The Merchant of Venice 3：The Language

The Merchant of Venice - Part 3 - “Hath not a Jew eyes?”

《威尼斯商人》——第三部分——“难道犹太人没有眼睛吗？”

In Episode Two, we discussed how Shakespeare’sThe Merchant of Veniceproduces such intense and complicated responses in its audiences via the way it explores the characters’ structures of feeling. In this episode, we’ll go more deeply into the emotional lives of Antonio and Shylock--the antagonists who hate each other while also strangely resembling each other. We’ll also hear their clash come to a head in the climactic trial scene. Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, guides our discussion.

在上集节目中，我们探讨了莎士比亚如何通过对角色情绪的探索使得《威尼斯商人》这部戏剧在读者和观众中间激发出强烈又复杂回应。本集节目，我们将进一步深入探寻安东尼奥和夏洛克这两个敌对却又相似的角色的内心世界。我们将一同欣赏法庭审判那场戏，看看他们之间高潮迭起的矛盾是如何在这场戏中达到顶峰的。今天带领我们展开讨论的依旧是哈佛大学约翰·科根人文学科校级教授，斯蒂芬·格林布拉特。

Our first speech comes from Act One. Bassanio has just hinted that he needs yet another loan from Antonio, and Antonio responds in terms that indicate the unusually deep affection he feels for Bassanio.

我们下面听到的第一段台词选自戏剧第一幕。此前，巴萨尼奥向安东尼奥暗示说需要再向他借一笔钱，而安东尼奥的回答流露出了他对巴萨尼奥不同寻常的爱恋之情。

a. Antonio, 1.1.142 - “I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it … To have it of my trust, or for my sake.”

a. 安东尼奥，第一幕，第一场，第142行起，“好巴萨尼奥，要请你让我晓得；......不论作为我担保，或作为我借贷。”

ANTONIO I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;

安东尼奥：好巴萨尼奥，要请你让我晓得；

And if it stand, as you yourself still do,

倘使能符合光荣和正道，如同你现在仍然是这样，

Within the eye of honor, be assured

你尽可安心，

My purse, my person, my extremest means

我的钱囊和身家，竭尽我的一切，

Lie all unlocked to your occasions …

都毫无保留地供你驱遣使用。……

You know me well, and herein spend but time

你熟知我的情意，如今只空费时间，

To wind about my love with circumstance;

迂回曲折地试探我的爱；

And out of doubt you do me now more wrong

我心存疑虑，不信我会竭尽全力

In making question of my uttermost

来解脱你的困厄，

Than if you had made waste of all I have.

这就比耗尽我的所有，还更加见外；

Then do but say to me what I should do

故而，只要告诉我，我该怎么办，

That in your knowledge may by me be done,

你认为我可以对你有所帮助，

And I am prest unto it. Therefore speak …

那就一准来做到：所以，你说啊。……

Thou know’st that all my fortunes are at sea;

你知道我全部资产都在海上；

Neither have I money nor commodity

我既无现金，又没有货贿

To raise a present sum. Therefore go forth:

去筹措一大笔款项：所以我会到市上去；

Try what my credit can in Venice do;

试我的信用能在威尼斯怎么样：

That shall be racked even to the uttermost

要竭尽我的信用的能耐去筹款，

To furnish thee to Belmont to fair Portia.

供应你能到贝尔蒙，去找鲍西娅。

Go presently inquire, and so will I,

去吧，马上去探问，我自己也就去，

Where money is, and I no question make

哪里有钱款；我不问条件好歹，

To have it of my trust, or for my sake.

不论作为我担保，或作为我借贷。

Bassanio has come to Antonio for money, and he comes in with a somewhat roundabout explanation for why he’s hoping to be able to pay it all back. Antonio is at least representing himself as impatient and even a little bit offended by that, as you might be if a friend comes to you and you feel you understand what the friend is asking for but the friend isn't getting to the point, but rather doing an elaborate number to try to soften you up. Antonio is ready. He's always ready with Bassanio, he loves Bassanio -- “My purse, my person, my extremist means lie all unlocked to your occasions” -- this is a play about caskets that are locked and then unlocked, about everything that is closed and open -- ‘I'm there for you, my purse and person.’ So Antonio says to Bassanio, “You know me well.” And that itself is simultaneously an expression of love and a bit of a reproach -- you know me well, you know what I feel about you. You know that you can get from me whatever you want. And “spending time to wind about my love with circumstance,” as he calls it, is therefore a kind of insult. It's as if we're not intimate with each other, as if you're dealing with someone who's a stranger. And I want you to ask me for everything, for the uttermost. This is the speech of a person who genuinely loves someone else and who feels upset that the person is not acknowledging the full extent of the intimacy between them.

