卡夫卡和洋娃娃:永恒的失落
- 平 - 译言-每日精品译文推荐 据传,弗朗茨·卡夫卡曾在他每天都去散步的公园里,遇见了一个小女孩. 女孩儿在哭,因为她弄丢了心爱的洋娃娃,非常孤单. Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot.
译者 一盐姐姐
Kafka and the Doll: The Pervasiveness of Loss
卡夫卡与洋娃娃:永恒的失落
Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.据传,弗朗茨·卡夫卡曾在他每天都去散步的公园里,遇见了一个小女孩。女孩儿在哭,因为她弄丢了心爱的洋娃娃,非常孤单。
Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot. Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.卡夫卡提出会帮她找到那只洋娃娃,并与她约好第二天在此见面。然而他并没有找到。于是他以洋娃娃的名义写了一封信,读给小女孩听:
"Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures." This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.“请不要为我哭泣。我已踏上了周游世界的路。我会写信给你,告诉你我在路上的经历。”这是第一封。从那以后,更多的信件陆续而来。每当他和小女孩相遇,卡夫卡都会把这些精心编写的信件读给她听,讲述她心爱娃娃的奇妙经历。小女孩的悲伤渐渐被抚慰了。
When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained: "my travels have changed me... "在最后一次碰面的时候,卡夫卡拿出一只洋娃娃。它和丢掉的那只相比有明显不同。娃娃身上附了封信,上面写道:“旅行改变了我的模样……”
Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll. In summary it said: "every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form."很多年后,小女孩长大了。在这只一直被珍藏着的娃娃身上,她突然发现了一个隐蔽的缝隙。缝隙里塞了一封信,上面写道:“所有你爱的,都会离你而去。但最终,爱会以另一种模样,返回到你身边。”
There are many versions of the story of Kafka and the doll. I heard this one from Tara Brach, psychologist and Buddhist meditation teacher in Washington D.C.卡夫卡和洋娃娃的故事,有许多版本。这个版本是我从Tara Brach那里听到的。她是一位住在华盛顿的心理学家,及佛教冥想学教师。
Only after many tellings am I able to relay this story without crying. And I have found that when I tell it to others young or old, my listener is invariably moved, occasionally bursting into tears.在讲述了无数遍这个故事以后,我才终于可以抑制住夺眶而出的泪水。而我发现,每次在讲述它的时候,无论老少,都禁不住为之动容,时不时有人在哭泣。
When I went online to find confirmation for the story, I found one source that referred to it as a "healing story." That seems right. For whether this actually ever happened the story is real and true and provides a template for healing.当我在网上查证这个故事的时候,有一份资料将它列为“治愈系小文”。很对。无论这个典故是否真实,至少故事本身不假,而且,它的确是治愈系的范例。
For me there are two wise lessons in this story: Grief and loss are ubiquitous even for a young child. And the way toward healing is to look for how love comes back in another form.我在这个故事里学到了两课:悲伤和失落,这两者无处不在,即使是小孩子也不能幸免。而使心灵痊愈的办法,便是去寻找那以另一种形式返回的爱。
I think there are advantages to viewing grief as omnipresent, an inescapable part of being a human being. Grief encompasses far more than the loss of a loved one, although that is perhaps its most profound manifestation. The loss of the doll in the story is devastating to the little girl. This is what moves Kafka to create the wonderful stories of travel and adventure. He perceived the depth of her pain. It is reported that he put as much time and care into creating these letters for the little girl as he did in other writings.我认为,将悲伤看作生命中无处不在、不可避免的一部分,是件好事。悲伤所包括的范围,远不止"失去所爱"这件事,虽然后者也许是其最深刻的表现。在故事里,洋娃娃的丢失对小女孩而言,是灾难性的。这也正是触动了卡夫卡、并让他着手编写旅行游记的原因。他觉察到了她深切的痛苦。据传,卡夫卡在为小女孩编写信件上花的时间和心思,和他在其他作品上花的一样多。
Holding the perspective of the universality of loss, helps us with shame and loneliness. If a profound grief reaction to divorce or children leaving home or the loss of a pregnancy, or unemployment, or retirement, or having to confront the limitations of our children, or aging, or the loss of health is something I share with my fellow beings, I am less alone. And I don't have to be ashamed that I feel the way I do, for shame is part of the legacy of isolation.失落是永恒的。这个观念帮助我们克服羞愧和孤独感。当因为离婚、流产、失业、退休、衰老、病痛、孩子长大后离家而感到悲痛、并与朋友倾诉时,我便不再觉得孤独难抑。并且,我无需再为自己的难过而感到羞耻,因为羞耻从属于孤独。
And love coming back, in a different form? I believe it was Kafka's letters that were the real gift of love, and what was ultimately healing for the little girl was the relationship that was the balm. Someone cared enough for her pain to write her lovely stories of the lost doll's adventures. A great writer at that.爱会换一种模样回来吗?我相信,卡夫卡的信本身,就是爱的馈赠。最终抚慰了小女孩的,正是他们之间的这份关系。一个关心她痛苦的人,为她描绘娃娃旅行的美妙故事——多么棒的一位作家。
How healing it is to hold this conviction, that love will return. It is our job to recognize it in its new form.坚信爱总会回来,这是件多么治愈的事啊。我们要做的,就是当它换了模样重回到你身边时,辨认出爱的存在。