37
斯特凡诺把车子停在了鞋匠铺门口，下车给我开车门，他伸出一只手，扶我下来。他完全不管莉拉，她自己从后面下来了。他和我停在橱窗前，里诺和费尔南多在铺子里，向我们投来好奇的目光，他们的表情有一丝恼怒。
He stopped the car in front of the
shoemaker’s shop, came around and opened the door for me, gave me his hand to
help me out. He didn’t concern himself with Lila, who got out herself and
stayed behind. He and I stopped in front of the window, under the eyes of
Fernando and Rino, who looked at us from inside the shop with sullen
curiosity.
莉拉赶上我们，斯特凡诺打开了铺子门，让我先进去，然后自己进去了，并没让莉拉先进去。他对费尔南多父子非常客气，他问能不能看看那双鞋子，里诺急急忙忙跑去拿，他仔细看了看，赞美说：
When Lila joined us Stefano opened the door of the shop, let me go first, went in without making way for her. He was very courteous with father and son, and asked if he could see the shoes. Rino rushed to get them, and Stefano examined them, praised them:
“这双鞋子既轻便又结实，设计很漂亮，”他问我，“你觉得呢？莱诺。”
“They’re light and yet strong, they
really have a nice line.” He asked me, “What do you think, Lenù?”
我非常尴尬地说：
I said, with great embarrassment,
“是非常漂亮。”
“They’re very handsome.”
他对费尔南多说：
He turned to Fernando:
“您女儿说，你们三个人做了很久才做出来，你们还想继续做其他款式，而且还有女式的。”
“Your daughter said that all three of you
worked on them and that you have a plan to make others, for women as well.”
“是的。”里诺很惊异地看着妹妹说。
“Yes,” said Rino, looking in wonder at
his sister.
“是的，”费尔南多也很不安地说，“但不是马上做。”
“Yes,” said Fernando, puzzled, “but not
right away.”
里诺对妹妹说：“你去把图纸拿过来。”他稍微改变了一下自己的语气，因为担心被拒绝。
Rino said to his sister, a little worked
up, because he was afraid she would refuse, “Show him the designs.”
让他惊异的是，莉拉毫无反抗地去了铺子后面，回来时把一些图纸交给了哥哥。里诺把图纸递给了斯特凡诺，那是莉拉两年前画的所有设计图纸。
Lila, continuing to surprise him, didn’t
resist. She went to the back of the shop and returned, handing the sheets of
paper to her brother, who gave them to Stefano. They were the models that she
had designed almost two years earlier.
斯特凡诺向我展示了一双女鞋，鞋跟很高。他问：
Stefano showed me a drawing of a pair of
women’s shoes with a very high heel.
“你会买这种款式的鞋子吗？”
“Would you buy them?”
“会。”
“Yes.”
他又看了看图纸，他坐在一张凳子上，脱掉了右脚上的鞋子。
He went back to examining the designs.
Then he sat down on a stool, took off his right shoe.
“这双鞋多大啊？”
“What size is it?”
“四十三，但差不多是双四十四码的。”里诺扯了一句谎。
“43, but it could be a 44,” Rino lied.
令我们再度惊讶的是，莉拉跪在斯特凡诺前面，用鞋拔子帮他穿上新鞋，然后她脱掉了他的另一只鞋子，把另一只鞋也套到他脚上。
Lila, surprising us again, knelt in front
of Stefano and using the shoehorn helped him slip his foot into the new shoe.
Then she took off the other shoe and did the same.
到那时候为止，斯特凡诺一直表现得很利落老练，但那一刻他明显很不安。他等着莉拉站起来，又继续坐了几秒钟，缓一口气，最后他站了起来，走了几步。
Stefano, who until that moment had been
playing the part of the practical, businesslike man, was obviously disturbed.
He waited for Lila to get up, and remained seated for some seconds as if to
catch his breath. Then he stood, took a few steps.
“这双鞋子很紧。”他说。
“They’re tight,” he said.
里诺的脸一下子灰了，他很失望。
Rino turned gray, disappointed.
“我们可以用鞋楦弄宽一些。”费尔南多插了一句，但语气不是很肯定。
“We can put them on the machine and widen
them,” Fernando interrupted, but uncertainly.
斯特凡诺看着我，问：
Stefano turned to me and asked,
“我穿上怎么样？”
“How do they look?”
“很好。”我说。
“Nice,” I said.
“那我就买了。”
“Then I’ll take them.”
