巴別圖書(shū)館

The Library of Babel

巴別圖書(shū)館

Jorge Luis Borges

豪爾赫.路易斯.博爾赫斯

作者簡(jiǎn)介

豪爾赫.路易斯.博爾赫斯（Jorge Luis Borges，1899—1986），享譽(yù)世界的阿根廷詩(shī)人、翻譯家、小說(shuō)家，尤以短篇小說(shuō)著稱。他的短篇小說(shuō)構(gòu)思奇特、結(jié)構(gòu)精巧、情節(jié)荒誕且充滿幻想。此外，他的散文和藝術(shù)隨筆同樣成就不小。其代表作包括《小徑分岔的花園》（The Garden of Forking Paths）、《巴別圖書(shū)館》（The Library of Babel）、《博爾赫斯口述》（Borges Oral）等。

《巴別圖書(shū)館》是博爾赫斯用西班牙語(yǔ)寫(xiě)成的短篇小說(shuō)，最初收入1941年的小說(shuō)集《小徑分岔的花園》，后收入1944年的《虛構(gòu)集》（Fictions）。本文節(jié)選自1962年的英譯本。圖書(shū)館對(duì)博爾赫斯來(lái)說(shuō)有不同尋常的意義：他先是在米格爾.卡內(nèi)圖書(shū)館工作多年，后來(lái)?yè)?dān)任阿根廷國(guó)立圖書(shū)館館長(zhǎng)直至退休。他最為人熟知的名言“我心中一直暗暗設(shè)想，天堂該是圖書(shū)館的模樣”就與圖書(shū)館相關(guān)。

本文中，他以奇特的想象描繪了理想中的圖書(shū)館。在他的筆下，宇宙就是個(gè)圖書(shū)館，無(wú)窮無(wú)盡，極富變化。對(duì)愛(ài)書(shū)人來(lái)說(shuō)，這或許是最令人神往之事。

The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings. From any of the hexagons one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors. The distribution of the galleries is invariable. Twenty shelves, five long shelves per side, cover all the sides except two; their height, which is the distance from floor to ceiling, scarcely exceeds that of a normal bookcase. One of the free sides leads to a narrow hallway which opens onto another gallery, identical to the first and to all the rest. To the left and right of the hallway there are two very small closets. In the first, one may sleep standing up; in the other, satisfy one’s fecal necessities. Also through here passes a spiral stairway, which sinks abysmally and soars upwards to remote distances. In the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates all appearances. Men usually infer from this mirror that the Library is not infinite (If it were, why this illusory duplication?); I prefer to dream that its polished surfaces represent and promise the infinite...Light is provided by some spherical fruit which bear the name of lamps. There are two, transversally placed, in each hexagon. The light they emit is insufficient, incessant.

宇宙（也有人稱之為圖書(shū)館）由無(wú)窮無(wú)盡的六角書(shū)廊組成。書(shū)廊之間有巨大的通風(fēng)井，周圍是低矮的欄桿。從任何一個(gè)六角書(shū)廊放眼望去，皆可看見(jiàn)無(wú)限延伸的上下樓層。書(shū)廊的布置整齊劃一，每間都有20個(gè)書(shū)架。除了兩面墻之外，其余四面墻邊各有5個(gè)長(zhǎng)書(shū)架。每個(gè)書(shū)架都從地面一直頂?shù)教旎ò澹绕胀〞?shū)架略高一些。在沒(méi)有擺書(shū)架的其中一面墻上，有一條通往另一間六角書(shū)廊的狹窄走道。所有的六角書(shū)廊都一模一樣。走道左右有兩個(gè)很小的房間，一間可供人站著睡覺(jué)，另一間則做廁所使用。這里還有一座螺旋形的樓梯，上通碧落，下抵黃泉。走道中還有一面鏡子，能真實(shí)地復(fù)制一切。人們通常依此推斷，圖書(shū)館并非無(wú)限。（如果圖書(shū)館是無(wú)限的，為何還有復(fù)制的幻象？）我更樂(lè)于想象，鏡子光滑的表面反映了無(wú)盡，預(yù)示著無(wú)限……光線來(lái)自一些名叫“燈”的球狀物體。每個(gè)六角書(shū)廊都橫置著兩盞這樣的燈。它們發(fā)出的光線微弱而持久。

