【維多利亞女王的情史】-完結篇

【維多利亞女王的情史】-完結篇

Victoria and Abdul: The Friendship that Scandalized England-使英國蒙羞的女王與男僕之間的友誼關係

Near the end of her reign, Queen Victoria (1819-1901) developed a friendship with an Indian servant, elevating him to trusted advisor and infuriating her court.

在她的統治接近尾聲時，維多利亞女王與其印度僕人，發展出友誼關係，提升他為被信賴的顧問，因此激怒了宮廷裡的人。

By Kristin Hunt (作者)

September 20, 2017 (日期)

                              

                                                                              晚年實照

                                                     

Some royal associates had reasonable complaints about Karim’s extravagant requests. He frequently asked the queen for favors, such as securing his father a pension or his former boss a promotion. But it wasn’t just his arrogance that annoyed them. Historians have plainly pinned the hatred on 19^th-century racism. As Carolly Erickson writes in Her Little Majesty, “For a dark-skinned Indian to be put very nearly on a level with the queen’s white servants was all but intolerable, for him to eat at the same table with them, to share in their daily lives was viewed as an outrage.”

一些皇室人們對卡裡姆的過分與奢侈的要求，提出合理地抱怨。他經常請求女王恩寵，例如，争取得到他父親的退休養恤金，或要求幫助他的前任老闆的升遷。但惹惱了他們的不只是他的高傲。歷史學家們，已明顯地把這種仇恨歸咎於19 世紀的(白人至上)種族主義。如同埃裡克森在他『小陛下』一文中寫道，「把皮膚黝黑的印度人，置於與女王的白色僕人，非常接近的水準，是幾乎無法忍受的，而允許他與他們同桌用餐，並分享他們的日常生活，則被視為令人憤怒之事」。

                                           

                                                        1882年拍攝

The queen was well aware of this animosity towards Karim, and did not tolerate it. Fritz Ponsonby, her assistant private secretary, articulated her unwavering stance in a letter. “The Queen insists on bringing the Munshi forward, and if it were not for our protest, I don’t know where she would stop,” he wrote. “But it is no use, for the Queen says it is ‘race prejudice’ and that we are jealous of the poor Munshi.” Victoria heaped gifts and titles upon Karim partially because she knew the court would not pay him the same respect once she was dead. But she made sure her friend would be comfortable and remembered.

女王充分明白宮廷人士這對卡裡姆的此種仇恨，也並不容忍它。她的私人秘書助理，弗裡茨 · 龐森在一封信中，明白地表示她堅定的立場。他提到：『女王堅持繼續任用此宮廷教師，若非我們的抗議，我不知道她會在何處罷休讓步。』『但這是徒勞無功的，因女王說它是種族偏見，而我們是嫉妒這位可憐的教師』。女王送他成堆的禮物，並賜他不少名銜。 部分原因是，她知道一旦她去世，宮廷人不會給他相同的尊重。但她要確信她這位朋友，在她死後他會過得舒適和被懷念。

                                      

                                                                      1840年女王的結婚照

While Karim already enjoyed homes at the royal residences of Windsor, Balmoral and Osborne, Victoria also secured a land grant for him back in Agra. She commissioned multiple portraits of him, and had him written up in the Court Circulars and local gazettes. In her final wishes, she was quite explicit: Karim would be one of the principal mourners at her funeral, an honor afforded only to the monarch’s closest friends and family. Victoria could not control what happened to the Munshi from beyond the grave, but she did everything in her power to mitigate the harsh treatment she presumed her family would inflict upon him.

                          和丈夫及九位子女

雖然卡裡姆已經享受住進溫莎、 巴爾莫勒爾和奧斯本等皇宮中，女王也在他的阿格拉家鄉，賜予他一塊土地。她請人為他畫了幾幅畫像，並在宮廷通告書和當地的公報上，列上他的名字。她在她的遺願中明確記下： 卡裡姆將會是她的葬禮中，主要的悼念者之一，通常這是只提供給君主最親密的朋友和家人的一項殊榮。維多利亞女王雖無法掌控死後會發生了什麼事，但她已盡全力減輕，假定她的家人，會給他帶來的苛刻待遇。

The queen’s fears were justified. Upon her death on January 22, 1901, Victoria’s children worked swiftly to evict their mother’s favorite adviser. Edward VII sent guards into the cottage Karim shared with his wife, seizing all letters from the queen and burning them on the spot. They instructed Karim to return to India immediately, without fanfare or farewell.

                                        

                                                                     晚期的卡里姆

                                         陪女王散心之劇照

女王的擔心是有道理的。1901 年 1 月 22 日，當她去世時，她的小孩們迅速地驅逐他們母親最喜歡的顧問。愛德華七世(繼位國王)派遣衛兵，進入卡裡姆與他的妻子居住的小屋，攫取女王寫給他的所有信件並當場焚毁。他們命令卡裡姆 立即返回印度，毫無給他任何鋪張的送行儀式，。

Victoria’s heirs could not completely erase the Munshi from public record, but they edited and obscured his narrative to the best of their abilities. Karim died in Agra in 1909 with his correspondence destroyed and no children to preserve his memories. But something had survived the guards’ bonfire: his personal diary. The book secretly stayed in the family of Abdul Rashid, the Munshi’s nephew, for several generations. His descendants shared the journal with Basu in 2010, over a century after the queen’s death. Kamir’s diary gave incredible new details on an unexpected, intense friendship that crossed class and racial lines -- one that began over a delicious plate of chicken curry.

雖然維多利亞女王的繼承人，並不能完全把 Munshi這個人從公共記錄中消除掉，但他們卻盡力將他的敘事加以淡化。卡裡姆在1909年死在阿格拉，他的信件全被燒毀，沒有子女保存他的記憶。但他的個人日記卻逃過衛兵的焚燒而倖存下來。這本日記本偷偷的，好幾世代以來被藏在阿卜杜勒 · 拉希德的家中，他是卡裡姆的侄子。皇后死後超過一個世紀，即在 2010 年，其侄子的後代把該日記本提供給Basu 看。卡裡姆的日記中透露出，令人難以置信的新細節，關於出乎意外的男女之間激烈的友誼, 此友誼指女王和卡裡姆之間，有著跨越階級和種族差異的界限，而此種關係起始於，兩人烹調出美味可口的咖喱雞。

                              

                                                               1893年實照

歲月不饒人……

《後記》：

1887年維多利亞女王生於1819年，1837年即位，1901年過世，享歲82。1887年慶祝就位(golden Jubilee) 50年大典，時年已68高齢，才認識印度來的卡裡姆。此時親王丈夫Albert早已過世，親蜜男僕John也不在人間。從上面簡史看起來，她是需要有人作伴的，就人性而言，無可厚非。若有人說她與印度僕人之間之關係，錯綜複雜，是「老不羞」也好，是黃昏之戀也罷。這位印度年青人和她相處了14年，應給了她美很好的「晚年時光」。雖然她兒孫滿堂，但相信沒有人比卡裡姆更能帶給她, 更快樂的五千多個日子…. 而她的回報也令人可以接受，除了被驅逐離開英國之外, 但它或許在她預料之中..........。

全文完

Justin Lai 編譯

10/27/2017