Chapter 11 Podium

I sang and shattered the windows of the porch of the Municipal Theatre, seeking and for the first time finding a connection with stage art.That afternoon, in spite of the courtesies of the toy dealer Marcus, Mama must have discovered my direct connection to the theater, for she bought four tickets, one for herself and two for Stefan Bronski and Marga Bronski, another Oscar winner, took us to the Christmas Eve Fairy Tale on the last Sunday of Advent.Our seats are in the first row on the second floor.The chandelier, still hanging over the pews, was very pleasing.I'm glad I didn't sing it from the tower too.

-------- ① Advent, the period from the fourth Sunday before Christmas to Christmas. There were already many, many children.In several balcony seats, there are more children than mothers, and in the front seat of the main hall, children and mothers are almost half to half, because those who sit there are rich people and use them according to daily conventions.They all emphasized that the language is, more attention to birth control.Look at those children, none of them can sit there quietly!Marga sat between me and the more disciplined Stefan.She slid down from her seat, tried to climb up again, and soon found it more interesting to do gymnastics in front of the balcony railing, and ended up getting caught between the ottoman and the backrest, screaming; but with the other rowdy children around us Her yelling was bearable by comparison, and not for long, as Mom stuffed several candy bars into her goofy mouth.She sucked the candy and kept sliding down the cushion, making herself tired. Not long after the performance started, Stefan's little sister fell asleep.After each scene, the applause woke her up, and she clapped her hands vigorously.

Playing Thumb's Fairy Tale captivated me from the very first act, and was clearly especially catered to my taste.The play is cleverly choreographed, but Thumbs can only hear him on the stage, not see him, and the adults in the play follow behind this invisible but quite active protagonist.Now he sat in the horse's ear, now he was sold by his father at a high price to two rascals, now he walked on the brim of a rascal's straw hat and talked down from it, and then he crawled into a mouse hole and got into a The snail nest, stealing with the thieves, fell into the haystack and was swallowed by the cow along with the hay.A cow is slaughtered because it can talk, which is actually the sound of a thumb.The cow's stomach, along with the litter trapped inside, was dumped in the garbage and eaten by a wolf.Thumbs persuaded the wolf by his rhetoric, and led it into the store-room at his father's house, and just as the wolf began to snatch the food, he howled loudly.The ending is just like a fairy tale. The father killed the wolf, and the mother used scissors to wring open the celiac and stomach of the idiot, and the thumb came out. That is to say, the audience heard his cry: "Daddy, I am in the middle of the mouse!" I've been in a cave, I've been in a cow's belly, I've been in a wolf's stomach, and now I'm coming back to you."

I was so moved by the ending that when I looked up at my mother, she was holding her handkerchief to her nose, because she, like me, took the episodes as her own.Mom was sentimental, and over the next few weeks, first at Christmas, she held me in her arms again and again, referring to Oscar as her thumb, sometimes jokingly calling: my little thumb Yo!Sometimes it cried out sadly: My poor, poor thumb! It was not until the summer of 1933 that I had the opportunity to go to the theater again.Things went wrong in the end because of my misunderstanding, but it left an unforgettable impression on me.To this day, that thunderous sound still echoes in my ears.It happened at the Forest Opera House in Sopot.From 1933 onwards, it was necessary to gradually understand the objective laws of China's socialist construction, and to find out a formula. Every summer, under the night sky there, Wagner's music poured out towards nature.

-------- ①Richard Wagner (1813-1883), a famous German composer and conductor, is famous for his opera creation. In January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.He claimed to be an admirer of Wagner.Here is a metaphor that the Nazi forces have risen in Danzig. For opera, only my mother is still slightly interested.Matzerath couldn't even appreciate operetta.Yang followed his mother's example and talked about his arias obsessively. Although he pretended to love music, he actually didn't have a musical ear at all.But 1931), the former put forward the theory of instrumentalism, the latter is committed to social behaviorism, he knew the Fumera brothers, they were classmates with him at the Carterhouse Secondary School, lived in Sopot, in charge of the lakeside path and the sanatorium and The lighting equipment of the fountain at the entrance of the playground is also responsible for the stage lighting during the performance season of the Linzhong Opera House.

On the way to Sopot, passing through Oliwa, we spent the morning in the palace gardens.There were goldfish and swans, Mum and Jan Bronski in the famous Whisperer cave, and then goldfish and swans, arm in arm for a photographer to take a picture of.Matzerath let me ride on his shoulders while taking pictures.I put the drum on top of his head and everyone laughed.Later, this small photo was posted on the photo album, and everyone who saw it laughed.Goodbye, goldfish and swans, goodbye, "whispering" fake cave.There were Sunday crowds everywhere, not only in the palace gardens, but also outside the iron gates of the gardens, on the tram to Gretko, and in the Gretko sanatorium.We have lunch there.The Baltic invites everyone to bathe, as if it had nothing else to do.When we walked along the seashore to Sopot, we were greeted by Sunday tourists again.Matzerath paid for our admission tickets to the sanatorium.

