名著精讀:《悉達多》卡瑪拉(3)
Before the city, in a beautifully fenced grove, the traveller came across a small group of servants, both male and female, carrying baskets. In their midst, carried by four servants in an ornamental sedan-chair, sat a woman, the mistress, on red pillows under a colourful canopy. Siddhartha stopped at the entrance to the pleasure-garden and watched the parade, saw the servants, the maids, the baskets, saw the sedan-chair and saw the lady in it. Under black hair, which made to tower high on her head, he saw a very fair, very delicate, very smart face, a brightly red mouth, like a freshly cracked fig, eyebrows which were well tended and painted in a high arch, smart and watchful dark eyes, a clear, tall neck rising from a green and golden garment, resting fair hands, long and thin, with wide golden bracelets over the wrists.
Siddhartha saw how beautiful she was, and his heart rejoiced. He bowed deeply, when the sedan-chair came closer, and straightening up again, he looked at the fair, charming face, read for a moment in the smart eyes with the high arcs above, breathed in a slight fragrant, he did not know. With a smile, the beautiful women nodded for a moment and disappeared into the grove, and then the servant as well.
Thus I am entering this city, Siddhartha thought, with a charming omen. He instantly felt drawn into the grove, but he thought about it, and only now he became aware of how the servants and maids had looked at him at the entrance, how despicable, how distrustful, how rejecting.
I am still a Samana, he thought, I am still an ascetic and beggar. I must not remain like this, I will not be able to enter the grove like this. And he laughed.
The next person who came along this path he asked about the grove and for the name of the woman, and was told that this was the grove of Kamala, the famous courtesan, and that, aside from the grove, she owned a house in the city.
Then, he entered the city. Now he had a goal.
Pursuing his goal, he allowed the city to suck him in, drifted through the flow of the streets, stood still on the squares, rested on the stairs of stone by the river. When the evening came, he made friends with barber's assistant, whom he had seen working in the shade of an arch in a building, whom he found again praying in a temple of Vishnu, whom he told about stories of Vishnu and the Lakshmi. Among the boats by the river, he slept this night, and early in the morning, before the first customers came into his shop, he had the barber's assistant shave his beard and cut his hair, comb his hair and anoint it with fine oil. Then he went to take his bath in the river.
When late in the afternoon, beautiful Kamala approached her grove in her sedan-chair, Siddhartha was standing at the entrance, made a bow and received the courtesan's greeting. But that servant who walked at the very end of her train he motioned to him and asked him to inform his mistress that a young Brahman would wish to talk to her. After a while, the servant returned, asked him, who had been waiting, to follow him conducted him, who was following him, without a word into a pavilion, where Kamala was lying on a couch, and left him alone with her.
"Weren't you already standing out there yesterday, greeting me?" asked Kamala.
"It's true that I've already seen and greeted you yesterday."
"But didn't you yesterday wear a beard, and long hair, and dust in your hair?"
"You have observed well, you have seen everything. You have seen Siddhartha, the son of a Brahman, who has left his home to become a Samana, and who has been a Samana for three years. But now, I have left that path and came into this city, and the first one I met, even before I had entered the city, was you. To say this, I have come to you, oh Kamala! You are the first woman whom Siddhartha is not addressing with his eyes turned to the ground. Never again I want to turn my eyes to the ground, when I'm coming across a beautiful woman."
Kamala smiled and played with her fan of peacocks' feathers. And asked: "And only to tell me this, Siddhartha has come to me?"
"To tell you this and to thank you for being so beautiful. And if it doesn't displease you, Kamala, I would like to ask you to be my friend and teacher, for I know nothing yet of that art which you have mastered in the highest degree."
At this, Kamala laughed aloud.
