经济学人129:甜蜜点 独居之旅

 　　Solitude¹

　　隐居

　　Sweet spot

　　甜蜜点

　　A journey around living alone

　　独居之旅

　　Consolations² of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga.

　　《森林的慰藉：针叶林中的木屋独居之旅》

　　Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga. By Sylvain Tesson, translated by Linda Coverdale.

　　《森林的慰藉：针叶林中的木屋独居之旅》，Sylvain Tesson著，Linda Coverdale译。

　　SYLVAIN TESSON, a French writer, is known for books about his journeys across the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. “Consolations of the Forest”, which won the Prix Médicis in 2011 and is his first book in English translation, is different. It is about staying put. For six months in 2010—from February to July—Mr Tesson lived alone in a forest cabin beside Lake Baykal in Siberia.

　　SYLVAIN TESSON，这位法国作家，因其在亚洲中部跋山涉水的一段旅程而知名。《森林的慰藉》，不仅荣获2011年度梅迪西斯文学奖，还是该作家的第一本英译作品，可谓与众不同。该书主要谈论居留定所，讲述2010年2月至7月，Tesson先生在西伯利亚贝加尔湖旁的森林小屋度过的六个月独居生活。

　　隐居.jpg

　　The nearest village was 75 miles away, the closest neighbour several hours' walk. There were no roads. Solar panels gave him some electricity, but otherwise, fortified³ by vodka and cigars, he lived the simple life, much of it reading and thinking—about nature, time and himself. “Nothing is as good as solitude,” he says, adding: “The only thing I need to make me perfectly⁴ happy is someone to whom I could explain this.” Instead he described the pleasures to himself in a diary; “Consolations of the Forest” is the happy result.

　　最近的村庄距他有75英里之远，最近的邻居家足有好几小时的路程。林中也无路。太阳能板为他提供基本的电力需要。除了伏特加和雪茄这点嗜好，他基本过着简单的生活，大多数时间用来读书、思考—关于自然、时间及自省。“独居是无可拟比的，”他说，“我唯一要做的就是向他人诠释这种感受，这让我欣喜若狂。”为此他以日记形式记载着这份喜悦，《森林的慰藉》便是这喜悦的成果。

　　Why did he do it? The question runs through the book like a tune⁵. Was it a revulsion against modernity, against traffic and cheeseburgers? Or was it an act of political refusal? A hermit's life, he says, “is more anti-statist than a protest demonstration⁶ bristling⁷ with black flags”. Was it a wish to tread lightly on the earth, not to exploit it? Or perhaps it was a way to plumb⁸ his inner life—“the nuances of my own tectonics”. As he chops wood, guts⁹ fish and dodges¹⁰ brown bears, Mr Tesson considers these questions in the company of philosophers and poets, misfits and refuseniks.

　　他为何要独居呢？这一疑问犹如和谐曲般贯穿全书。是对现代生活，拥挤的交通，速食汉堡的反感？还是政治抗议行为呢？这种隐士般的生活，他说道，“比起举黑旗抗议游行更具有反国家主义精神。”或许这是对人与自然和谐相处、不再索取的希冀？又或许是他对内心生活的探索——“自身构造的细微差别”。伴随着砍柴、剖鱼、躲避棕熊，Tesson先生通过哲学家、诗人、那些格格不入、反抗主义者的视角思考这些问题。

　　Books inhabit Mr Tesson's inner and outer landscapes. Two ducks landing on open water remind him of reading and suddenly alighting on a good phrase. The sound of cracking ice brings Schopenhauer to mind. Staggered by the view from a mountaintop, he can think only of Hegel's words: So ist. His writing is elegant and urbane¹¹, full of paradoxes¹², aphorisms¹³ and conceits¹⁴: “The sky has powdered the taiga [the northern forest], shaking velvety¹⁵ down over the vert-de-bronze of the cedars¹⁶. Winter forest: a silvery fur tossed onto the shoulders of the terrain¹⁷.” He verges¹⁸ on whimsy¹⁹ at times, and there are purple patches: “A russet moon rose tonight, its reflection in the shattered lake ice like a blood-red Host on a wounded altar.”

　　文学占据了Tesson的内心及现实。浮在水面的两只水鸭能让他想起曾经阅读时忽然捕捉到的优美措辞。冰裂之声让他想起叔本华。站在山顶俯视一切壮阔之景时，他心里只有黑格尔的那句：就是这样。他的作品语言优美、雅致，充满悖论、各种金句、天马行空的幻想：“天空粉饰那针叶林，轻柔地散落在青绿杉树之上。森林之冬：大地之肩披上一层银色毛皮。”他总会萌生些奇妙的念头，附上辞藻华丽的句子：“今夜，一轮黄褐色明月升起，倒影在破冰的湖面，就像那破败祭坛上血红的圣人。”

　　Tongue in cheek? Perhaps. Yet, for all his playfulness, Mr Tesson is in earnest. He loves thetaiga and understands the Russians' almost mystical attachment²⁰ to it. He shudders²¹ at the occasional invasions of gun-toting businessmen in blaring 4x4s, and he walks for hours to meet odd loners in their scattered²² cabins. One of them gives him two puppies who become his much-loved companions and his wisest philosophers. Move over Schopenhauer. Aika and Bek know where the “sweet spot” is—the present moment, that special place “between longing²³ and regret” that Mr Tesson is ultimately in search of.

