TE||No settled place
1
导读
V.S. Naipaul的诺贝尔演讲
（画质一般，情感丰富，墙裂推荐）
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听力|精读|翻译|词组
No settled place
心无归处的异乡人
英文部分选自经济学人Obituary版块
No settled place
心无归处的异乡人
V.S. Naipaul died on August 11th
The Indian-Trinidadian writer, winner of the Nobel prize for literature, was 85
印度裔特立尼达作家，诺贝尔文学奖得主奈保尔（V.S. Naipaul），于8月11日逝世，享年85岁
注释：
Trinidad:特立尼达岛。奈保尔出生于特立尼达岛，为印度所罗门后裔，又在海外接受教育，定居英国，终身迷惘于自己的身份，困惑于自身的身份认同，在印度人、特立尼达人和英国人之间徘徊不定。他的小说也因其对自己文化认同的踯躅而体现出多重文化意识的特点。小编胡乱推测本文题目“No settled place”也是对其人其文乃至其人生在身份认同和文化归属上的一种总结吧。
衍生阅读：奈保尔文化身份意识解读
http://www.doc88.com/p-3405351869772.html
HE WAS struck again and again by the wonder of being in his own house, the audacity of it: to walk down a farm track in Wiltshire to his own front gate, to close his doors and windows on his own space, privacy and neatness, to walk on cream carpet through book-lined rooms where, still in a towelling robe at noon, he could summon a wife to make coffee or take dictation. Outside, he could wander over lawns to the manor house, or a lake where swans glided, or visit the small building that served as his wine cellar. Vidia, his friends called him; he disliked his name, but liked the derivation, from the Sanskrit for seeing and knowing. He looked hard, with his eagle stare, and saw things as they were.
在威尔特郡的家中，他一次又一次震惊于生命的神奇和无畏：沿着一条农家小径可直达外面的世界，关门闭窗，就自成一方整洁又私密的个人天地；即便在中午时分也披着毛巾浴袍，踩着米色地毯，穿过藏书甚丰的房间，招呼妻子为他泡杯咖啡或者为他的口述作笔记。出门后，他会穿过草坪，在庄园漫步，在天鹅出没的湖畔游荡，或者去参观他的小酒窖。朋友们叫他韦迪亚（Vidia），他厌恶自己的名字，却心仪于它的梵语词源，意为“见闻知晓”。他目光如鹰，思考全面，一眼便能看透事物的本质。
The house, which he rented, was paid for by his books, more than 30 of them. He had not taken up writing to get rich or win awards; that was a dreadful thought. Dreadful! To write was a vocation. Nonetheless his fourth book, “A House for Mr Biswas”, based on his father’s search for a settled place, had luckily propelled him to fame, and in 2001 he had won the Nobel prize for literature. He had been knighted, too, though he did not care to use the title. Hence the country cottage, as well as a duplex in Chelsea. For, as Mr Biswas said, “how terrible it would have been…to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one’s portion of the earth.”
房子的的租金花去了他30多本书的稿费。他从事写作并不是为了致富或是获奖，在他看来那种想法糟糕透顶！他视写作为职业。然而幸运地是，他的第四本书《毕司沃斯先生的房子》（A House for Mr Biswas），一部源自他父亲寻找定居地的小说让他声名鹊起，并于2001年赢得诺贝尔文学奖。他自己也被封为爵士，因此才有了乡村别墅和切尔西（Chelsea）的复式公寓；虽然他本人并不屑于名号。因为书中人物，毕司沃斯先生曾说：“如果人生在世，却没有一块属于自己的土地，那该多么糟糕。”
Which portion of the earth, though, was the question. Mr Naipaul’s ancestors were Indian, but that part lay in darkness, pierced only by his grandmother’s prayers and quaint rituals of eating. Journeys to India later, which resulted in three books excoriating the place, convinced him that this was not his home and never could be. He was repelled by the slums, the open defecation (picking his fastidious way through butts and twists of human excrement), and by the failure of Indian civilisation to defend itself. His place of birth and growth was Trinidad, principally Port of Spain, the humid, squalid, happy-go-lucky city, sticky with mangoes and loud with the beat of rain on corrugated iron, that provided the comedy in “Biswas” and “Miguel Street”. But he had to leave. England was his lure, as for all bright colonial boys who did not know their place, and his Trinidadian accent soon vanished in high-class articulation; but Oxford was wretched and London disappointing. He kept leaving, travelling, propelled by restlessness. Books resulted, but not calm. Not calm.
