经济学人244:摇篮将覆 The Cradle Will Rock

 　　The cradle will rock

　　摇篮将覆

　　Lynne Ramsay has crafted an elegant adaptation of a tricky¹ book

　　琳恩?拉姆塞将一本难处理的书精心改编成了一部优雅的作品

　　WHAT is more taboo² than a woman who is repulsed³ by her own child? This is the genius of “We Need to Talk About Kevin”, a remarkable⁴ novel from Lionel Shriver (a former literary critic for this paper), which considers the life of a reluctant mother after her teenage son commits mass murder. The story unfurls as a stream of letters from Eva Khatchadourian to her husband as she retraces⁵ the steps of their lives together—the happy marriage that morphs into a toxic⁶ family, and the haunting event that casts everything in shadow. Yet even as Eva recounts evidence of her son’s malevolence⁷ at a young age, the reader is left with a galling⁸ question: would Kevin have fared better if his mother loved him more?

　　还有什么能比一个憎恶自己亲生孩子的母亲更令人忌讳的呢？这就是《凯文怎么了》一书的精髓。它是莱昂内尔?施赖弗（本报的前任文学评论家）的一部杰出小说，讲述了一位母亲在自己十几岁的孩子犯下屠杀大罪后勉强度日的生活。故事随着伊娃?卡查度瑞安写给丈夫的一连串信件展开，她追溯了他们共同生活的那些阶段——从一段美好婚姻走向了一个毒性家庭，还有那个让一切都变得灰暗的萦绕于心的事件。然而即使伊娃重新搜集了她儿子幼年时狠毒本性的证据，读者仍然会被一个恼人的问题所困扰：如果他的母亲曾多爱他一些的话，凯文会不会好很多？

　　It takes courage to adapt an epistolary novel for the screen, particularly one as psychologically complex as this one. Yet Lynne Ramsay’s film of the same name, starring Tilda Swinton as Eva, is excellent. The gift of this version is its visual rendering⁹ of Eva’s claustrophobic thoughts. With a minimalist screenplay written with Rory Kinnear, Ms Ramsay translates Eva’s clot¹⁰ of dark and messy words into a collage¹¹ of evocative and mostly wordless scenes. These vignettes shift from the present—Eva living as a social pariah¹², a husk of her former self—to the past, and are jumbled¹³ with the non-chronology of memory. As in the book, Kevin’s big, violent moment is left until the end, but the bloody¹⁴ fact of it infects everything that comes before.

　　将一部书信体小说搬上银幕需要很大的勇气，尤其当涉及复杂的心理学，例如本片。然而琳恩?拉姆塞的这部同名电影却很优秀。蒂尔达?斯文顿在片中饰演伊娃。该片的天赋表现在对伊娃的幽闭恐惧症想法那栩栩如生的描绘上。由罗里?金奈尔创作的剧本风格极简。拉姆塞将伊娃那一团团模糊凌乱的文字转化成了一系列场景的拼贴，这些大都无言的场景能够唤起人们的回忆。这些小片段从当前——生活在社会底层的伊娃，仅剩下曾经的自己的一副躯壳——切换到曾经，并被那些不按年月次序排序的记忆搞得错乱拉杂。同书里一样，凯文重要的施暴时刻被留在了末尾，但它那血腥的事实感染了之前的一切。

　　Still, something is lost in witnessing Kevin in the flesh instead of through Eva’s unreliable recollections. In the novel, Eva perceives her son’s cruelty from the start, though it goes unseen by his doting¹⁵ father Franklin (played here by John C. Reilly, everyone’s favourite pushover). On-screen, Kevin is quite obviously malicious¹⁶, first as a nasty little boy and then as a spiteful, ink-eyed teenager. As the latter Kevin, Ezra Miller¹⁷ seethes¹⁸ with ruthlessness, his face impenetrable. Yet he is also distractingly attractive, with cheekbones any starlet would covet¹⁹, making him an awkward choice for such an enigmatic role.

