Traveller_Levin's Blog

Edgemont Drive

by E. L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow (1931~) 生於紐約市。美國當代一流小說家，以其獨特之歷史性長篇小說著名。父母是移民美國的俄羅斯猶太人第二代，酷愛書本與音樂。大學就讀於俄亥俄州的Kenyon學院，主修哲學，並於大學劇場演出。後入哥倫比亞大學研究院攻讀英國戲劇一年，值二次大戰徵召入伍。退伍金後，在電影公司當審稿員，出版第一部長篇Welcome to Hard Times，之後轉入出版界擔任編輯，出版第二部長篇Big As Life。1971年出版第三部長篇The Book of Daniel，獲得古根海姆獎。1975年第四部長篇Ragtime問世，這部作品熔事實與虛構於一爐的風格在美國文壇引起轟動，美國評論界授予“全國圖書評論界獎”，承認E. L. Doctorow為打破傳統小說寫作模式大膽創新的傑出作家。如今，Ragtime已成為美國70年代的代表作品之一，被列入美國大學文學課程的必讀書目。本短篇作品收錄於2004年出版之Sweet Land Stories，為其中之佳作。

What kind of car was it?

I don’t know. An old car. What difference does it make?

A man sits in his car three days running in front of the house, you should be able to describe it.

An American car.

There you go.1

A squarish car with a long hood. Long and floaty-looking.

A Ford?

Maybe.

Well, definitely not a Cadillac.

No. It looked tinny. An old car. Faded red. There were big round rust spots on the fender and the door. And it was filled with his things. It looked like everything he owned was in there with him.

Well, what do you want me to do? You want me to stay home from work?

No. It’s nothing.

If it’s nothing, why did you bring it up?

I shouldn’t have.2

1.    這段是一對夫妻的對話，先生問：那是哪種車？太太回答：我不知道，就是輛老車，有什麼差別嗎？先生說：那輛車連續三天在家門口出現，妳總該可以描述下那是甚麼樣的車。太太回答：美國車。先生說：There you go 你又來了。（意思是你又這樣。）

2.   先生問：妳要我怎麼做？不上班留在家？太太回答：不，沒事。先生說：妳說沒事，那幹嘛提起這事。太太回答：我本不該提。

Did he look at you?

Please.

Did he?

When I turned around, he started the engine and drove off.

What do you mean? So before you turned around—

I felt his eyes. I was weeding.

You were bending over?

Here we go again. 3

You know this creep pulls up4 in front of our house every morning and you go out to the garden and bend over?

O.K., end of conversation. I have things to do.

Maybe I can park at the curb and watch you weeding. The two of us. That’s something5, anyway. Seeing you in your shorts bending over.

I can’t ever talk to you about anything.

It was a Ford Falcon. You said it was squared off, hard edges, a flattened look. A Falcon. They built them in the sixties. Three-speed manual shift on the column. Only ninety horses.

O.K., that’s wonderful. You know all about cars.

Listen, Miss Garden Lady, to know a man’s car is to know him. It is not useless knowledge.

Fine.

3     這位先生猜疑心重，問那人有沒瞧她？太太他別再說了。先生還繼續問：有嗎？太太說：我轉身過去，他就開走了（意思：我怎麼知道）。先生說：什麼意思？所以在妳轉身之前…. 太太說：我感覺到他的眼光，我在除草。先生立即問道：妳彎下腰除草？（指責她裙底風光外洩）太太有點生氣地說：我們又再這樣。（意思：他們老是為了他疑心吃醋而口角爭執。）

Here we go again：We are going to experience the same thing again.; we are going to hear about or discuss the same thing again.

4.   pull up 將車子停下來。

5.   That’s something依上下文，有不同含義。一般而言是種稱讚的表達an expression of admiration。這裡是那位先生譏諷他太太到院子彎腰除草，可真讓人按讚。

Guy is some immigrant up from Tijuana6.

What are you talking about?

Who else would drive a forty-year-old heap? Looking for work. Looking for something he can steal. Looking for something from the lady with the long white legs who bends over in her garden.

You’re out of your mind. You’ve got this know-it-all attitude—

I’ll take the morning off tomorrow.

Immigrants don’t have long white hair and roll the window down so I can see his pink face and pale eyes.

Oh, ho! Now we’re getting somewhere.7

You don’t move out of here I’m writing down your license plate. The cops will I.D.you and see if it’s someone they know. . . . 8

You’re calling the police?

