Doris Lessing:Brave Woman,Brave Writing

∷言佳 編注

2013年年底，諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)迎來(lái)了一位女性得主，卻又失去了一位。英國(guó)女作家、2007年諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)得主多麗絲·萊辛生于1919年10月22日，卒于2013年11月17日，享年94歲。她被譽(yù)為繼弗吉尼亞·伍爾夫之后最偉大的女性作家，是迄今為止獲獎(jiǎng)時(shí)最年長(zhǎng)的女性諾貝爾獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)?，被讀者親昵地稱(chēng)為“文學(xué)祖母”。她童年不幸，半生飄零，但卻一直笑看艱難過(guò)往，萊辛這一歷經(jīng)風(fēng)雨的祖母形象將永遠(yuǎn)常青于文學(xué)之路上。

W onderful Doris Lessing has died. You never expect such a rock-solid feature of the literary landscape to simply vanish.1. rock-solid: 穩(wěn)若磐石的，非?？煽康模籰iterary landscape: 文學(xué)界；vanish: 消失，突然不見(jiàn)。It’s a shock.

She authored more than 50 works— fictions, non fictions and poetry ranging in subjects,won the Nobel Prize in 2007 and became the eldest recipient at age 88.2. author: v. 寫(xiě)作，著書(shū)；range: 涉及，談到；recipient: 接受者。Among them,The Golden Notebook remained her best known, best loved and most controversial work.3. The Golden Notebook:《金色筆記》，萊辛的代表作，奠定了她在西方文壇的地位，這本書(shū)由五本筆記構(gòu)成，借用女主角安娜的故事描寫(xiě)了20世紀(jì)中期整個(gè)世界的風(fēng)貌；controversial: 引起爭(zhēng)論的，有爭(zhēng)議的。She without doubt was one of the towering figures of modern literature; in the course of a writing career that spanned the latter half of the 20th century, she commented on its grand sweeps and shed light on its many absurdities.4. 毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，她是現(xiàn)代文學(xué)的標(biāo)志性人物之一；在其跨越了20世紀(jì)后半葉的漫長(zhǎng)寫(xiě)作生涯中，她寫(xiě)下了這個(gè)世紀(jì)的跌宕起伏，揭示了其各式各樣的荒謬之相。sweep: 磅礴的氣勢(shì)；shed light on: 闡明，使人理解某事。

A generous, open-minded character, she was, at various stages of her life, a communist, socialist, feminist, atheist,Laingian and finally a Su fi.5. feminist: 女權(quán)主義者；atheist: 無(wú)神論者； Laingian:萊因?qū)W說(shuō)追隨者。萊因（1927—1989）是英國(guó)著名的存在主義精神病學(xué)家，他把存在主義哲學(xué)與精神分析思想結(jié)合起來(lái)，用存在主義哲學(xué)的術(shù)語(yǔ)對(duì)精神分裂癥患者的內(nèi)部世界進(jìn)行了生動(dòng)的描述，使精神分裂的過(guò)程為世人所知；Su fi: 蘇非行者。蘇非主義是伊斯蘭教的神秘主義派別，是為追求精神層面提升的伊斯蘭教團(tuán)。To each of these beliefs, she brought a tireless enthusiasm that sometimes obscured judgment.6. 對(duì)上述的每一種信條，她都持有一種孜孜不倦的熱情，有時(shí)候這種熱情減弱了她的判斷力。obscure: 遮掩，遮蔽。She fell for ideas, digested then, outgrew them and then moved on.7. digest:（經(jīng)反復(fù)思考后）吸收，理解；outgrow:成長(zhǎng)（或發(fā)展）得不再需要，不再適用。While she still believed, she wrote novels out of the experience. Her interests were varied,but her ability to make fascinating fiction out of life was constant.

