英国当代剧作家哈洛德.品特2005年诺贝尔文学奖获奖演讲(中英对照)
Art, Truth & Politics 艺术、真理以及政治
Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture
In 1958 I wrote the following:
'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'
1958年,我这样写道:
“在现实和幻境、真实与假象之间没有明显的界限。一件事情不一定是真的,但也未必是假的;它可能既是真的,也是假的。”
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
我觉得,这些观点还是有点意思的,尤其适用于艺术对现实的探索。因此,作为一个作家,我支持上述观点。但作为一个普通公民,我必须要问清楚:什么是真?什么是假?
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
戏剧中的真相永远是超幻的,从没真正被找到过,但对真相的探索却是 不由自主的。探索就是你之所以孜孜不倦的动力,是你的任务。很多时候,你可能在黑暗中与真相邂逅、碰撞,或者可能偶尔看到一个似乎与真相相连的形象或形 体,但自己却没认识到。然而,真正的真相是,在戏剧艺术里,根本没有寻找真相这么一回事。因为真相太多了。这些真相互相挑战着,妥协着。它们相互映衬,但 又彼此忽略;互相揶揄,目中无人。有时候,你会觉得,真相已经被你所掌握,但转瞬间它就会从你的指间滑落,不知去向。
I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.
我经常被问及戏剧是怎么来的?我回答不了。发生了,也就产生了,这就是我对自己作品的解释----那就是他们所说所做的,除此之外,我无力作任何总结性的言论。
Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.
我的大多数剧作源自一句话、一个词或者一个形象。语言产生了,相应的形象也就出现了。在这里,我想举两个例子来解释一下,有两句话是如何出乎意料般地在我的脑子里形成的。随之而来的是,它们的形象和我自己想法。
The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.'
这两部戏是《回家》和《旧时光》。《回家》的第一句话是,“你用这把剪刀做了什么?”而《旧时光》的开场白是,“黑。”
In each case I had no further information.
在这两句话出现之前,我对这两部戏都没有更多的想法。
In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn about the scissors or about the questioner either, for that matter.
在第一个例子中,很显然,有人在找一把剪刀,正问另一个人那剪刀的下落。而那个被问的人可能被怀疑偷了它。但阴差阳错,我就知道那被问的人不会为了这个而咒那把剪刀,也不会责骂那个发问的人。
'Dark' I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.
“黑”是我用来描述某人的头发的——一个女人的头发,同时也是一个问题的答案。在这两个例子中,我发觉我是被迫使着去发展事态。这个过程是看得到的——慢慢地,由暗到明。
I always start a play by calling the characters A, B and C.
一般来说,在设定角色A、B、C之后,我就开始着手写戏了。
In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends.
在写《回家》的过程 中,我看到一个男人走进一间空荡的房间,向一个正在研究赌马经的年轻人发问。那年轻人坐的那把沙发很难看。不知怎么,我觉得A应该是父亲,B是儿子,但没 法证实。当然,这马上就被确认了。因为B(后来就成为了莱尼)对A(后来的迈克斯)说:“爸爸,我们换个话题好不好?我要问你一些事情。我们刚吃的晚饭叫 什么?你怎么叫的?你为什么不去买只狗?你是一个煮狗食的。真的。你以为你是在煮东西喂一群狗吗?”这样,因为B叫A“爸爸”,所以我也就顺理成章地设定 他们是父子关系。A很显然也就是那个煮饭的人。他的烹饪似乎并不被看好。这是不是意味着没有母亲呢?我不知道。但在那时,我对自己说,我们的开端从来不认 识我们的结局。
'Dark.' A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. 'Fat or thin?' the man asks. Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.
“黑。”一扇巨大的窗户。夜空。一个男人(后来的迪雷)和一个女人(后来的凯特),正坐着喝东西。“胖或瘦?”那男人问道。他们在谈论谁?但我后来看到,在那窗边,在另一种光线条件下,站着一个女人C(后来的安娜)。她背对着他们。她的头发很黑。
It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.
这真的是奇怪的瞬间——在此之前,那些被创 造出来的角色根本就不存在。然后,它就变得断断续续、犹犹豫豫,甚至幻梦一般。当然,有时候它可能会象火山爆发般地不可抑制。期间,作者的位置是尴尬的。 那些角色们抵制他。他们并不好对付,也很难定位。你肯定不能对他们颐指气使。在一定程度上,你是在和他们玩一场永无尽头的游戏——猫和老鼠式地捉迷藏游 戏。但最终你发现有血有肉的人物出现了。他们有七情六欲。你根本无力去改变、操纵或扭曲构成他们的组件。
So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.
所以,语言艺术其实仍然处于一个极其模糊的转化过程之中。作为一个作者,你在创作过程中的任何时候都可能碰到这样的问题:它们有的象流沙般那样不可琢磨,有的象弹簧那样难以掌控,有的象冰封的水池那样令人束手无策。
But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.