费尔南多面无表情，里诺脸上的表情由阴转晴。
Fernando remained impassive, Rino
brightened.
“你看，斯特凡诺，这是特制的‘赛鲁罗’鞋，很贵的。”
“You know, Ste’, these are an exclusive
Cerullo design, they’ll be expensive.”
斯特凡诺微笑着，用一种很温和的语气说：
Stefano smiled, took an affectionate tone:
“假如不是‘赛鲁罗’特制的鞋子，你觉得我会买吗？你们什么时候能弄好？”
“And if they weren’t an exclusive Cerullo
design, do you think I would buy them? When will they be ready?”
里诺看着父亲，满脸放光。
Rino looked at his father, radiant.
“我们把鞋子放到机子上，至少三天。”费尔南多说，但很明显，他本可以说十天二十天，甚至一个月，他需要时间来适应这个意外的新情况。
“We’ll keep them in the machine for at
least three days,” Fernando said, but it was clear that he could have said
ten days, twenty, a month, he was so eager to take his time in the face of
this unexpected novelty.
“非常好，你们开个友情价，我过三天来拿鞋子。”
“Good: you think of a friendly price and
I’ll come in three days to pick them up.”
他把那些设计图纸折了起来放进口袋，我们都很忐忑地看着他。最后他握了握费尔南多和里诺的手，朝门口走去。
He folded the pieces of paper with the
designs and put them in his pocket before our puzzled eyes. Then he shook
hands with Fernando, with Rino, and headed toward the door.
“图纸。”莉拉冷冰冰地说。
“The drawings,” Lila said coldly.
“我可以三天后还给你吗？”斯特凡诺用一种很客气的语气问，但不等莉拉回答，他就打开了门，让我先出去，自己跟在我后面出来了。
“Can I bring them back in three days?”
Stefano asked in a cordial tone, and without waiting for an answer opened the
door. He made way for me to pass and went out after me.
我已经坐在了汽车里了，坐在他旁边。这时候莉拉跟了上来，她很愤怒地说：
I was already settled in the car next to
him when Lila joined us. She was angry.
“你以为我父亲是傻子，我哥哥是傻子？”
“You think my father is a fool, that my
brother is a fool?”
“你想说什么？”
“What do you mean?”
“假如你以为你能骗过我家人，还有我，那你就错了。”
“If you think you’ll make fools of my
family and me, you are mistaken.”
“我生气了！我不是马尔切洛·索拉拉。”
“You are insulting me: I’m not Marcello
Solara.”
“那你是谁？”
“And who are you?”
“一个生意人。你设计的鞋子我从来没见过，我不是说我看到的这双，我说的是所有鞋子。”
“A businessman: the shoes you’ve designed
are unusual. And I don’t mean just the ones I bought, I mean all of them.”
“也就是说？”
“So?”
“也就是说，我要想想。我们三天后见。”
“So let me think and we’ll see each other
in three days.”
莉拉盯着他，好像要看清他脑子里在想什么，她没离开车子。最后，她说了一句我永远都没勇气说的话：
Lila stared at him as if she wanted to
read his mind, she didn’t move away from the car. Finally she said something
that I would never have had the courage to utter:
“你看，马尔切洛已经试了所有方式想收买我，但没人可以收买我。”
“Look, Marcello tried in every possible
way to buy me but no one is going to buy me.”
斯特凡诺看着她的眼睛，那是很漫长的一秒。
Stefano looked her straight in the eyes
for a long moment.
“假如不能让我赚到一百里拉，我是不会花一里拉的。”
“I don’t spend a lira if I don’t think it
can produce a hundred.”
他发动了马达，我们出发了。现在我很确信：兜这趟风，是在多次见面交谈之后达成的协议。我用意大利语低声说：
He started the engine and we left. Now I was sure: the drive had been a sort of agreement reached at the end of many encounters, much talk. I said weakly, in Italian,
“斯特凡诺，拜托了，能在街角停一下吗？如果我母亲看到我和你坐在汽车里，一定会撕破我的脸皮。”
“Please, Stefano, leave me at the corner?
If my mother sees me in a car with you she’ll bash my face in.”
