STUDY IN CHINA GLOBAL (SCG)作品原文
胡也频 《便宜货》
我们的军需长又要做喜事了——不，与其说是做喜事，倒不如干脆说他又要弄一个女人了。说他“又要”，这就是，自从他委任军需长以来，纵然还不到两年，是已经弄过七八次了，而且是每次准弄到手的。照这样情形，说不定以后还要弄多少次呢。这弄女人似乎就等于军需的一半职务。
至于为什么要这样弄；那倒不必研究。极简单的理由就是：由一个人变成了这样的军官，并且在全武力占据着某一个地方时候，弄多少个女人却是并不在乎的，这在他们的生活中，简直比开一门步枪还要平常。
对于弄，各人所采取的手段并一样，有的用欺诈，有的用诬赖，有的用野蛮，终于都免不掉威吓的。但是我们的军需长一个人独独冠冕多了，他用钱——钱并不多。关于这方面的耗费是也在帐目可观的，这自然因为他是当军需的缘故，所以在一本另外的流水簿上写道—
第一个四十元
第二个三十五元
第三个四十四元
第四个二十元
第五个五十元
第六个三十元
第七个五十五元
假使不因为这样挨一个的记着价目，恐怕到后来，连他自己也会记不清白究竟曾弄了多少个吧。像这一本帐簿，虽说并不特别珍惜似的也和“马料开支簿”放在一起，但有一个生朋友来的时候，总难免又故意去翻开，让别人知道，好像这帐目正不亚于那少校肩章的光荣。
我们的书记宫对于这本帐簿有一句很好的赞叹：
“这比委任状好多了！”他说。
这真不是一句过誉的话。一张委任状在现职的军官眼中已经是寻常的东西了。可是这一本帐簿却不寻常，这实在有它的新鲜异样的地方。譬如说，那帐目中，虽然所记的全是多少元，但是元之中就有那各别的意义——如同四十元等于一个女人，三十五元则又等于别一个女人，而且这四十元和三十五元的每一元又等于这个或那个女人的某一部分。单在这一点上，当然，比起那死板板的委某某某为什么什么什么的委任状，好多了。所以我们的军需长对于这一句话是十三分地受用的。
那么在他写着第几个和多少元之时，那心中的快乐和骄傲，实在不是别的人所能够知道了，至少总比他从军需上揩油的欢喜，要增加好几百倍吧。
那么这一夜我们的军需长又有了这种心情，因为他又在这本帐簿中加上一笔了。这一笔是挨着那“第七”添下去的，不消说是“第八个”，并且数目是“七十元”—这是比其余的价钱都大。
“这一个可不贱！”我们的军需长是这样觉着的。其实呢，七十元在他的身上真不算什么，他那一夜不在赌博中输赢一两百。
不过女人究竟比不上麻将牌。我们的军需长是能够在牌桌上并不在乎的输上两三百，但他总不肯弄一个女人用上一百元。这一个七十元的确算是很不贱了。
为什么我们的军需长会这样的贱视女人？自然，这有他的理由。他觉得无论怎样女人都不能和麻将牌相比的是打牌有输也有赢，钱是来来往往的，说不定昨天输了一百今夜反赢了两百。女人呢，可就不同了，花去了四十就是四十，一百就是一百，是永远捞不回半个铜板的。因此在他的灵魂中便有了一种不可磨灭的真理，这真理又变成格言了，是：
“宁肯在一付麻将牌上尽输，却不能只和一个女人在床上尽睡！”
所以还不到两年的光阴，我们的军需长，截至此刻为止，是一个又一个，没有间断地把女人弄到八个了。在每一个新的女人弄到时候，那旧的，便像一床旧毡子似的弃掉了，于是由军需长个人取乐的玩具落为兵士们共同撒野的游戏场了。
在这里，谁能够不这样的承认么？一个女人，纵然七十元，但是你看，多便宜！
作品译文
Bargain
Hu Yepin
Our quartermaster is tying the knot once again—or, why don’t we call a spade a spade: He will be doing another woman once again. By “once again” is meant that since he was promoted to quartermaster, less than two years ago, he has already done seven or eight women, every single time as sure thing as could be. If things go on like this, who knows how many more women he will do. It seems that doing women forms half of his duties as quartermaster.
