[2008.07.26] 村上春树：奔跑者的世界

Haruki Murakami
村上春树

Runner’s world
奔者的世界

Jul 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition

“EVEN though my legs were working now, the thirteen miles from the thirty-four-mile rest stop to the forty-seventh mile were excruciating.” This description of a 62-mile (100-km) “ultra-marathon” in Hokkaido might suggest that, if not a madman, Haruki Murakami, Japan’s foremost “running novelist”, is a very focused man. It is not the only reference to the author’s single-mindedness in this memoir named after Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”.

“即使现在还跑得动，从34公里处的休息站出发，再跑13公里到达47公里处仍是一件痛苦的事”。从此番关于在北海道举行的”超级马拉松”的描述，我们也许可以感觉到：村上春树，作为日本最著名的”长跑小说家”，如果不是一个疯子，必定是一位异常执着的人。这并不只是指他在这部模仿Raymond Carver的《关于爱，说什么》命名的回忆录中所表现出来的一心一意。

Mr Murakami’s slim new work recounts his two decades of habitual long-distance running, and its effect on his mind, body and ability to write. He describes in detail a few of his 27 marathons and numerous triathlons (trials of running,cycling and swimming), including his first marathon, which he ran alone in Greece, from Athens to Marathon, along a highway strewn with dead dogs; and one of his most recent, in New York. This last event, which almost concludes the book, is its leitmotif. As he trains for the race, Mr Murakami muses on his tragic efforts to outpace ageing, in a doomed bid to reduce his rising race times.

村上春树先生这部不长的新作，讲述了他坚持了20年的长跑习惯以及这一习惯对他在心灵，身体和写作能力的影响。他详尽描述了一些有关他所亲历的27项马拉松赛事和数不清的铁人三项(包括长跑，自行车，游泳)的亲身经历，包括他只身希腊的第一次马拉松，从雅典到马拉松，在死狗遍布沿途的公路，以及在纽约的最近一次。而这最后一次正是本书的主旨所在。在训练的日子里，村上春树先生苦苦思索这种试图超越年龄的悲剧性的努力，这一切将无可避免地减少他渐增的比赛次数。

A self-confessed oddball, Mr Murakami is a peculiar memoirist. Much of his book reads like a fitness magazine, with long descriptions of training schedules and diet. Mr Murakami intersperses these with a laconic sort of philosophizing, much of it equally banal: “I think I’ve been able to run for 20 years for a simple reason: it suits me.” Then, now and again, he throws in an elaborate metaphor, comparing, for example, his aching muscles to quarrelling constituents of a French revolutionary tribunal.

并不否认自己是一个怪人，村上春树先生是一位特别的传记作家。很大程度上，他的书读起来像一本健美杂志，包含了大量有关训练计划以及饮食的描述。在其中，村上春树先生穿插了一些简短的哲学式的随想，很多看起来相当平常，比如”我想，这20年能够坚持跑下来，只是因为我适合这项运动。”然后，他不时地抛出一个精心炮制的隐喻，比如，将他酸疼的肌肉与法国革命法庭上争吵不休的选民作以比较。

This shifting register contributes to what is, in the end, a rather puzzling read. A deft technician, Mr Murakami maintains a narrative thrust that would be beyond most contributors to, say, Runner’s World magazine, even where his material seems fit for its pages. This begs the thought that some supra-literary device is at hand: Mr Murakami explains his passion for running, preferably while listening to a “Lovin’ Spoonful” album, as a Zen-inspired effort to “acquire a void”. Perhaps his book is part of the same effort?

这种不停变换的行文方式最终导致了令人迷惑的阅读体验。作为一名技巧娴熟的写手，即使在其素材看似适合的地方，村上春树的文字也有着一种超过《奔者世界》大多数投稿人的叙事冲击力。想要达到这种境界，必须要有一种能够信手拈来的深刻文学见解：：村上春树在解释他对于跑步的激情说到跑步时偏爱听 “Lovin’ Spoonful”专辑，就像一种所谓”求空”的禅宗修为。也许，他的这本书好像也有这种意思。

This seems unlikely. Mr Murakami’s banalities are more likely a reflection of how difficult it can be to translate Japanese into English. Elsewhere, his meditations are more vivid. For example, he describes standing ready to plunge into the Sea of Japan, at the start of a triathlon, and thinking, “what a lame shabby being I am. I feel like everything I’ve done in life has been a total waste.” If his nihilism is not terribly sophisticated either, it is at least dramatic
但这些好像是不成立的。村上春树的”平庸”更可能反应的是一种将日语翻译为英语的困难。在别处，他的思考要生动得多。比如，他描述自己在铁人三项刚开始，预备跳入日本海时说到”我真是一个瘸腿烂人，我觉得所有做过的事都完全作废。”他的这种虚无主义，如果不是极度的老于世故，至少也是够戏剧化的

Of course, a real nihilist would not run six miles a day-or write a dozen novels and volumes of stories,as Mr Murakami has done. And in crediting his running with this achievement-healthy body, healthy mind, and so forth-he strikes a sunnier note. Mr Murakami is an intriguing man; and so is his book. Nonetheless, readers, even those who themselves like to run, may feel a measure of relief when they reach its finishing-line.

当然，一个真正的虚无主义者是不会像村上春树先生那样，一天跑上6公里，并写出那么多的小说。为了将诸多益处归功于他的奔跑，比如健康的身体，健全的心智以及等等，他打造了更加阳光的一面。村上春树先生和他的书同样地引起人们的兴趣。但是不管怎么说，即使是那些喜欢跑步的读者们，也会在触线的刹那长舒一口气。

Book details:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
By Haruki Murakami. Translated by Philip Gabriel

译者：topsun    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12953&extra=page%3D1