John Maxwell "J. M." Coetzee (1940~) 的回憶錄小說三部曲：
Fictionalised autobiography[edit]
"How kind he is and how he loves us, and yet I was able to think so badly of him!"
--from "Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth" by
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy’s earliest published work, the trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth, was written when he was in his twenties, offering a tantalizing first glimpse of the literary talents that would come to fruition in his later masterpieces. Chronicling the experiences of a wealthy landowner’s son as he grows up and becomes aware of the world a
nd his place in it, these three short novels were only loosely inspired by Tolstoy’s own memories. In old age he condemned the work as “an awkward mixture of fact and fiction,” but the imaginative powers that enabled him to capture so vividly the universal emotions and sensations of childhood have enthralled generations of readers. We are blessed to have, alongside the mature writer of Anna Karenina and War and Peace and the revolutionary mystic of the later years, the young Tolstoy who wrote these elegiac tales. In their sensitivity to nature and their evocations of fugitive feelings, they reveal his genius in all its untroubled early splendor. READ an excerpt here:http://knopfdoubleday.com/…/17…/childhood-boyhood-and-youth/
「照片和名字是不同的，照片更活生生。」J. M. Coetzee 小說《緩慢的人》 (Slowman)，梁永安譯，台北：天培，2009，頁55
2004
去年準備好談論
Disgrace 兩翻譯本的對比。後來想，這樣的比較，其實不公平，所以就放棄了。B版本將書中的拉丁文逋翻譯出了。
A版本：柯慈《屈辱》孟祥森譯，台北：天下文化，2001
B版本：庫切《恥》張冲等譯，上海：譯文出版社，2003
前陣子「談一下utopian的反義字（antonyms）「反面烏托邦」dystopian，它在18世紀末即有，此 字的前置"dys＋" 為'BAD'＋(U)TOPIA。根據WordNet Dictionary ，它的意思和例子如下： Definition: [adj] as bad as can be; characterized by human misery; "AIDS is one of the dystopian harbingers of the global villages"- Susan Sontag
去年諾貝爾獎頒給Coetzee時說《恥》/《恥辱》這本小說：
"In the dystopian novel Disgrace, David Lurie does not achieve creativity and freedom until, stripped of all dignity, he is afflicted by his own shame and history's disgrace. In this work, Coetzee summarises his themes: race and gender, ownership and violence, and the moral and political complicity of everyone in that borderland where the languages of liberation and reconciliation carry no meaning." 」
我將這兒的一段討論列出當紀錄，謝謝所有參與的朋友。
‧A版本：就以他這樣的年紀——五十二歲——離過婚的男人而言，他自己認為，他的性問題已經是解決得不錯了。星期四午後，他開車到綠角。兩點正，按溫莎大廈的門鈴，報了自己的姓名，進去。等在一一三室門口的是索拉雅。他直入臥房，感受室內芬芳的氣味和溫暖的燈光。他脫下衣服。索拉雅從浴室出來，褪落浴袍，鑽到床上他的身邊。「想我嗎？」她問。「隨時都在想，」他回答。他撫摩她蜂蜜色、未留日曬痕跡的肌膚，把她擺開親了她的乳房，做愛。
For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well. On Thursday afternoons he drives to Green Point. Punctually at two p.m. he presses the buzzer at the entrance to Windsor Mansions, speaks his name, and enters. Waiting for him at the door of No. 113 is Soraya. He goes straight through to the bedroom, which is pleasant-smelling and softly lit, and undresses. Soraya emerges from the bathroom, drops her robe, slides into bed beside him. `Have you missed me?' she asks. `I miss you all the time,' he replies. He strokes her honey-brown body, unmarked by the sun; he stretches her out, kisses her breasts; they make love.
A版本：「索拉雅修長苗條，黑色長髮，黑如水波的眼睛。理論上，他老得足以當她爸爸了；不過，理論上，男人十二歲也可以當爸爸。他在她的來客名單上已經一年有餘；他覺得她完全讓他滿足。在一個星期的沙漠中，星期四變成了奢侈而淫逸的綠洲。」
Soraya is tall and slim, with long black hair and dark, liquid eyes. Technically he is old enough to be her father; but then, technically, one can be a father at twelve. He has been on her books for over a year; he finds her entirely satisfactory. In the desert of the week Thursday has become an oasis of luxe et volupté.
B版本：「索拉婭身材高挑姚纖長，一頭長長的烏髮，一對水汪汪的深色眼睛。從年齡上，他足足以做她的父親，可真要從年齡上說，十二歲也可以當父親了。他成為她的顧客已經有一年多時間了，而且覺得她令人心滿意足。在荒蕪的一周裡，星期四成了一塊luxe et volupte*的綠洲。」
*法語：奢侈與肉慾。
----
敬邀wo/小讀者/rl/ch……等高手來「譯評小說Disgrace之一段，一番風雨……」：
A版本：「他常刻骨的想，妓女們如何談論常來的恩客——尤其是比較老的。她們說，她們笑，但也打冷顫，就如半夜在澡盆中看到蟑螂。不久，她們也會因他打冷顫——情不自禁，欲蓋彌彰而又惡意盡情的。這是他無可逃脫的命運。」
He has a shrewd idea of how prostitutes speak among themselves about the men who frequent them, the older men in particular. They tell stories, they laugh, but they shudder too, as one shudders at a cockroach in a washbasin in the middle of the night. Soon, daintily, maliciously, he will be shuddered over. It is a fate he cannot escape.