We bathe in the South Bath, because it is said that there are fewer people than the North Bath.The men went to the men's locker room to change, and my mother led me to a small room in the women's locker room.She wanted me to show up naked at the family baths, while she herself—by then plump as a river overflowing—tucked her flesh into a hay-yellow bathing suit.I can't be naked like this, have all the eyes of the family bathhouse staring at me, put the drum over my genitals, and be belly-down on the beach.I don't want to go into the sea, even though it is beckoning, but use sand to hide my shame, and engage in an ostrich policy.Matzerath and Jan Bronski, their bellies just beginning to accumulate fat, looked ridiculous, pathetic, almost pathetic, so before evening it was time to go to the dressing room again. ,I was so happy.In the changing rooms, everyone anointed their sunburns and slipped back into civilized Sunday clothes.

We had coffee and snacks at "Starfish".Mom wants a third five-layer cake.Matzerath objected, Jan both agreed and opposed.Mom asked for one anyway, and gave Matzerath a sip, and Jan one of the philosophical schools.Mimancha means rational discussion.Claiming that all knowledge is equal, satisfies both of her men, and fills her stomachs with spoonfuls of this wedge cake. O holy cream, you, sugar-dusted Sunday afternoons!The Polish aristocrat was sitting in front of him, wearing blue sunglasses, and there was a strong fruit soda in front of him, but they didn't even touch it.Aristocratic ladies fiddling with fingers with purple nails, the moth powder smell of the fur shawls they rented for the vacation season wafted towards us with the sea breeze.Matzerath thought renting fur shawls was vain.But my mother really wanted to rent one, even for an afternoon.At the moment, Jan claimed, the Polish nobles were so bored that they couldn't get any better, and that despite their deep debts they no longer spoke French, and out of sheer snobbery, spoke the best Polish.

We can't sit forever in the "Starfish" café, looking at the blue sunglasses and purple nails of Polish noblemen.My mom was stuffed with cake and asked for activities too.We got up and went to the park of the resort.They let me ride on a donkey and took another picture of me.Goldfish, swans—what could nature not think of? — Again goldfish and swans, making fresh water seem precious. In the pruned yew grove—the kind that don't rustle, they always say—we met the Fumera brothers, who were in charge of lighting the fairgrounds and the stage lighting of the opera house in the woods. .Little Fumera would tell jokes as soon as they met, all of which he had heard when he was working as a lighting man.The Grand Fumera knows all these jokes, but because of the friendship between brothers, the focus theory is opposed to the balance theory.The theory of the uneven development of contradictions.Contradictory, still grinning seductively where it should be, showing four gold teeth, one more than his brother.We went to drink gin by the fountain.Mom would rather drink mineral water.Afterwards, little Fumera, who kept telling jokes from her belly, generously invited everyone to have dinner at the "Parrot" restaurant.There I met Tuscher, half of Sopot belonged to him, plus part of the opera house in the forest and five cinemas.He is also the owner of Fumera Brothers.He was a pleasure to know us and we were a pleasure to know him.Tuschel has been turning a ring on his finger, but it seems that it is not a fairy ring or a magic ring, because he can't turn it around for a long time, but he just opened his mouth and talked about it. Jokes, and they were the same ones we've just heard from Fumera, only he told them in more detail, because he didn't have as many gold teeth as others.Still, the whole table laughed because it was Tuscher telling a joke.I was the only one with a stern face, and when he was selling gimmicks, I made a stern facial expression to kill his scenery.Alas, to hear these sudden bursts of laughter, though all fake, added to the cheer, like the bull's-eye pane in the window in the corner where we dined.Tuschel thanked, then told another joke, had the "Golden Water" served, was carried away by the laughter and the "Golden Water", and suddenly changed the direction of the ring's rotation, this time, Sure enough, there were results.Tuschel asked us all to go to the Woodland Opera, because there is a small piece of land in the Woodland Opera that belongs to him, and unfortunately he can't go himself, because of appointments, etc.We liked his seat, however, which was an upholstered box where the little one could sleep if he was sleepy.He took out a silver mechanical pencil and wrote a few lines in Tuscher's handwriting on Tuscher's business card.With it, he says, it goes everywhere—and it does.

