莫言的世界

莫言有句名言说："土是我走向世界的重要原因。"莫言"土"在何处?这捧质朴而魔幻的"中国土"是如何打动了世界?奉上莫言的五大经典作品解析。净土五方，花开正艳。

★溯源之土:《丰乳肥臀》

(Big Breasts and Wide Hips)

"你可以不看我其它所有的作品，但你应该看我的《丰乳肥臀》。"——莫言

"If you like, you can skip my other novels, but you must read 'Big Breasts and Wide Hips'. " - Mo Yan

[主题与赏析]

这部小说首先是一部关于女性的作品。题目"丰乳肥臀"代表女性身体，这是作品中最重要的意象和隐喻。

This novel is first and foremost about women. As the title implies, the female body serves as the book's most important image and metaphor.

主人公是一位母亲，她养育了9个孩子，8女1男。男孩娇生惯养、性格懦弱，这与他个性刚烈的姐姐们形成了鲜明对比。坚强的母亲倾其一生拯救她的家庭。

The protagonist, the Mother, has 9 children, only one of whom is a boy, a spoiled and ineffectual child who stands in stark contrast to his 8 strong and forceful female siblings. Mother is a strong woman, who risks her life to save the lives of her family.

小说的写作风格非常生活化——描绘生动、用词粗俗、富有想象力。全篇分为7个章节，每个章节展示一个时间段里的故事，从清末一直延续到上世纪末。

The writing is full of life - picturesque, bawdy, imaginative. Each of the 7 chapters represents a different time period, from the end of the Qing Dynasty up through the end of the 20th century.

[评价]

《丰乳肥臀》描绘的是一个家庭的故事，却从广阔的历史视角展示了20世纪中国的面貌。——诺贝尔评选委员会

"Big Breasts and Wide Hips" is a broad historical fresco portraying 20th-century China through the microcosm of a single family. - Nobel Committee

莫言强烈的女性崇拜倾向贯穿整部小说。我很惊讶他是怎样做到将魔幻现实主义完美融合在社会现实题材中的。——杰夫·福克曼(读者)

Mo Yan's strong feminist beliefs are very apparent throughout the novel. I was amazed at how Mo Yan incorporated magical realism into a social commentary. - Jeff Volkmann

★魔幻之土:《生死疲劳》

(Life and Death are Wearing Me Out)

这是一部引人入胜的巨著，倾注了作者对这片土地深切的爱，尽管它也存在太多疾患，有传统的，也有现代的。——亚马逊网站

This is an absolutely spellbinding tale that reveals the author's love of the land, beset by so many ills, traditional and modern. - Amazon.com

[主题与赏析]

故事的讲述从地狱开始，阎罗王正在审讯地主西门闹。西门闹土改时被击毙，土地分给了农民。阴间的西门闹拒不认罪，阎罗王于是让他转世托生，变成他自家土地上的一头驴。后来他又一世为牛，一世为猪，一世为狗，一世为猴。通过这些动物的视角，西门闹"见证"了中国50年的乡村史。

The story begins in hell, where Lord Yama, king of the underworld, is examining a landowner named Ximen Nao, who was executed so that his land could be redistributed to peasants. Since Ximen will not admit any guilt, Yama punishes him by sending him back to his own farm, where he is reborn first as a donkey, then an ox, pig, dog and monkey. Through the perspectives of these animals, Ximen narrates 50 years of rural Chinese history.

[评价]

《生死疲劳》用黑色幽默向我们描述了新中国初期的日常面貌和过分扭曲的社会现实。——诺贝尔评选委员会

"Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" uses black humor to describe everyday life and the violent transmogrifications in the young People's Republic. - Nobel Committee

★历史之土:《红高粱家族》

(Red Sorghum)

《红高粱家族》这本书是寓言和历史碰撞的产物，这种尝试是全新的，也是令人难以忘怀的。——亚马逊网站

"Red Sorghum" is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new - and unforgettable. - Amazon.com

[主题与赏析]

《红高粱家族》中共有5个故事，展现了20世纪数十年的历史动荡，描述了土匪文化、日本侵华以及贫苦农民的艰难处境。张艺谋电影《红高粱》的剧本就基于这5个故事中的两个。

"Red Sorghum" consists of 5 stories that unfold in several turbulent decades in the 20th century, with depictions of bandit culture, the Japanese occupation and the harsh conditions endured by poor farmers. Two of the 5 stories formed the basis of Zhang Yimou's film.

这是一部3代人的家族秘史，用倒叙的方式讲述了上世纪30年代发生在如歌大地上的风云变幻。几乎每一页都用极其生动的笔触，将战争时期的恐怖和幽默描写得活灵活现。

Spanning 3 generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events set against a landscape of gemlike beauty in the turbulent 1930s. On almost every page, the horror and humor of war time are brought to life in graphic detail.

