The Smile

微笑

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other―it doesn’t matter who it is―and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.

經常保持笑容，對你的另一半、你的孩子微笑，甚至對陌生人也不要吝惜你的微笑，因為小小的微笑就能大大增進人與人之間的感情。 ――泰瑞莎修女

Many Americans are familiar with The Little Prince, a wonderful book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a whimsical and fabulous book and works as a children’s story as well as a thought-provoking adult fable. Far fewer are aware of Saint-Exupery’s other writings, novels and short stories.

法國作家安東尼-圣艾修伯里所寫的《小王子》是本很多美國人都很熟悉的極好的書。這本書表面上看來是童話故事，但世故的成人讀來也覺寓意深遠。很少人知道，除了《小王子》，圣艾修伯里還創作過其他小說和短篇故事。

Saint-Exupery was a fighter pilot who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before World War II, he fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. He wrote a fascinating story based on that experience entitled The Smile. It is this story which I’d like to share with you now. It isn’t clear whether or not he meant this to be autobiographical or fiction. I choose to believe it to be the former.

圣艾修伯里是名飛行員，二次大戰對抗納粹時被擊落身亡，之前他也曾參加西班牙內戰打擊法西斯分子。他根據這次經驗寫了一篇精彩的故事――《微笑》，現在要提的就是這篇作品。這是真實故事或是虛構事情，沒人能下定論，但我寧可相信這是作者的親身體驗。

He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemptuous looks and rough treatment he received from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I’ll tell the story as I remember it in my own words.

故事的前段大意是作者被敵軍俘虜，關進監牢。看守監獄的人一臉兇相，態度極為惡劣。他心想，明天絕對會被拖出去槍斃。以下是我記憶中的故事原文。

“I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught. I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those.

“一想到自己明天就沒命了，不禁陷入極端的惶恐與不安。我翻遍了口袋，終于找到一支沒被他們搜走的香煙，但我的手緊張得不停發抖，連將煙送進嘴里都成問題，而我的火柴也在搜身時被拿走了。

“I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him ‘Have you got a light?’ He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.

“我透過鐵欄望著外面的警衛，他并沒有注意到我在看他，也許對他而言，我只是他看守的一樣‘物品’、一具‘尸體’。我叫了他一聲：‘能跟你借個火嗎?’他轉頭望著我，聳了聳肩，然后走了過來，點燃我的香煙

“As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.

“當他幫我點火時，他的眼光無意中與我的相接觸，這時我突然沖著他微笑。我不知道自己為何有這般反應，也許是過于緊張，或者是當你如此靠近另一個人，你很難不對他微笑。不管是何理由，我對他笑了。就在這一剎那，這抹微笑如同火花般，打破了我們心靈間的隔閡。受到了我的感染，他的嘴角不自覺地也現出了笑容，雖然我知道他原無此意。他點完火后并沒立刻離開，兩眼盯著我瞧，臉上仍帶著微笑。

“I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension, too. ‘Do you have kids?’ he asked.

“我也以笑容回應，仿佛他是個朋友，而不是個守著我的警衛。他看著我的眼神也少了當初的那股兇氣，‘你有小孩嗎?’他開口問道。