Yes.

Why?

Why not, if you don’t move? Go park somewhere else. I’m giving you a break.9

What is my offense?

Don’t play dumb10. In the first place, I don’t like some junk heap in front of my house.

I’m sorry. It’s the only car I have.

6.    Tijuana是一座墨西哥大城市，靠近美國西南部邊境。這位先生猜測那陌生人是墨西哥移民，到美國來打工。（墨西哥邊界非法移民一直是美國一個頭痛的問題。）

7.   getting somewhere意思是他們談話終於有所進展。（那太太本來一直都不大想理他。）

8.   這句話是那先生對陌生人講的，說叫警察查他身分證，看是否警察知曉的某人。（暗指他是否有案底。）

9     give someone a break：（口語）to stop being strict with someone so that a situation becomes easier for them。I’m giving you a break我就放你一馬吧。

10. play dumb 裝傻。

Right, I can see that no one would drive this thing if he didn’t have to. And all this bag and baggage. You sell things out of the trunk?

No. These are my things. I wouldn’t want to let anything go.

Because nobody in this neighborhood needs anything from the back of a car.

Well, I’m sorry we’ve gotten off to the wrong start.11

Yes, we have. I’m not too friendly when some pervert decides to stalk my wife.

Oh, I’m afraid you’re under a misconception.12

Am I?

Yes. I didn’t want to disturb anyone, but I should have realized that parking in front of your house would attract notice.

You got that right.

If I’m stalking anything, it’s the house.

What?

I used to live here. For three days, I’ve been trying to work up the courage to knock on your door and introduce myself.

Ah, I see the kitchen is quite different. Everything built-in and tucked away. Our sink was freestanding, white porcelain with piano legs. Over here was a cabinet where my mother kept the staples. A shelf swung out with a cannister for sifting flour. That impressed me.

I’d probably have kept it. This is their renovation—the people who lived here before us. I have my own ideas for changing things around.13

You must have bought the house from the people I sold it to. You’ve been here how long?

Let’s see. I count by the children’s ages. We moved in just after my eldest was born. That would be twelve years.

11.  get off to a good/bad/wrong/etc start：to start in particular way.。這裡是說他們一開始就不對盤。

12. 那先生直率說：我們是不對盤，當有個變態窺視覬覦我老婆，我是不會太友善。陌生人說：你誤會了。

stalk：to follow and watch someone over a long period of time in a way that is very annoying or threatening. “螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在後”這句成語英文可翻成 The mantis stalks the cicada, but behind them lurks the oriole. 就用到stalk這個字。  

13. 這段是陌生人與太太的對話。陌生人說廚房的擺設都不一樣了，太太說那是前一任屋主的裝潢。陌生人將這房子賣給某人，而這對夫妻是向某人買這棟房子。因此陌生人問她搬來多久了？

And how many children have you?

Three. All boys. I’ve sometimes wished for a daughter.

They’re all in school?

Yes.

I have a daughter. An adult daughter.

Would you like some tea?

Yes, thank you. Very kind of you. Women are more gently disposed, as a rule. I hope your husband won’t be too put out.14

Not at all.

To speak truly, it’s unsettling15 to be here. It’s something like double vision. The neighborhood is much as it was. But the trees are older and taller. The homes—well, they’re still here, mostly, though they don’t have the proud, well-to-do look they once had.

It’s a settled neighborhood.

Yes. But you know? Time is heartbreaking.16

Yes.

My parents divorced when I was a boy. I lived with my mother. She would die in the master bedroom.

Oh.

I’m sorry, I sometimes speak tactlessly. After Mother died, I married and brought my wife here to live. I’ve never stayed anywhere else for any length of time. And certainly never owned property again. So this is the house—please don’t misunderstand me—this is the house I’ve continued to live in. I mean mentally. I ranged all through these rooms from childhood on. Until they reflected who I was, as a mirror would. I don’t mean merely that its furnishings displayed our family’s personality, our tastes. I don’t mean that. It was as if the walls, the stairs, the rooms, the dimensions, the layout were as much me as I was. Is this coherent? Wherever I looked, I saw me. I saw me in some way measured out17. Do you experience that?

14.太太請陌生人喝杯茶。陌生人謝謝她，然後說通常女人心腸比較溫和善良，希望她先生不會因此而不悅、惱怒。  put out：upset or offended.

