William Faulkner
Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature
originally delivered December 10, 1950 in Stockholm Sweden
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work -- a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.
我感到這份獎金不是授予我個人而是授予我的工作的,授予我一生從事關(guān)于人類精神的嘔心瀝血工作.我從事這項工作,不是為名,更不是為利,而是為了從人的精神原料中創(chuàng)造出一些從前不曾有過的東西.因此,這份獎金只不過是托我保管而已.為這份獎金的錢找到與獎金原來的目的和意義相稱的用途并不難,但我還想為獎金的榮譽找到承受者.我愿意利用這個時刻,利用這個舉世矚目的講壇,向那些聽到我說話并已獻身同一艱苦勞動的男女青年致敬.他們中肯定有人有一天也會站到我現(xiàn)在站著的地方.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.
我們今天的悲劇是人們普遍存在一種生理上的恐懼,這種恐懼存在已久,以致我們能夠忍受下去了.現(xiàn)在再沒有精神上的問題了.唯一的問題是：我什么時候會被炸得粉身碎骨?正因為如此,今天從事寫作的男女青年已經(jīng)忘記了人類內(nèi)心的沖突.然而,只有接觸到這種內(nèi)心沖突才能產(chǎn)生出好作品,因為這是唯一值得寫,值得嘔心瀝血地去寫的.
He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed -- love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
他一定要重新認識這些問題.他必須使自己明白世間最可鄙的事情莫過于恐懼.他必須使自己永遠忘卻恐懼,在他的工作室里除了心底古老的真理之外,不允許任何別的東西有容身之地.缺了這古老的普遍真理,任何小說都只能曇花一現(xiàn),注定要失敗;這些真理就是愛情,榮譽,憐憫,自尊,同情,犧牲等感情.若是他做不到這樣,他的力氣終歸白費.他不是寫愛情而是寫情欲,他寫的失敗是沒有人感到失去可貴東西的失敗,他寫的勝利是沒有希望,甚至沒有憐憫或同情的勝利.他不是為有普遍意義的死亡而悲傷,所以留不下深刻的痕跡.他不是在寫心靈而是在寫器官.
Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.
在他重新懂得這些之前,他寫作時,就猶如站在人類末日中去觀察末日的來臨.我不接受人類末日的手法.因為人能傳種接代而說人是不朽的,這很容易.因為即使最后一次鐘聲已經(jīng)消失,消失在再也沒有潮水沖刷,映在落日的余暉里,海上最后一塊無用的礁石之旁時,還會有一個聲音,那就是人類微弱的,不斷的說話聲,這樣說也很容易.但是我不能接受這種說法.我相信人類不僅能傳種接代,而且能戰(zhàn)勝一切.人之不朽不是因為在動物中唯獨他能永遠發(fā)出聲音,而是因為他有靈魂,有同情心,有犧牲和忍耐精神.
The poet’s, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
詩人和作家的責任就是把這些寫出來.詩人和作家的特殊光榮就是去鼓舞人的斗志,使人記住過去曾經(jīng)有過的光榮他曾有過的勇氣,榮譽,希望,自尊,同情,憐憫與犧牲精神以達到不朽.詩人的聲音不應(yīng)只是人類的紀錄,而應(yīng)是幫助人類永存并得到勝利的支柱和棟梁.