Why should you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? - Francisco Díez-Buzo

翻译人员: Joanna Liu 校对人员: Cissy Yun

One day in 1965, while driving to Acapulco for a vacation with his family,

在1965年的一天， 当和家人开车去阿卡普尔科旅行时，

Colombian journalist Gabriel García Márquez abruptly turned his car around,

哥伦比亚记者加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯 突然掉转车头

asked his wife to take care of the family’s finances for the coming months,

让他的妻子打理好家里下几个月的资金，

and returned home.

然后回家了。

The beginning of a new book had suddenly come to him:

这是因为他突然想到了 一本新书的开头：

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad,

“许多年以后，面对行刑队，

Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon

奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校将会回想起

when his father took him to discover ice.”

他父亲带他去见识冰块的 那个遥远的下午。”

Over the next eighteen months,

在接下来的18个月里

those words would blossom into One Hundred Years of Solitude.

这些文字开花结果成为了《百年孤独》。

A novel that would go on to bring Latin American literature

这部小说将会推动拉丁美洲文学

to the forefront of the global imagination,

进入全球性的想象力的最前沿。

earning García Márquez the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.

加西亚·马尔克斯也因此获得了 1982年诺贝尔文学奖。

What makes One Hundred Years of Solitude so remarkable?

是什么让《百年孤独》如此卓越？

The novel chronicles the fortunes and misfortunes

这部小说记录了布恩地亚一家 超过七代的盛衰，

of the Buendía family over seven generations.

With its lush, detailed sentences,

凭借其丰富细节的语句、

庞大的人物网络、

large cast of characters,

and tangled narrative,

以及复杂的叙事，

One Hundred Years of Solitude is not an easy book to read.

《百年孤独》并不是一本容易读的书。

But it’s a deeply rewarding one,

但是这是一个非常有益的书，

with an epic assortment of intense romances,

书中有各种激情的爱情故事、

civil war,

内战、

political intrigue,

政治阴谋、

globe-trotting adventurers,

环球冒险，

and more characters named Aureliano than you’d think possible.

还有一大堆叫做奥雷良诺的角色， 多到你无法想象。

Yet this is no mere historical drama.

然而，它不仅仅是历史剧，

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most famous examples

《百年孤独》是魔幻现实主义 这一文学体裁最著名的例子。

of a literary genre known as magical realism.

在这里，超自然事物或能力

Here, supernatural events or abilities

are described in a realistic and matter-of-fact tone,

以现实和实事求是的语气被描述，

while the real events of human life and history

人类生活和历史的真实事件

reveal themselves to be full of fantastical absurdity.

则充满了各种奇幻的荒诞。

Surreal phenomena within the fictional village of Macondo

虚构的马孔多村庄内的超现实现象

intertwine seamlessly with events taking place in the real country of Colombia.

与在哥伦比亚的真实发生的事件 无缝地交织在一起。

The settlement begins in a mythical state of isolation,

这块殖民地一开始处于 神秘的孤立状态，

but is gradually exposed to the outside world,

逐渐暴露于外界，

facing multiple calamities along the way.

面临多重灾难。

As years pass, characters grow old and die,

时间流逝，角色们也老去死去，

only to return as ghosts,

并以鬼魂的形式回来，

or to be seemingly reincarnated in the next generation.

或者转世到下一代。

When the American fruit company comes to town,

当美国水果公司来到镇上时，

so does a romantic mechanic who is always followed by yellow butterflies.

一个浪漫的机械师也来了 他一直被黄色的蝴蝶包围着。

A young woman up and floats away.

一个年轻的女子漂浮着离开了村庄。

Although the novel moves forward through subsequent generations,

虽然小说中的人物一代代向前发展，

time moves in an almost cyclical manner.

时间的移动却几乎是循环的

Many characters have similar names and features to their forebears,

许多角色的名字和特征与 他们的祖先相似，

whose mistakes they often repeat.

也总是重复祖先曾犯的错误。

Strange prophecies and visits from mysterious gypsies

奇怪的预言和神秘的吉普赛人的来访

give way to the skirmishes and firing squads of repeated civil wars.

导致了一场场小冲突和 行刑队中的再一次内战。

An American fruit company opens a plantation near the village

一家美国水果公司 在村庄附近开了一家种植园

and ends up massacring thousands of striking workers,

并最终屠杀成千上万的罢工工人，

mirroring the real-life ‘Banana Massacre’ of 1928.

这映射了现实生活中 1928年的“香蕉大屠杀”。

Combined with the novel’s magical realism,

结合小说的魔幻现实主义，

this produces a sense of history as a downward spiral

书中的历史感像是 一种恶性的循环，

the characters seem powerless to escape.

人物角色都似乎无力逃脱。

Beneath the magic is a story about the pattern of Colombian

魔法背后是关于哥伦比亚的生活模式

and Latin American history from colonial times onward.

以及从殖民时代开始的拉丁美洲历史。

This is a history that the author experienced firsthand.

这是作者亲身经历的历史。

Gabriel García Márquez grew up in a Colombia torn apart by civil conflict

加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯长大于

between its Conservative and Liberal political parties.

哥伦比亚因在保守党和自由党 之间的内战四分五裂。

He also lived in an autocratic Mexico

他也在独裁统治的墨西哥生活过，

and covered the 1958 Venezuelan coup d’état as a journalist.

并作为一名记者报道了 1958年的委内瑞拉政变。

But perhaps his biggest influences were his maternal grandparents.

但也许给他最大影响的 应该是他的外祖父母。

Nicolás Ricardo Márquez was a decorated veteran of the Thousand Days War

尼古拉斯·里卡多·马尔克斯 是千日战争的授勋老兵。

whose accounts of the rebellion against Colombia's conservative government

他对哥伦比亚保守党政府的反坑

led Gabriel García Márquez to a socialist outlook.

使加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯 持有社会主义观点。

Meanwhile, Doña Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes’ omnipresent superstition

而外婆朵妮雅·特朗齐丽娜·伊挂朗 无所不在的迷信

became the foundation of One Hundred Years of Solitude’s style.

也成为了《百年孤独》风格的基础。

Their small house in Aracataca where the author spent his childhood

作者童年居住在阿拉卡塔卡小房子，

formed the main inspiration for Macondo.

成为了书中马孔多小镇的主要灵感。

With One Hundred Years of Solitude,

通过《百年孤独》，

Gabriel García Márquez found a unique way

加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯 找到了一个独一无二的方法

to capture the unique history of Latin America.

捕捉了拉丁美洲独一无二的历史。

He was able to depict the strange reality of living in a post-colonial society,

他能够描绘生活在 后殖民社会中的奇怪现实，

forced to relive the tragedies of the past.

被迫重温过去的悲剧。

In spite of all this fatalism, the novel still holds hope.

尽管存在这种宿命论， 但这部小说仍存希望。

At his Nobel Lecture,

在他的诺贝尔文学奖 获奖演说中，

García Marquez reflected on Latin America’s long history

加西亚·马尔克斯反思了 拉丁美洲的漫长历史，

of civil strife and rampant iniquity.

包括内乱和猖獗的罪孽。

Yet he ended the speech by affirming the possibility of building a better world,

但在结束演讲时， 他肯定了建立更好世界的可能性。

to quote, “where no one will be able to decide for others how they die,

他说到：“到那时，谁的命运也不能 由别人来决定，包括死亡的方式，

where love will prove true

到那时，爱千真万确存在，

and happiness be possible,

幸福将成为可能，

and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude

那些命中注定处于百年孤独的家族，

will have, at last and forever, a second chance on earth."

也终于永远地享有了 在大地上重生的机会。”