Always on the Side of the Egg 永远站在鸡蛋这一边（双语）

屈联西

Written by Haruki Murakami

Good evening. I have come to Jerusalem today as a novelist, which is to say as a professional 1)spinner of lies.

Today, however, I have no intention of lying. I will try to be as honest as I can. There are only a few days in the year when I do not engage in telling lies, and today happens to be one of them.

So let me tell you the truth. In Japan a fair number of people advised me not to come here to accept the Jerusalem Prize. Some even warned me they would 2)instigate a 3)boycott of my books if I came. The reason for this, of course, was the fierce fighting that was raging in Gaza.  

Finally, however, after careful consideration, I made up my mind to come here. One reason for my decision was that all too many people advised me not to do it. It’s in my nature, you might say, as a novelist. Novelists are a special breed. They cannot 4)genuinely trust anything they have not seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands.

And that is why I am here. I chose to come here rather than stay away. I chose to see for myself rather than not to see. I chose to speak to you rather than to say nothing.
Please do allow me to deliver a message, one very personal message. It is something that I always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece of paper and paste it to the wall: rather, it is carved into the wall of my mind, and it goes something like this:

“Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.”

Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: it is “The System.” The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others—coldly, efficiently, systematically.

I have only one reason to write novels, and that is to bring the dignity of the individual soul to the surface and shine a light upon it. The purpose of a story is to sound an alarm, to keep a light 5)trained on The System in order to prevent it from 6)tangling our souls in its web and demeaning them. I truly believe it is the novelist’s job to keep trying to clarify the uniqueness of each individual soul by writing stories—stories of life and death, stories of love, stories that make people cry and quake with fear and shake with laughter. This is why we go on, day after day, 7)concocting fictions with utter seriousness.

I have only one thing I hope to convey to you today. We are all human beings, individuals 8)transcending nationality and race and religion, and we are all fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called The System. To all appearances, we have no hope of winning. The wall is too high, too strong—and too cold. If we have any hope of victory at all, it will have to come from our believing in the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others’ souls and from our believing in the warmth we gain by joining souls together.



晚上好。今天我来到耶路撒冷，以一个小说家的身份，也就是说，以一个职业撒谎者的身份。

然而今天，我不想撒谎。我会试着尽量诚实。一年之中仅仅只有几天时间，我会不讲谎话，而今天碰巧就是其中之一。
所以请允许我告诉你们真相。在日本，许多人建议我不要来这里接受耶路撒冷文学奖。有一些人甚至警告我，说如果我来了，他们会对我的书发起抵制。这一切的原因当然在于，加沙地带所发生的惨烈的战火。  

然而最终，经过审慎的考虑后，我决意到这里来。我作此决定的一个原因就是太多人建议我不要来到这里。也许你们会说，这是我作为小说家的天性。小说家们都是天生异品。他们就是不肯真正相信任何非亲眼目睹或亲手触碰的事物。

所以那就是我为什么来到了这里的原因。我选择了到这里来而非回避。我选择了亲眼见证，而非蒙蔽双眼。我选择了向你们开口说话，而非沉默不语。

请允许我，传达一条讯息，一条非常个人的讯息。这是我在撰写小说时总是牢记在心的。我从来没有真的将其形诸于文字、贴在墙上。我将它刻在我内心的墙上，这句话是这样说的：  

“若要在坚实高墙与以卵击石的鸡蛋之间作选择，我永远会选择站在鸡蛋这一边。”

试着这样想：我们每个人，或多或少都可被视为一枚鸡蛋。我们每一个人都是一个独特的、不可替代的灵魂，而这灵魂覆盖着一个脆弱的外壳。我是这样，而且你们也是这样。而且我们每一个人，在不同程度上，都在面对着一堵高大的、坚固的墙。而这堵墙有一个名字：叫做“体制”。这个体制本来应该保护我们，但是有时候它自怀生命，而这时它开始扼杀我们，并且怂恿我们互相残杀——冷血地、有效地、系统性地残杀。

我写作小说只有一个原因，而那就是为了彰显个体灵魂的尊严，并投以希望之光。一个故事的目的是敲响一个警钟，照亮这个体制，从而令我们的灵魂不至迷陷于体制的巨网当中，不至于被体制损害。我深信小说作者的职责就是通过写作，不断地去尝试揭露个体灵魂的独特性——那些关于生与死的故事，那些关于爱的故事，那些让人们落泪、恐惧战栗、欢笑颤抖的故事。这就是我们继续编写的原因，日复一日地用极致的严肃捏造着虚幻的小说。   

今天我想传达给你们的讯息只有一个。那就是：我们都是人类，是超越了国籍、种族和信仰的个体，并且我们都是面对着名为“体制”的坚实高墙的脆弱的鸡蛋。照一切外部条件看来，我们根本没有赢的希望。墙，太高，太强大——而且太冷酷了。如果我们还有一点点胜利的希望，那么它将源自于我们相信自己和他人的灵魂当中有一种极致的独特性和不可替代性，源自于我们相信灵魂的缔结所能获得的温暖。

1)        spinner纺纱工；（故事等的）编造者

2)        instigate  鼓动

3)        boycott  联合抵制，杯葛

4)        genuinely 真诚地

5)        train对准（常与on, upon搭配）

6)        tangle 使混乱

7)        concoct  编造

8)        transcend  超越

游戏人间

试着这样想：我们每个人，或多或少都可被视为一枚鸡蛋。我们每一个人都是一个独特的、不可替代的灵魂，而这灵魂覆盖着一个脆弱的外壳。我是这样，而且你们也是这样。而且我们每一个人，在不同程度上，都在面对着一堵高大的、坚固的墙。而这堵墙有一个名字：叫做“体制”。这个体制本来应该保护我们，但是有时候它自怀生命，而这时它开始扼杀我们，并且怂恿我们互相残杀——冷血地、有效地、系统性地残杀。