巴萨尼奥是来找安东尼奥借钱的，但他却没有直接开口，而是顾左右而言他地解释说自己为什么希望可以有能力偿还之前向安东尼奥借的款项。听到这些话时，安东尼奥感到有点儿不耐烦，甚至觉得自己被冒犯了。这种感觉就好像你的朋友来找你，你知道朋友此行的目的，但他却一直不说重点，只是在那儿东拉西扯说一大堆话想打动你。其实安东尼奥是很乐意帮助巴萨尼奥的。对于巴萨尼奥，他一向都十分慷慨，因为他深爱着他。“我的钱囊和身家，竭尽我的一切，都毫无保留地供你驱遣使用。”这部剧围绕打开一个个紧锁的匣子而展开，围绕着解开那些封闭的内容发展。安东尼奥对巴萨尼奥说：“我可以给你我的一切，我的钱囊和我的身家。你熟知我的情意。”这段话既表达出了他的深切爱意，但同时也带着一丝责备的语气，“你知道我的情意，你知道我对你的感情。你知道你可以从我这得到一切你想要的东西”。但你“如今只空费时间，迂回曲折地试探我的爱”，这对我是一种冒犯。你这样做就像是把我当成了一个外人，一个陌生人。我希望你开口问我要任何的东西，不论是什么，我都愿意给你。从安东尼奥的这段台词中，我们可以感受到说话人对对方的真挚情感，同时他也因为对方对他们之间的亲密关系有所保留而感到困扰和不安。

“Then do but say to me what I should do” -- ‘Tell me what you want, tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. I'll do anything. Even though you know that I don't have a lot of money at the moment in my counting house.’ He tells Bassanio to go out in his name, “Try what my credit in Venice can do”. In other words, it's like giving someone your debit card. ‘See what you can get. I don't think I have much in the account, but whatever you can do with this card, here's my PIN number, and you can get whatever you can out of this.’

安东尼奥对巴萨尼奥说“故而，只要告诉我，我该怎么办”，“告诉我你想要什么，告诉我你要我做什么，我会竭尽全力为你，不论什么我都愿意。虽然你也知道，我的账房里此刻没有太多的钱，但我依旧愿意为你做任何事”。他甚至还让巴萨尼奥以自己的名义去借钱，“试我的信用能在威尼斯怎么样”。这就好比你把自己的信用卡拿给别人用，“试试看你可以换来什么。虽然，我的账户上钱不多，但是你可以随意地用这张卡消费，这是卡的密码，你随便花”。

His credit, he says, will be “racked even to the uttermost to furnish thee to Belmont and fair Portia.” How that must have hurt Antonio to say that -- ‘I know what you want. You want to get this woman. I love you -- you want to get this other person.’ He uses that extremely strange metaphor, that shall be “racked even to the uttermost.” The rack was a torture device that was, I'm sorry to say, used in Elizabethan England and Jacobean England. It was a device to stretch the body out until it broke the joints, an excruciating punishment. And Antonio uses, unconsciously, playfully, however we use metaphors, an extreme metaphor of torture to describe what will be done to his credit by Bassanio in Venice in order to satisfy Bassanio’s desire to go to Belmont to woo fair Portia. There’s a little something at the end of this speech of love, there’s something angry, borderline aggressive. ‘Takemy money, take all of it,breakmy credit, if you want -- I am yours. You know that.’ There’s something disturbing about this love speech.

安东尼奥说，“要竭尽我的信用的能耐去筹款，供应你能到贝尔蒙，去找鲍西娅”。他在说这句话的时候，内心一定很痛苦，“我知道你想要什么，你想要得到这位小姐。但因为我爱你，所以我也希望你可以与她成婚”。在这里安东尼奥还是用了一个很罕见的意象。在英文台词中，莎士比亚用来表示“竭尽”的这个单词，作为名词解释时，还指“拉肢刑具”，这种刑具在伊丽莎白一世时期和詹姆斯一世时期的英国都在使用。它可以将罪犯的身体不断往外拉，直到关节断裂，是一种极为残忍的惩罚工具。不知是无意还是有意，安东尼奥对巴萨尼奥说，可以用自己的信用在威尼斯借钱，去追求贝尔蒙的鲍西娅时，竟然使用了这样一个象征痛苦与折磨的意象。在这段述说爱意的台词的结尾，我们又感受到了一丝不一样的情绪，有点儿愤怒，也有点儿霸道。安东尼奥命令巴萨尼奥“收下我的钱，全都收下，就算毁了我的信用也没关系，只要你愿意，我的一切都是你的。你知道这一点的。”在这段充满了深情爱意的台词中，这里显露出了些许的不安。

This speech is one of the most famous speeches in Shakespeare. The Venetians Solanio and Salarino have been mocking Shylock about his daughter’s running away, and Shylock says that Antonio should “look to his bond” and the promised pound of flesh. Salarino asks why he would want Antonio’s flesh. This is Shylock’s reply.

