Famous Authors Who Also Wrote for Children 文學(xué)巨匠：吾也有童趣

阿諾

每個人心中都住著一個孩子，這話一點(diǎn)兒也不假。不信就來看看下面這些在童書界小試牛刀的文豪們。

James Joyce wrote some of the most influential—and impenetrable1）—literature of the 20th century. When he wasn't doing that， he wrote about cats. In 1936， Joyce mailed two stories to his grandson， Stephen. The tales would later be published as children's books： The Cat and the Devil and The Cats of Copenhagen. The Cat and the Devil， a riff2） off a French fable， posthumously3） became Joyce's first picture book in 1964. In it， a mayor hires the devil to build a bridge. The devil agrees under one condition： he owns the first soul that crosses. When the devil finishes， the mayor tosses a cat across the bridge， sealing the deal and leaving Lucifer4） with a pet. Joyce's second story， The Cats of Copenhagen， was published in 2012.

詹姆斯·喬伊斯創(chuàng)作了20世紀(jì)最具影響力也最晦澀難懂的一些文學(xué)作品。除此之外，他還寫過關(guān)于貓的故事。1936年，喬伊斯給他的孫子斯蒂芬寄了兩個故事。這兩個故事日后都作為兒童讀物出版了，分別叫做《貓與魔鬼》和《哥本哈根的貓》。《貓與魔鬼》改寫自一則法國寓言，在喬伊斯去世后，于1964年出版，是其第一本圖畫故事書。書中講述了一位市長雇用魔鬼來造橋。魔鬼同意了，但是有一個條件：第一個過橋人的靈魂要?dú)w他。當(dāng)魔鬼把橋造好時，市長將一只貓扔到橋那頭，由此完成了交易，只留給魔鬼一只寵物貓。喬伊斯的第二個故事《哥本哈根的貓》于2012年出版。

E. E. Cummings wrote around 2900 poems， two novels and countless essays. He also wrote four stories for his daughter Nancy， which were published in a 1965 collection called Fairy Tales. The stories include The Old Man Who Said "Why"， The Elephant and the Butterfly and The House That Ate Mosquito Pie. The most playful yarn5）， however， may be The Little Girl Named I—a funny play on words all the way through. At the end， the girl named "I" meets a girl named "You".

E. E. 卡明斯創(chuàng)作了約2900首詩、兩部小說和無數(shù)篇散文，他還為女兒南希寫了四個故事。這四個故事于1965年結(jié)集出版，書名為《童話故事》，其中包括《說“為什么”的老人》《大象和蝴蝶》以及《吃蚊子派的房子》。不過，最有趣的故事可能要數(shù)《名叫“我”的小女孩》——一個通篇都在玩文字游戲的有趣故事。在故事結(jié)尾，名叫“我”的那個女孩遇到了一個名叫“你”的女孩。

Upton Sinclair was called "a man with every gift except humor and silence" by Time magazine. Sinclair poured his life's work into criticizing society and politics， but he still found room for fun. In 1936， the muckraker6） released The Gnomobile： A Gnice Gnew Gnarrative with Gnonsense， but Gnothing Gnaughty.

In this story， a girl named Elizabeth discovers the last two gnomes7） living in the Redwood Forest. The gnomes—Bobo and Glogo—distrust "big people" because they cut trees and destroy gnome homes. After gaining their trust， Elizabeth drives her pointy-hatted friends across the country to find other gnomes. Sinclair couldn't help but moralize8）， subtly scolding industrialization and pollution along the way. In 1967， Walt Disney turned Sinclair's tale into a movie， The Gnome-Mobile.

厄普頓·辛克萊被《時代周刊》稱作是“一個除了幽默和沉默之外擁有一切天賦的人”。辛克萊傾盡畢生的精力去批判社會和政治，不過他還是騰出時間來幽默了一把。1936年，這位喜歡揭露黑幕的作家發(fā)表了《小矮人車：一個荒謬但不出格的新故事》。

在這個故事中，一個名叫伊麗莎白的女孩發(fā)現(xiàn)了住在紅杉林里的最后兩個小矮人。這兩個小矮人——博博和格洛戈——不信任“大人”，因?yàn)樗麄兛撤ド?，破壞了小矮人的家園。伊麗莎白在贏得小矮人的信任后，開車載著這兩個頭戴尖頂帽的朋友去全國各地尋找其他小矮人。辛克萊還是忍不住要說教一番，故事的字里行間都隱含著他對工業(yè)化和污染問題的譴責(zé)。1967年，沃爾特·迪士尼公司將辛克萊的這個故事拍成了電影《地仙號快車》。

In 1951， Holiday published Hemingway's only stories for children： The Good Lion and The Faithful Bull. Hemingway likely wrote both fables for Adriana Ivancich （his Venetian love interest） and her nephew.

