在布拉格追尋卡夫卡的足跡 On the Trail of Kafka in Prague

When I awoke one recent morning in Prague from unsettling dreams, I found myself changed into a tourist on a mission. Changed, anyway, from the traveler I had been when I lived in Prague for three years in the 1990s.

不久前的一天早晨，我在布拉格從不安的睡夢中醒來，發現自己變成了一名懷揣使命的遊客，不再是1990年代在布拉格旅居三年期間的那個我。

Back then, whatever associations I had between the city and the writer Franz Kafka, a native son, were negative. I loathed the commercialization of Kafka, his face scrawled across coffee mugs and T-shirts in souvenir shops, his name emblazoned on awnings of Old Town cafes and restaurants.

那時候，我對這座城市以及出生於此的作家弗朗茨·卡夫卡(Franz Kafka)的所有印象都是消極的。我對把卡夫卡商品化的做法感到厭惡：紀念品商店裏的咖啡杯和T恤衫上印着做工粗糙的卡夫卡頭像，老城的咖啡廳和餐館的雨篷上也醒目地印有他的名字。

Yet there was always something nagging at me about never having explored the Kafka trail in Prague, an integral part of the city’s cultural history. On top of that, Kafka’s novella “The Metamorphosis,” in which the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, finds himself transformed into a bug, was first published in book form this month a century ago.

不過，我仍然介懷於自己從未探索過卡夫卡的足跡。與卡夫卡有關的景點是這座城市文化歷史的核心。此外，本月還是卡夫卡的中篇小說《變形記》(The Metamorphosis)首次出版100週年。這部作品講述了主人公格里高爾·薩姆莎(Gregor Samsa)變形爲昆蟲的故事。

And so, I thought, what better time to finally explore the writer and the city with which he is inextricably intertwined. In doing so I’d talk to a fairly diverse group of people about how this city may have influenced one of his most famous works — and how it may have shaped the famously tortured writer himself.

於是我想，終於可以藉此機會研究一下這位作家以及與他有着千絲萬縷聯繫的城市了。我打算與不同類型的人探討這座城市如何影響了卡夫卡最著名的作品——以及這位性格擰巴的作家本身。

Once while standing at a window at the Oppelt House at Old Town Square 5, Kafka looked out at the square and said, “This narrow circle encompasses my entire life.” He wasn’t exaggerating, as I learned on a tour booked through the Franz Kafka Society.

卡夫卡曾經站在舊城廣場5號Oppelt House的窗前，看着窗外的廣場說，“我的一生都關在了這個小圓圈裏。”在弗朗茨·卡夫卡學會(Franz Kafka Society)協助安排的一次行程中，我才知道他這話一點不誇張。

The guide, Ondrej Skrabal, a 23-year-old law student, showed me the building where Kafka was born (or, rather, the building that replaced it), and from there we hit what seemed like a dozen other places he had resided — so much so that it became underwhelming. “That far left window on the third floor,” Mr. Skrabal said, pointing to another building on Old Town Square and pausing. “Yes, Kafka lived there, too.”

導遊翁德雷·什克拉巴爾(Ondrej Skrabal)是一名23歲的法律系學生。他向我介紹了卡夫卡出生時的建築（更確切地說，是後來的重建品），我們從那裏出發，又找到了他住過的十幾個地方——數量太多，都沒留下什麼印象。“三樓最左邊的那扇窗，”什克拉巴爾指着舊城廣場的另一棟建築說，“對，卡夫卡也曾住在那裏。”

We passed by a shop his father had owned and stopped to take in the intriguing Franz Kafka Monument (where Dusni and Vezenska Streets meet in Old Town), a 12-foot-high bronze statue of an upright empty suit with a smaller man — bearing the resemblance of Kafka — riding on his shoulders. It’s a popular photo op among tourists, and a 12-inch version of it is the literary award that the Franz Kafka Society gives to winners of the annual Kafka Prize.

