The Premature Burial
过早埋葬
What is the most horrible thing that can happen to a person? It is not death, but premature burial – burial before death, burial while you are still alive. It is everyone’s worst fear.
一个人可能遭遇的最可怕的事情是什么？不是死亡，而是过早埋葬——在死前埋葬，在你仍然活着的时候把你埋葬。这是每个人最恐惧的事情。
Life and Death. When does one end, and the other begin? With some illnesses, we cannot be sure. The body is cold and still, the heart has stopped, breathing has stopped… but this is not always the end of a life.
生与死。一个何时结束，另一个何时开始？对于某些疾病，我们无法确定。身体冰冷僵硬，心脏停止跳动，呼吸停止……但这并不总是生命的终结。
So it is not difficult to understand why premature burials sometimes happen. People still remember the story of a Baltimore woman, not long ago. She went to her bed with a sudden illness, and died soon after.
因此，不难理解为什么有时会发生过早埋葬。人们仍然记得不久前一位巴尔的摩妇女的故事。她因突发疾病上床，随后不久便“死”了。
Or so her husband and her doctors thought.
或者说是她的丈夫和医生们这么认为。
Her heart was silent, her face grey, her eyes unseeing, her body as cold as the grave. She lay like this for three days, and then they buried her in the family vault.
她的心脏寂静无声，脸色灰暗，双目失明，身体像坟墓一样冰冷。她这样躺了三天，然后他们把她埋葬在家族的墓穴里。
Three years later, they opened the vault again for another coffin. When her husband pulled back the doors, something fell noisily into his arms.
三年后，他们再次打开墓穴安放另一口棺材。当她的丈夫拉开门时，有什么东西哗啦一声掉进了他的怀里。
It was his wife’s skeleton, in her white burial clothes.
那是他妻子的骷髅，穿着她白色的寿衣。
Doctors thought that the woman ‘came alive’ again about two days after her burial. She fought wildly to get out of her coffin, they said, until it fell and broke open. She then used a piece of the broken coffin to hit the metal doors of the vault. But nobody heard her, or her screams for help. Then perhaps she fainted, or even died of terror. Her burial dress caught on some metalwork, which stopped her falling. And so she stayed, standing dead at the door, for three years.
医生们认为，那女人在下葬后大约两天“复活”了。他们说，她疯狂地挣扎着要逃出棺材，直到棺材掉落并摔开。然后她用一块破碎的棺材板撞击墓穴的金属门。但没有人听到她，也没有听到她求救的尖叫。然后她可能晕倒了，甚至被吓死了。她的寿衣挂在了一些金属装饰上，使她没有倒下。于是她就这样站着死在门口，长达三年。
And so she stayed, standing dead at the door, for three years.
于是她就这样站着死在门口，长达三年。
How often are people buried alive? Perhaps more often than we know. Think of the terror of it – the smell of the cold damp ground… the blackness of the night inside the narrow coffin… the long, long silence.
活人被埋葬的频率有多高？也许比我们所知道的要频繁得多。想象一下那种恐怖——冰冷潮湿的土地的气味……狭窄棺材里黑夜的漆黑……漫长、漫长的寂静。
There are many true stories about premature burials. This is the one that happened to me.
关于过早埋葬有许多真实的故事。这是发生在我身上的那一个。
For some years I had an illness called catalepsy. People who have catalepsy lie still and do not move for hours, or even days. They are still warm, and there is still some colour in their faces, but you have to listen hard to hear their heart or their breathing. Sometimes they can stay like this for weeks or months. And then it is difficult to find life in them.
几年来，我患有一种叫做“僵直症”的疾病。患有僵直症的人会躺着一动不动，持续数小时甚至数天。他们仍然温暖，脸上仍然有些血色，但你必须仔细听才能听到他们的心跳或呼吸。有时他们可以这样持续数周或数月。然后很难在他们身上发现生命迹象。
When a cataleptic fit started, I always felt cold and ill, and then I fainted. After this, everything was black and silent. I always woke up very slowly – and I could not remember anything about the fit.
当一次僵直症发作开始时，我总是感到寒冷和不适，然后晕倒。在这之后，一切都是黑色和寂静的。我总是醒得很慢——而且我不记得关于这次发作的任何事情。
My body itself was well and strong, but I began to worry more and more. I talked all the time about coffins and graves. Day and night my thoughts were about premature burial. I was afraid of sleeping – and afraid of waking up in a grave. And when at last I did fall asleep, my dreams were about the terrors of death.
