2018年10月26日纽约时报：意大利卡普里岛最后的灯塔守护人
The last lighthouse keeper of Capri
意大利卡普里岛最后的灯塔守护人
Basking in the Bay of Naples, Capri is Italy at its most dazzling. Whitewashed villas burst with purple bougainvillea, yachts putter around the island’s glimmering grottoes and what was once an idyllic home of fishermen is now an exclusive glitterati haunt.
地处那不勒斯湾的卡普里岛是意大利最耀眼的地方。白色的别墅间开满了紫色的三角梅，游艇在岛上水光映照的岩洞附近穿梭。这里曾经恬静质朴，渔民聚居，现如今却成了名流的专属领地。
But every evening in a modest apartment on the island’s remote south-western tip, a 64-year-old sailor named Carlo D’Oriano slowly climbs 136 steps up a spiral staircase to the lonely lookout tower of the Punta Carena lighthouse and peers through a pair of binoculars across the ocean. When the sun sinks into the Tyrrhenian Sea, D’Oriano logs his handwritten findings in a diary, just as the island’s lighthouse keeper has done each day here for the last 151 years.
但每天傍晚，在岛上西南端一处简朴的公寓里，64岁的水兵德•奥里亚诺（Carlo D'Oriano）都会顺着136级台阶的旋转楼梯，缓缓爬上彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔孤独的瞭望塔，透过一台双筒望远镜观察海面。当太阳落入第勒尼安海中时，德•奥里亚诺会将观测结果写进记事簿中。过去151年里，岛上的灯塔管理员每天都是这么做的。
Built in 1867, Punta Carena is one of Italy’s most important lighthouses, and is one of the last in the world to employ a full-time operator. But after being manned by a continuous line of 88 lighthouse keepers predating the dawn of Italian unification in 1871, D’Oriano is its last guardian, and these are his final months on duty.
彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔修建于1867年，是意大利最重要的灯塔之一，也是世界上最后一批聘请全职管理员的灯塔。从1871年意大利尚未统一之时起，共有88人守护过它，从未间断。但德•奥里亚诺将是最后一个，这也是他上班的最后几个月。
Last year, D’Oriano received word from Italy’s Ministry of Defence that Punta Carena, like 181 of the country’s other 199 lighthouses, is set to become fully automated on 1 January 2019. When it does, D’Oriano won’t just lose his job – he’ll lose his home of 13 years.
去年，他收到意大利国防部的通知，彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔将从2019年1月1日开始实行全自动化，和意大利其他199座灯塔中的181座一样。届时，德•奥里亚诺失去的不仅仅是工作，还有他生活了13年的家。
“Think about how many keepers have lived inside these walls, always keeping the light on to guide others,” D’Oriano said, gazing out from the lantern room towards the twilight. “This work is beautiful, but it’s dying.”
“想想有多少灯塔守护人曾住在这儿，他们一直坚守着这盏灯，为人指引方向，”德•奥里亚诺从灯室望向窗外的暮色说。“这是一份美妙的工作，但却正在消亡。”
As long as there have been ships, there have been light keepers. Thousands of years ago, people lit bonfires high atop cliffs to guide sailors to port. Around 280BC, these ground-lit beacons were raised onto towers, like the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Wood pyres evolved into coal, gas, oil and electricity, and today, according to The Lighthouse Directory, more than 20,500 of these enduring landmarks still illuminate the world’s darkest and most dangerous stretches of coastline.
从有船开始就有看守灯塔的人。几千年前，人们在悬崖顶上燃起高高的篝火，指引船员进港。公元前280年前后，这些地面上的指路灯被搬上了瞭望塔，比如埃及的亚历山大灯塔（Lighthouse of Alexandria）。从木头生火演变成了用煤炭、天然气、石油和电。灯塔名录网站（Lighthouse Directory）的数据显示，如今，还有20500多座历经岁月的灯塔标志着陆地，照亮了世界上最黑暗、最危险的海岸。
But as marine navigation tools and satellite automation have become more sophisticated, the need for lighthouses and their human operators has been virtually snuffed out. In fact, with the exception of seasonal volunteers and educational guides, there are hardly any lighthouse keepers left on the planet.
