2009年10月30日 星期五

氣象局預報中心主任吳德榮退休

因為要退休而鬧得風風雨雨的氣象局預報中心主任吳德榮,30日正式退休,吳德榮在離去前除了做最後一次的天氣預報,發表演說時還語重心長的說,「希望台灣都能風調雨順,這樣氣象局才不用每次都飽受外界批評。」

吳德榮從這一刻開始正式退休,離去前還不忘再做一次天氣預報,說完下週會有冷鋒來臨,吳德榮就要卸下擔任30年的預報工作,打算退休,就是因為八八水災有預報誤差,如今要走了,感觸良多。

吳德榮表示,退休第一個願望就是希望風調雨順,因為以台灣這個環境來說,並不是以你預報的準不準來看,而是看你最好不要有天災,因為一有天災,第一個被找麻煩的就是氣象局。

吳德榮強調,天氣瞬息萬變,預報不可能百分百;既然外界有責難,同仁們敬稱的吳老大就決定扛下一切;而他30年來的優異表現,還獲頒二等交通專業獎章,不捨的同仁更是把他的點點滴滴集合成MV,送給吳德榮。

坐在台下的吳德榮強忍住情緒、不時露出的笑容還是掩蓋不住心中的惆悵,退休後要做什麼?吳德榮還是賣關子,唯一能確定的是,不會離開他最愛的天氣。(新聞來源:東森新聞記者陳國元、許舒銘)

2009年10月29日 星期四

Jason Epstein



The Meals of His Life


Published: October 29, 2009

Jason Epstein, now in his 80s, has had one of the blazing careers of 20th-century American publishing. As a young editor in the 1950s, he created Anchor Books and helped to start the paperback revolution. He was a founder of both The New York Review of Books and the Library of America. He was the editorial director of Random House for decades and has edited Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth.

Skip to next paragraph
Peter Peter

Jason Epstein

EATING

A Memoir

By Jason Epstein

174 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $25.

Related

Excerpt: ‘Eating’ (October 29, 2009)

Along the way Mr. Epstein has picked up a reputation as a handy cook and a big eater, skills worth having in publishing, where the real work gets done over lunches, cocktails, dinners and, on good days, flutes of Champagne.

Given Mr. Epstein’s lofty perches over the last 50 years, one enviously suspects he has been present for (or hosted) some of the greatest, most unhinged literary dinner parties of our time. But he’s not sharing news of them in “Eating,” his slim new volume of low-cal memoir and occasional recipes.

Anecdote and personal revelation are passed out sparingly in “Eating,” so that reading it is like being offered plates of cheese and salumi on toothpicks when you were expecting a spread out of “Big Night,” or a small glass of flinty Pouilly-Fumé instead a pitcher of martinis. The book is delicious, in its minimalist, essayistic way. But it sends you out the door a bit hungry, and stone sober.

Mr. Epstein was born into a family of noncooks, so he began, as a survival tactic, to play with the pots and pans himself. “I began cooking as a child as other children of my generation toyed with chemistry sets or electric trains,” he writes. “I remember reading Irma Rombauer when I was 10 or so with the same curiosity that I read Kipling and Jules Verne.”

His deepest food memories attach to Maine, where his grandparents had an old house, and to the cuisine of New England in general. He includes fine recipes for such homey dishes as chicken pot pie, lobster rolls, potato cakes and fried chicken. He writes about his jobs cooking professionally, during college summers, on Cape Cod.

Mr. Epstein’s two kitchens, in Manhattan and in Sag Harbor on Long Island, resemble his grandmother’s. “My lifelong interest in recreating the cuisine of my childhood is proof of the persistence of memory and its power to shape one’s days,” he writes. He adds, “The lakes and dark forests of Maine are the default landscape of my soul.”

There are many things to like about “Eating,” as Mr. Epstein moves along through these essays, which are based on articles that first appeared in The New York Times. He praises out-of-print cookbooks, like “The Gold and Fizdale Cookbook” (1984) and “How to Cook and Eat in Chinese” (1945), and sends you scurrying to find them. He teases out the mysteries of the famous coleslaw at John Duck’s, a restaurant, now defunct, in Southampton.

