欧逸文的《野心时代》获美国国家图书奖
日期:2014-11-26 11:53

(单词翻译:单击)

Phil Klay won the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday night for his debut short story collection, “Redeployment,” which draws on his experience serving as a Marine in Iraq and captures the terror, boredom and occasionally the humorous side of war.
周三晚上,菲尔·克雷(Phil Klay)以其处女短篇小说集《重新部署》(Redeployment)获得国家图书奖虚构类作品奖,这本书根据他在海军陆战队服役期间在伊拉克的经历写成,捕捉了战争的恐怖与无聊,以及偶尔出现的幽默一面。
In an emotional acceptance speech, Mr. Klay described returning from the war and being treated as if he were unstable, and being asked by children if he had killed anyone.
克雷做了充满感情的获奖致辞,描述了自己从战争中归来后的遭遇,他曾被视为精神不稳定者,孩子也询问他是否杀过人。

“I came back not knowing what to think,” he said. “What do you do when you’re trying to explain in words, to the father of a fallen Marine, exactly what that Marine meant to you?”
“我回来后,不知该作何想法,”他说。“面对一个牺牲的海军陆战队战士的父亲,你该怎样用言语解释海军陆战队对你来说意味着什么?”
He said writing fiction about his experiences helped him to process it. “I can’t think of a more important conversation to be having,” he said. “War is too strange to be processed alone.”
他说,把自己的经历写成小说帮助他处理好了这些事情。“我想不出更加重要的对话,”他说,“战争是那样奇异,无法独自处理。”
Some of the stories, which were published by Penguin Press, take place in Anbar Province, while others are set in the United States as soldiers struggle to readjust to civilian life.
该书由企鹅出版社出版,其中若干小说发生在伊拉克的安巴尔省,还有一些是讲述美国的退伍士兵们努力重新适应平民生活。
In the nonfiction category, Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker, won for “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China,” published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book explores China’s ongoing transformation into an economic superpower, and the clash between its economic progress and its authoritarian government’s crackdown on social freedoms.
《纽约客》(The New Yorker)的专职作者欧逸文(Evan Osnos)凭《野心时代:在新中国追求财富、真相和信念》(Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China)一书获得非虚构类作品奖,该书由法勒、斯特劳斯与吉鲁科斯(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)出版社出版。这本书探究了中国不断向经济超级大国转变的过程,以及经济发展与专制政府压制社会自由之间的冲突。
In an acceptance speech, Mr. Osnos thanked his Chinese subjects for taking a risk by talking to him. “They live in a place where it’s very dangerous to be honest and be vulnerable,” he said.
在获奖致辞中,欧逸文感谢他笔下的中国主人公们冒着风险接受采访。“在他们所生活的地方,要做一个诚实或脆弱的人是非常危险的,”他说。
The awards were presented at a black-tie dinner at Cipriani Wall Street, with more than 700 guests attending a ceremony hosted by Daniel Handler, better known as the children’s book author Lemony Snicket.
颁奖礼在西普利尼亚华尔街饭店举行,是一场正装宴会,有700多名宾客参加,典礼由丹尼尔·汉德勒(Daniel Handler)主持——他创作童书时的笔名莱蒙尼·斯尼克特(Lemony Snicket)更加广为人知。
Mr. Handler proved an edgy and entertaining master of ceremonies. He poked fun at literary navel-gazing and took repeated shots at Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos. In praising the nonprofit publisher Graywolf Press, which had two poetry finalists, Mr. Handler said, “If you are a publishing house interested in not making a profit, please see Jeff Bezos after the show.”
最后证明汉德勒是个犀利有趣的主持人。他嘲笑文学界目光狭窄,并一再向亚马逊的首席执行官杰弗里·P·贝佐斯(Jeffrey P. Bezos)开火。独立出版社“灰狼出版”(Graywolf Press)有两本诗集入围最终的决选名单,汉德勒赞美它说:“如果你们是一家对盈利不感兴趣的出版社,请在颁奖礼结束后去见杰夫·贝佐斯吧。”
The National Book Award, which was established in 1950, is one of the country’s most prestigious and coveted literary prizes. Books written by American authors and published between Dec. 1, 2013, and Nov. 30, 2014, were eligible this year.
国家图书奖于1950年创立,是美国最有声誉、最受人渴望的文学奖项之一。由美国作家创作、并于2013年12月1日至2014年11月30日之间出版的书籍有资格入围今年的评选。
Jacqueline Woodson, a three-time finalist, won the young people’s literature award for her memoir in verse, “Brown Girl Dreaming,” which detailed her experience growing up as an African-American in South Carolina and New York during the 1960s and ’70s. The poet Louise Glück won for her latest collection, “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