下面这段台词是莎士比亚最著名的台词之一。夏洛克的女儿刚刚和洛良佐私奔，威尼斯人萨拉尼奥和萨拉里诺因此讥讽嘲笑夏洛克。夏洛克对他们说要安东尼奥“注意借据立约”，以及他所承诺的那一磅肉。萨拉里诺问他为什么执着于要安东尼奥的一磅肉，夏洛克做了如下这番解释。

b. Shylock, 3.1.53 -- “He hath disgraced me … but I will better the instruction.” (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”)

b. 夏洛克，第三幕，第一场，第53行起，“他污辱了我......从严回敬。”（“难道犹太人没有眼睛吗？”）

SHYLOCK He hath disgraced me and

夏洛克：他污辱了我，

hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,

叫我吃亏五十万；耻笑我的损失，

mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted

讥讽我的赢利，侮蔑我的种族，破坏

my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies--

我的买卖契约，泼我的朋友们冷水，煽动我的仇家们的火势；

and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not

他可有什么道理？我是个犹太人。犹太人

a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,

没有眼睛吗？犹太人没有手脚、器官、身材大小、

senses, affections, passions? Fed with the

感觉、情意、血性吗？跟一个基督徒

same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to

不是吃同样的食品，用同样的刀枪可以伤害他，也同样

the same diseases, healed by the same means,

会害病，用同样的药剂可以医治，

warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer

同样的冬天和夏天可以使他

as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not

冷和热吗？你若戳刺我们，

bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you

我们不会出血吗？你若逗我们痒，我们不会笑吗？你若

poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall

用毒药毒我们，我们不会死吗？而你若伤害我们，我们

we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will

不能报复吗？要是我们在其他事情上跟你们一样，

resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,

我们在某一件事上也跟你们相同。要是一个犹太人伤害了一个基督徒，

what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong

那基督徒怎样表示他的谦让？报复。要是一个基督徒伤害了

a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian

一个犹太人，根据基督徒的榜样，

example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I

那个犹太人应当怎样表示他的宽容？报复，当然。你教给我的恶辣手段，

will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the

我要来实行，并且要

instruction.

从严回敬。

Shylock’s speech “I am a Jew” is probably now the most famous speech inThe Merchant of Venice. And it has a special range of meanings after the Holocaust particularly, that it may not have had for most people, either readers or audiences, before the horrors of the mid-20th century. That is to say, now, this speech, “Hath not a Jew eyes? If you prick us, do we not bleed?” -- this speech seems like a kind of essential expression of humanity, even the humanity of your worst, most stereotyped enemies. It feels that way to me. And I think it feels that way to all contemporary audiences. Whether it meant that for the audience in the 1590s, I simply don't know. I do not know how the original audiences, or audiences more comfortable with anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, would have felt.

夏洛克这段台词应该算是《威尼斯商人》中最著名的选段了。尤其是在发生了纳粹对数百万犹太人的大屠杀后，这段台词拥有了许多新的深刻内涵。在20世纪中期这场屠杀浩劫发生之前，这些新的内涵对于大部分读者和观众而言，都是不曾听过的。如今我们读这段台词，“难道犹太人没有眼睛吗？你若戳刺我们，我们不会出血吗？”，它似乎在谈论一种基本的人性，即便是对待你们最恶劣的宿敌也要有人性。我读这段话时，就有这样的感觉。我觉得当代所有观众也都会有这样的感觉。但是对于16世纪90年代的观众而言，这段台词是否能激起他们这样的情绪，我不得而知。我不清楚最初的那批观众，那批有着反犹情绪的观众，他们在面对这段台词的时候，内心有着怎样的想法。

It's a speech that arises out of a scene of race-baiting and mockery, or religious baiting and mockery. Antonio's friends have just been asking Shylock why he wants this, why he isn't willing to back off from a completely crazy demand for the pound of flesh. And Shylock tries to give the answer. The framing of the answer is, ‘That’s why I’m going to kill this enemy. This is why I'm going to kill him: “He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million,” he's taken my money away.’ Shylock builds up a set of resentments tumbling out of him that he feels toward Antonio. And that's the beginning of the speech. And he ends the speech with a threat to kill Antonio. So the framing of what we now take to be a poignant expression of fundamental humanity is, ‘I am going to kill my loathed enemy.’ And if we isolate a certain part of the speech, if we take that central passage out, and away from the beginning and the ending -- ‘This is why I hate him, because I lost money, because he has disgraced me, scorned me, and this is what I'm going to do to him, don’t hope that I'll back off’ -- then it looks like a rather enlightenment account of shared humanity. And maybe that's what it is. But the context is the fact that I am going to kill that son of a bitch no matter what you tell me. That does rather alter the emotional feeling of the whole thing.

