献给爱伦·坡的玫瑰
ROSES FOR POE
我们到达巴尔的摩正好是1月19日。在宾馆住下后，我对妻子说，我带你去个地方。干吗？向大师致敬。
We arrived in Baltimore not earlier or later, but exactly on January 19. After checking into our hotel, I told my wife I was taking her somewhere. She asked what it was for. I said, to salute the master.
谁？
Who?
埃德加·爱伦·坡。
Edgar Allan Poe
我穿上黑色的风衣。我的衣服差不多都是黑色的。勒上格子围巾。要有一顶礼帽就好了，我说。妻子觉得奇怪，说，你从不戴礼帽的。我说是，可是今天不一样。有什么不一样？我说今天是埃德加·爱伦·坡的生日，我们去他的墓地，献花。
I put on my black duster. Everything in my wardrobe was black. I wrapped a checkered scarf around my neck. “I’d love to wear a wide-brimmed hat,” I said. My wife felt it weird and remarked that she had never seen me wearing that type of hat. True, but that was a special day. “What’s special about it?” my wife wondered. I told her it was Poe’s birthday, and we were paying tribute by bringing flowers.
这和礼帽有什么关系？
What has the hat to do with anything though?
我说，每年的这一天，都会有一个神秘的访客，身穿黑衣，头戴礼帽，勒着围巾，站在标有“埃德加·爱伦·坡最初埋葬地”的石头前，献上一瓶白兰地和三支玫瑰。
I revealed that each year on this day, a mysterious visitor, now called Poe Toaster, dressed in black, with a hat and scarf, would show up at the cenotaph marking the site of Poe’s original grave, pour a glass of cognac, and leave three roses there.
我们会碰见他吗？
Will we see the Toaster?
不会，他一般出现在午夜。这个神秘人物第一次这样做是1949年，正好是爱伦·坡去世一百年。1993年，他留下一个纸条——“火炬会传承下去” ——之后，爱伦·坡的崇拜者便效仿这一做法。午夜，古墓，神秘的黑衣人出没，是不是很爱伦·坡？
No. He usually shows up at midnight. This ritual started in 1949, exactly 100 years after Poe’s passing. In 1993, he left a note—”The torch will be passed.” And the Poe fans started to imitate the practice. “Midnight, old grave, mysterious man in black. Isn’t that very Poe?”
我们叫了出租车。先去花店买了三支玫瑰，然后去爱伦·坡墓地。司机不知道爱伦·坡墓地在哪 儿，还好，GPS能搜到。司机是个大块头，白人，我问他知道埃德加·爱伦·坡吗？他问他是干什么的？我说是个诗人、作家。他说他不看书，只看视频。我问他知道福尔摩斯吗？他说知道。我向他解释福尔摩斯与爱伦·坡的关系。我说福尔摩斯的爹是柯南·道尔，他爷就是爱伦·坡。司机哦了一声，稍停片刻，补充说，我对福尔摩斯的爹和爷不感兴趣。妻子碰我一下，我打住了，不再做文学普及工作。
So, we hailed a cab. First, we bought three roses at a florist and then headed towards the grave. The driver, large and white, did not know the address. Fortunately, there was a GPS. I asked if he knew Edgar Allan Poe. He replied with a question. “What the hell does Poe do with this?” I answered that Poe was a poet and fiction writer. The driver said he did not read books; he only watched videos. I asked if he knew Holmes. Of course, he answered. I then explained the relationship between Poe and Holmes: Holmes’s dad was Arthur Conan Doyle, and his grandpa was Poe. The driver aah-ed, but added after a moment, “I am not interested in either the dad or grandpa.” My wife elbowed me; I shut up. No more literary lessons.
下车后，妻子笑道，胡扯什么爹啊爷的，俗不俗啊？
After getting out of the cab, my wife laughed at me. What nonsense! Dad and grandpa, what was that?
我说，不是吗？柯南·道尔塑造了福尔摩斯，他不就是福尔摩斯的爹吗？而坡是推理小说的祖师爷，说他是福尔摩斯的爷不为过吧？
I retorted: Conan Doyle created Holmes. Wasn’t he the father of Holmes? Poe invented the genre of detective fiction. Shouldn’t he be Holmes’ grandfather?
妻子撇着嘴说，不屑于与我争辩。
My wife curled her lip, deciding it was not worth her time to argue with me.