During a brief meditation on (of all things) cannibalism, Mr. Epstein prints an excellent exchange he had with Patrick O’Connell, the chef-owner of the Inn at Little Washington. “When I suggested some years ago that cooking for others is a gratuitous act of generosity,” he writes, “he said no: we feed others so that they won’t eat us.”

There is little in “Eating” about Mr. Epstein’s first wife, Barbara Epstein, a founder and a longtime editor at The New York Review of Books, and even less about his current wife, Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter.

The book warms up, however, when he begins to tell some book-world stories. There’s a shipboard meal with Edmund Wilson and Buster Keaton; “lobster over linguine with a bottle of Chablis beneath a perfect sky” on Norman Mailer’s deck in Provincetown, Mass.; and an awkward meal at “21” with the compellingly repulsive Roy Cohn, who ordered tuna salad.

Mr. Epstein recounts the time Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took him to lunch at Lutèce (they ate shad roe) and asked him for an editing job at Random House. He turned her down. She later became an editor at Doubleday.

He describes his first meal at Alice Waters’s restaurant Chez Panisse, and says, “If Emily Dickinson owned a restaurant it would be Chez Panisse.”

Over the years Mr. Epstein has published cookbooks by chefs ranging from Ms. Waters and Daniel Boulud to Maida Heatter and Wolfgang Puck. At least one of Mr. Epstein’s cookbooks turned out too well.

He sheepishly admits that he’s the man who ruined Rao’s, the tiny Italian restaurant in East Harlem where tables have always been hard to come by. After Mr. Epstein published “Rao’s Cookbook,” by Frank Pellegrino, an owner of the restaurant, and it became a best seller, the place was swamped and its vibe changed.

“Before I published Frankie’s book,” Mr. Epstein writes, “I managed to eat at Rao’s three or four times a year. Now I don’t go at all.”

2009年10月27日 星期二

陈子善——回忆乔志高先生

回忆乔志高先生:双语并用妙不可言

http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年04月17日18:25 南方人物周刊

  ——回忆乔志高先生

  陈子善

  1994年10月,我应台湾《联合报》副刊主编、著名诗人痖弦先生之请,赴台出席“林语堂诞辰一百周年学术研 讨会”。这是我首次参加台湾文学界的学术活动,所见所闻无不感到新鲜,而更使我高兴的是,结识了早已心仪、私淑已久的 乔志高先生。他本名高克毅,乔志高是他的英文名GeorgeKao的中译,也是他的笔名。

  高先生是和他夫人梅卿一起来参加林语堂研讨会的。四五十年代,高先生夫妇在纽约与林语堂夫妇交往颇多,高先生 此次专程自美到台赴会,是表示对亦师亦友的林语堂的深切怀念,他自己当时也已83岁高龄了。但会上人多,我们未能深谈 。会后台湾“海基会”李庆华先生专门设宴款待林语堂女儿林太乙和她丈夫黎明,乔志高夫妇和来自大陆的施建伟教授(大陆 首部《林语堂传》作者)和我。当时正值第一次著名的“汪辜会谈”之后,两岸学术文化交流开始频繁。李庆华宴请的6位中 ,高、林两对夫妇在台湾文化界早已大名鼎鼎,而宴请施和我,明显是对大陆学人高规格的礼遇。不料,施教授因先已有约, 不克分身,只能由我一人代表了。

  高先生温文儒雅,对后辈没有一点架子,说话又是一口不紧不慢的沪语,使我倍感亲切。席间的话题当然是围绕林语 堂而展开,记得高先生说了不少林语堂在纽约的轶事,引得林太乙莞尔,说没想到您老与我爸爸那么熟悉。我后来才知道高先 生走上文学和新闻写作之路,与两位现代著名作家有很大关系。一是梁实秋,梁实秋1927年夏秋之交在上海主编《时事新 报?青光》,当时还是中学生的高先生就向《青光》投稿,“师法秋郎(梁实秋)风格,行文尚称‘幽默’(虽然那时离林语 堂发明此语还有好几年),不多几天居然见报!”到了30年代中期,高先生已负笈美国密苏里大学新闻学院,又开始为林语 堂主编的《宇宙风》撰写“纽约客谈”专栏,与许多文坛前辈一起成为《宇宙风》的经常撰稿人。