夏洛克在说这段台词时，周围的人都在攻击嘲笑他的种族，在攻击嘲笑他的宗教信仰。安东尼奥的朋友们问夏洛克为什么执着于安东尼奥的那一磅肉，为什么不放弃这个疯狂不理智的要求。夏洛克试着给出自己的解释。他的这段话概括来说就是“这就是我要杀死这个敌人的原因，我要杀死他，因为他‘污辱了我，叫我吃亏五十万’，他抢走了我的钱财”。夏洛克述说了对安东尼奥的一连串恨意，这段台词就是以这样的内容开始。在最后，他威胁说要杀死安东尼奥。所以如今我们从这个对最基本人性的心酸控诉中可以了解到夏洛克的心态——“我要杀死我憎恨的敌人”。如果我们把台词的特定部分剥离出来，抽取中心文本，掐头去尾地进行分析，夏洛克说所表达的似乎是：“这就是我憎恨他的原因，因为他害我损失了金钱，因为他污辱我，唾弃我。这就是我要对他做的事情，别指望我会收手放弃”，这段史无前例的描写适用于所有人，刻画出了人性共通的一面。或许，这才是这段话想要表达的真正意思。然而，考虑到整个文本语境，事实情况其实是夏洛克说“我要杀了这个混账东西，你说什么都没有用”。这大大改变了整件事情的情感态度。

Now, we could say that there is a kind of harder-edged humanism in Shylock’s speech that has to do with the fact that, if you treat people a certain way, consistently, miserably, if you make them unhappy, suffer economically, if you have a kind of structural persecution, not only to them personally, but to a whole group -- “mocked my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies” -- if you have a long history of structural persecution, you're going to produce exactly what you've got here, which is rage. And it's going to produce that rage in everybody. It's not just the question of this person or this one group. Anyone will feel this after enough time. Don't you get it? Don't you understand that that's what you're producing? Not just in me, but in any sentient human being? The specifics ofmeis that I'm a Jew, but it would also be true foryou. You should know that. So we could say that the context qualifies what Shylock says, but it's not, how shall we say, sentimental -- it's tougher. The whole play is tougher and meaner and harder about the structures of hatred, hatred that is in this case, directed from Christians to Jews, but also from Jews to Christians, and, we could say, out to a much larger world in which you can fill in the blank with any group.

如今，从夏洛克的这段台词中，我们可以读出一种更加理性客观的人文主义思想。就是如果你一直用糟糕的态度去对待某个人或某个群体，如果你让他们不开心，让他们遭受经济上的损失，对他们施加社会结构性迫害，你“讥讽他们的赢利，侮蔑他们的种族，破坏他们的买卖契约，泼他们朋友们冷水，煽动他们仇家们的火势”，如果你长持以往对他们施加迫害，那么你所面临可能就是他们的愤怒和报复。那些不公正的对待会在他们每个人心中点燃怒火。这不仅仅是针对某个特定的个人，或者某个特定的群体。在时间累积到一定的程度后，所有人都会产生这样的愤怒。你还不明白吗？你难道还不知道，这些全都是你自己造成的呀！不仅仅是我会有这样的情绪，任何一个有感知能力的人，在经历了我所遭受的一切后，都会变得像我一样。在我身上，也许犹太人这个身份是特殊的，但即便是你这个基督徒，在遭受了这一切之后，也会有同样的愤怒。你难道还不明白吗？所以，我们可以说语境背景让夏洛克的这番话有了更具体的指称对象。但是我们不能仅仅把它理解为“感情用事”，事实情况其实更为复杂棘手。纵观整部戏剧，它在这里所展现的是更棘手、更刻薄、更苛刻的社会结构性仇恨，不仅仅是基督徒对于犹太人的仇恨，也有犹太人对基督徒的仇恨。甚至可以说，把这个问题放到更大的世界范围来看的话，这个逻辑适用于任何一种宗教派别，适用于任何一种族群体。

That is the immediate context of the speech. And then there comes this extraordinary explosion of what it is to be a human being. “I am a Jew.” Shylock acknowledges the core of the hatred that he's faced all his life and then he turns his view out onto his body: “Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” These are all what comes with being what we all are, as human creatures -- “fed with the same food,” as he says. You could qualify that remark and say, ‘Well, not quite the same food, because it is special food, kosher food in the case of Shylock, but still, fed with food.’ “Hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is.” I think perhaps what we should say about this part is that we can see Shakespeare's strange imagination at work, when he takes the basic point, which we can all get -- ‘Look, I'm human like the rest of you’ -- it just begins to build in Shakespeare’s imagination. And the enumeration of things -- “subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer” -- you begin to build up in a way that you wouldn't if you just said, ‘Isn't the Jew a human being like everyone else?’ You build up an enormously powerful sense, a sense that it is possible to feel with any persecuted group in the world, when we ask ourselves, stepping back from our local hatreds, ‘Who are we talking about here? Who are we dealing with? Aren’t these people with ordinary lives that we all have, who are hurt with the same weapons, who bleed with the same blood?’ “If you tickle us, do we not laugh?” Shylock says. “If you poison us, do we not die?” And then, it is only after this extraordinary opening toward the shared humanity, in these unusually specific ways, that Shylock says, “If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