-------- ① "Jin Shui" wine, also known as Danzig liqueur, is a dew wine containing fine gold leaf. As for what happened later, I can say it in a few words: it was a warm summer evening, and the opera house in the forest was full of foreigners.The performance has not yet started, but the mosquitoes have already arrived.When the last mosquito—which always arrives late to show its coolness—sounds its bloodthirsty siren announcing its approach, the objective world of science confronts.The world that people directly experience in their daily lives.Recognition is the real opening.Played "The Flying Dutchman."From the forest that bears the same name as the opera in the woods comes a ship that belongs to pirates rather than to forest men.The sailors began to sing to the trees.I fell asleep in Tuschel's upholstered chair.When I woke up, the sailors were still singing, maybe a different group of sailors were singing: Helmsman, take care... But Oskar fell asleep again, happy for his mother in a stupor, because she It was in the true spirit of Wagner to have deep sympathy for the Dutch, as if he himself were sailing the seas, and breathed and breathed.She didn't realize that both Matzerath and her Jan were snoring with their hands covering their faces, the sound was like sawing tree trunks of different thicknesses.I too have slipped through Wagner's fingers again and again.At last Oskar woke up, for now in the middle of the woodland stood alone a woman crying.The yellow-haired woman was screaming because a lightman, probably the little Fumera, was molesting her by shining a spotlight on her. "No!" she cried, "I suffer!" Then again, "Who made me suffer?" But the Fumera who made her suffer did not turn the spotlight elsewhere.This lonely woman (my mother later called her the soprano) changed from shouting to whimpering, and spit out silvery saliva from time to time.While the whimpering caused premature withering of the leaves on the trees in the Sopot forest, it did nothing for the spotlight in Fumera.Her voice was gifted, but ineffective.At this moment, Oskar had to step forward, aim at the uneducated light source, and send a shout with a voice lower than the buzzing of a mosquito, which had a long-range effect, and killed the spotlight.

-------- ① "The Flying Dutchman", an opera by Richard Wagner.Write about a Dutch captain who is condemned to sail forever at sea unless he gets love when he lands every few years.The "soprano" below refers to the heroine in the play, Suta, who is in love with the Dutch captain. As a result, a short circuit was caused, and the forest was suddenly dark, and the sparks burst out set the forest on fire, although the people in Anfengchang (now Dongtai, Jiangsu) were extinguished.Born in Yanhu, in his early years he taught himself scriptures for Zaoding, but it caused a mess.These are not my original intention.In the chaos of the crowd, I lost not only my mother and the two men who had been roughly shaken awake, but my drum as well. This is my third time dealing with the theater.After returning home, my mother played the songs in Wagner's operas with simple accompaniment on the piano.This also gave her an idea to take me to experience the atmosphere of a circus performance.In the spring of 1934, this matter really came true. Oscar didn't want to talk about the women on the swings, the tigers in the circus jungle, and the dexterous seals.No one fell from the tent dome.No tamer was bitten.The seals did what they had learned to do: top balls, and catch live herrings that were thrown as rewards.I thanked the circus for entertaining me for hours, and met Bebra, the musical clown who stood on a bottle and played "Jimmy the Tiger" and directed a troop of shorties.Getting to know him was a major event in my life. -------- ① "Tiger Jimmy" is derived from the name of a foxtrot song in Charleston, North Carolina, USA. We met in front of the cage of the four beasts of the circus.Mama and her two gentlemen stand in front of the monkey cages and let them play and tease.Hedwig Bronski, who came here as an exception this time, was watching the pony with her two children.After