看到街头公交站满布的电影《我不是潘金莲》(I Am Not Madame Bovary)的海报,小编不禁心头一热,想起了阅读刘震云原著时心中那澎湃的波涛啊,还有震云老师在某个平安夜就该书接受《中国日报》专访的时候认真严肃地谈到了“一粒芝麻怎么变成了西瓜,一只蚂蚁又怎么变成了大象”(Turn a sesame seed into a watermelon, an ant into an elephant.)的始末。
您有没有见过一本书前100来页是序言(Prologue)一,接下来的160页又是序言二,最后的最后共17页为正文,正文标题还大大地写着“正文:玩呢 (The Main Story: For Fun)”?
刘震云就是这么严肃地调皮着。
也正是这本书的荒诞和幽默吸引了他的老搭档冯小刚导演。
刚刚因本片斩获西班牙圣塞巴斯蒂安国际电影节金贝壳奖的冯导说自己拍了一部“任性”的电影——在整个影片中采取了圆形构图,就像为风景加了画框或为园林一隅加了圆形窗框洞门。
倒也跟刘震云原著中飘逸着世说杂记类古体小说似美感的“段子”映衬上了。
“我看了震云的小说,我觉得是特别有幽默感……这个类型,它还不是说我直接丢一个包袱出来,让你哈哈大笑,它是带有某种荒诞性的,是有道理的荒诞。是你看完了会在心里头一琢磨,噗嗤你笑了的那种,”冯小刚说。
那么,小说讲了个什么故事呢?
刘震云的上一部长篇《一句顶一万句》讲述了流转千万里就为了寻找能与之说得上话的人。探讨了人内心的孤独感在无神社会和有神社会的不同表现:一个可能倾诉之后,感到很孤独;一个是“没处说”,问题出在“找谁说”,强调一个“找”。
而《我不是潘金莲》围绕一个“告”字:一句不得体的气话“我咋觉得你是潘金莲呢?”,引发了从县级法院官员到县长、市长和省长的撤职风波和政治风云的变幻。
Liu Zhenyun creates a panorama of Chinese political structure through a humorous drama featuring an extraordinarily persistent rural woman, Li Xuelian.
细心的你肯定看到了,电影英译名用了Madame Bovary,对的,就是福楼拜的《包法利夫人》,而该书的英文版标题则是I Did Not Kill My Husband,由著名汉学家葛浩文Howard Goldblatt夫妇操刀,精彩译文随后会送上。
这是个明写当代“潘金莲”告状,实讽官场生态的故事。官场的环环相扣、官场的腐败无能、官场的荒诞、官员的无奈,刘震云没有分毫回避,却解剖得入木三分。
什么叫腐败?腐败并不仅仅是贪赃枉法、贪污受贿和搞女人。最大的腐败,是身在其位不谋其政。比这更腐败的,是像刁成信这样的人,身在其位在谋反政。更大的腐败是,刁成信明明在反政,你还奈何不了他,因这常务副市长不是蔡富邦确定的,同样也是省里确定的。
Corruption is narrowly defined as bribery, lawlessness, graft, degeneration, and philandering. But as its worst, corruption is the neglect of one’s official responsibilities or, as in the case of Diao Chengxin, the obstruction of those duties. Worse still was that there was nothing Cai could do to Diao in regard to his open defiance, since the decision to appoint him as executive vice-mayor rested not with him, but with provincial authorities.
就好像17世纪英国作家约翰?班扬(John Bunyan)的讽刺寓言《天路历程》(The Pilgrim’s Progress)一样,刘震云作品中的人名都很明显地带着“笑”果,特别是官员的。
县长史为民(For the People Shi),法院专委董宪法(Constitution Dong),法院院长荀正义(Impartial Xun),法官王公道(Justice Wang),就连葛大师也没忍住在小说译文中标了出来。
然而刘震云说了,“我希望能越过政治这些,去看日常生活的场景,才会有意义”,又说自己在文学上达到了两个最新的回归:“回到生活场景和回到倾听”。
对于中国人生活场景中的幽默,他说:
“所有世界上的生活都是喜剧生活,所有的悲剧都可看成喜剧。人家说‘刘氏幽默’,不是我幽默,是生活本身幽默。有的是事儿幽默,有的是话儿幽默,这些都是浅层次的,比事幽默的事是里边的理儿:大家都知道不对,却按照这个来办,这个是深层次的幽默”。
"My novel is actually about the logic of life, about its absurdity, and the power of being absurd."