这些是这段台词最直接的背景，接下来夏洛克又对什么是“人”作出了一番陈述，这段陈述同样震撼人心。夏洛克表示他一生中之所以会遭受这些憎恨，根源就在于“他是个犹太人”，接着他通过对于身体的描述来表达自己的观点，他问“犹太人没有手脚、器官、身材大小、感觉、情意、血性吗？”这些是所有人类都共有的，是生而为人都会具备的。他还表示犹太人和基督徒“吃同样的食品”。当然，你会说：“他们吃的也不完全一样吧。因为夏洛克吃的是犹太教所允许的食物。不过归根到底，犹太人也是要吃东西的。”“用同样的刀枪可以伤害他，也同样会害病，用同样的药剂可以医治，同样的冬天和夏天可以使他冷和热”。从这里，我们可以看出莎士比亚在创作过程中那奇妙的想象力。他会从一个基本的点出发，这里的出发点就是“看，我作为一个犹太人和你们这些基督徒一样也是人”，然后在创作中，莎士比亚会围绕这一点慢慢展开。他罗列了一系列内容：认为自己“也同样会害病，用同样的药剂可以医治，同样的冬天和夏天可以感受到冷和热”等等。如果一开始仅仅只说“犹太人难道和其他人不一样，不是人类吗？”，这样的展开就无法实现了。莎士比亚的论述方式，激起了读者和观众的强大共鸣，他们可以通过具体意象，共情世界上那些遭受迫害的群体。我们也会脱离自己切身的仇恨，问一问自己：“我们在谈论谁？我们在面对谁？这些人难道不也和我们一样过着寻常的日子吗？被同样的武器伤害了，他们不也同样会流血吗？”夏洛克说：“你若逗我们痒，我们不会笑吗？用毒药毒我们，我们不会死吗？”而就在说完这一段关于人性共通点的震撼开场后，夏洛克马上就说到“而你若伤害我们，我们不能报复吗？”

Then, of course, he turns it out and says, ‘Look, that’s what the Christians do. They take revenge.’ And of course, this is a play that doesn't deny the fact that Christians and Jews are driven by hatred as well as love. They share a kind of collective human life. If you are tickled, you laugh, if you are pricked, you bleed, if you are persecuted, you feel anger. And even though the context of the speech is menace, Shylock’s profound, implacable hatred of Antonio, his determination to kill him if he possibly can -- that's the beginning of it and the end of it, “the villainy you teach me, I will execute it and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction,” ‘I will really do this in a remarkably effective successful way. But it's the same thing that you would do’ -- the core, the core is what it means to be a human being. And we learn this lesson and we forget it, and we learn it and forget it and learn it and forget it, over and over and over again, and we’re living itnow. We ask ourselves, ‘Why are people so angry?’ And then we actually answer the question to ourselves, if we are thoughtful enough: ‘Well, if you pick them, don't they bleed? If you tickle them, don't they laugh? Don't they die of the same diseases we die of?’ And you have to try to come to terms with that. This does not mean that you can't be frightened by the anger, that you think that you can’t or shouldn’t thwart it. Shylock has to be stopped from killing Antonio. He wants to kill Antonio legally. He wants to get away with it. He wants to cut a pound of his flesh out. It's horrible. He has to be stopped. But the play makes you come to terms, at least for certain moments, this moment, with the fact that Shylock is this way for a reason. He's not just coming out of nowhere. He's coming out of a life experience, which is alsoyourlife experience, what wouldbeyour life experience if you were in his position. We're all potentially in the same position. Not with an identical history, but with a history of vulnerability and of pleasure that we share as human beings -- laughter and pain -- that are part of our inheritance as a species, whether we are Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, it doesn't matter. And that is the brilliance of the play.

很明显，这里他想表达的意思就是“看吧，基督徒就是这么做的。他们就报复了。”当然，《威尼斯商人》这部戏剧也没有否认基督徒和犹太人之间在存在仇恨的同时，也存在着爱。他们都过着一种集体的人类生活。如果有人逗你痒，你会笑。如果有人戳刺你，你会流血。如果有人迫害你，你会感到愤怒。虽然从整体上看，这段台词充满了威胁和恐吓，夏洛克对安东尼奥也是恨之入骨，并且他还下定决心说只要有机会，一定要杀了安东尼奥。但这既是所有的开端，却也是一切的结束，“你教给我的恶辣手段，我要来实行，并且要从严回敬。”“我要以一种绝对有效的方法战胜你。但是，你也会对我做同样的事情。”这里的核心又回到了人类的本性上。我们得到一个教训，但很快又会把它忘了。接着我们又得到教训，但我们很快会再次又把它忘了。得到教训，忘记教训，一次又一次，循环往复，这个过程永远与我们相伴相随。我们会问自己：“人们为什么会这么生气？”但只要认真想一想，我们自己实际上已经在自问自答：“如果你戳刺他们，他们不会流血吗？如果你逗他们痒，他们不会大笑吗？他们不也会因为和我们一样的疾病而死去吗？”你必须要明白这一点。当然这也不意味着你不能害怕这些愤怒，或者自己认为不能或不应缓和这样的愤怒。我们必须阻止夏洛克杀害安东尼奥。夏洛克想通过合法的手段谋害安东尼奥的性命，他不想因为杀死安东尼奥而遭受惩罚。他想割下安东尼奥的一磅肉，这是很可怕的。所以，必须要阻止他。不过，戏剧让你，至少在特定的时刻，在你读这段台词的时候，可以理解夏洛克执着于这件可怕事情的缘由。他的杀机和恨意不是无缘无故就产生的。这都是他曾经的遭遇和经历所导致的。如果你处于他那样的境遇，你也会有他那样的感受，也会产生和他一样的想法。我们和夏洛克都是潜在的共同体。虽然我们的经历并不完全一样，但同样作为人类，我们都有脆弱和欢愉，有欢笑也有痛苦，这是我们作为人这个族群一直传承延续的，不论是犹太人，还是基督徒，或是穆斯林，又或者是佛教徒，在这里，不论你是什么身份，都完全没有影响。而这也正是戏剧的精彩之所在。

