经济学人79:梦之味 Scent of dreams

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　　文艺；书评；中东回忆录；梦之味；

　　I Was Born There, I Was Born Here. By Mourid Barghouti.

　　《我在那里出生，我出生在这里》，穆里德·巴尔古提著；

　　Certain images reappear in all recent Palestinian literature. Mangled² olive groves³, the trees, like their owners, uprooted⁴; cardamom-scented coffee, its fragrance⁵ percolating⁶ through the Palestinian exile; endless waiting, daily to cross checkpoints, every year to return home.

　　最近在巴勒斯坦的所有文学中重新出现了某些影像。遭到乱砍的橄榄树丛，就象它们的主人一样，这些树木被连根拔起；豆蔻香味的咖啡，它的香味浸透了流亡的巴勒斯坦人；无尽的等待，每天都穿过检查站，每年都返回家园。

　　Mourid Barghouti evokes⁷ them all in his memoir, “I Was Born There, I Was Born Here”, which continues the story begun in his 2003 work, “I Saw Ramallah”. Driving to Jericho, he passes fields of olive trees, “uprooted and thrown over under the open sky like dishonoured⁸ corpses”, the fields around them an “open collective grave”. Crossing the border from Jordan, “at the threshold of Palestine”, he must wait for hours at checkpoints where “sweat oozes⁹ with sticky insistence” and the air is fried. These images lose none of their poignancy¹⁰ or power in this familiarity. Instead they distil¹¹ the Palestinian experience of exile into something real.

　　穆里德·巴尔古提在他的回忆录《我在那里出生，我出生在这里》中唤起了这一切。这本回忆录是他2003年的作品《我看到了拉马拉》的续篇。他驱车前往杰里科时经过橄榄树田，橄榄树“被连根拔起，抛却在露天下，就象没有尊严的尸体”，它们周围的田地是“露天的集体坟墓”。从约旦穿越边界，“在巴勒斯坦的门槛”，他必须在检查站里等几个小时，检查站里“汗水粘乎乎地不断淌出来”，空气热浪灼人。这些影像没有让他们的辛酸失去，或是让这种熟悉的辛酸所凝聚的力量失去。相反，它们把流亡的巴勒斯坦人的经历提炼成实实在在的东西。

　　Much of the book concentrates on Mr Barghouti’s efforts to take his Egyptian-born son to Deir Ghassanah, the village of his birth. That homecoming culminates¹² in the moment he stands in the room where he was born; when he can say, “I was born here,” not there. He and his son wander through the Old City of Jerusalem, snapping photos as they go. Their actions unsettle Mr Barghouti. Who takes photographs of their own home? Growing up, “the Via Dolorosa was just a street we used.” Cameras normally belong to tourists, who are anxious to hold onto places they may never see again. Fearful that the very act of recording¹³ what they see will ensure its loss, he and his son toss their cameras aside, desperate to re-establish their right to belong and to call this city home.

　　这本书的大部分内容集中在巴尔古提努力把出生在埃及的儿子带到他出生的村庄哈暂纳村。当他站在自己出生的房间里，可以说着“我出生在这里”，而不是那里的那一刻，这次返乡达到了高潮。他和儿子在耶路撒冷的老城漫步，每到一个地方都抓拍照片。他们的行为让巴尔古提感到不安。谁会拍下这么多自己家园的照片呢？长大后，“苦路恰是我们惯走的那条街”。相机通常属于游客，因为游客渴望留住那些再也不会光顾的地方。害怕把所看到的记录下来这种非常的行为会坐实这些东西将要失去，他和儿子把相机扔在一旁，绝望地重新建立自己的归属权，把这个城市称为家园。

　　More than anything, Mr Barghouti captures the Palestinians’ frustration¹⁴ at the lack of control over their lives. An endless journey to Jericho is punctuated¹⁵ by checkpoints and crossing a mud-filled chasm¹⁶ in the road with the help of a crane, which picks up the car like a mechanical claw at a fair and swings it across. After this, there is relief in returning to the certainties of Jordan, where “you know how many minutes you will need to get from one place to another”. He can offer no reassurance¹⁷ to his mother as she tells him to take care of himself. “If an Arab ruler wishes to arrest me, he will without doubt arrest me. If a policeman wants to kick me in the stomach and liver, he will without doubt kick me.” In this impotence lies the point of the Palestinian occupation.

　　特别地，巴尔古提捕捉到了巴勒斯坦人对生活缺乏控制的沮丧。到杰里科的旅程没有尽头，不时被检查站打断，靠起重机的帮助穿过路上的一个泥坑，起重机象展销会上的机械爪一样抓住汽车，把它摆吊过去。此后，回到约旦，确定的事情让人宽慰，在约旦“你知道从一个地方到另一个地方将需要多少分钟”。当他的母亲告诉他要照顾自己时，他无法让母亲安心。“如果阿拉伯统治者想要逮捕我，毫无疑问地他会逮捕我。如果警察想要非难我，毫无疑问地他会非难我。”在巴勒斯坦被占领的那一刻这种无能无力就开始存在了。

　　Mr Barghouti’s frustration boils over at the well-meaning curiosity of friends who wonder at his fixation with his village and who point to the beautiful vastness of the world beyond Palestine. The author reminds them, and the reader, that he, unlike them, had no choice in his wanderings and has little hope of returning home. A salutary lesson.

　　巴尔古提的沮丧激发了朋友们善意的好奇心，他们不知道他对自己村庄的固恋，指出巴勒斯坦以外的世界美丽浩瀚。作者提醒他们，也提醒读者，他不像他们，在流浪中他别无选择，回家的希望渺茫。真是一个有益的教训。

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