八位文學巨匠的臨終遺言

We select some of literature’s most memorable farewells, from Byron to James Joyce.
我們挑選出一些文學界最令人難忘的臨別之言，從拜倫到詹姆斯·喬伊斯。

“Come, come, no weakness; let’s be a man to the last!”
“來吧，來吧，別軟弱。讓我們像男子漢一樣死去！”

——LORD BYRON
(拜倫勳爵)

Byron was attended by two young doctors on his death bed in Missolonghi. Faced with the terrible problem of treating a world-famous figure for an illness which neither knew anything about, they fell back on the usual treatment of the time—to bleed the patient and so reduce his fever. Byron resisted, saying that there had been “more deaths by lancet than by the lance”, but gave in when warned that the disease could “deprive him of reason”. The weakened poet sank into unconsciousness and died under his terrified doctors’ hands.
拜倫臨終前在邁索隆吉翁，由兩位年輕醫生在他的病榻邊照料。他們面臨着一個棘手的問題：要診治一位世界聞名的大人物，但卻對他所患的病一無所知。於是他們決定採用當時慣常的療法——給病人放血來讓他退燒。拜倫起先不肯，說以往“死在手術刀下的人比死在長矛下的要多”。但當他被警告說這病可能會“讓他失去理智”時，他妥協了。虛弱的詩人陷入昏迷，隨後死在兩位被嚇破了膽的醫生手中。

“I must go in; the fog is rising.”
“我得進去了，霧正在升起。”

——EMILY DICKINSON
(埃米莉·迪金森)

Dickinson’s health declined sharply over the last years of her life, until she finally became confined to her bed and was only able to write brief notes. According to her niece, Martha, her “briefest last message” was reminiscent of “an oft-repeated family caution, ‘it was already growing damp.’” Her physician gave the cause of death as Bright’s disease, a kidney ailment now called nephritis.
迪金森的健康狀況在她生命的最後幾年裏急劇惡化，到最後她臥牀不起，只能寫些簡短的筆記。據她的侄女馬莎所說，她“最後的隻言片語”是回憶起“家裏人常囑咐的一句話，‘溼氣已經越來越重了。’”她的內科醫生將她的去世歸因於布賴特氏病，也就是現在被稱爲腎炎的一種腎病。

“What’s that? Do I look strange?”
“怎麼回事兒？我看上去是不是有些異樣？”

——ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
(羅伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森)

In poor health from 1880, Stevenson had settled in Samoa in 1890 to recuperate, but probably died of a cerebral haemorrhage. According to his biographer, “At sunset he came downstairs … talked of a lecturing tour to America that he was eager to make, ‘as he was now so well,’ … suddenly he put both hands to his head, and cried out, ‘What’s that?’ Then he asked quickly, ‘Do I look strange?’ Even as he did so he fell on his knees beside her. He was helped into the great hall … losing consciousness instantly, as he lay back in the armchair that had once been his grandfather’s …”
自1880年起史蒂文森的健康狀況就不好了，1890年他搬到薩摩亞去療養，而後去世，死因可能是腦溢血。他的傳記作者回憶道：“黃昏時分他走下樓來……聊了聊他很想成行的美國巡迴演講，‘因爲現在他的身體狀況很好，’……突然，他雙手抱住腦袋，叫道，‘怎麼回事兒？’緊接着他又問，‘我看上去是不是有些異樣？’他一邊說着一邊就跪倒在了她身旁。他被扶到了大廳……躺在曾經屬於他祖父的扶手椅上，馬上就失去了意識……”

“It’s a long time since I drank champagne.”
“我很久沒有喝香檳了。”

——ANTON CHEKHOV
(安東·契訶夫)

Terminally ill, he went with his wife Olga to Badenweiler. Later she recalled his dying moments: “Anton sat up unusually straight and said loudly and clearly (although he knew almost no German): ‘Ich sterbe (I’m dying).’ The doctor calmed him, took a syringe, gave him an injection of camphor, and ordered champagne. Anton took a full glass, examined it, smiled at me and said: ‘It’s a long time since I drank champagne.’ He drained it, lay quietly on his left side, and I just had time to run to him and lean across the bed and call to him, but he had stopped breathing and was sleeping peacefully as a child …”
契訶夫在病重的後期和妻子奧爾佳一起去了巴登韋勒(編者注：德國的一處療養勝地)。她後來回憶起他臨終時的情形：“安東坐得異常地筆直，用洪亮且清晰的聲音說(雖然他基本不會說德語) ：‘Ich sterbe. (我要死了。)’醫生幫他鎮定下來，拿來注射器，給他打了一針莰酮減輕疼痛，並點了一杯香檳酒。安東拿起滿滿一杯酒，仔細看了看，微笑着對我說：‘我很久沒有喝香檳了。’他把酒喝得乾乾淨淨，然後靜靜地朝左側臥躺下，而我只來得及跑到他身邊，俯身趴在牀上喊他，可他已經停止了呼吸，像個孩子一樣平靜地睡去……”“Death, the only immortal, who treats us alike, whose peace and refuge are for all. The soiled and the pure, the Rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.”
“死亡，這唯一不朽的永存，它對我們一視同仁，它的安寧和庇護是所有人的歸處，無論這人是骯髒還是純潔，富有還是貧窮，是否被人所愛。”

