作者：H. P. Lovecraft

譯者：九四白靈

本文僅是個人翻譯，與同行交流和制作我自己的有聲書為主，如果有什么不對的歡迎指出。

It was languid curiosity which first brought Stephen Jones to Rogers’ Museum. Someone had told him about the queer underground place in Southwark Street across the river, where waxen things so much more horrible than the worst effigies at Madame Tussaud’s were shewn, and he had strolled in one April day to see how disappointing he would find it. Oddly, he was not disappointed. There was something different and distinctive here, after all. Of course, the usual gory commonplaces were present—Landru, Dr. Crippen, Madame Demers, Rizzio, Lady Jane Grey, endless maimed victims of war and revolution, and monsters like Gilles de Rais and Marquis de Sade—but there were other things which had made him breathe faster and stay till the ringing of the closing bell. The man who had fashioned this collection could be no ordinary mountebank. There was imagination—even a kind of diseased genius—in some of this stuff.

起初是慵懶的好奇心引著斯蒂芬·瓊斯（Stephen Jones）來到羅杰斯蠟像館。有人向他透露過河對面的南華克街有個奇怪的地下場所，那里展出的蠟像比杜莎夫人蠟像館里最可怕的蠟像還要驚悚得多。奇怪的是，他并沒有感到失望。畢竟，這里有一些與眾不同的獨(dú)特的東西。當(dāng)然,這里也展現(xiàn)了一些庸俗的血腥場景（人物）-拉杜朗（Landru），克里平醫(yī)師（Dr. Crippen），德孟斯女士（德孟斯夫人-Madame Demers）, 拉齊奧（Rizzio），簡·格雷小姐（Lady Jane Grey）【1】，無盡的因?yàn)閼?zhàn)爭和革命的原因?qū)е職垙U的受害者，和像吉爾斯·德·萊斯（Gilles de Rais）和德.薩德侯爵那樣的怪物-還有其他的能讓他呼吸急促并待到閉館的鐘聲響起的事。制作出這些收藏品的人絕不是一個普通的江湖騙子。其中有些（收藏品）是充滿了想象——甚至是一種病態(tài)的才華（天才）。

Later he had learned about George Rogers. The man had been on the Tussaud staff, but some trouble had developed which led to his discharge. There were aspersions on his sanity and tales of his crazy forms of secret worship—though latterly his success with his own basement museum had dulled the edge of some criticisms while sharpening the insidious point of others. Teratology and the iconography of nightmare were his hobbies, and even he had had the prudence to screen off some of his worst effigies in a special alcove for adults only. It was this alcove which had fascinated Jones so much. There were lumpish hybrid things which only fantasy could spawn, moulded with devilish skill, and coloured in a horribly life-like fashion.

后來他得知了喬治·羅杰斯（George Rogers）的事。那人曾是杜莎夫人蠟像館的職員，但后來發(fā)生了某些事件，使他被解雇了。人們對他的精神狀況（理智）進(jìn)行了誹謗，也有關(guān)于他某些瘋狂的崇拜行為的故事——盡管他后來成功地建立了自己的地下博物館，這削弱了一些批評的鋒芒，同時也尖銳了另一些隱晦的批評?；螌W(xué)和噩夢一般的肖像都是他的愛好，甚至他也很謹(jǐn)慎地把他的一些最可怕的肖像放在一個專門為成年人準(zhǔn)備的凹室里。正是這間凹室使得瓊斯感到著迷。那里有一些只有在幻想中才能產(chǎn)生的笨拙的混血產(chǎn)物，以魔鬼般的技巧鑄成，并擁有逼真的可怕的著色。

Some were the figures of well-known myth—gorgons, chimaeras, dragons, cyclops, and all their shuddersome congeners. Others were drawn from darker and more furtively whispered cycles of subterranean legend—black, formless Tsathoggua, many-tentacled Cthulhu, proboscidian Chaugnar Faugn, and other rumoured blasphemies from forbidden books like the Necronomicon, the Book of Eibon, or the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt. But the worst were wholly original with Rogers, and represented shapes which no tale of antiquity had ever dared to suggest. Several were hideous parodies on forms of organic life we know, while others seemed taken from feverish dreams of other planets and other galaxies. The wilder paintings of Clark Ashton Smith might suggest a few—but nothing could suggest the effect of poignant, loathsome terror created by their great size and fiendishly cunning workmanship, and by the diabolically clever lighting conditions under which they were exhibited.

