The nine ghost villages of northern France
重回法国凡尔登 见证残酷的一战战场

I was walking with a few friends on a mossy forest path through Fleury-devant-Douaumont, a small village nestled in the pastoral landscape of north-eastern France. It had rained heavily the night before and a fine mist still hung in the air. A cacophonous flock of birds hid in the lush canopy above my head, their lively song juxtaposing the deep silence of the tens of thousands of unknown soldiers who lay in the hallowed ground below my feet.

我和几个朋友顺着布满青苔的林间小路穿过弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特（Fleury-devant-Douaumont），一个坐落在法国东北部乡间的小村庄。昨晚下了场大雨，空气中仍有薄雾，鸟儿藏在我头顶茂密的树冠里叽叽喳喳地欢叫，而我脚下神圣的土地里，则埋葬着成千上万无名士兵深深的沉默。

During World War One, French and German soldiers completely razed nine villages during the Battle of Verdun, the longest and one of the fiercest artillery battles of the war. Raging for around 300 days and nights in 1916, troops used giant guns – including Germany’s infamous ‘Big Berthas’ – to rain a never-ending barrage of shells over the combat zone. The shells contaminated the earth so badly with lead, arsenic and lethal poison gas, France determined that most of the villages couldn’t be rebuilt. Casualties of war, it was said they had ‘died for France’.

法国红色无人区内的小径一路顺着一战期间凡尔登战役中士兵挖的战壕，这场战役持续了300天

Over the last 100 years, only one of the destroyed villages has been reconstructed. Another two have been partially rebuilt, but the remaining six, including Fleury-devant-Douaumont, sit uninhabited within France’s Zone Rouge, or Red Zone.

过去一百多年，仅有一个被毁村庄得到重建，有两个恢复了一部分，剩下六个仍是红色无人区（Zone Rouge），其中就包括弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特。

After the war ended in 1918, the French government deemed 1,200 sq km of non-contiguous land near Verdun too dangerous to inhabit and too costly to rehabilitate. Although no-one lives in any part of the Red Zone and much of it is still considered too dangerous for visitors, French law recognises the destroyed villages as municipalities – there are even designated mayors who receive government money to receive guests and preserve the memory of what’s left. Besides the villages, which are open year-round and deemed safe to visit, a few museums and other sites have been erected to memorialise the soldiers who lost their lives for their countries.

1918年一战结束后，法国政府认为凡尔登方圆1200平方公里的区域都十分危险，不宜居住，同时因花费太高而放弃重建。虽然区内荒无人烟，大部分都很危险，但法国仍然将被毁村庄列为自治市，甚至指定了市长利用政府资金来接待访客，保存遗留的记忆。有一部分安全的村庄全年开放，此外还建了一些博物馆等景点来纪念为国捐躯的士兵。

Just outside the Red Zone, a small private museum, Romagne ‘14-‘18, tells the personal stories behind a large collection of war memorabilia. Inside the zone, south of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, the Mémorial de Verdun (a museum and memorial opened in 1967 by the government) offers stunning exhibits that give visitors a more comprehensive overview of the war.

红色无人区外有一个名为罗马'14-'18（Romagne '14-'18）的小型私人博物馆，展出了大量战争纪念品，讲述了物品主人的故事。无人区内，在弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特南部，1967年由政府开放的凡尔登纪念馆（Mémorial de Verdun）里陈列着令人惊叹的展品，访客对战争可以有更全面的了解。

Just a few minutes drive away, the Douaumont National Necropolis and Ossuary contains the skeletal remains of about 130,000 French and German soldiers. Located on a hill that cascades from the necropolis and ossuary, a cemetery contains a sea of more than 15,000 white headstones – Christian, Jewish and also Muslim, reminders that French colonial forces were instrumental in defeating the Germans at Verdun.

几分钟车程之外，杜奥蒙特国家公墓和藏骨堂（Douaumont National Necropolis and Ossuary）里放置着大约13万名法国和德国士兵的遗骸。公墓和藏骨堂下方的小山是一座墓园，里面竖立着1万5千多块白色墓碑，有基督徒、犹太教徒，也有穆斯林，提醒着我们，法属殖民地的部队在凡尔登抵御德军的战斗中也发挥了重要作用。

Yet while these sites deserve attention, it wasn’t until I walked through the trenches in and around Fleury-devant-Douaumont that I started to feel the true magnitude of the war.

虽然这些都很震撼，但当我穿行在弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特及其周边的战壕中时，才开始感受到这场战争真正的规模。

The path we were walking along was an old communications trench. Once, soldiers skittered back and forth along the path carrying messages between bunkers. Today, old cement posts still line some portions of the route, which is at constant threat of being engulfed by the forest. Suddenly, the path ended and we reached a small clearing.