If she had written nothing else, The Golden Notebook(1962) would have secured Doris Lessing a place in the hall of fame. With it, she wrote about “new women” in a new kind of novel, one that stretched the boundaries of realist fiction.8. stretch: 延續(xù)，延伸；realist fiction: 現(xiàn)實(shí)主義小說(shuō)。The Swedish Academy hailed her as an “epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.”9. 瑞典學(xué)院這樣稱(chēng)贊她：一位表述女性經(jīng)驗(yàn)的史詩(shī)詩(shī)人，以其懷疑主義精神，用其火一般的熱情和想象力細(xì)細(xì)審視著一個(gè)分裂的文明。The Swedish Academy: 瑞典學(xué)院，由瑞典國(guó)王古斯塔夫三世于1786年創(chuàng)立，是瑞典皇家學(xué)院之一。自1901年以來(lái)，瑞典學(xué)院每年都頒布諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)，以紀(jì)念阿爾弗雷德·諾貝爾；hail: 贊揚(yáng)，稱(chēng)頌（人、事件或成就）；epicist: 史詩(shī)作者，敘事詩(shī)人；subject:使……成為研究對(duì)象；scrutiny: 仔細(xì)觀察，詳細(xì)審查。

Her career is a matter of savage breakthroughs into quite new territory, as if her searching, sceptical intelligence could never be satis fied with stasis for long.10. savage: 兇猛的，野蠻的；stasis: 停滯，靜止。It begins, dauntingly,with a novel of unmatched technical command, The Grass is Singing.11. dauntingly: 令人敬畏地，使人膽怯地；command:（對(duì)技術(shù)或資源）可運(yùn)用自如，可充分運(yùn)用；The Grass Is Singing: 《野草在歌唱》，多麗絲·萊辛的處女作，使她一舉成名，被普遍認(rèn)為是二戰(zhàn)以后最優(yōu)秀的作品之一。對(duì)英美乃至世界各地的許多讀者來(lái)說(shuō)，這是第一部直接表現(xiàn)南部非洲種族隔離題材的小說(shuō)，第一次讓他們真實(shí)體味到了種族分裂給人類(lèi)所帶來(lái)的災(zāi)難。This overwhelming tragedy, published as long ago as 1950, immediately revealed a novelist of huge natural gifts.12. overwhelming: 極其強(qiáng)烈的，令人不知所措的；natural gift: 天賦，天資才能。

The scale of her ambition was immediately revealed after another novel with a substantial, five-volume bildungsroman,“Children of Violence”.13. substantial: 大量的，數(shù)目大的； bildungsroman:〈德〉成長(zhǎng)小說(shuō)，源于德國(guó)文學(xué)中一種傳統(tǒng)的小說(shuō)類(lèi)型，主要以描述主人公成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程為主題；“Children of Violence”:《暴力的孩子們》五部曲，即《瑪莎·奎斯特》（Martha Quest）（1952）、《良緣》（1954）、《風(fēng)暴的余波》（1958）、《被陸地圍住的》（1965）和《四門(mén)之城》（1969）。這五部曲以細(xì)膩的筆觸和頗有印象主義色彩的寫(xiě)實(shí)風(fēng)格展示了一位在羅得西亞（今津巴布韋）長(zhǎng)大的白人青年婦女的人生求索歷程。The cycle14. cycle:（瑪莎·奎斯特）敘述某一英雄或表現(xiàn)某一主題的）全套故事（或詩(shī)歌、小說(shuō)等）。, concerning the political and sexual maturity of Martha Quest, could certainly not be regarded as perfect. It clearly shows the strain of its lengthy gestation, published over 17 years.15. strain: 氣質(zhì)，特性；gestation: （想法等的）構(gòu)思，醞釀。The first volume, Martha Quest (1952), is a very different novel from the last, The Four-Gated City (1969).Only the most clairvoyant16. clairvoyant: 未卜先知的，有洞察力的。of readers could have predicted the next step in her career. From Journal of a Descent into Hell, much of the 1970s and early 1980s was spent in a visionary exploration of fantasy and science fiction, culminating in another quintet of novels, the perfectly astonishing Canopus in Argos: Archives.17. Journal of a Descent into Hell :《簡(jiǎn)述下地獄》，一部關(guān)于個(gè)人精神崩潰的小說(shuō)；culminate:以……結(jié)束，以……告終； quintet: 五重奏，五個(gè)為一組；Canopus in Argo: Archives: 《天舟座老人星：歷史檔案》，萊辛另辟蹊徑撰寫(xiě)的“太空小說(shuō)”系列，以科幻小說(shuō)的形式寫(xiě)出了對(duì)人類(lèi)歷史和命運(yùn)的思考與憂(yōu)慮。

