《耶利歌》扭曲灵魂！

III

阿冈尼司帝斯的工作称得上是一门艺术。
It is an art，what Agonistes achieves．

他认为这是一种最原始的艺术形式——创造一个崭新的肉体，曾是上帝在创造生命时运用过的一门艺术。

阿冈尼司帝斯信奉上帝，日夜向他祈祷，感谢上帝赐予他这样一个充满了绝望与复仇欲望的世界，只有这

样才会有无数请愿者前赴后继地追随他的踪迹，乞求他将他们重塑成想象中最可怕的模样。
He claims it is The First Art，this creation of new flesh，being the art God used to call

life into being．Agonistes believes in God; prays to Him night and morning: thanking Him for

making a world in which there is so much hopelessness and such a profound hunger for revenge

that Supplicants will seek him out and beg him to reconfigure them in the image of their

monstrous ideal．

上帝显然认为阿冈尼司帝斯的所作所为并没有冒犯到他，因此在过去的2500年间，他任由阿冈尼司帝斯的

足迹遍布全球，到处进行他所谓的神圣艺术创作。事实上，阿冈尼司帝斯的事业非常兴旺发达。
And it appears that God apparently finds no offence in what Agonistes does，because for two

and a half thousand years he has walked the planet performing what he calls his holy art，

and no harm has come to him．In fact he has prospered．

一些经过他改造的人，例如：本丢·彼拉多（圣经中的人物）等，在历史上扮演了非常重要的角色。当然

，更多的人依旧默默无闻。他为各色人等实施变形手术，有君王、土匪、过气明星、建筑师，女校工、香

料商、训狗师、炭火工等等；甚至还有遭到丈夫背叛的妻子们前来要求变形，好让她们捉奸在床进行复仇

。上至达官显贵，下至平民百姓，贵如皇族，贱如农夫，只要他们是诚心的请愿者，祈祷的话语情真意切

，阿冈尼司帝斯就会来到他们的身边，正所谓心诚则灵。
Some of the people who went under his knife，like Pontius Pilate，have a place in our

culture’s history．Many are anonymous．He has transformed potentates and gangsters，failed

actors and architects; women who’ve been cheated by their husbands and come seeking a new

form to greet their adulterer in their marriage beds; school mistresses and perfumiers，dog

-trainers and charcoal burners．The mighty and the insignificant，the noble and the peasant

．As long as they are sincere Supplicants，and their prayers sound genuine，then Agonistes

will be attentive to them．

这个阿冈尼司帝斯究竟是何方神圣？这个艺术家、流浪者、这个能够改造人类血肉身躯的家伙究竟是谁？
Who is he，this Agonistes？ This artist，this wanderer，this transformer of human flesh and

bone？

事实上，答案从未被人知晓。在罗马教廷图书馆中有一卷名为《论上帝的疯狂》的藏书，由红衣主教盖利

米亚写于十七世纪中期。在这本书中，盖利米亚主教对《创世纪》所描述几个上帝创造世界的细节提出了

质疑，以下是主教论述的一段摘抄：第七天，上帝并没有休息。相反，由于陷入了一种成就感所带来的淡

淡欣喜之中，上帝兴奋起来，继续埋头苦干。但这次，由于疲劳，他的作品与以往他为伊甸园所创造的那

些美丽生命大相径庭。整整一天一夜，上帝迷失在创造的荣耀感中不能自拔，所创造出的新生命否定了一

切他先前工作中所运用的美感。破坏者与魔鬼，它们成为了他前六天作品的敌人。
In truth，nobody really knows．There is a heretical volume in the Vatican library called ‘A

Treatise on the Madness of God’，written by one Cardinal Gaillemia in the mid-seventeenth

century．In it，Gaillemia argues that the Creation of the world offered in the Book of

Genesis is wrong in several particulars，one of which is relevant here: on the seventh day，

the Cardinal argued，God did not rest．Instead，driven into a kind of ecstatic fugue state

by the labours of His Creation，God continued to work．But the creations He summoned up in

His exhausted state were not the wholesome beasts with which He had populated Eden．In one

day and one night，wandering amongst the fresh glories of creation，He summoned up forms

that defied all the beauty of his early work．Destroyer and demons，these were the

antithesises of the wholesome forms that He had made in the first six days．

主教提到，其中的一件作品就是阿冈尼司帝斯。这就是为什么阿冈尼司帝斯能够向他的天父祈祷并被接受

的原因。他是上帝亲手制造出来的（至少根据盖利米亚红衣主教的结论是这样的）。
One of the creatures Jehovah created，the Cardinal claims，was Agonistes．That’s why

Agonistes can pray to His Father in Heaven，and expect to be listened to．He is – at least

according to the Cardinal Gaillima’s account – one of God’s own creations．

毫无疑问，阿冈尼司帝斯尽管从事邪恶的勾当，却一直终于职守。千百年来，他满足了无数祈祷者的愿望

，赋予了他们复仇的力量。
And there is no doubt that in his perverse way Agonistes serves a function．Over the years，

over the centuries，he has been the answer to countless prayers for deliverance from

powerlessness．