【经济学人】《达克》—你将找到自己愤世嫉俗的影子丨2017.01.28丨总第799期

DR JAMES DARKE, a retired teacher of literature who collects first editions of Dickens, has walled himself off from the world. For a long stretch of this unusual first novel, the reason is hinted at, but not revealed. It is an extreme reaction to the pain of loss, the reader learns. Darke retreats and broods , cutting off his only daughter, Lucy.

詹姆斯·达克博士是一个收藏狄更斯初版书的退休文学教师，他过着与世隔绝的生活。其原因在这本不同寻常的小说里用很长的篇幅加以暗示而并未挑明。读者慢慢发现，这是他对失去的事物感到痛苦而作出的极端的反应。达克避开人群，忿恨计较，还切断了他与唯一的女儿露西的联系。

• stretch:v.申展，张开

• hint:n.暗示线索v.暗示

• extreme:adj.极端的，偏激的

• retreat:v.撤退

• brood:v.沉思，（怨忿或不快地）想，n.一窝

The plot would not seem promising. But in Darke, Rick Gekoski has created an extraordinarily memorable character. He is an epic misanthrope and equal-opportunity bigot whose every utterance is filled with invective or despair. （读者试译） He trashes Jews and Catholics, the working class and writers from “fucking T.S. Eliot” to “that frigid snitbag”, Virginia Woolf. Literature may have been his life, but in his darkest moment, it lets him down.

虽然小说的情节貌似不太明朗，但是瑞克·杰寇斯基在《达克》中塑造了一位特别突出、令人难忘的角色。 （期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~） 他看不起犹太人和天主教徒，还看不起工薪阶层和“该死的T·S 艾略特”和“冷淡的小贱人弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙”之类的作家。文学算得上是他一生的追求，但是在他生命里最黑暗的时期，文学却使他失望了

• Utterance 说话方式

It’s a sly turnabout for Mr Gekoski, a British-American academic and rare-book dealer known for chronicling the bookish life in broadcast, and in books such as “ Outside of a Dog ”. His first foray into fiction, at the age of 72, is nonetheless stuffed with literary allusions , along with much wonderful writing. A colleague acts out a Tennyson poem “waving his arms like a drowning fairy”. Darke speaks in “a strangulated croak, like a frog singing Wagner”.

杰寇斯基先生是拥有英美双重国籍的学者，同时也是著名的珍本书经销商，他因在广播上和《除狗之外》等书中讲述与书有关的人生故事而闻名，因此写小说对他而言是一种非常灵活的转变。虽然他第一次尝试写小说已经72岁，但是他的这部作品中不但有众多的文学典故，同时也兼备大量绝佳的描写。一位同行曾经演绎过丁尼生的诗《挥舞手臂的落水仙女》。达克“讲话时的声音低沉嘶哑，像极了一只青蛙在咏唱瓦格纳歌剧”。

• Sly：adj.狡猾的，狡诈的，灵活的

• Turnabout：n.回旋，转变

• Chronicle：v.记录，把……载入编年史

• n.编年史，年代记，记录

• Outside of a dog：除了狗以外，书籍是人类最好的朋友。——美国演员格劳乔·马克思

• Foray：n.突袭，侵略，冒险

• Literary allusions：文学典故

So gleefully do Darke and his wife Suzy rip into those they consider beneath them, however, that one is tempted to read the novel as parody . There are many clever, biting takedowns , a form of sparring greatly enjoyed by those educated at Oxbridge. Yet the reader is also asked to empathise with Darke’s “helplessness” and “desperation”, to recognise that “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side.” Some readers will, others won’t; Darke’s repellent views and callousness towards his daughter’s suffering are egregious . Mr Gekoski gives this modern-day Scrooge three visitations that pry him open bit by bit, but Darke’s redemption is nothing like what the “slobberer” Dickens would have conjured . It is partial, and only partially convincing.

达克和他的妻子苏茜兴高采烈地批判那些他们认为不如他们的人，因此读者不由得把这本小说当做诙谐作品来读。书中有不少机智而辛辣的揶揄，英国的上流知识分子很是欣赏这种斗嘴。这本书甚至想让读者同情达克的“无助”和“绝望”，并承认“每个人都是像月亮一样，有黑暗的一面。”有些读者能体会到，有些读者则无法赞同。达克令人生厌的观点言论和对自己女儿的痛苦的冷酷无情使人震惊。杰寇斯基先生描写了对这个现代的守财奴的三次造访，一点点将他呈现，但是达克的救赎并非像“流哈喇子的”狄更斯写的那样。这是偏袒，只有一部分令人信服。

• Rip into 抨击

• Parody  拙劣的模仿；恶搞

• Takedowns n.羞辱，屈辱

• sparring 辩论 顶嘴 争论

• Repellent 讨厌的，令人排斥的，令人厌恶的

• callousness 无情

• Egregious 极坏的，异乎寻常的

• Scrooge 守财奴，吝啬鬼，斯克鲁奇（狄更斯小说《圣诞颂歌》中的老吝啬鬼）

• Redemption 赎 回，偿还，救赎

• Conjured 祈求，恳求

Above all, this is an original and bleakly funny portrait of grief. Suffering is something women can stomach and men cannot, Lucy says. Darke flees, entirely solipsistic , magnificently consistent in his scathing, odious arrogance.

最重要的是，这是原创的、对一个悲惨得好笑的哀伤者形象的刻画。露西说，痛苦是男人不能忍受，女人可以忍受的东西。达克逃离了，他的完全以自我为中心的表现和他尖刻可憎的傲慢性格极其地一致。

• magnificently 壮丽地，出色地，极好地

• Scathing 严厉的，尖刻的

• odious 可憎的，讨厌的

翻译 ▍夏凉生，下罗小柜员，陌上，Neo

审核 ▍白夜叉

编辑 ▍毛毛