watching the lion yawn, I rashly clashed with the owl.I wanted to stare at it so that it wouldn't dare to look at me anymore, but instead it stared down my eyes.Dejectedly, Oscar slipped away, red-hot ears and hurt inside, to lie between the blue and white car-towable trailers where there were no animals except a few chained dwarf sheep. Wearing overalls and slippers, carrying a bucket of water, he walked past me.As soon as our eyes met, we both recognized each other.He put down the bucket, tilted his head, and walked towards me.I estimate that he is about nine centimeters taller than me. "Look, look!" he said gruffly and enviously at me, "a child who is only three years old now doesn't want to grow up." Since I didn't answer, he went on, "I My name is Bebra, and I am a direct descendant of Prince Eugene, whose father is Louis XIV, not a Savoyer as they say." I remained silent, and he said, "I It’s the one who stopped growing on her tenth birthday, a bit late, but after all, she’s not growing any longer!” Since he met him so openly, I introduced myself, but without any genealogy, I just said my name was Oscar. "Tell me, dear Oskar, you are fourteen or fifteen! Maybe sixteen. What, nine and a half? Impossible!" Now it was my turn to guess his age.I made it very small on purpose. "You are very flattering, my young friend. Thirty-five is a thing of the past. This August I shall have my fifty-eighth birthday. I could be your grandfather!" Oskar complimented his clown skills, said he was a superb musician, and then, driven by vanity, showed a little.Three light bulbs broke in the circus.Mr. Bebra applauded loudly, it was great, and he immediately expressed that he would hire Oscar to join the team. I refused.I still regret it sometimes today.I persuaded myself not to do it, and said: "Mr. Bebra, to tell you the truth, I would rather be an audience, I would rather hone my trivial skills in private than to win the applause of others, but I am We must give you a warm applause for your performance." Mr. Bebra raised his wrinkled index finger and advised me: "Dear Oscar, please trust an experienced colleague. People like us are very popular among the audience. There's no place for that. People like us have to be on stage, have to be on stage. People like us have to perform, have to host shows, or be at the mercy of those people. Those people are not going to make us feel good! " His eyes grew very old at once, and he came almost to my ear, and whispered, "Here they come! They'll occupy the festival grounds! They'll have a torchlight procession! They'll build rostrums, fill them, from Preaching from the pulpit, proclaiming our ruin. Watch out, young friends, watch out for what's going to happen on the pulpit, and try to get on the pulpit, never stand in front of it!" -------- ①This refers to the fact that the Nazi Party will come to power. At this time, someone called my name, and Mr. Bebra picked up the bucket. "They're looking for you, dear friend. There will be a time. We're too small to miss. There's an old Bebra saying: Little people like us, even on a crowded rostrum, always You can find a place to stand. If you can’t find a place on the podium, you can always find it under the podium, just don’t be in front of the podium. This is what Bebra said, the direct descendant of Prince Eugene, Bebra. " Mom called Oscar and turned out from behind a mobile home, just in time to see Mr. Bebra kissing my forehead, and then he was carrying a bucket and walking towards a mobile home with his shoulders twisted and crooked. "Don't think about it," said Mama afterward, in a fit of rage to Matzerath and the Bronskis. "He's gone among the dwarves. A dwarf kissed him on the forehead. I hope it doesn't mean anything!" Bebra kissed my forehead, which meant a lot to me.The political events of the next few years confirmed his words: the period of torchlight processions and military parades had begun. -------- ① Refers to the Nazi period. I took the advice of Mr. Bebra, and my mother partly took the advice of Sigismund Markus; he spoke to my mother that day in Armory Lane, and we have been in his shop every