The Good Lion follows a winged， pasta-eating lion. He visits Africa， where he's bullied by other lions for being different. The big cat， however， never bites back. He stays cheerful， eventually flying away from his bullies in Hemingway style： "Adios9），" he said， for he spoke beautiful Spanish， being a lion of culture.

The Faithful Bull is a parody10） of Munro Leaf's The Story of Ferdinand， a tale about a bull who'd rather smell flowers than fight. Hemingway opens： One time there was a bull and his name was not Ferdinand and he cared nothing for flowers. He loved to fight and he fought with all the other bulls of his own age， or any age， and he was a champion. The bull is later sent to pasture to breed， where he falls in love with a beautiful cow. His true love， however， is bullfighting11）， so he returns—only to be killed by a matador12）.

1951年，《假日》雜志（編注：美國著名旅游雜志）刊登了海明威僅有的兩篇兒童故事：《好獅子》和《忠貞的公?！?。這兩篇寓言故事可能都是海明威寫給阿德里安娜·伊凡契奇（他的威尼斯戀人）和她的侄子的。

《好獅子》圍繞一只長著翅膀、吃意大利面的獅子展開。他去非洲旅游，因?yàn)榕c眾不同而遭到其他獅子的欺負(fù)。不過，這只“大貓”卻從來不會還擊。他一直都高高興興的，最后離開了那些欺負(fù)他的家伙，遠(yuǎn)走高飛，頗具海明威的風(fēng)格：“再見?！彼梦靼嘌勒Z說，因?yàn)樗且活^有教養(yǎng)的獅子，能說一口漂亮的西班牙語。

曼羅·里夫（編注：美國兒童文學(xué)作家）的《愛花的?！分v述了一頭愛聞花香不愛打斗的公牛的故事。海明威的《忠貞的公牛》是對這本書的惡搞。海明威開頭寫道：從前有一頭公牛，他的名字不叫費(fèi)迪南，他一點(diǎn)兒也不喜歡花。他好斗，他跟其他所有同齡的或不同齡的公牛斗，他是常勝將軍。后來，這頭公牛被送到牧場上繁育后代，在那兒他愛上了一頭漂亮的母牛。然而，他的最愛依然是和別的牛打斗，于是他又回去了——結(jié)果死在了斗牛士的手上。

Thirteen years after writing Brave New World， Aldous Huxley penned a story for his 5-year-old niece called The Crows of Pearblossom. Four years after Huxley died， Random House13） published the tale as a picture book. The story follows Mr. and Mrs. Crow and their neighbor， Mr. Snake， who always steals and eats their eggs. One day， the Crows leave fake eggs in their nest. When Mr. Snake eats the eggs， he gets a bad stomachache and dies.

在寫完《美麗新世界》13年后，阿道司·赫胥黎為五歲的侄女寫了一個故事，名叫《梨花大道的烏鴉一家》。赫胥黎去世四年后，蘭登書屋以圖畫書的形式出版了這個故事。故事圍繞烏鴉先生、烏鴉太太以及總是偷吃烏鴉蛋的鄰居蛇先生展開。一天，烏鴉夫婦在巢里留下幾枚假蛋。蛇先生吃下去后，肚子便開始疼得厲害，最后死掉了。

James Baldwin's novel Go Tell It on the Mountain is the story of a boy growing up in Harlem14）. Baldwin's children's book， Little Man Little Man， tells a similar tale. A 4-year old named TJ—based on Baldwin's young nephew—plays ball in the streets. The story is a collage15） of his observations， written in a style that "blends black English and child's talk". Here's an excerpt： A couple of times a car almost run him over. That ain't nothing. He going to be a bigger star than Hank Aaron one of these days. Soon as he gets a little bit older， he going to jump the roofs.