15. unsettling讓人情緒不安和心神不寧，包括：緊張、焦慮、擔憂、困惑、忿恚。

16. 陌生人前面那段話充滿「物是人非事事休，欲語淚先流」之感慨，其中關鍵字unsettling。而太太回答：這是個安定的社區。關鍵字settled與unsettling形成對差反比。接著陌生人說時間讓人心碎，有著無限滄桑、淒涼之意。

17.measured out 原意是從大數量中取出特定的小數量。陌生人說房子內的一切事物包括裝潢、牆壁、樓梯、房間、空間、設計等等充滿過去生活點點滴滴的回憶，無處無地都能看到過去的自己，看到自己從漫長的歲月中小量小量地被量測取出，舉例說明：假設他目前70歲，這個角落有著他例如5~10歲的回憶，這個樓梯有著11~17歲的回憶，那個空間有18~24歲的回憶，那個房間有25~30歲的回憶，諸如此類地某一片段的光陰歲月從漫長的生命中被喚回。因此這句可翻譯成：「無論我往哪裡看，我都看到自己。看到自己以著某種方式一點一滴地流逝。」

I’m not sure. Your wife—

Oh, that didn’t last long. She resented the suburbs. She felt cut off from everything. I’d go off to work and she’d be left here. We hadn’t many friends in the neighborhood. 18

Yes, people here stick to themselves. The boys have school friends, but we hardly know anyone.

This tea helps. Because this is a dizzying experience for me. It’s as if I were squared off, dimensionalized in these rooms 19, as if I were the space contained by these walls, the passageways, the fixed routes of going to and fro, from one room to another, and everything lit predictably by the times of day and the different seasons. It is all and indistinguishably . . . me.

I think if you live in one place long enough—

When people speak of a haunted house, they mean ghosts flitting about in it, but that’s not it at all. When a house is haunted—what I’m trying to explain—it is the feeling you get that it looks like you, that your soul has become architecture, and the house in all its materials has taken you over with a power akin to haunting. As if you, in fact, are the ghost. And as I look at you, a kind, lovely young woman, part of me says not that I don’t belong here, which is the truth, but that you don’t belong here. I’m sorry, that’s quite a terrible thing to say. It merely means—20

It means life is heartbreaking.

18.that didn’t last long指陌生人與他老婆的婚姻沒有維持多久。他老婆討厭郊區，感覺像被隔絕，陌生人上班後，老婆一個人在家，附近也沒有什麼朋友。太太認同他老婆的孤獨隔絕感受，她說：是呀，人們自顧自的，孩子們有學校的朋友，而我們幾乎沒認識什麼人。在此透露出前面那個字settled的另一層含義。

19. I were squared off, dimensionalized in these rooms 這句話的我被比擬成抽象物體或概念，我化成這些房間內的直角、平面、轉角或立體空間。

20.人們稱某房屋為鬼屋，意謂其中有鬼出沒。陌生人說當你牽魂縈魄於某屋，化身於該屋中，你就是那個鬼。他有種感覺，並非他不屬於這裡，而是那位太太不屬於這裡，雖然這麼說很失禮。這句話的結構：part of me says not that………..but that………….

He came back? He was here again?

Yes. It seemed so sad, he is just sitting out there, so I invited him in.

You what!

I mean, it wasn’t what you thought, was it? So why not?

Right. Why wouldn’t you invite him in, since I told him if he came around again I’d call the cops?

You should have invited him in yourself when he told you he’d lived in this house.

Why is that a credential?21 Everyone has lived somewhere or other. Would you want to relive your glorious past? I shouldn’t think so. And this is not the first time.

Don’t start in, please.

Husband says white, wife says black. The way it works. So the world will know what she thinks of her husband.

Why is it always about you22! We’re not the same person. I have my own mind.

Do you, now!

Hey, you guys, we got an argument brewing?23

Close your door, son. This doesn’t concern you.

Every time another man comes into this house you go berserk24. A plumber, someone to measure for the window blinds, the man who reads the gas meter.

Ah, but is your man a man? Awfully fruity-looking to me. Wears his white hair in a ponytail. And those tiny little hands. What does the well-known fag-hag25 have to say?

He’s a Ph.D. and a poet.

