相约萨马拉(双语有声)

作者：hahaleaf 来源：沪江论坛 2011-06-27 08:00

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The story is called Appointment in Samarra. A Baghdad merchant sends a servant to buy provisions. While at the market, the servant bumps into Death, who makes a threatening gesture. The servant races back to the merchant, borrows a horse and flees to the city of Samarra for safety.

《相约萨马拉》讲的是这样一个故事：一位巴格达商人派仆人去买东西。仆人不巧在集市碰到了凶神恶煞的死神，于是急忙跑回商人那里借了匹马，飞奔到萨马拉城避难去了。

The Somerset Maughan version of the old fable about fate continues, with Death narrating: “Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?’ ‘That was not a threatening gesture,’ I said, ‘it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.’”

萨默赛特·毛姆版的这个关于命运的故事还有后续——死神说：“后来，商人来到集市，看到我站在人群中，于是他走过来对我说：‘你今天早上遇到我仆人的时候为什么要吓唬他呢？’‘我没有吓唬他’，我说，‘那只是惊讶罢了，我看见他在巴格达所以很惊讶，因为我本来跟他约好今晚萨马拉见面。’”

I was reminded of this story by a detail in the accounts of the killing of Osama Bin Laden: his opulent hiding place had no telephone or internet service. Presumably to minimize the risk of revealing his location through contact with the outside world. But the very lack of such modern technology, intended to avoid attention, attracted it instead. And enabled authorities to keep their long-standing appointment.

本拉登之死的一些细节让我想起了这个故事：他的藏身之所虽奢华，却没有电话和互联网。这样做很可能是为了尽可能不让外界发现他的行踪吧。不过，正是因为他的住所太缺乏现代设备，反倒成为重点目标，让政府终于得偿所愿。