在城郊一座圍着籬笆的美麗林苑旁，這個流浪漢遇見了一小羣男女僕人，手裏都提着籃子。中間是一乘四人擡的裝飾華麗的轎子，轎裏有一個女人，在色彩鮮豔的遮陽篷下端坐於紅色坐墊上，她顯然是女主人。席特哈爾塔在林苑的大門口停下，觀看這一行人走過，看見了男僕、女傭和籃子，看見了轎子，也看見了轎子裏的貴婦人。在高高聳起的烏髮下面，他看見了一張十分開朗、十分嬌柔和十分聰慧的臉，鮮紅的臉就好像一枚新剖開的無花果，眉毛被修整描畫成高高的弧形，烏黑的眼睛聰明而機警，光潔細長的脖子從綠金兩色的上衣中伸出，白皙的手修長秀氣，手腕上戴着寬寬的金鐲子。
席特哈爾塔看見她這麼美麗，心裏十分歡喜。轎子走近了，他深鞠一躬，然後直起身，又望着那張亮麗可愛的臉，朝那雙聰明的圓圓大眼盯視了一會兒，嗅到了一股從沒聞過的香氣。那個俏麗的女人微笑着點點頭，一會兒就消失在林苑時裏不見了，身後跟着那些僕人。
我走進這個城市，席特哈爾塔心想，想不到竟碰上這樣一個可愛的標誌。他真想立刻就走進林苑去，可是他沉吟了一下，猛然意識到那些男女僕人在大門口是怎樣打量他的，態度是多麼輕蔑，多麼狐疑，多麼不客氣。
我還是個沙門呢，他想，依然是苦行僧和乞丐。我可不能這麼站在這兒，也不能走進林苑去。他笑了。
他向路上走過來的一個人打聽這個林苑以及那位貴婦人的名字，瞭解到這是名妓卡瑪拉的林苑，除了這個林苑之外，她在城裏還另有一幢房子。
然後，他進了城。他現在有了一個目標。
他追隨着自己的目標出沒於這個城市，在大街小巷奔走，靜靜地站在廣場，在河邊的石階上歇息。傍晚時分，他認識了一個理髮館的夥計，先是看見他在一個拱門的暗影裏幹活兒，接着又碰上他在一個毗瑟（上奴下手）寺廟裏祈禱，他給那夥計講述了毗瑟（上奴下手）和吉祥天女的故事。當天夜裏，他睡在河邊的小船旁。第二天清早，在第一批顧客光顧之前，他主讓那個夥計給他颳了鬍子，剪了頭髮，並且梳理好，還抹上了頭油。然後，他又去河裏洗了澡。
下午，當美麗的卡瑪拉又坐着轎子走進林苑時，席特哈爾塔站在大門口向她鞠躬行禮，當然，他也得到了這位名妓的問候。他向走在隊列末尾的僕人示意，請他報告女主人，就說有個年輕的婆羅門要跟她談談。過了一會兒，那個僕人回來，叫席特哈爾塔隨他進去，然後就默默地領着他走進了一個樓閣，卡瑪拉正靠在一張沙發牀上，僕人留下他走開了。
“你不就是昨天站在大門口向我問好的那個人嗎？”卡瑪拉問。
“是的，我昨天見到了你，和你打了招呼。”
“可你昨天不是留着鬍子和頭髮，頭髮上也滿是灰塵嗎？”
“你看得真仔細，把什麼都看到了。你看到的人叫席特哈爾塔，婆羅門之子，離開家鄉當沙門，已當了三個沙門。可是現在，我已經離開了那條路，來到這座城市，而我在進城前碰到的第一個人就是你。哦，卡瑪拉，我來找你就是要告訴你這一點！你是使席特哈爾塔不再低垂眼睛說話的第一個女人。今後，我要是遇見漂亮的女人，再也不會低垂眼睛了！”
卡瑪拉微微一笑，手裏耍弄着她那把孔雀毛扇子，問道：“席特哈爾塔，你來見我，難道就是爲了跟我說這個？”
“是爲了跟你說這個，也爲了感謝你長得這麼漂亮。要是你不嫌棄的話，卡瑪拉，我想請你做我的朋友和老師，因爲我對藝術一竅不通，而你卻是這方面的大師。”
卡瑪拉聽罷大聲笑起來。
