What makes something "Kafkaesque"? - Noah Tavlin

翻译人员: Steven's coco(可可) 校对人员: Chen Zou

"Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K.

“关于约瑟夫·K的事有人说了谎

He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning, he was arrested."

他肯定自己没有做错事， 却在一天早上被捕了“

Thus begins "The Trial,"

于是“审判”开始了

one of author Franz Kafka's most well-known novels.

这是弗兰茨 卡夫卡 最著名的一部小说

K, the protagonist, is arrested out of nowhere

主角 K 被凭空逮捕了

and made to go through a bewildering process

并且经历一段 令人困扰的过程

where neither the cause of his arrest,

不论是他被逮捕的原因

nor the nature of the judicial proceedings

还是任何的司法依据

are made clear to him.

都没有对他清楚交待过

这种情节被认为 典型的卡夫卡作品

This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work

that scholars came up with a new word for it.

于是学者们发明了一个新词

Kafkaesque has entered the vernacular to describe unnecessarily complicated

卡夫卡式成为不必要的繁琐

and frustrating experiences,

和令人沮丧的经历的术语

like being forced to navigate labyrinths of bureaucracy.

比如被迫应对 繁沉的官僚机构

But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing paperwork

但是站在长队里 填写一堆令人困惑的文件

really capture the richness of Kafka's vision?

真的能抓住卡夫卡视野的 丰富内涵吗？

Beyond the word's casual use, what makes something Kafkaesque?

除了对这个词的随意使用外 什么造就了卡夫卡式？

Franz Kafka's stories do indeed deal with many mundane and absurd aspects

弗兰茨 卡夫卡的故事确实描写了

许多当代官僚主义的 单调和荒谬

of modern bureaucracy,

drawn in part from his experience of working as an insurance clerk

部分原因是他曾在 20世纪初的布拉格

担任一名保险办事员

in early 20th century Prague.

很多他的主要角色 都是在办公室工作的白领

Many of his protagonists are office workers

compelled to struggle through a web of obstacles

他们不得不通过在 在充满障碍的网络中挣扎

in order to achieve their goals,

来达到他们的目标

and often the whole ordeal turns out to be so disorienting and illogical

常常这整个考验 变得迷惘而且不合逻辑

that success becomes pointless in the first place.

致使成功在一开始 就毫无意义

For example, in the short story, "Poseidon,"

比如，在短篇小说 《波塞冬》中

the Ancient Greek god is an executive so swamped with paperwork

古希腊神明变成 埋首于文书工作的主管

that he's never had time to explore his underwater domain.

以至于他没有时间去 探索他的深层主体

笑点在于 即使是上帝也无法应对

The joke here is that not even a god can handle the amount of paperwork

现代职场所要求的文书工作量

demanded by the modern workplace.

But the reason why is telling.

但是原因很清楚

He's unwilling to delegate any of the work

他不愿意将任何一项工作委派给他人

because he deems everyone else unworthy of the task.

因为他确信其他人 不值得这样的工作

Kafka's Poseidon is a prisoner of his own ego.

卡夫卡的波塞冬是 “自负”的囚犯

This simple story contains all of the elements

这个简单的故事包含了所有

使经典的卡夫卡式状况 形成的要素

that make for a truly Kafkaesque scenario.

It's not the absurdity of bureaucracy alone,

不是官僚主义本身的荒谬

but the irony of the character's circular reasoning in reaction to it

而是角色在对官僚主义反应上的 围绕式推理的讽刺

that is emblematic of Kafka's writing.

成为了卡夫卡作品的典型

His tragicomic stories act as a form of mythology for the modern industrial age,

他的悲喜剧就像一种 现代工业时代的神话故事

employing dream logic to explore the relationships

运用梦幻的逻辑 去探索关于

between systems of arbitrary power and the individuals caught up in them.

专制力量和挣扎在其中的个体 之间的系统间的关系

举例，卡夫卡 最有名的故事，“变形计”

Take, for example, Kafka's most famous story, "Metamorphosis."

When Gregor Samsa awaken's one morning to find himself transformed

当格里高 萨姆沙有一天早上醒来 发现自己突变

into a giant insect,

成为一个巨大的昆虫

his greatest worry is that he gets to work on time.

他最大的担心的 是如何准时上班

Of course, this proves impossible.

当然， 这是不可能的

It was not only the authoritarian realm of the workplace that inspired Kafka.

不只是专制的工作环境 启迪了卡夫卡

Some of his protagonists' struggles come from within.

一些他的经典角色的挣扎 来自于内部

The short story, "A Hunger Artist,"

短篇小说，“一个饥饿的艺术家”

describes a circus performer whose act consists of extended fasts.

描述了一个马戏团表演者的任务是由 延期的禁食组成的

He's upset that the circus master limits these to 40 days,

他苦恼于马戏团主 把禁食限制为４０天

believing this prevents him from achieving greatness in his art.

因为他相信这会阻碍他 达成他伟大的表演

But when his act loses popularity,

但当他的表演缺乏人气时

he is left free to starve himself to death.

他被置之不理 以至于饥饿至死

The twist comes when he lays dying in anonymity,

扭曲的地方在于当他在 默默死去的临终前

regretfully admitting that his art has always been a fraud.

后悔地承认他的艺术 一直是一个骗局

He fasted not through strength of will,

他的禁食不是通过意志的力量

but simply because he never found a food he liked.

而仅仅是因为他从没有找到 他喜欢的食物

即使是在“审讯”里

Even in "The Trial,"

which seems to focus directly on bureaucracy,

似乎是直接 专注在官僚主义上

the vague laws and bewildering procedures point to something far more sinister:

模糊的法律和扑朔迷离的程序 指出了更为罪恶的东西：

the terrible momentum of the legal system proves unstoppable,

法律系统的恐怖 势不可挡

even by supposedly powerful officials.

甚至是那些很有权势的官员 都无法阻挡

This is a system that doesn't serve justice,

这个系统不是为 正义服务的

but whose sole function is to perpetuate itself.

而是将渗透自己 作为唯一的功能

What political theorist Hannah Arendt,

政治理论家汉娜·阿伦特

writing years after Kafka's death,

在卡夫卡死去后一直书写的

would call "tyranny without a tyrant."

叫做“没有暴君的暴政“

Yet accompanying the bleakness of Kafka's stories,

然而，在伴随着 卡夫卡故事的荒凉里

there's a great deal of humor

有不少的幽默

rooted in the nonsensical logic of the situations described.

扎根在那些描述的事件 里的荒谬逻辑中

So on the one hand, it's easy to recognize the Kafkaesque in today's world.

所以，一方面很容易识别在 当今世界中的“卡夫卡式”

We rely on increasingly convoluted systems of administration

我们依靠越来越扭曲和困惑的 管理系统

that have real consequences on every aspect of our lives.

这个管理系统在我们生活的各个方面 已经有了真实的效应

And we find our every word judged by people we can't see

我们发现我们的每一个单词 都在被我们看不到的人下判断

according to rules we don't know.

根据我们不知道的规则

On the other hand, by fine-tuning our attention to the absurd,

另一方面,通过修饰我们 对荒谬的注意力

Kafka also reflects our shortcomings back at ourselves.

卡夫卡也反省了 我们自己身上的缺点

In doing so, he reminds us that the world we live in is one we create,

通过做这些，他提醒我们，这个我们居住的 世界是一个我们创造的

and have the power to change for the better.

因此我们有力量使它 变得更美好