我們路過了卡夫卡的父親經營過的一家商店，停下來觀看了引人駐足的弗朗茨·卡夫卡紀念像（在老城區的都斯尼大街[Dusni]和維森斯卡大街[Vezenska]交匯處），這座12英尺高的銅雕像包括一套直立的西裝空殼，以及騎在西裝肩上的一名體積稍小的男子，他的外形酷似卡夫卡。遊客很喜歡在這拍照，弗朗茨·卡夫卡學會每年授予卡夫卡獎得主的獎品就是這個雕像的12英寸縮小版。

Aside from the statue, my Kafka tour wasn’t proving to be particularly memorable. But then we got to Kamzikova 6, a building in a small hidden alley just off Old Town Square. The building housed a restaurant called U Cerveneho Pava (At the Red Peacock) and a Segway rental shop aimed at Russian tourists. “Here,” Mr. Skrabal said, pointing to the door, “was a high-class brothel and Kafka regularly came here to chat with the girls.”

除了這座雕像，我的這趟尋找卡夫卡之旅並沒有特別令人難忘。不過隨後，我們來到了Kamzikova大街6號，這棟建築位於舊城廣場旁邊一條不易察覺的小巷裏。樓裏的一家餐廳名叫U Cerveneho Pava，還有一家針對俄羅斯遊客的賽格威電動踏板車租賃商店。什克拉巴爾指着門口說，“這裏曾經是一家高級妓院，卡夫卡經常來與女孩子們聊天。”

“You mean ‘chat,’” I said, using air quotes.

“你的意思是，‘聊天’，”我說着，在空中比劃了一對引號。

“No, really,” he said, “Kafka was interested in all types of people, and he really did come here to have philosophical discussions with the prostitutes.”

“不，確實是聊天，”他說，“卡夫卡對不同類型的人感興趣，他的確是來與妓女們討論哲學的。”

The one Kafka home Mr. Skrabal didn’t take me to was Parizska 30, where the writer lived when he wrote “The Metamorphosis” — that building was destroyed in 1945; today, an InterContinental Hotel stands in its place. “The Metamorphosis” takes place entirely in an apartment, and Kafka scholars have said the writer used his fourth-floor apartment at the time as a model for the one in the story.

什克拉巴爾沒有帶我們去的卡夫卡故居位於Parizska大街30號，就是《變形記》的創作地點——那棟建築在1945年被毀；那裏如今是一家洲際酒店。《變形記》的故事完全發生在一間公寓內，研究卡夫卡的學者們說，作者以自己位於四樓的公寓作爲故事中的原型。

I wasn’t staying at the hotel, so I took the elevator to the rooftop restaurant, Zlata Praha. From the outdoor terrace, with the Gothic and Baroque spires of Old Town at my back, I looked down at Svatopluk Cech Bridge, an Art Nouveau span that would have been only a few years old when the writer lived there.

我沒有呆在酒店裏，而是乘電梯來到了屋頂的餐廳Zlata Praha。在露臺上，我的身後是舊城的哥特式和巴洛克式尖塔，我看到了樓下的斯瓦特普魯克·切赫橋(Svatopluk Cech Bridge)，卡夫卡在那居住時，這座新藝術風格的橋才建成沒幾年。

This was, more or less, Kafka’s view from 1907 to 1913. He wrote to a friend about the then-new bridge, saying that this part of the Vltava River had been popular for suicide attempts: “It will always be more pleasant to walk across the bridge up to the Belvedere than through the river to Heaven.”

我所看到的差不多就是1907到1913年間卡夫卡看到的風景。他在給一位友人的信中提到了這座當時剛剛建成的新橋，稱伏爾塔瓦河(Vltava River)的這一河段頗受自殺者歡迎：“從橋上走到觀景樓，總比從這條河進入天堂要愉快得多。”

Another important Kafka site that is now a hotel is the erstwhile insurance office where Kafka worked from 1908 to 1922; he complained in his diary that a company business trip was the reason the ending of “The Metamorphosis” was so unsatisfying.

