That's today."

“五月十六日，”她说。“就是今天。”

"It can't be!" cried Joanna, almost angrily.

“不可能！”乔安大声说，语气中几乎有些愤怒。

They examined the postmark carefully, but there was no mistaking it…… 05-16-90.

他们仔细地看了邮戳。没错，上面的日期的确是一九九O五月十六日。

"It's impossible," insisted Joanna. "And I can't imagine who could have written it. It must be someone who knows us. But how could they know we would come here on this particular day?"

“这是不可能的。”乔安坚持。“何况我也想不出来这会是谁写的。一定是一个认识我们两个的人。但他是怎么知道我们会在今天来到这里的？”

Joanna was by far the more scared of the two. The business with Hilde and her father was nothing new to Sophie.

乔安比苏菲更害怕，苏菲却已经习惯了。

"I think it has something to do with the brass mirror."

“我想这件事一定与那面铜镜有关。”

Joanna jumped again.

乔安再度跳起来。

"You don't actually think the cards come fluttering out of the mirror the minute they are stamped in Lebanon?"

“你的意思不是说这些卡片在黎巴嫩盖了邮戳后就从镜子里飞出来吧？”

"Do you have a better explanation?"

“难道你有更好的解释吗？”

"No."

“没有。”

Sophie got to her feet and held the candle up in front of the two portraits on the wall. Joanna came over and peered at the pictures.

苏菲站起身来，举起蜡烛照着墙上的两幅画。

"Berkeley and Bjerkely. What does that mean?"

“‘柏克莱’和‘柏客来’这是什么意思？”

"I have no idea."

“我也不知道。”

The candle was almost burnt down.

蜡烛快要烧完了。

"Let's go," said Joanna. "Come on!"

“我们走吧，”乔安说。“走呀！”

"We must just take the mirror with us."

“我们得把镜子带走才行。”

Sophie reached up and unhooked the large brass mirror from the wall above the chest of drawers. Joanna tried to stop her but Sophie would not be deterred.

苏菲踮起脚尖，把那面大铜镜从墙壁的钩子上取下。乔安想要阻止她，但苏菲可不理会。

When they got outside it was as dark as a May night can get. There was enough light in the sky for the clear outlines of bushes and trees to be visible. The small lake lay like a reflection of the sky above it. The two girls rowed pensively across to the other side.

当她们走出木屋时，天色就像寻常五月的夜晚一样黑。天边仍有一些光线，因此她们可以很清楚地看到灌木与树林的轮廓。小湖静静躺着，仿佛是天空的倒影。划向彼岸时，两个人都心事重重。

Neither of them spoke much on the way back to the tent, but each knew that the other was thinking intensely about what they had seen. Now and then a frightened bird would start up, and a couple of times they heard the hooting of an owl.

回到帐篷途中，乔安与苏菲都不太说话，但彼此心里明白对方一定满脑子都是方才所见的事。沿途不时有受惊的鸟呱喇飞起。有几次她们还听到猫头鹰“咕！咕！”的叫声。

As soon as they reached the tent, they crawled into their bedrolls. Joanna refused to have the mirror inside the tent. Before they fell asleep, they agreed that it was scary enough, knowing it was just outside the tent flap. Sophie had also taken the postcards and put them in one of the pockets of her backpack.

她们一到帐篷就爬进睡袋中。乔安不肯把镜子放在帐篷里。入睡前，两人一致认为那面镜子是满可怕的，虽然它只是放在帐篷人口。苏菲今天也拿走了那些明信片，她把它们放在登山背包的口袋里。

They woke early next morning. Sophie was up first. She put her boots on and went outside the tent. There lay the large mirror in the grass, covered with dew.

第二天上午她们起得很早。苏菲先醒过来。她穿上靴子，走出帐篷。那面镜子就躺在草地上，镜面沾满了露水。

Sophie wiped the dew off with her sweater and gazed down at her own reflection. It was as if she was looking down and up at herself at the same time. Luckily she found no early morning postcard from Lebanon.

苏菲用毛衣把镜子上的露水擦干，然后注视着镜中的自己。她感觉仿佛自己正同时向下、向上地看着自己。还好她今天早晨没有收到从黎巴嫩寄来的明信片。

Above the broad clearing behind the tent a ragged morning mist was drifting slowly into little wads of cotton. Small birds were chirping energetically but Sophie could neither see nor hear any grouse.The girls put on extra sweaters and ate their breakfast outside the tent. Their conversation soon turned to the major's cabin and the mysterious cards.

在帐篷后面的平原上方，迷离的晨雾正缓缓飘移，逐渐形成许多小小片的棉絮。小鸟儿一度哗然，仿佛受到惊吓，但苏菲既未看到也未听见任何猛禽的动静。两人各加了一两件毛衣后，便在帐篷外用早餐。她们谈话的内容很快转到少校的小木屋和那些神秘的明信片。

After breakfast they folded up the tent and set off for home. Sophie carried the large mirror under her arm. From time to time she had to rest--Joanna refused to touch it.

吃完早餐后，她们卸下帐篷，打道回府。苏菲手臂下挟着那面大镜子。她不时得停下来休息一下，因为乔安根本不愿碰它。

As they approached the outskirts of the town they heard a few sporadic shots. Sophie recalled what Hilde's father had written about war-torn Lebanon, and she realized how lucky she was to have been born in a peaceful country. The "shots" they heard came from innocent fireworks celebrating the national holiday.

她们快走到市郊时，听到间歇的枪声。苏菲想起席德的父亲提到的那备受战火摧残的黎巴嫩。她突然发现自己是多么幸运，能够生在一个和平的国家。后来，她才发现那些“枪声”原来是有人放烟火庆祝仲夏节的声音。

Sophie invited Joanna in for a cup of hot chocolate. Her mother was very curious to know where they had found the mirror. Sophie told her they had found it outside the major's cabin, and her mother repeated the story about nobody having lived there for many years.

到家后，苏菲邀请乔安进屋里喝一杯热巧克力。苏菲的妈妈很好奇她们是在哪里发现那面镜子的，苏菲说他们是在少校的木屋外面捡到的，妈妈于是又说了一遍那里已有许多年无人居住等等的话。

When Joanna had gone, Sophie put on a red dress. The rest of the Norwegian national day passed quite normally. In the evening, the TV news had a feature on how the Norwegian UN battalion had celebrated the day in Lebanon. Sophie's eyes were glued to the screen. One of the men she was seeing could be Hilde's father.

乔安走后，苏菲穿上一件红洋装。那天虽是仲夏节，但与平常也没什么两样。到了晚上，电视新闻有个专题报道描写挪威驻黎巴嫩的联合国部队如何庆祝仲夏节。苏菲的眼睛一直盯着荧屏不放，她想她看到的那些人中有一个可能是席德的父亲。