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The author of “Atonement” and, most recently, “Sweet Tooth,”believes the greatest reading pleasure has “an element of self-annihilation.” 《赎罪》(Atonement)以及最新出版的《甜齿》(Sweet Tooth)的作者认为，最美好的阅读体验，是达到“无我”的境界。 What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year? 今年你读过的最好的书是什么? Stephen Sedley’s “Ashes and Sparks.” Sedley was a senior judge in our court of appeal until last year and in this collection of essays he writes on a range of issues that concern the individual and the state. He belongs, as one commentator noted, to the English tradition of radical nonconformism — the title is taken from a 17th-century Leveller pamphlet. But you could have no interest in the law and read his book for pure intellectual delight, for the exquisite, finely balanced prose, the prickly humor, the knack of artful quotation and an astonishing historical grasp. A novelist could be jealous. 斯蒂芬o塞德利(Stephen Sedley)的《灰烬与火花》(Ashes and Sparks)。塞德利是英国上诉法院的高级法官，去年退休。这本散文集里的文章涉及个人和国家的一系列问题。就像一位评论员说的，他属于英国传统上那种“激进的不墨守成规的人”——这个书名取自17世纪平均派(Leveller)的一本小册子。但是，如果你对法律没有任何兴趣，你也可以纯粹出于智性的愉悦去读它，这是本细腻的、精心调和的散文，有辛辣的幽默，巧妙的引用，以及对历史的惊人解读。文笔好得连小说家都羡慕。 And what was the last truly great book you read? 你读的上一本真正伟大的书是什么？ Epithet inflation has diminished “great” somewhat so we have to be careful. Last year I reread “Hamlet.” I believe the play really did represent a world historical moment — when there leapt into being a sustained depiction of a fully realized and doubting human being whose inner life is turned outward for our consideration. Even then, I blasphemously wondered whether the last two acts were as great as the first three. Is some vital tension lost when Hamlet returns from England? Another recent encounter has been Joyce’s “The Dead,” which I’ve read many times. It needs to be considered as a novella, the perfect novella, entirely separate from the rest of “Dubliners.” An annual winter party; afterwards, a scene of marital misunderstanding and revelation in a hotel room; a closing reflection on mortality as sleep closes in and snow begins to fall — I’d swap the last dozen pages of “The Dead” for any dozen in “Ulysses.” As a form, the novel sprawls and can never be perfect. It doesn’t need to be, it doesn’t want to be. A poem can achieve perfection — not a word you’d want to change — and in rare instances a novella can too. 滥用大词已经削弱了“伟大”这个词的分量，所以我们要慎用。去年，我重读了《哈姆雷特》(Hamlet)。我认为那个剧本是一座历史的丰碑——它描绘了一个完全醒悟了的、怀有疑心的人，他的内心活动完全袒露在我们面前，供我们思考。即使如此，我还是非常不敬地在想：后两幕好像不如前三幕那么精彩，哈姆雷特从英国回来之后，那种生死攸关的紧张气氛好像消失了。我最近重读的另一本书是乔伊斯的《逝者》(The Dead)，这本书我读了很多遍。它应该被看作是一部中篇小说，一部完美的中篇小说，跟《都柏林人》(Dubliners)这部小说集里的其他小说完全不同。一年一度的冬季聚会；之后在旅馆房间里夫妻二人的误会与坦白；雪花飘落，睡意朦胧，对死亡的思考——我愿意用《逝者》的最后十几页与《尤利西斯》中的任何十几页相交换。通常，小说都会枝枝蔓蔓，不可能完美。它也不需要完美，也不想完美。诗歌则可以达到完美的境地，让你一个词儿都不想改，但是在极少数情况下，中篇小说也能达到这种境地。 Do you have a favorite literary genre? 有没有哪种文学体裁是你特别喜欢的？ The novella. See above. 中篇小说。见上述。
Do you read poetry? 你读诗吗？ We have many shelves of poetry at home, but still, it takes an effort to step out of the daily narrative of existence, draw that neglected cloak of stillness around you — and concentrate, if only for three or four minutes. Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist. I last felt that in relation to a poem while in the sitting room of Elizabeth Bishop’s old home in rural Brazil. I stood in a corner, apart from the general conversation, and read “Under the Window: Ouro Preto.” The street outside was once an obscure thoroughfare for donkeys and peasants. Bishop reports overheard lines as people pass by her window, including the beautifully noted “When my mother combs my hair it hurts.” That same street now is filled with thunderous traffic — it fairly shakes the house. When I finished the poem I found that my friends and our hosts had left the room. What is it precisely, that feeling of “returning” from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger — then it fades, but never completely. 