38
莉拉的生活在九月发生了变化，过程并不是那么简单，但的确发生了根本变化。至于我，我从伊斯基亚回来，还爱上了尼诺，我的身体被他父亲的嘴唇和双手玷污，在我内心深处交织的兴奋和恐惧本应该让我日夜哭泣，但在短短几小时之内，我的情绪就得到了调整。我把尼诺的声音、他父亲的胡子都放在了一边，伊斯基亚岛开始褪色，消失在我脑海里的一个秘密角落里，我脑子里全是发生在莉拉身上的事情。
Lila’s life changed decisively during
that month of September. It wasn’t easy, but it changed. As for me, I had
returned from Ischia in love with Nino, branded by the lips and hands of his
father, sure that I would weep night and day because of the mixture of
happiness and horror I felt inside. Instead I made no attempt to find a form
for my emotions, in a few hours everything was reduced. I put aside Nino’s
voice, the irritation of his father’s mustache. The island faded, lost itself
in some secret corner of my head. I made room for what was happening to Lila.
我们坐着那辆耀眼的敞篷车兜风之后的三天里，莉拉借口买东西，经常去斯特凡诺的肉食店，每次都让我陪她去。我每次都忐忑不安，担心马尔切洛被惹恼，但又为自己的角色感到高兴，我可以全身心地倾听她的想法，给她建议。我是这场戏里的一个同谋，是斯特凡诺表面上关注的对象。我们都是小姑娘，觉得自己毫无城府，都是从事实出发——马尔切洛、斯特凡诺、鞋子，我们带着往常的激情，觉得自己能掌控一切。“我这样跟他说。”她假定说。我会建议她做一个小小的更改，我说：“不，你这样对他说。”然后，她和斯特凡诺在柜台后的一个角落里，密切地交谈起来。这时候，阿方索会和我聊几句，皮诺奇娅很不耐烦地接待顾客，玛丽亚在收银台那里，有些不安地窥视自己的长子，在这段时间里，他对工作不上心，倒是让街坊邻居说闲话。
In the three days that followed the
astonishing ride in the convertible, she, with the excuse of doing the
shopping, went often to Stefano’s grocery, but always asked me to go with
her. I did it with my heart pounding, frightened by the possible appearance
of Marcello, but also pleased with my role as confidante generous with
advice, as accomplice in weaving plots, as apparent object of Stefano’s
attentions. We were girls, even if we imagined ourselves wickedly daring. We
embroidered on the facts—Marcello, Stefano, the shoes—with our usual
eagerness and it seemed to us that we always knew how to make things come out
right. “I’ll say this to him,” she hypothesized, and I would suggest a small
variation: “No, say this.” Then she and Stefano would be deep in conversation
in a corner behind the counter, while Alfonso exchanged a few words with me,
Pinuccia, annoyed, waited on the customers, and Maria, at the cash register,
observed her older son apprehensively, because he had been neglecting the job
lately, and was feeding the gossip of the neighbors.
当然，我们都是临时起意。那几天的来回反复中，我总是试图了解莉拉在想什么，这样我才能配合她实现她的目标。刚开始，我感觉她只是简单地想让她父亲和哥哥赚些钱，把“赛鲁罗”铺子做出来的唯一一双鞋高价卖给斯特凡诺，但很快我发现她的目标在于利用这个年轻的肉食店老板甩开马尔切洛。在这件事情上，我得到了肯定的回答，有一次我问她：
Naturally we were improvising. In the
course of that back and forth I tried to understand what was really going
through Lila’s head, so as to be in tune with her goals. At first I had the
impression that she intended simply to enable her father and brother to earn
some money by selling Stefano, for a good price, the only pair of shoes
produced by the Cerullos, but soon it seemed to me that her principal aim was
to get rid of Marcello by making use of the young grocer. In this sense, she
was decisive when I asked her:
“这两个人，你更喜欢哪个？”
“Which of the two do you like more?”
她耸了耸肩膀。
She shrugged.
“我从来都没喜欢过马尔切洛，他让我觉得恶心。”
“I’ve never liked Marcello, he makes me
sick.”
“你和斯特凡诺订婚，就是为了把马尔切洛从你家赶出去？”
“You would become engaged to Stefano just
to get Marcello out of your house?”
她想了一下，点了点头。
She thought for a moment and said yes.
从那时候开始，我们感觉我们最终目标是：通过各种手段，把马尔切洛从她的生活中清除出去。其他事都是偶然的，我们只是左右事态发展的方向，有时候是真正的操纵——至少我们是这么认为的，但实际上，采取行动的一直是斯特凡诺。
From then on the ultimate goal of all our
plotting seemed to us that—to fight by every means possible Marcello’s
intrusion in her life. The rest came crowding around almost by chance and we
merely gave it a rhythm and, at times, a true orchestration. Or so at least
we believed. In fact, the person who was acting was only and was always
Stefano.
