文学
詹姆斯·乔伊斯
James Joyce is one of the most revered writers in the English language
詹姆斯·乔伊斯是英国文学史上最受人景仰的作家之一
and a central figure in the history of the novel
他同时也是小说作品史上的主要人物
he is still hugely important to us
对我们来说 他仍然非常重要
because of his devotion to some crucial themes
因为他对一些重要话题作出了重大贡献
the idea of the grandeur of Ordinary Life
对平凡生活的伟大之处拥有独特想法
his determination to portray what actually goes on through our heads moment by moment
他决心刻画出我们脑海中时刻闪现的画面
What we now know partly thanks to him as the stream of consciousness
我们现在熟知的很多事物都要归功于他
and his determination to capture on the page
比如意识流 以及他将我们脑海中的声音
what language really sounds like in our own minds.
用文字真实确切地描绘的决心
Born in 1882,
乔伊斯生于1882年
James Joyce spent the first 20 years of his life in and around Dublin
直到20岁 他都生活在都柏林附近
and the rest wandering in and between the European cities
其余时间则居住并往返于欧洲城市
of Trieste Zurich and Paris
苏黎世 的里雅斯特和巴黎之间
In three decades
在三十年内
he published two books of poetry
他出版了两本诗集
one collection of short stories one play and three novels
一本短篇小说集 一出戏剧 三部小说
All of them different in scope and scale,
每一本书的大小和风格各异
but sharing one thing in common
但它们都有一个共同点
Dublin, a city he loved and hated
有关都柏林 一座他既爱又恨的城市
“Each of my books,”he once explained to a friend, “is a book about Dublin.”
他曾告诉朋友说 “我写的每本书都是关于都柏林的”
“Dublin is a city of scarcely 300,000 [residents],
“都柏林是一座人口不到三十万的城市
but it has become the universal city in my work.”
但在我的作品中 它已成为一座世界都市”
At the end of the nineteenth century
在19世纪末
Dublin was the second city of the British Empire
都柏林是大英帝国的第二大城市
Like his father
正如其父
Joyce was fiercely opposed to Ireland’s status as a british colony
乔伊斯强烈反对英国对爱尔兰的殖民统治
and supported the cause of Irish independence
并支持爱尔兰的独立事业
Joyce was educated by the Jesuits
他在耶稣会学校受过教育
and early on at school began to reveal his knack for foreign languages
他在学习生涯之初 就显露出了外语天赋
By the time he arrived at University College Dublin
到都柏林大学学院入学时
Joyce was writing book reviews poems and short stories
乔伊斯已经在写书评 诗歌和短篇小说了
But he also needed to find a career.
但他还需要找一份工作
He tried medical school in Paris,
他开始在巴黎医学院修习医学
but spent more time in brothels and bars than the library
却在妓院和酒吧比在图书馆度过更多时光
In 1904,
1904年
he met a young woman from Galway named Nora Barnacle
他结识了戈尔韦的年轻女子诺拉·巴纳科
who was uneducatedated
她虽未受教育
but highly erotic and compelling to Joyce
却无比性感 对他有着不可抗拒的吸引力
When she first saw him, she thought he was a nordic seaman
初次见他时 诺拉还以为他是个北欧水手
with electric blue eyes,
有着闪亮的蓝眼睛
a yachting cap and plimsolls,
戴着帆船帽 穿着帆布鞋
but when he spoke, well then!
当他一开口时 天哪！
I knew him at once for just another worthless Dublin boaster
我立刻清楚了 他不过是个没用但爱吹牛
trying to chat up a country girl
想搭讪乡村姑娘的都柏林家伙
But Nora fell in love with him nevertheless
即便如此 诺拉仍爱上了他
and remained devoted through all their difficult years of life together.