　　尽管如此，在通过本人而非经由伊娃那不可靠的回忆来目击凯文的过程中，某些东西不见了。在小说中，伊娃从一开始就感觉到了儿子的残忍，但它随着宠溺凯文的父亲（由人人都爱的弱敌约翰?C?赖利饰演）而被漠视。在影片中，凯文的恶毒颇为明显，起初是一个险恶的小男孩，然后变成一个目光阴沉的刻毒少年。饰演后者的埃兹拉?米勒爆发出了残忍，他的面部表情不可测知。而米勒同时也令人走神地引力十足。他有着任何小明星都觊觎的颧骨，这使得由他来扮演这样一个谜一般的角色显得不尴不尬。

　　This is not a problem that affects Ms Swinton, who carries this film. Not unlike a praying mantis²⁰, her odd and otherworldly beauty takes time to notice. Her face, powerful in its spareness, registers emotion with subtle ticks and readjustments. As Eva, she conveys the desolation of a life made meaningless, first by the lonely challenges of motherhood, then by tragedy. Driving in her car to the chirpy strains of Buddy²¹ Holly’s “Every day seems a little longer”, her ghost-eyed stare keeps us locked in her nightmare.

　　但这不会对携领全片的斯文顿产生任何影响。她就像一只螳螂，需要时间才能体会出她那奇特脱俗的美。她的脸，瘦弱之中充满力量，将情感投注在微妙的运转与调整之中。她饰演的伊娃传达了生活在丧失其意义之后的荒芜，先是由于身为人母的孤独挑战，接着是因为这出悲剧。她开车步入了不断叫嚣着巴迪?霍利笔下“每一天都变得更加漫长”的语境之内。她那幽灵般双目的凝视也将我们深锁在她的噩梦之中。

1 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

2 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

3 repulsed   

v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝

参考例句：

• I was repulsed by the horrible smell. 这种可怕的气味让我恶心。
• At the first brush,the enemy was repulsed. 敌人在第一次交火时就被击退了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

5 retraces   

v.折回( retrace的第三人称单数 )；回忆；回顾；追溯

参考例句：

• He often retraces the happy time during his young age. 他经常回忆起年轻时代的幸福时光。 来自互联网
• The museum retraces the history of the relationship between the United States and Morocco. 此博物馆在探源美国与摩洛哥的关系之历史。 来自互联网

6 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

7 malevolence   

n.恶意，狠毒

参考例句：

• I had always been aware of a frame of malevolence under his urbanity. 我常常觉察到，在他温文尔雅的下面掩藏着一种恶意。 来自辞典例句

8 galling   

adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的

参考例句：

• It was galling to have to apologize to a man she hated. 令人恼火的是得向她憎恶的男人道歉。
• The insolence in the fellow's eye was galling. 这家伙的傲慢目光令人恼怒。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

9 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

10 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

11 collage   

n.拼贴画；v.拼贴；把……创作成拼贴画

参考例句：

• A collage of coloured paper covers a table top.一副彩纸拼贴画盖在桌面上。
• He has used a mixture of mosaic,collage and felt-tip pen.他混合使用了马赛克、拼贴画和毡头笔。

12 pariah   

n.被社会抛弃者

参考例句：

• Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village.不一会儿，汤姆碰上了村里的少年弃儿。
• His landlady had treated him like a dangerous criminal,a pariah.房东太太对待他就像对待危险的罪犯、对待社会弃儿一样。

13 jumbled   

adj.混乱的；杂乱的

参考例句：

• Books, shoes and clothes were jumbled together on the floor. 书、鞋子和衣服胡乱堆放在地板上。
• The details of the accident were all jumbled together in his mind. 他把事故细节记得颠三倒四。

14 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

15 doting   

adj.溺爱的，宠爱的

参考例句：

• His doting parents bought him his first racing bike at 13.宠爱他的父母在他13岁时就给他买了第一辆竞速自行车。
• The doting husband catered to his wife's every wish.这位宠爱妻子的丈夫总是高度满足太太的各项要求。

16 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

17 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

18 seethes   

（液体）沸腾( seethe的第三人称单数 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth)

参考例句：

• The place seethes with enthusiasm. 全场沸腾。
• Water seethes under the falls. 在瀑布下水激起泡沫。

19 covet   

vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西)

参考例句：

• We do not covet anything from any nation.我们不觊觎任何国家的任何东西。
• Many large companies covet these low-cost acquisition of troubled small companies.许多大公司都觊觎低价收购这些陷入困境的小公司。

20 mantis   

n.螳螂

参考例句：

• Praying mantis has two powerful claws like sharp knives.螳螂有一对强壮的爪子，它们像锋利的刀。
• In her mind,it was a female mantis,devouring her mates.她的意识中，是一只雌螳螂正吞咽她的配偶。

21 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！