A tragic hero’s tale
一个悲剧英雄的传说
Jul 7th 2012 | from the print edition
2012年7月7日|印刷版
The Dream of the Celt. By Mario Vargas Llosa. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 404 pages; $27. Faber and Faber; £18.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《凯尔特人之梦》，马里奥•巴尔加斯•略萨著。法勒-斯特劳斯-吉鲁出版社出版；404页；27美元；费伯出版社出版；18.99欧元。可于Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk购买。
IN 1884 Roger Casement, an ascetic young Ulsterman, joined an expedition up the Congo river led by Henry Morton Stanley, believing that commerce, Christianity and colonialism would emancipate the dark continent. When he left Africa 20 years later, Casement was the leading figure in an international campaign to denounce the abuses committed by the Congo’s Belgian colonisers. As British consul, he published a report that detailed how the African population were beaten and mutilated to force them to supply rubber for export to Europe.
早在1884年，亨利•莫顿•史丹利组建起一只前往刚果河岸上游的远征队，来自北爱尔兰的罗杰•凯斯门特响应加入，这名信奉禁欲主义的小伙子相信，通过贸易，基督教义，殖民政策定会驱散这片大陆的黑暗。离开非洲的20年后，他就领导起一场国际运动，声讨在刚果滥用职权的比利时殖民者。担当英国领事期间，他详细地在一篇报道里说明了非洲人名的境遇：欧洲殖民者对他们进行鞭挞、残害，以此迫使他们为其提供橡胶出口。
When news reached London that the rubber boom had prompted a similar reign of terror against the indigenous population in Putumayo, in the Peruvian Amazon, the British foreign secretary sent Casement to investigate with the words: “You’re a specialist in atrocities. You can’t say no.” His findings prompted the collapse of the Peruvian Amazon Company, the London-registered firm responsible. Casement was knighted, and the Times hailed him as “a great humanitarian”.
无独有偶，普图马约土著居民也因为“橡胶热”而忍受着暴政。当消息传到伦敦后，英国外交大臣派遣凯斯门特前去调查，并附以：“对待暴行，你是专家。你不能说‘不’”。经其调查，这家英国注册的公司很快倒闭，撤出秘鲁亚马逊。此后，凯斯门特先是封爵，更是被《泰晤士报》誉为“伟大的人道主义者”。
A passionate man of complex character, Casement is a tailor-made protagonist for Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer who won the Nobel prize in literature in 2010. “The Dream of the Celt” is a meticulously researched fictional biography and a clever psychological novel.
正是这样一位性格复杂而热情的人物，恰好成为了2010年诺贝尔文学奖得主、秘鲁作家马里奥•巴尔加斯•略萨笔下的主人公。《凯尔特人之梦》不仅是研究翔实的虚构传记，更是一本构思巧妙的心理小说。
Casement’s fame quickly turned to notoriety. Only a few years after his lauded success in Peru he was hanged in London’s Pentonville prison as a traitor.
好景不长，凯斯门特很快落得身败名裂，在秘鲁颇为成功的几年后，他便因叛国罪绞死于伦敦普顿维尔监狱。
Having transferred his thirst for justice to the fight for Irish independence, he sought German military support for the cause during the first world war. Casement was caught in 1916 on an Irish beach during a foiled attempt to land 20,000 German rifles. His British captors sought to besmirch further his name by circulating diaries in which he detailed homosexual encounters with young men on several continents.
凯斯门特曾将那份对正义的诉求传递给爱尔兰独立运动，并为此在一战期间寻求德军支持。1916年，由于运输2000支步枪未果，在卸货时被扣押在爱尔兰一处海滩上。这群英国俘虏者得寸进尺，四处传播他那满篇邂逅各洲年轻男同志的日记，对其加以诽谤。
The strongest passages in the book are those in which the author skilfully interweaves scenes in Pentonville prison with details of Casement’s earlier life to trace the evolution of Casement’s consciousness. “The Dream of the Celt” is a moral tale. It is about the choice between denial or denunciation in the face of evil, and the fine line between activism and fanaticism. That makes an old story strikingly contemporary.