詹姆斯·鮑德溫的小說《向蒼天呼吁》講述了一個在哈萊姆區(qū)長大的男孩的故事。其創(chuàng)作的兒童讀物《小小男子漢》也講了一個類似的故事。一個名叫TJ的四歲男孩——以鮑德溫的小侄子為原型——在街上打球。故事整個就是小男孩的所見所聞，語言則用了一種“融合了黑人英語和兒童用語”的風(fēng)格。下面摘錄其中一段：好幾次，他都差點(diǎn)被車撞倒。那不算什么?？傆幸惶欤麜蔀楸葷h克·艾倫（編注：美國著名職業(yè)棒球手）還要出名的明星。只要再長大一些，他就能從屋頂上往下跳了。

Tolstoy loved kids. At 21， the aristocrat opened a school for peasants on his estate. While writing Anna Karenina， he started working on schoolbooks for his students. Tolstoy wrote about his childhood， adapted Aesop's Fables and Hindu stories and penned playful fairy tales like Ivan the Fool and The Peasant and the Cucumbers. When Tolstoy finished， he read the tales to his toughest critics—the tots16） at his schools. He asked them for pointers17） and reworked18） the stories until the tough crowd softened. Tolstoy eventually published the stories in two primers19）， the ABC Book and the New ABC Book， which became staples20） at Russian schools.

托爾斯泰喜歡孩子。21歲時，這位貴族在自己的莊園里辦了一所農(nóng)夫?qū)W校。在寫作《安娜·卡列尼娜》的同時，他開始為自己的學(xué)生編寫教材。托爾斯泰寫了自己童年的故事，改編了《伊索寓言》和印度神話，還寫了《傻子伊凡》和《農(nóng)夫和黃瓜》這樣幽默的童話故事。學(xué)校里的孩子們是這些故事最嚴(yán)格的評審，托爾斯泰每每寫完之后，都會把故事念給他們聽，向他們征求意見，然后進(jìn)行修改，直到這些挑剔的小家伙們滿意為止。托爾斯泰后來將這些故事匯編成兩本啟蒙讀物出版，分別是《識字課本》和《新編識字課本》，它們后來成了當(dāng)年俄國學(xué)校里主要的教材。

1. impenetrable [?m?pen?tr?bl] adj. 費(fèi)解的；難以理解的

2. riff [r?f] n. 重復(fù)樂段；文章

3. posthumously [?p?stj?m?sli] adv. 死后；身后

4. Lucifer [?lu?s?f?（r）] n. 路西法，早期基督教著作中對墮落以前的撒旦的稱呼，在此指故事中的魔鬼。

5. yarn [jɑ?n] n. （經(jīng)添油加醋而更加扣人心弦的）故事；奇談

6. muckraker [?m?kre?k?（r）] n. 喜歡揭露名人丑聞的人

7. gnome [n??m] n. （兒童故事中生活在地下的）地精；小矮人

8. moralize [?m?r?la?z] vi. （就……）進(jìn)行訓(xùn)誡，進(jìn)行說教

9. adios [??di??s] int. <西> （美國西南部用語）再見

10. parody [?p?r?di] n. （諷喻性）模仿詩文（或戲?。?/p>

11. bullfighting [?b?lfa?t??] n. 斗牛

12. matador [?m?t?d??（r）] n. 斗牛士

13. Random House： 蘭登書屋，是德國媒體集團(tuán)貝塔斯曼旗下的一家出版社，總部設(shè)在美國紐約市，號稱世界上最大的英語商業(yè)國際性出版社。

14. Harlem： 哈萊姆（美國紐約市的一個黑人居住區(qū)）

15. collage [?k?lɑ??] n. （互不相干事物的）大雜燴

16. tot [t?t] n. [俗]小孩；幼兒

17. pointer [?p??nt?（r）] n. 建議；點(diǎn)子

18. rework [?ri??w??k] vt. 修正；修訂（想法或文章）

19. primer [?pra?m?（r）] n. 初級讀本；啟蒙書

20. staple [?ste?pl] n. 主要部分；經(jīng)常性內(nèi)容