其中有些是神話中著名的肖像-（諸如）蛇發(fā)女怪（戈爾貢）、奇美拉、巨龍、獨(dú)眼巨人，以及所有的他們的令人（感到）毛骨悚然的同類。其他的則來自于更黑暗而隱晦的地下傳說中——（例如）黑色而不可名狀的扎特瓜（或撒托古亞-Tsathoggua【2】）、觸手眾多的克蘇魯（Cthulhu）、長鼻狀的昌格納·方庚（proboscicidian Chaugnar Faugn【3】），以及其他來自諸如《死靈之書》、《伊伯恩之書》或馮·容茲特（von Junzt）的《不可名狀的教團(tuán)之書（Unaussprechlichen Kulten）》等禁書中的褻瀆神明之物。但最糟糕的是那些羅杰斯完全原創(chuàng)的作品，代表了古代傳說中從來不敢想象的人物形象。其中的一些是對我們所知的有機(jī)生命形式進(jìn)行的拙劣而可怕的模仿，而另一些則像是從其他行星和星系的狂熱夢魘中截取的事物?？死恕ぐ⑹差D·史密斯(Clark Ashton Smith)的更為狂野的畫作可能會讓人聯(lián)想到一些事物——但沒有任何東西能讓人聯(lián)想到在那些非常惱人的照明之下，它們巨大的尺寸和惡魔般狡詐的技藝制造出的尖銳而令人厭惡的恐怖效果。

Stephen Jones, as a leisurely connoisseur of the bizarre in art, had sought out Rogers himself in the dingy office and workroom behind the vaulted museum chamber—an evil-looking crypt lighted dimly by dusty windows set slit-like and horizontal in the brick wall on a level with the ancient cobblestones of a hidden courtyard. It was here that the images were repaired—here, too, where some of them had been made. Waxen arms, legs, heads, and torsos lay in grotesque array on various benches, while on high tiers of shelves matted wigs, ravenous-looking teeth, and glassy, staring eyes were indiscriminately scattered. Costumes of all sorts hung from hooks, and in one alcove were great piles of flesh-coloured wax-cakes and shelves filled with paint-cans and brushes of every description. In the centre of the room was a large melting-furnace used to prepare the wax for moulding, its fire-box topped by a huge iron container on hinges, with a spout which permitted the pouring of melted wax with the merest touch of a finger.

作為一個悠閑的怪誕藝術(shù)鑒賞家，斯蒂芬·瓊斯（Stephen Jones）在羅杰斯的蠟像館后的昏暗骯臟的辦公室兼工作間內(nèi)找到了他本人，那間頗為邪異的工作室內(nèi)昏暗的燈光透過積滿灰塵的與隱藏的庭院的古老鵝卵石小路平齊的窗戶照在磚墻上。這些雕像就是在這里修理的，也有一些雕像就是在這里制作的。蠟人的胳膊、腿部、頭部和軀干怪異地排列在各種各樣的長凳上，而在架子的高處，凌亂的假發(fā)，肉食動物的牙齒，大睜著的玻璃眼珠子隨意的散落著。各種各樣的服裝懸掛在鉤子上，在一個 壁龕里有一大堆肉色的蠟餅和裝滿各種顏料罐和色刷的架子。在工作間的中央是一個用來給準(zhǔn)備好的蠟塊成型的大熔爐，它的火箱頂部是一個巨大的鐵鉸鏈鏈接的容器，其上有一個噴口，只需要用手指輕輕觸碰就可以倒出熔化的蠟。

Other things in the dismal crypt were less describable—isolated parts of problematical entities whose assembled forms were the phantoms of delirium. At one end was a door of heavy plank, fastened by an unusually large padlock and with a very peculiar symbol painted over it. Jones, who had once had access to the dreaded Necronomicon, shivered involuntarily as he recognised that symbol. This showman, he reflected, must indeed be a person of disconcertingly wide scholarship in dark and dubious fields.