This scene is an excerpt from the courtroom scene, when Shylock goes before the Duke with Antonio to claim his “pound of flesh.” Portia, disguised as a male lawyer, has urged Shylock to accept repayment of his money instead and cancel the bond, but Shylock has refused: he will acceptonlywhat is specified in the bond. Shylock tells Antonio to prepare for the knife. But just then, Portia interrupts him -- and radically changes the case.

最后这段台词，选自法庭审判那场戏。夏洛克领着安东尼奥来到公爵面前，他要求割下安东尼奥的“一磅肉”。伪装成男律师的鲍西娅劝说夏洛克接受偿还的钱款，放弃这个残忍的约定，但夏洛克拒绝了，他表示自己一定要按照借约中的约定对安东尼奥执行违约惩罚。他让安东尼奥准备好面对刀子。但就在此刻，鲍西娅突然打断了他，并迅速扭转了局势。

c. Portia, Antonio, Shylock, 4.1.318-410, “Tarry a little. There is something else … I am content.” (With cuts) (The courtroom scene)

c. 鲍西娅、安东尼奥、夏洛克，第四幕，第一场，第318-410行，“等一下，还有一些别的事。...... 我满意。”（有删减）（法庭审判）

PORTIA,as Balthazar,Tarry a little. There is something else.

鲍西娅：等一下，还有一些别的事。

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood.

这借约在此绝没有给你一点血，

The words expressly are “a pound of flesh.”

写明的只是“一磅肉”。

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh,

那么，按照这借约，取你的这一磅肉；

But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed

但割时若流了

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods

这基督徒的一滴血，你的地皮和财货，

Are by the laws of Venice confiscate

按威尼斯城法律，

Unto the state of Venice.

要充公作为威尼斯城邦所有。

… For, as thou urgest justice, be assured

……因为，既然你坚持公道，要保证使你自己

Thou shalt have justice more than thou desir’st.

能得到公道，超过你所愿有的。

… Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.

故而，预备好去割肉吧。

Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more

你不得让他流血，也不得少割或多割

But just a pound of flesh. If thou tak’st more

恰好一磅肉。要是你多割

Or less than a just pound, be it but so much

或少割恰好一整磅，

As makes it light or heavy in the substance

只要分量上轻一点或者重一点，

Or the division of the twentieth part

相差只小小一分的二十分之一，

Of one poor scruple—nay, if the scale do turn

唔，天平上只相差

But in the estimation of a hair,

头发丝那样一丁点，

Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.

你就得死，你全部的财货要充公。

… Tarry, Jew.

......且慢，犹太人；

The law hath yet another hold on you.

法律对于你另外有一项规定。

It is enacted in the laws of Venice,

根据威尼斯所指定的一条法令，

If it be proved against an alien

假使对于一个外邦人经证明，

That by direct or indirect attempts

他以直接的或间接的企图，

He seek the life of any citizen,

要谋害任何一个本邦公民的生命，

The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive

那个他企图谋害的一方

Shall seize one half his goods; the other half

能取得他财产的一半；另一半

Comes to the privy coffer of the state,

没入公库；

And the offender’s life lies in the mercy

犯罪者的生命则需要撇开其他一切意见，

Of the Duke only, ’gainst all other voice.

取决于公爵的仁慈。

In which predicament I say thou stand’st,

在这困境里，我说，你正好已陷入；

For it appears by manifest proceeding

因为情况是，根据明显的进程，

That indirectly, and directly too,

你直接间接

Thou hast contrived against the very life

已经谋害了

Of the defendant, and thou hast incurred

这个被告的生命；你是招致了

The danger formerly by me rehearsed.

我上面所说的危难。

Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke …

故而跪下来，求公爵对你开恩。……

ANTONIO So please my lord the Duke and all the court

安东尼奥：公爵阁下和堂上

To quit the fine for one half of his goods,

如今宽免了把他一半的财产充公，

I am content, so he will let me have

我觉得安心；他将让我

The other half in use, to render it

把其他一半来使用，待到他死后

Upon his death unto the gentleman

我把这给那个

That lately stole his daughter.

