Chapter 26

我走到门口朝外望望。雨停了，可是还有雾。

“我们上楼吧？”我问那教士。

“我只能呆一会儿。”

“还是上去吧。”

我们上楼，走进我的房间。我躺在雷那蒂床上。教士坐在勤务兵给我架好的行军床上。房间里黑黑的。

“嗯，”他说，“你近况到底怎么样？”

“我还好。只是我今晚人累了。”

“我也累，可是没有原因。”

“战事怎么样？”

“依我看，不久就要结束。我也说不出个道理来，只是有这种感觉。”

“你怎样感觉到的？”

“你不看见你们那位少校吗？变得温和了吧？现在有许多人都变了。”

“这我也感觉到了，”我说。

“今年的夏天真可怕，”教士说。他现在比我从前离开他时更有自信心了。“说给你听，你也不会相信。除非你身历其境，才会明白。到了今年夏天，许多人才明白什么是战争。有些军官，我本以为永远不会明白的，现在也觉悟了。”

“将要发生什么呢？”我用手抚摸着毯子。

“我不知道，但是照我想，不可能再拖下去了。”

“将要发生什么呢？”

“他们会停止战斗。”

“谁？”

“双方。”

“我倒盼望是这样子，”我说。

“你不相信？”

“我不相信双方会立刻都停战。”

“那是不会的。那是希望得过分了。但是我看见人们在改变，就认为战事拖不久了。”

“今年夏天谁打了胜仗？”

“谁也没打胜。”

“奥军打胜了，”我说。“他们守住了圣迦伯烈山。他们打了胜仗。他们不会停战的。”

“要是他们的感觉和我们一样，他们或许会停战的。他们和我们有同样的经历。”

“打胜仗的人是从来不肯停手的。”

“你叫我泄气。”

“我只能心里想什么就说什么。”

“那么你以为战争会一直拖下去？不会发生一点变化？”

“我不知道。我只是想，倘若奥军已经打了一场胜仗，他们一定不肯住手。我们要吃了败仗才会变成基督徒。”

“奥国人也是基督徒——除了波斯尼亚人不算①。”“我的意思不是一般宗教的分类。我是说像我们的主耶稣那么温柔和平。”

他不说什么。

“我们吃了败仗，现在人都变得温和一点了。我们的主怎么样呢，要是彼得在花园里搭救了他呢？”

“他一定还是现在这样子。”②“那也说不定，”我说。

“你叫我泄气，”他说。“我相信准会起变化的，并且为这做了祷告。

我本来感到就快起变化了。”

“很可能有什么事会发生，”我说。“不过要发生，只能发生在我们这一边。倘若他们和我们有同感，那就好了。但是他们已经打败了我们。他们自然另有一种想法。”

“许多士兵一向就有这种想法。这倒不是因为他们吃了败仗。”“士兵们一上来就给打败了。人家把他们从农场上征来当兵，这一下他们就吃了败仗。农民有智慧，原因就在于农民一开头就吃了败仗。你叫农民掌握政权看看，瞧他是不是富有智慧。”

他不说什么。他正在想。

“现在弄得我也闷得要命，”我说。“我从来不愿意想起这些事，原因就在这里。我从来不思想，可是一谈起来，就会把心中的感想不假思索地脱口说出来。”

“我本来在盼着会发生什么事。”

“吃败仗？”

“不是。比较好一点的。”

“没有什么好一点的。除非是胜利。胜利也许会更糟。”

“我盼望胜利已经好久啦。”

“我也是。”

“现在就难说了。”

“非胜即败。”

“我再也不相信什么胜利了。”

“我也不相信。但是我对战败也不相信。虽则战败可能会好一些。”“那你相信什么呢？”“睡觉，”我说。他站起身来。

“很对不起，我在这儿呆得太久了。可我很欢喜跟你谈谈。”“能够再聚在一起谈谈，是很愉快的。我方才说睡觉，没有什么意思。”我们站起来，在黑暗中握握手。

“我现在睡在307 阵地，”他说。

“我明儿一早就上救护站。”

