经济学人159:新晋日本小说

　　New Japanese fiction
新晋日本小说
Slightly off A haunting introduction to the work of an important Japanese author
伤感自难忘—日本知名作家小川洋子作品的简略介绍
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales. By Yoko Ogawa.
复仇：十一个暗黑传说》，作者小川洋子；
AN ELDERLY man who curates a museum of torture. A landlady¹ who grows carrots shaped like hands. A woman who buys a birthday cake for her dead son. The odd stories of Yoko Ogawa, a Japanese author, irrupt into the ordinary world as if from the unconscious or the grave. “Revenge”, the latest collection to be translated into English, offers a short and haunting introduction to her work.
在传说中，年老的男人管理着收藏煎熬的博物馆，女房东种着人手形状的胡萝卜，妇女为死去的儿子购买生日蛋糕。日本作家小川洋子的这些奇特故事，仿佛从坟墓中破土而出或者由无意识逃逸而出，侵入正常的世界。《复仇》，作为小川洋子最新一本被翻译为英文的合集，让我们可以一窥其作品那萦绕其中的美丽哀伤，经久难忘。
Nameless narrators describe strange and often shocking encounters in cool, almost ordinary language. The characters suffocate², are stabbed to death, die crushed by the detritus³ of the world. Ms Ogawa has said her work is influenced by Haruki Murakami's magical-realist style. There are fantastic flashes, such as a woman born with a heart outside her body. Yet the overall effect is more David Lynch: the rot that lurks⁴ beneath the surface of the world.
佚名叙述者描述了离经叛道甚而多是骇人听闻的故事，用语却是冷淡，或可以算上平常的语句。故事人物或死于窒息，或被刺而亡，或被尘世碎石压碎而亡。小川女士曾说过，她的作品深受村上春树魔幻现实风格影响。奇异画面闪烁作品其中，如一位妇女与身体之外的心共降临于世。然而整体效果其实更像大卫·林奇的现实主义：发掘潜藏在世界表面之下的腐烂。
Ms Ogawa has written more than 20 books and won every big literary prize in Japan. The English translation of her novel “The Housekeeper⁵ and the Professor” in 2009 brought her attention and success in America. Publishers keen to spot the next Murakami have now released four of her books in English. Her translator, Stephen Snyder, describes her work as remarkably⁶ diverse.
小川女士已著有20本书，并包揽了每一个日本文学大奖。2009年，她的小说《女管家和教授》的英译版让她在美国赢得了巨大的关注和成功。那些热衷寻找下一位“村上春树”的出版商已经出版了四本她的小说的英译版。她的译者，斯蒂芬·斯奈德认为小川洋子的作品极其与众不同，独一无二。
Her novels range from tender to sadomasochistic; her stories are more straightforwardly⁷ disturbing. This weird⁸ otherworldly quality is deeply Japanese, says Mr Snyder. It is in part a reaction to the glassy perfection of this self-conscious society. Ms Ogawa's fiction considers what is out of place. She is less concerned with brutality⁹ than with loss and absence.
她的小说文笔波诡，基调可由温柔细腻转至施虐受虐，更多是直截了当的让人烦躁不安。斯奈德先生认为，这种奇异，难以理解，超脱世俗根植于日本。这种风格是小川女士对这个过于关注他人评价的社会，缠绕其间那如玻璃般的完美的反应。小川女士的小说关注的是那些和完美世界格格不入的东西。她不是为了书写残酷故事而创作，迷失和缺席才是她更加关心的事。
Yet there is a steadying effect in her stories through repeating motifs—a classic technique of Japanese poetry. Rotting food and body parts recur¹⁰; actors in one story reappear obliquely¹¹ in others. The result is a spectral¹² connectedness. Ms Ogawa understands the consolation¹³ of order within apparent randomness¹⁵. One story describes a dying man's cluttered¹⁶ house: “As I studied the mass more closely, I began to feel that it was not the product of random¹⁴ accumulation but that it actually had a coherent form all its own.”
通过重复主题这一经典的日本诗歌技巧，她的故事有种稳定的效果。正在腐烂的食物和尸体反复出现，在一个故事出现的角色会在另一个故事里间接地出现，这些都是冥冥之中早注定。表面杂乱无章，小川女士却深谙顺序的艺术。她有个故事，描述了一个将死男人，凌乱不堪的房间。 “当我对于“乱”有更深的理解，我开始意识到它不是随意积累的产物，而事实上，它有着自己条理性的形式。”

1 landlady   

n.女房东，女地主

参考例句：

• I heard my landlady creeping stealthily up to my door.我听到我的女房东偷偷地来到我的门前。
• The landlady came over to serve me.女店主过来接待我。

2 suffocate   

vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展

参考例句：

• If you shut all the windows,I will suffocate.如果你把窗户全部关起来，我就会闷死。
• The stale air made us suffocate.浑浊的空气使我们感到窒息。

3 detritus   

n.碎石

参考例句：

• Detritus usually consists of gravel, sand and clay.岩屑通常是由砂砾，沙和粘土组成的。
• A channel is no sooner cut than it chokes in its own detritus.一个河道刚被切割了不久，很快又被它自己的碎屑物质所充塞。

4 lurks   

n.潜在，潜伏；（lurk的复数形式）vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Behind his cool exterior lurks a reckless and frustrated person. 在冷酷的外表背后，他是一个鲁莽又不得志的人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Good fortune lies within Bad, Bad fortune lurks within good. 福兮祸所倚，祸兮福所伏。 来自互联网

5 housekeeper   

n.管理家务的主妇，女管家

参考例句：

• A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
• She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家，一家人吃得很省。

6 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

7 straightforwardly   

adv.正直地

参考例句：

• He hated her straightforwardly, making no effort to conceal it. 他十分坦率地恨她，从不设法加以掩饰。 来自辞典例句
• Mardi, which followed hard on its heels, was another matter. Mardi begins straightforwardly. 紧跟着出版的《玛地》，却是另一回事。《玛地》开始时平铺直叙。 来自辞典例句

8 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

9 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

10 recur   

vi.复发，重现，再发生

参考例句：

• Economic crises recur periodically.经济危机周期性地发生。
• Of course,many problems recur at various periods.当然，有许多问题会在不同的时期反复提出。

11 obliquely   

adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大

参考例句：

• From the gateway two paths led obliquely across the court. 从门口那儿，有两条小路斜越过院子。 来自辞典例句
• He was receding obliquely with a curious hurrying gait. 他歪着身子，古怪而急促地迈着步子，往后退去。 来自辞典例句

12 spectral   

adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的

参考例句：

• At times he seems rather ordinary.At other times ethereal,perhaps even spectral.有时他好像很正常，有时又难以捉摸，甚至像个幽灵。
• She is compelling,spectral fascinating,an unforgettably unique performer.她极具吸引力，清幽如鬼魅，令人着迷，令人难忘，是个独具特色的演员。

13 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

14 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

15 randomness   

n.随意，无安排；随机性

参考例句：

• The randomness is attributed to the porous medium. 随机性起因于多孔介质。 来自辞典例句
• Einstein declared that randomness rather than lawfulness is the characteristic of natural events. 爱因斯坦宣称自然现象的特征为不可测性而不是规律化。 来自辞典例句

16 cluttered   

v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满…

参考例句：

• The room is cluttered up with all kinds of things. 零七八碎的东西放满了一屋子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The desk is cluttered with books and papers. 桌上乱糟糟地堆满了书报。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》