威廉·福克納:接受諾貝爾獎時的演說
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man,but to my work—a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit,not for glory and least of all for profit,but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.
我感到這個獎項不是授予我個人而是授予我的工作的——它是對我嘔心瀝血、畢生從事的人類精神探索的工作的肯定。我從事這項工作,既非為虛名,更非為浮利,而是為了從人的精神素材中創(chuàng)造出一些前所未有的東西。
So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.
因此,我只是這份獎金的保管者而已。要做出與這份獎賞最初的目的和意義相符,又與其獎金等價的貢獻并非難事
But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too,by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail,among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.
但我還愿意利用這個難得的機會,向那些可能聽到我的講話并已獻身于同一艱苦事業(yè)的男女青年講幾句。他們中一定有人有一天也會站到我現(xiàn)在站著的地方。
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit.
人類今天的悲劇是人們普遍存在一種生理上的恐懼,這種恐懼存在已久,以至于我們已經(jīng)習慣了背負這種恐懼。
There is only the question:“When will I be blown up?”Because of this,the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing.
現(xiàn)在不存在精神上的問題,唯一的問題是:“我什么時候會被炸得粉身碎骨?”正因如此,今天從事寫作的男女青年已經(jīng)遺忘了人類內(nèi)心深處的沖突,而這本身就能成為好的作品。
Because only that is worth writing about,worth the agony and the sweat.
因為這是唯一值得去寫、值得為之嘔心瀝血的題材。
He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid;and teach himself that forget it forever,leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart,the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed—love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.
他一定要重新思考這些問題。他必須使自己明白世間最可鄙的事情莫過于恐懼;他必須要使自己永遠忘卻恐懼,在他的工作室里除了心底深處永恒的真理之外,任何別的東西都沒有容身之地。
Until he does so,he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust,of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value,of victories without hope and,worst of all,without pity or compassion.
缺少這些永恒的普遍真理,任何小說都只能是曇花一現(xiàn),注定要失敗。這些真理就是:愛、榮譽、憐憫、尊嚴、同情與犧牲。
His griefs grieve on no universal bones,leaving no scars.
若是他做不到這一點,他的工作就是白費功夫。
He writes not of the heart but of the glands. Until he relearns these things,he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure:that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening,that even then there will still be one more sound:that of his puny inexhaustible voice,still talking.
他寫的不是愛情而是情欲;他寫的失敗是不值得一提的失敗;他寫的勝利沒有希望,更可悲的是沒有憐憫或同情的勝利;他寫的悲傷不是為普遍的逝者而悲傷,所以留不下深刻的心靈烙印;他寫的不是靈魂而是器官。在他重新認識到這一點之前,他的寫作就猶如他眼睜睜地看著世界末日的來臨而束手無策一般。我不同意人類末日的說法。說人是不朽的,因為他能忍受巨大的苦痛,說當厄運的最后一次鐘聲在沒有潮水沖刷的,映在末日最后一抹余暉里的,最后一塊無用礁石旁漸漸消失時,還會有一個聲音,那就是人類微弱但不倦的聲音。
I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure,he will prevail.
說這些都很容易,但是我不能接受這種說法。我相信人類不僅能忍受,更擁有戰(zhàn)勝一切的力量。
He is immortal,not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice,but because he has a soul,a spirit capable of compassion,and sacrifice,and endurance.
人類之所以不朽,不是因為萬物中唯有他有著不知疲倦的聲音,而是因為他有靈魂,有充滿同情、勇于犧牲和善于忍耐的精神。
The poet’s,the writer’s duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart,by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.
而把這些寫出來就是詩人和作家的責任。詩人和作家有一種特權(quán),那就是去鼓舞人的斗志、使人們記住曾經(jīng)有過的光榮——人類曾有過的勇氣、榮譽、希望、尊嚴、同情、憐憫與犧牲的精神——去升華人們的心靈,達到最終的永恒。
The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man,it can be one of the props,the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
詩人的聲音不應僅僅是人類的記錄,而應成為人類得以永存和勝利的力量。
【人物簡介】
??思{于1949年獲諾貝爾文學獎。這是福克納在1949年諾貝爾文學獎獲獎時所作的演說。瑞典著名的發(fā)明家和化學家諾貝爾在1895年11月27日寫下遺囑,捐獻全部財產(chǎn)設(shè)立基金,每年把利息作為獎金,授予“一年來對人類做出最大貢獻的人”。這便是諾貝爾獎的由來。根據(jù)他的遺囑,瑞典政府于同年建立“諾貝爾基金會”,負責把基金的年利息按五等分,其中一份授予“在文學方面創(chuàng)作出具有理想傾向的最佳作品的人”。這就是諾貝爾文學獎,由瑞典文學院頒發(fā)。另外四個獎項為物理、化學、生理或醫(yī)學及和平獎。