我们走的是一条旧时的通信战壕。从前，士兵们要在碉堡之间来回传递信息。如今，沿路还能看到一些老旧的水泥邮站，但战壕随时有被森林吞噬的危险。突然，小路没有了，我们来到一小块空地上。

“Be careful,” warned our guide, historian Guillaume Moizan, pointing towards twisted cords of rusted metal that thrust from the ground like roots. We were standing on top of the ruins of a bunker. Small stones and pine needles were scattered over the moss that blanketed the structure. Moizan picked up a stone and handed it to me. I was surprised by its weight.

“要小心，”我们的向导、历史学家莫赞（Guillaume Moizan）指着地上像根一样长出来的扭曲的生锈金属线提醒到。我们站在一座碉堡的废墟上，上面苔藓密布，碎石和松针散落一地。莫赞捡起一块石头递给我，重量让我出乎意料。

Lead. It was a small, rusted part of an exploded shell. I rolled it gently between my fingers.

是铅。已经生锈了，是炮弹爆炸后的碎片，我拿在手里轻轻把玩。

The birds overhead had grown silent. I could feel my heart beating in my chest as I peered down at the amalgamation of metal, moss and pine needles on the bunker. A single small, pink flower grew amid it all. In this open-air memorial, life finds a way.

头顶上的鸟儿渐渐安静下来。当我低头凝视碉堡残迹上的金属、苔藓和松针时，能感受到自己的心跳。一朵粉红色的小花从地上探出头来，在这座露天纪念馆里，有生命延续。

Some historians call the Battle of Verdun a ‘meat-grinder’: healthy men were pushed into the fray only to be masticated and torn asunder by the war’s hungry machine. First-hand accounts of the battle mention that the sky, thick with acrid smoke, was animated at night by a horrifying fireworks display of flaming blue, yellow and orange shells. The dead couldn’t be removed from the battlefield, and living soldiers were forced to sleep, eat and fight beside the stinking, rotting corpses of their friends.

一些历史学家称凡尔登战役为“绞肉机”：健壮的男性被推上战场，饥肠辘辘的战争将他们撕碎吞噬。在这场战事的第一手资料中提到，当时天空中弥漫着刺鼻的烟雾，蓝色、黄色和橙色的炮弹火光犹如一场恐怖的烟花表演，照亮了夜空。死者无法从战场上转移出来，活着的士兵被迫在战友腐烂发臭的尸体旁睡觉、吃饭、打仗。

Standing in the forest, it was difficult to imagine the carnage. The mastermind of the battle, the German Army’s chief of staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, had tried to end the whole bloody war by forcing his enemy into a trap where “the forces of France will bleed to death”, but in the process, he also very nearly bled his own army dry. Together, both sides suffered an estimated 70,000 casualties per month – or a total of more than 700,000 (it’s thought that between 80,000 to 100,000 of the dead still remain lost in the forest).

站在森林里，很难想象大屠杀的情景。凡尔登战役的主脑、德国总参谋长法尔肯海因（Erich von Falkenhayn）为了结束这场血战，曾试图诱敌入瓮，“让法国军队流血而死”，但与此同时自己的军队也伤亡惨重。据估计，双方每月有7万人伤亡，总伤亡人数超过70万（估计仍有8至10万人的遗体还在森林中没有找到）。

Jean-Pierre Laparra, the mayor of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, helps keep the ghosts from the war alive. His great-grandfather settled in the village in 1909, but was evacuated along with his wife after war descended upon them in 1914. Their son – Laparra’s grandfather – stayed behind to fight.

弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特的市长拉帕让（Jean-Pierre Laparra）让这座战后的鬼城仍有活力。1909年，他的曾祖父在这里定居，1914年战争爆发后，他和妻子被疏散出去，他们的儿子，也就是拉帕让的祖父，则留下战斗。

Nothing remains of Fleury-devant-Douaumont except for stone ruins of the foundations of a few buildings. Laparra, who lives nearby, often leads visitors from around the world across a thin path that has been constructed over the ruins. Along the way, he points out various landmarks: the grocery, the foundry, the blacksmith. He talks about how the inhabitants lived and notes where the children went to school.

除了几座建筑的石头地基留下之外，小镇已是荡然无存。拉帕让住在附近，经常带领来自世界各地的游客穿过一条建在废墟上的小径，一路上，他会指出各种各样的地标：杂货店、铸造厂、铁铺，还会讲到当地居民的生活，和孩子们上学的地方。

The villages in the Red Zone “are the symbol of the supreme sacrifice,” Laparra said. “You must always know what happened in the past to avoid reliving it. We must never forget.”

红色无人区的村庄“象征着至高的奉献”，拉帕让说：“我们必须了解过去，以免重蹈覆辙，永远都不能忘记。”

After the war ended, acorns and chestnuts were collected from the ravaged battlefield and sent by the Mayor of Verdun to Britain as remembrances of the battle between French and German soldiers. A couple were planted in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and others have been traced to various grounds across the United Kingdom. Today, these trees tower over the land.