Like all men of the Library, I have traveled in my youth; I have wandered in search of a book, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues; now that my eyes can hardly decipher what I write, I am preparing to die just a few leagues from the hexagon in which I was born. Once I am dead, there will be no lack of pious hands to throw me over the railing; my grave will be the fathomless air; my body will sink endlessly and decay and dissolve in the wind generated by the fall, which is infinite. I say that the Library is unending. The idealists argue that the hexagonal rooms are a necessary form of absolute space or, at least, of our intuition of space. They reason that a triangular or pentagonal room is inconceivable. (The mystics claim that their ecstasy reveals to them a circular chamber containing a great circular book, whose spine is continuous and which follows the complete circle of the walls; but their testimony is suspect; their words, obscure. This cyclical book is God.) Let it suffice now for me to repeat the classic dictum: The Library is a sphere whose exact center is any one of its hexagons and whose circumference is inaccessible.

...

與圖書(shū)館里的所有人一樣，我年輕時(shí)也曾旅行。我曾為尋找一本書(shū)——或許是目錄的總目錄——而漫游；而如今，我已很難看清自己寫(xiě)下的文字，準(zhǔn)備在自己出生的六角書(shū)廊附近死去。我死后，將有虔誠(chéng)之手將我扔過(guò)欄桿；我的墓穴將是深不可測(cè)的天空；我的身體將不斷墜落，并在無(wú)限的墜落中隨風(fēng)而散，化為無(wú)形。我說(shuō)圖書(shū)館是無(wú)窮無(wú)盡的。理想主義者則聲稱，六角形房間是絕對(duì)空間[1]的必要形式，或者至少是人類空間直覺(jué)的必要形式。他們分析，三角形或五角形的房間是不可思議的。（神秘主義者則宣稱，他們?cè)诿曰脿顟B(tài)下看見(jiàn)一個(gè)環(huán)形的房間，里面有一本環(huán)形的大書(shū)，它的書(shū)脊沿著環(huán)形墻壁連續(xù)不斷。但他們的證詞十分可疑；他們的話語(yǔ)含糊不清。這本循環(huán)的書(shū)是上帝。）現(xiàn)在讓我重申那句經(jīng)典格言：圖書(shū)館是個(gè)球體，以任意六角書(shū)廊為圓心，圓周長(zhǎng)不可測(cè)。

……

Five hundred years ago, the chief of an upper hexagon came upon a book as confusing as the others, but which had nearly two pages of homogeneous lines. He showed his find to a wandering decoder who told him the lines were written in Portuguese; others said they were Yiddish. Within a century, the language was established: a Samoyedic Lithuanian dialect of Guarani, with classical Arabian inflections. The content was also deciphered: some notions of combinative analysis, illustrated with examples of variations with unlimited repetition. These examples made it possible for a librarian of genius to discover the fundamental law of the Library. This thinker observed that all the books, no matter how diverse they might be, are made up of the same elements: the space, the period, the comma, the twenty-two letters of the alphabet. He also alleged a fact which travelers have confirmed: In the vast Library there are no two identical books. From these two incontrovertible premises he deduced that the Library is total and that its shelves register all the possible combinations of the twenty-odd orthographical symbols (a number which, though extremely vast, is not infinite): Everything: the minutely detailed history of the future, the archangels’ autobiographies, the faithful catalogues of the Library, thousands and thousands of false catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of those catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of the true catalogue, the Gnostic gospel of Basilides, the commentary on that gospel, the commentary on the commentary on that gospel, the true story of your death, the translation of every book in all languages, the interpolations of every book in all books.