“等你回来再来看你。”

“等我回来，我们一同出去散散步，谈谈。”我陪他走向门口。“别下来，”他说。“你回来真好。虽然对你本人不见得怎么好。”他把手搭在我的肩上。

“我回来也无所谓，”我说。“晚安。”

“晚安。再见！”

① 白肉指鸡等禽类的背部和胸膛等处的肉，煮熟后颜色较淡。

② 俗名六○六，为当时治梅毒的特效药。

“再见！”我说。我瞌睡得要命了。

I went to the door and looked out. It had stopped raining but there was a mist.

"Should we go upstairs?" I asked the priest.

"I can only stay a little while."

"Come on up."

We climbed the stairs and went into my room. I lay down on Rinaldi's bed. The priest sat on my cot that the orderly had set up. It was dark in the room.

"Well," he said, "how are you really?"

"I'm all right. I'm tired to-night."

"I'm tired too, but from no cause."

"What about the war?"

"I think it will be over soon. I don't know why, but I feel it."

"How do you feel it?"

"You know how your major is? Gentle? Many people are like that now."

"I feel that way myself," I said.

"It has been a terrible summer," said the priest. He was surer of himself now than when I had gone away. "You cannot believe how it has been. Except that you have been there and you know how it can be. Many people have realized the war this summer. Officers whom I thought could never realize it realize it now."

"What will happen?" Istroked the blanket with my hand.

"I do not know but I do not think it can go on much longer."

"What will happen?"

"They will stop fighting."

"Who?"

"Both sides."

"I hope so," I said.

"You don't believe it?"

"I don't believe both sides will stop fighting at once."

"I suppose not. It is too much to expect. But when I see the changes in men I do not think it can go on."

"Who won the fighting this summer?"

"No one."

"The Austrians won," I said. "They kept them from taking San Gabriele. They've won. They won't stop fighting."

"If they feel as we feel they may stop. They have gone through the same thing."

"No one ever stopped when they were winning."

"You discourage me."

"I can only say what I think."

"Then you think it will go on and on? Nothing will ever happen?"

"I don't know. I only think the Austrians will not stop when they have won a victory. It is in defeat that we become Christian."

"The Austrians are Christians--except for the Bosnians."

"I don't mean technically Christian. I mean like Our Lord."

He said nothing.

"We are all gentler now because we are beaten. How would Our Lord have been if Peter had rescued him in the Garden?"

"He would have been just the same."

"I don't think so," I said.

"You discourage me," he said. "I believe and I pray that something will happen. I have felt it very close."

"Something may happen," I said. "But it will happen only to us. If they felt the way we do, it would be all right. But they have beaten us. They feel another way."

"Many of the soldiers have always felt this way. It is not because they were beaten."

"They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That is why the peasant has wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is."

He did not say anything. He was thinking.

"Now I am depressed myself," I said. "That's why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking."

"I had hoped for something."

"Defeat?"

"No. Something more."

"There isn't anything more. Except victory. It may be worse."

"I hoped for a long time for victory."

"Me too."

"Now I don't know."

"It has to be one or the other."

"I don't believe in victory any more."

"I don't. But I don't believe in defeat. Though it may be better."

"What do you believe in?"

"In sleep," I said. He stood up.

"I am very sorry to have stayed so long. But I like so to talk with you."

"It is very nice to talk again. I said that about sleeping, meaning nothing."

We stood up and shook hands in the dark.

"I sleep at 307 now," he said.

"I go out on post early to-morrow."

"I'll see you when you come hack."

"We'll have a walk and talk together." I walked with him to the door.

"Don't go down," he said. "It is very nice that you are back. Though not so nice for you." He put his hand on my shoulder.

"It's all right for me," I said. "Good-night."

"Good-night. Ciaou!"

"Ciaou!" I said. I was deadly sleepy.