《道林·格雷的画像》是一部充满魔幻色彩的小说。天生俊美异常的道林·格雷因看见了画家霍尔沃德给他画的和本人一样大的肖像,发现了自己的惊人之美,又听信了亨利勋爵的吹嘘,开始为自己的韶华易逝,美貌难以持久这样的事实而感到痛苦。他希望那幅画像可以代替自己承担岁月和心灵的负担,而自己却保持青春貌美。而这个不切实际的愿望却莫名其妙地得以实现。一天晚上,他粗暴地对待了自己爱的女演员西比尔·韦恩,回到家里他就发现画像上出现了残忍的表情——原来画像开始随着道林·格雷心灵的变化而改变了。第二天,西比尔·韦恩因失恋自杀,格雷却在亨利勋爵的花言巧语下将韦恩的死看成是一个浪漫故事。从此他便一天一天堕落,干了许多腐朽不堪的事情,把身边的朋友情人都一一弄得身败名裂。而画像也随之变得愈加丑陋狰狞。后来他杀死了好友——画家霍尔沃德,并销毁其尸体。他曾经的恋人西比尔·韦恩的弟弟在二十年后来找他算帐,但却莫名其妙地意外身亡。画像成了他的护身符,代替了他承受所有的罪恶,而他依旧青春韶秀。格雷希望自己的罪恶永远免于败露,于是打算毁掉记录了他衰败的容貌和罪行的画像。就在他把刀子插进画像的同时,他却横死在自己的手上。
《道林·格雷的画像》是英国“唯美主义”艺术运动倡导人奥斯卡·王尔德的唯一一部小说。奥斯卡·王尔德(1854—1900),剧作家、诗人、散文家,是19世纪与大剧作家萧伯纳齐名的英国才子。其作品中,如The Happy Prince(《快乐王子》)、The Nightingale and the Rose(《夜莺与蔷薇》)、The Devoted Friend(《忠实的朋友》)都是脍炙人口的名篇。
本篇节选自《道林·格雷的画像》的最后一章。
It was a lovely night, so warm that he threw his coat over his arm and did not even put his silk scarf round his throat. As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young men in evening dress passed him. He heard one of them whisper to the other, “That is Dorian Gray.” He remembered how pleased he used to be when he was pointed out, or stared at, or talked about. He was tired of hearing his own name now.
When he reached home, he found his servant waiting up for him. He sent him to bed, and threw himself down on the sofa in the library, and began to think over some of the things that Lord Henry had said to him. Was it really true that one could never change? He felt a wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood—his rose-white boyhood, as Lord Henry had once called it. He knew that he had1)tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and 2)given horror to his fancy. The curiously carved mirror that Lord Henry had given to him, so many years ago now, was standing on the table, and the white-limbed Cupids laughed round it as of old. He took it up, as he had done on that night of horror when he had first noted the change in the fatal picture, and with wild, tear- 3)dimmed eyes looked into its polished shield. Then he 4)loathed his own beauty, and 5)flinging the mirror on the floor, crushed it into silver 6)splinters beneath his heel. It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for. But for those two things, his life might have been free from stain. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery. What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts. Why had he worn its 7)livery? Youth had spoiled him.
He took the lamp from the table and crept upstairs. As he unbarred the door, a smile of joy 8)flitted across his strangely young-looking face and lingered for a moment about his lips.
那是个宜人的夜晚,暖暖的,于是他把外套搭在手臂上,连丝巾也没围上。当他抽着烟散步回家时,两个穿着晚礼服的年轻男子与他擦肩而过。他听见其中一个向同伴低声说道:“那就是道林·格雷。”这要放在以前,被人认出,或凝视,或谈论时,会让他得意开怀。然而现在,他对别人提起他的名字只感到厌烦。
到家时,他发现仆人正在等他。他让仆人回去休息,然后就瘫倒在书房的沙发上,回想亨利勋爵对他说过的那些话。难道一个人真的就永远都无法改变吗?(编者注:此指“走回正道”)他抑制不住内心对重返纯真少年时代的渴望——像亨利勋爵曾经形容的那样,他那如白玫瑰那般纯洁的少年时代。他知道自己已经满身污秽,现在他脑子里充斥的都是堕落和假象所带来的恐惧。亨利勋爵多年前赠送给他的那个有着奇特雕花的镜子,此刻立在桌上,那个白色羽翼的丘比特仍像过往那样地笑着。他拿起镜子看着里面的映像,就像那个恐怖的夜晚,他第一次发现那幅关乎到他命运的画像上的变化后那般,用疯狂的泪眼注视这光滑的镜面。他开始憎恶自己的美貌了,将镜子摔到地上,然后用脚将它踩得粉碎。毁掉他的就是他的美貌,他一直全心渴求的美貌和青春。如果不是这两样东西,他的生命也许还是纯洁无暇的。如今,他的美貌于他来说,只是一个假面,而他的青春则成了一个笑话。青春归根到底是什么?青涩、未尽成熟的时期,心绪浅淡、思想病态的日子。为什么他偏要披着这青春的躯壳?青春早已毁掉了他。
他从桌上拿起油灯,轻轻地走上楼去。当他开门的时候,一抹笑意掠过他那年轻得异常的脸蛋,在他的嘴角停留了片刻。
……