B版本：「對於妓女之間如何談論她們的常客，特別是年紀大些的客人，他自有見解。她們談逸聞趣事，談到好笑之處盡情一笑，但她們肯定也有聳肩表達鄙視之意的時候，就像人們半夜洗澡在浴缸裡看到一只蟑螂時的反應。用不了多久，她們就會沖他聳起肩膀，挑三剔四，惡言惡語。這就是他的命，逃也逃不過。」
--
ch留言：試試看。
他不免敏銳地想到，妓女會如何討論常來的客人，尤其是老頭子。她們會講客人的故事，有時笑，有時也會打冷顫，就像半夜在澡盆裡看到蟑螂一樣。不久，他也會被她們嬌貴、惡意地打冷顫，這是無可避免的命運。
小讀者留言：
（1）只有一個無傷大雅"技術上"的小意見
通常washbasin是指洗臉盆或擴而張之指洗手台
（2）不太懂作家在這裡的文學筆法:daintily/是指她們輕輕細細地打個冷顫嗎?
打個"精緻"的冷顫?/還是不懂.../沒有偏見, 只是和一般的"刻板印象"不太符合...為何形容"她們"這個shuddering的動作daintily?
路人 留言：
「他對於妓女如何談論恩客，尤其是年紀較大的客人，自有敏銳的見解。她們講述客人的行止，笑出聲來，但也會渾身輕顫，就像半夜在臉盆裡看見蟑螂一樣。然而要不了多久，他也會成為鶯燕們帶著惡意微微顫抖的對象。這是他無法逃避的宿命。」
作者用形容妓女們談論老嫖客的樣子，打顫是做作又充滿惡意的。妓女可能會說：「哎喲，那個老不羞可噁心了。分明已經不行，還要‧‧‧」一面說一面微微打顫的樣子。daintly 和maliciously相得益彰，由daintly更加顯得malicious。
小讀者 留言：
借力使力copycat一下, 想把那文字氣氛和節奏表達出來.
要不了多久，他自己，也會成為那冷顫的對象，輕巧而不懷好意的冷顫。
***
「她那有紅色肩帶的束腰上衣胸前，別了一枚小小的銅質證章，
上有一幅頭盔臂鎧，以及「苦盡」（註 10）的銘文。」（柯慈（J. M. Coetzee，1940~）＜少年時＞（
Youth）鄭明萱譯，台北：時報，2004）
10 PER ARDUA通常以「苦盡甘來」（per ardua at astra）名之，直譯為吃盡辛苦而到達碰到星星的高度。
正確為：PER ARDUA AD ASTRA（艱難ヲ経テ星ヘ）」.
Per ardua ad astra ad 「～へ」 astra 「天体、星座」 astrum
i,n per 「～を越えて」 aspera 「荒い、でこぼこの、危険な」 asper era,erum,adj ardua
「険しい」 arduus a,um adj "Ad astra per aspera" は、カンザス州の標語らしい
（RAF（王立空軍）のバッジに記されたモットーより）..
http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/hrafmotto.html
.
The Royal Air Force Motto
" Per Ardua ad Astra"
Shortly after this, two junior officers were walking from the Officers' Mess at Farnborough to Cody's Shed on Laffan Plain. As they walked, they discussed the problem of the motto and one of them, JS Yule, mentioned the phrase "Sicictar ad Astra", from the Virgilian texts. He then expanded on this with the phrase "Per Ardua ad Astra", which he translated as, "Through Struggles to the Stars". Colonel Sykes approved of this as the motto and forwarded it to the War Office. It was then submitted to the King, who approved its adoption.
***
「多年以後，中年得獎作者的柯慈，在諾貝爾獎的晚宴上，
向逝去多年的母親呼喊：「媽咪，我得獎了！」
──母親，我得獎不就是為你而得嗎？──
他終究還是回到了母親的愛裡去了──他再怎麼也逃脫不了的牽絆──正如他要回到南非。」（＜譯後＞◎文／鄭明萱） 「他終究還是回到了母親的愛裡去了──他再怎麼也逃脫不了的牽絆──正如他要回到南非。」這是「鄭」解，hc讀不出此義來。
"Mommy, Mommy, I won a prize!"
"That's wonderful, my dear. Now eat your carrots before they get cold."
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2003/coetzee-speech-e.html
******
Foe is a 1986 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway. Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story, unfolded as Barton's narrative while in England attempting to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction. Focused primarily on themes of language and power, the novel was the subject of criticism in South Africa, where it was regarded as politically irrelevant on its release. Coetzee revisited the composition of Robinson Crusoein 2003 in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
Nobel acceptance speech[edit]
When Coetzee was awarded the 2003
Nobel Prize in Literature, he revisited the theme of composition as self-definition in his acceptance speech, entitled "He and his Man".
[14] Coetzee, who had lectured in character before, narrated a situation in which an elderly Crusoe quietly living in
Bristol becomes the ambivalent muse of Defoe. According to
The Guardian, this act of composition "write[s] "Defoe into existence, rather than the other way around."
[14] Although Crusoe is the narrator of the piece, Coetzee indicated he did not know whether Crusoe or Defoe represented him in the lecture.
[14] By contrast, he clearly identified himself with Barton in
Foe: "the
unsuccessful author—worse author
ess."
[15]