Jesus, I should have known.26

21.這裡的Why是當語助詞，而非疑問詞。credential：資格，證件。太太說那位陌生人以前住在這裡。先生反譏道：噢，他以前住這裡，就可以進來坐坐？

22. Why is it always about you!指對方自戀或以自我為中心，什麼事都只想到他自己。

23. 這句話是他們兒子講的，意思是說你們又要吵架了？

24   go berserk：to become very angry and violent捉狂。

25. fag-hag意思是愛與同性戀的男性友人相處的女人。這裡那位先生竟然用來指那位陌生人。

26   我就知道他會這麼鬼扯蛋。

He gave up his teaching job to travel the country. His book is on the dining-room table. He signed it for us.

A wandering minstrel27 in his Ford Falcon.

Why are you so horrible!

Arguing is instead of sex.28

It has been a while.

This is better.

Yes.

I don’t know why I get so upset.

You’re just a normally defective man.

So we’re all like this? Thank you.29

Yes. It’s an imperfect gender.

I’m sorry I said what I said.

I’m thinking now, with all three of them in school all day, I should get a job.

Doing what?

Or maybe go for a graduate degree of some kind. Make myself useful.

What brings this on?30

Times change. They need me less and less. They have their friends, their practices. I carpool.31 They come home and stay in their rooms with their games. You work late. I’m alone in this house a lot.

We should go to the theatre more. A night in town. Or you like opera. I’ll do opera as long as it isn’t Richard fucking Wagner.

That’s not what I’m saying.

27.wandering minstrel吟遊詩人。

28. 這段又是那對夫妻的對話，先生說：我們用爭吵取代性愛。

29. 先生向太太道歉，說他不該亂發脾氣。太太說那很正常，你只是個不完美的男人。先生立即又用酸溜溜的語氣說：我們男人都像這樣？可真謝謝妳喔。

30   What brings this on? 什麼讓你有這種感觸？

31. carpool是指共乘一輛車，社區內好幾個小孩共乘一輛車去上學，由各家長輪流當司機。

You chose the suburbs, you know. I work to pay off the mortgage. The three tuitions. The two car payments.

I’m not blaming you. Could we turn on the light a moment?

What’s the matter?

There’s no moon. In the dark, it feels like a tomb.

This is very embarrassing.

What were you doing there at three in the morning?

Sleeping. That’s all. I wasn’t bothering anyone.

Yeah, well, the cops are touchy32 these days. People sleeping in their cars.

It used to be a ball field. I played softball there as a boy.

Well, it’s the mall now.

You don’t mind that I gave them your name?33

Not at all. I like being known as a criminal associate. Why didn’t you just check into the local Marriott?

I was trying to save money. The weather is clement. I thought, Why not? 34

Clement. Yes, it’s definitely clement.

Is it the habit of the police to go around impounding cars? Because if they think I’m a drug dealer, or something like that, they will find only books, my computer, luggage, clothes, and camping gear and a few private mementos that mean something only to me. Very unsettling, strangers digging around in my things. If I’d stayed at a hotel, I’d be on my way right now. I’m really sorry to impose on you.

Well, what’s a neighbor for.

That’s funny. I appreciate humor in this situation.

I’m so glad.

But we’d be neighbors only if time had imploded35. Actually, if time were to implode we’d be more than neighbors. We’d be living together, the past and the present moving through each other’s space.

Like in a rooming house. 36

If you wish, yes. As in a sort of rooming house.

32.這段應當是警察在凌晨三點時，發現陌生人睡在停於購物場的車內，而將他拘留，陌生人打電話向太太求援。

33. 陌生人說：妳介不介意在警察盤問下我提及妳的名字。

34. Marriott是知名的旅館，費用並不便宜。陌生人說他睡在車內是要省錢，而且天氣還不錯。

35   explode由內往外爆炸，implode由外向內的爆炸。這裡指時間向內聚爆後，時間場發生異常，過去與現在重疊。

36. rooming house.分租的房子。

So he’s there. What—hitting on your wife?37

No, that won’t happen. It’s not what he’s about. I’m pretty sure.

So what’s the problem?

He comes on like some prissy fuss-pot poet, doesn’t have it together, drives a junk heap, claims to have quit his teaching job but was probably fired. And, with all of that, you know he’s a player. 38

Yeah, I know people like that.

His difficulties work in his favor. He gets what he wants.

So what does he want from you?

I’m not sure. It’s weird. The house? Like I’ve defaulted on the mortgage and he’s the banker come to repossess.

So why’d you bring him home? He could sit in a Starbucks while they went through his car.

