同行者

August 28th, 1931

1931年8月28日

The next day in the afternoon four of us started out for the hop-fields. The most interesting of the men with me was a youth named Ginger, who is still my mate when I write this. He is a strong, athletic youth of twenty six, almost illiterate and quite brainless, but daring enough for anything. Except when in prison, he has probably broken the law every day for the last five years. As a boy he did three years in Borstal，came out, married at eighteen on the strength of a successful burglary, and shortly afterwards enlisted in the artillery. His wife died, and a little while afterwards he had an accident to his left eye and was invalided out of the service. They offered him a pension or a lump sum, and of course he chose the lump sum and blew it all in about a week. After that he took to burglary again and has been in prison six times, but never for a long sentence, as they have only caught him for small jobs; he has done one or two jobs which brought him over ￡ 500. He has always been perfectly honest towards me, as his partner, but in a general way he will steal anything that is not tied down. I doubt his ever being a successful burglar, though, for he is too stupid to be able to foresee risks. It is all a great pity, for he could earn a decent living for he chose. He has a gift for street selling, and has done a lot of jobs at selling on commission, but when he has had a good day he bolts instantly with the takings. He is a marvelous hand at picking up bargains and can always, for instance, persuade the butcher to give him a pound of eatable meat for two pence, yet at the same time he is an absolute fool about money, and never saves a halfpenny. He is given to singing songs of the Little Grey Home in the West type, and he speaks of his dead wife and mother in terms of the most touching sentimentality. I should think he is a fairly typical petty criminal.

第二天下午我們四人開(kāi)始啟程，前往種植著蛇麻草的田地。和我同行的人中最有趣的一個(gè)叫金格，當(dāng)我寫(xiě)下這些文字的時(shí)候他仍然和我在一起。他26歲，體格強(qiáng)健，朝氣蓬勃，幾乎一字不識(shí)，笨頭笨腦，但是敢于冒險(xiǎn)，敢做任何事。除了在監(jiān)獄的日子，他在過(guò)去5年中可能天天都在干著違法的勾當(dāng)。年少時(shí)，他在少年犯感化院待了3年，出來(lái)后憑借一次成功的盜竊在18歲時(shí)娶了妻子，后來(lái)當(dāng)了炮兵。他妻子死后不久，由于一次事故，他左眼受傷，不能繼續(xù)留在軍中，從此傷殘退役。軍隊(duì)給他提供撫恤金，有月付和一次付清兩種選擇，他選了后者，一周不到就揮霍耗盡。此后他又重操舊業(yè)，開(kāi)始行竊，到如今已經(jīng)蹲過(guò)6次監(jiān)獄，但每次都判刑不長(zhǎng)，因?yàn)樗麄冎皇且驗(yàn)樾⊥敌∶端?。他曾?jīng)搶劫一兩次，撈到了500多英鎊。因?yàn)槲沂撬耐?，他向?lái)都對(duì)我開(kāi)誠(chéng)布公?？偟恼f(shuō)來(lái)，任何東西他都會(huì)順手牽羊。但我懷疑他是否是一位成功的竊賊，因?yàn)樗^(guò)于愚蠢，無(wú)法預(yù)知風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。我覺(jué)得只要他愿意，他是可以過(guò)上體面生活的，這實(shí)屬一大憾事。他天生擅長(zhǎng)做街頭買賣，曾經(jīng)好些次得到了銷售提成呢。但是一旦有點(diǎn)好日子，他立即逃之夭夭。他還是一個(gè)能買到便宜貨的頂級(jí)好手，例如，他總能說(shuō)服屠夫給他一磅肉，而只花兩分錢。但與此同時(shí)，對(duì)于錢財(cái)他卻是一個(gè)十足的傻瓜，從來(lái)不會(huì)存得半分半子兒。 他會(huì)傾情演唱和《西邊的灰色小屋》類似的感傷歌曲，當(dāng)他提起死去的妻子和母親時(shí)，也總是聲淚俱下，悲痛萬(wàn)分。我想他是一個(gè)極為典型的小罪犯。

Of the other two, one was a boy of twenty named Young Ginger, who seemed rather a likely lad, but he was an orphan and had had no kind of upbringing, and lived the last year chiefly on Trafalgar Square. The other was a little Liverpool Jew of eighteen, a thorough guttersnipe. I do not know when I have seen anyone who disgusted me so much as this boy. He was as greedy as a pig about food, perpetually scrounging around dustbins, and he had a face that recalled some low-down carrion-eating beast. And we could never persuade him to wash more of himself than his nose and a small circle round it, and he mentioned quite casually that he had several different kinds of louse on him. He too was an orphan, and had been "on the toby" almost from infancy.

至于其他兩個(gè)同伴，一個(gè)20歲，名叫小金格，他看上去像個(gè)放蕩不羈的小伙， 他是個(gè)孤兒，沒(méi)有多少教養(yǎng)，過(guò)去一年主要在特拉法加廣場(chǎng)上度過(guò)。另外一個(gè)是一個(gè)利物浦的猶太人，18歲，完全是個(gè)流浪漢。在我見(jiàn)過(guò)的所有人中，我不知道是否還有比他更令我作嘔的人了。他對(duì)食物貪婪得像豬一般，總是不停地在垃圾桶邊轉(zhuǎn)悠他的臉讓我想起某種低賤的以腐肉為生的野獸。我們絕不可能勸服他把自己洗漱干凈，他洗臉時(shí)總是只洗自己的鼻子和鼻子周圍一圈的范圍。他非常若無(wú)其事地跟我們講他身上長(zhǎng)著幾種不同類別的虱子。他也是一個(gè)孤兒，幾乎從嬰兒起就流落街頭。