2021年1月23日发(作者：培养英语兴趣)
村上春树在耶路撒冷文学奖上的演讲（中英文）

Good
evening.
I
have
come
to
Jerusalem
today
as
a
novelist,
which
is
to
say
as
a
professional
spinner
of
lies.
晚 上好。今天我来到耶路撒冷，作为一个小说家，也就是说，作为一个
以编写谎话为生的人。








Of course, novelists are not the only ones who tell lies. Politicians do it, too, as we all know.
Diplomats
and
generals
tell
their
own
kinds
of
lies
on
occasion,
as
do
used
car
salesmen,
butchers
and
builders.
The
lies
of
novelists
differ
from
others,
however,
in
that
no
one
criticizes the novelist as immoral for telling lies. Indeed, the bigger and better his lies and the
more ingeniously he creates them, the more he is likely to be praised by the public and the
critics. Why should that be?







当然，小说 作者们不是唯一说谎的人。政治家们，如我们所知，也说谎。外交官和将军们有时也说
着他们那种类型的 谎言，
就如同汽车推销员，
屠夫，
和建筑师一样。
然而小说家的谎言与其它谎 言不同，
因为没有人会指责他的谎言不道德。确实，他的谎话越大、他把谎话讲得越精巧、谎言被创造得 越像天
才之作，大众与评论就越会赞美他。这是为什么？




My answer would be this: namely, that by telling skilful lies--which is to say, by making up
fictions that appear to be true--the novelist can bring a truth out to a new place and shine a
new light on it. In most cases, it is virtually impossible to grasp a truth in its original form and
depict it accurately. This is why we try to grab its tail by luring the truth from its hiding place,
transferring
it
to
a
fictional
location,
and
replacing
it
with
a
fictional
form.
In
order
to
accomplish
this,
however,
we
first
have
to
clarify
where
the
truth- lies
within
us,
within
ourselves. This is an important qualification for making up good lies.














我的答案将会是这样的：那就是， 通过讲述充满了技巧的谎言
——
也就是说，通过制造看上去真实
的小说
——< br>小说家可以将真相放到一个新的所在从而让它显得更为清晰。
而大多数情况下，
要想从原 始
事态中抓住真相并且将它准确地描述出来实际上是不可能的。这就是为什么我们试着去抓住真相的尾< br>巴，将它从它藏身的地方引诱出来，把它转移到小说式的所在，并且给它换上小说式的形态。然而为了做到这一点，我们首先必须弄清真相藏身于我们、我们自己内部的何处。这是一种创作好的谎言所需要
的重要的能力。








Today, however, I have no intention of lying. I will try to be as honest as I can. There are
only a few days in the year when I do not engage in telling lies, and today happens to be one of
them.











然而今天，我不想撒谎。我会试着尽量诚实。 一年之中仅仅只有几天时间，我会不讲谎话，而今天
碰巧就是其中之一。






So let me tell you the truth. In Japan a fair number of people advised me not to come here
to
accept
the
Jerusalem
Prize.
Some
even
warned
me
they
would
instigate
a
boycott
of
my
books if I came. The reason for this, of course, was the fierce fighting that was raging in Gaza.
The U.N. reported that more than a thousand people had lost their lives in the blockaded city of
Gaza, many of them unarmed citizens--children and old people.













所以请允许我告诉你们 真相。在日本，许多人建议我不要来这里接受耶路撒冷文学奖。有一些人甚
至警告我，说如果我来了，他 们会对我的书发起抵制。这一切的原因当然在于，加沙地带所发生的惨烈
的枪战。
联合国报告说 在封锁的加沙城有超过千计的人身亡，
其中的很多是毫无武装的平民
——
孩子和

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老人。






Any number of times after receiving notice of the award, I asked myself whether traveling
to Israel at a time like this and accepting a literary prize was the proper thing to do, whether
this would create the impression that I supported one side in the conflict, that I endorsed the
policies of a nation that chose to unleash its overwhelming military power. Neither, of course,
do I wish to see my books subjected to a boycott.














从得知获奖之时起，我就问着自己，在这样一个时间去到以色列领取文学奖项是否合适，是否这会
给人带 来我支持冲突某一方、我赞同某国决意释放其势不可挡的武力的政策的印象。当然同时，我不希
望看到我 的书遭到抵制。





Finally, however, after careful consideration, I made up my mind to come here. One reason
for my decision was that all too many people advised me not to do it. Perhaps, like many other
novelists,
I
tend
to
do
the
exact
opposite
of
what
I
am
told.
If
people
are
telling
me--
and
especially
if
they
are
warning
me--
“Don’t
go
there,”
“Don’t
do
that,”
I
tend
to
want
to
“go
there”
and “do that”.
It’s
in
my
nature,
you might
say,
as
a
novelist. Novelists
are
a
special
breed. They cannot genuinely trust anything they have not seen with their own eyes or touched
with their own hands.













然而最终，在细致地一番考虑之后，我决意来到这里。我作此决定的一个原因就是太多人建议我不
要来到 这里。也许就像其他很多小说家一样，我打算恰恰就要去做那些我被劝告不要去做的事。如果人
们告诉我
——
并且尤其是如果他们是在警告我
——“
别去那儿
”
，< br>“
别那样做
”
，我则倾向于
“
就去那儿
”
，
“
就那样做
”
。也许你们会说，这是我作为作家的天性。小说家们都是怪胎。 他们就是不肯相信任何他们
没有用自己的眼睛看到或者用自己的双手摸到的事。






And that is why I am here. I chose to come here rather than stay away. I chose to see for
myself rather than not to see. I chose to speak to you rather than to say nothing.













所以那就是我为什么来到了这里。我选择了来 到这里而非回避。我选择了亲眼见证而非转头不看。
我选择了对你们发表演讲而非沉默不语。






Please do allow me to deliver a message, one very personal message. It is something that I
always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece
of
paper
and
paste
it
to
the
wall:
rather,
it
is
carved
into
the
wall
of
my
mind,
and
it
goes
something like this:













请允许我，传达一条讯息，一条非常私人的讯息。这是我写作的时候一直记在心里 的东西。我还从
来没有将它写到纸上或者贴在墙上，但我将它刻入了我头脑的深处，它差不多是这样的：






“Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the
side of the egg.”














“
在一面高大、坚固的墙和一只撞向 墙的鸡蛋之间，我将永远，站在鸡蛋的一边。
”






Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg.
Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will
do it. But if there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall,

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