As to why he does so there is no need to look hard. The reason is simple: It doesn’t really matter much to him how many women he does ’cause, now that he has morphed into an officer and the place is secured by troops armed to the teeth, he can pull it off as easily as pulling the trigger of his rifle.
Of course people do this with different methods: swindling, false claims or charges, use of brutal force, what have you, but none could dispense with coercions. Our quartermaster, however, does it in a much more honorable way: money—not much money, though. The exact expenses for this purpose can be verified in the accounts he has kept, which he does out of his occupational habit. In the account book is listed the following entries:
No. 1:40 yuan
No. 2:35 yuan
No. 3:44 yuan
No. 4:20 yuan
No. 5:50 yuan
No. 6:30 yuan
No. 7:55 yuan
Without such a detailed, item-by-item record of prices, I am afraid, he himself may forget, one day, exactly how many he has done. This account book he doesn’t seem to treasure particularly, leaving it together with the “Accounts for Horse Feed” most of the time. Yet whenever a new friend comes to visit, he can’t resist opening it for the visitor’s benefit lest he wouldn’t know, as if this account book brings him as much glory as the shoulder-strap for his colonel’s rank.
Our clerk marvels and has this remark about this account book:
“It’s much better than a certificate of appointment!”
Which is not overstating the case. A certificate of appointment doesn’t shine in the eyes of an officer any more, but such an account book does, with all of its novelty and out-of-the-ordinary mystique. For instance, even though what is entered in the account book is nothing but the amount of yuan, yet each amount of yuan has some kind of special meaning: 40 yuan equals one woman, 35 yuan, another woman; moreover, each yuan in the 40 yuan and 35 yuan equals a part of this or that woman. This fact alone would make the account book much better than a certificate of so and so being hereby appointed such and such a rank. naturally, our quartermaster is more than flattered by the clerk’s remark cited above.
And, indeed, no one would know with how much joy and pride he writes down No. XXX has cost him XX yuan, hundreds of times more so than when he scrounges around with military supplies, to say the least.
And, indeed, tonight our quartermaster must be experiencing the same rapture as he adds a new entry in this account book of his. This new entry, “No. 8,” apparently, is added right below “No. 7,” bears the amount of “70 yuan,” bigger than all the other entries.
“This one is not a bargain!” Our quartermaster feels. In reality, though, 70 yuan is nothing to him: Barely an evening goes that doesn’t see a couple of hundred yuan pass through his fingers at the gambling table.
Yet women can’t compare to the majiang game. Our quartermaster didn’t mind losing two or three hundred yuan at the majiang table, but wouldn’t want to spend a hundred yuan on a woman. So, this 70 yuan is not a bargain indeed.
Why does our quartermaster have such a low regard for women? Naturally he is not without some reasoning of his own. He feels that there is no way that women can compare to the majiang game: With majiang, you win some and lose some; money comes and money goes. You may have lost a hundred yuan yesterday but tonight you win two hundred yuan, who knows. Women, on the other hand, are quite a different thing: Forty yuan spent is forty yuan spent, a hundred yuan spent is a hundred yuan spent—you can’t ever recover even half a dime! Therefore, an indelible truth presents itself in his soul, which becomes a sort of adage for him:
“Would rather lose it all in a single majiang game than do a single woman in all my life!”
As could be expected, within less than two years, up to this very moment, our quartermaster has acquired eight women in a row. Each time a new woman is acquired, the old would be discarded, like an old blanket, the quartermaster’s erstwhile plaything becoming the playground for gangs of rowdy soldiers.
Really, how can anyone fail to see this? A woman, even at the price of 70 yuan, is indeed such a bargain!