500年前，上層六角書(shū)廊的主管偶然看見(jiàn)一本像其他書(shū)一樣令人費(fèi)解的書(shū)，但其中近兩頁(yè)中的句子是類似的。他向一位云游四海的破譯員請(qǐng)教自己的發(fā)現(xiàn)。那個(gè)人告訴他，這些句子是葡萄牙語(yǔ)寫(xiě)成的；也有人認(rèn)為那是意第緒語(yǔ)。一個(gè)世紀(jì)之內(nèi)，那種語(yǔ)言得到了確認(rèn)——薩摩耶——立陶宛語(yǔ)的瓜拉尼方言，帶有傳統(tǒng)阿拉伯語(yǔ)的屈折變化。句子內(nèi)容也得到了破譯：一些綜合分析的概念，用無(wú)限重復(fù)又有變化的事例加以闡釋。這些事例使得一位天才圖書(shū)館員發(fā)現(xiàn)了圖書(shū)館的基本法則。這位思考者發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有的書(shū)無(wú)論有多大差別，都由相同的要素組成：空格、句號(hào)、逗號(hào)和字母表里的22個(gè)字母。他還指出了一個(gè)已得到旅行者確認(rèn)的事實(shí)：浩瀚無(wú)邊的圖書(shū)館里，沒(méi)有兩本完全相同的書(shū)。從這兩個(gè)無(wú)可爭(zhēng)議的前提出發(fā)，他得出了結(jié)論：圖書(shū)館無(wú)所不包，架上的書(shū)窮盡了20多個(gè)書(shū)寫(xiě)符號(hào)的一切組合。（這個(gè)數(shù)字盡管龐大，卻并非無(wú)窮。）這些字母組合能表達(dá)一切，包括未來(lái)的詳盡歷史、天使長(zhǎng)的自傳、圖書(shū)館的真實(shí)書(shū)目、成千上萬(wàn)的偽書(shū)目、對(duì)偽書(shū)目中問(wèn)題的論證、對(duì)真書(shū)目中問(wèn)題的論證、巴西里德斯的諾斯底福音[2]、對(duì)這個(gè)福音的評(píng)論、對(duì)這些評(píng)論的評(píng)論、關(guān)于你死亡的真相、每本書(shū)的所有語(yǔ)言的譯本以及所有書(shū)里的增補(bǔ)部分。

When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified; the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope. At that time a great deal was said about the Vindications: books of apology and prophecy which vindicated for all time the acts of every man in the universe and retained prodigious arcana for his future. Thousands of the greedy abandoned their sweet native hexagons and rushed up the stairways, urged on by the vain intention of finding their Vindication. These pilgrims disputed in the narrow corridors, proffered dark curses, strangled each other on the divine stairways, flung the deceptive books into the air shafts, met their death cast down in a similar fashion by the inhabitants of remote regions. Others went mad…The Vindications exist (I have seen two which refer to persons of the future, to persons who are perhaps not imaginary) but the searchers did not remember that the possibility of a man’s finding his Vindication, or some treacherous variation thereof, can be computed as zero.

人們得知圖書(shū)館收藏了所有的書(shū)時(shí)，第一反應(yīng)便是感到幸福滿溢。所有人都覺(jué)得自己是一座保存完好的神秘寶庫(kù)的主人。所有的私人問(wèn)題或關(guān)于世界的疑問(wèn)都能在某些六角書(shū)廊里找到可靠的解答。宇宙合理化了，人類希望的無(wú)限維度卻突然受到了宇宙的限制。那時(shí)有很多用于辯護(hù)的書(shū)：懺悔書(shū)和預(yù)言書(shū)。那些書(shū)總是為宇宙中每個(gè)人的行為辯解，并記錄著有關(guān)每個(gè)人未來(lái)的奧秘。成千上萬(wàn)貪婪的人試圖為自己尋找辯護(hù)。受到這種徒勞企圖的驅(qū)使，他們放棄了自己溫馨的六角書(shū)廊，沖上樓梯。這些朝圣者在狹窄的走道里爭(zhēng)論不休，惡語(yǔ)相向，在神圣的樓梯上相互廝殺，把騙人的書(shū)本扔進(jìn)通風(fēng)管。他們自己則被遠(yuǎn)方居民以同樣的方式扔進(jìn)通風(fēng)管，死于非命。還有些人瘋了……辯護(hù)確實(shí)存在。（我看見(jiàn)過(guò)兩本關(guān)于未來(lái)人類的辯護(hù)書(shū)，那些人不像是虛構(gòu)出來(lái)的。）但搜索者忘記了一點(diǎn)：找到為自己辯護(hù)的書(shū)，或是一些不可靠的替代品的可能性可能為零。