在那陰森的地窖里，還有一些難以形容的孤立的未知物體的部分，是由精神錯亂的幻影構(gòu)成的。（工作室的）一側(cè)是一扇厚木板門扉，用一把大得出奇的掛鎖鎖住，其上涂繪著異常奇特的符號。作為曾經(jīng)有機(jī)會看到那恐怖的《死靈之書（Necronomicon）》的人，當(dāng)瓊斯認(rèn)出這個符號時，他不自覺地顫抖了一下。他反應(yīng)過來，這人一定是一個在黑暗而陰疑的領(lǐng)域里學(xué)識淵博得令人不安的人。

Nor did the conversation of Rogers disappoint him. The man was tall, lean, and rather unkempt, with large black eyes which gazed combustively from a pallid and usually stubble-covered face. He did not resent Jones’s intrusion, but seemed to welcome the chance of unburdening himself to an interested person. His voice was of singular depth and resonance, and harboured a sort of repressed intensity bordering on the feverish. Jones did not wonder that many had thought him mad.

和羅杰斯的交談也沒有使他失望。那是個高大瘦削，有點(diǎn)蓬頭垢面，蒼白的、由發(fā)茬遮掩的臉上一雙仿若燃燒著的烏黑的大眼睛急切地瞪著的男子。他對瓊斯的闖入并不反感，似乎也很高興能有機(jī)會向感興趣的人吐露心事。他的聲音具有獨(dú)特的低沉和共鳴的感覺，也帶有一種近乎狂熱而壓抑的緊張感。瓊斯并不對許多人都認(rèn)為他瘋了感到疑惑。

With every successive call—and such calls became a habit as the weeks went by—Jones had found Rogers more communicative and confidential. From the first there had been hints of strange faiths and practices on the showman’s part, and later on these hints expanded into tales—despite a few odd corroborative photographs—whose extravagance was almost comic. It was some time in June, on a night when Jones had brought a bottle of good whiskey and plied his host somewhat freely, that the really demented talk first appeared. Before that there had been wild enough stories—accounts of mysterious trips to Thibet, the African interior, the Arabian desert, the Amazon valley, Alaska, and certain little-known islands of the South Pacific, plus claims of having read such monstrous and half-fabulous books as the prehistoric Pnakotic fragments and the Dhol chants attributed to malign and non-human Leng—but nothing in all this had been so unmistakably insane as what had cropped out that June evening under the spell of the whiskey.

隨著接二連三的拜訪——時間一周周的過去，這樣的拜訪已成為一種嗜好——瓊斯發(fā)現(xiàn)羅杰斯變得更加健談，他也獲得了（羅杰斯的）信任。從一開始，（羅杰斯）就做了一些奇怪的信仰和行為的暗示，后來這些暗示逐漸擴(kuò)展成了傳奇故事——盡管有著少數(shù)的古怪的照片（作為）證明——但這些故事仍是滑稽怪誕的。在六月的一個晚上，瓊斯帶了一瓶上等的威士忌酒拜訪并無節(jié)制的勸（蠟像館的主人）喝酒時，他才第一次聽到了那些癲狂的囈語。在此之前，他已經(jīng)聽到了足夠多的離奇故事——關(guān)于去西藏、非洲內(nèi)陸、阿拉伯沙漠、亞馬遜流域、阿拉斯加和某些南太平洋鮮為人知的島嶼的神秘之旅的敘述，加上（他）聲稱自己讀過一些荒謬的、仿若神話的經(jīng)典，比如史前的《納克特斷章群（Pnakotic fragments）》和歸于惡意和非人類的《巨噬蠕蟲贊歌》——但在這一切中都沒有什么比六月的那個晚上，在威士忌的魔力下突顯出的東西（事物）更清楚而瘋狂。

To be plain, Rogers began making vague boasts of having found certain things in Nature that no one had found before, and of having brought back tangible evidences of such discoveries. According to his bibulous harangue, he had gone farther than anyone else in interpreting the obscure and primal books he studied, and had been directed by them to certain remote places where strange survivals are hidden—survivals of aeons and life-cycles earlier than mankind, and in some cases connected with other dimensions and other worlds, communication with which was frequent in the forgotten pre-human days. Jones marvelled at the fancy which could conjure up such notions, and wondered just what Rogers’ mental history had been. Had his work amidst the morbid grotesqueries of Madame Tussaud’s been the start of his imaginative flights, or was the tendency innate, so that his choice of occupation was merely one of its manifestations? At any rate, the man’s work was very closely linked with his notions. Even now there was no mistaking the trend of his blackest hints about the nightmare monstrosities in the screened-off “Adults only” alcove. Heedless of ridicule, he was trying to imply that not all of these daemoniac abnormalities were artificial.

