Chapter 58

第五十八章

The time came for my departure from Tahiti. According to the gracious custom of the island, presents were given me by the persons with whom I had been thrown in contact—baskets made of the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, mats of pandanus, fans; and Tiare gave me three little pearls and three jars of guava-jelly made with her own plump hands. When the mail-boat, stopping for twenty-four hours on its way from Wellington to San Francisco, blew the whistle that warned the passengers to get on board, Tiare clasped me to her vast bosom, so that I seemed to sink into a billowy sea, and pressed her red lips to mine. Tears glistened in her eyes. And when we steamed slowly out of the lagoon, making our way gingerly through the opening in the reef, and then steered for the open sea, a certain melancholy fell upon me. The breeze was laden still with the pleasant odours of the land. Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again. A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitable death.

我离开塔希提的日子已经到了。根据岛上好客的习惯，凡是萍水相逢和我有一面之识的人临别时都送给我一些礼物——椰子树叶编的筐子、露兜树叶织的席、扇子……。蒂阿瑞给我的是三颗小珍珠和用她一双胖手亲自做的三罐番石榴酱。最后，当从惠灵顿开往旧金山的邮船在码头停泊了二十四小时，汽笛长鸣，招呼旅客上船的时候，蒂阿瑞把我搂在她肥大的胸脯里（我有一种掉在波涛汹涌的大海中的感觉），眼睛里闪着泪珠，把她的红嘴唇贴在我的嘴上。轮船缓缓驶出咸水湖，从珊瑚礁的一个通道小心谨慎地开到广阔的海面上，这时，一阵忧伤突然袭上我的心头。空气里仍然弥漫着从陆地飘来的令人心醉的香气，塔希提离我却已经非常遥远了。我知道我再也不会看到它了。我的生命史又翻过了一页；我觉得自己距离那谁也逃脱不掉的死亡又迈近了一步。