到底哪片土地是属于他的，这却是个问题。奈保尔的祖先是印度人，但那段记忆却遁于黑暗中，只能从祖母的祷告和古怪的饮食规矩中窥见一二。后来，他的印度之旅让他坚信，这个地方不会是他的家，永远不能，随后他便写了三本书痛斥这个地方。他厌恶贫民窟和露天排便（他格外挑剔、小心翼翼地在屁股和一坨坨排泄物之际穿过），他指责印度没能守护住自身的文明。他出生和生长的特立尼达岛曾是西班牙的重要港口，这是个潮湿、肮脏、乐天知命的城市，像喜剧《比斯韦斯》（Biswas）和《米格尔街》（Miguel Street）中描述的一样，充斥着粘稠的芒果味道，瓦楞铁上的雨声响亮。但他不得不离开。英格兰吸引着他，就像吸引着所有聪明却迷茫的殖民地男孩一样。很快，他的特立尼达口音就消失在了上流社会的英音中；然而，牛津让人无法容忍，伦敦叫人失望。他不停地离开，不断地四处旅行，坐立难安。写了很多书，但他的心却平静不下来。无法冷静。
Much of his agitation, even to tears, came from the urge to write itself; what he was to write about, and in what form. The novel was exhausted. Modernism was dead. Yet literature had taken hold of him, a noble purpose to his life, the call of greatness. He had moved slowly into writing, first fascinated by the mere shapes of the letters, requesting pens, Waterman ink and ruled exercise books to depict them; then intrigued by the stories his father read to him; then, in London, banging out his first attempts on a BBC typewriter. For a long time he failed to devise a story. Beginnings were laborious, punctuation sacred: he filleted an American editor for removing his semicolons, “with all their different shades of pause”. Once going, though, he wrote at speed, hoping to reach that state of exaltation when he would understand himself, as well as his subject.
他的焦虑，甚至泪水，很大程度源于写作的冲动：写什么、怎么写。没有人在写小说。现代主义文学已亡。然而文学却深深地攥住了他的内心，是他生命的崇高目标，像是伟大在对他召唤。他走上文学这条路非一日之功，首先是被字母的形状吸引，便用笔、华特曼墨水和练习本描绘出来，之后，他又被父亲读的故事吸引，在伦敦，他在BBC打字机上敲出了第一份文稿。很长一段时间，他构思不出一个故事。开头很费力，甚至连每个标点符号都是神圣的：他找到一个美国编辑帮他删除分号，“让每个停顿的含义都变得与众不同”。然而，一旦开了头，他就写得很快，希望能达到那种兴奋的状态，在这种状态下，他既能理解自己，又能理解自己表达的主题。
Truth-telling, defying the darkness, was his purpose. His travels through the post-colonial world, to India, Africa, the Caribbean and South America, made him furious: furious that formerly colonised peoples were content to lose their history and dignity, to be used and abandoned, and to build no institutions of their own, like the Africans of “In a Free State” squealing in their forest-language in the kitchens of tourist hotels. He mourned the relics of colonial rule, the overgrown gardens and collapsed polo pavilions, the mock-Tudor lodges and faded Victorian bric-à-brac he saw in Bundi or Kampala; but even more than these, the loss of human potential.
