经济学人373:诺贝尔桂冠诗人维斯瓦娃

 　　Wislawa Szymborska

　　维斯瓦娃·希姆博尔斯卡

　　Wislawa Szymborska, poet, died on February 1st, aged¹ 88

　　维斯瓦娃·希姆博尔斯卡，诗人，2月1日去世，享年88岁

　　WHEN Wislawa Szymborska won the world's top literary prize in 1996, her friends called it the “Nobel disaster”. This was not just because she had spent an uncomfortable night before the award ceremony in the bath: the bathroom was the only part of her quarters in a grand Stockholm hotel in which she could manage to turn on the light. Nor was it the “torture” she felt in having to make a speech—one of only three she had given in her life. The real disaster was the trauma² of fame and fortune. It was years before she could publish another poem. Her fans' delight in her Nobel prize was mixed with disappointment that it had rendered her mute.

　　1996年维斯瓦娃·希姆博尔斯卡荣获世界最顶级的诺贝尔文学奖时，她的朋友们管这事儿叫做“诺贝尔灾难”。在诺奖颁奖典礼前夜，她下榻在斯德哥尔摩大酒店，然而在这里她能打开的灯只有浴室的，结果她只好在浴室里度过了一个难捱的夜晚。灾难的原因还不止于此，发表演讲对她来说也是一种“折磨”，要知连带这一次，她的一生中也只做过三次演讲。然而真正的灾难却是名利的负累。获奖数年之后，她才发表了另一首诗篇。她的粉丝既为她的获奖而欣喜，又因她的获奖而有些失望，因为这使她变得沉默。

　　Like many Poles who survived the war, Ms Szymborska readily accepted communism in early life, seeing it as a salvation³ for a ruined world. Early poems praised Lenin and young communists building a steel works. Later she blamed her own “foolishness, naivety⁴ and perhaps intellectual laziness”, but some found it hard to forgive her for signing a petition in 1953 backing a show trial of four priests.

　　与许多在二战中活下来的波兰人一样，年轻的希姆博尔斯卡欣然接受了共产主义，相信共产主义将把世界从废墟中拯救出来。她早年的诗篇歌颂了列宁和年轻的共产主义者们，描绘了他们建造钢铁厂的情景。虽说后来她责备了自己当时的“愚蠢、幼稚、也许还有一些思维上的惰性”，但有些人还是不能原谅她在1953年时的所作所为，当时她在一份支持公开审判四名牧师的请愿书上签了名。

　　Her ironic⁵ and individualistic spirit was ill fitted to the grey conformity⁶ of “people's Poland”: the Nobel citation⁷ said she wrote with the ease of Mozart and the fury of Beethoven. Playful, subtle and haunting, her poetry could never be in harmony with the socialist⁸ realist style dictated⁹ by the country's cultural commissars. She mocked their intolerance of dissent¹⁰ in a poem on pornography:

　　她喜欢讽刺、崇尚个人主义的精神与“人民波兰”的死气沉沉和整齐划一格格不入：诺贝尔评委会说，她的诗有着莫扎特的恬然与贝多芬的愤怒。富有趣味、难以捉摸又耐人寻味，她的诗永远也无法与国家文化部政委指示要求的那种社会主义式的现实风格和平相处。她在一首关于色情文学的诗中嘲讽了波兰当局的党同伐异。

　　There's nothing more debauched than thinking.

　　没有什么比思想更加放荡

　　This sort of wantonness runs wild like a wind-borne weed on a plot laid out for daisies.

　　这样的放纵犹如乘风的种子在即将雏菊盛开的野地之上肆无忌惮地奔狂

　　Communism she likened to the abominable¹¹ snowman—horrid and unreal—though she stayed in the party until 1966, hoping “to try to fix it all from the inside”. That, she said later, had been another delusion¹².

　　她将共产主义比作喜马拉雅雪人，一样的可怕而不真实。虽然她直到1966年还仍然留在党内，希望“从党内修正”，但她后来说过，这又是一个不切实际的幻想。

　　Ms Szymborska was 16 when Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland between them. “Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees,” she wrote. Although not a mainstream¹³ dissident, her poems distilled¹⁵ the essence of individual stubbornness in the face of what the party bosses said was historical inevitability¹⁶.

　　希姆博尔斯卡16岁时，希特勒和斯大林瓜分了波兰。“长寿是石与树的特权。”她写道。面对瓜分，这被共党领袖称作的历史必然，即使她并非主流的异见分子，她的诗还是表现出个体不屈顽抗的本质。

　　I believe in the refusal to take part.