我的身体本身健康强壮，但我开始越来越担心。我一直谈论着棺材和坟墓。日日夜夜，我的思绪都围绕着过早埋葬。我害怕睡觉——害怕在坟墓里醒来。当最后我终于睡着时，我的梦是关于死亡的恐怖。
Once I dreamed that I was in a long catalemitic fit. A cold hand touched my face, and a voice in my ear said softly, ‘Get up!’
有一次，我梦见我处于一次漫长的僵直症发作中。一只冰冷的手抚摸着我的脸，一个声音在我耳边轻声说：“起来！”
I sat up. Everything was dark and I could not see the speaker. Where was I? The cold hand started to shake my arm, and the voice said, ‘Get up! I said, get up!’
我坐了起来。一切都是黑暗的，我看不见说话的人。我在哪里？那只冰冷的手开始摇晃我的手臂，那个声音说：“起来！我说，起来！”
Who are you?’ I asked.
“你是谁？”我问。
I have no name in the place where I live,’ said the voice. ‘I was alive, but now I am dead, and a thing of darkness. I cannot sleep, cannot rest. How can you sleep so quietly? Get up! Come with me into the night, and I will show you the graves of the dead.’
“在我居住的地方我没有名字，”那个声音说。“我曾经活着，但现在我死了，是一个黑暗的东西。我不能睡觉，不能休息。你怎么能睡得这么安静？起来！和我一起进入黑夜，我会给你看死者的坟墓。”
And in my dream I looked into the open graves of every dead person in the world. I saw them, sleeping the long sleep of death in their burial clothes. But more terrible than the dead were the not-dead – those who were not sleeping, those who were fighting to get out of their coffins, those who died trying to escape.
在我的梦里，我窥视了世界上每一个死者的敞开的坟墓。我看见他们穿着寿衣，沉睡在死亡的长眠中。但比死者更可怕的是那些没死的——那些没有睡觉的人，那些正在挣扎着要逃出棺材的人，那些在试图逃跑时死去的人。
While I stared, the voice spoke to me again. ‘It is a most terrible thing to see, a most terrible thing…’
当我盯着看时，那个声音再次对我说话。“这是最可怕的事情，最可怕的事情……”
I remembered these dreams for a long time. I began to be afraid to leave my house. I did not want to be away from people who knew about my cataleptic fits. My friends, I thought, will never bury me alive by mistake. But then I began to worry about my friends…
这些梦我记了很久。我开始害怕离开我的房子。我不想离开那些知道我僵直症发作的人。我的朋友，我想，永远不会误把我活埋。但后来我开始担心我的朋友……
So I made many changes in my family vault. Usually the doors opened from outside; now I could open them from inside. I made holes for air and light to come in, and places for food and water near the coffin. I bought a new coffin that was warm and comfortable. The top of the coffin was like a door, and I could open it from the inside. And on the ceiling of the vault I put a big bell, with a rope that came down to the coffin, and through a hole in the top, next to my hand.
所以我对家族墓穴做了许多改动。通常门是从外面开的；现在我可以从里面打开它们。我打了孔让空气和光线进来，并在棺材附近设置了食物和水的地方。我买了一口新的棺材，温暖而舒适。棺材的顶部就像一扇门，我可以从里面打开它。并且我在墓穴的天花板上放了一口大钟，有一根绳子垂下来通向棺材，穿过顶部的一个洞，就在我手边。
I made many changes in my family vault.
我对家族墓穴做了许多改动。
But I was still afraid…
但我仍然害怕……
And I was right to be afraid. One day I woke up slowly, eyes still closed, feeling strangely tired. Then a sudden terror hit me. I tried to think, to remember… and then I felt that I was waking up not from sleep, but from a cataleptic fit. And cold fear filled me at once, fear that never leaves me, day or night.
而且我有理由害怕。一天，我慢慢地醒来，眼睛仍然闭着，感到异常疲惫。然后一阵突如其来的恐怖袭击了我。我试图思考，去回忆……然后我感觉到我醒来的不是睡眠，而是僵直症的发作。冰冷的恐惧立刻充满了我，那种恐惧日夜从不离开我。
For some minutes I lay still, but at last I opened my eyes. It was dark – all dark – the darkness of a night that would never end. I felt that I lay on hard wood, and when I moved my arms, they hit wood on both sides of me, and above my face.
我静躺了几分钟，但最后我睁开了眼睛。是黑暗的——全是黑暗的——永无止境的黑夜的黑暗。我感觉到我躺在坚硬的木头上，当我移动手臂时，它们撞到了我两侧的木头，以及我脸上的上方。
I was lying in a coffin.