《我不是潘金莲》的女主角叫李雪莲,上过高中的乡村妇女。
二十年前,她与在县化肥厂开货车的前夫为了“合法化”意外怀上的二胎而“假”离婚,谁想领了离婚证后,前夫很快娶了别人,概不承认“假离婚”一茬。
In the story, Li fakes a divorce with her husband, who treats the divorce as real and then marries another woman.
为了讨回公道,李雪莲在县法院打了官司,输了。不服闹到了市里,被拘留了一周。出来后本打算找前夫讨回这一句话的理,不想反被前夫讽为“潘金莲”。
Li tries to sue the betrayed man but is rebuffed by the court. As the fight between Li and her husband accelerates, she gets a bad name from the husband, who labels her as Pan Jinlian, a character of the classic Outlaws of the Marsh who is known as an unfaithful wife.
李雪莲一怒之下上了北京,阴差阳错间进入了正在开“全国人民代表大会”的人民大会堂,冤情被某位听会的国家领导人秘书得知,最终结束并影响了从县到省相关各级官员的政治前途。
Li persists in visiting officials at different levels to seek help. By accident, she meets one of the country's top leaders. The meeting ultimately changes the fate of all the officials she has visited before.
接下来的二十年,李雪莲的告状没有停止,因为前夫并没有得到任何惩罚。
二十年后的一年,当地的官员在劝阻雪莲告状时激化了矛盾,雪莲本已打算在那一年放弃,又不惜带病上京,最后竟以前夫意外离世的消息而黯然截止。
至此处,李雪莲告状的故事已经讲完,才是小说的铺垫部分,真正的故事主角是史为民。(谁!?)嗯,小编也是又重新翻回书的开头才想起这是涉李雪莲事件被撤职的20年前的县长。
这史为民被撤职后,返回老家以卖秘传“连骨熟肉”为生,肉每天只煮两锅,排队之人买完为止。然后固定每周三与好友打麻将,过着逍遥的日子。
Shi is a county chief who is relieved of his post because of Li. After losing his job, he makes a living by running a restaurant, selling a popular meat dish.
原文记载了这肉有多香。
一口肉到嘴,马上知道这“连骨熟肉”的好处。它咸里透香,香里透甜,甜里透辣,辣里又透爽和滑;滋味不但入道肉里,也入到骨头里;吃过肉,敲骨吸髓,滋味也丝毫不减。
They knew at once what made it special: It was salty yet fragrant; fragrant yet sweet; sweet yet spicy; spicy yet bracing and smooth. The flavor oozed from the meat but also the marrow of the bone.
一次老史去东北吊唁,回程至北京正值春运,着急买不到火车票回程去赶当周的麻将局,便出一招,在北京火车站举出一张写着“我要申冤”的纸片,遂如愿,顺利被俩协警押上了返程的火车……
Shi, trapped at the Beijing railway station during the Spring Festival travel rush, is eager to get home. He decides to play a trick. He shows a piece of paper in the railway station, saying he wants to see higher officials for a wrong done against him. Policemen consider him a "troublemaker" and put him on the train to his hometown.
这就是仅3000字左右的小说正文:“玩呢”。
神来之笔还有,李雪莲最后走到了北京郊区的一片桃林准备上吊,被这片桃园采摘园的主人劝了下来,说“你要真想死,也帮我做件好事,去对面山坡上,那里也是桃林,花也都开着,那是老曹承包的,他跟我是对头”。
还有,作为第一部分的附录的一小页,写国家领导人跟秘书对省长撤掉所有涉事官员一举的评价—这可是中国当代小说中不多见的场景和对话,在此就不更多剧透了。
该书责编张维说:
“他(刘震云)用李雪莲二十年的执意奔走告诉我们,不要再执‘潘金莲’所执,生活可以像史为民那样,用摒弃、荒诞对抗荒诞,这也许是一条生活的捷径。”
Liu says in the novel, Li takes a solemn view on life, while Shi laughs at life's absurdity. The author is skewed toward Shi's attitude in confronting the ridiculous in life.