Well, he called. And I hang up and there she is looking at me. And I’m suddenly into proving something to her. You see what’s happening? I can no longer be me, which is to say to the guy, I don’t know you. Who the fuck cares if you lived here or didn’t live here? They’ll give you back your damn car and you can leave. But no, he works it so that I have to prove something to my own wife—that I am capable of a charitable act.39

I guess you are.

So, like, he’s now some new relative of ours. This touches on the basic fault line40 in our marriage. She’s naïve in principle—she forgives everybody everything. Always excusing people, finding a rationale for the shitty things they do. A clerk shortchanges41 her, she imagines he’s distracted and just made a mistake.

Well, that’s a lovely quality.

I know, I know. Her philosophy is if you trust people they will be trustworthy. Drives me crazy.

So they’ll give him back his car and he’ll go.

No. Not if I know her. She’ll drive him to pick it up. The day will have passed, and she’ll ask him to stay for dinner. And then she’ll insist that he shouldn’t be allowed to drive off in the night. And I will look at her and sit there and agree. And she will show him to the guest room. I’ll give you odds.42

You’re a bit overwrought. Have another.

Why the hell not?

37.這段是先生與友人在酒吧裡的對話。hit on：to make especially sexual overtures to搭訕勾引。

38. prissy：behaving very correctly and easily shocked by anything rude舉止規規矩矩，稍遇粗魯行為就會感到震驚。 

fuss-pot：someone who worries about unimportant things連一些雞毛蒜皮的事都會煩惱憂慮的人。

doesn’t have it together意思指某人思慮紊亂，沒有什麼動力，做不了什麼事，長不大似的。

player演員，意思指這陌生人在他太太面前假裝可憐兮兮，多感傷懷。

39. 從這對話推測警察查扣了陌生人的車子，他現在連車子都沒得睡。太太好心收留他幾天，直到警察將車子還給他。陌生人這麼會演戲，使得這位先生必須向他太太證明他也有施捨憐憫之心。

40.fault line斷層線，引申指可能引起破壞動盪的分歧或抗爭之事物或事項。

41. shortchange 少找了零錢。

42.先生說他太太會載那陌生人去牽他的車，會留他吃晚餐，會堅持夜間開車離去不好，我坐在那裏看著她，也只能同意，然後她會帶他去客房。I’ll give you odds我敢跟你這麼說（我敢說事情就會是這樣）。

With age, you see how much of it is invented. Not only what is invisible but what is everywhere visible.43

I’m not sure I understand.

Well, you’re still quite young.

Thank you. I wish I felt young.

I’m not talking about one’s self-image. Or the way life can be too much of the same thing day in and day out. I’m not talking about mere unhappiness.

Am I merely unhappy?

I’m in no position to judge. But let’s say melancholy seems to suit the lady.

Oh, dear—that it’s that obvious.

But, in any case, whatever our state of mind life seems for most of our lives an intense occupation—keeping busy, competing intellectually, physically, nationally, seeking justice, demanding love, perfecting our institutions. All the fashions of survival. Everything we do to make history, the archive of our inventiveness. As if there were no context.44

But there is?

Yes. Some vast—what to call it?—indifference that slowly creeps up on you with age, that becomes more insistent with age. That’s what I’m trying to explain. I’m afraid I’m not doing a very good job.45

No, really, this is interesting.

I get very voluble on even one glass of sherry.

More?

Thank you. But I’m trying to explain the estrangement that comes over one after some years. For some earlier, for others later, but always inevitably.

And to you, now?

Yes. It’s a kind of wearing out, I suppose. As if life had become threadbare, with the light peeking through. The estrangement begins in moments, in little sharp judgments that you instantly put out of your mind. You draw back, though you’re fascinated. Because it’s the truest feeling a person can have, and so it comes again and again, drifting through your defenses, and finally settles over you like some cold, very cold, light. Maybe I should stop talking about this. It is almost to deny it, talking about it.46

No, I appreciate your candor. Does this have something to do with why you’ve come back here—to see where you used to live?

You’re perceptive.47

This estrangement is maybe your word for depression.