然而,正如我刚才所说的,对真理的探究是从来不会停止的。它不可以被暂停,也不可以被推迟。我们必须要面对它。它就在那里,在现场。
[+/-] show/hide this post
Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture
In 1958 I wrote the following:
'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'
1958年,我这样写道:
“在现实和幻境、真实与假象之间没有明显的界限。一件事情不一定是真的,但也未必是假的;它可能既是真的,也是假的。”
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
我觉得,这些观点还是有点意思的,尤其适用于艺术对现实的探索。因此,作为一个作家,我支持上述观点。但作为一个普通公民,我必须要问清楚:什么是真?什么是假?
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
戏剧中的真相永远是超幻的,从没真正被找到过,但对真相的探索却是 不由自主的。探索就是你之所以孜孜不倦的动力,是你的任务。很多时候,你可能在黑暗中与真相邂逅、碰撞,或者可能偶尔看到一个似乎与真相相连的形象或形 体,但自己却没认识到。然而,真正的真相是,在戏剧艺术里,根本没有寻找真相这么一回事。因为真相太多了。这些真相互相挑战着,妥协着。它们相互映衬,但 又彼此忽略;互相揶揄,目中无人。有时候,你会觉得,真相已经被你所掌握,但转瞬间它就会从你的指间滑落,不知去向。
I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.
我经常被问及戏剧是怎么来的?我回答不了。发生了,也就产生了,这就是我对自己作品的解释----那就是他们所说所做的,除此之外,我无力作任何总结性的言论。
Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.
我的大多数剧作源自一句话、一个词或者一个形象。语言产生了,相应的形象也就出现了。在这里,我想举两个例子来解释一下,有两句话是如何出乎意料般地在我的脑子里形成的。随之而来的是,它们的形象和我自己想法。
The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.'
这两部戏是《回家》和《旧时光》。《回家》的第一句话是,“你用这把剪刀做了什么?”而《旧时光》的开场白是,“黑。”
In each case I had no further information.
在这两句话出现之前,我对这两部戏都没有更多的想法。
In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn about the scissors or about the questioner either, for that matter.
在第一个例子中,很显然,有人在找一把剪刀,正问另一个人那剪刀的下落。而那个被问的人可能被怀疑偷了它。但阴差阳错,我就知道那被问的人不会为了这个而咒那把剪刀,也不会责骂那个发问的人。
'Dark' I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.
“黑”是我用来描述某人的头发的——一个女人的头发,同时也是一个问题的答案。在这两个例子中,我发觉我是被迫使着去发展事态。这个过程是看得到的——慢慢地,由暗到明。
I always start a play by calling the characters A, B and C.
一般来说,在设定角色A、B、C之后,我就开始着手写戏了。
In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends.
在写《回家》的过程 中,我看到一个男人走进一间空荡的房间,向一个正在研究赌马经的年轻人发问。那年轻人坐的那把沙发很难看。不知怎么,我觉得A应该是父亲,B是儿子,但没 法证实。当然,这马上就被确认了。因为B(后来就成为了莱尼)对A(后来的迈克斯)说:“爸爸,我们换个话题好不好?我要问你一些事情。我们刚吃的晚饭叫 什么?你怎么叫的?你为什么不去买只狗?你是一个煮狗食的。真的。你以为你是在煮东西喂一群狗吗?”这样,因为B叫A“爸爸”,所以我也就顺理成章地设定 他们是父子关系。A很显然也就是那个煮饭的人。他的烹饪似乎并不被看好。这是不是意味着没有母亲呢?我不知道。但在那时,我对自己说,我们的开端从来不认 识我们的结局。
'Dark.' A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. 'Fat or thin?' the man asks. Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.
“黑。”一扇巨大的窗户。夜空。一个男人(后来的迪雷)和一个女人(后来的凯特),正坐着喝东西。“胖或瘦?”那男人问道。他们在谈论谁?但我后来看到,在那窗边,在另一种光线条件下,站着一个女人C(后来的安娜)。她背对着他们。她的头发很黑。
It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.
这真的是奇怪的瞬间——在此之前,那些被创 造出来的角色根本就不存在。然后,它就变得断断续续、犹犹豫豫,甚至幻梦一般。当然,有时候它可能会象火山爆发般地不可抑制。期间,作者的位置是尴尬的。 那些角色们抵制他。他们并不好对付,也很难定位。你肯定不能对他们颐指气使。在一定程度上,你是在和他们玩一场永无尽头的游戏——猫和老鼠式地捉迷藏游 戏。但最终你发现有血有肉的人物出现了。他们有七情六欲。你根本无力去改变、操纵或扭曲构成他们的组件。
So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.
所以,语言艺术其实仍然处于一个极其模糊的转化过程之中。作为一个作者,你在创作过程中的任何时候都可能碰到这样的问题:它们有的象流沙般那样不可琢磨,有的象弹簧那样难以掌控,有的象冰封的水池那样令人束手无策。
But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.
然而,正如我刚才所说的,对真理的探究是从来不会停止的。它不可以被暂停,也不可以被推迟。我们必须要面对它。它就在那里,在现场。
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
[+/-] show/hide this post

0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home