经济学人112:老人的故事 Old man’s tales

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;Stories from Pakistan;Old man's tales;

　　文艺；书评；巴基斯坦的故事；老人的故事；

　　The Wandering Falcon¹. By Jamil Ahmad.

　　流浪的鹰。贾米尔·艾哈迈德著。

　　In 1893 Sir Henry Mortimer Durand drew a line in the sand, marking a border between Afghanistan and north-west British India, now Pakistan. In doing so, he carelessly carved up the Pushtun homeland. That line runs like a thread through “The Wandering Falcon”, Jamil Ahmad’s finely crafted first novel of stories set amid the Pushtun and Baluchi tribes that make up Pakistan’s wild west.

　　1893年，英国亨利·莫蒂默·杜兰爵士在沙漠上划下了一条边界线，以此来分隔阿富汗和英属印度西北部（如今的巴基斯坦）之间的边界。在划边界的过程中，他草率的把普什图的家园分隔开了，在《流浪的猎鹰》书中，这条边界是贯穿全文的主线。这本书经过了贾米尔·艾哈迈德精雕细琢，是第一部以普什图和俾路支部落为背景的小说，这两个部落支撑起了巴基斯坦荒凉的西部。

　　Starting in the 1950s from “the tangle² of crumbling³, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet”, Mr Ahmad works his way north-east over the course of two decades. He pauses along the way to describe life in the semi-autonomous tribal⁴ areas—the migratory⁵ patterns of the nomadic⁶ Kharots, the “quiet, tormented⁷ lives” of the Gujjars, the ancient feud⁸ between the Wazirs and the Mahsuds—using as a guide a recurring⁹ character, Tor Baz, the “black falcon” of the title.

　　自从1950年开始，在伊朗，巴基斯坦和阿富汗的边界这个岩层剥落，饱受风雨侵蚀的，崎岖的小山群地域中，艾哈迈德先生经历了二十年的历程在该地区的向着东北方向进行研究。书中，艾哈迈德以“黑鹰”“为题，独辟一节，通过主人公托尔·巴兹追忆那些经历之地。一路中，其边走边停，向读者娓娓道来那些半自治游牧区生活：以迁徙为生的游牧民族卡罗兹，生活安逸却又饱受折磨的古加尔，还有瓦济里斯人与马苏德人间的恩恩怨怨。

　　Tor Baz is ostensibly the focus of “The Wandering Falcon”, gliding¹⁰ through the sky as men murder each other and women are sold for a pound of opium¹¹ on the ground below. His function is to help the reader understand the passage of time. Born to unwed parents in the first story—and witness to the brutal¹² justice they receive as a result—by the final tale Tor Baz takes a wife. He appears, quietly, in the intervening stories—here a guide, here an informer—a bit player in a much larger narrative¹³ that contrasts the ancient customs of the tribes with the rocky adolescence¹⁴ of the new state.

　　表面上,Tor Baz是《流浪的猎鹰》的关键人物,在地上,男人们相互厮杀,女人们被以一磅鸦片的价钱卖掉,而他却如鹰般在空中翱翔。他是用来帮助读者理解时间发生的顺序的。在第一个故事中他由未婚父母生出—鉴于残酷的法律，他们受到了惩罚—到最后一个故向事时他有了自己的妻子。他神秘地出现在故事中间—时而作为导，时而作为告密人—这个在宏大故事背景中的小角色，使古老的部落习俗与局势动荡的新兴国家形成了鲜明对比.。

　　Born in 1933, Mr Ahmad spent his working life as a Pakistani civil servant in postings up and down the region. “The Wandering Falcon” was completed in 1974 and sat unpublished for four decades until friends and family persuaded him to show it to Meru Gokhale, a young editor at Penguin¹⁵ India. Mr Ahmad writes with an insider’s knowledge, a careful attention to detail and an admirable restraint in his language. Metaphorical¹⁶ flourishes are rare and he is almost never judgmental. This is how the tribes live, he says, neither romanticising nor criticising their way of life.

　　艾哈迈德先生出生于1933年，他大部分的工作时间都用在作为该地区的巴基斯坦的邮政公务员。《流浪的猎鹰》是在1974年完成的，并且直到他的朋友和家人希望他将这本书给Meru Gokhale看前，这本书40年都没出版。Meru Gokhale是企鹅印度出版公司的年轻编辑。艾哈迈德先生用知情人的知识，细心的细节描述和让人敬佩的语言上的克制来写出这本书。隐喻的华丽辞藻很少出现在文中，他大多数时候从来都不做出个人的判断。这就是他所说的部落生活如何既不传奇化他们的生活也不批判他们的生活方式的方法。

　　“The Wandering Falcon” is not a long book. But it is dense¹⁷ with nuance¹⁸ and offers uncommon¹⁹ insight into a land too often explained away as “the most dangerous place on earth”. A wonderful debut²⁰.

　　《流浪的猎鹰》这本书篇幅并不长。但是这本书由精微的细节浓缩并且提出不同寻常的对于一个地方经常被误解成“世界上最危险的地方”的洞悉。这本书的初次亮相，惊艳无比。

1 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

2 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

3 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

4 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

5 migratory   

n.候鸟，迁移

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• This does not negate the idea of migratory aptitude.这并没有否定迁移能力这一概念。

6 nomadic   

adj.流浪的；游牧的

参考例句：

• This tribe still live a nomadic life.这个民族仍然过着游牧生活。
• The plowing culture and the nomadic culture are two traditional principal cultures in China.农耕文化与游牧文化是我国传统的两大主体文化。

7 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

8 feud   

n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇

参考例句：

• How did he start his feud with his neighbor?他是怎样和邻居开始争吵起来的？
• The two tribes were long at feud with each other.这两个部族长期不和。

9 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

10 gliding   

v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的

参考例句：

• Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
• The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。

11 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

12 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

13 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

14 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

15 penguin   

n.企鹅

参考例句：

• The penguin is a flightless bird.企鹅是一种不会飞的鸟。
• He walked with an awkward gait like a penguin.他走路的步子难看得就像企鹅。

16 metaphorical   

a.隐喻的，比喻的

参考例句：

• Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
• So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。

17 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

18 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

19 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

20 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。