Paterfamilias Monty 先父蒙蒂

British military history
英国军史

Paterfamilias Monty

先父蒙蒂

Oct 22nd 2009
From The Economist print edition

Where the Hell Have You Been? Monty, Italy and One Man’s Incredible Escape. By Tom Carver. Short Books; 356 pages; £16.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk

    《你到底去了哪里？意大利、蒙蒂及其惊奇逃亡》。汤姆•卡弗著。肖特出版社。 356页。售价：16.99英镑。购买请登录Amazon.co.uK

WHEN General Montgomery’s stepson Richard Carver was captured by the Afrika Korps two days after the battle of El Alamein in November 1942, he had every reason to be worried. If the Germans had established the family connection, he would have been sent to Colditz, with other prominent allied prisoners. Yet they never discovered the link, so instead he was sent to a prison camp in northern Italy, from where he and 600 other allied prisoners were released, minutes before the Wehrmacht arrived, by the commandant when Italy left the axis in September 1943.

    1942年11月，当蒙哥马利将军的继子，即理查德•卡弗在阿拉曼战役被非洲军团俘虏两天后，他完全有理由担心：如果德国人知道了他的家庭关系，他就会与其他重要的盟军战俘一起，被送往德国科尔迪茨。所幸，德国人一直没有发现，因此，取而代之的是他被送进了意大利北部的战俘营。在那里，在1943年9月意大利脱离轴心国时，他和其他600名盟军战俘在由纳粹要塞司令官率领的国防军到达前片刻，获得释放。

Richard Carver’s gruelling three-month journey of over 400 miles (650km) on foot, from the prison north of Parma to the allied lines south of the Sangro river, forms the meat of this book written by his son, Tom, a former BBC correspondent. He had to dodge German pursuers, sleep in caves, rely on the hospitality (and courage) of Italian villagers, go hungry for days, sleep rough and trust his home-made compass to get him back to safety. When he was reunited with his stepfather over a year after he had gone missing, Monty’s first words were “Where the hell have you been?”

    理查德•卡佛徒步行进400多英里（650公里），从意大利北部帕尔马战俘营到盟军南部防线桑格罗河，费时三月，精疲力竭。这些内容构成了由他的儿子汤姆（前英国BBC广播公司记者）写作的这本书的骨干。他躲避德兵追击、睡在山洞、靠意大利村民给予食物（和勇气）、挨饿数日、露宿荒野，最后，得益于自制罗盘，他回到了安全地带。当失踪一年多后，他与继父重逢时，蒙蒂的第一句话是：“你到底去了哪里？”

Yet this book is more than an adventure story: it is also a moving detective story about finding the locals who had helped and a poignant memoir of a taciturn war-hero father. Who would have guessed that the favourite limerick of that flinty, austere field-marshal would have been:

然而，这本书不仅仅是一个逃亡故事：它也是一部关于找寻昔日昔地恩人的、感人肺腑的侦探小说；是一位含蓄深沉、投身战场的英雄父亲的心碎欲裂般的回忆录。谁曾想到，那首惹人喜爱的五行打油诗，系出冷静坚强、朴实无华的元帅之手：

There was an old soldier from Lyme
Who married three wives at a time
When asked why the third
He said, one’s absurd
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.

    来自莱姆老兵，
    迎娶三妇同衾；
    问及谁乃老三，
    老兵答曰荒诞，
    有罪名叫重婚。

“Radiate confidence,” Montgomery would tell his staff. “That’s the first duty of a top commander.” Yet it is evident that in private he could feel sadness, loneliness and worry. The letter he wrote his stepson after the death of his wife (and Richard’s mother) is raw in its pain.

“让信心光芒四射，这是最高指挥官的首要任务”，蒙哥马利常常告诫他的幕僚。而很明显的是，他在私下里感到悲伤、孤独和忧虑。在他妻子（即理查德•卡弗的母亲）去世后他写给其继子的信中，表达了他纯然的痛苦。

Mr Carver has an arresting turn of phrase. He writes of a fellow prisoner “who had been the last man to make out of the [submarine’s] emergency hatch, leaving his companions to drown in the dark, oily water that sluiced greedily through the opening.” On the next page he notes how: “Occasionally, a prisoner would receive a letter from someone who was dead, like the light from a distant star that has since vanished.” The closest equivalent are the works of Eric Newby, who was held in the same prisoner-of-war camp as Richard Carver had been. Though the book is short, it is wonderfully readable.
   
    卡弗先生有一段意味深长的话。他写信给一位难友“最后一人打开[潜水艇]紧急舱门，让他的同伴离开黑暗，含油污水汹涌进舱门。”下一页写到：“偶尔，难友渴望收到一封已故的[那最后一人]的来信。那信就恍若是来自已经消亡的遥远恒星的星光”。同为战俘营难友的埃里克•纽比的经历与理查德•卡弗等量齐观。本书虽短，而可读性尤佳。  （这一节翻译得有点云里雾里，呵呵，等待高人取笑我）