说出真相，控诉黑暗，是他的目标。在后殖民世界的印度、非洲、加勒比海地区和南非的游履，使他怒不可遏，他怒于这些曾经被殖民的民族，（如今）心甘情愿地丢弃他们的历史和尊严，被始用而终弃，未建立任何属于自己的制度，就像《自由国度》中的非洲人在旅游酒店的厨房里用他们的丛林语言呼啸。他哀悼于殖民统治的遗物，比如邦迪（Bundi）县和坎帕拉（Kampala）那些杂草丛生的花园和倒塌的马球展馆，仿都铎式的小屋和褪色的维多利亚式小摆件；但更重要的是，他悲痛于人们潜能的丢失。
Many people were offended, and he cared not a whit whether they were or not. It was his duty and his gift to describe things exactly: whether the marbled endpaper of a dusty book, the stink of bed bugs and kerosene, the way that purple jacaranda flowers shone against rocks after rain, or the stupidity of most people. He resisted all editing, of writing or opinions. Without apology, he also slapped his mistress once until his hand hurt. Severity and pride came naturally to his all-seeing self.
他冒犯了许多人，但他一点也不在意这些。准确描述世界是他的责任和天赋：不论是满是灰尘的书里的大理石花纹衬页，臭虫和灯油的臭味，雨后岩石映衬下闪闪发光的紫色蓝花楹、还是大部分人的愚蠢。他拒绝所有对写作和观点的编辑修改。有一次他掌掴情妇直到自己的手受伤，事后毫无歉意。对他那洞悉一切的自我而言，严厉和骄傲顺理成章。
注释：
1.all-seeing：全视
上帝之眼 （宗教符号）（Eye of Providence），又称全视之眼（All-seeing Eye）和全知之眼，代表着上帝监视人类的法眼，常见的形式为一颗被三角形及万丈光芒所环绕的眼睛，以出现在美国国徽及一美元纸币的背面而广为人知。】
2.南非行政首都比勒陀利亚(Pretoria)，有「蓝花楹之城」的美誉。没有一个城市可以把浪漫的紫色演绎得如此绚烂，每年10月到11月，在蓝花楹的盛放季节，比勒陀利亚与来往各南非城市的街道都会被一片紫蓝色的花海铺满。虽然其他热带国家如墨西哥、巴西等都能找到蓝花楹，但还是以南非的最为壮观。蓝花楹把南非的天空大地染成紫色，漫步在街道，犹如置身于童话世界。】
To the plantation
种植园（plantation 有种植园和殖民的意思，这两者也往往是互相交织的）
注：The Plantation was the first novel by Chris Kuzneski. First published in 2002, it introduced the characters of Jonathon Payne and David Jones, who have been featured in all of Kuzneski's thrillers. The book was endorsed by several notable authors, including James Patterson, Nelson DeMille, Lee Child, and James Rollins. Berkley Books re-released an updated version of The Plantation in July 2009, featuring several new scenes.
The further purpose of writing was to give order to his life. He carefully recorded all events, either in his memory for constant replays or in small black notebooks consigned to his inside jacket pocket. Converting these to prose imposed a shape on disorder; it provided a structure, a shelter, protection. His rootless autobiographical heroes often dreamed of such calm places: a cottage on a hill, with a fire lit, approached at night through rain; a room furnished all in white, looking towards the sea; or in “The Mimic Men” the most alluring vision, an estate house on a Caribbean island among cocoa groves and giant immortelle trees, whose yellow and orange flowers floated down on the woods. Though he ended his days in Wiltshire, more or less content, it was somebody else’s sun he saw there, and somebody else’s history. His deep centre remained the place from which he had fled.
