《哈利·波特》十一談

薩姆·利思

Even Homer nods1. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire， Harry is fighting a duel with Voldemort when he accidentally does something （Priori Incantatem） that causes the Dark Lords wand to spit out， in reverse order， spectral2 images of the people he has killed. Harrys father， James， comes out before his mother， Lily—when， according to the established story， he died in the process of trying to help his wife and child escape. Fans feverishly speculated as to whether JK Rowling was setting up some crafty plot twist. She eventually admitted it was a mistake， due to “l(fā)ate-night writers fatigue”; the text was corrected in later editions.

荷馬也有打盹時?！豆げㄌ嘏c火焰杯》中，哈利在跟伏地魔決斗的過程中意外（通過閃回咒）致使這位黑魔王的魔杖以逆時間順序吐出他所殺之人的幽靈影像。哈利的父親詹姆斯出現(xiàn)在母親莉莉之前，而在既定的故事中，他是在幫助妻兒逃跑的過程中喪生的。粉絲們曾拼命猜測J. K. 羅琳是否在制造某種巧妙的情節(jié)反轉。最終她承認這是由于“作家在深夜疲憊不堪”而犯的一個錯誤;該錯誤在之后的版本中得到了更正。

Childrens books can be political. Rowlings brilliant decision was to have her characters grow up at the same rate as her readers. Each book was set in one school year， and grew longer， darker and more adult in theme. By the time we reached book four， Goblet of Fire， we were seeing do-gooding Hermiones Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare formed in response to the bond slavery of these sock-loving poppets3. In the person of the hack4 journalist Rita Skeeter， Rowling sent up5 the tabloid press. The ministry of magic sent up Whitehall bureaucracy. And， as any fool could plainly see， the storys master narrative—with purebloods fighting a war of annihilation against “mudbloods6”—is about the struggle against the basic blood-and-soil7 fascism.

兒童讀物也可以涉及政治。羅琳非常明智地讓她筆下的人物跟讀者同步成長。每本書都以一學年為背景，篇幅越來越長，主題越發(fā)黑暗和成人化。讀到第四卷《火焰杯》時，我們看到了好心的赫敏為使熱愛襪子的小精靈免遭世代奴役，創(chuàng)辦了家養(yǎng)小精靈權利促進協(xié)會。借雇傭記者麗塔·斯基特這一人物，羅琳諷刺了八卦小報，而借魔法部嘲諷了英國政府的官僚作風。再者，傻瓜也能清楚地看出，故事的主線敘事，即純血巫師對“泥巴種”發(fā)起的毀滅之戰(zhàn)，是關于跟本質上強調“血與土”的法西斯主義斗爭。

Some people can be as dumb as stumps. In several places in the US， copies of Rowlings books were burned by fundamentalist8 Christians who believed they were encouraging children to take up witchcraft. “Behind that innocent face is the power of satanic darkness，” said pastor Jack Brock of the Christ Community church in Alamogordo， New Mexico， in 2001. “Harry Potter is the devil and he is destroying people.”

有些人蠢若木樁。在美國多地，羅琳的書被原教旨主義基督徒焚燒，他們認為這些書是在鼓勵孩子們學習巫術?！澳菑?zhí)煺婷婵字码[藏的是撒旦的黑暗力量?！眮碜孕履鞲缰莅⒗甓嗷浇躺鐓^(qū)教堂的牧師杰克·布羅克在2001年說道，“哈利·波特就是撒旦，他在毀滅人們?！?/p>

You could sell childrens books to grownups. The craze for Harry Potter got so febrile9 that， in order to cater to a market of grownups wishing to enjoy his adventures but embarrassed to be seen reading childrens books in public， in 1998 Bloomsbury released the first so-called “adult” edition. Not with added smut10， just with more sombrely designed covers.

童書在成年人中也有市場?！豆げㄌ亍窡岢弊兊萌绱税谉峄瑸榱擞夏切┛释w驗哈利的冒險之旅，卻又不好意思被人看到在公共場合閱讀兒童讀物的成年讀者，1998年布魯姆斯伯里出版公司推出了首個所謂的“成人”版本。成人版并非增加了淫詞穢語，只是封面設計更顯陰郁而已。

Some books are so secret you cant even share them with their translators. At the height of the madness—roughly， Goblet onwards—the midnight launches were so tightly policed that translators didnt get their copies until the English-language edition was in the shops. French translators， for instance， worked in teams and non-stop; every hour that passed saw the English edition cannibalising potential sales.

有些作品保密之甚，以致其譯者都無法得知。在最瘋狂的時候，大約自《哈利·波特與火焰杯》之后，午夜發(fā)售活動受到嚴密監(jiān)管，以致英文版在書店上架后譯者才能拿到待譯書稿。其中，法語版的譯者以團隊形式合作，持續(xù)作戰(zhàn);每過一小時，英文版就會搶走潛在銷量。

Some people were never going to go for it11. In retrospect， A. S. Byatt12 might have been the wrong person for the New York Times to commission to appraise13 the series success. “Ms Rowlings world is a secondary secondary world， made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of childrens literature，” she wrote in apparent bafflement. “It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons， and the exaggerated mirror-worlds of soaps， reality TV and celebrity gossip.” She wasnt being intentionally bitchy， only rigorous， but it made her about as popular as a coldsore with the true believers.