并尽心尽力陪伴他度过人生的艰难时光
After a few months,
几个月后
Nora agreed to follow Joyce to Europe for a self-imposed exile
诺拉答应随乔伊斯到欧洲自愿流亡
free from the morality of the Catholic church
摆脱了天主教会的道德约束
and the subjugation of the British Empire
和大英帝国的专制统治
They eventually landed in Trieste,
他们最终在奥匈帝国的港口城市
an austro-Hungarian port town
的里雅斯特登岸
where they would spend the next 10 years
于此度过的随后的十年里
raising two children
养育两个孩子
both of them given Italian names
并给他们起了意大利名字
Lucia and Giorgio
Lucia和Giorgio
Joyce eked out a meager existence as a language teacher at the Berlitz school
乔伊斯勉强通过在伯利茨学校当语言教师
and translating Irish writers like Yeats and Oscar Wilde into Italian
将爱尔兰作家如叶芝 王尔德的作品译成意语来维持生活
1914 turned out to be Joyce’s year of breakthrough
1914年是乔伊斯取得突破的一年
when a publisher in London finally decided
伦敦一家出版商最终决定
to bring out his book of short stories Dubliners
出版他的短篇小说《都柏林人》
which had been rejected 22 times.
此书曾22次被出版社拒绝
and the American poet Ezra Pound arranged to
美国诗人埃兹拉·庞德帮助安排
get his novel A Portrait Of The Artist serialized.
他的小说《艺术家的画像》连载
this was followed by the serialization of Ulysses in 1918
接着 1918年《尤利西斯》也连载了
the novel which made Joyce’s name around the world
这部小说使乔伊斯名闻世界
For the next 23 years Joyce’s reputation grew,
接下来的23年里 乔伊斯的名声渐长
and he took his experiments with language and literary form ever further
他对语言和文学形式的实践也越来越深入
until his unexpected and sudden death in zurich in 1941.
直到1941年 他在苏黎世意外而突然地去世
He was buried in Fronton Cemetery just near Zurich’s main zoo.
他葬在苏黎世中心动物园附近的弗朗顿公墓
平凡生活的伟大之处
Joyce’s principal work Ulysses
乔伊斯的代表作《尤利西斯》
is named after the most dramatic adventure story
以西方文化中传承自古希腊的
the ancient Greeks handed down to western civilization.
最激动人心的历险漂泊故事命名
It is seen as a pinnacle of high culture
它被视为高度文明的顶峰与精华
and tells the story of the long wanderings of the hero Ulysses on his journey
故事讲述了英雄尤利西斯经历漫长的漂泊
back from the siege of Troy to Ithaca, his home
从被围的特洛伊回到家乡伊萨卡的历程
But the major character of Joyce’s novel
但乔伊斯小说的主人公
is not a warrior king or a grand hero
可不是个善战的国王或者伟大的英雄
He is instead a very flawed
相反 主人公利奥波德·布卢姆
quite kindly and quite foolish man named Leopold Bloom.
是一个有缺陷的人 挺善良也挺愚钝
He works as a minor player in the advertising industry
他是广告行业中的一个小职员
He’s married, but his wife is having an affair
他结了婚 但他妻子却有了外遇
He’s been sacked from a string of jobs
他接连着失去了好几个工作
And he’s very much given to daydreaming about all the things he would love to go right in his life
他沉迷于幻想 希望他的生活万事顺意
but which we know won’t happen.
但我们知道 这不可能发生
he farts, he likes looking at women in the street
他放屁 他喜欢看街上的女人
He dreams of winning competitions in weekly magazines and of owning a cottage by the sea
他梦想在周刊上赢得比赛 拥有海滨小屋
Being Jewish he’s a bit of an outsider in Catholic Dublin
身为犹太人 他在信天主教的都柏林像个局外人
and there are various little humiliations which he has to put up with all the time
他还得时刻忍受各种微小的侮辱
Bloom is very unlike a traditional hero,
布卢姆与传统英雄截然不同
but he is representative of our average unimpressive
但他代表着我们这些平庸大众
Fragile but still rather likable everyday selves
脆弱但仍然相当可爱的平常自我
Joyce lavish attention on Leopold Bloom
他在利奥波德·布卢姆身上倾注大量精力
he treats him as deeply worthy of respect and immense interest
乔伊斯认为他非常值得尊重 并对他怀有深厚兴趣
He’s someone Joyce suggests that we should learn from and try in certain ways to be like.