写作的深层动机是为了赋予自己的生活以秩序。他仔细地记录下来所有的事件，要么在自己的记忆里不断地回放，要么就把它们记录在夹克衫里侧口袋的黑色小笔记本上。将这些东西转化成文意味着重新塑造这些无序；它提供了一个结构，一间避难所，一种保护。他那没有归属的（漂泊无定的）自传式主人公总是梦想着那么一个宁静之地：山间小屋，一盏照明的灯，夜雨中走近，一间装饰的全白的屋子，看向大海；或者是在《模仿者》里那最诱人的景色里，加勒比岛上掩映于可可树和巨大的不老树下的一栋房屋，树林里黄色和橙色的花朵缓缓飘下。尽管他终老于威尔特郡，几近如意的谢幕，但这里于他终究是别处，他看到的是别人的阳光，和别人的历史。在心灵深处，他仍然停留在那个他最初逃离的地方。
【转载自豆瓣的《模仿者》简介：
生活在借来的文化里的人，不会感到丝毫困惑；然而一旦离开了这种幻境，就会被混乱与悲伤完全笼罩。
我是一个没有故乡的人，在世界中穿行。
出生在加勒比小岛，从小却受英式教育，脚下的土地反倒有如世界尽头。人们竭力模仿欧洲文化的好恶，害怕被抛回平庸的现实。为了追求“更高的生活” ，我前往伦敦，可这个光华灿烂的世界中心竟更加虚幻：城市坚固而完整，其中的人却支离破碎。 我在幻灭中回到家乡，使用借来的华丽口号呼吁变革，被人们推上权力的顶峰，可我许下的，是不可能实现的未来……
我一次次从混乱中逃离，却一次次陷入错乱与空虚。
我们只能挣扎着让闹剧继续，因为取代它的将是绝望。
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作为一名叙述者，V.S.奈保尔不随和，不完美，也不怎么在乎有没有人喜欢他。但他也是最诚实的，从不伪装。 ——《卫报》
一部经典，迷人、激动人心，还令人有些恐惧。作者描摹出的混乱向我们敲响了警钟，也能引起深刻的共鸣。 ——迈克尔·曼莱
以天赋和才华而论，在世的作家里几乎没有人能胜过奈保尔。 ——《纽约时报》】
翻译组：
Cece，女，消防人，TE爱好者
Forest，女，意义之网编织中，TE爱好者
Yao，英专本科生，准上外小硕，只读不背的TE爱好者
校核组：
Li Xia, 女， 爱爬山的自由翻译，美食狂人
Dave，肌肉男大学教师，文学翻译，CATTI一笔二口
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观点|评论|思考
本次观点由Amber全权执笔
Amber，博物馆人，总爱忘事儿，老友记粉
奈保尔于本月去世了。
一直以来，他就像一名医生，用手术刀准确剖开这恶臭满盈的世界。一时间，我想不出完整的句子，只能用短短的词语来不停的丰富他介绍他，冷漠、天才、批判、激进、自省、焦虑。奈保尔的小说十分有名气，最令人惊讶的是连游记亦或是散文都漂亮不已。
围绕他私事的流言蜚语一直不绝于耳，他在同第一任妻子婚后不久，就流连于声色犬马之中，同一名阿根廷女子维持了长达24年的情人关系，奈保尔常常对她拳打脚踢。在第一任妻子逝世后不久，他便立刻与这名阿根廷女子分道扬镳，迎娶了第二任妻子。
我见过许多朋友为奈保尔在传记中披露的这段毫无悔意的事实而愤恨。但这并不能掩盖奈保尔在写作才能上的光芒。他是冷漠的，他在《大河湾》的开头里写道：“世界如其所是。那些无足轻重的人，那些听任自己变得无足轻重的人，在这个世界上没有地位”。一直以来《大河湾》也被认为是奈保尔的巅峰之作，现实的笔触让人触目惊心，黑暗终究是黑暗。让人心惊、让人害怕、让人不得不望向自己，践踏过去。
想起2001年，他获得诺贝尔文学奖时，颁奖词是这样写得：“其著作将极具洞察力的叙述与不为世俗左右的探索融为一体，是驱策我们从被压抑的历史中探寻真实的动力”。也许我们能撇开其人品，窥见其中一二。
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愿景
小组
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