　　我相信拒绝不参与的权利

　　I believe in the ruined career.

　　我相信那已经被毁的事业

　　I believe in the wasted years of work.

　　我相信白费掉的多年苦工

　　I believe in the secret taken to the grave.

　　我相信被带入坟墓的秘密

　　These words soar for me beyond all rules without seeking support from actual examples.

　　这些告白为我展翅高飞，飞过一切的束缚，不必寻求实例的支持

　　My faith is strong, blind, and without foundation.

　　我的信仰坚强、盲目、没有根据

　　Scepticism was her watchword. She eschewed¹⁷ political causes; her fight was “against the bad poet who is prone¹⁸ to using too many words”. Her favourite phrase was “I don't know”. She told the Nobel audience: “It's small, but it flies on mighty¹⁹ wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.” Without it, she said, Isaac Newton would have gobbled apples rather than pondering the force that makes them drop. Her compatriot Marie Sklodowska-Curie would have “wound up teaching chemistry at some private high school for young ladies from good families.”

　　怀疑主义是她的口号。她远避政治；她的斗争是针对那些“会用词太多的差劲诗人”。她最喜欢的词组是“我不知道”。她在诺贝尔颁奖礼上对观众这样说，“怀疑是渺小的，但有着坚强的翅膀。它扩大了我们的生活，包括我们生存的空间，和我们渺小的地球悬挂在的外太空。”她说，没有它，艾萨克-牛顿当时也许只是狼吞虎咽地吃了那个苹果，而非思索是什么力量让苹果掉落下来。她的同胞玛丽-居里也许最后只是在某所私立女子贵族高中教化学。

　　An accretion²⁰ of answers

　　答案的累加

　　It was the same for poets. Each poem was a kind of answer, but as soon as the last full stop hit the page the result seemed inadequate²¹. “So the poets keep on trying, and sooner or later the consecutive²² results of their self-dissatisfaction are clipped together with a giant paper clip by literary historians and called their ‘oeuvre'.”

　　对诗人也一样。每首诗都是一种答案，但落笔的最后一个句号也无法给出一个完满的答案。“所以诗人们在不断地尝试，或早或晚，由于自我的不满足而不断给出的答案会被文学历史学家用一个巨大的纸夹夹在一起，人们管这叠纸叫做他们的“毕生心血”。

　　Her own output was slender in quantity and lean in style. For all her erudition, she did not come across as intimidatingly²³ brainy (unlike some other Polish post-war poets). Schoolchildren learn her poems by heart, like this one about a bereaved²⁴ pet.

　　希姆博尔斯卡一生所写的诗并不多，风格也较为单一。尽管她博学多识，她并为给人一种聪明到可怕的感觉（这与一些其他的波兰战后诗人不同）。小学生背诵她的诗篇，例如这首诗，是关于一只死掉的宠物猫。

　　Die—you can't do that to a cat.

　　死亡——你不能对一只猫这样做

　　Since what can a cat do

　　你看，一只猫能做什么

　　in an empty apartment?

　　在一个空荡荡的公寓里

　　Climb the walls?

　　爬墙？

　　Rub up against the furniture?

　　跑到家具上？

　　Nothing seems different here

　　这儿似乎没什么不同

　　but nothing is the same.

　　但又没什么是相同的

　　Nothing's been moved

　　没什么东西被搬走了

　　but there's more space.

　　但地方却变大了

　　And at night-time no lamps are lit.

　　而且到了夜晚，再无灯亮

　　Invented words and syntactic tricks made some of her poems for Polish-speakers only. But her translators, chiefly Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak, did a fine job, particularly in the New Yorker, which has published 16 of the best.

　　自造词和句法变化的把戏让她的一些诗只能被说波兰语的人欣赏。但她诗的译者，主要是Clare Cavanagh和Stanislaw Baranczak，却做得很好，特别是在《纽约客》上，这本杂志已经刊登了她最优秀的诗歌中的16篇。

　　Her humour was mischievous²⁵: the lavatory²⁶ seat in her Cracow flat was made of barbed wire encased in clear plastic. Asked why she had published so little—her entire canon was only some 400 poems—she replied gently that she had a waste-paper basket. Success left no dent¹⁴ in her reclusive modesty²⁷, and she would never claim that her external life was interesting. Imagine trying to make a film of a poet's “hopelessly unphotogenic” life, she said: “Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down seven lines, only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens Who…could stand to watch this kind of thing?”