还建议我们向他学习 成为像他那样的人
Just as in the ancient world
就像在古代世界
Ulysses was held up as an inspiring model of resourceful and brave conduct
尤利西斯凭借其机智勇敢而鼓舞人心的行为成为楷模
We follow bloom for a whole day as he wanders around Dublin.
我们跟随布卢姆 一整天在都柏林游荡
We see him having lunch buying a supper drinking coffee and cocoa
我们看着他吃午饭 买晚餐 喝咖啡和可可
He worries about his relationship with his wife and daughter
他担心他与妻子和女儿的关系
. He goes to work he listens to someone singing he has various conversations
他去上班 听别人唱歌 进行各种各样的交谈
eating, feeling sorry for someone, feeling sorry for oneself
比如吃饭 为别人难过也为自己难过
putting the washing on the clothes line
把洗好的衣服晾上衣架
these aren’t really little things at all if we look at them through the right lens
如果我们从特定的角度看 这些压根不是什么小事
they are revealed as beautiful serious deep and Fascinating
这展现了它们既美丽又严肃 既深刻又迷人的本质
our own lives are just as interesting as those of the traditional heroes.
我们自己的生活和那些传统英雄的生活同等有趣
It’s just we’re less good at appreciating them
只是我们不太擅长欣赏生活罢了
the helpful lens is supplied initially by Joyce’s novel
他的小说首先向我们提供了看待生活的正确方式
B ut ideally we should internalize it and make it our own.
但我们最好还是内化它 使它成为我们自己的
We should accept ourselves as minor legitimate heroes
我们应当接受自己 在有尊严的生活中
of our own dignified lives
成为不强大但真实的英雄
意识流
Traditionally novels like most films today
传统上小说就像现代电影
show us people speaking in well-formulated clear and revelant sentences
其中人们说着准确 清晰又彼此相关的句子
We tend to suppose without really think about it
我们未加仔细思考
that this is a fair reflection of their inner life.
便认为这是他们内心生活的真实反映
they speak thoughts and feelings that they have
认为他们所说即所思 所言即所感
but this isn’t Joyce’s way at all.
但乔伊斯可不会这么描写人物
Joyce takes us into our minds
乔伊斯带领我们进入自己的内心
and tries to show us what thinking actually sounds like.
向我们展示“思考”的真正样子
At one point in Ulysses Leopold muses on the cycle of life
《尤利西斯》中 布卢姆看着在街头穿梭的
while he’s watching the tram cars and people in the street.
电车和行人时 开始思考生活的循环往复
This is what it sounds like through Joyce’s microphone.
这便是乔伊斯笔下的情况：
“Trams past one another, in going, out going,
电车一辆接一辆地往返行驶
clanging, clanging, useless words.
丁丁当当 徒说无益
Things go on the same day after day
日复一日 事物毫无变化
squads of police marching out back, trams in out
一队警察前进又后退 电车来来往往
Those two loonies mooching about, Dignam carted off.
两个疯子四处游荡 迪格纳穆被车载走
Minor Purefoy swollen belly on a bed
米娜挺着大肚子躺在床上
groaning to have a child tugged out of her
呻吟着 等着孩子被拽出来
one born every second somewhere other dying every second
每秒钟都有个人在什么地方出生 也有个人在什么地方死亡
since I fed the birds five minutes
我喂完鸟儿已经五分钟了
300 kicked the bucket, other 300 born washing the blood off
三百人翘了辫子另三百人呱呱坠地 洗掉血迹
all I washed in the blood of the lamb bawling [maaa]
都在羔羊的血泊中洗涤 妈啊啊啊地叫着
It’s strange and yet actually perhaps rather familiar muddle of high and low concerns
听起来很奇怪 但这确实是布卢姆大大小小的担忧
Bloom is thinking about birth and death
他思考着出生与死亡
and the random shortness of life and the idea of religion
思考着无常而短暂的人生与宗教概念
but he’s also thinking about how he fed some birds,
但是 他也会想他是如何喂鸟的
the ordinary rhythms of daily life
会想日常生活的一般节奏
the noisy trams and the fundamental oddity of language
嘈杂的电车 语言系统的根本荒谬性
in which sounds we make with our mouths stand for things in the world
即我们用嘴巴发出的声音来描述世界
If we could slice the top of people’s heads and get a view into the diverse thoughts
假如我们能揭开一个人的头盖 那我们便可看到 各种念头相互交织
that Circulate and cut across one another, contradicting and confusing
从这个流向那个 这个又打断了那个 相互矛盾 混乱不堪
we have a much more accurate picture of our fellow humans
这样我们对我们的同类便有了更准确的认识
and one radically at odds with the image we typically have
这与我们通常的认知截然不同
that people are psychological monoliths with clear definite and fixed views
即认为人类都是心理上的完整个体 对事物有着明确而固定的观点
who are very certain what they believe and care about
对自己相信和在意的事物有着坚定信念
Joyce like other modernist describers of stream of consciousness thoughts and feelings
乔伊斯像其他描写意识流的思想和感觉的现代派作家一样
is suggesting that if we knew more about what others in ourselves Really thought and felt.