另一處與卡夫卡有關的主要景點，是卡夫卡1908年到1922年工作過的保險公司，不過那裏現在已是一家酒店；卡夫卡曾在日記中抱怨，就因爲公司安排的一次出差，讓《變形記》的結尾不盡如人意。

Today the neo-Baroque building is the Hotel Century Old Town Prague, which has some not-so-subtle Kafka references: a bust of the writer; a restaurant named after one of his fiancées, Felice; and, just outside of Room 214, a photo of the writer and a plaque indicating it had been his office.

這座新巴洛克風格的建築如今是一座美憬閣世紀古城布拉格酒店( Hotel Century Old Town)，裏面很容易發現一些與卡夫卡有關的痕跡：他的半身像；一座以他的未婚妻費利斯(Felice)命名的餐廳；就在214房間外，掛着一張卡夫卡的照片，牌匾上顯示這裏曾是他的辦公室。

I had hoped to stay in Kafka’s former office, but it was booked. So I went with plan B: sneak up to the second floor to get a peek at the room. I got to the door and saw the plaque and photo; I considered knocking on the door, but it was 8 a.m. and I didn’t want to disturb its occupants.

我希望住進卡夫卡以前的辦公室，但房間已經被別人訂了。因此我採取了第二套方案：溜到二樓，偷看一眼那個房間。我走到了門口，看到了牌匾和照片；我本想敲門，但當時是早上8點，我不想打擾裏面的房客。

I stopped into the Franz Kafka Museum, in the Mala Strana neighborhood, hoping to find a treasure trove of “Metamorphosis” artifacts and information. The self-guided tour provided an entertaining and educational hour on the writer, but there wasn’t much about his famous story.

我還參觀了位於布拉格小城社區的弗朗茨卡夫卡博物館(Kafka Museum)，希望找到《變形記》的藝術品和信息。這趟走馬觀花的旅程很有趣，也增加了我對卡夫卡的瞭解，但沒有找到很多有關這部名作的信息。

A couple of days later I turned to the Franz Kafka Society Center, behind the Franz Kafka Bookstore in Josefov.

幾天後，我求助了位於約瑟夫城弗朗茨·卡夫卡書店背後的弗朗茨卡夫卡學會中心。

“Many Czechs were unfamiliar with Kafka until recently,” Marketa Malisova, the center’s director, said, explaining that his writing was banned during the German occupation of World War II and then became unpopular after the war because of anti-German sentiment (Kafka was a Czech Jew who wrote in German).

“許多捷克人對卡夫卡知之甚少，直到不久前這一狀況才得以改變，”中心主任馬爾凱塔 ·馬利紹娃(Marketa Malisova)說，她解釋說，他的作品在德國佔領時期被禁，戰爭結束後因爲人們的反德情緒不受歡迎（卡夫卡是捷克猶太人，用德語寫作）。

“And then there’s the Communist period,” she said. “Because he foretold the tyranny that was to come, the Communist regime didn’t exactly promote his writing.”

“後來到了共產主義時期，”她說。“因爲他預言了即將到來的專制統治，共產主義政權不可能宣傳他的作品。”

It wasn’t until after the 1989 Velvet Revolution when tourists from Western Europe and the United States began turning up wanting to see the Kafka-related sites that Czechs recognized his importance. “I met a local guy here in Prague in the early ’90s,” Ms. Malisova said, “who asked: ‘Who is this Kafka guy? Is he American? I only see American tourists with Kafka T-shirts.’ ”

直到1989年的天鵝絨革命之後，來自西歐和美國的遊客開始涌入，想要一睹與卡夫卡有關的景點，捷克人才意識到他的重要性。“90年代初，我在這裏遇到一名當地男子，”馬利紹娃說，“他問我：‘這個卡夫卡是誰？是美國人嗎？我只見過美國遊客穿印有卡夫卡的T恤衫。’”

Just before I said goodbye to Ms. Malisova, she pulled out a book in a plastic container. It was a first printing of “The Metamorphosis”; on its cover was the image of an open bedroom door, a man looking away and covering his face in horror.

