Why should you read “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy? - Laura Wright

翻译人员: Chong Liu 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

“A few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes/

短短几十个小时的时间 可能影响人生的轨迹。

And that when they do, those few dozen hours,

当这种情况发生了，

like the salvaged remains of a burned clock…

这几十个小时就像 烧毁的时钟内部的残渣，

must be resurrected from the ruins and examined.”

需要从废墟中复生，并被重新审视。

This is the premise of Arundhati Roy’s 1997 novel "The God of Small Things."

这是阿兰达蒂 · 洛伊（Arundhati Roy） 写于 1997 年的小说《微物之神》的核心概念。

Set in a town in Kerala, India called Ayemenem,

故事发生在印度喀拉拉邦 一座名叫艾曼南的小镇，

the story revolves around fraternal twins Rahel and Estha,

情节围绕着一对异卵双胞胎 拉海儿和艾斯沙展开，

who are separated for 23 years after the fateful few dozen hours

两人在经历了命运攸关的 几十个小时，

in which their cousin drowns, their mother’s illicit affair is revealed,

他们的表亲溺水，他们母亲的外遇被揭露， 而她的情人被谋杀，

and her lover is murdered.

之后开始了长达 23 年的分离。

While the book is set at the point of Rahel and Estha’s reunion,

虽然小说从拉海儿 和艾斯沙的重逢写起，

the narrative takes place mostly in the past, reconstructing the details

主要讲述的却是过去，

以重现那场造成 他们分离的悲剧的细节。

around the tragic events that led to their separation.

Roy’s rich language and masterful storytelling

洛伊丰富的语言和巧妙的叙事，

earned her the prestigious Booker prize for "The God of Small Things."

使她的《微物之神》一书 获得了知名的布克奖。

In the novel, she interrogates the culture of her native India,

在书中，她审视了印度的本土文化，

including its social mores and colonial history.

包括社会风俗与殖民历史，

One of her focuses is the caste system,

其中的一个聚焦点是种姓制度

a way of classifying people by hereditary social class

一种通过世袭社会阶层 来划分人民的方式。

that is thousands of years old.

其存在已有数千年之久，

By the mid-20th century,

二十世纪中叶以前，

the original four castes associated with specific occupations

原本与特定职业相关的四大种姓，

had been divided into some 3000 sub-castes.

被划分成 3000 个亚种姓。

Though the caste system was Constitutionally abolished in 1950,

虽然种姓制度在 1950 年 被从宪法中废除，

it continued to shape social life in India,

它仍持续影响着印度的社会生活，

routinely marginalizing people of lower castes.

一如既往地边缘化低种姓人群。

In the novel, Rahel and Estha have a close relationship with Velutha,

小说中，拉海尔和艾斯沙与一个 名叫维鲁沙的人有着密切的关系。

a worker in their family’s pickle factory

维鲁沙是他们家 腌菜工厂的一名工人，

and member of the so-called “untouchable” caste.

并且来自所谓的“贱民”种姓，

When Velutha and the twins’ mother, Ammu, embark on an affair,

当维鲁沙和双胞胎的 母亲阿慕进入恋情时，

they violate what Roy describes as the “love laws”

他们违反了洛伊书中提到的“爱的法则”，

forbidding intimacy between different castes.

通过禁止不同种姓的人建立亲密关系。

Roy warns that the tragic consequences of their relationship

洛伊警示着两人关系的悲剧后果，

“would lurk forever in ordinary things,” like “coat hangers,” “the tar on roads,”

“将永远隐藏在平凡的事物里”， 像是“挂衣钩”、“路上的焦油沥青”

and “the absence of words.”

以及“无言的缄默”。

Roy’s writing makes constant use of these ordinary things,

洛伊在写作中时常 运用这些平凡的事物，

bringing lush detail to even the most tragic moments.

即便是最具悲剧性的时刻 也用丰富的细节描绘。

The book opens at the funeral of the twins’ half-British cousin Sophie

这本书是在双胞胎的同父异母，

after her drowning.

英国表亲索菲溺水后的葬礼上开始的。

As the family mourns, lilies curl and crisp in the hot church.

当家人在哀悼时， 百合花在炎热的教堂里卷曲着，

A baby bat crawls up a funeral sari.

一只小蝙蝠爬上了葬礼的纱丽，

Tears drip from a chin like raindrops from a roof.

眼泪从下巴上滴落下来， 就像雨滴从屋顶上滴落下来。

The novel forays into the past to explore the characters’ struggles

这部小说通过对过去的探索，

to operate in a world where they don’t quite fit,

展现了主人公们在一个 不太适应的世界里的挣扎，

alongside their nation’s political turmoil.

以及他们国家的政治动荡。

Ammu struggles not to lash out at her beloved children

阿慕努力不猛烈抨击她心爱的孩子，

when she feels particularly trapped in her parents’ small-town home,

当她感觉自己被困在 她父母的小镇的家，

where neighbors judge and shun her for being divorced.

那里的邻居评判和躲避她的离婚，

Velutha, meanwhile, balances his affair with Ammu and friendship with the twins

与此同时，维鲁沙平衡了 他与阿慕的关系以及他与双胞胎的友谊。

not only with his employment to their family,

不仅因为他在他们家工作，

but also with his membership to a budding communist countermovement

还因为他加入了一个 正在萌芽的共产主义反运动，

to Indira Ghandi’s “Green Revolution.”

以对抗英迪拉 · 甘地的“绿色革命”。

In the 1960s, the misleadingly named “Green Revolution”

20 世纪 60 年代，名称很容易 造成误导的“绿色革命”的运动，

introduced chemical fertilizers and pesticides

将化肥、杀虫剂和河流筑坝，

and the damming of rivers to India.

引入了印度。

While these policies produced high-yield crops that staved off famine,

虽然这些政策生产了 高产量作物，避免了饥荒，

they also forced people from lower castes off their land

但它们也迫使来自较低种姓的 人们离开他们的土地，

and caused widespread environmental damage.

并造成了大面积的环境污染。

When the twins return to Ayemenem as adults,

当这对双胞胎成年后 回到阿伊梅尼姆时，

the consequences of the Green Revolution are all around them.

四处可见绿色革命造成的后果，

The river that was bursting with life in their childhood

他们童年时，生气勃勃的河流

greets them “with a ghastly skull’s smile, with holes where teeth had been,

现在却用“可怕的骷髅般的笑容， 掉了牙的模样，

and a limp hand raised from a hospital bed.”

从病床上抬起 一只软弱无力的手”来迎接他们。

As Roy probes the depths of human experience,

当罗伊深入探究人类的经历时，

she never loses sight of the way her characters are shaped

她从未忘记她笔下的人物是

by the time and the place where they live.

如何被时间和居住地所塑造的，

In the world of "The God of Small Things,"

在《微物之神》的世界里，

“Various kinds of despair competed for primacy…

“各种各样的绝望竞相 争得至高无上的地位，

personal despair could never be desperate enough...

个人的绝望永远深陷卑微……

personal turmoil dropped by at the wayside shrine of the vast, violent, circling,

个人的混沌被遗弃在一个国家 巨大、暴力、流转、强劲、荒谬、

driving, ridiculous, insane, unfeasible public turmoil of a nation.”

疯狂、不当的公共混乱中的路边神社。”