我们家里的书架上有很多诗集，但是仍然需要花些力气，才能从对现实的寻常叙述中跳出来，享受隐藏在你周围的宁静——集中注意力，哪怕只要三四分钟。也许最美好的阅读体验，是达到“无我”的境界。完全沉浸在其中，几乎忘记了自己的存在。我上一次在读诗时有这种体验，是在伊丽莎白o毕晓普(Elizabeth Bishop)的巴西故居的起居室里。我站在角落，远离众人的交谈，读着《窗下：黑金城》(Under the Window: Ouro Preto)。窗外的大街以前是供驴子和农民过往的偏僻大道。毕夏普坐在窗下，听着过往的人说的只言片语，写在她的诗中，包括那行非常美丽的诗句：“妈妈给我梳头的时候，有点疼。”如今还是那条大街，传来的却是轰隆隆的车轮声——震得房子都在摇晃。我读完这首诗的时候，朋友们和主人们都已离开了。这种从一首诗中“返回”到现实的感觉，到底该称作什么呢？一种更轻松、更温柔、更宏大的感觉——然后慢慢褪去，但是永远不会完全消失。 Do you remember the first book that made you cry? 你还记得第一本让你大哭的书吗？
It was “The Gauntlet,” by Ronald Welch. I was 10 years old and in hospital, so I had time to read this wonderful historical novel for children in a day. Its hero, Peter, is transported in a dreamlike state back 600 years to a late medieval Welsh castle. Many adventures and battles and much falconry ensue. When at last Peter returns to the present, the castle is the awesome ruin it was in the opening pages, and all the scenes and the dear friends he has made have vanished. “Their bones must have crumbled into dust in the quiet churchyard of Llanferon.” It was a new idea to me then, time obliterating loved ones and turning them to dust — and I was stricken for a while. But no other novel on the children’s book trolley would do. The next day I read “The Gauntlet” again. 罗纳德o韦尔奇(Ronald Welch)的《金属护手》(The Gauntlet)。当时我10岁，生病住院，所以有一整天的时间读这部精彩的儿童历史小说。书里的主人公彼得好像做梦一样，回到了600年前中世纪后期的一座威尔士城堡里。然后经历了很多惊险的奇遇，参加了很多次战斗，还多次放鹰捕猎。最后彼得回到了现代，城堡变成了小说开头提到的那一堆可怕的废墟，所有那些场景和他结识的亲爱的小伙伴们都不见了。“他们的骨头可能已经化成了安静的兰福伦教堂庭院里的尘土。”当时这对我来说是全新的概念：时间吞噬我们所爱的人，把他们变成了尘土；这让我伤心了好一会儿。但是那个童书小推车上的其他书都不行。第二天我把《金属护手》又看了一遍。 If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? 如果你可以要求美国总统读一本书，你会选哪本？ I wouldn’t trouble the president with advice, or with one more transient treatise on America’s supposed terminal decline. For the sake of the general good, I’d have him absorbed in poetry. What would suit him well, I believe, is the work of James Fenton. His “Selected” would be fine. The range of subject matter and tone is immense. The long, wise reflections on conflict (“Those whom geography condemns to war”) would be instructive to a commander in chief, and the imaginative frenzy of “The Ballad of the Shrieking Man” would give him the best available measure of the irrational human heart. There are poems of mischief and wild misrule. A lovely consolatory poem about death is there, “For Andrew Wood.” (“And there might be a pact between/ Dead friends and living friends.”) And there are the love poems — love songs really, filled with a sweet, teasing, wistful lyricism that could even (but probably won’t) melt the heart of a Republican contender. “Am I embarrassing you?” one such poem asks in its penultimate line. 我不会用政策建议来烦扰总统，或者让他再看一篇说美国已病入膏肓的短视论文。为了能从整体上给他带来裨益，我会让他沉浸在诗歌里。我认为最适合他的是詹姆斯o芬顿(James Fenton)的作品。他的《诗选》就可以。他的诗歌主题广泛，风格多样。其中对冲突深入、睿智的思考（“那些被情势推入战争的人”），可能会让这位军队最高指挥官有所启发；《尖叫的男人的歌谣》(The Ballad of the Shrieking Man)中充满想象力的狂暴，对无理性的人心是一种最佳的度量。里面还有关于制造事端和野蛮暴政的诗。还有一首可爱的慰问诗，是关于死亡的——《致安德鲁o伍德》(For Andrew Wood)。（“死去的和活着的朋友之间/可能有一个约定”）也有情诗，这些甜蜜、迷人、渴慕的情诗，甚至能（但很可能不会）融化共和党政敌的心。“我让你难堪了吗？”其中一首诗的倒数第二行这样问道。 If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know? 如果你能与一位作家会面，包括过世的和还活着的，你会选谁？你想从他/她那里知道什么？ I apologize for being obvious, but every time I watch the curtain come down on even a halfway decent production of a Shakespeare play I feel a little sorrowful that I’ll never know the man, or any man of such warm intelligence. What would I want to know? His gossip, his lovers, his religion (if any), the Silver Street days, his thoughts on England and power in the 17th century — as young then as the 21st is for us. And why he’s retiring to Stratford. The biographies keep coming, and there’s a great deal we know about Shakespeare’s interactions with institutions of various kinds. England was already a proto-modern state that kept diligent records. But the private man eludes us and always will until some rotting trunk in an ancient attic yields a Pepys-like journal. But that’s historically impossible. He’s gone. 