最近同他女儿出奔的男士。

Two things provided more: that for this favor

此外有两件事，就是为感谢这恩情，

He presently become a Christian;

他立即成为个基督教徒；

The other, that he do record a gift,

还有，他在这庭上立下愿，

Here in the court, of all he dies possessed

将他死后的一切遗产遗赠给

Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter …

他的女儿和女婿洛良佐。……

PORTIA,as Balthazar, Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?

鲍西娅：你可满意吗，犹太人？你怎么说？

SHYLOCK I am content.

夏洛克：我满意。

The legal issues in the fourth act, in the courtroom, have fascinated people for a long time. There have been many retrials of the case. I was involved in one in Venice, in which Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over a very distinguished group of jurists trying to re-adjudicate the case. But a simple way of saying what happens in the courtroom is that Shylock comes to court for a commercial matter, for which the law of Venice treats everyone alike -- it doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or Christian, everyone has to submit to the same commercial code in Venice, that’s the way Venice functions as a state -- and then, by Portia’s clever move, the case shifts and becomes a criminal case. Because after all, Shylock is trying not simply to get a commercial satisfaction, he’ll be shedding blood. And shedding blood moves you to a different sphere, legally, in Venice. In that sphere, thereisa distinction between being a citizen and a non-citizen, between Jew and non-Jew. Jews cannot be citizens in Venice, and a foreigner, a non-citizen, cannot take the blood of a Venetian citizen legally. And suddenly we're in a different setting. Shylock is being treated differently -- legally, in the way that the play imagines it -- so that he’s offered an opportunity to take what he says he’s owed, which is a pound of flesh, but if he sheds even a drop of blood, his goods will be confiscated and he will be executed.

一直以来，第四幕中这段有关法律的剧情、这场法庭戏吸引了众多读者和观众。如今对于这个案件还有过很多模拟审判。我曾经就亲历过一场在威尼斯的模拟审判。那场审判由美国最高法院大法官鲁斯·巴德·金斯伯格主持，她带领一群杰出的法学家尝试着对这个案件进行重新的裁决。对于法庭上发生的一系列事情，概括来说就是，夏洛克因为商业纠纷来到法庭，当时威尼斯城的法律规定，在法律面前人人平等，不论你是犹太人还是基督徒，所有人都必须遵守威尼斯城的商业法典，这也正是威尼斯作为一个城邦必须遵循的原则。但鲍西娅的机智举措，改变了案件性质，她把这起商业纠纷案变成了一起刑事案件。毕竟我们都知道，夏洛克不仅仅只是想要拿回自己的借款，得到金钱上的满足，他更想要伤害安东尼奥。但是根据威尼斯的法律，伤害他人就会出发另外一套完全不同的机制。在这种机制下，本邦公民和非本邦公民，犹太人和非犹太人之间有着一条明确的界限。在威尼斯城，犹太人没有机会成为正式的本邦公民，而法律规定外邦者，或非本邦公民不得伤害威尼斯公民。这样，所有的情况在一瞬间就全发生了改变。根据戏剧的构想，人们对夏洛克的态度发生了变化，法律对他的影响也不一样了。他可以去割他所主张的安东尼奥欠他的那一磅肉，但是他不能让安东尼奥流一滴血，否则他的财产将会被没收，他本人也将被判处死刑。

What interests me about this moment is what you have to imagine when it is staged. When it is staged, you have to realize that Shakespeare goes out of his way to incorporate the staging, not just in stage directions, but in the speeches that are made -- you have to realize that Antonio is tied to the chair and bound, and that his shirt is open and that Shylock has a knife poised against him. The point is that Shylock can do this. Portia says he can do this. He can kill Antonio. But he has to understand that if he kills Antonio, it will not be a legal act. He will kill him and he will be executed -- he’ll lose his money, he will die. That is to say, Shakespeare goes out of his way to stage what I would call the suicide bomber’s decision: ‘How much do I hate my enemy? Do I hate him enough to give my own life to take his own life? I will get him finally, I’ve been obsessed with this, he's destroyed me, he's been involved in the luring of my daughter away, he’s everything that I loathe in the world. I can do itfinally.’ And Shakespeare goes out of his way to stage the scene so that we see that Shylock is poised to do it and cannot -- that he could do it and he doesn’t.