At that time it was also hoped that a clarification of humanity’s basic mysteries—the origin of the Library and of time—might be found. It is verisimilar that these grave mysteries could be explained in words: if the language of philosophers is not sufficient, the multiform Library will have produced the unprecedented language required, with its vocabularies and grammars. For four centuries now men have exhausted the hexagons...There are official searchers, inquisitors. I have seen them in the performance of their function: they always arrive extremely tired from their journeys; they speak of a broken stairway which almost killed them; they talk with the librarian of galleries and stairs; sometimes they pick up the nearest volume and leaf through it, looking for infamous words. Obviously, no one expects to discover anything.

As was natural, this inordinate hope was followed by an excessive depression. The certitude that some shelf in some hexagon held precious books and that these precious books were inaccessible, seemed almost intolerable. A blasphemous sect suggested that the searches should cease and that all men should juggle letters and symbols until they constructed, by an improbable gift of chance, these canonical books. The authorities were obliged to issue severe orders. The sect disappeared, but in my childhood I have seen old men who, for long periods of time, would hide in the latrines with some metal disks in a forbidden dice cup and feebly mimic the divine disorder.

那時(shí)，人們還希望找到對(duì)人類基本奧秘——圖書(shū)館和時(shí)間起源——的解釋。這些嚴(yán)肅的奧秘似乎真的可以用文字解釋：如果哲學(xué)家的語(yǔ)言不足以表達(dá)，那么，各種各樣的圖書(shū)館會(huì)提供所需的語(yǔ)言，一種前所未見(jiàn)的語(yǔ)言，包含詞匯和語(yǔ)法。400年來(lái)，人們已踏遍所有六角書(shū)廊……官方搜索者被稱為“稽查員”。我見(jiàn)過(guò)他們工作的情形：他們到達(dá)目的地時(shí)總是筋疲力盡；他們談起斷裂的樓梯差點(diǎn)害自己?jiǎn)拭?；他們與圖書(shū)館員談?wù)摃?shū)廊和樓梯；他們有時(shí)會(huì)拿起身邊的書(shū)隨意翻閱，尋找傷風(fēng)敗俗的字眼。顯然，他們不指望能發(fā)現(xiàn)什么。

自然而然，過(guò)分的希望帶來(lái)的是極度的失望。一種篤定的觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，某個(gè)六角書(shū)廊的某個(gè)書(shū)架上藏有珍本，但這些珍本人手難及。這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)似乎讓人難以接受。一個(gè)褻瀆神明的教派建議人們停止搜索，提議所有人隨意擺弄字母和符號(hào)，直到它們?cè)诓惶赡艿臋C(jī)緣巧合中組合成符合教義的書(shū)。官方被迫頒布嚴(yán)格的法令。這個(gè)教派消失了。但在我小時(shí)候的很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間里，我曾見(jiàn)過(guò)老人躲在廁所里，用被禁的骰盅搖著金屬片，有氣無(wú)力地模擬神界的混亂。

Others, inversely, believed that it was fundamental to eliminate useless works. They invaded the hexagons, showed credentials which were not always false, leafed through a volume with displeasure and condemned whole shelves: their hygienic, ascetic furor caused the senseless perdition of millions of books. Their name is execrated, but those who deplore the “treasures” destroyed by this frenzy neglect two notable facts. One: the Library is so enormous that any reduction of human origin is infinitesimal. The other: every copy is unique, irreplaceable, but (since the Library is total) there are always several hundred thousand imperfect facsimiles: works which differ only in a letter or a comma. Counter to general opinion, I venture to suppose that the consequences of the Purifiers’ depredations have been exaggerated by the horror these fanatics produced. They were urged on by the delirium of trying to reach the books in the Crimson Hexagon: books whose format is smaller than usual, all-powerful, illustrated and magical.