就在我向馬利紹娃女士告別之前，她從塑料箱子裏抽出一本書，是《變形記》的第一個版本；封面上是一扇敞開的臥室門，一名男子看向別處，驚恐地捂着臉。

Kafka was quite vague about what kind of insect or beast Gregor Samsa had metamorphosed into. He specifically used the phrase “ungeheuren Ungeziefer,” a “monstrous vermin,” as some of his English-language translators have interpreted it.

對於格里高爾·薩姆莎變成了哪種昆蟲，卡夫卡的表述相當模糊。他特別使用了“ungeheuren Ungeziefer”，有些英文譯者把它譯成“巨大的害蟲”。

“Not that, please, not that!” he wrote in a letter to his Leipzig-based publisher in 1915, reacting to a potential cover to the very first edition. “The insect itself cannot be drawn. It cannot even be shown at a distance.”

“不要畫那個，請一定不要畫那個，”他在1915年寫信給萊比錫的出版商時，對於第一版的封面設計給出了這樣的反應。“昆蟲本身是不能被描繪出來的。它甚至也不能從遠處展示。”

That hasn’t stopped readers from conjuring up images of the protagonist as a beetle or cockroach. This includes the infamous Czech artist David Cerny.

但這並沒能阻止讀者把主人公想象成一隻甲蟲或蟑螂，包括著名的捷克藝術家大衛·塞爾尼(David Cerny)。

I met him one day at the MeetFactory, an art center in the Smichov district where he has his studio. Prague is sprinkled with provocative pieces by Mr. Cerny — a sculpture of a urinating man (directly in front of the Franz Kafka Museum), a statue of the Czech patron saint King Wenceslas sitting on an upside down dead horse.

有一天，我在斯密徹夫區(Smichov)的藝術中心MeetFactory見到了塞爾尼。他在那裏開了一間工作室。布拉格很多地方都能看到塞爾尼充滿爭議的藝術作品，——一個正在撒尿的男子雕像（位於弗朗茨·卡夫卡博物館的正前方），還有捷克瓦茨拉夫國王坐在一隻倒立的死馬上的雕像。

His most recent installation in Prague is a sculpture of Kafka’s head, set behind the Tesco department store in the center of town. The 36-foot-high head is made up of 42 moving chrome-plated layers, which move both in synchronicity and in opposing directions.

他在布拉格的最新作品是一座卡夫卡的頭部雕塑，位於市中心的樂購百貨(Tesco)後面。這座36英尺高的頭部雕像由42塊移動的鍍鉻板組成，板面可以同向和反向移動。

Mr. Cerny’s original idea was a fountain featuring three figures: a robot, referencing the Czech-language writer Karel Capek, who coined the term; a Golem, representing the Yiddish language; and Kafka’s beetle, referring to the German language. “I wanted to remind people that Prague was once a city of three languages,” Mr. Cerny said.

塞爾尼最初的想法是建一組噴泉，包含三個角色：機器人，代表捷克語作家卡雷爾·恰佩克(Karel Capek)，他曾發明了“機器人”這個詞；魔像，代表意第緒語；以及卡夫卡的甲蟲，代表德語。“我想提醒人們，布拉格曾經是說三種語言的城市，”塞爾尼說。

Unfortunately, city water regulations prevented him from placing a fountain there, so instead he came up with the huge reflecting Kafka head, which is based on similar work of his on display in Charlotte, N.C., called “Metalmorphosis.”

