名著精讀:《悉達多》 和兒童般的俗人在一起(2)

"It is excellent how you're able to write," the merchant praised him. "Many a thing we will still have to discuss with one another. For today, I'm asking you to be my guest and to live in this house."
Siddhartha thanked and accepted, and lived in the dealers house from now on. Clothes were brought to him, and shoes, and every day, a servant prepared a bath for him. Twice a day, a plentiful meal was served, but Siddhartha only ate once a day, and ate neither meat nor did he drink wine. Kamaswami told him about his trade, showed him the merchandise and storage-rooms, showed him calculations. Siddhartha got to know many new things, he heard a lot and spoke little. And thinking of Kamala's words, he was never subservient to the merchant, forced him to treat him as an equal, yes even more than an equal. Kamaswami conducted his business with care and often with passion, but Siddhartha looked upon all of this as if it was a game, the rules of which he tried hard to learn precisely, but the contents of which did not touch his heart.
He was not in Kamaswami's house for long, when he already took part in his landlords business. But daily, at the hour appointed by her, he visited beautiful Kamala, wearing pretty clothes, fine shoes, and soon he brought her gifts as well. Much he learned from her red, smart mouth. Much he learned from her tender, supple hand. Him, who was, regarding love, still a boy and had a tendency to plunge blindly and insatiably into lust like into a bottomless pit, him she taught, thoroughly starting with the basics, about that school of thought which teaches that pleasure cannot be be taken without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every look, every spot of the body, however small it was, had its secret, which would bring happiness to those who know about it and unleash it. She taught him, that lovers must not part from one another after celebrating love, without one admiring the other, without being just as defeated as they have been victorious, so that with none of them should start feeling fed up or bored and get that evil feeling of having abused or having been abused. Wonderful hours he spent with the beautiful and smart artist, became her student, her lover, her friend. Here with Kamala was the worth and purpose of his present life, nit with the business of Kamaswami.
The merchant passed to duties of writing important letters and contracts on to him and got into the habit of discussing all important affairs with him. He soon saw that Siddhartha knew little about rice and wool, shipping and trade, but that he acted in a fortunate manner, and that Siddhartha surpassed him, the merchant, in calmness and equanimity, and in the art of listening and deeply understanding previously unknown people. "This Brahman," he said to a friend, "is no proper merchant and will never be one, there is never any passion in his soul when he conducts our business. But he has that mysterious quality of those people to whom success comes all by itself, whether this may be a good star of his birth, magic, or something he has learned among Samanas. He always seems to be merely playing with out business-affairs, they never fully become a part of him, they never rule over him, he is never afraid of failure, he is never upset by a loss."
The friend advised the merchant: "Give him from the business he conducts for you a third of the profits, but let him also be liable for the same amount of the losses, when there is a loss. Then, he'll become more zealous."
Kamaswami followed the advice. But Siddhartha cared little about this. When he made a profit, he accepted it with equanimity; when he made losses, he laughed and said: "Well, look at this, so this one turned out badly!"
It seemed indeed, as if he did not care about the business. At one time, he travelled to a village to buy a large harvest of rice there. But when he got there, the rice had already been sold to another merchant. Nevertheless, Siddhartha stayed for several days in that village, treated the farmers for a drink, gave copper-coins to their children, joined in the celebration of a wedding, and returned extremely satisfied from his trip. Kamaswami held against him that he had not turned back right away, that he had wasted time and money. Siddhartha answered: "Stop scolding, dear friend! Nothing was ever achieved by scolding. If a loss has occurred, let me bear that loss. I am very satisfied with this trip. I have gotten to know many kinds of people, a Brahman has become my friend, children have sat on my knees, farmers have shown me their fields, nobody knew that I was a merchant."
"That's all very nice," exclaimed Kamaswami indignantly, "but in fact, you are a merchant after all, one ought to think! Or might you have only travelled for your amusement?"