相反，另一些人相信根除沒(méi)用的書(shū)是關(guān)鍵。他們闖進(jìn)六角書(shū)廊，出示或真或假的身份證件，滿懷怒氣地翻翻一本書(shū)，然后給所有的書(shū)架定罪。他們衛(wèi)道士、苦行僧般的狂熱，導(dǎo)致上百萬(wàn)本書(shū)莫名其妙地毀于一旦。他們的名字遭人咒罵，但那些譴責(zé)“珍寶”毀于狂熱的人，忽視了兩個(gè)明顯的事實(shí)。其一，圖書(shū)館如此龐大，任何人為的削減都微不足道。其二，每本書(shū)都獨(dú)一無(wú)二、無(wú)可替代，但由于圖書(shū)館無(wú)所不包，總能找到幾十萬(wàn)本略有瑕疵的復(fù)制品。它們與原書(shū)的差別，不過(guò)是一個(gè)字母或一個(gè)逗號(hào)。我斗膽設(shè)想——這個(gè)設(shè)想與人們普遍的觀點(diǎn)相反——這些清道夫蹂躪書(shū)籍帶來(lái)的影響，被狂熱分子營(yíng)造的恐怖氣氛夸大了。他們受到狂熱的驅(qū)使，試圖得到深紅色六角書(shū)廊中的書(shū)。那些書(shū)的開(kāi)本略小于普通書(shū)籍，書(shū)中蘊(yùn)含無(wú)窮力量，配有插圖，帶有魔力。

We also know of another superstition of that time: that of the Man of the Book. On some shelf in some hexagon (men reasoned) there must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest: some librarian has gone through it and he is analogous to a god. In the language of this zone vestiges of this remote functionary’s cult still persist. Many wandered in search of Him. For a century they have exhausted in vain the most varied areas. How could one locate the venerated and secret hexagon which housed Him? Someone proposed a regressive method: To locate book A, consult first book B which indicates A’s position; to locate book B, consult first a book C, and so on to infinity...In adventures such as these, I have squandered and wasted my years. It does not seem unlikely to me that there is a total book on some shelf of the universe; I pray to the unknown gods that a man—just one, even though it were thousands of years ago! —may have examined and read it. If honor and wisdom and happiness are not for me, let them be for others. Let heaven exist, though my place be in hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but for one instant, in one being, let Your enormous Library be justified.

...

我們還知道那時(shí)的另一種迷信，即相信存在“書(shū)人”。（人們推斷）在某個(gè)六角書(shū)廊的某個(gè)書(shū)架上，存在這樣一本書(shū)——這本書(shū)是其余所有書(shū)的模板和完美綱要。某位圖書(shū)館員曾讀過(guò)此書(shū)，而后變得近似于神。對(duì)這個(gè)人的古老的狂熱崇拜，在此區(qū)域遺留的語(yǔ)言中仍然存在。許多人四處尋找這個(gè)人。一個(gè)世紀(jì)以來(lái)，他們筋疲力盡地走遍各地，卻一無(wú)所獲。如何找到他住過(guò)的那間受人崇敬的神秘六角書(shū)廊？有人提議用倒推法：為了找到甲書(shū)，先查看標(biāo)出甲書(shū)位置的乙書(shū)；為找乙書(shū)，先看丙書(shū)；以此類推，直至無(wú)窮……在這樣的探索中，我揮霍了多少光陰。在我看來(lái)，在宇宙的某個(gè)書(shū)架上，確實(shí)有一本無(wú)所不包之書(shū)。我向未知的神明禱告，祈盼已有人調(diào)查并讀過(guò)此書(shū)——哪怕只有一個(gè)人，哪怕是在數(shù)千年之前。讓榮譽(yù)、智慧、幸福屬于別人吧——如果它們不屬于我。讓天堂存在吧，即使我身處地獄。讓我遭受侮辱、陷入毀滅吧，只要有那么一瞬，通過(guò)一人之身，能證明偉大的圖書(shū)館確實(shí)存在。

