Whereabouts, by Jhumpa Lahiri
《行踪》 作者：裘帕·拉希莉
A woman walks alone through an Italian city. She sits in the piazza and basks in the sun. Gradually, the reader comes to know this lonely flâneuse—her troubled past, hidden neuroses and conflicting urges. In “Whereabouts”, Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest book, she and her nameless narrator explore the inevitability of movement and change, uncomfortable truths and unexpected joys.
一个女人独自走过一座意大利城市。她坐在广场上，沐浴在阳光下。读者开始慢慢地对这个孤独的游人有所了解—她坎坷的过去，潜在的神经症以及矛盾的欲望。在裘帕·拉希莉的最新小说《行踪》一书中，拉希莉及她笔下的无名叙述者一同探究迁移及变化的必然性，令人不安的真相以及意料之外的快乐。
In Ms Lahiri’s brief chapters—some only a page long, with equally laconic headings such as “In the office”, “On the street” and “In the hotel”—the narrator, a writer and teacher,advances through the seasons, working, eating, swimming, travelling, visiting her mother and people- watching.She craves familiarity but feels compelled to “push past the barrier of my life”. This restlessness leads to a startling 3 perception: “I’m me and also someone else.”
《行踪》的章节篇幅短小，有些章节只有一页，标题也同样言简意赅，比如《在办公室里》，《在街上》，《在旅馆》。在本书中，叙述者是一名老师，也是作者，随着四季更替，她工作、吃饭、游泳、旅行、看望母亲以及观察他人。她渴望与人亲近，却又觉得这会逼她打破过往生活的枷锁。这种不安使她形成出乎意料的认知：“我是我自己，同时也是另一个人。”
Her contradictions make the character wholly believable. She is moody and compassionate, irritated yet comforted by strangers; she craves solitude but is plagued by it. Ms Lahiri—who won a Pulitzer in 2000 for her first book, “Interpreter of Maladies”—evokes fleeting but resonant encounters with Chekhovian efficiency, making ordinary memories seem profound. Sparse sentences carry a quiet rage. The first mention of the narrator’s father is tersely devastating: “Instead of going to see a play with him, I sat at his wake.” Spring reminds her of “loss, of betrayal, of disappointment”.
她的矛盾使得这一人物变得真实丰满。她情绪多变而又怀有恻隐之心，会被陌生人激怒却又从他们身上寻得慰藉；她渴望孤独却又为独孤所困。拉希莉女士凭借处女作《疾病解说者》4赢得了于2000年的普利策奖，它凭借契诃夫式的短小精湛，让读者忆起那些转瞬即逝却引人共鸣的遭遇，使得平常的记忆变得深刻。朴素的文字却蕴含着安静的狂怒。文章第一次提到主人公的父亲时，文字凝练而可怕：“我没能跟他一起去看戏剧，而是坐在他身旁为他守灵。”春天使她想起的是“失去、背叛和失望”。
Nothing much happens—a flirtation that might become an affair instead fizzles out—but, cumulatively, Ms Lahiri’s vignettes distil /the complexities and costs of family. The reader sees how a child can sink into the gulf between parents (in this case, a hectoring mother and disengaged father), and grasps the narrator’s desire, but inability, to turn away from her upbringing: “I think a great deal /about my parents, and I ask myself, in this sheltered place, why they’re still nipping at my heels.”
故事情节并不复杂，一场本可能演变成一桩轶事，却有始无终的调情。但渐渐地，拉希莉女士将家庭的复杂和负担的代价浓缩在笔下一个个小小的片段中。读者读到孩子如何深陷父母之间的隔阂，（本书中的母亲凶神恶煞，父亲则疏离淡漠），也能感受到主人公渴望逃离原生家庭，却又无能为力的心境。“关于父母，我想了很多。我问自己，为什么我逃到这个藏身之处，却无法摆脱他们的阴影。”
The other key relationship in “Whereabouts” is with the narrator’s home city (unnamed, like her). The emphasis on place and movement reflects the author’s own peripatetic life. Born in London to Bengali parents, she moved to Rhode Island as a young child and later to Rome. She sought out new linguistic territory by writing this book in Italian, then translating it into English herself. Ms Lahiri has taken risks for her craft, and they have paid off, beautifully.
《行踪》中主人公与她的家乡的关系是另一个关键，（名字不得而知，就如同主人公无名一般）。书中对地点以及迁移的强调反映了作者自己居无定所的生活。拉希莉出生于伦敦，父母是孟加拉人。她很小的时候就搬到了罗德岛，后来又搬到了罗马。她用意大利语写成了《行踪》这本书，以此探索新的语言领域。她而后又亲自把它翻译成了英文。在创作过程中，拉希莉女士冒了个险，幸而这一切得到了喜人的回报。
•词句
troubled 坎坷的
urges 欲望
movement 迁移
with 也
grasp 理解
compassionate 怀有恻隐之心
be plagued by 为…所困
advance through the seasons 随着四季更替
sit at one's wake 守灵
fizzle out 有始无终
nip at one’s heels 阴魂不散
•翻译要点
1理解而后意译
Craft➡️创作过程
2当英文是形容词➕名词时
中文可调整顺序为名词➕形容词
Sparse sentences ➡️ 文字凝练而可怕
3注意中英主被动调整
comforted by strangers➡️从陌生人处寻得慰藉
•感想
这是我看介绍书籍以来，最想要看原版书的一次。
“I think a great deal /about my parents, and I ask myself, in this sheltered place, why they’re still nipping at my heels.”
作者的文字是这么的平实，却又蕴含着深厚的感情。她的文字功底是多么深厚，才能以短短的几句话就使人感受到她人内心深处的痛苦不安以及那种绝望的无奈。在家庭中的挣扎、对身份认同所产生的矛盾，让我想起了《你当像鸟飞向你的山》。一样是挣扎，一样是迷茫，一样是在跌跌撞撞中体验人生。
我们看他人的人生，也看自己的人生。
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