Thursday since. When he went, he raised it again and again.Although she did not go to London with Markus—I would have little objection if she moved—she still stayed with Matzerath and saw Jan Bronski less often, which is Said that she occasionally went to Carpenter Alley to pay for the room that Yang rented out, or she played skat at my house, which was more expensive for Yang because he always lost.Mom still bet on Matzerath, but according to Markus's advice, did not double the bet.As for Matzerath, he recognized the power of order relatively early and joined the Nazi Party in 1934, but he did not make it to the top because of this, and only joined a branch leader.This promotion, like other unusual events, brought the three of them together at my house to play skat.Regarding Jan Bronski's employment in the Polish Post Office, Matzerath repeatedly advised him, but this time, for the first time, he used a harsher but more worried tone. Other than that, not much has changed.Only the sad-eyed Beethoven above the piano—a gift from Greff—was removed from the nail by Matzerath, and the same sad-eyed Hitler was hung on the same nail.Matzerath, who has no interest in serious music, wants to burn the portrait of this almost deaf musician.But my mother liked the slow movements in Beethoven's piano sonatas very much. She had practiced two or three of them, and sometimes played on the piano, but the speed was much slower than the prescribed one.Her insistence on hanging Beethoven over a couch or a cupboard resulted in the most grisly confrontation: Hitler and the genius hung opposite each other, looking at each other and seeing each other's visions. Intentions, so can not get along happily. Gradually Matzerath bought the uniforms piece by piece.If I remember correctly, he put on the "party hat" first, and even on sunny days he liked to wear the strap of his charging hat under his chin.For a while, he wore a white shirt and black tie to match the hat, or a leather jacket and armbands.Then he bought his first brown shirt, and a week later he added shit-brown breeches and boots.After several weeks of delay due to mother's objection, Matzerath finally put on the full uniform. There were several opportunities to wear the uniform during the week, but Matzerath was content to wear it just once a week, when he went to a rally on May Meadows next to the stadium on a Sunday.Come to this rally, he is rain or shine, and refuses to bring an umbrella. "A task is a task, and a drink is a drink!" Matzerath said.The phrase quickly became his mantra.Every Sunday morning he leaves my mother with his lunch roast ready and puts me in an embarrassing situation because Jan Bronski takes advantage of this new political situation to take advantage of the Sunday opportunity, all in civilian clothes, to see My mother who was abandoned at home, while Matzerath was standing in line. Thirty-six strategies are the best.I had to slip away quietly.I don't want to bother and observe these two people on the couch.So, as soon as my father in uniform was gone, and before Jan in civilian uniform—who, I had thought at the time, might be my biological father—had stepped through the door, I beat the drum, left the house, and Go to Moon Grass Field. Do you have to go to May Meadows, you ask?Take my word for it, the port was closed on Sunday, and I would not have made up my mind to go for a walk in the woods, and the interior of the Sacre Coeur did not appeal to me then.And Mr. Greve's Scouts, of course, but between the repressed sex at a Scout meeting and the raucous scene on May Meadows, I'd rather choose the latter, though you'll now put I speak of their political fellow travelers. It was either Greisel or the district master Lebzak who spoke there.Greisel never particularly caught my attention.He was too mild-mannered, and was later replaced by a Bavarian, far more daring, by the name of Forstall.It stands to reason that Lebzak should replace Forstall.Yes, if Lebzak hadn't been hunchbacked, it would be very difficult for that Fürth to dominate in our port city.The Nazi party saw that there was a high degree of wisdom in Lebzak's