三天之后，斯特凡诺非常准时地到铺子里去买那双鞋子，尽管那双鞋子他穿上很紧。赛鲁罗父子非常忐忑地开价两万五千里拉，但他们已经准备好了把价格降到一万里拉。他眼睛都不眨一下，又加了两万里拉，要买莉拉的那些图纸。他说他很喜欢那些图纸，要用画框框起来。
Punctually, three days later, he went to
the store and bought the shoes, even though they were tight. The two Cerullos
with much hesitation asked for twenty-five thousand lire, but were ready to
go down to ten thousand. He didn’t bat an eye and put down another twenty
thousand in exchange for Lila’s drawings, which—he said—he liked, he wanted
to frame them.
“装上画框吗？”里诺问。
“Frame?” Rino asked.
“是的。”
“Yes.”
“就像画家的作品那样？”
“Like a picture by a painter?”
“是的。”
“Yes.”
“你有没有跟我妹妹说，你也要买她的图纸？”
“And you told my sister that you’re
buying her drawings?”
“说了。”
“Yes.”
斯特凡诺并没有就此打住。随后的几天里，他又出现在鞋匠的铺子里。他对那对父子说，他已经把他们铺子旁边的那家店也租了下来。“到目前为止，就先这样，”他说，“如果有一天，你们的店铺要扩大的话，可以跟我打招呼。”
Stefano didn’t stop there. In the
following days he again poked his head in at the shop and announced to father
and son that he had rented the space adjacent to theirs. “For now it’s
there,” he said, “but if you one day decide to expand, remember that I am at
your disposal.”
在赛鲁罗家里，他们低声讨论了很久，他们在分析那句“扩大”的意思。最后，莉拉看到他们都没有头绪，就说：
At the Cerullos’ they discussed for a
long time what that statement meant. “Expand?” Finally Lila, since they
couldn’t get there on their own, said:
“他在建议你们，把修鞋铺变成生产‘赛鲁罗’牌鞋子的作坊。”
“He’s proposing to transform the shoe
shop into a workshop for making Cerullo shoes.”
“钱从哪儿来啊？”里诺很小心地问。
“And the money?” Rino asked cautiously.
“他拿钱。”
“He’ll invest it.”
“他对你说的？”费尔南多警惕地问，他觉得难以置信，农齐亚马上也问了一遍。
“He told you?” Fernando, incredulous, was
alarmed, immediately followed by Nunzia.
“他是对你俩说的。”莉拉用手指着父亲和哥哥说。
“He told the two of you,” Lila said,
indicating her father and brother.
“他知不知道，手工制作的鞋子很贵的？”
“But he knows that handmade shoes are
expensive?”
“你们已经高价卖给他了，他已经知道了。”
“You showed him.”
“假如卖不出去呢？”
“And if they don’t sell?”
“你们浪费了力气，他赔了钱。”
“You’ve wasted the work and he’s wasted
the money.”
“就这些吗？”
“And that’s it?”
“就这些。”
“That’s it.”
那几天全家人都很激动。马尔切洛成了次要的事情——晚上八点半他来吃饭的时候，晚饭还没有准备好。他经常和梅丽娜还有艾达一起坐在电视机前，而赛鲁罗全家人在另一个房间里说话。
The entire family was upset for days.
Marcello moved to the background. He arrived at night at eight-thirty and
dinner wasn’t ready. Often he found himself alone in front of the television
with Melina and Ada, while the Cerullos talked in another room.
很自然，最狂热的人是里诺，他又重新获得了能量，脸上充满光彩，整个人非常愉快，就像他开始成为索拉拉兄弟的密友的那段时间。就这样，他开始成为斯特凡诺、阿方索、皮诺奇娅，甚至是玛丽亚太太的朋友。斯特凡诺又去了鞋铺，费尔南多终于开诚布公，在经过短暂的讨论之后，他们最后口头达成协议，基本原则是：斯特凡诺负责承担所有费用，赛鲁罗父子先做莉拉和里诺已经做出来的那双鞋子，再做其他款式，得到的利润平分。他从口袋里拿出那些纸片，一张一张给他们看。
Naturally the most enthusiastic was Rino,
who regained energy, color, good humor, and, as he had been the close friend
of the Solaras, so he began to be Stefano’s close friend, Alfonso’s,
Pinuccia’s, even Signora Maria’s. When, finally, Fernando’s last reservation
dissolved, Stefano went to the shop and, after a small discussion, came to a
verbal agreement on the basis of which he would put up the expenses and the
two Cerullos would start production of the model that Lila and Rino had
already made and all the other models, it being understood that they would
split the possible profits half and half. He took the documents out of a
pocket and showed them to them one after another.
