为什么是艾丽斯•芒罗得了诺贝尔文学奖

More than a hundred reporters from around the world thronged and bustled in the Stock Exchange Building in Stockholm's Old Town for about an hour before the doors to the Swedish Academy swung open. Notably, there were many Japanese reporters present, hoping to break the news that Haruki Murakami had won the prize. Finally, the Swedish Academy's Permanent Secretary Peter Englund stepped out from the doors and said Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.

在通往瑞典文学院(Swedish Academy)的大门开启前大约一个小时左右，斯德哥尔摩老城的证券交易所大楼(Stock Exchange Building)里就聚集了数百名来自世界各地的记者。显而易见地，有很多日本记者在场，他们都希望能第一时间报道村上春树(Haruki Murakami)获得诺贝尔文学奖的消息。最终，瑞典文学院常任秘书恩隆德(Peter Englund)从大门里走出来，宣布加拿大短篇小说作家艾丽斯•芒罗(Alice Munro)获得了2013年诺贝尔文学奖。

The following is a truncated Q&A with reporters and Englund. (The questions have been abbreviated and clarified.)

以下记者与恩隆德的问答内容经过删减。为了让问题读起来精简和明确，提问内容经过编辑。

Why did Alice Munro win?

艾丽斯•芒罗缘何能获得诺贝尔文学奖？

We gave her the Nobel Prize in Literature because she is a master of the contemporary short story.

我们把诺贝尔文学奖授予她，因为她是当代短篇小说大师。

Which book to begin with?

哪本书最有代表性？

One of the amazing things about her is that she has no weak works in her oeuvre. She has always worked to the best of her ability; she has always cultivated the short story to perfection. And she has never really written a weak or bad book. So you can take your pick. 'The Moons of Jupiter' was the first book I read by her and you can see both her different themes in that book and also her very special narrative mode, you can find it there. She tells her stories a bit like nobody else. She has a very economical language and sparse style. You can find that in 'The Moons of Jupiter.' You can take your pick. The latest one is obviously very interesting, 'Dear Life,' which contains a number of autobiographical sketches at the end that gives a key to the entire authorship of Alice Munro.

她让人吃惊的地方就在于，她全部作品中没有哪部让人感觉不足。她一直在以她最佳的水平创作，总是能写出完美的短篇小说。她从来没有真正写过一本有不足或糟糕的书。所以你们可以随便挑选一本。《木星的卫星》是我读过的第一本她的书，你可以从这本书中看到她不同的主题以及她非常特殊的叙事方式。这些你都可以从书中体会到。她讲故事的方式独一无二。她的语言很节俭，风格简 。你可以从《木星的卫星》一书中感受到这一点。随便挑一本。最新一本小说集《亲爱的生活》(Dear Life)显然很有意思。这本书最后包括了一系列自传体小说，是打开芒罗整个作家生涯大门的一把钥匙。

How was she informed?

她如何获悉自己获奖？

Well, I left a message e on her answering machine. I couldn't reach her and it was of course pretty early in the morning. But she will be notified by courier, by email to her both agents, by standard mail and so on.

我在她的答录机上留言。我无法联系到她，当然那也是因为时间是在大清早。但她会收到邮递的通知，我们会通过标准邮件通知她的两位代理人。

What kind of message did you leave?

你在给她的留言中说了什么？

Basically, congratulations! You've won the Nobel Prize in literature.

基本上就是，祝贺你获得诺贝尔文学奖。

What's the Importance of a woman winning?

一名女性获得诺贝尔文学奖有什么重要意义？

Don't ask me. We picked her for excellence, nothing else. Of course it matters when you start doing the headcount. But she is no representative. She has received this prize just because of what she has done. Nothing else.

不要问我。我们把这个奖授予她是因为她的杰出表现，仅此而已。当然，你要开始数有多少人获奖的话，这可能会很重要。但她获奖并不代表什么。她就只是因为她做的事情而获得这个奖。就这么简单。

So the sexual balance doesn't count?

所以说并没有考虑性别平衡什么的？

We don't have these kind of quotas, thank god ... We don't have any quotas. We could, if we wanted to, award this prize four times in a row to a children's book writer working in the United States. If we wanted to. We can do as we please. We don't have to fill any quotes in any direction. We just give it to authors who show an extraordinary literary quality. One of these is Mrs. Alice Munro.

谢天谢地，我们不会按性别来分配奖项。没这种事。如果我们愿意，我们可以连续四次把这个奖颁给一位美国的儿童书籍作家。如果我们想这样做的话。我们可以按照我们满意的方式来做。我们不用根据任何规定来分配奖项。我们其实就是把这个奖颁给那些表现出杰出文学素养的作家。芒罗就是其中之一。