遺憾的是，城市的水資源管理規定禁止他在那裏建噴泉，所以就有了這個巨大的卡夫卡頭部雕像，設計源自於他正在北卡羅來納州夏洛特展出的一個類似作品——“Metalmorphosis”。

“I loved the irony that this sculpture faces a city government building in Prague,” he said. “imagine you’re angry because the clerks are doing nothing, only saying for you to go to another office and then another office and another until finally you hear, ‘This office is closed.’ And then you walk out of the building, and there’s the huge head of Kafka looking at you, reminding you of the irony.”

“這座雕塑正對着布拉格的市政府大樓，我喜歡這種諷刺意味，”他說。“想像一下，公務員們不幹正事，互相推諉，踢皮球似的讓你從一個辦公室跑到另一個辦公室，直到你聽見一聲“下班了”，然後你憤怒地走出政府大樓，看到卡夫卡的巨大頭顱盯着你，提醒你這是多麼諷刺。”

A similar irony is not lost on Jachym Topol, the author of five novels and a political dissident in the 1970s and ’80s. I briefly met up with him at a literary festival in Prague, and when I mentioned Kafka, he was happy to talk about what Kafka means today.

亞希姆·託波爾(Jachym Topol)身上也有這樣的諷刺。他在上世紀七八十年代寫了五部小說，是一位政治異見者。我在布拉格的一個文學節上與他有過一面之緣，當我提到卡夫卡時，他很樂意談談卡夫卡在當下的意義。

“During the Communist regime, we used to make samizdat copies of Kafka’s works such as ‘The Metamorphosis,’ ” he said. “And now, along with the Charles Bridge and the castle, Kafka has become a part of Prague kitsch. He’s everywhere and he’s for sale everywhere. It’s his last joke.”

“在共產主義政權下，我們曾經在地下印刷卡夫卡的作品，比如《變形記》，”他說。“而現在，如同查理大橋和城堡一樣，卡夫卡已經成爲了布拉格媚俗藝術的一部分。他無處不在，到處在出售他有關的東西。這是他最後的玩笑。”

Latent jokes seemed to come up with nearly everyone I talked to about the writer, including Jaroslav Rona, the artist who created the Franz Kafka Monument — the statue of the writer riding atop an empty suit — at Café Louvre, an attractive high-ceilinged second-floor spot where Kafka would hang out with his writer friend Max Brod.

潛在的玩笑似乎伴隨着每一個我與之談起這位作家的人，包括雅羅斯拉夫·羅納(Jaroslav Rona)，弗朗茨·卡夫卡紀念像（騎在空西服上）的創作者。他在羅浮咖啡館創作了這個雕塑，這間咖啡館是一處頗有吸引力的二層空間，有高高的頂棚，卡夫卡和他的作家朋友馬克斯·布勞德(Max Brod)曾在這裏消磨時光。

Mr. Rona’s first attempt at creating a sculpture for the competition to win the right to design the memorial was, naturally, a beetle. The final concept was inspired by a Kafka short story called “Description of a Struggle” — though it turns out that he inserted quasi-hidden references to “Metamorphosis” as well.

羅納爲了贏得紀念像設計權的所創作的第一個雕塑，自然是一隻甲蟲。最終的設計靈感來自卡夫卡的短篇小說《爭吵》(Description of a Struggle)——不過他在作品中也加入了《變形記》的隱喻。

“All the other pieces in the competition were basically Kafka on a pedestal,” Mr. Rona said. “But what I did was, after reading ‘The Metamorphosis,’ I realized something about Kafka’s thinking: I love art where it isn’t obvious what the artist is thinking.

“競賽中的其他作品基本上都是基座上的卡夫卡雕像，”羅納說，“而我的做法是，在讀過了《變形記》之後，我瞭解到了卡夫卡的想法：我喜歡那些讓人猜不透藝術家想法的藝術作品。”

“And I think this was Kafka’s philosophy, too — not only in ‘The Metamorphosis,’ but in a lot of his writing. So I used that same type of thinking to create the monument to Kafka.”

