070《经济学家》读译参考之七十：重生-作家马钉埃米斯重推力作.doc

TEXT 70 Comeback man 重生（陈继龙 编译） Oct 12th 2006 From The Economist print edition THE true critic, Vladimir Nabokov once o_______①, reads not with his brain but with his backbone. He waits for the “tell-tale tingle down the spine” which alerts him to good writing. After more than a decade messing about writing some fine essays and autobiography mixed in with poor fiction and some questionable history, （1）Martin Amis has suddenly—and unexpectedly, even to his publishers—turned in a work of real worth, a novel that not so much makes the spine tingle as the heart race at its passion and richness. 弗拉基米尔·纳波可夫曾说，真正的评论家读书时用的不是大脑，而是脊梁骨。他守候着让人惊喜交集的故事的到来，让他惊觉原来这是一本妙作。过去十余年间，马丁·埃米斯一直在为撰写几篇优秀论文和一本夹杂着拙劣的小说和某些不可靠的历史记载的自传而折腾不停，如今他却突然——甚至连他的出版商都意想不到地是——献出了一部真正有价值的著作，一部富于激情、有血有肉的小说，让人感到与其说是惊喜交集还不如说是心如潮涌。 The enemies of the people whom the Soviet authorities sent to camps in the gulag[1] were, on rare occasions, permitted conjugal[2] visits. （2）Valiant women would travel huge distances, the jacket sleeve says, sometimes for weeks or even months, in the hope of spending a night à deux[3] in the House of Meetings. Written as a deathbed letter to a well-fed daughter now living in the West, “House of Meetings” tells the tale—and tragic consequences—of one such e________②. 被苏联当局关押在古拉格集中营的敌人获准各自的丈夫或妻子前来探望，可这种机会很难得。该书的封套上写道，勇敢的女人们不远万里而来，有时候行程数周甚至数月，希望夫妇二人能够在“见面屋”共度一个晚上。《见面屋》一书读起来好像是写给如今生活在西方、丰衣足食的女儿的临终遗书，可它讲述的却是一个夫妻如此邂逅的故事，结局悲惨。 Two brothers fall in love with the same girl, Zoya, a 19-year-old Jewess, in a Moscow that is readying for a pogrom[4] some time between the second world war and the death of Stalin. She marries Lev, the younger. “My little brother came to the camp in 1948,” the story begins. “I was already there.” 在二战之后、斯大林死前的某个时候，在血雨腥风即将来临的莫斯科，有两个兄弟同时爱上了一个名叫卓娅的19岁犹太女孩。她嫁给了弟弟列弗。故事开篇写道：“1948年，我的弟弟来到了集中营。我已经在那儿了。” The camp is situated just north of the 69th parallel[5], inside the A______③ circle. As Zoya makes the journey from Moscow, it is the narrators job to prepare the House of M