鲍勃·迪伦 | 诺贝尔文学奖得主

Nobel prize in literature won by Bob Dylan

 was named the surprise winner of the Nobel prize for literature in Stockholm today “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

鲍勃·迪伦出人意外地获得斯德哥尔摩的诺贝尔文学奖，奖项表彰他“在伟大的美国歌曲传统中创造了新的诗意表达。”

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, said she hoped the Academy would not be criticised for its choice.

瑞典科学院常任干事Sara Danius对记者发布声明说，她希望科学院不会因此受到批评。

She compared the songs of the American songwriter, who had yet to be informed of his win, to the works of Homer and Sappho.

她将这位美国作曲家的歌曲比作荷马和萨福。迪伦当时还不知道自己获奖。

“Of course he deserves it – he’s got it,” she said. “He’s a great poet – a great poet in the English-speaking tradition. For 54 years he’s been at it, reinventing himself constantly, creating a new identity.”

“当然，他无愧于此，他得奖了。她是个伟大的诗人，英语传统中的伟大诗人。五十四年来笔耕不辍，不断重塑自我，创造了一个新的身份。”

Danius said the choice of Dylan may appear surprising, “but if you look far back, ... you discover Homer and Sappho. They wrote poetic texts which were meant to be performed, and it’s the same way for Bob Dylan. We still read Homer and Sappho, and we enjoy it. We can and should read him.”

Danius说选择迪伦可能令人惊讶，“但你看看过去……就会发现荷马和萨福。他们写诗的目的就是为了表演，这和鲍勃·迪伦一样。我们仍然读荷马和萨福，我们喜欢。我们也可以并将会阅读迪伦。”

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Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941, Dylan got his first guitar at the age of 14 and performed in rock and roll bands in high school. He adopted the name Dylan, after the poet Dylan Thomas, and, drawn to the music of Woody Guthrie, began to perform folk music. 

迪伦1941年生于明尼苏达州德卢斯，名叫罗伯特·艾伦·齐默尔曼，14岁时得到第一把吉他，高中在摇滚乐队演出。他仿效迪伦·托马斯，改名迪伦，他喜欢伍迪·盖瑟瑞的音乐，并开始表演民谣。

He moved to New York in 1961, performing in the clubs and cafés of Greenwich Village. His first album, Bob Dylan, was released in 1962, and he followed it up with a host of albums which are today seen as masterpieces, including Blonde On Blonde in 1966, and in 1975. Today, he is seen as one of contemporary popular music’s most influential names.

他1961年移居纽约，在格林威治村的俱乐部和咖啡馆演出。1962年发行第一张专辑《鲍勃迪伦》，后来发行一系列今天被视为杰作的唱片，包括1966年的《金发女郎》和1975年的《音轨上的血》。他被视作当代流行音乐最有影响力的人物之一。

According to the Nobel prize committee, his albums “revolv[e] around topics like the social conditions of man, religion, politics and love”. Perhaps looking to forestall criticism of the fact that Dylan is largely seen as a musician rather than an author, the committee added that his lyrics have “continuously been published in new editions”, and that “besides his large production of albums, Dylan has published experimental work like Tarantula (1971) and the collection Writings and Drawings (1973)”, as well as “the autobiography Chronicles (2004), which depicts memories from the early years in New York and which provides glimpses of his life at the centre of popular culture”.

诺贝尔委员会称，他的专辑“关注人的社会境遇、宗教、政治和爱情”。可能预见会遭受批评，认为迪伦主要是音乐家而非作家，委员会进一步说，他的歌词“不断以各种版本出版”，“除了大量专辑外，迪伦还出版了实验性作品《狼蛛》（1971）及《作品和绘画》（1973）”以及“自传《编年》（2004），记录了在纽约早年的回忆，揭示了他的生活处于流行文化的中心。”

“As an artist, he is strikingly versatile; he has been active as painter, actor and scriptwriter,” said the announcement. “Dylan has the status of an icon. His influence on contemporary music is profound.”

“作为一个艺术家，他相当多才多艺，他是个画家、演员和编剧。迪伦堪为偶像。他对当代音乐的影响力深远”。

The winner of the Nobel prize for literature is chosen by the 18 members of the Swedish Academy, who are looking for “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, according to Alfred Nobel’s will. 

诺贝尔文学奖由18名瑞典科学院成员选出，按诺贝尔的遗愿，他们要寻找“在文学领域的理想方向创造最杰出的作品的人”。

The award admits on its website that “Alfred Nobel’s prescriptions for the literature prize were quite vague”, adding that: “in fact, the history of the literature prize appears as a series of attempts to interpret an imprecisely worded will.”

该奖在其网站上承认“诺贝尔对文学的指示相当模糊”，并说“事实上，诺贝尔文学奖的历史是一系列解释那条所言不详的遗愿的努力。”

The choice of Dylan follows speculation about disagreement amongst the judging panel. The prize was expected to be announced last week, in the same week as the science medals, and the Academy’s Per Wästberg said the different date was a matter of logistics.

选择迪伦前，有猜测评选委员会有分歧。该奖原计划上周公布，与科学奖奖项同期，科学院的Per Wastberg说选择不同的日子是个逻辑问题。

But Bjorn Wiman, cultural pages editor at Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter,  that “if you ask me, it’s absolutely not a ‘calendar’ issue. This is a sign there’s a disagreement in the process to select a winner.” 

但瑞典《Dagens Nyheter》的文化版编辑Bjorn Wiman对《南华早报》说，“你要问我的话，这绝对是不是一个‘排期’问题。这表明在选择过程中出现不同意见。”

Major writers believed to have been in the running for the award included the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the American Don DeLillo and the Japanese Haruki Murakami.

被认为竞争奖项的主要作家包括肯尼亚的恩古吉·瓦·提昂戈、美国作家堂·德里罗、日本作家村上春树。

Danius advised those unfamiliar with the work of Dylan to start with the 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. “It’s an extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming, putting together refrains, and his pictorial way of thinking,” she said. 

Danius

Danius建议那些不熟悉迪伦作品的人从1966年专辑《金发女郎》听起。“这是他与众不同的作品，出色的韵律、副歌和绘画式的思考方法。”

When she was young, she admitted, she was “not really” a Dylan fan, preferring the works of David Bowie. “Perhaps it’s a question of my generation – today I’m a fan of Bob Dylan,” she said.

她承认，自己年轻时“并不算”是个迪伦迷，她更喜欢大卫·鲍伊的作品。“可能这是我那一代人的问题，今天我是一个鲍勃·迪伦迷。”

Dylan becomes the first American to win the Nobel prize for literature since Toni Morrison took the prize in 1993. His triumph follows , then permanent secretary of the Nobel prize jury, that “the US is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature.”

迪伦成为自托尼·莫里森1993年获得诺贝尔文学奖以来第一位获得奖项的美国人。2008年，诺奖评选委员会常任干事Horace Engdahl说，“美国太孤立太独了，他们翻译的不多，也不怎么参与大型文学对话。”

Today, a jury now headed by Engdahl’s successor have obviously changed their mind.

如今，在Engdahl继任者领导下的评选委员会显然改变了看法。