埃德加·爱伦·坡的墓碑很朴素，一块白色的花岗岩，经历风雨的侵蚀，颇有些岁月的沧桑感。
The gravestone was a white weather-beaten granite. Very humble, but a display of
vicissitude of life.
已有人献花，九支玫瑰，三支三支地放在墓碑前，中间摆放着一瓶白兰地。是三个人还是一个人？搞不清楚。
We were not the first. Nine roses, three a group, were already placed in front of the tombstone, and a bottle of cognac too. Not sure if they were from one admirer or three.
妻子说，我们没带酒。我说，爱伦·坡戒酒了。
My wife regretted that we had no alcohol. I said, Poe quit drinking.
我献上玫瑰。在买玫瑰时，我向店主要了一个便签，写了一个谜语。爱伦·坡的一大爱好就是解谜，他曾向读者发起挑战，邀请他们出谜难倒他。他说无论多不寻常、多古怪的谜都难不倒他。我给他出的谜是：
We paid our tribute with roses. At the florist, I had asked for a notepad and composed a riddle. One of Poe’s hobbies was solving riddles. He had challenged his readers to give him hard ones because he said there was no riddle too unusual or uncanny for him to crack. The riddle I left on the note read:
是鸟不叫鸟， shi niao bu jiao niao
自把名字叫， zi ba ming zi jiao
人们不喜欢， ren men bu xi huan
嫌它穿黑袍。 Xian ta chuan hei pao
A bird with no bird name,
A bird caws its own name
An unlikeable creature in
A disagreeable black robe
凡是熟悉爱伦·坡作品的人都不难解开这个谜。前提是得会中文。唯有会中文，才能理解这个谜面之美。
Anybody who knows about Poe’s literary works would not find this riddle challenging. But, to crack this one, the reader needs to read Chinese. Only when the reader can read Chinese can the riddle’s beauty be fully appreciated.
我们回到宾馆，前台服务员说有我的东西。他递给我一个纸袋，里面是一本小黑书。封面是暗黑色，上部是一个纯黑的乌鸦剪影。书名：《乌鸦》。作者：埃德加·爱伦·坡。
We returned to the hotel. The receptionist at the front desk handed me a package. Inside the paper bag was a tiny black book, its cover deep black, a raven silhouette on the top portion. The book’s title is The Raven, and its author, Edgar Allan Poe.
我翻一下书，里面夹着我留在埃德加·爱伦·坡墓前的便签。我明白了，这是有人解开了谜语。当然，谜底就是这本书的书名：乌鸦。
I flipped the pages and found the note I had left at Poe’s grave. I knew somebody had cracked the riddle. Obviously, the answer was the title of the book.
我又仔细翻翻，里面没有留言。我问前台服务员，这是谁留的？他摊摊手，说不知道。我让他描述一下。他说，黑大衣，黑围巾，黑礼帽，围巾挡着脸，看不清面容，瘦，高。
I checked the book one more time and found no message. I asked the receptionist who left the package. He spread open his hands to gesture that he had no clue. I asked him to describe the person. He replied: black coat, black scarf, black hat, scarf-covered face that was hard to discern, thin and tall.
他说什么了吗？
Did the person say anything?
没有。
No
接下来的旅行，我一直在琢磨这件事：谜是谁解开的？终究是不得要领。旅途中我一直在读《乌鸦》。尽管以前读过，重读还是很享受。
For the rest of the trip, I continually wondered: Who solved the riddle? Of course, it was to no avail. During the trip, I read The Raven. Though I had read it before, rereading was still very enjoyable.
ZHAO DAHE is an award-winning author in China. He has published more than a dozen novels, novellas and drama pieces. His works also appear in many renowned Chinese literary publications, including Flower City, October, Chinese Writer, Mountain Flowers, etc. “Roses for Edgar Allan Poe” is from his eponymous travelogue, which is the fifth volume of a series of books by the author. Currently, he lives in Beijing.
YUEMIN HE has published on Asian American literature, Buddhist American literature, composition pedagogy, and translational studies. Her poetry translations appear in more than thirty literary magazines, journals, and anthologies, including The Cincinnati Review, Delos, Acumen, and Oxford Anthology of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry (2nd ed.). Currently, she is an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. Email: yhe@nvcc.edu