[评价]

历史的画卷很难被装进小说的画框。但是一旦成功，结果就是某段时空被喷薄的想象照亮。——《纽约时报》

The canvas of history rarely stretches comfortably over the frame of fiction. But when it succeeds, the result can illuminate a time and place as it excites the imagination. - The New York Times

★残酷之土:《天堂蒜薹之歌》

(The Garlic Ballads)

史诗般的巨著，充斥着残酷和美。——亚马逊网站

An epic novel of beauty and brutality. - Amazon.com

[主题与赏析]

故事发生在天堂县。当地政府官员鼓励农民种植蒜薹。但农民们没有想到的是，由于市场饱和，蒜薹卖不出去。主人公们经历了争吵、流血、低声下气。小说描绘了人们的生活困境，但字里行间那股鲜活的生命力，让故事从未堕入黑暗。

The setting of this novel is called Paradise County, where the farmers have been encouraged by county officials to plant garlic; but selling the crop during a surfeit is not as simple as they believed. The characters brawl, bleed and grovel. Yet, despite the bleakness of life, the tale is so full of seething vitality that it never sinks into gloom.

《天堂蒜薹之歌》有力地展现了生活的残酷。同时，它也是一个细致入微的关于爱的故事，它讲述了男女之爱，父子之爱，朋友之爱，以及在困境面前为了维系那份爱而做出的挣扎。

"The Garlic Ballads" is a powerful vision of the cruelty of life. It is also a delicate story of love between man and woman, father and child, friend and friend - and the struggle to maintain that love despite overwhelming obstacles.

[评价]

是《天堂蒜薹之歌》使莫言成为了大作家，成为了中国版的魔幻现实主义者。他的小说根植于现实自然主义，带有真实生活的气息和律动;尽管它同样充斥着幻想、恶魔的附体和梦的荒诞。——《纽约时报》

With "The Garlic Ballads", Mr Mo has emerged as a major writer, a kind of Chinese magical realist whose stories, grounded in gritty naturalism, in the smells and fluids of real life, are nonetheless full of hallucination, demonic possession and the grotesquery of dreams. - The New York Times

★灵魂之土:《蛙》(Frog)

"作家要勇于写灵魂深处最痛的地方。"——莫言

"A writer should be brave to touch the sourest part deep in the soul. " - Mo Yan

[主题与赏析]

小说的主人公姑姑是一个十分复杂的人物。一方面，她是一位优秀的助产士和妇产科医师，将数以千计健康的婴儿接生到这个世界。另一方面，她也是一位忠诚的党员，是计划生育政策的忠实执行者。

The woman protagonist in this novel, the Aunt, is a complex character. On the one hand, as a brilliant midwife and gynecologist, Aunt brings thousands of healthy babies into the world. On the other hand, as a loyal Communist Party member, she faithfully defends the family planning policy.

小说的题目《蛙》具有多重涵义。首先，它是神话中造人补天的女娲的"娲"的同音字;其次，它很像娃娃的"娃";再次，蛙在中国一些地方也是一种生殖崇拜的图腾。

The title, Wa, has different meanings. First of all, it is a homophone, part of the name nvwa (女娲), the legendary goddess who created human beings and patched up the sky. Secondly, this character is close to wa (娃), meaning "child". Thirdly, frogs are known for their fertility and thus are totemic animals in certain areas of China.

[作者自述]

"写作的根本目的不是对某项政策的批判，而是对人性的剖析和自我救赎。写人的灵魂，写人的忏悔，这也许就是《蛙》这部作品的价值所在。"——莫言

"The fundamental goal of writing is not criticizing a certain policy, but dissecting humanity and self-redemption. Reaching out for human souls and repentance, this might be the true value of the novel 'Frog'." - Mo Yan

文学诺奖宣布后，莫言"狂喜"，国人"狂欢"。而在西方，数名汉学家更是由衷地骄傲。某种意义而言，没有他们，莫言不可能得到西方文学界的认可。

[值得关注的翻译大师]

迄今为止，莫言的作品已被翻译成近20种文字。鉴于瑞典文学院院士多精通英语、法语、德语、西班牙语和瑞典语，把莫言作品翻译成上述语种的汉学家们更是功不可没。

Mo Yan's works have been translated into nearly 20 languages so far. The academicians for the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters are basically versed in English, French, German, Spanish and Swedish. That's the reason why those translating Mo's novels into those languages are worth commending for their roles in the Nobel award.

莫言作品的主要翻译大师：

Anna Gustafsson Chen 陈安娜(瑞典语)

Howard Goldblatt 葛浩文(英语)

Chantal Chen-Andro 尚德兰(法语)

Peter Weber-Schafer 皮特·韦伯-谢法(德语)

Cora Tiedra 科拉·铁德拉(西班牙语)

[中国当代文学'接生婆']

美国汉学家葛浩文被喻为中国现当代文学的"首席接生婆"，得益于他的翻译，英语世界国家才有可能了解萧红、白先勇、杨绛、冯骥才、贾平凹、苏童、王朔、莫言等华语作家。2008年，畅销小说《狼图腾》英文版发行，译者葛浩文更是被国内文学界所认可。

Professor Howard Goldblatt (see photo), a US researcher of Chinese, was hailed as the "chief midwife" of contemporary Chinese literature. The novel translator introduced quite a few Chinese men of letters, including Xiao Hong, Bai Xianyong, Yang Jiang, Feng Jicai, Jia Pingwa, Su Tong, Wang Shuo as well as Mo Yan to English-speaking countries. Goldblatt was widely recognized by Chinese literature circles in 2008 when his English translation of the popular Chinese novel "Wolf Totem" was published.