“我認爲這也是卡夫卡的理念——不僅是在《變形記》裏，在他的許多作品裏都是。因此在創作卡夫卡的紀念像時，我採用了同樣的思路。”

I asked about possible “Metamorphosis” allusions. He smiled playfully and glanced down at his cappuccino. “I couldn’t imagine making a monument to Kafka without some kind of reference to ‘The Metamorphosis,’ ” he said. “So I planted a somewhat secret reference to it.”

我詢問了是否有與《變形記》有關的隱喻。他狡黠一笑，低頭看了一眼他的卡布奇諾。“我無法想像爲卡夫卡製作的一座紀念像能完全不提及《變形記》，”他說。“因此我用一種隱祕的方式提到了它。”

After our meeting, I walked to the statue and took a closer look at its base. And there, as I stood among the photo-snapping tourists, I saw on the sidewalk around the base the outline of a beetle.

我們的會面結束後，我走向這座雕塑，近距離地觀察了它的基座。在拍照的人羣中間，我在基座周圍的人行道上看到了一隻甲蟲的輪廓。

IF YOU GO

參觀建議

What to See

景點推薦

In Mala Strana, the Franz Kafka Museum (Cihelna 2b; 420-257-535-373; ) is a good primer for those not familiar with the author and his work.

對於不熟悉這位作家及其作品的遊客，可以首先參觀布拉格小城的弗朗茨·卡夫卡博物館（Cihelna 2b; 420-257-535-373;）。

TheFranz Kafka Society (Siroka 14, 420-224-227-452; ) is a bookstore and center dedicated to the writer. You can also arrange private Kafka-themed tours through them.

TheFranz Kafka Society (Siroka 14, 420-224-227-452; )是一家書店，也是這位作家的研究機構。你可以在這裏預定私人的卡夫卡主題的旅遊專線。

JayWay Travel () offers tours of Kafka’s Prague, taking literary travelers from his birthplace to his grave and everywhere else in between.

JayWay Travel ()提供“卡夫卡的布拉格”旅遊線路，帶領熱愛文學的遊客追尋卡夫卡從生到死的足跡。

Founded in 2001 by artist David Cerny, the MeetFactory (Ke Sklarne 3213/15; 420-251-551-796; ) is a complex that puts on live concerts and art exhibitions.

MeetFactory (Ke Sklarne 3213/15; 420-251-551-796; )2001年由藝術家大衛·塞爾尼創立，是一個提供現場音樂會和藝術展覽的綜合區。

Mr. Cerny’s Kafka art installation is behind the Tesco department store at the intersection of Narodni Trida and Spalena streets.

塞爾尼創作的卡夫卡藝術裝置位於樂購超市後面，民族大街和斯帕樂那大街交叉處。

Jaroslav Rona’s Franz Kafka Memorial statue sits in Prague’s Old Town at the intersection of Dusni and Vezenska streets.

雅羅斯拉夫·羅納創作的弗朗茨卡夫卡紀念雕塑位於布拉格老城，都斯尼大街和維森斯卡大街交匯處。

Where to Stay

酒店推薦

The InterContinental Prague (Parizska 30; 420-296-631-111; ) is centrally located and offers nice views of Old Town and Prague Castle.

布拉格洲際酒店（Parizska 30; 420-296-631-111; ）處在覈心位置，可以欣賞老城和布拉格城堡的風景。

In the erstwhile Workers Accident Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia, where Kafka worked, the Hotel Century Old Town (Na Porici 7; 420-221-800-800; ) is just outside of Old Town.

卡夫卡曾經工作過的波西米亞王國工傷保險機構現在是美憬閣世紀古城布拉格酒店 (Na Porici 7; 420-221-800-800; )，就在老城外面。

Where to Eat

餐廳推薦

A former Kafka hangout, Café Louvre (Narodni 22, 420-224-930-949; ) has been serving up coffee and cake for more than a century.

卡夫卡常去的 Café Louvre（Narodni 22, 420-224-930-949;）已有百年曆史，出售咖啡和蛋糕。