我正躺在一口棺材里。
Then hope came. I pushed hard to open the top of my special coffin; it would not move. I tried to find the bell-rope; it was not there. And now hope left me. This was a hard wooden coffin, not my soft, comfortable one. And there was a smell of wetness, a smell of cold damp ground! I was not in my vault…
然后希望来了。我用力推想打开我特制的棺材盖；它纹丝不动。我试图找到铃绳；它不在那里。现在希望离我而去。这是一口坚硬的木棺材，不是我柔软、舒适的那口。而且有一股潮湿的气味，一股冰冷潮湿的土地的气味！我不在我的墓穴里……
Oh, dear God!’ I thought. ‘I have had a cataleptic fit, and I’m away from my home and with people who don’t know me. They think that I’m dead, and they have buried me like a dog, in a cheap wooden coffin. Deep, deep in a grave with no name on it! No, no!’
“哦，亲爱的上帝！”我想。“我发作了一次僵直症，而且我远离家乡，和一些不认识我的人在一起。他们以为我死了，他们像埋一条狗一样把我埋了，在一口廉价的木棺材里。在一个没有名字的坟墓里，很深、很深的地方！不，不！”
I screamed – a long, wild, terrible scream.
我尖叫起来——一声漫长、狂野、可怕的尖叫。
Hello? Hello?’ a man’s voice answered.
“你好？你好？”一个男人的声音回答。
What’s the matter?’ said a second man’s voice.
“怎么了？”第二个男人的声音说。
What’s going on?’ said a third man’s voice. ‘Why are you screaming like that?’
“发生什么事了？”第三个男人的声音说。“你为什么那样尖叫？”
Then the men began to shake me. They did not wake me, because I was already awake, but the shaking helped me, and at once I remembered everything.
然后男人们开始摇晃我。他们没有叫醒我，因为我已经醒了，但摇晃帮助了我，我立刻记起了一切。
I was near Richmond, in Virginia, on a walk with a friend beside the James River. When night came, there was a sudden storm. We saw an old sailing boat at the side of the river, and hurried along to it.
我在弗吉尼亚州的里士满附近，和一位朋友在詹姆斯河边散步。当夜晚来临时，突然下起了暴风雨。我们在河边看到一艘旧帆船，并匆匆赶往那里。
We must get out of this storm,’ I said to my friend. ‘The boat is very small, but it will keep us dry.’
“我们必须躲过这场暴风雨，”我对我的朋友说。“这艘船很小，但可以让我们保持干燥。”
So we slept there that night. The beds were very narrow, and were not much better than long wooden boxes in the side of the boat. They were only half a metre across, and half a metre from top to bottom. It was difficult to get into a bed that was so small, but I slept well… and dreamt.
所以我们那天晚上睡在那里。床非常狭窄，不比船侧的长木箱好多少。它们宽只有半米，上下也只有半米。钻进那么小的床里很困难，但我睡得很好……还做了梦。
In my dream – and of course it was a dream – my narrow wooden bed became my coffin. The damp smell came from the river and the wet ground after the rain. And the men who shook me to wake me up were the workmen on the boat.
在我的梦里——当然那是一个梦——我狭窄的木床变成了我的棺材。潮湿的气味来自雨后的河流和湿润的土地。摇晃我把我叫醒的男人们是船上的工人。
In my dream my narrow wooden bed became my coffin.
在我的梦里，我狭窄的木床变成了我的棺材。
It was a dream, yes. But the terror was real, and terror can make people ill, or even kill them. But something good came from this terrible adventure. After that day I stopped thinking about death and burial. I went walking and riding, and breathed the free air. My fears went away, and my catalepsy went with them.
那是一个梦，是的。但那种恐怖是真实的，恐怖会让人生病，甚至杀死他们。但这次可怕的冒险带来了一些好事。从那天起，我停止了对死亡和埋葬的思考。我去散步和骑马，呼吸着自由的空气。我的恐惧消失了，我的僵直症也随着它们消失了。
It is easy to understand the terror of a living burial, the terror of waking inside a closed coffin. But we must put away thoughts like these, and close the door on them, or fear and worry will send us to an early grave.
很容易理解活埋的恐怖，以及在封闭的棺材里醒来的恐怖。但我们必须摒弃这些想法，关上它们的门，否则恐惧和忧虑会把我们送入早逝的坟墓。
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