爲什麼是艾麗斯•芒羅得了諾貝爾文學獎

More than a hundred reporters from around the world thronged and bustled in the Stock Exchange Building in Stockholm's Old Town for about an hour before the doors to the Swedish Academy swung open. Notably, there were many Japanese reporters present, hoping to break the news that Haruki Murakami had won the prize. Finally, the Swedish Academy's Permanent Secretary Peter Englund stepped out from the doors and said Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.

在通往瑞典文學院(Swedish Academy)的大門開啓前大約一個小時左右，斯德哥爾摩老城的證券交易所大樓(Stock Exchange Building)裏就聚集了數百名來自世界各地的記者。顯而易見地，有很多日本記者在場，他們都希望能第一時間報道村上春樹(Haruki Murakami)獲得諾貝爾文學獎的消息。最終，瑞典文學院常任祕書恩隆德(Peter Englund)從大門裏走出來，宣佈加拿大短篇小說作家艾麗斯•芒羅(Alice Munro)獲得了2013年諾貝爾文學獎。

The following is a truncated Q&A with reporters and Englund. (The questions have been abbreviated and clarified.)

以下記者與恩隆德的問答內容經過刪減。爲了讓問題讀起來精簡和明確，提問內容經過編輯。

Why did Alice Munro win?

艾麗斯•芒羅緣何能獲得諾貝爾文學獎？

We gave her the Nobel Prize in Literature because she is a master of the contemporary short story.

我們把諾貝爾文學獎授予她，因爲她是當代短篇小說大師。

Which book to begin with?

哪本書最有代表性？

One of the amazing things about her is that she has no weak works in her oeuvre. She has always worked to the best of her ability; she has always cultivated the short story to perfection. And she has never really written a weak or bad book. So you can take your pick. 'The Moons of Jupiter' was the first book I read by her and you can see both her different themes in that book and also her very special narrative mode, you can find it there. She tells her stories a bit like nobody else. She has a very economical language and sparse style. You can find that in 'The Moons of Jupiter.' You can take your pick. The latest one is obviously very interesting, 'Dear Life,' which contains a number of autobiographical sketches at the end that gives a key to the entire authorship of Alice Munro.

她讓人吃驚的地方就在於，她全部作品中沒有哪部讓人感覺不足。她一直在以她最佳的水平創作，總是能寫出完美的短篇小說。她從來沒有真正寫過一本有不足或糟糕的書。所以你們可以隨便挑選一本。《木星的衛星》是我讀過的第一本她的書，你可以從這本書中看到她不同的主題以及她非常特殊的敘事方式。這些你都可以從書中體會到。她講故事的方式獨一無二。她的語言很節儉，風格簡 。你可以從《木星的衛星》一書中感受到這一點。隨便挑一本。最新一本小說集《親愛的生活》(Dear Life)顯然很有意思。這本書最後包括了一系列自傳體小說，是打開芒羅整個作家生涯大門的一把鑰匙。

How was she informed?

她如何獲悉自己獲獎？

Well, I left a message e on her answering machine. I couldn't reach her and it was of course pretty early in the morning. But she will be notified by courier, by email to her both agents, by standard mail and so on.

我在她的答錄機上留言。我無法聯繫到她，當然那也是因爲時間是在大清早。但她會收到郵遞的通知，我們會通過標準郵件通知她的兩位代理人。

What kind of message did you leave?

你在給她的留言中說了什麼？

Basically, congratulations! You've won the Nobel Prize in literature.

基本上就是，祝賀你獲得諾貝爾文學獎。

What's the Importance of a woman winning?

一名女性獲得諾貝爾文學獎有什麼重要意義？

Don't ask me. We picked her for excellence, nothing else. Of course it matters when you start doing the headcount. But she is no representative. She has received this prize just because of what she has done. Nothing else.

不要問我。我們把這個獎授予她是因爲她的傑出表現，僅此而已。當然，你要開始數有多少人獲獎的話，這可能會很重要。但她獲獎並不代表什麼。她就只是因爲她做的事情而獲得這個獎。就這麼簡單。

So the sexual balance doesn't count?

所以說並沒有考慮性別平衡什麼的？

We don't have these kind of quotas, thank god ... We don't have any quotas. We could, if we wanted to, award this prize four times in a row to a children's book writer working in the United States. If we wanted to. We can do as we please. We don't have to fill any quotes in any direction. We just give it to authors who show an extraordinary literary quality. One of these is Mrs. Alice Munro.

謝天謝地，我們不會按性別來分配獎項。沒這種事。如果我們願意，我們可以連續四次把這個獎頒給一位美國的兒童書籍作家。如果我們想這樣做的話。我們可以按照我們滿意的方式來做。我們不用根據任何規定來分配獎項。我們其實就是把這個獎頒給那些表現出傑出文學素養的作家。芒羅就是其中之一。