I understand why you would say that. You see me as the image of some colossal failure—living on the road in a beaten-up car, an obscure poet, a third-rate academic. And maybe I am all those things, but I’m not depressed. This isn’t a clinical issue I speak of. It’s a clear recognition of reality. Let me explain it this way: It’s much like I suppose what a chronic invalid feels, or someone on the verge of dying, where the estrangement is protective, a way of abating the sense of loss, the regret, and the desire to live is no longer important. But subtract those circumstances and there I am, healthy, self-sufficient, maybe not the most impressive fellow in the world but one who’s managed to take care of himself quite well and live in freedom doing what he wants to do and without any major regrets. Yet the estrangement is there, the truth has settled upon him, and he feels actually liberated because he’s outside now, in the context, where you can’t believe in life anymore. 48

43.這段是陌生人與那位太太的對話，也是全篇最具哲思，且十分重要的段落。

隨著年歲的流逝，你會發現生命有多少東西是人發明出來的，包括那些看不見的和隨處可見的。

44. 無論我們心境怎樣，對我們大部分人而言，生命似乎是一種強烈的佔據—不斷忙碌，在智力上、肉體上、在整個國家進行競爭，尋求正義，需求愛情，將我們的機構益臻完備。全都是求生存的風尚流行。我們做的所有事情就在締造歷史，締造我們發明能力的檔案。彷彿生命中並沒有格局(context)。

45. 前面陌生人用了“彷彿”這字眼，於是太太問：但是實際上有嗎？陌生人說有的，這格局巨大遼闊，那就是冷漠(indifference)。

46.除了冷漠，陌生人還提到疏離(estrangement)。生命隨著歲月磨損破舊，疏離之感漸次滲透進來，飄過你的防衛，然後籠襲著你像冷冽的光線。

47. 太太問：你講的這些跟你為什麼回來重訪故居有關係？陌生人回答：妳滿敏銳的。

48.太太說：你說的疏離或許是在表達沮喪。在陌生人回答的下面這段話有幾個重點：(1)我可能是籍沒無聞的詩人、三流的學者、開輛破車睡在路途上，但我不沮喪。(2)我像個久病或垂死的人，疏離是種保護，減緩失落感與悔恨。(3)既得疏離如同悟道，人得以自由，超脫出這個格局。

陌生人最後這段話，表達的並非窮途潦落、懷舊悲逝的世俗傷感情緒，而是瞭徹生命的正面意義。

Why would anyone come to New Jersey to die?

Sir?

And the house is nothing special, you’ll grant me that. The usual Colonial with white vinyl siding, a one-car garage, the gutters packed with the crap of I don’t know how many autumns. Actually, I’ve been meaning to get to that.

Sir, please. We ask and you answer and we leave. Can you tell us anything more about the deceased?

Well, you see, I knew him mostly as a corpse in the hallway. Ah, you are skeptical. And why not, with my wife weeping away like he was a close relation?

So you’re saying—

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Not even an old boyfriend of hers, not even that.

You have no heart.49

No, it’s an interesting experience, a total stranger falling dead in his underwear on the way to the bathroom. And to see him carried out the door in a body bag! Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Good for the kids, too, a life experience before going off to school. Their first suicide.

Sir, the man died of an acute myocardial infarction50.

Says who?

The E.M.T.s51 examined him.

Well, they’re entitled to their opinion.

It’s more than an opinion, sir. They see things like this every day. They didn’t even try to resuscitate. 

No, he took himself out, for sure, wily fellow that he was. That’s why he came here—it was all planned.

Why are you being like this? He came here, it was like—

Like what?

A pilgrimage.

Oh, right. He came here to fuck up our lives is why he came here. Came here like a dog to lift his leg and mark his territory. And where does that leave us? Living in a dead man’s house. I thought my home was my castle.

I didn’t think you had such homebound loyalties.52

Well, folks, we’ll be leaving now.

I didn’t! Somewhere to stash the wife and kids is as far as it went with me. But, by God, I paid for it with my labor. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. Gave you a house, a safe if dull neighborhood, three children, a reasonably comfortable life. To make you happy! And have you ever been? What but your dissatisfactions could have led you to invite this walking death wish into your home!53

Well, folks, as I said, we’ll be leaving now. We may have some more questions after we sort things out.

And what are you going to do about his damn Ford Falcon sitting in my driveway?

We’ve gone through the car. We’ve inventoried the contents. Got his I.D. Closest relative.

He said he had a daughter.

Yes, ma’am, we have that.

But the car!

We have no more interest in the car. It becomes part of the deceased’s estate. The daughter will decide its disposition. In the meantime, I will ask you to leave it where it is. Safer here than downtown. Keys are in the ignition.

Jesus!

Sir, there are procedures for situations like this. We are following the procedures. The cause of death will be confirmed by the medical examiner, the death certificate filed with the town clerk’s office, the body placed in the morgue, pending instructions from the closest relative. That will be the daughter.