“你们做这个款式，做这个，还有这个，”他说，“但是，希望你们不要像上次那样，做一双鞋用两年时间。”
“You’ll do this, this, this,” he said,
“but let’s hope that it won’t take two years, as I know happened with the
other.”
“我女儿是个姑娘家，”费尔南多有些尴尬地解释说，“里诺还没有完全掌握这门手艺。”
“My daughter is a girl,” Fernando
explained, embarrassed, “and Rino hasn’t yet learned the job well.”
斯特凡诺很客气地摇了摇头。
Stefano shook his head in a friendly way.
“这次就别让莉娜插手了，你们应该找工人。”
“Leave Lina out of it. You’ll have to
take on some workers.”
“谁给工人付钱啊？”费尔南多问。
“And who will pay them?” Fernando asked.
“还是我付钱。你们选两三个工人，你们可以自己决定选人的事情。”
“Me again. You choose two or three,
freely, according to your judgment.”
费尔南多一谈到雇人这件事，脸就红了，激动得有些语无伦次。里诺在旁边，有些鄙夷地看着父亲。费尔南多说，他从父亲那里学到了这门手艺，他父亲可真是个好人。他说当时在卡索里亚工厂的机器上，真是很辛苦。他说这辈子最失算的事情就是娶了农齐亚，她爱花钱，好吃懒做，假如他和他年轻时喜欢的女人伊内斯——那可是个特别能干的女人结婚，那他现在可能已经有自己的生意，要比坎帕尼莱鞋厂还要好，可能都有一系列的产品在海外展出。最后他说，他已经构思好了一双非常漂亮的鞋子，很完美，假如斯特凡诺没那么着迷于莉娜胡乱画出来的图纸，那现在他们就可以开始做他设计的鞋子，不知道会卖出去多少双。斯特凡诺很耐心地倾听着，他重申，他现在只想看到莉拉设计的那些款式。里诺拿过他妹妹的图纸，仔细地看了看，略带嘲讽地问斯特凡诺：
Fernando, at the idea of having, no less,
employees, turned red and his tongue was loosened, to the evident annoyance
of his son. He spoke of how he had learned the trade from his late father. He
told of how hard the work was on the machines, in Casoria. He said that his
mistake had been to marry Nunzia, who had weak hands and no wish to work, but
if he had married Ines, a flame of his youth who had been a great worker, he
would in time have had a business all his own, better than Campanile, with a
line to display perhaps at the regional trade show. He told us, finally, that
he had in his head beautiful shoes, perfect, that if Stefano weren’t set on
those silly things of Lina’s, they could start production now and you know
how many they would sell. Stefano listened patiently, but repeated that he,
for now, was interested only in having Lila’s exact designs made. Rino then
took his sister’s sheets of paper, examined them carefully, and asked him in
a lightly teasing tone:
“你要把这些图纸装上镜框，挂在哪里呢？”
“When you get them framed where will you
hang them?”
“挂在这里。”
“In here.”
里诺看着他父亲脸色忽然间又阴沉下来，没再说什么。
Rino looked at his father, but he had
turned sullen again and said nothing.
“我妹妹同意了吗？”他问。
“My sister agrees about everything?” he
asked.
斯特凡诺微笑了一下。
Stefano smiled:
“假如你妹妹不同意，谁敢这么做呢？”
“Who can do anything if your sister
doesn’t agree?”
他站了起来，紧紧握了握费尔南多的手，然后向门口走去。里诺陪着斯特凡诺出去，忽然他产生了一种担忧，肉食店老板正在向他的红色跑车走去，里诺在门口大声喊了一句：
He got up, shook Fernando’s hand
vigorously, and headed toward the door. Rino went with him and, with sudden
concern, called to him from the doorway, as Stefano was going to the red
convertible:
“做出来的鞋子，牌子还是‘赛鲁罗’！”
“The brand of the shoes is Cerullo.”
斯特凡诺没有回头，做了一个手势说：
Stefano waved to him, without turning:
“赛鲁罗家姑娘设计的鞋子，肯定是‘赛鲁罗’牌。”
“A Cerullo invented them and Cerullo they will be called.”
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