簡單來說，羅杰斯開始含糊其辭地吹噓說，他在自然界中發(fā)現(xiàn)了某些之前沒有人發(fā)現(xiàn)過的東西，并帶回了這些發(fā)現(xiàn)的確鑿證據(jù)。根據(jù)他嗜酒后的長篇大論，他已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)比任何人都了解他自己研究的書卷了，被其指引的他前往了某些偏遠(yuǎn)的有幸存的遙遠(yuǎn)遺民藏匿的地區(qū)，那些幸存者來自遠(yuǎn)古之前和人類之前的生態(tài)體系中，在某些情況下甚至與其他維度和其他世界有關(guān)，那些年代和地外世界頻繁的聯(lián)系在人類出現(xiàn)之前的年代已被遺忘。瓊斯對這種能使人產(chǎn)生幻象的觀念感到驚奇，他對羅杰斯的心理歷程感到好奇。杜莎夫人蠟像館的那些病態(tài)和怪誕之物是否是他的想象之旅的開端，亦或是與生俱來的癖好，而他選擇的職業(yè)只是這形態(tài)的一種表現(xiàn)形式？無論如何，這個人的職業(yè)與他的思想觀念密不可分。即使是現(xiàn)在，在他可怕的夢魘中的暗示驅(qū)使（他做出）“僅供成人進(jìn)入”的凹室里的那些可怕怪物也并不是什么問題。他不理會人們的嘲諷，試圖指出并非所有惡魔般的異常都是人類制造（或臆想）出的。

It was Jones’s frank scepticism and amusement at these irresponsible claims which broke up the growing cordiality. Rogers, it was clear, took himself very seriously; for he now became morose and resentful, continuing to tolerate Jones only through a dogged urge to break down his wall of urbane and complacent incredulity. Wild tales and suggestions of rites and sacrifices to nameless elder gods continued, and now and then Rogers would lead his guest to one of the hideous blasphemies in the screened-off alcove and point out features difficult to reconcile with even the finest human craftsmanship. Jones continued his visits through sheer fascination, though he knew he had forfeited his host’s regard. At times he would try to humour Rogers with pretended assent to some mad hint or assertion, but the gaunt showman was seldom to be deceived by such tactics.

正是瓊斯對這些不可靠的說法所表現(xiàn)出的直率的懷疑態(tài)度和嘲笑破壞了他們?nèi)找嬖鲩L的友誼。很明顯，羅杰斯極為認(rèn)真的看待自己。因此他變得郁悶而憤怒，只是因?yàn)橄胍蚱扑潜虮蛴卸Y而又自鳴得意的懷疑態(tài)度，才會繼續(xù)容忍瓊斯。關(guān)于舉行儀式和祭祀無名的舊神的荒誕不經(jīng)的故事和指示仍在繼續(xù)，羅杰斯有時也會把他的客人帶到被屏風(fēng)隔開的凹室里的一個丑陋的褻瀆神靈之物的地方，并指出那些即使是最好的人類工藝也難以協(xié)調(diào)構(gòu)筑的特征。盡管他知道他已經(jīng)失去了（蠟像館）主人的尊敬好感，瓊斯仍極有興致的繼續(xù)他的訪問。有時，他會試圖假裝贊同羅杰斯的一些瘋狂的暗示或斷言來使其滿足，但這個瘦削蒼白的人很少會被這種伎倆欺騙。

【未完】

注釋：

【1】那些名字都是著名的殺人犯或者被殺死的人

【2】扎特瓜（或撒托古亞）是洛夫克拉夫特筆下的舊日支配者之一，另名“恩蓋伊之沉睡者”，“蟾之神”

【3】昌格納·方庚是弗蘭克. 貝克納普.朗創(chuàng)作的舊日支配者之一，另名“高峰之上的恐怖”，“象之神”