但随着海上导航工具和卫星自动化愈发精密，对灯塔及其管理人员的需求几乎消失殆尽。实际上，除了教育导赏员和部分季节会来的志愿者，灯塔守护人在全球已经所剩无几。
The UK’s last custodian left his post at the North Foreland Lighthouse in Kent in 1998 – the same year, the US Coast Guard automated the last of its 279 federally run beacons. Australia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and many other nations no longer employ a single operator. One stalwart sentinel remains in South Africa; three in France; a handful in India, Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Portugal; and fewer than 50 in Canada.
1998年，英国最后一名灯塔管理员离开了位于肯特郡的北部海岬灯塔（North Foreland Lighthouse）。同年，美国海岸警卫队对联邦政府管理的279座灯塔中的最后一座进行了自动化改造。澳大利亚、芬兰、冰岛、爱尔兰、日本、新西兰、挪威和很多国家一个灯塔管理员都没有。南非还有一名仍在坚守，法国有三名，印度、缅甸和葡萄牙也有几个，加拿大有不到50人。
“There can’t be more than about 200 left in the world,” said Ian Duff, president of the international Association of Lighthouse Keepers, who himself kept the light shining at Skerryvore, Duncansby Head and Tiree Island in Scotland for nearly two decades before being made redundant in 1992. “The reality is, in 10 years, this job will be extinct.”
“全世界剩下的灯塔管理员不会超过200人，”国际性组织灯塔守护人协会的会长达夫（Ian Duff）说。达夫自己曾管理灯塔近20年，守护过苏格兰泰里岛的斯克里沃阿灯塔（Skerryvore Lighthouse）以及邓肯斯比角灯塔（Duncansby Head Lighthouse），直到1992年被裁员。“现实情况是，这项工作将在10年内消失。”
Yet despite not hiring a single new lighthouse keeper from outside the military since 1987, the captain of Italy’s Lighthouse Authority, Antonello D’Esposito, told me that they still receive roughly 5,000 applications every year for a position that no longer exists.
意大利灯塔管理局的负责人德•埃斯波西托（Antonello D 'Esposito）告诉我，尽管从1987年开始便不再从军队之外招聘新的灯塔守护人，但每年仍有大约5000人申请这个早已不复存在的岗位。
“I guess I’m the lucky one,” D’Oriano said, wiping the salt from Punta Carena’s storm windows.
“我想我是幸运的，”德•奥里亚诺一边说，一边擦去彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔防风窗上的盐。
D’Oriano joined the navy in 1975 and was stationed up and down the Italian coast for the next 30 years. Then in 2005, a navy commander tipped him off that a rare position was opening at Punta Carena, and that his decades of experience as a nautical technician, harbour pilot and sailor would make him a good fit.
德•奥里亚诺1975年加入海军，之后30年一直驻扎在意大利沿海各地。2005年，一名海军指挥官向他透露，彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔有个难得的职位空缺，他有几十年的航海技术员、港口领航员和水兵经验，非常适合。
“I didn’t know the first thing about working in a lighthouse,” D’Oriano admitted. “I hadn’t even seen a picture of the place. But when I did, it was love at first sight.”
“我对看守灯塔一窍不通，”德•奥里亚诺承认。“我甚至连这儿的照片都没见过，但当我看到时，就一见钟情了。”
Rising 28m atop a narrow limestone bluff that plunges into the ocean, Punta Carena casts a striking image. Its rotating optical lens is the second most powerful in Italy, and its flashing beams stretch 25 nautical miles through one of the country’s busiest shipping lanes. The base and spiral staircase were built with lava stone from Mt Vesuvius; the tower is painted Pompeian red; and, fittingly, the whole thing looks like it could be buried by a wave and swept out to sea at any moment.
彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔建在一处伸进大海的石灰岩峭壁上，塔高28米，非常显眼。灯塔的旋转光学透镜倍数是意大利第二高的，射出的光柱长达25海里，照亮了意大利最繁忙的航道之一。塔底和旋转楼梯是用维苏威火山的熔岩石修建的，塔身刷成了庞贝红，从某个角度看，整座灯塔像是随时会被海浪淹没，卷入大海似的。
D’Oriano didn’t sleep much his first few months on duty. Pounding storms frequently brought waves 25m up to his bedroom window, and gale-force winds caused the lighthouse tower to shake and sway.