有些人永遠不會大膽一試。事后看來，《紐約時報》委托A. S. 拜厄特來評價《哈利·波特》系列之成功或許是失策。“羅琳女士機智地將各種兒童文學中衍生出來的不同主題拼湊起來，創(chuàng)造了一個次而又次的世界。”她的文字中明顯透露出困惑。“《哈利·波特》為這樣的讀者而寫：他們的想象力限于電視卡通以及充斥著肥皂劇、電視真人秀和名人八卦的夸張鏡像世界之中?！彼⒎强桃獾箅y，只是態(tài)度苛刻而已，但這一論斷讓她在《哈利·波特》的真愛粉中幾乎像唇皰疹一樣不受歡迎。

Theres more than one way to skin a copyright cat14. Try selling your own story set in Hogwarts and see where it gets you （hint： court）. But Rowling and her publishers have been imaginative enough to see that online fan fiction15 is a rich way for enthusiasts to participate in her world; not to mention helping sustain the craze. She has given her official blessing， with two caveats16： dont publish it commercially， and no smut.

應對版權問題的方法不止一種。試試兜售自己寫的霍格沃茨故事，看看會發(fā)生什么（提示：法庭）。但羅琳和她的出版商們別出心裁，認識到網(wǎng)絡同人小說是一種非常有趣的方式，可讓粉絲參與她的世界，更不用說幫助維持這股熱潮了。對此，羅琳給出了她的正式許可，不過要注意兩點：不要商業(yè)性出版，不要污言穢語。

Writers can get a taste for violence. Those who dont know the books may imagine them to be sentimental. But， oh boy， did old JK get slap-happy17 as the series went on. According to the main Potter fandom wiki “158 known individuals have been confirmed to have died”. By the last couple of books， major characters dropped like flies. I wont say which， other than—spoiler—most of them.

作家也可以一嘗暴力之味。那些不了解《哈利·波特》的人也許會認為它們是感傷煽情之作。可是，天吶，隨著該系列的展開，親愛的羅琳變得忘乎所以。最大的哈利·波特粉絲維基網(wǎng)站顯示，“已有158名出場人物確認死亡”。到最后兩本書，主要人物紛紛死亡。我不會說都是誰——劇透——只能說大多數(shù)角色。

Boarding schools might be fun. After decades of decline， boarding schools reported a surge in applications from the late 1990s which headteachers attributed to the “Harry Potter effect”. Some set about building more boarding houses to cope with the demand. Alex Renton， author of a polemic18 against these schools， Stiff Upper Lip19， points out that like the authors of most boarding-school stories， Rowling went to a day school.

寄宿學?？梢院苡腥?。經歷了幾十年的蕭條之后，寄宿學校反映，從1990年代末開始，其申請人數(shù)急劇上升，這些學校的校長將這一現(xiàn)象歸于“哈利·波特效應”。一些學校開始修建更多的宿舍來滿足需求。反對寄宿學校的論辯書籍《不動聲色》的作者亞力克斯·倫頓指出，跟大多數(shù)寫寄宿學校故事的作者一樣，羅琳上的也是走讀學校。

You can never stay anonymous. Rowling， like Stephen King， tried seeing what would happen if a bestselling author published pseudonymously. The first Cormoran Strike thriller， 2013s The Cuckoos Calling， appeared on the shelves under the nom de plume20 of Robert Galbraith （supposedly “a former plainclothes Royal Military Police investigator”） and was well received. It took all of three months for the Sunday Times to out Rowling as the author.

你不能永遠匿名。跟斯蒂芬·金一樣，羅琳曾試著觀察暢銷書作家以筆名發(fā)表作品會怎么樣。首部“偵探柯莫藍·史崔克”系列驚險小說《布谷鳥的呼喚》2013年出版，署名為羅伯特·加爾布雷斯（據(jù)說此人為“前皇家軍隊警察便衣偵查員”），備受好評?！缎瞧谌仗┪钍繄蟆坊苏?個月才證實羅琳是此書的作者。

Theres always a bit more. Though Rowling has concluded the series， she hasnt left the characters alone. As well as the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the 18，000 words of additional content on the original Pottermore website， Rowling produced real-life versions of in-universe books： Quidditch Through the Ages， Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

總會有更多。雖然羅琳已經完結了《哈利·波特》系列，但她并未放下個中人物。除了劇本《哈利·波特與被詛咒的孩子》和原創(chuàng)Pottermore網(wǎng)站上的1.8萬字補充內容外，羅琳還將《哈利·波特》魔法宇宙中的書帶進了現(xiàn)實，出版了《神奇的魁地奇球》《神奇動物在哪里》以及《詩翁彼豆故事集》。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）