In spite of her old age, that gift for provocation, intellectual and aesthetic, has never left her.18. provocation: 挑釁，煽動(dòng)；aesthetic: 美學(xué)的，審美的。Many readers and reviewers were outraged by her latest novel, The Cleft, and its views of the prehistoric incapacities of men and women.19. outrage: 激怒，使……震怒；The Cleft:《裂隙》（2007），借羅馬帝國(guó)歷史學(xué)者之口，講述人類(lèi)起源的神話性質(zhì)的作品。小說(shuō)創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)女人先于男人存在的世界，顛覆了亞當(dāng)夏娃的人類(lèi)起源故事；prehistoric: 史前的，有文字記載之前的。I was struck by its confident technical liberties, as well as the boldness20. boldness: 大膽，無(wú)畏。of its chosen subjects.

But these provocations have the knack21. knack: 訣竅，本領(lǐng)。of acquiring truth and wisdom over time, or perhaps merely revealing it. The Good Terrorist,so alarming a book on its publication in 1985, is another of those tremendous Lessing-esques.22. The Good Terrorist: 《好人恐怖分子》（1985），小說(shuō)講述了在倫敦的一棟非法居住屋里，聚集了一群幻想改變社會(huì)的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)青年。這群“反抗者”絕望地反抗著一切，卻勢(shì)若散沙。終于，“反抗者”幼稚而激進(jìn)的幻想演變成一場(chǎng)真正的災(zāi)難，而他們并未感到激動(dòng)和滿(mǎn)足，一直在懵懂地咀嚼無(wú)法回頭的人生；alarming: 使人害怕的，擾亂人心的；tremendous: 精彩的，出色的；-esque: 帶有……風(fēng)格的。It was her return to realist settings after the Canopus cycle and the experiment of the two “Jane Somers”23. “Jane Somers”:“簡(jiǎn)·薩默斯的日記”，是指萊辛在1982年使用“簡(jiǎn)·薩默斯”這個(gè)筆名發(fā)表的兩部小說(shuō)《好鄰居日記》和《時(shí)不我予》，圍繞女主人公簡(jiǎn)在人生道路上的沉浮起落展開(kāi)。novels. A great surge24. surge: 急劇上升，突飛猛進(jìn)。of renewed creative energy is unmistakably present.

That creative energy has continued unabated25. unabated: 未減弱的，未衰退的。to her newest novels; she has remained a presence in contemporary fictional life over 60 years. Though she has suggested that her next novel might be her last, saying “enough is enough”, I wouldn’t place a bet on that being the case.26. place a bet on: 在……上下賭注，就……打賭；be the case: 情況屬實(shí)。She seems undiminished, unwearied, and full of new thoughts.27. undiminished: 未衰減的，沒(méi)削弱的；unwearied: 不疲倦的，精神抖擻的。

“I have written in so many different ways,with never a thought that I didn’t have the right to,” she told an interviewer a week before she died. “It (all of her works) is an impressive list.” Indeed it is, and, since she has, it seems,no illusions28. illusion: 錯(cuò)誤的觀念，不現(xiàn)實(shí)的想法。, about the quality of her own achievement, she has the right to say so. No one would seriously question that impressiveness,or the acclaim and critical weight she has rightly accepted as no more than her due.29. acclaim: 贊揚(yáng)，稱(chēng)贊；due: 應(yīng)得的東西，這里是“應(yīng)得的承認(rèn)，該受的賞識(shí)”之意。