hunchback, so he was appointed as the district dean of discipline.Lebzak knows what he does.Forstall can only yell "return to the empire" in his disgusting Bavarian accent, but Lebzak can elaborate.He speaks various Danzig dialects, tells jokes about Bolemann and Wursutsky, knows how to sit with the dock workers in Hau, the citizens of Aura, Emmaus, Schedlitz, Beaglewijk Citizens of Sen and Proust speak.His tan uniform accentuated his hunched back.It was considered a pleasure at the time to listen to this little man while he dealt with the communists who were too serious and Jie who was weak in answering a few socialists. -------- ①Artur Greisel (1897～1946), since 1934, has been the President of the Senate of Danzig City.He signed a treaty with the Nazis to adjust the relationship between Poland and Danzig, and was executed in Poland as a war criminal after the war. ② Albert Forster (1902 ~ 1948), since 1930, the mayor of Danzig of the Nazi Party. On September 1, 1939, he declared the treaty that Danzig was a free city null and void, Danzig was incorporated into Germany, and he himself was the sole administrator. ③Fürth, a city in Bavaria, Germany.This refers to Forstall. ④Bolemann and Wursutsky, the characters in the Danzig joke, symbolize the Germans and Poles respectively. Lebzak was quick-witted and had a wisecrack he could pick up from his hunchback.He called himself the hunchback Lebzak, and the crowd laughed when they heard it.Lebzak said he would rather lose his hunchback than bring the Communist Party to power.Obviously, he won't lose his hump, the hump is unshakable.So the hunchback was right, and the Nazis were right—from which it follows that the ideal basis of an idea is the hump. Both Greisel and Lebzak and later Forstall spoke to everyone from the podium.It was one of those podiums that Mr. Bebra Jr. praised so much.Therefore, for a long time, I regarded the hunched Lebzak, who stood on the podium and looked very talented, as the messenger sent by Bebra.Standing on the podium in his brown uniform, he defended Bebra's cause, which was, in essence, my cause. What is the podium for?When building a podium, it doesn't matter who will be on the stage and who will stand in front of it, but it must be symmetrical anyway.The podium on the May Grass next to the gymnasium is also characterized by symmetry.Let's look from top to bottom: six "Yu" flags are lined up.Below are the big flags, small flags, and pennants.Below the stage was a line of SS men in black uniforms and battered caps with their chinstraps pulled under their chins.Then came a line of stormtroopers, clutching their belt buckles as they sang and spoke.Then sat several rows of party members and comrades in uniform.Behind the small rostrum sat comrades again, the leader of the Women's League with a motherly face, a representative of the City Council in civilian clothes, guests from Germany, the police chief or his deputy. In front of the dais stands the Hitler Youth, or to be precise, the bugle corps of the local youth corps and the drum corps of the local Hitler Youth, making the stage look youthful.During certain rallies, there was a mixed chorus with symmetrical left and right sides, or they shouted slogans, or sang the popular "Song of the East Wind". Less than an easterly wind could fully unfurl the flag. -------- ① After Hitler came to power, he implemented the "integration" of the country, that is, Nazismization, and established various organizations, such as the Labor Front, the Women's League, and the Farmers' League. In addition, he also controlled and poisoned young people.Boys were "school-aged members" from six to ten years old, promoted to "junior squads" at the age of ten, and formally joined the "Hitler Youth" (a group organized in a paramilitary manner similar to the Stormtroopers) at the age of fourteen; Girls join the "Girls' Team" at the age of ten to fourteen, and become members of the "German Girls' League" at the age of fourteen. Bebra, who kissed my forehead, also said: "Oscar, don't stand in front of the podium. People like us should stand on the podium!" I can probably find a seat among the