"寫得真好。"商人誇獎道，"有好多事咱們以後再互相切磋吧。今天，我邀請你做我的客人，並且在我這房子裏留宿。"
席特哈爾塔道過謝接受了邀請，並且從此在商人家裏住下了。有人給他送來了衣服，還有鞋，一個僕人每天伺候他洗澡。白天有兩餐豐盛的飯菜，但席特哈爾塔只吃一餐，而且不吃肉也不喝酒。卡馬斯瓦密給他講自己的生意，給他看貨物和倉庫，還教他算帳。席特哈爾塔學會了很多新東西，但是他聽得多說得少。他牢記卡瑪拉的話，從來不對商人低聲下氣，迫使他對自己平等相待，甚至超過了平等相待。卡馬斯瓦密小心謹慎地經營他的生意，往往投入極大的熱情，而席特哈爾塔卻把這一切視爲遊戲，他努力學會準確掌握遊戲的規則，但遊戲的內容卻並不使他動心。
他到卡馬斯瓦密家不久就參與了主人所做的生意。但是，每天一到卡瑪拉跟他約定的時間，他就去拜訪她，穿着華麗的衣服，精美的鞋子，不久後還給她帶禮物。她那紅潤、聰明的嘴教會了他許多事。因爲他在愛情方面還是個孩子，很容易冒失而不知足地陷入情慾之中，就好像跌入無底的深淵一樣，所以卡瑪拉就從根本上教給他不付出歡娛就得不到歡娛的道理。每一種手勢，每一次撫摩，每一回接觸，每一道目光，身體的每一個最細小的部位，都有其祕密，而喚醒這祕密都會帶來幸福。她教他，在一次愛的盛典之後，戀人如果沒有互相驚歎的感覺，沒有既征服了對方又被對方征服的感覺，就不要分開這樣雙方纔興去產生厭倦與乏味，不會有那種勉強別人或被別人勉強的惡劣情緒。他在美麗而聰慧的女藝術家身邊享受了許多美妙的時刻，成了她的學生、愛人和朋友。他現時生活的價值和意義可以說完全是在卡瑪拉這兒，而不是在卡馬斯瓦密的生意當中。
卡馬斯瓦密委託他草擬重要的信函與合同，並且習慣了跟他商量所有重要的事情。他很快就發現，席特哈爾塔對大米和棉花、航運和貿易所知並不多，但是他的手很有運氣，而且，席特哈爾塔在沉着鎮定方面，在傾聽和了解陌生人的技巧方面，勝過了他這個商人。"這個婆羅門，"他對一個朋友說，"不是個真正的商人，將來也不會是。他的心對做生意毫無熱情可言。可是，他擁有那些能自動獲得成功的人的祕密，也不知是因爲他天生福星高照還是他會魔法，或者是由於他從沙門那兒學到的本領。做生意對一塌胡塗他似乎似乎只是遊戲，從來不會完佔據他的心，從來不會完全控制他，他從來都不怕失敗，從來都不擔心虧本。"
那朋友給商人出主意："你把生意交給他，從他給你賺的紅利中分三分之一給他，若是虧本了，也讓他承擔同樣份額的損失。那麼，他就會更熱心了。"
卡馬斯瓦密採納了這個建議。但是，席特哈爾塔仍然漫不經心。他得了紅利，就不動聲色地收下，有了虧損，他也是笑笑，說："嘿，這次又搞砸了！"
事實上，他顯得對做生意並不上心。有一次，他到了一個村莊，要在那兒收購一大批稻穀。可是當他到達時，稻穀已經賣給了另一個商人。然而，席特哈爾塔還是在那個村子待了幾天，招待農民們給他們的孩子銅幣，還參加了一個婚禮，然後才滿意而歸。卡馬斯瓦密責備他沒有即刻返回，浪費了時間和金錢。席特哈爾塔答道："別訓斥啦，親愛的朋友！靠訓斥從嚴都達不到什麼。既然有了虧損，那就讓我承擔吧。我很滿意這次旅行。我結識了各種各樣的人，一個婆羅門成了我的朋友，孩子們騎坐在我的膝上嬉戲，農民們給我看他們的田地，沒人把我當成一個商人。"
"這一切都挺不錯，"卡馬斯瓦密不高興地嚷道："但實際上你是個商人，就是這話！難道你這次去只是爲了消遣？"