　　华而不实？或许吧。但在他所有嬉言之下却有着一颗虔诚的心。他喜爱针叶林，并理解俄国人对针叶林近乎谜一样的依恋。他会被偶尔带枪入境、开着驱动车嘟嘟按喇叭的商人吓坏，还会徒步走上几小时去见一些奇怪的独居者，他们的木屋分散在森林中。其中一人给了他两只小狗，它们是Tesson钟爱的伴侣，是至贤的哲学家。胜过叔本华。Aika和Bek知道如何寻找“甜蜜点”—那个介于“渴望与遗憾”的特别存在，那正是Tesson的心之所向。

　　1.need to 需要做

　　But now we need to do more.

　　但我们还需要做更多的努力。

　　But I need to let you go.

　　但我必须放手让你走。

　　2.wish to 希望

　　Yet few wish to take credit for this success.

　　然而很少有人希望为这种成功邀功。

　　We wish to have an agent to push our products in australia.

　　我们想指定一个总代理来处理我们在英国的产品销售。

　　3.in search of 寻找

　　In search of more useful forecasts, I went to the met office website.

　　为了寻找更多有用的预测，我登陆了英国气象局网站。

　　The single ones will go for a journey in search of unearthly love, which will not last long.

　　单身的蝎子们会开始寻找非常规爱情的旅程，这种爱情不会持续太久。

1 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。

2 consolations   

n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Recent history had washed away the easy consolations and the old formulas. 现代的历史已经把轻松的安慰和陈旧的公式一扫而光。 来自辞典例句
• When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul. 诗94:19我心里多忧多疑、安慰我、使我欢乐。 来自互联网

3 fortified   

adj. 加强的

参考例句：

• He fortified himself against the cold with a hot drink. 他喝了一杯热饮御寒。
• The enemy drew back into a few fortified points. 敌人收缩到几个据点里。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

6 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

7 bristling   

a.竖立的

参考例句：

• "Don't you question Miz Wilkes' word,'said Archie, his beard bristling. "威尔克斯太太的话，你就不必怀疑了。 "阿尔奇说。他的胡子也翘了起来。
• You were bristling just now. 你刚才在发毛。

8 plumb   

adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深

参考例句：

• No one could plumb the mystery.没人能看破这秘密。
• It was unprofitable to plumb that sort of thing.这种事弄个水落石出没有什么好处。

9 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 dodges   

n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 )；躲避；伎俩；妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 )；回避

参考例句：

• He tried all sorts of dodges to avoid being called up. 他挖空心思，耍弄各种花招以逃避被征召入伍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Those were the dodges he used to escape taxation. 那些是他用以逃税的诡计。 来自辞典例句

11 urbane   

adj.温文尔雅的，懂礼的

参考例句：

• He tried hard to be urbane.他极力作出彬彬有礼的神态。
• Despite the crisis,the chairman's voice was urbane as usual.尽管处于危机之中，董事长的声音还象通常一样温文尔雅。

12 paradoxes   

n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况]

参考例句：

• Contradictions and paradoxes arose in increasing numbers. 矛盾和悖论越来越多。 来自辞典例句
• As far as these paradoxes are concerned, the garden definitely a heterotopia. 就这些吊诡性而言，花园无疑地是个异质空间。 来自互联网

13 aphorisms   

格言，警句( aphorism的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He formulated trenchant aphorisms that caught their attention. 他阐述的鲜明格言引起了人们的注意。
• The aphorisms started following like water as all the old cliches got dusted off. 一些陈词滥调象尘土一样扬起，一些格言警句象洪水一样到处泛滥。

14 conceits   

高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻

参考例句：

• He jotted down the conceits of his idle hours. 他记下了闲暇时想到的一些看法。
• The most grotesque fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. 夜晚躺在床上的时候，各种离奇怪诞的幻想纷至沓来。

15 velvety   

adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的

参考例句：

• a velvety red wine 醇厚的红葡萄酒
• Her skin was admired for its velvety softness. 她的皮肤如天鹅绒般柔软，令人赞叹。

16 cedars   

雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The old cedars were badly damaged in the storm. 风暴严重损害了古老的雪松。
• Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. 1黎巴嫩哪，开开你的门，任火烧灭你的香柏树。

17 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

18 verges   

边，边缘，界线( verge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The small stream verges to the north. 这条小河向北延伸。
• The results ob-tained agree well with those given by Verges using random Bethe lattice model. 所得结果与Verges用非晶的Bethe晶格模型的计算结果相符。

19 whimsy   

n.古怪，异想天开

参考例句：

• They are like oracular messages,but witty-jaunty at times-and sometimes trembling on the edge of whimsy.它们都像神谕，但很机智，有时极其轻快，有时又濒于怪诞。
• He had a whimsy about flying to the moon.他有个想飞上月球的怪念头。

20 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

21 shudders   

n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• It gives me the shudders. （（口语））它使我战栗。 来自辞典例句
• The ghastly sight gave him the shudders. 那恐怖的景象使他感到恐惧。 来自辞典例句

22 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

23 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。