……

The methodical task of writing distracts me from the present state of men. The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms. I know of districts in which the young men prostrate themselves before books and kiss their pages in a barbarous manner, but they do not know how to decipher a single letter. Epidemics, heretical conflicts, peregrinations which inevitably degenerate into banditry, have decimated the population. I believe I have mentioned suicides, more and more frequent with the years. Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species—the unique species—is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.

I have just written the word “infinite.” I have not interpolated this adjective out of rhetorical habit; I say that it is not illogical to think that the world is infinite. Those who judge it to be limited postulate that in remote places the corridors and stairways and hexagons can conceivably come to an end—which is absurd. Those who imagine it to be without limit forget that the possible number of books does have such a limit. I venture to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order).

有條不紊的寫(xiě)作任務(wù)讓我不再關(guān)注人類的現(xiàn)狀。一種篤定的觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，萬(wàn)物都已被寫(xiě)盡。這種觀點(diǎn)抹殺了人類的存在，或?qū)⑽覀兓癁榛糜?。我知道在有些地方，年輕人拜倒在書(shū)前，粗野地親吻書(shū)頁(yè)，但他們一個(gè)字母都不認(rèn)識(shí)。傳染病、異教沖突以及游歷不可避免地導(dǎo)致盜寇橫行，使人口數(shù)量驟減。我相信，我提到了近年來(lái)愈發(fā)頻繁的自殺行為?；蛟S高齡和恐懼欺騙了我，但我懷疑，人類這個(gè)獨(dú)一無(wú)二的物種將走向滅亡，圖書(shū)館卻將永存——它發(fā)出光芒、遺世獨(dú)立、無(wú)窮無(wú)盡、安然靜止，深藏?zé)o用、不朽、秘密的珍貴書(shū)籍。

我剛寫(xiě)下“無(wú)窮無(wú)盡”這個(gè)詞。我插入這個(gè)形容詞，并非出于修辭的習(xí)慣；我認(rèn)為，“世界無(wú)邊無(wú)際”這個(gè)想法合乎邏輯。那些認(rèn)為“世界有限”的人假設(shè)在某個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的地方，走道、樓梯、六角書(shū)廊都有盡頭——這真是荒謬。那些想象“世界無(wú)限”的人，忘記了書(shū)籍的數(shù)量或許有限。我斗膽為這個(gè)古老的問(wèn)題給出解答：圖書(shū)館沒(méi)有止境且周而復(fù)始。如果一位永生的旅行者朝任意方向穿越圖書(shū)館，許多個(gè)世紀(jì)之后，他會(huì)看見(jiàn)同樣的書(shū)以同樣的無(wú)序再次出現(xiàn)。（這種無(wú)序一旦重復(fù)，便形成了秩序，即“規(guī)律”。）

我懷疑，人類這個(gè)獨(dú)一無(wú)二的物種將走向滅亡，圖書(shū)館卻將永存——它發(fā)出光芒、遺世獨(dú)立、無(wú)窮無(wú)盡、安然靜止，深藏?zé)o用、不朽、秘密的珍貴書(shū)籍。

Jorge Luis Borges 豪爾赫?路易斯?博爾赫斯

[1] 物理學(xué)概念，牛頓認(rèn)為宇宙中存在一個(gè)與任何物體均無(wú)相互作用，而且永遠(yuǎn)靜止的空間，即“絕對(duì)空間”。

[2] 諾斯底福音，受諾斯底派影響寫(xiě)成的福音書(shū)，被正統(tǒng)教派視為異端和“偽福音”。