  高先生的经历是独特的。他出身在美国,父亲是庚款留美的官费生,在高先生3岁牙牙学语时把他带回中国。因此, 他受的是中国西化家庭的传统教育,先随塾师攻读四书五经,在教会名校燕京大学毕业后,再返回美国深造。双重的文化熏陶 ,造就了中英文双语作家的乔志高,优游于中美文化之间的乔志高和研究美语(美国式英语)“生态”权威的乔志高。

  高先生的专业是新闻学和国际关系学,但他兴趣广泛,对翻译和翻译学有更高的造诣。他30年代曾任上海《大陆报 》、《中国评论周报》等英文报刊的美国特约通讯;40年代在纽约主编《战时中国》(ChinaatWar);50至6 0年代在华盛顿担任“美国之音”编辑;70年代在香港中文大学创编英文《译丛》(Renditions)杂志,直至1 983年荣休,专事中英文著述。高先生筚路蓝缕,创编《译丛》是值得大书特书的。《译丛》继承了30年代上海英文月刊 《天下》的传统,以向英语世界读者介绍中国历代优秀文学艺术为己任,英译作品包括从唐诗宋词到元明戏曲,从《西游记》 到《红楼梦》,还有张爱玲翻译的《海上花列传》、钱钟书的《围城》和白先勇的“台北人”特辑等等。来自世界各地的译者 都是一流的高手,译文都反复推敲,力求精当,从而使《译丛》以其纯正的文学趣味和严谨的学术性在海外学界有口皆碑。《 译丛》至今仍在出版,高先生的开创之功实不可没。

  当然,对中国读者而言,高先生的“美语录”系列(第一辑“言犹在耳”、第二辑“听其言也”、第三辑“总而言之 ”)和《最新通俗美语词典》(与高克永合编),可能更具影响力。这两部大书凝聚了高先生半个多世纪潜心“听”“说”美 语的经验,确实是他对中国人英语教学和研究的杰出贡献。“美语录”系列已有大陆简体字本。

  记得2001年初,我受上海“季风工作室”之托,与高先生联系“美语录”版权时,他老人家爽快地一口答应,还 特地写了《寄大陆读者》一文作为代序,以贺知章“少小离家老大回”说起,为自己耄耋之年“美语录”系列能在台湾、香港 和大陆“同步出版”而深感欣慰。在“美语录”中,高先生以幽默俏皮、亦庄亦谐的笔调,深入浅出地诠释美式英语,从总统 辞令到汽车文化到流行歌词到俗语俚语,从美国人习用的新旧词语的解说扩展到对美国社会人生的认知,像《海外喷饭录》、 《美国人怎样谈情说爱》、《美国人自说自话》等篇都是令人忍俊不禁的隽永之作。高先生讨论美语采用的是中国人的视角, 中国式的观点和中国化的智慧,他不仅提醒我们学习英语(准确说是美语)其实是轻松有趣的,十分好玩的,而且从语言的层 面对美国文化的剖析也可谓入木三分,以致《英汉大词典》主编陆谷孙先生认为“作为一名异族,他可能比美国人更能感知美 国社会”。

  《最新通俗美语词典》初版于1994年,一经问世就好评如潮,不胫而走。这是高先生为中国人学习英美语言文化 而编注的一种别出心裁、独创一格的工具书,“是本力作,集大成之作,开卷有益之作”(庄信正语)。此书虽名“词典”, 却是高先生用他擅长的随笔体裁写成。且举书中对“没有白吃的午餐”(There’snosuchthingasafr eelunch)的译文为例:

  你远道来访,朋友邀约去本地的扶轮社午餐会,还有名人演讲,到时,主人请你也讲几句话,你连忙推辞,说毫无准 备。朋友笑道:“天下哪有白吃的午餐?你一定得讲。”这句时常听到的调侃语,背后的哲理就是:天下没有任人讨便宜的事 ;每样便宜事都有它的代价。一般认为是经济学家佛利曼最先说的,因为他在一九七五年出过一本书,以此为名。佛氏自己不 承认,也不清楚原句从何而来。

  有考据癖的都想追踪此语的出典,以下几种皆系揣测之言:一九六六年一部科幻小说以此为题材;一九五九年一本讨 论投资的书有此警句;一八八二年《芝加哥时报》记英国文人王尔德访美,从东到西,“一路吃白食”(following afree-lunchroute);一八五四年旧金山一份刊物大谈当地“吃白食”的习惯。其实十九世纪,纽约、纽奥 连、旧金山等地的酒馆(当年叫saloon),白天招徕客人饮酒,在柜台上常备有“免费小吃”(freelunch) ,如煮鸡蛋、炸脆条饼(pretzel)、花生米、辣白菜。有些德国馆子的相当丰富,还供应香肠、酸猪脚等,买一杯威 士忌可以乘机饱餐一顿;当然,不喝酒而吃白食的,恕不招待。往后,一来经济情形转变,二来去新式酒吧(cocktai lbar)饮饭前酒渐成高级士女的习惯,freelunch的风尚也逐渐消失。可是用来做比喻,被保守派经济学家,如 一九七六年诺贝尔经济学奖得主佛利曼教授等人,借以表示自由市场运作的优点,反对以政府开支干预和控制国家的经济。

  高先生旁征博引,对这句流传甚广的名言的解释真是恰到好处。2004年《最新通俗美语词典》增订版问世,高先 生在“增订版前言”中强调《词典》初版10年之后增订重版,“目的不仅在为中文读者出一本有用的参考书,同时希望作成 一种交流中西文化的有趣的读物。因此可以说这是一本字典,也不止于一本字典”。诚哉斯言。当我收到高先生馈赠的这部沉 甸甸的增订版时,不能不感受到它的学术文化价值更是沉甸甸的。它是我所见到的最生动活泼、启人心智的英文词典,一直是 我的良师益友。

  作为翻译家,高先生的成就同样令人瞩目。他翻译的《大亨小传》(大陆译作《了不起的盖茨比》,F.S.菲茨杰 拉尔德著)、《长夜漫漫路迢迢》(尤金·奥尼尔著)和《天使,望故乡》(T.伍尔夫著),都是美国文学名著,而他的翻 译也都是公认的名译。在高先生看来,“翻译在本质上是一件 second best(不得已而求其次)的事,自然不免有这 样或那样的缺陷”,所以他主张“翻译文学不是‘对不对’的问题,而是‘不好、好、更好’的问题,而且即使一般‘好的’ 翻译也必有见仁见智,各各不同的地方”。高先生谦称自己“只是个莫‘名’其‘巧’的翻译者”,但他对翻译的见解却是那 么深刻而独到。高先生的翻译实践也明白无误地显示,译者如果中文不好,他的翻译一定不会好。只有像高先生这样中英文俱 佳,他的翻译才有可能臻于完美。

  我第二次也是最后一次见到高先生是在2000年初冬香港中文大学首届“新纪元全球华文青年文学奖”大赛颁奖典 礼上,他老人家是“文学翻译组”评委。在“文学翻译与创作专题讲座”上,高先生娓娓而谈,风趣地阐述翻译是一种“妥协 ”,并以克林顿在美国总统竞选中的连珠妙语为例说明翻译如何传神达意。颁奖典礼隆重的晚宴其实也是为了庆贺高先生90 大寿。我记起高先生在张爱玲逝世之后写了《张爱玲的广播剧》一文,回忆他与张爱玲在华盛顿的一段短暂的交往,并提供了 张爱玲的佚作《伊凡生命中的一天》(根据索尔仁尼琴成名作改编的广播剧),本想就此事向他进一步请教,因时间匆促而作 罢,原以为以后还有机会,不想成了永久的遗憾。

2009年10月13日 星期二

Ostrom, Williamson Win Nobel Economics Prize

2009年 10月 13日 09:46
Ostrom, Williamson Win Nobel Economics Prize


Two U.S. economists, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, who study the way decisions are made outside the markets on which many other economists focus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics Monday.

