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寥寥數筆透出的光明

1953年海明威《老人與海》諾貝爾文學獎得獎致詞

寫作和說話其實是同一回事,重點在怎麼把話有邏輯、誠懇地說清楚。

【Before you start reading…】
WHO
歐內斯特·米勒·海明威Ernest Miller Hemingway 1899年7月21日-1961年7月2日
美國記者、作家。20世紀最著名的小說家之一。

WHAT
1952年《老人與海》先後獲得普利茲獎、諾貝爾文學獎。
作品《戰地春夢》、《太陽照常升起》被列入20世紀百大英文小說(美國現代圖書館)。

HIGHLIGHT
1954年的諾貝爾得獎致詞也保有同特質:文長短、用字簡單、段落乾淨。

【What people said about him…】

海明威對當代寫作世界的影響非常巨大,他那乾淨冷冽、線條清明的筆法,啟發卡爾維諾、馬奎茲、沙林傑甚至華人名家張愛玲等。」--作家吳名益

海明威文句簡單清楚,文體帶有剛強、簡潔的特質。」--出版人顏擇雅

《老人與海》是大師級的筆鋒,一如以往,海明威擁有超過所有人的傑出表現」--紐約時報資深評論家Orville Prescott 

《老人與海》有令人欽佩的對話、速繪的圖片生動,整理來說,他抓到人們的生活,並且無障礙地呈現出來。」--美國作家兼評論家Louis Kronenberger

 

【1954《老人與海》諾貝爾文學得獎致詞全文】
Having no facility for speech-making and no command of oratory nor any domination of rhetoric,
I wish to thank the administrators of the generosity of Alfred Nobel for this Prize.
我不善辭令,缺乏演說的才能,只想感謝阿弗雷德諾貝爾評獎委員會的委員們慷慨授予我這項獎金。

No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility.
There is no need to list these writers.
Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.
想到之前沒有得獎的偉大作家們,沒有一個作者領獎時能感到當之無愧。
這裡無須一一列舉這些作家的名字。在座的每個人都可以根據他的學識和良心提出自己的名單來。

It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech
in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart.
Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes,
and in this sometimes he is fortunate;
but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy
that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.
要求我國的大使在這兒宣讀一篇演說,把一個作家心中所感受到的一切都說盡是不可能的。
一個人作品中的一些東西可能不會馬上被人理解,對他來說,這有時是種幸運;
但是它們終究會變得清晰,根據它們以及作家所具有的煉金本領高低,
他將青史留名或者被人遺忘。

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.
Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing.
He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates.
For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.
寫作,充其量是一種孤寂的生活。為作家設計的組織固然可以排遣他們的孤獨,但是我懷疑它們能促進創作。免除孤單時,他的聲望日增,但作品往往每下愈況。而一個在孤寂中工作的作家,如果他又確實不同凡響,那他就必須面對永恆或者面對缺乏永恆的每一天。

For a true writer each book should be a new beginning
where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment.
He should always try for something that has never been done
or that others have tried and failed.
Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
對於一個真正的作家來說,每一本書都應該成為他繼續探索那些尚未涉及的領域的一個新起點。他應該永遠嘗試去做那些從來沒有人做過或者他人做過但卻已經失敗的事。這樣他就會有幸獲得成功。
How simple the writing of literature would be
if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written.
It is because we have had such great writers in the past
that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.
如果僅僅是將已經寫好的作品換一種方式來重新詮釋,那麼文學創作就顯得太輕而易舉了。我們的前輩大師們留下了偉大的業績,正因為如此,一個普通作家常被他們逼人的光輝驅趕到遠離他可能到達的地方,陷於孤立無援的境地。

I have spoken too long for a writer.
A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.
Again I thank you.
作為一個作家,我已經講得太多了。
作家應當把要說的話寫出來,而不是講出來。
再一次的,謝謝大家。

【海明威著名寫作技巧--Iceberg Theory 冰山原則

“I always try to write on the principal of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show.” –Ernest Hemingway, 1958

「我總是試著用冰山的原理來書寫。冰山上有八分之一,沒寫出的八分之七藏在水面下。你能刪除任何已知的事物,留在水面下,而這些隱藏的部分,會更強化你的冰山。」

解析:最早海明威在Death in the Afternoon《午後之死》當中提到。如果在寫作時省略了你了解的東西,它在作品中不但不會消失,還會被襯托出來;但如果省略了你不知道的東西,那麼他在作品中就會像漏洞一樣明顯。

“If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” —Ernest Hemingway in Death in the Afternoon

寫作時要小心這個技巧,不是所有細節都能砍去,很可能會影響作品的架構、價值、詩性。寫作者必須知道如何衡量前後文的連結性,並留下讀者能深入挖掘的空間。


 

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本文收錄於英語島English Island 2016年12月號
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