nada’s Reviews > Belladonna > Status Update

翻譯：Printz asks the porter, the hotel porter in a blue-and-gold uniform, he asks him, Where is the grave of Ignác Semmelweis? Printz wants to visit the grave of Ignác Semmelweis at once, that’s why he asks the porter Where is the grave of Ignác Semmelweis. The porter is polite, porters do not ask superfluous questions, guests usually ask questions, porters answer. This yellow-blue porter is not in the least interested in why someone would want to visit the grave of Ignác Semmelweis, that is quite clear to Printz. It is also clear to Printz that porters do not need to know anything about Ignác Semmelweis, even if they are Hungarian porters, Budapest porters. What would porters want with Ignác Semmelweis? Take a taxi, says the porter. The cemetery is called Kerepesi. Printz wants to see the monument to Ignác Semmelweis, because with the departure of the short secret agent, Printz is suddenly plunged into sadness because of Ignác Semmelweis. A terrible injustice has been done to Ignác Semmelweis, Printz tells Andreas Ban. Come with me to Kerepesi cemetery. When one comes to Budapest as a tourist, it makes sense to visit Kerepesi cemetery, doesn’t it? There are many famous people at Kerepesi, says Printz, and you aren’t leaving till tomorrow. Besides, says Printz known as Pupi, when you’re a tourist you have to see as much as possible because you never know whether you’ll be able to repeat that trip, whether that trip can be repeated. You don’t know. There is no Ignác Semmelweis at Kerepesi cemetery. Just a monument, and beneath it — nothing. The monument to Ignác Semmelweis rests on the ground like an ornament, a large ornament of yellowed stone, with soft sods of moss, because Ignác Semmelweis died long ago, and Kerepesi cemetery is damp, that is why there is moss. Ignác Semmelweis was burned and poured into an urn, and the urn is kept in a glass case at the Museum of Medical History. Well, after all it’s stupid to go to foreign cemeteries, says Printz to Andreas Ban, there’s no one close in foreign cemeteries. We don’t need that. We’d do better to eat cake. Come, Andreas, let’s go for some cake. In the cemetery brochure, Andreas Ban reads the story of Ignác Semmelweis, evidently important to Printz, although Andreas does not know why. And he does not ask. He learns that Semmelweis dies aged forty-seven on August 13, 1865 in Vienna, in fact at the National Institute for the Mentally Ill in Döbling, he was a doctor and — mad, they say. Mad! Vienna would not have him. Vienna tells him, Go away, go back to where you came from, go to your Budapest. Ignác Semmelweis goes back to his Budapest and in his Budapest he helps women give birth, they don’t die of pyemia but stay alive, they don’t die of puerperal fever like all those women giving birth in Vienna, because Ignác Semmelweis washes his hands in chlorinated water and in Budapest it is no longer permitted to dissect bodies and then attend births with unwashed hands. Why the sick Ignác Semmelweis returns to Vienna, or rather to Döbling, is not known, perhaps he is taken by force to the National Institute for the Mentally Ill. Is there no hospital for the mind in Budapest at that time? Or perhaps they no longer want him in Budapest either. Printz cannot go back to the country where he was born, the people in whose country he lives are killing people in the country where Printz was born, and who knows what is in store for Andreas, will he too be moved back and forth, will he too be told, Go back to where you came from, that Belgrade of yours. He will be. Only Andreas Ban does not know that then, in Budapest.

普林茨問門房，那個穿著藍金色制服的飯店門房，他問他：伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的墓在哪裡？普林茨想立刻去拜訪伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的墓，所以才問門房：伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的墓在哪裡。門房很有禮貌，門房不問多餘的問題，通常是客人發問，門房回答。這個黃藍色的門房對於有人為什麼想去拜訪伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的墓，一點興趣也沒有，普林茨很清楚。普林茨也很清楚，門房不必知道任何關於伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的事，即使他們是匈牙利的門房，布達佩斯的門房。門房要知道伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯做什麼？搭計程車去吧，門房說。墓園叫凱雷佩希。普林茨想去看伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的紀念碑，因為那個矮個子祕密探員一走，普林茨突然就為伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯陷入悲傷。伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯受了天大的冤屈，普林茨對安德烈亞斯・班說。陪我去凱雷佩希墓園吧。到布達佩斯觀光，去看看凱雷佩希墓園也是應該的，不是嗎？凱雷佩希有很多名人，普林茨說，而且你明天才走。再說，綽號普皮的普林茨說，當觀光客就得盡可能多看一些，因為你永遠不知道自己還能不能再來一趟，同樣的旅程還能不能再走一次。你不知道。凱雷佩希墓園裡沒有伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯。只有一座紀念碑，底下——什麼也沒有。伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的紀念碑像件裝飾品似的擱在地上，一大塊泛黃的石頭做成的裝飾品，上面長著一叢叢柔軟的青苔，因為伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯死去很久了，而凱雷佩希墓園很潮濕，所以才有青苔。伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯被火化，倒進一只骨灰甕裡，骨灰甕放在醫學史博物館的玻璃櫃裡。唉，說到底，跑到異國的墓園來實在很蠢，普林茨對安德烈亞斯・班說，異國的墓園裡沒有我們親近的人。我們不需要這個。還不如去吃蛋糕。來吧，安德烈亞斯，我們去吃點蛋糕。安德烈亞斯・班在墓園的簡介裡讀到伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯的故事，這故事顯然對普林茨很重要，雖然安德烈亞斯不知道為什麼。他也不問。他讀到，塞梅爾維斯於一八六五年八月十三日死於維也納，享年四十七歲，確切地說，是死在德布靈的國立精神病院，他是個醫生，而且——瘋了，他們這麼說。瘋了！維也納容不下他。維也納對他說：走吧，回你來的地方去，回你的布達佩斯去。伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯回到他的布達佩斯，在他的布達佩斯替女人接生，她們沒有死於膿毒血症，而是活了下來，她們沒有像維也納那些生產的女人一樣死於產褥熱，因為伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯用含氯的水洗手，而在布達佩斯，已經不准人在解剖屍體之後不洗手就去接生。生病的伊格納茨・塞梅爾維斯為什麼又回到維也納，或者更確切地說，回到德布靈，沒有人知道，也許他是被強行送進國立精神病院的。那時布達佩斯沒有醫治心智的醫院嗎？還是說，也許連布達佩斯也不再要他了。普林茨回不了他出生的國家，他所居住的那個國家的人，正在普林茨出生的國家殺人，而誰知道等待安德烈亞斯的又是什麼，他是否也會被遷來移去，是否也會有人對他說：回你來的地方去，回你那個貝爾格勒去。他會的。只不過，那時身在布達佩斯的安德烈亞斯・班還不知道。