　　她的幽默带着恶作剧的性质：在她克拉科夫的公寓里，她抽水马桶的座板是由透明塑料包住的棘铁丝做成的。她发表的所有诗只有差不多400篇，当被问及为何如此之少时，她温和地回答道，这是因为她有一个废纸篓。成功并未对她隐士般的谦逊造成任何影响，而她也永远不会将她的物质生活称为有趣。当设想如果要拍摄一部影片，讲述一位诗人“极端无美感”的生活时，她说，“就是一个人坐在桌子边上，或者躺在沙发上，一动不动地盯着墙或是天花板。偶尔这个人写了七行诗，15分钟后就又划掉了其中的一行，一个小时后又划掉一行，在那之间其他什么事都没发生。谁会愿意去看这样的片子？”

　　Who, indeed? But plenty read and love the results of her self-imposed solitude²⁸.

　　究竟谁会愿意看呢？不过她把孤独强加给自己后所作的作品，倒是不乏读者和欣赏者。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

3 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

4 naivety   

n.天真，纯朴，幼稚

参考例句：

• Mozart's music is characterized by its naivety and clarity.莫扎特的音乐特色是纯朴兴清澈。
• She has lost none of her naivety.她丝毫没有失去那份天真烂漫。

5 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

6 conformity   

n.一致，遵从，顺从

参考例句：

• Was his action in conformity with the law?他的行动是否合法？
• The plan was made in conformity with his views.计划仍按他的意见制定。

7 citation   

n.引用，引证，引用文；传票

参考例句：

• He had to sign the proposition for the citation.他只好在受奖申请书上签了字。
• The court could issue a citation and fine Ms. Robbins.法庭可能会发传票，对罗宾斯女士处以罚款。

8 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

9 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

11 abominable   

adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的

参考例句：

• Their cruel treatment of prisoners was abominable.他们虐待犯人的做法令人厌恶。
• The sanitary conditions in this restaurant are abominable.这家饭馆的卫生状况糟透了。

12 delusion   

n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑

参考例句：

• He is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.他患了妄想症，认为自己是拿破仑。
• I was under the delusion that he intended to marry me.我误认为他要娶我。

13 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

14 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

15 distilled   

adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• The televised interview was distilled from 16 hours of film. 那次电视采访是从16个小时的影片中选出的精华。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil. 汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 inevitability   

n.必然性

参考例句：

• Evolutionism is normally associated with a belief in the inevitability of progress. 进化主义通常和一种相信进步不可避免的看法相联系。
• It is the tide of the times, an inevitability of history. 这是时代的潮流，历史的必然。

17 eschewed   

v.（尤指为道德或实际理由而）习惯性避开，回避( eschew的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I eschewed upbraiding, I curtailed remonstrance. 我避免责备，少作规劝。 来自辞典例句
• Moreover, she has a business plan, an accessory eschewed by cavalier counterparts. 此外，她还有商业计划，这是彬彬有礼的男设计师们回避的一点。 来自互联网

18 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

19 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

20 accretion   

n.自然的增长，增加物

参考例句：

• Every culture is an accretion.每一种文化都是长期积淀的结果。
• An accretion of sediment at the mouth of the river caused serious flooding.河口堆积物的增加导致河水严重泛滥。

21 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

22 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

23 intimidatingly   

吓人

参考例句：

• Herbert knew what be wanted was five girls, not intimidatingly pretty, but with personality. 赫伯特知道自己想找的是五位女孩子，不一定美若天仙，但一定要个性鲜明。 来自互联网

24 bereaved   

adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物）

参考例句：

• The ceremony was an ordeal for those who had been recently bereaved. 这个仪式对于那些新近丧失亲友的人来说是一种折磨。
• an organization offering counselling for the bereaved 为死者亲友提供辅导的组织

25 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

26 lavatory   

n.盥洗室，厕所

参考例句：

• Is there any lavatory in this building?这座楼里有厕所吗？
• The use of the lavatory has been suspended during take-off.在飞机起飞期间，盥洗室暂停使用。

27 modesty   

n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素

参考例句：

• Industry and modesty are the chief factors of his success.勤奋和谦虚是他成功的主要因素。
• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。

28 solitude   

n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方

参考例句：

• People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
• They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。