战争结束后，凡尔登市长将橡果和栗子从满目疮痍的战场上送到英国，作为对法德两国士兵的纪念。有些果子栽种在英国皇家植物园邱园（Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew）里，其余的遍布英国各地。如今，它们已长成了参天大树。

In the ghost villages of the Red Zone, nature also thrives. In the decades after the war, millions of saplings – including thousands of Austrian pines given as war reparations by Vienna – were planted in and around the cratered trenches. Today these stalwart pines share the land with some of the same species of magnificent oak and horse chestnut that made their way to Britain.

红色无人区内的村庄自然环境也越来越好。战后的几十年里，在坑坑洼洼的战壕内外栽种了数百万棵树苗，其中包括维也纳作为战争赔偿所赠予的数千棵奥地利松树。今天，这些挺拔的松树与当年送往英国的大橡树和马栗树共生在这片土地上。

Olivier Gérard, director of the Douaumont Ossuary Foundation as well as the mayor of Douaumont (another destroyed village, located just north of Fleury-devant-Douaumont) – tells me: “Nature and life always find a way.”

杜奥蒙特藏骨堂基金会主席兼杜奥蒙特市长杰拉德（Olivier Gerard）告诉我：“自然和生命总能延续。”（杜奥蒙特是另一个被毁村庄，就在弗莱利-德文特-杜奥蒙特以北）

Over the course of a century, the trees have absorbed enough of the contaminants from the toxic earth to allow other species of flora to thrive, and the land is teeming with life. In effect, the bucolic countryside of the Red Zone is turning into a Green Zone, although with arsenic levels in the soil up to 35,000 times higher than normal, the forest is nowhere near pristine.

一百年来，树木吸收了有毒土壤中大量的污染物，使其他植物得以茁壮成长，这片土地也充满生机。实际上，红色无人区的田园乡村正在变成绿色生态区，尽管土壤中的砷含量比正常水平高出3.5万倍，森林却很茂密。

As we walked, Moizan paused, bent down and plucked a piece of metal from the ground: a fork. The rain from the night before had washed away the top layer of soil, yielding detritus from the war. In addition to shells, dog tags, helmets and even bones sometimes appeared. We stared at the fork for a few moments, and I wondered to whom it had belonged. The average age of soldiers who enlisted in World War One was 24. Someone’s son once ate using that fork. Perhaps he also used it to eat his last meal.

我们走着走着，莫赞停了下来，弯腰从地上捡起一个金属物件——一把叉子。昨夜的雨水冲走了表层土壤，露出了战争残留。除了弹壳，有时还会看到军籍牌、头盔甚至骨头。我们盯着叉子看了半晌，我在想它的主人是谁。第一次世界大战入伍士兵的平均年龄是24岁，某人的儿子曾用那把叉子吃过饭，也许享用的是他人生最后一餐。

At the edge of the forest, we came to a small chapel, constructed after the war was over as a place to pray and remember the dead. We walked around it, and I was mesmerised. It’s the only building for miles, and I recalled a rhyme my stepfather, a minister, taught me when I was a young child.

森林尽头处有座小教堂，是战后建来祈祷和缅怀逝者的。我们绕着它走，我被迷住了。这是方圆数英里内唯一的建筑，我想起了继父，一位牧师，在我小时候教我的一首诗。

“Here is the church,” he said, while hiding his fingers within his hands. Then, thrusting up two fingers in a triangle shape, he continued: “Here is the steeple.” Finally, while opening his hands and waving his fingers, he exclaimed: “Open the doors, and see all the people!”

“教堂到了，”莫赞说，他张开双手，挥舞着喊道：“打开门，见见大伙儿！”

Staring at the church, I felt as though I could see the ghosts of the people who once lived in the area. As we left, an old man slowly passed us on the path. Who is he, I wondered? A descendant of one of the soldiers? Or perhaps a retired soldier from another war, there to pay homage to his brethren? I looked back at the man, towards the church and beyond, at the forest, which swayed in the wind over the cratered battlefield. The sun had risen high over trees and the forest was bathed in golden light. I noticed a number of young birch trees standing together like waifs, their leaves glittering.

我盯着教堂，仿佛看到了当年小镇居民们的灵魂。离开时，一位老人在小路上慢慢地从我们身边走过。他是谁？是士兵的后代吗？还是参与了其他战争的退伍老兵在向弟兄们致敬？我回头看看老人，又看看教堂，再看看远处的森林，森林在满目疮痍的战地上随风摇曳。太阳高挂在树梢，森林沐浴在金色的阳光中。我看到许多新生的白桦树像信号旗一样排开，叶子闪闪发光。

I realised that I was still carrying the piece of shell Moizan had handed me at the bunker. I let it drop heavily to the ground with a soft thud. From somewhere out of the last vestiges of the fog over the forest, a flock of birds took flight. The air was punctuated by a mad rush of feathers, and then the tiny souls lifted and disappeared into the light.

我发现自己还拿着莫赞在碉堡给我的那块炮弹碎片。我松开手，它砰地一声掉在地上。森林上空最后一丝薄雾中，一群鸟儿飞了出来，快速拍打的羽毛从天空划过，那些小生命越飞越高，消失在阳光里。

来源：好英语网