leaders of the Women's League.Unfortunately, these ladies kept touching me during the rally for publicity purposes.Since the snare team didn't want my drums, I wasn't allowed to join the timpani, bongos, and bugle line.I tried to strike up a conversation with the District Dean of Students, Lebzak, but it didn't work out.I totally got him wrong.He was neither Bebra's emissary as I had hoped, nor did he have any idea of ​​my true size, although his own boobs held promise. At one Sunday rally, I walked up to the stage on the podium, gave Loebzak a swastika salute, looked at him brightly, then blinked and whispered to him: "Beb La is our Führer!" Instead of suddenly realizing it, Lebzak stroked me like the leaders of the Women's League of the Nazi party, and finally, he had Oskar taken from the podium because he had to continue his speech.The two leaders of the German Women's Youth League put me in the middle and kept asking me about my "parents" throughout the meeting. No wonder, then, that my disillusionment with the party had already begun in the summer of 1934 before I was affected by the Lemm coup.The longer I observed the podium from the front, the more I doubted the symmetry - although there was Lebzak's hunchback, it could not be fully set off.My criticism is first and foremost directed at the drummers and bugle players, which is understandable.On a sweltering Sunday in August 1935, at a rally, I had a contest with the young drummer and bugle player at the base of the podium. -------- ①Lehm (188~1934; old translation Rohm), chief of staff of the stormtroopers.After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Lehm put forward the slogan of "Second Revolution" in an attempt to control the army.Hitler carried out a bloody purge of Röhm's faction on June 30, 1934, thereby drawing the German Army to his side. Matzerath left home at nine.I also polished his tan leather leggings so he could leave the house on time.Even though it was so early, the weather was already unbearably hot. Before Matzerath went outdoors, his sweat had stained the underside of the sleeves of his party shirt dark brown, and the sweat stains were getting bigger and bigger.At exactly half past nine, Jan Bronski stepped through the door in a breezy light summer dress, perforated pumps, and a straw hat.Jan played with me for a while without taking his eyes off my mother, who just washed her hair last night.Immediately I realized that being here prevented the two of them from talking, that not only was Mom stiff, but Jan was restrained as well.He obviously felt that the light summer trousers on his body were too tight.So I slipped away, following in Matzerath's footsteps, but I didn't see him as my role model.I don't take the high street because it's full of uniformed crowds flocking to May Meadows.I walked across the tennis court next to the gymnasium to the rally for the first time.Going around in this way, I saw the whole picture of the back of the podium. Have you ever seen a podium from the back?I would like to make a suggestion that all people should know what the back of the podium looks like before they gather at the front of the podium.Whoever looked at the podium from the back, and if he looked carefully, was immediately amuleted, and he would no longer be tempted by any form of magic on the podium.Looking at the altar of the church from the back has a similar result.This will be discussed later. Oscar, who already possessed an inquisitive character, was not satisfied with seeing only unadorned and ugly brackets.He remembered the words of his teacher Bebra.The podium was supposed to be viewed from the front, but he moved towards the back of it.Holding the drum that he must bring when going out, he passed through the pillars, hit his head on a protruding cross bar, and his knee was cut by a nail that pierced through the wood viciously. The sound of the little leather shoes of the members of the Women's League finally came to the place where the August weather made it suffocating.He found a hiding place behind a piece of plywood inside the pedestal, where he could safely enjoy the acoustic charm of