对不起，我的答案可能平淡无奇，但是每当我看着一部莎士比亚话剧落幕，即使那部话剧只能算上中等水平，我也会因为我永远都无法认识这个人或者任何拥有如此温暖人心的智慧的人，而感到有些悲伤。我想知道什么？他的那些小道传闻，他的情人们，他的宗教信仰（如果有的话），他在伦敦银街的那段日子，他对17世纪的英国和政权的看法——17世纪对他来说是新世纪，就像21世纪对我们来说是新世纪一样。还有他为什么要退隐到斯特拉特福特。不断有莎士比亚传记出版，莎士比亚与各种机构的往来，我们也知道得很多。那时的英国已经具备现代国家的雏形，十分看重文献纪录。但这个隐逸的人一直躲着我们，除非能从某个古老的阁楼上一个腐烂的箱子里找到一本裴皮斯（Pepys，英国日记作家——译注）式的日记，否则我们永远无法了解他。从历史的角度看，那是不可能的。他已经远去了。 Have you ever written a fan letter to an author? Did he or she write back? 你是否给哪位作家写过“读者来信”？他/她回信了吗？ In my experience an appreciative letter from a fellow writer means a lot. (More than a review. I’ve stopped reading reviews.) So of course I write them occasionally. I owe Zadie Smith one for “NW.” The last I wrote was to Claire Tomalin about her biography of Dickens. 同行写来表示欣赏的信，对我来说是一种极大的鼓舞。（比正面的书评还鼓舞人心。我已经不再看书评了。）当然我偶尔会写这样的信。我应该就查蒂o史密斯(Zadie Smith)的《NW》给她写封信。我的上一封这样的信是写给克莱尔o托马林(Claire Tomalin)的，是关于她写的狄更斯传记。 Do you remember the best fan letter you ever received? What made it special? 你还记得你收到的最好的读者来信吗？它为什么这么特别？ An Italian reader wrote to describe how he met his wife. She was on a bus, reading one of my books, one that he himself had just finished. They started talking, they started meeting. They now have three children. I wonder how many people owe their existence to their parents’ love of books. 一位意大利读者写信告诉我，他是怎样认识他妻子的。她在公交车上读我的一本书，而他刚刚看完那本书。他们就开始交谈，开始约会。他们现在有三个孩子。我想知道有多少人是因为父母对图书的喜爱，才得以来到这个人世的。 Of the books you’ve written, which is your favorite? 你最喜欢自己写的哪本书？ At the moment I put my latest, “Sweet Tooth,” just ahead of “Atonement.” 目前，我把自己刚写的《甜齿》排到了《赎罪》之前。 If you could be any character from literature, who would it be? 如果你能变成一个文学人物，你想变成谁？ I don’t much like airports, long flights and lines for passport control and immigration, so I’d like to take on the form of Shakespeare’s Puck, who boasts of being able to “put a girdle round the earth in 40 minutes.” That would put London to New York at around five minutes. 我不喜欢机场、长途飞行、以及安检和入境的长队，所以我想变成莎士比亚笔下的小精灵帕克，它吹嘘说自己能“在40分钟内绕地球一周”。那样的话，从伦敦到纽约大概只需要5分钟。 What do you plan to read next? 你接下来打算读什么书？ I’m well into a book in typescript about Iran and nuclear weapons, “Mullahs Without Mercy” by Geoffrey Robertson, a well-known human rights lawyer here in England. It gives a history of the murderous revolutionary theocracy, including an account of the rarely discussed mass execution of imprisoned communists and atheists in 1988. We do not want a country so careless of life to have the bomb, nor do we want the 40 or so other countries waiting in the wings to have it. 我正在看一本关于伊朗和核武器的纸质书——《无情的穆拉》(Mullahs Without Mercy)，作者是杰弗里o罗伯森(Geoffrey Robertson)，他是英国的一位知名人权律师。这本书介绍了残暴的革命神权政体的历史，其中包括一个极少被拿出来讨论的事件，就是1988年大规模处决共产党员和无神论者囚犯的事。我们不应该让一个如此无视生命的国家拥有炸弹，另外也包括其他40来个虎视眈眈的国家。 id="medium-rectangle-ad-3" "mid4 But bombing Iran is not a solution. Robertson wants to bring international human rights law to bear on the problem. It should be a violation of rights to design or procure, let alone use, a nuclear weapon. The big five need to stand by their treaty obligations and set about the process of steady disarmament. Out of a dire situation, Roberston argues a case for optimism. If we can outlaw the dum-dum bullet, if we can put tyrants on trial for genocide, we can get serious about a nuclear weapon-free world. 但是轰炸伊朗并不是解决办法。罗伯森想通过设立国际人权法来解决这个问题。设计、获取核武器应该是违反人权的，更别提使用核武器了。那五个大国需要履行条约规定的义务，开始启动逐步销毁核武器的进程。在危急的形势下，罗伯森指出了一条乐观的道路。如果我们能将拥有达姆弹定为非法，能让实行种族灭绝的暴君接受审判，全球无核化就有了实质性的转机。 本文最初发表于2012年12月9日。 翻译：王艳 |
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