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《赛姆勒先生的行星》(Mr.Sammler’s Planet,1969)的故事发生在六十年代的美国。作者运用意识流手法,把历史和现实交织起来,通过三天的活动,描写了主人公的历史和当代社会的生活经验。赛姆勒是教养很高的犹太知识分子,年事已高,在纽约受亲戚供养,对生活采取旁观者的态度,但是,赛姆勒又喜欢思索,对地球这个行星上的人类社会充满了忧虑。六十年代的美国,物质文明有了很大的发展,但是人们并不相信人应该具有做人的尊严,社会面临着深刻的危机。赛姆勒的亲属是一些只知道无厌地追求金钱和情欲的青年。为了寻找父亲隐藏的钱财,儿子不惜敲碎家中的水管,但是对弥留的父亲却没有起码的感情。赛姆勒的女儿心中只有父亲,但是对社会生活的准则却没有恰当的观念。为了帮助父亲写作,她居然随意偷走一位印度学者的手稿,随后又对这位学者施以卖弄风情的诱惑。在社会上,到处(氵弥)漫着“性的疯狂”;激进主义的“新左派”显示了粗暴的偏执;各式各样的理论对世界作出头头是道的解释,形成了一面令人窒息的罗网。当代社会的狂乱经常触动赛姆勒心头的创伤,勾起对往事的回忆。原来,赛姆勒在第二次世界大战中曾经落入犹太人的集中营,被迫剥光了衣服,自己为自己挖掘坟墓,后来在扫射时没有中弹,才逃脱了法西斯的魔掌。现在,回顾饱经忧患的一生和人道主义理想的破灭,赛姆勒充满了悲悯的感觉,他明确地意识到,西方现代文明正面临着一次新的崩溃。但是,赛姆勒对人仍然抱着一线真诚的希望,希望凡是有人存在的地方都能有人的品格存在。下面选译的片段是小说的第一章和第五章。第一章主要描写赛姆勒在纽约经历的美国生活经验。第五章主要描写赛姆勒和那位主张开发月球的印度学者对西方的近代历史和现代文明进行深入的讨论。关于作者贝娄与贝娄其它作品的情况,请参阅本期发表的陈焜的《索尔·贝娄——当代美国文学的代表性作家》一文。
The story of Mr. Samler’s Planet (1969) took place in the United States in the 1960s. By applying the method of stream of consciousness, the author intertwined history and reality, and described the history of the protagonist and the life experience of contemporary society through three days of activities. Thames, a well-educated Jewish intellectual, has been old enough to be adopted by relatives in New York and take a life-by-bystander attitude. But Seymour likes to think again and is full of humankind on the planet Earth concern. The material civilization in the United States in the 1960s has greatly developed, but people do not believe that people should have the dignity of being human beings and the society is facing a profound crisis. Thames’s relatives are young people who know nothing about the pursuit of money and passion. In search of his father’s hidden money, his son did not hesitate to break the water pipes in his family, but he did not have any feelings for the dad’s father. Thames’s daughters have only dads in their hearts, but no guidelines for social life. In order to help her father’s writing, she actually arbitrarily stole a manuscript of an Indian scholar, and later exerted the show’s temptation on the scholar. In society, there is a diffuse “crazy nature” everywhere; the radical “leftist” shows a brutal paranoia; various theories have taken the lead in interpreting and forming the world Suffocating nets. The madness of contemporary society often touches Samsre’s heart-wrecking wound, arousing memories of the past. It turned out that during the Second World War, Symerian had fallen into the concentration camp of Jews, was forced to strip his clothes, dig for their own graves, and later shot in the absence of shells, only to escape the clutches of fascism. Now, recalling the years of troubled life and the demise of the humanitarian ideal, Symmel is full of compassion and he is clearly aware that the modern Western civilization is facing a new collapse. However, Semmler still has a sincere line of hope toward people and hopes that there will be somebody’s character wherever there are people. The following selected passages are the first and fifth chapters of the novel. The first chapter mainly describes the experience of American life experienced by Sammeler in New York. The fifth chapter mainly describes Sammeleer and the Indian scholar advocating the development of the moon to discuss the modern history and modern civilization in the West deeply. For more information on the author Bellow and other Bellow works, see the article by Sally Chan, “This is a Representative Writer of Contemporary American Literature.”