------我是正经和彩蛋之间的分界线------
刘震云出生在河南新乡延津县,曾说“写作在我家不遗传,我妈都不大识字”。他1978年考入北京大学中文系,开始了专业的创作,《一地鸡毛》已经成了现代汉语新成语,《手机》、《我叫刘跃进》、《温故1942》都是有影视改编的名篇。
他的作品以幽默讽刺见长,灵活地使用各种市井口语和乡音来写作。嬉笑怒骂之下,是对中国人的固有心态和思维逻辑的反思。
A master of cold humor and laid-back satire, Liu shifts smoothly between colloquial narration and accented dialogues. He worries about the Chinese mindset and its deep-down logic that shapes the society.
刘震云曾说自己每天早上6点半起床,先跑步,上午和下午都用来写作,晚上用来看书。晚上不写,因为“黑夜就该睡觉”,写作不太环保。
刘震云时常在电影中客串。细心的读者在1997年电影《甲方乙方》(The Dream Factory)大概能发现他出演了“男青年”,他也在将要上映的电影《一句顶一万句》中扮演了角色。他的电影大都由自己编剧,谈起电影和文学,他的体会是:
电影就像在酒店的大堂里谈话,而文学是在小包间里窃窃私语。
Movies are like conversation in a crowded hotel lobby, while literature is like a private chat in a little room.
电影呈现给观众的是一盘色香味俱全的佳肴,而文学展现的却是后厨工作的场景,充满了汗水,也可能并不体面。
Films are all about presenting a table of dishes full of aroma, color and taste, while literature shows all the workings of the kitchen, with sweat and heat, whether graceful or not.
电影里很难展现心理活动,只能靠演员的面部表情,而文学提供了无数种方式去表现任何一件事。
It's hard to show mental processes in films. The actors depend on their facial expressions to show inner thought. But with writing, we have multiple means to present anything.
刘震云是在北大念书的时候认识妻子郭建梅的。就是那个广告“公益律师这条路不好走,我却走了12年”里的中国首位公益律师。两人的互相支撑和理解已经是报告文学的题材。
重点是,他们的女儿,小名唤作“妞妞”的刘雨霖,正在崭露头角,圈粉无数。
纽约大学导演专业毕业,执导了获得奥斯卡(学生单元)最佳叙事片奖的短片《门神》(Door God),刘雨霖有着突出的颜值和父亲的幽默。
她曾在《一九四二》电影拍摄现场担任场记,最新作品就是父亲的《一句顶一万句》,植根父亲的故乡延津,探讨中国式的孤独。
最后,爱心满满地送上《我不是潘金莲》的葛大师高能译文,有很多很多成语的译法哦。
又说:
He moves on.
“我有时琢磨阿,有些古代的成语,还是经得起琢磨的,还是大有深意的。譬如讲,‘千里之堤,溃于蚁穴’,譬如讲,‘防微杜渐’,譬如讲‘因小失大’。总而言之,都在说一个‘小’字。许多人栽跟头,没载在‘大’字上,皆载到‘小’字上。或者,没领会‘小’字的深意。”
“Sometimes I found myself contemplating classical idioms, many of which are worth pondering, since they are so profound. Take ‘a tiny ant hole can ruin a dike,’ for instance. Or ‘attend to the small to ward off the big.’ Then there's ‘save a little and lose a lot.’ Notice that they all deal with idea of something ‘small.’ Many people stumble not over the ‘big,’ but the ‘small.’ They can’t grasp its profound significance.”
郑重忙点头:
Zheng Zhong nodded in agreement.
“我就是因小失大,我就没领会‘小’字的深意。”
“I’m one of those who tried to save a little and lost a lot. The small was my undoing.”
马文彬:“还有一句成语,叫‘塞翁失马,焉知非福’,这回载了跟头,下一回知道‘由此及彼’和‘举一反三’,恰恰也就进步了。”
“There’s another idiom, ” Ma said, “that goes, ‘the loss of a horse may not be a bad thing.’ Stumble once, and the next time you’ll think twice. Draw inferences from one instance. I believe you’ve learnt your lesson.”
不管身远游还是心远游的你,在国庆大长假期间读了哪几本书呢?
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