表示如果我们更多地了解我们内心其他人的真实想法和感受
We’d have a clearer sense of what it means to be human
我们会更清楚 身为人类意味着什么
and we’d perhaps also be slower to anger, quicker to forgive
我们也许会变得不易恼怒 更易宽恕他人
we’d love more and hate less
更加博爱 更少愤恨
we’d be more curious about apparently strange byways of our own and others’ minds
便会对自己和他人大脑中古怪又有趣的想法更为关注
语言之美
the more Joyce went beneath the surface of our Utterances
乔伊斯越是深入表面之下
to reveal the cacophony of our minds
揭露出我们大脑里的混乱杂音
the more he felt the need to twist and remould the language itself
就越强烈地意识到扭曲 重塑语言表达的必要性
To capture how we sound to ourselves
为了弄明白我们是怎么自言自语的
in his last and truly puzzling novel Finnegan’s wake
在他最后的 着实晦涩的小说《芬尼根守灵夜》中
Joyce decided to create his own version of English ”A Tower of Babel”(he called it)
他试图通过混合40多种语言的词句
By mixing together bits and pieces of more than 40 languages
创造出自己的英语 他称之为“巴别塔”
sometimes the words on the page looking entirely foreign
有时候整页文字看起来都是外文
but if you sound them out you can often find the sense
但你将它们念出来时便会明白其中含义
“Hereweareagain” means what it says
“Hereweareagain”表达的就是字面意思
It’s just that the words are jammed together to reflect the speed of the mind in action
他把词语粘合起来 表达出大脑思考时的迅速
Joyce went in for many portmanteau words
乔伊斯使用了许多混成词
two more words stuck together to create a new one
即把两个词合成一个新词
a “fun for all” is a ”fun funeral” or a “fun for all”
funferall就是fun funeral或者fun for all
a “bisexcycle” is a “bisexual” or a ”bicycle for sex”
bisexcycle就是bisexual或bicycle for sex
Joyce twisted prestigious names
他将名人的名字变形
so shakespeare became “shake his beard”
shakespeare变成shake his beard
and“Denti Alligator”was “Dante Alighieri”
Denti Alligator实为Dante Alighieri
The plot insofar as there is one in Finnegan’s Wake
《芬尼根的守灵夜》的内容讲述了
is about a man called Tim Finnegan
一个男人蒂姆·芬尼根
who falls from a ladder dies and comes back to life
从梯子上坠落而亡后又复活了 因为
when someone spills whiskey on his face during the wake
在守灵夜 他脸上被人泼了威士忌
It’s intended as a universal story about the fall of mankind
他有意将其打造成 人类堕落的广义故事
and the character of Tim Finnegan is also meant to be simultaneously
蒂姆·芬尼根一角同时是多个人物的象征：
Adam, Noah, Richard the third, Napoleon
亚当 诺亚 理查三世 拿破仑
and the Irish nationalists Charles Parnell
爱尔兰民族主义者查尔斯·帕内尔
There is indeed a plot in this book
此书中还真有个奇情节
“It’s just not one,” Joyce explained sarcastically,
乔伊斯讽刺地说 这可不是
“that can be rendered sensible by the use of words wide-awake language,
能通过明确清晰的语言 固定死板的语法
cut and dry grammar and go ahead plot
直截了当的情节来合理解释的
In attempting to be completely faithful to real life
为了纯粹地忠于生活本身
and all its true confusion and complexity,
和其中所有的骚动混乱与纷繁复杂
Joyce ended up writing a book that is fascinatingly instructively unreadable
乔伊斯最终写了一部极其有趣又极难理解的小说
The fourth sentence of the first chapter runs like this
第一章的第四个句子读起来是这样的