曾经三次入围决选名单的杰奎琳·伍德森(Jacqueline Woodson)凭自己的韵文体回忆录《做梦的棕色女孩》(Brown Girl Dreaming)获得青年文学奖奖项。这本书详细描述了20世纪60至70年代,身为非裔美国人的她在南卡罗来纳与纽约成长的经历。诗人路易斯·葛吕科(Louise Glück)凭她最新出版的诗集《忠诚与高尚的夜晚》(Faithful and Virtuous Night)获得诗歌奖,该书由法勒、斯特劳斯与吉鲁科斯出版社出版。
For the second year in a row, the National Book Foundation announced a long list of 10 nominees for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature, in an effort to drum up interest and draw more authors into the spotlight. Some literary critics complained that the long lists diluted the impact of the prize. Others noted a stark gender imbalance in this year’s nonfiction long list, which had nine male writers and just one woman, the New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.
国家图书基金会从去年开始,每年宣布虚构、非虚构、诗歌与青年文学奖项各自的10部候选作品大名单,这是为了引起公众的兴趣,令更多作家获得关注。有些文学评论家抱怨这份大名单削弱了该奖的冲击力。也有些人指出,今年的非虚构类大名单存在严重的性别不平衡,有九名男性作者入围,但只有《纽约客》的卡通画家罗兹·查斯特(Roz Chast)这一位女性作者入围。
This year’s fiction short list was greeted with more enthusiasm. Along with Mr. Klay’s short story collection, the stylistically diverse group of finalists included Marilynne Robinson’s “Lila,” the third novel in a trilogy set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa; Rabih Alameddine’s “An Unnecessary Woman,” about a reclusive older woman in Beirut, Lebanon; Emily St. John Mandel’s dystopian novel “Station Eleven”; and Anthony Doerr’s novel “All the Light We Cannot See,” a work of historical fiction set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
今年的虚构类最终名单更加为人们所接受。这一名单风格多样,除了克雷的短篇小说集,还有玛丽琳娜·罗宾逊(Marilynne Robinson)的《莉拉》(Lila),这是她所创作的三部曲小说的第三部,故事发生在爱荷华州一个虚构的吉里德小镇;此外还有艾米莉·圣约翰·曼德尔(Emily St. John Mandel)的反乌托邦小说《11站》(Station Eleven);以及安东尼·杜尔(Anthony Doerr)的小说《我们看不到的所有光明》(All the Light We Cannot See),这是一部历史小说,发生在“二战”时期纳粹占领下的法国。
The Literarian Award, for outstanding service to the literary community, went to Kyle Zimmer, the president and chief executive of First Book, a nonprofit group that distributes millions of books to children from low-income families.
文学贡献奖(The Literarian Award)是颁发给对文学界做出突出贡献人士的奖项,今年由第一图书(First Book)公司的总裁兼首席执行官凯尔·齐默(Kyle Zimmer)获得,这家非盈利机构向低收入家庭儿童分发了数百万册图书。
The fantasy and science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Ms. Le Guin, 85, has published more than a dozen children’s books, 22 novels and numerous volumes of poetry, translations and short stories. Her young-adult fantasy novel “The Farthest Shore” won the National Book Award in 1973.
奇幻与科幻作家厄苏拉·K·勒·奎恩(Ursula K. Le Guin)获得了美国文学卓越贡献勋章(Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters)。勒·奎恩女士现年85岁,她在40多年的写作生涯中出版了十几本童书、22部小说和无数诗集、译著和短篇小说。她的青年奇幻小说《最遥远的海岸》(The Farthest Shore)曾于1973年获得国家图书奖。
In a pointed acceptance speech, Ms. Le Guin criticized the literary community for excluding science fiction and fantasy writers from awards attention for so long, and took publishers and writers to task for bowing to corporate pressures to make books more profitable.
勒·奎恩女士发表了尖锐的获奖致辞,批评文学界长久以来把科幻与奇幻作家拒之门外,且令出版社和作家屈服于种种压力,致力于创作更加有利可图的书籍。
“I have had a long career and a good one, and here at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river,” she said.
“在我漫长而美好的写作生涯尽头,真的不希望看着美国文学遭到出卖,”她说。

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重点单词
  • memoirn. 传记,实录 (复数)memoirs: 回忆录,自传
  • rown. 排,船游,吵闹 vt. 划船,成排 vi. 划船,
  • executiveadj. 行政的,决策的,经营的,[计算机]执行指令 n
  • transformationn. 转型,转化,改造
  • reclusiveadj. 隐居的;隐遁的
  • unnecessaryadj. 不必要的,多余的
  • literaryadj. 文学的
  • acceptancen. 接受(礼物、邀请、建议等),同意,认可,承兑
  • conversationn. 会话,谈话
  • vulnerableadj. 易受伤害的,有弱点的