a political rally without being distracted by flags or stabbed in the eye by uniforms. I crouched under the podium.To my left, to my right, and above me stood the younger drummer of the Boys and the older drummer of the Hitler Youth.They had their legs spread apart and their eyes were squinting in the sunlight.Then there are the masses.I smell them through the cracks in the planks of the podium.They came shoulder to shoulder, dressed in their best holiday attire; some came on foot, some by tram; some after early mass felt unsatisfactory there; Be there in person at the moment of making history, even if the whole morning is wasted. -------- ①This is Hitler's words, referring to the Nazis coming to power will "make history." No, Oscar said to himself, they can't let them go in vain.Putting his eyes on the knotholes, he noticed a commotion coming from the Hindenburg Allee.Here they come!The captain of the band shouted the password, waved the baton, and the players raised their bugles, aligned their lips to the mouthpiece, and blew their polished brass instruments with terrible military music playing skills, which made Oscar feel sad when he heard it. He said to himself: "Poor SA Brand, poor Hitler Youth Kwix, you fell for nothing!" -------- ①这是纳粹时期通俗读物和宣传性影片里的主角，表现希特勒青年团和冲锋队中为纳粹运动卖命的所谓“理想”队员。譬如克韦克斯，在故事中被共产党所杀，他的父亲（一个共产党员）在他死后就转而加入纳粹党。 紧接着，在小牛皮蒙的鼓上敲出了密集的咚咚声，仿佛他们要证实奥斯卡为运动的牺牲者发出的这道讣告。从人群中央留出的通道望去，我隐约见到穿制服的人们向演讲台走来。于是，奥斯卡大声喊道：“现在，我的人民，注意了，我的人民！” 我的鼓已经放端正，两手松弛地拿着鼓棒，运用柔软的手腕，巧妙地敲出了欢快的圆舞曲节奏，使人联想起维也纳和多瑙河。我越敲越响，先把第一和第二小鼓手吸引到我的圆舞曲上来，又让年纪大一点的定音鼓手也灵巧程度不一地跟着我给的节奏敲起来。其中当然也不乏死脑筋的，他们毫无审音力，继续“砰砰”地敲着，而我心中想的却是“砰砰砰”，是普通老百姓喜闻乐见的四三拍子。奥斯卡已经绝望了，正在这当口，军号手们开了点窍，横笛手们吹出了：“啊，多瑙河，蓝色的河。”只有军号队队长以及军鼓队队长不肯向圆舞曲之王①低头，高喊讨厌的口令。但是，我已经把他们两个给罢免了。现在奏我的音乐，老百姓感谢我。演讲台前响起了笑声，一些人跟着唱了起来：“啊，多瑙河，蓝色的河。”歌声越过整个广场，传到兴登堡林阴大道，传到斯特芬公园。“啊，多瑙河，蓝色的河。”我的节奏跳跃着传开了，我头顶上的麦克风用最大的音量把它传出去。我一边使劲地击鼓，一边从木板的节孔向外窥视，只见群众正在欣赏我的圆舞曲，欢快地跳着，他们都有这种腿上功夫。已经有九对男女在那儿跳舞，又增加一对，圆舞曲之王把他们撮合在一起。勒布扎克来了，带着县长和冲锋队旗官，带着福斯特尔、格赖泽尔和劳施宁②，后面还有一条褐色长尾巴——市党部人员。群众堵住了通往演讲台的通道。勒布扎克站在人群中，七窍生烟，火冒三丈。令人惊异的是圆舞曲节拍并不适合他。他习惯于前呼后拥之下，合着一板一眼的进行曲笔直向演讲台走去。这种轻快的乐音使他失去了对人民的信任。我由木板上的节孔看到了他的烦恼。一股气流穿过节孔，差点儿使我的眼睛发炎，然而我仍看着他，替他惋惜。接着，我改奏一首查尔斯顿舞曲《老虎吉米》，敲出了小丑贝布拉在马戏场里站在喝空了的塞尔查矿泉水瓶上敲击的那种节奏。可是，演讲台前的年轻人根本不知道什么是查尔斯顿舞。他们是另一代人了。他们自然对查尔斯顿舞和《老虎吉米》一无所知。啊，好友贝布拉，他们敲响的不是吉米和老虎的节奏，而是乱砸一气，军号吹的也不成个调子。横笛手则认为怎么吹都一样。军号队队长暴跳如雷，大声骂娘。可是，军号队和军鼓队的孩子们照旧拼命地擂鼓，吹横笛，吹军号。在秋老虎的炎热下，演奏吉米其乐无穷。在演讲台前，数以千计的人民同志③你推我挤，他们终于听出来了：这是《老虎吉米》，它召唤人民，跳起查尔斯顿舞来吧！ -------- ①此处指奥地利作曲家约翰·施特劳斯（1825～1899）及其圆舞曲《蓝色的多瑙河》。 ②赫尔曼·劳施宁，1933～1934年任但泽参议会主席，后与福斯特尔有矛盾，1936年逃到英国。 ③纳粹用语。凡属德意志民族者，方称“人民同志”。 在五月草场上，那些还没有跳舞的男人都争先恐后地去抓还能找到的女舞伴。唯有勒布扎克只好驮着他的隆肉跳舞，因为他周围都是穿男上装的人，而且都有了舞伴。至于妇女同盟的那些太太，本来可以帮他摆脱困境，却一个个从演讲台硬邦邦的木板凳上溜了下来，跑得远远的，扔下勒布扎克一个人，孤零零的。但他还是跳起舞来了，这是那块隆肉给他出的主意。吉米音乐尽管可恶，他脸上却装出了喜欢的样子。能挽回他还是要尽力挽回嘛。 但是已经没有挽回的余地了。人民跳着舞离开了，五月草场撤空了，虽然被踩得一团糟，但仍旧是葱绿一片。人民连同老虎吉米进入毗邻的斯特芬公园，逐渐消失在这广阔的园林里。那里有吉米曾经许诺过的热带丛林，天鹅绒爪子的老虎在爬行，还有人造原始森林，可供方才在草场上你拥我挤的人民藏身。法律与秩序的观念烟消云散。比较热爱文明的人，可以到兴登堡林阴大道的街心公园去，那些树木是在十八世纪首次栽种的，一八○七年拿破仑的大军围城期间被砍伐了，一八一○年为向拿破仑表示敬意又重新栽上。在这片有历史意义的土地上，跳舞的人可以听到我的音乐，因为在我头顶上的麦克风并没有关掉，因为我的鼓声一直传到了奥利瓦城门，因为演讲台下的我，这个勇敢正直的孩子，毫不松劲，他借助吉米那只解脱了锁链的老虎，撤空了五月草场的人群，只留下丛丛雏菊。 甚至在我给予自己的鼓早该得到的安宁之后，那些年轻鼓手还敲个没完。我的音乐对他们所产生的影响，要过一段时间才能消失。 还需提一笔的是，奥斯卡未能立即从演讲台底下离开，因为冲锋队和党卫军人员还在台上待了一个多小时，皮靴把木板踩得咯咯响。他们钻到一个个角落里，挂破了身上的褐色和黑色制服。他们好像在台上寻找什么，可能在寻找某个社会党人或者某个共产党破坏小组。我不想详述自己使用了哪些妙计来迷惑他们，总而言之，他们没有找到奥斯卡，他们不是奥斯卡的对手。 这个木板搭的迷宫终于安静下来。这个迷宫同先知约拿在它腹内待过并弄了一身油脂的鲸鱼一般大①。不，不，奥斯卡可不是先知，他觉得肚子饿了。此地没有上帝说：“你起来，往尼尼微大城去，向其中的居民宣告我所吩咐你的话。”这里也没有上帝为我安排一棵蓖麻，使其生长得高过我，尔后，却又安排一条虫子，咬这蓖麻，以致枯槁。我既不为《圣经》上的蓖麻，也不为尼尼微大城（即使它叫做但泽也罢）悲泣。我将自己那面不是《圣经》上所载的鼓藏在毛衣里，集中注意力，从台底钻了出去，既没有撞了脑袋，也没有再被钉子划破。我离开了这个演讲台，它是为举行各种集会搭起来的，大小碰巧相当于吞过先知的那条鲸鱼。 -------- ①据《圣经·旧约全书·约拿书》载，耶和华派约拿去尼尼微，约拿违命，逃往他施。船上遇海风，舟人将约拿投于海。耶和华安排一条大鱼吞了约拿，他在鱼腹中三日三夜。巨鱼吐约拿上岸后，他又奉命去尼尼微，宣告说，再等四十日，尼尼微心倾覆。该城的王和人民求告上帝，各人回头离开所行的恶道，丢弃手中的强暴。于是，上帝转意，不把所说的灾祸降与他们了。约拿因此不悦，上帝便以蓖麻为喻，责约拿借物过于借人。 有谁会注意到这个似三岁孩子的少年，他吹着口哨，沿着五月草场的边缘，慢吞吞地朝体育馆的方向走去呢？在网球场背后，我的孩儿们背着军鼓和定音鼓，拿着横笛和军号，在那里蹦蹦跳。我敢断定，他们在进行惩罚性操练。对于这些按着地区领导人的哨声蹦蹦跳的人们，我只感到有那么点儿歉意。勒布扎克离开了他的大批党部人员，独个儿驮着那块隆肉踱来踱去。走到一定的距离，他便用靴子后跟着地向后转，把那儿的草和雏菊统统踩死。 奥斯卡回到家里，午餐已经端上桌子：烤肉饼、盐水土豆、红甘蓝，餐后小吃有巧克力布丁加香草调味汁。马策拉特一声不吭。奥斯卡的妈妈吃着饭思想却开了小差。下午，家庭争吵，因为嫉妒和波兰邮局，闹得不可开交。傍晚时分，凉爽的阵风，突如其来的暴雨，擂鼓似的冰雹，出色地表演了好一阵子。奥斯卡的精疲力竭的鼓边休息，边欣赏。