上班的头几个月，德•奥里亚诺没怎么睡觉。猛烈的暴风雨常常卷起25米高的巨浪，打到他卧室的窗户，狂风刮得灯塔摇摇晃晃。
“At first, I thought these tremors were small earthquakes,” D’Oriano remembered, flipping through old diaries in his office. “But over the years, I’ve learned that an angry sea is more beautiful than a quiet sea. It reminds you that nature exists and that this mass of water is open and alive. Only someone who lives in solitude can understand this.”
“起初，我以为这些震动是小型地震，”德•奥里亚诺在办公室里一边快速翻着旧记事簿一边回忆说。“但经过这些年，我发现愤怒的大海比平静的时候更美。它提醒着你大自然的存在，以及这片水域是开放的，是有生命的。只有远离尘嚣的人才能体会。”
When D’Oriano arrived at the lighthouse, two older guardians shared the small keepers quarters below the tower with him. They used to take turns going up and down the tower, shared a kitchen and tiny bathroom together and played cards together outside as the beams quietly flashed through the night. When they retired in 2009, their positions closed with them, leaving D’Oriano to keep the 1,000-watt light, maintain the grounds and pass the time all alone.
刚来灯塔时，德•奥里亚诺和两名年长的守护人一起住在瞭望塔下面的管理员宿舍。他们轮流爬灯塔，共用一间厨房和一个小卫生间。灯柱静静划过夜空时，他们会一起在外面打牌。那两人2009年退休后，岗位就没再请人，只剩下德•奥里亚诺一个人守着那盏1千瓦的灯，维护场地，独自消磨时日。
These days, when he’s not fixing electrical issues, communicating with the Coast Guard and emptying buckets of seawater from the stairwell, D’Oriano listens to classical music and reads plays by Italian dramatist Luigi Pirandello in the lantern room. In the evenings, he writes poems about the ocean, its fishermen and the constellations. At night, he paints watercolour seascapes and plays guitar on the cots in the empty rooms where the other keepers once lived.
现在，除了修理电路、与海岸警卫队通话或用水桶清理楼梯转角的海水，德•奥里亚诺会在灯室里听古典乐，看意大利剧作家皮兰德罗（Luigi Pirandello）的作品。傍晚，他会以海洋、渔民和星座为题作诗。夜里，他会坐在小床上用水彩画海景，弹吉他。另两位守护人曾住在这里，如今早已人去楼空。
Each autumn, he looks for the bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales that appear offshore. In the summer, he picks wild mushrooms and asparagus in a nearby pine forest; and in the spring, he plants tomatoes, basil, beans and “whatever the seagulls don’t eat” in a small garden by the lighthouse’s front door.
每年秋天，他都会寻找在海岸附近出没的宽吻海豚和抹香鲸。盛夏时节，他会去附近的松林里采野蘑菇和芦笋。春天降临时，他会在灯塔前门旁边的小园子里种上西红柿、罗勒、豆类和"海鸥不吃的东西"。
In the nine years since the lighthouse’s other keepers left, D’Oriano has barely taken a day off. Even when his knee was replaced, he still hobbled up and down the tower twice a day on crutches to monitor the coast and flash his handheld torch back at the sailors who signal him each night from across the darkness in a sort of mariner’s Morse code.
在另外两名守护人离开后的九年里，德•奥里亚诺几乎一天都没休息过。即使做了膝盖置换手术，他也坚持拄着杖一瘸一拐地每天上下灯塔两次，观察海岸的情况。每天晚上，当有船员从漆黑的海面向他发出灯光信号时，他都会用手电筒予以回应，好似海员间的摩斯密码。
“A machine can power a light, but it can’t watch the sea,” D’Oriano insisted. “A human presence provides an added sense of comfort and security for navigators, and it’s fundamental in case something goes wrong.”
“机器可以将灯点亮，但无法观察大海，”德•奥里亚诺坚持认为。“有人在会让船员多一份安慰和安全感。出事的时候，这一点极为重要。”
Judging by D’Oriano’s diary entries, a lot can go wrong.