Officer, I will want to write her.

Soon as we make contact, ma’am. I see no reason why you can’t. We’ll be in touch.

Thank you.

And, hey, Officer?

Sir?

Tell her the good news. Daddy has come home.54

49.這段是警察來盤問有關陌生人的死亡情形，與那位先生及太太之間的對話。

先生說搞不懂他為什麼特地跑來紐澤西州死，又扯些有的沒的。警察不耐煩告訴他：「我問，你答，然後我們就離開，告訴我關於死者你知道些什麼？」先生回答：「我知道他不過就是通道上的一具屍體，你或許會起疑，為什麼不呢？我老婆哭得好像他是很親的親戚。」他那冷漠嘲弄的語氣，讓警察忍不住訓他一句：「你沒有心腸。」(You have no heart.)

50. myocardial infarction心肌梗塞。

51.E.M.T.=Emergency Medical Technician緊急救護技術員

52.那位先生說那陌生人跑來這裡死是事先預謀的。那太太受不了，於是駁斥他說：「你怎麼可以這樣說？他來此就像……」先生說：「像什麼？」太太：「朝聖之旅。」先生立即發火，說那陌生人像隻狗來這裡抬條腿灑尿宣示主權，將他們生活弄得烏煙瘴氣，先生最後說我的家就是我的城堡。太太立即反嗆他說：「我可不知你此歸屬於家的忠誠。」

53.從先生這段話可聽出他對太太的指責，他辛苦工作養家活口，供給舒適生活，但她卻不滿足也不感激，還招禍入門。他也承認這社區滿枯躁無聊的。他也知道老婆在這裡生活是不快樂的。

54. 先生最後這句頗有美國式的粗鄙幽默。

So, finally, I agree with you.

Yes?

We can’t live here anymore. I pass through the hallway and sidle along the wall as if he were there on the floor, staring. It’s eerie. I feel dispossessed. I’m a displaced person.55

Not the best time to be selling, babe. And what about the kids’ school? Right in the middle of the term.

You’re the one who said we couldn’t ever get this out of our mind.

I know, I know.

The boys won’t come upstairs. The playroom’s their dormitory. And it’s damp down there.

All right. O.K. Maybe we should think about renting something. Maybe a sublet somewhere till we get squared away56. We’ll see. You want another?

A half.

I am really sorry. I don’t blame you. I speak in the heat of the moment.57

No, I suppose I should have known. The way he talked. But it was interesting. His ideas—how unusual to hear philosophical conversation. That someone would reveal himself to that extent. So though I thought he was a depressed person, I was fascinated by the novelty that someone could be talking that way as if it were the most natural thing.

You know, it’s really funny. . . .

What?

She’s just like him, the daughter. A gamer.58

Yes, I did think it odd.

I would not call that a close relationship, would you?

Hardly.

Couldn’t care less. You know, I found—when Goodwill59 took away all his stuff—I found that the actual naked car inside was clean. Upholstery’s O.K. And I looked under the hood. Needs an oil change, and the fan belt looks a bit ragged. Took it around the block and it bounces a bit on the road. Maybe new shocks.

You like that car, don’t you?

Well, with a good paint job, maybe some detailing . . . You know, people collect these things, Ford Falcons.

It was his home.

No, dear one. This is his home. That’s just a car.

Our car.

Appears to be. We ought to frame her letter. Or bury it in the yard along with the can of ashes.

Oh, but she meant for them to be strewn.

Strewn? Did you say strewn?

Scattered?

Why not sprinkled?

Sown.

O.K., sown. I’ll go with sown60. ♦

55.這是先生與太太的對話。那位太太說：「我們不能在這裡居住下去。我沿著牆穿過通道，彷彿他還躺在地板上，凝望著。感覺很詭異。我感覺被驅出住處，像個流離失所的人。」

56.get squared away：to finish something, especially by putting the last details in order. 她先生同意先租個房子住，直到他們將一切都安排、整理妥當。

57.In the heat of the moment=when feelings were very strong。先生說他在氣頭上說的話，難怪他老婆會反感。

58.這裡沒頭沒腦說那陌生人的女兒跟他很像，是個玩家。搞不懂這個字“玩家”到底確切意指什麼？

59.在此Goodwill似乎指某個慈善機構，確切是哪個機構待查。

60.顯然陌生人的女兒寫了一封信給那對夫妻，信的內容不詳，先生說該把信裱起來還是跟骨灰罈埋在院子裡。太太說他女兒意思要將骨灰灑了。she meant for them to be strewn.這句的them指ashes。