“Rot a peg of pars malt had Jhem or shen
吉姆或肖恩在弧形的光线下
brewed by arclight and Rory end to the regan brow
把老爸的大量烂麦芽酿成酒
was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface”
彩虹的东端映照在水面 犹如盟约之戒
It’s a reminder of how much fiction
这提醒了我们
when it seemed logical and understandable
当小说合逻辑且易理解时
is always necessarily a drastic foreshortening
它是怎样缩略了
of what is actually going on in the world and the minds of characters
现实的事件和人物的想法的
Joyce pushed one possibility of the realistic novel as far as it could possibly go
乔伊斯尽他所能地推动现实主义小说向前发展
into a realm as mysterious, haunting and perplexing as the dreams of a stranger.
使其变得像野蛮人的梦境一般神秘 诡异 令人困惑
Joyce spent the greater part of his life writing.
乔伊斯一生的大部分时间都在写作
What was he hoping to achieve through his art?
他希望通过艺术创作达到什么呢？
What is art for？
艺术的意义又是什么？
In his novel The Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man
在他的小说《青年艺术家的肖像》中
Joyce gets his spokesman Stephen to have a go at spelling out an answer
乔伊斯让他的代言人斯蒂芬试着说出了答案
He follows a surprisingly traditional route
令人惊讶的是 他运用传统方法
using two terms from the medieval Philosopher, Saint Thomas Aquinas
使用中世纪哲学家圣托马斯·阿奎那创造的两个概念
The first is Intergritas
第一个是“整体统一性”
this means that an artist is someone who attempts to grasp with unusual vigor
也就是说 艺术家应当充满热情地抓住
the true integrity and identity of what is being studied
所观察事物的真实的统一性和真切的特质
It might be a tree, a moment of history
它可以是一棵树或历史上的一刻
or the life of a fictional character in 20th century Dublin
抑或是虚构出来的20世纪都柏林人
we don’t normally do this
我们通常不这么干
We don’t really concentrate on what a person is saying or doing
我们不会真的聚焦于一个人在说什么 做什么
or what objects around us really are and look like
或者我们身边事物的真正样子
we don’t normally isolate and study carefully
我们通常不会把事物与环境割裂 来仔细研究
art has the job of doing this for us
这是艺术的功能
and teaching us to do so habitually
它应帮助我们养成这样的习惯
The second step for an artist in Joyce’s view
在乔伊斯看来 艺术家第二步要
is to bring Claritas or Clarity to things
使事物变得明晰可辨
which means shining the light of reason
也就是说 以理性之光
into the murkier parts of experience and life
照亮人生的黑暗角落
The Paradox is that Joyce did just this
矛盾的是 乔伊斯正是这么做的
but it is attempt to be utterly clear about what being human is actually like.
他尝试着彻底弄清楚人之为人意味着什么
He created works which are in places utterly baffling to a reader in a hurry
他的作品令想匆匆读完的读者全然不知所措
That shouldn’t surprise us too long, though.
这并不会让我们太惊讶
Artist Joyce sees it should be a corrective
艺术家乔伊斯认为
to unnatural but dangerous blindness
创作是对造作而危险的盲目想法
and inattention to cliche and over rapid summary
和对陈腐思想的忽视 操之过急的概要的一种纠正
if art sometimes puzzles us
要是艺术使我们困惑
We know says Joyce that it’s doing its job properly
要知道 乔伊斯说过 那正是它的本职工作
It’s real awakening us to the mysteries
它使我们醒悟并开始关注
we have too quickly grown blind to.
我们曾无意中忽略的生活奥秘