从德•奥里亚诺的记录来看，出事不少。
“19 August 2016, 10:10: Saw a motorboat on fire and five people jump overboard. Notified Coast Guard for sea rescue. All brought to safety.”
“2016年8月19日，10：10：看到一艘摩托艇着火，五人跳船。通知海岸警卫队。所有人被安全救回。”
“7 June 2015, 6:10: Awoke to screams in the direction of Tombosiello. Coordinated helicopter search operations, which found a live body near Cala di Limmo.”
“2015年6月7日，6：10：被汤波希洛方向传来的尖叫声惊醒。协调直升机展开搜索，后在卡拉迪林姆附近发现一名幸存者。”
D’Oriano has also responded to distress flares, gas spills and shipwrecks. And on 7 February 2013 at 21:05, lightning struck Punta Carena, setting fire to the tower and D’Oriano’s apartment below.
德•奥里亚诺也曾应对过船只遇险、石油泄漏和沉船事故。2013年2月7日21：05，闪电击中彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔，瞭望塔和塔下德•奥里亚诺的公寓着火。
“I raced up and down the stairs in my pyjamas, saw that flames were engulfing everything and quickly put them out,” D’Oriano said. “We were able to get the lighthouse working three days later, but I lived in the darkness with candles for the next five months.”
“我穿着睡衣跑上跑下，看见火焰正在吞噬一切，迅速将火扑灭了，”德•奥里亚诺说。“我们成功让灯塔在三天后恢复工作，但在接下来的五个月里，我一直靠蜡烛在黑暗中生活。”
Despite recent protests from the Capri chapter of the National Sailors Association of Italy, the Italian military is continuing its plans to transform Punta Carena into an unmanned, tele-monitored outpost. The navy recently installed a control panel in Punta Carena’s lantern room to automate the light, and starting in January, a SIM card is supposed to send a text message to the navy’s command centre in Naples if something stops working.
前不久，意大利国家船员协会卡普里岛分会举行了多场抗议活动，但意大利军方仍计划将彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔改造成一个无人值守的远程监控前哨基地，海军最近在灯室里安装了一个控制板来自动控制灯光。从明年1月开始，如果有设备停止工作，智能卡会向海军位于那不勒斯的指挥中心发送短信。
“The problem is that Punta Carena and that entire area is a ‘shadow zone’,” said Antonino Terminello, a captain who’s been sailing off Capri’s south-western coast for the last 16 years. “There’s no mobile signal, no GPS, nothing. That’s why it’s so important for someone inside to constantly maintain and monitor everything.”
“问题是彭塔卡雷尼亚灯塔和那一整片儿都属于‘阴影区’,”过去16年一直在卡普里岛西南海岸附近航行的泰尔内洛船长（Antonino Terminello）说。“没有移动信号，没有GPS，什么都没有。所以有人一直在灯塔里维护和监控各项情况非常重要。”
After hardly leaving the island for 13 years, D’Oriano can no longer afford to stay. Like so many other stunning seaside properties in Capri, there are talks of transforming his apartment and the empty keeper’s quarters at Punta Carena into a luxury resort. In the last few months, D’Oriano has been setting aside part of his �1,300 monthly salary to buy a small plot of land somewhere quiet in the countryside. He says he’d like to try painting landscapes and hopes to one day publish some of his poems. But he can’t bring himself to pack up his lighthouse home quite yet.
13年来，德•奥里亚诺几乎没有离开过小岛。但现在，他已无力继续承担这里的生活费用。据说他的公寓和没人住的管理员宿舍将被改造成一处豪华度假胜地，岛上很多漂亮的海边建筑都是这么来的。过去几个月，德•奥里亚诺会把每月1300欧元的工资留出一部分，他打算在乡下安静的地方买一小块地。他说想画风景画，并希望有一天能出版一部分诗歌，但还不忍心收拾和灯塔连为一体的家。
“My heart is here,” D’Oriano said, watching the bright beams streak across the night sky. “When I can no longer keep the light, I think part of me will turn off too.”
“我的心在这里，”德•奥里亚诺看着划过夜空的明亮灯柱说。“当我不能再看守这盏灯时，我自身的一部分也将熄灭。”