葛浩文"邂逅"莫言始于《红高粱》。他当时是在朋友家读到了这部小说，一时冲动得不能自已，他对自己说："这才是我想翻译的东西!" 1993年，《红高粱》英译本发行后，他又先后翻译了近十部莫言的小说，其中包括《天堂蒜薹之歌》、《丰乳肥臀》、《生死疲劳》和《檀香刑》。

It is Mo's "Red Sorghum" that motivated Goldblatt to translate more works by Mo. He got very excited after first reading the novel at a friend's home, saying it really was works he desired to translate. After the English version of "Red Sorghum" was published in 1993, Goldblatt spent years translating nearly 10 more novels by Mo, including "The Garlic Ballads", "Big Breasts and Wide Hips", "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" and "Sandalwood Death".

[独家采访葛浩文实录]

诺奖公布前，《中国日报》对葛浩文进行了独家采访，采访完整版见10月10日英文版《中国日报》。由以下采访实录节选，我们可洞悉一位谙熟中国文学的美国人如何看待莫言以及中国诺奖梦：

--问：您最喜爱莫言的哪部作品?

Q: Which are your favorite works by Mo Yan?

葛浩文：我真心喜欢并享受翻译莫言的所有小说，而且原因各异。

Goldblatt: I truly like, and enjoy translating, all of Mo's fiction and usually for different reasons.

比如，在我读过的中国小说里，《酒国》可能是在创作手法方面最具革新性、写作技巧最为圆熟的作品;《生死疲劳》堪称才华横溢的长篇寓言;《檀香刑》如作者所希望的，极富乐感之美。

For instance, "The Republic of Wine" may be the most technically innovative and sophisticated novel from China I've read; "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" is a brilliant extended fable; "Sandalwood Death" is, as the author contends, musical in its beauty.

--问：您能否比较一下莫言和其他当代中国作家的作品?

Q: Could you compare Mo's works with those of other contemporary Chinese writers?

葛浩文：与同时代作家相比，莫言更有"历史感"。他的作品很少涉及现代都市题材，这似乎是现在最热门的主题。

Goldblatt: Mo tends to be more "historical" than many of his contemporaries. Few of his works deal with up-to-date urban themes, which appear to be all the rage these days.

--问：您能就写作风格、题材等方面将莫言与相近的西方作家做个比较吗?

Q: Can you think of any similar Western writers in style, content or others?

葛浩文：当我阅读莫言的作品时，我时常会想到狄更斯(我知道他不是当代作家)：他们的作品都是围绕着鲜明道义核心的鸿篇巨制，大胆、色彩浓烈、意象鲜明、有张力。可以相提并论的作品还有威廉·弗尔曼的《欧洲中心》，它和莫言的《红高梁》系列一样拥有宏大的历史叙述，也像《天堂蒜薹之歌》那样，表达了对强权者暴行的猛烈抨击。

Goldblatt: When I read Mo I'm often reminded of Dickens (I know he's not a contemporary): big, bold works with florid, imagistic, powerful writing and a strong moral core. I see parallels with works like William Vollmann's "Europe Central", with its historical sweep (Red Sorghum) and trenchant criticism of monstrous behavior by those in power (The Garlic Ballads).

当然，还有那些莫言自己也比较喜欢的作家，如现代主义的福克纳，魔幻现实主义的加西亚·马尔科斯，还有日本的大江健三郎。

And, of course, there are writers Mo seems to prefer, the modernist Faulkner, the magic-realist Garcia Marquez, and the Japanese Oe Kenzaburo.

--问：中国人对诺贝尔文学奖非常关注，您对此有何看法?

Q:What do you think of the attention the Chinese put on the Nobel Prize in literature?

葛浩文：我对这个奖本身没什么看法;但是这么多人对这个奖如此痴迷却令我感到不安。对于中国和韩国等国家的人来说，是否获该奖已经关乎整个民族是获得认可还是遭到鄙视。得了吧!这只是一个关于某位作家(或诗人)作品的奖项。我知道，很多人并不这么认为，不过……有必要吗!

Goldblatt: I don't have a problem with the prize; it's the popular obsession over it that I find objectionable. For populations in countries like China and South Korea, it has become a matter of national validation if successful, and national scorn if not. Come on, folks, it's an individual prize for a writer's (or poet's) body of work. I know, that's not how a lot of people see it, but ... really!