盲演员

A Blind Actor

周志俊

Zhou Zhijun

“别动！……叫你别动就别动！”

"Don't move it! Don't move it, I tell you!"

“动一个“裤脚管’有什么？”

"I've just moved 'the trouser legs' a little. What of it?"

“什么‘裤脚管’？！”

"What ‘trouser legs’?! "

我不知道是哪根神经的传导，使这位双目失明的演员知道我在偷偷撩动翼幕。我习惯叫翼幕为“裤脚管”，这使他很生气，粘着的胡子簌簌发抖，要不是化了妆，肯定是张铁青的脸。

I didn't know which of his nerves told this blind actor that I was stealthily moving the side curtains. My habit of calling the side curtains "trouser legs" irritated him to such an extent that his artificial whiskers quivered. I was sure that under the make-up his face must be black with anger.

以他的艺龄，完全可以做做剧院艺术顾问的事了，多省心！但他说一个演员不能离开舞台，也许到死！于是每逢他演出，院长派我负贵他的安全：上场、下场……

He deserved the position of art adviser in the troupe for the long years he had been working there. What a comfortably easy job it would have been for him! But ire claimed an artist should remain on the stage till death. So I was appointed by the director to see to his safety whenever he went on stage.

舞台上的翼幕，什么时候开始被叫做“裤脚管”，无人能回答亡但的确有这样的事，有些演员常在吃食后，便把它当做抹布擦手；下场时，为了少走两步，把“裤脚管”一撩，走个斜线就下妆去了。这些他现在已看不到了。这一次为了怕翼幕绊住他的脚，我才撩了一下，不幸落在我的身上，我心里嘟嚷着：“摔着活该！”

No one could say when the side curtains on the stage came to be called the "trouser leg." In fact, some actors would use them as napkins after snacks, and others would lift them to take a short cut off the stage. All this he could no longer see. I had held u the side curtain just in time to keels him from tripping over it, and this was what I got in return from him." It serves you right if you stumbled on it!" I cursed to myself.

他很生气地问起是谁给神圣的舞台上的翼幕取了“裤脚管”的名字，他那无光却仍有魅力的眼睛，突然涌出两颗泪珠，挂在眼角上，不落下来……

With tears brimming in his sightless yet still attractive eyes, he angrily demanded to know who nicknamed the sacred side curtains "trouser legs."

那是在他还未失明时候的事了，剧院门口贴着“庙小妖风大，池浅王八多”的对联，横批是“老朽滚蛋”。可是几个年轻人，演出就困难了。于是打着“落实政策”的幌子，把他解放出来，当舞台监督兼跑个不出声的群众。但他的好年月仪仅不到一个月，也就为了这条“裤脚管”，有人当主角，一出场就把翼幕一撩，亮相，下场一撩，表示帅劲儿。这些被池看在眼里，忘了“老老实实改造”的训示，在大庭广众面前就吼了起来，造反派组织了“现场批斗会”，狠狠斗这条“翻天”的“牛”。

This incident occurred during the Cultural Revolution when he still had his eyesight. At the door of the theater hung a couplet which read: "A small temple with strong evil wind; A shallow pond with many bad tortoises." Between the vertical couplet stretched the horizontal streamer which read: "Away with old scoundrels." At that time only a few young actors were allowed to perform on the stage. It was almost impossible for them to give any good performances. So this veteran actor was soon "liberated" under the pretest of "implementing the policies" and was made stage manager with the concurrent job of playing silent minor roles on the stage. However, this job which kept him free lasted no more than a month. It was ail because of "the trouser legs" incident. Some leading actors used to hold up one of the side curtains to strike a pose when going on the stage and hold it up again to show off when leaving the stage. When he saw such behavior he forgot the directive of "remoulding in real earnest' and roared with indignation at these actors. A public meeting wits held on the spot by the rebels to severely denounce this "ox" who wanted to "overturn heaven.”

“打倒斯坦尼的孝子贤孙！”

"Down with the filial son of Stanislavsky!"

他心爱的学生，还把老师在牛棚里偷偷写成的《论舞台艺术的整体性》霍地甩了出来，于是现场像热油锅里掉进盐粒，沸起来了。

Then suddenly one of the old actor's favorite students flung out the article, On the Integrity of Stage An, which the old actor had written in secret when he was confined in the "ox shed". This set the whole audience boiling as if salt had been poured into a pot of hot oil.

“在牛棚里还写黑文毒害人！”

"He even dared to write reactionary articles in the 'ox shed' to poison people's minds!"

一张张的地下文字，变成了碎片，在他脚下飞舞，他低着头，看见纸片上的字渐渐小去，小去，他复发了青光眼……

Viciously they tore up all the streets of his article and scattered the pieces swirling around the old actor's feet. Bending his head, he watched the words on the scraps of paper becoming fainter and fainter until he could see no mare because of a relapse of glaucoma.

他对我抱歉地说，他看不得别人对艺术事业的糟蹋。他伸手摸起桌上一个照相架，里面是一张他扮演老工人的剧照，相框是古铜色雕花的。

The old veteran then told me as if in apology that he couldn't bear to see art maltreated. Fumbling on the table, he took up a carved bronze-colored photo frame containing a stage photo of himself as a Veteran worker.

“一个完整的艺术品，应当包括这个框架。翼幕就是舞台框子。假使把翼幕当成‘裤脚管’，随便破坏它，那我们怎么能称得上是人类灵魂的工程师呢！”

He said to me, "A complete work of art should include the frame as well. The side curtains are a part of the stage frame. If we treat them as 'trouser legs' and abuse them at will, how can we actors deserve to be referred to as 'the engineers of the human soul'?"

我真希望他现在能眼睛豁亮起来，让他看到我的泪水，我的忏悔。他看见了，因为他没有再说下去。

How I wished he could see again! He would see my regretful tears. Yes, he did see all too clearly, for he abruptly broke off.

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