---
title: 毛姆文学回忆录之《呼啸山庄》篇的翻译
date: '2018-07-11'
slug: wuthering-heights
---

两个月前我贴《[毛姆的文学回忆录](/cn/2018/05/great-novelists/)》笔记时，曾对他提到的《呼啸山庄》的神秘而强大的力量感到好奇，尤其是我想知道那幅画到底长什么样。

> 此书非常不完美；但它拥有极少小说家能给你的东西，那就是力量。我没见过一部小说描写爱的痛苦、狂喜、狠心、执着描写得这么令人着魔，16至17世纪的西班牙画家埃尔·格列科（El Greco）有一幅伟大的名画：雷霆大作的乌云下，景色阴暗荒瘠，颀长消瘦的人体呈现扭曲的姿态，被一股阴森森的情绪魅惑，屏息不敢吐气；一道闪电划过铅灰色的天空，使场景带有一股决绝的神秘恐怖的气氛，《呼啸山庄》就让我想起那幅画。

随意放狗搜了几分钟，似乎并没有找到符合这个叙述的画。不亦怪哉。不过在搜的过程中倒是找到了[这一篇的原文](https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2017/01/nf-emily-bronte-and-wuthering-heights.html)。上面那段翻译对应的原文大致如下：

> I can think of no other novel in which the pain, the ecstasy, the ruthlessness of love have been so powerfully set forth. Wuthering Heights has great faults, but they do not matter; they matter as little as the fallen tree-trunks, the strewn rocks, the snow-drifts which impede, but do not stem, the alpine torrent in its tumultuous course down the mountain-side. You cannot liken Wuthering Heights to any other book. You can liken it only to one of those great pictures of El Greco in which in a sombre, arid landscape, under clouds heavy with thunder, long, emaciated figures in contorted attitudes, spell-bound by an unearthly emotion, hold their breath. A streak of lightning, flitting across the leaden sky, gives a mysterious terror to the scene.

我看了之后才发现，译者有偷懒的嫌疑。毛姆关于“该小说的瑕疵无足轻重”的华丽丽的形容都在翻译过程中丢失了。同时，“痛苦、狂喜、狠心、执着”这四个词最后一个“执着”在原文中并没有出现。这一段之前的同性恋猜测也漏掉了。最关键的是，我觉得“力量”的翻译有误导之嫌。我觉得毛姆说的是“对爱的痛苦、狂喜和无情的强劲有力的表达”。不是小说给人以力量，而是给人展现了一种有力的表达方式。

《文学回忆录》这书的标题翻译都有些不对劲，原标题是《十部小说和它们的作者》，翻译过来被大大升格。