略萨巧妙地编织了普顿维尔监狱的景象与凯斯门特早期的生活细节，以此探寻他的意识演变，而这段叙述也成为全书最为精彩的章节。可以说，《凯尔特人之梦》是一则道德故事：面对罪行时，如何在背弃与谴责间抉择，如何在实践主义与狂热盲从间划清界限。正因如此，老掉牙的故事也可讲地如此富有现代味。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
译后感：
还记得约瑟夫•康拉德写地《黑暗之心》么？在面对野蛮文化中时，那自由而暴力的特性散发出快感让来自文明世界的船长们迷失了。脱掉衣服，带上骷髅项链，如此轻松，人就可以变得残暴、独裁、无理性，在一个没有秩序和道理的丛林深入，人性的丑恶终于找到了自己的“伊甸园”。那一刻，开始相信“黑暗的心脏”即是人性本恶，最最黑暗的丛林，也比不上人性在迷失那一刻、奔向堕落的无法拯救与邪恶。不是黑暗的丛林让人们变的迷失，而是黑暗的丛林，帮助人们找回了自己的本性——人性，远比丛林的险恶更加黑暗。
还记得大卫•林奇拍地《象人》么？在得到怜悯的医生救助后，似人似象的约瑟浑身遮着白布，那罩上细孔，像是这个世界所能给予他的唯一的窗口，细得旁侧艰难。他小心翼翼地藏起他的声音，他的灵魂，他是如此纤细至生怕发出一丝声响伤害众生。他匍匐在众人脚下，那么低那么低，掩藏起他说话写字与阅读的能力，掩藏起他“虽然穿过死荫的幽谷，也不会惧怕”的勇敢，然而，他却又是那么地谦卑，世界上的万事万物都仿若在他的眼中，如水晶剔透却又娇贵。当象人学着那些上流社会的人们，品味着暖茶，喷着香水，都令我我感到可笑。如果不如此去做，象人就真的不是人了么？可是所有人知道这没什么不对，也不知道我们有多不对。当影片末尾象人终于看到镜中的自己感到害怕时，我不知道，又有多少人看到了真正的自己？
还记得略萨为2004年西班牙皇家语言学院出版的《堂吉诃德》做的序言么？“自由即个人选择生活的神圣权利和既无外来压力，亦无附加条件，完全尊重个人的聪敏与智慧。寓居于这种自由思想的灵魂具有怀疑权威和否定一切滥权的深刻性。”于是，当个人自由遇见权利反抗，当所谓现代文明遭遇古老的教条，又有多少人真正思考过自己灵魂的答案呢？或许，我的答案正如苏格拉底所说的那般：我所知道的正如我一无所知。
关键词：后殖民主义；瑞典学院思潮；略萨；爱尔兰独立运动；
一个悲剧英雄的传说
Jul 7th 2012 | from the print edition
2012年7月7日|印刷版
The Dream of the Celt. By Mario Vargas Llosa. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 404 pages; $27. Faber and Faber; £18.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《凯尔特人之梦》，马里奥•巴尔加斯•略萨著。法勒-斯特劳斯-吉鲁出版社出版；404页；27美元；费伯出版社出版；18.99欧元。可于Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk购买。
IN 1884 Roger Casement, an ascetic young Ulsterman, joined an expedition up the Congo river led by Henry Morton Stanley, believing that commerce, Christianity and colonialism would emancipate the dark continent. When he left Africa 20 years later, Casement was the leading figure in an international campaign to denounce the abuses committed by the Congo’s Belgian colonisers. As British consul, he published a report that detailed how the African population were beaten and mutilated to force them to supply rubber for export to Europe.
早在1884年，亨利•莫顿•史丹利组建起一只前往刚果河岸上游的远征队，来自北爱尔兰的罗杰•凯斯门特响应加入，这名信奉禁欲主义的小伙子相信，通过贸易，基督教义，殖民政策定会驱散这片大陆的黑暗。离开非洲的20年后，他就领导起一场国际运动，声讨在刚果滥用职权的比利时殖民者。担当英国领事期间，他详细地在一篇报道里说明了非洲人名的境遇：欧洲殖民者对他们进行鞭挞、残害，以此迫使他们为其提供橡胶出口。
When news reached London that the rubber boom had prompted a similar reign of terror against the indigenous population in Putumayo, in the Peruvian Amazon, the British foreign secretary sent Casement to investigate with the words: “You’re a specialist in atrocities. You can’t say no.” His findings prompted the collapse of the Peruvian Amazon Company, the London-registered firm responsible. Casement was knighted, and the Times hailed him as “a great humanitarian”.
无独有偶，普图马约土著居民也因为“橡胶热”而忍受着暴政。当消息传到伦敦后，英国外交大臣派遣凯斯门特前去调查，并附以：“对待暴行，你是专家。你不能说‘不’”。经其调查，这家英国注册的公司很快倒闭，撤出秘鲁亚马逊。此后，凯斯门特先是封爵，更是被《泰晤士报》誉为“伟大的人道主义者”。
A passionate man of complex character, Casement is a tailor-made protagonist for Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer who won the Nobel prize in literature in 2010. “The Dream of the Celt” is a meticulously researched fictional biography and a clever psychological novel.