——MARK TWAIN
(馬克·吐溫)

After suffering a heart attack in Bermuda, Twain went back to his Connecticut home to recover. Having predicted in 1909 that he would “go out” with Halley’s comet—which appeared in the year of his birth—he died the day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth. According to Albert Bigelow Paine he said “Goodbye”, and Dr Quintard, “who was standing near, thought he added ‘If we meet’—but the words were very faint.”
吐溫在百慕大心臟病發作，後回到位於康涅狄格州的家中休養。他曾在1909年預言自己會和哈雷彗星一起“離去”——這顆彗星曾在他出生那年出現過——在彗星達到其最接近地球點的第二天，馬克·吐溫去世了。據艾伯特·比奇洛·佩因說，吐溫說了聲“再見”，而昆塔德醫生“當時站得很近，認爲他後來又說了一句‘如果還能再見的話’——但是這幾個詞說得很輕。”

“We all reveal… our manifestations… This manifestation is over … That’s all.”
“我們都來這兒……走了一遭……現在已經走到頭了……就這樣吧。”

——LEO TOLSTOY
(列夫·托爾斯泰)

Tolstoy left his estate, aged 82, to begin a new life as a peasant. Reaching the small town of Astapovo he contracted pneumonia, and died a few days later in the stationmaster’s house. According to the stationmaster, his last words were: “But the peasants … how do the peasants die?” His friend Vladimir Chertkov preferred to remember something from the night before. “He was lying on his back, breathing heavily … and all of a sudden—as if arguing with himself—broke out in a loud voice: ‘We all reveal … our manifestations … This manifestation is over … That’s all.’”
82歲高齡的托爾斯泰離開了自己的莊園，要去做個農夫，開始新的生活。在到達一個名爲阿斯塔波沃的小鎮時，他身染肺炎，幾天後死在了火車站站長的家裏。據站長說，托爾斯泰的遺言是：“可是那些農民……農民們是怎樣死的呢？”他的朋友弗拉基米爾·切爾科夫卻覺得他前一晚所說的一些話更值得被記住。“他仰面躺着，呼吸很重……突然——好像在跟自己爭吵一樣——他大喊起來：‘我們都來這兒……走了一遭……現在已經走到頭了……就這樣吧。’”

“I feel certain that I’m going mad again …”
“我覺得我又要發狂了……”

——VIRGINIA WOOLF
(弗吉尼婭·吳爾夫)

Fearing that she was on the brink of the latest in a series of breakdowns, Woolf committed suicide by loading her pockets full of stones and wading into the River Ouse. Her suicide note told her husband that she would rather die than endure another such episode. “I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do … I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”
吳爾夫擔心自己新一輪的精神疾病即將發作，於是在口袋裏裝滿石頭，走進歐塞河，結束了自己的生命。在遺書中，她告訴丈夫她寧願死也不願再忍受一次折磨了。“我覺得我又要發狂了。我覺得我們已無法再次熬過那些可怕的日子，而且我這次也好不了了。我開始幻聽，沒辦法集中精神。所以我要做的看來是我所能做的最好的事……我不能再毀掉你的生活了。我相信不會再有任何兩個人能像我們倆過去那樣幸福。弗。”

“Does nobody understand?”
“沒有一個人懂嗎？”

——JAMES JOYCE
(詹姆斯·喬伊斯)

Joyce died in Zurich, two days after surgery for a perforated ulcer. The Irish government declined his wife’s offer to repatriate his remains. According to Richard Ellmann, a Catholic priest tried to convince his widow that there should be a funeral Mass. She replied: “I couldn’t do that to him.”
在接受了治療潰瘍穿孔的手術兩天後，喬伊斯在蘇黎世去世。愛爾蘭政府拒絕了他的妻子想把他的遺體運送回國的請求。據理查德·埃爾曼所說，一位天主教牧師曾設法說服喬伊斯的遺孀爲他舉行一場葬禮彌撒。她回答道：“我不能對他這麼做。”