威廉·福克纳获诺贝尔文学奖受奖演说

I feel that this award was not made to meas a man, but to my work -- life's work in the agony and sweat of the humanspirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of thematerials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So thisaward is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication forthe money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of itsorigin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using thismoment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men andwomen already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is alreadythat one who will some day stand where I am standing.

我觉得这个奖不是授予我个人，而是授予我的工作—— 一份在为人类精神的痛苦和汗水中打拼的生活，不为名，更不为利，而是为了创造出人类精神食粮，那些前所未有的精神食粮。因此这个奖项，只是由我代为保管。找到一位为金钱牺牲的人很简单，而他们当中也会存在一些人，于颁发此奖作用和意义的初衷符合。但我宁愿向那些完全吻合的得奖人喝彩，我听说为人类精神拼搏而经历极度痛苦和付出辛勤劳动的年轻人，他们做出了和我一样的牺牲，有朝一日他们也会站在我今天站在的地方享受颠峰时刻。

Our tragedy today is a general anduniversal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it.There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: Whenwill I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today hasforgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alonecan make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agonyand the sweat. 

当今，我们的悲剧是种非常普遍的生理恐惧，到现如今，这种恐惧存在已久，以至于我们已经习惯它。他们不再是精神问题。现在只有一个问题：我将何时毁灭？鉴于此，如今的年轻作家们已经忘记了人心之间的冲突问题，寂寞可以造就一个优秀的作家，只是因为写作需要如此，需要无尽痛苦和辛勤汗水。

He must learn them again. He must teachhimself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himselfthat, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but theold verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which anystory is ephemeral and doomed -- love and honor and pity and pride andcompassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writesnot of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, ofvictories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. Hisgriefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of theheart but of the glands.

他必须得不断学习这些。最根本的问题是害怕，他必须教会自己永远忘记害怕，用古老的真理和真相填满自己的工作室，如果故事缺少普遍的真理，那都是昙花一现——这些真理是爱与荣耀，怜悯与自豪，同情与牺牲。在他这么做之前，他都只会处在魔鬼的诅咒中写作。他写的不是爱情而是情欲，失败者们不会失去真正有价值的东西，而胜利者们也不会产生任何的希望，最为可悲的是，他们都丧失了怜悯和同情。他的悲痛欲绝并没有深入普世的精髓，没有留下印痕。他的作品没有灵魂，只有腺体。

Until he learns these things, he will writeas though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept theend of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because hewill endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded fromthe last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening,that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his punyinexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that manwill not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he aloneamong creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spiritcapable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

在他理解这些东西之前，他的作品就好像他本人站在人群之中冷眼旁观人类的终结。我坚决不会接受这样一个人类的结局。讲述人类是永生不死的相当简单，只需他能够撑下去；最后审判的钟声已经敲响了并消弥在最后一块没有意义的岩石，最后的日落消逝在死一般寂静的海平线，死亡的夜晚开始漫延，即使还有一点残音也是无力却绵绵不断的呻吟，依旧诉说着。我坚决拒绝这个。我相信人类不仅仅是听命死撑；人类会迎难战胜一切。人类会得到永生，不是因为他是会发出连续呻吟孤独生物中的一分子，而是因为他有灵魂，他的心灵能够拥有同情、牺牲和忍耐。

The poet’s, the writer's, duty is to writeabout these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting hisheart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride andcompassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. Thepoet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props,the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

诗人和作家的本职是创作出这些东西。他有这个权力帮助他们学会包容，通过提升他们的内心，唤起他们过去的荣耀，如勇气、尊敬、希望、自豪、同情、怜悯和奉献牺牲。诗人不仅需要成为一个人类的记录员，他还需要成为一个能帮助人类学会包容和克服困难的栋梁。