然後他們在strewn、scattered、sprinkled、sown這四個字間推敲，最後選定sown，這個字有播灑種籽的意思。

【淺嚐賞味】

整篇故事由對話組成，計十段，沒有標示各句話的敘述者是誰，也沒說明處境狀況，甚至連冒號、引號、破折號一律從缺。讀者必須完完全全運用自己的想像從上下文中去尋思理解，這是具有極大挑戰性的智力活動。就好像謎題或迷宮的設計，作者隱藏的線索必須有其精巧的內在理路，讀者方能按圖索驥。不然，作者鬼打架，讀者鬼撞牆。

首先必須弄清楚各段話進行時的場景，不然很難釐清其對話內容。其中第六段最費解，若未能找出其場景，對於前後段的關係頗感突兀，讓人如墮霧中，摸不著頭緒。這段的第一句「這真叫人難為情」，第二句「凌晨三點你在那裏做什麼？」，談話的人是誰？他們在什麼時候什麼狀況下進行此對話？很明顯地，其中一名說話者是那位陌生人，另外一名對話者是那位先生或那位太太？而他或她又為什麼這麼說呢？第二段首句，那先生就告訴陌生人說他抄下他的車牌號碼，警察會查他的身分。果真那先生報了警，警察於凌晨三點在購物商場附近將睡在車內的陌生人帶到警局拘留盤問(參照第六段第四及第十一句)。舉目無親下，陌生人告訴警察他認識那位太太（參照第六段第七及第八句），於是太太到警局保釋並將陌生人帶回家（參照第七段）。對話是在這等場景下進行的。

除了上下文參照之外，聲音（voice）在敘事中非常重要。簡單來說，聲音可以傳達或反映敘述者的社會背景、性格脾氣、思想價值等等。不同的人物有不同的聲音，在本篇故事中先生、太太、陌生人、兒子、警察、友人的聲音都不同。同一位人物在不同的情境或情緒下的聲音也不一樣，例如那位先生在質問老婆時的語調，與入侵的陌生人的對談，和友人於酒吧聊天，警察來查詢時的發飆，向老婆低聲退讓時，他的聲音都有所不同。陌生人與太太的情況亦然。聲音的表達不僅要貼切人物性格與情境而且又必須具備辨識性。經由高度辨識性的聲音，讀者知道誰說了哪一句話，感受敘說者當時的情緒，瞭解各人物的價值觀念與思想感受以及人物之間的互動關係。E. L. Doctorow運用聲音的技巧高超精湛，不僅讓人物性格刻劃栩栩如生，故事情節流暢推展，同時也傳達陌生人對於生命的哲思與情懷，先生與太太間一直以來隱藏存在的問題。

這篇故事另一高妙處在於簡約蘊藉。從陌生人談話中簡短提到：「我父母在我小的時候就離異。我跟母親同住。她要在主臥室裡去世。」我們可以想見孤獨的小孩，與母親相依為命，以及母親對過去深深的眷戀。這些都是他的成長背景，塑造其人格性情。關於陌生人的婚姻與家庭，他提到老婆住在郊區不快樂，婚姻維持沒多久，有一個成年的女兒。他與女兒的關係很冷淡。應當是他結婚後，與老婆住在舊家，他除了工作外依舊沉湎於孤單的童年與母親相依的日子。老婆受不了這種生活，離婚後將幼小的女兒帶走。陌生人後來將房子賣掉，一個人帶著全部的家當開著車四處地過生活，直到年紀垂垂老矣，才重返憶思的故居，這段倒還滿近似韋莊那首菩薩蠻中的詞句：「未老莫還鄉，還鄉須斷腸」。Time is heartbreaking，歲月真是令人揪心斷腸。

相較於此故事蘊藉蓄涵之美，我國影劇作品適足以說明太過顯露之害。人物使壞時，在旁做足陰險的表情，甚至乾脆用獨白說出其陰謀，傷心則淚流滿面，憤怒則張牙舞爪。戲劇從業人員（編劇、導演、製作）難道不曉此基本之文學戲劇道理？不然，觀眾的觀賞水準太低，戲劇從業人員媚俗。於是，觀眾直誇這戲演得好，許多優秀的演員也隨之糟蹋。作者與讀者間之惡性相互影響，莫此為甚。

Traveler-Levin