正是这样一位性格复杂而热情的人物，恰好成为了2010年诺贝尔文学奖得主、秘鲁作家马里奥•巴尔加斯•略萨笔下的主人公。《凯尔特人之梦》不仅是研究翔实的虚构传记，更是一本构思巧妙的心理小说。
Casement’s fame quickly turned to notoriety. Only a few years after his lauded success in Peru he was hanged in London’s Pentonville prison as a traitor.
好景不长，凯斯门特很快落得身败名裂，在秘鲁颇为成功的几年后，他便因叛国罪绞死于伦敦普顿维尔监狱。
Having transferred his thirst for justice to the fight for Irish independence, he sought German military support for the cause during the first world war. Casement was caught in 1916 on an Irish beach during a foiled attempt to land 20,000 German rifles. His British captors sought to besmirch further his name by circulating diaries in which he detailed homosexual encounters with young men on several continents.
凯斯门特曾将那份对正义的诉求传递给爱尔兰独立运动，并为此在一战期间寻求德军支持。1916年，由于运输2000支步枪未果，在卸货时被扣押在爱尔兰一处海滩上。这群英国俘虏者得寸进尺，四处传播他那满篇邂逅各洲年轻男同志的日记，对其加以诽谤。
The strongest passages in the book are those in which the author skilfully interweaves scenes in Pentonville prison with details of Casement’s earlier life to trace the evolution of Casement’s consciousness. “The Dream of the Celt” is a moral tale. It is about the choice between denial or denunciation in the face of evil, and the fine line between activism and fanaticism. That makes an old story strikingly contemporary.
略萨巧妙地编织了普顿维尔监狱的景象与凯斯门特早期的生活细节，以此探寻他的意识演变，而这段叙述也成为全书最为精彩的章节。可以说，《凯尔特人之梦》是一则道德故事：面对罪行时，如何在背弃与谴责间抉择，如何在实践主义与狂热盲从间划清界限。正因如此，老掉牙的故事也可讲地如此富有现代味。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
译后感：
还记得约瑟夫•康拉德写地《黑暗之心》么？在面对野蛮文化中时，那自由而暴力的特性散发出快感让来自文明世界的船长们迷失了。脱掉衣服，带上骷髅项链，如此轻松，人就可以变得残暴、独裁、无理性，在一个没有秩序和道理的丛林深入，人性的丑恶终于找到了自己的“伊甸园”。那一刻，开始相信“黑暗的心脏”即是人性本恶，最最黑暗的丛林，也比不上人性在迷失那一刻、奔向堕落的无法拯救与邪恶。不是黑暗的丛林让人们变的迷失，而是黑暗的丛林，帮助人们找回了自己的本性——人性，远比丛林的险恶更加黑暗。
还记得大卫•林奇拍地《象人》么？在得到怜悯的医生救助后，似人似象的约瑟浑身遮着白布，那罩上细孔，像是这个世界所能给予他的唯一的窗口，细得旁侧艰难。他小心翼翼地藏起他的声音，他的灵魂，他是如此纤细至生怕发出一丝声响伤害众生。他匍匐在众人脚下，那么低那么低，掩藏起他说话写字与阅读的能力，掩藏起他“虽然穿过死荫的幽谷，也不会惧怕”的勇敢，然而，他却又是那么地谦卑，世界上的万事万物都仿若在他的眼中，如水晶剔透却又娇贵。当象人学着那些上流社会的人们，品味着暖茶，喷着香水，都令我我感到可笑。如果不如此去做，象人就真的不是人了么？可是所有人知道这没什么不对，也不知道我们有多不对。当影片末尾象人终于看到镜中的自己感到害怕时，我不知道，又有多少人看到了真正的自己？
还记得略萨为2004年西班牙皇家语言学院出版的《堂吉诃德》做的序言么？“自由即个人选择生活的神圣权利和既无外来压力，亦无附加条件，完全尊重个人的聪敏与智慧。寓居于这种自由思想的灵魂具有怀疑权威和否定一切滥权的深刻性。”于是，当个人自由遇见权利反抗，当所谓现代文明遭遇古老的教条，又有多少人真正思考过自己灵魂的答案呢？或许，我的答案正如苏格拉底所说的那般：我所知道的正如我一无所知。
关键词：后殖民主义；瑞典学院思潮；略萨；爱尔兰独立运动；
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