这一段很有趣，因为我们要想象当演员们在舞台上会如何表演这一系列场景。当演员们在舞台上表演时，我们必须明白，莎士比亚不仅仅会不遗余力地将舞台表演融入进舞台指示中，还会把它融入到台词对话里。我们可以想象，此刻安东尼奥被绑在椅子上，绑得牢牢的，他的衣衫敞开，夏洛克把一把刀子抵着他的胸膛。此时，夏洛克完全可以把刀子就这么扎进安东尼奥的胸膛。鲍西娅也表示，他可以这么做。他完全可以就这么杀了安东尼奥。但他也很清楚，如果自己就这么杀死安东尼奥的话，他的所作所为是不合法的。他可以杀死安东尼奥，但同时他自己也必将会被判处死刑。他不仅会失去所有的钱财，还会丢了性命。莎士比亚竭尽全力为我们在舞台上呈现了那种“自杀式袭击者”的内心想法：“我究竟有多憎恨我的敌人？我真的恨他恨到愿意用自己的性命去换他的性命吗？是的，我想他死，非常想，因为他毁了我，他也参与了诱骗我女儿私奔的阴谋。在这个世界上，我所厌恶的一切全都集中在了他的身上。我终于可以报仇了。”莎士比亚以杰出的创作才能为我们打造了这出好戏：夏洛克正准备要动手，但突然停下了。他本可以手刃仇敌，但最终他还是放弃了。

He doesn’t take Antonio’s life as part of a legal arrangement that he agrees to make. Antonio is given the opportunity, likewise, to let Shylock off the extreme penalty, which is death, if certain conditions are met -- that Shylock kneel down and beg mercy from the Duke. Antonio lists the conditions. The conditions are that he gives the rest of his money in use, that is to say, as an interest-free loan, to Antonio, and then he'll give it to his daughter and his daughter’s Christian husband. It is put in the most direct and uncomfortable way, “so he let me have the other half in use, to render it upon his death unto the gentleman that lately stole his daughter - and then that he become a Christian,”. And that he, “record a gift here in the court, of all he dies possessed unto Lorenzo,”. Then Antonio says, ‘If Shylock does all those things, I am content.’ In other words, Antonio will agree to this arrangement. And Portia ends the exchange by saying, “Art thou contented, Jew?” And never has there been more disturbing force placed on that word,content, or contented. “What dost thou say?” Shylock says, “I am content.”

他没有按照当初签订的合法借约去取安东尼奥的性命。同样，安东尼奥决定饶恕夏洛克，让他免受极刑，免于被处死，但对此他提出了一定的条件，他要求夏洛克跪下来，乞求公爵的仁慈和宽恕。安东尼奥列还列出了以下一系列条件：他要求夏洛克把余下的财产全都免息借给安东尼奥。然后，安东尼奥又把这笔财富赠给了夏洛克的女儿，以及她的基督徒丈夫。安东尼奥把话说得相当直白，甚至听的人都会觉得有些不适，他说夏洛克“让我用他一半的财产，到他死后我把这些钱给那个最近同他女儿出奔的男士。......他立即成为个基督徒”，他还要夏洛克“在这庭上立愿，将他死后的一切遗产遗赠给他的女儿和女婿洛良佐”。接着他还说：“如果夏洛克可以做到以上的所有，那么我就满意了。”换句话说，只有夏洛克同意上述条件，安东尼奥才会答应饶他一命。鲍西娅在最后陈述总结时问夏洛克：“你可满意吗，犹太人？”在这里，“满意”这个词表现出了极为强大的压迫感。鲍西娅问夏洛克：“你怎么说？”夏洛克回答道：“我满意”。

Whatever that means, “I am content,” he has agreed to this arrangement. But the full ironic force ofcontent-- for both of them, really, for Antonio as well, and even more for Shylock -- is to focus on the distinction between consentlegally, by saying ‘I am content to this arrangement,’ which both Antonio and Shylock give up the opportunity each has to destroy the other completely -- and what it could meanemotionallyto be content. No one could be less content than Shylock at this point. I think Antonio could be said to be content, possibly -- but you could say that deep down, beneath even Antonio’s “I am content,” he understands that he's doing all of this so that Bassanio and Portia can have an “interest-free” marriage, a marriage without the emotional bond, the claim, that he, Antonio, has had on Bassanio. And that has been Portia’s plan all along, breaking that emotional bond.

不论这几个词究竟包含了怎样的深意，但他说出“我满意”这几个字的时候，就意味着他同意这样的安排。可“满意”这个词很讽刺，对安东尼奥而言是如此，对夏洛克来说就更是这样。他们口头上都表示“对这样的安排很满意”，不论是安东尼奥还是夏洛克，他们都放弃了彻底摧毁对方的机会。这种法律层面的“满意”与情感上的“满意”不同，这种不同正是讽刺作用所重点关注的。夏洛克其实应该是一点儿不满意。安东尼奥也许勉强算得上 “满意”，但如果我们进一步深入分析就会发现，安东尼奥说出这句“我满意”的时候，他就很清楚他所作的这一切都是为了让巴萨尼奥和鲍西娅可以拥有“免息”的婚姻，为了让他们的婚姻从自己和巴萨尼奥的情感契约中解脱出来，不受影响。这一直是鲍西娅所希望实现的，她迫切希望可以斩断安东尼奥和巴萨尼奥之间的情感契约。