Ostrom, who teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., is the first woman to win the prize, which, before Monday, had been awarded to 62 men since it was launched in 1969 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Swedish bank. The judges cited 'her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons,' the way in which natural resources are managed as shared resources. It's an area of research that she said was relevant to questions surrounding global warming, and suggests that decisions by individuals can help solve the problem even as governments work to reach an international agreement.

Ostrom's work challenged the view that when people share a finite resource, they'll end up destroying it. Such 'a tragedy of the commons' argues that resources that are important for the common good need to be highly regulated, or privatized. Ostrom spent years in the field.

'Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories,' the Nobel judges noted.

That's because over time, people often develop institutions, social networks and ways of interacting that solves the problem. Lobstermen in Maine, for example, have come to informally regulate, and restrict entry to, the areas where they work. Where these 'lobster gangs' are prevalent, there are more lobsters.

On a larger scale, these social networks don't always work as well, notes Yale University environmental economist Matthew Kotchen - there are fewer lobsters, for example, further away from Maine harbors. What's important, he says, is that Ostrom's work points out the importance of the networks that many economists had ignored, in part, because they couldn't come up with elegant models to describe how they worked.

'Just because you don't know how to model them doesn't mean you can ignore them,' he said.

Ostrom, who was interviewed by phone during the announcement press conference in Stockholm, described the prize as 'an immense surprise,' and said, 'I'm still a little bit in shock.' Her University of California at Los Angeles Ph.D. is in political science, but she said she considers herself a political economist.

Williamson, who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley and earned his Ph.D. at Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon Univesrity, was cited for 'for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm' - the reason some economic decisions are made at arm's length in markets and others are made inside a corporation.

Williamson's work stems from time he spent in the late 1960s working in the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, and noticing that there was little attention to the internal workings of companies.

'The way economists used to think of the firm was as a black box that transfers inputs into outputs, and they didn't look inside,' explained Williamson, who was woken up by the call from the Nobel committee at what was 3:30 in the morning his time. 'We opened up the black box.'

What he found was that many economic decisions that standard theory said would be more efficiently left to the market place were actually better left within a firm.

'Competitive markets work relatively well because buyers and sellers can turn to other trading partners in case of dissent,' the Nobel judges said. 'But when market competition is limited, firms are better suited for conflict resolution than markets.'

The economics prize is one of six Nobel prizes not created in Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's 1896 will, and officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009.

The two economists will share a 10-million kronor ($1.42 million) prize. Ostrom said she hopes to devote the proceeds to supporting research and graduate students.

Justin Lahart

2009年 10月 13日 09:46
兩位美國經濟學家分享諾貝爾經濟學獎


Reuters
美國經濟學家埃莉諾﹒奧斯特羅姆周一在印第安納大學接受了諾貝爾經濟學獎
位美國經濟學家埃莉諾﹒奧斯特羅姆(Elinor Ostrom)和奧利弗﹒威廉姆森(Oliver Williamson)周一獲諾貝爾經濟學獎,他們的研究領域是其他很多經濟學家關注的市場之外的決策過程。

奧 斯特羅姆現為印第安納大學伯明頓分校教授,是第一位獲諾貝爾經濟學獎的女性。1969年,為慶祝瑞典中央銀行成立300周年而設立了諾貝爾經濟學獎。到目 前為止,該獎曾被授予62位男性。評審人員說,奧斯特羅姆因對經濟治理、尤其是自然資源作為共享資源加以管理的方式的研究而獲獎。奧斯特羅姆說,這個研究 領域與全球變暖相關問題有關,在各國政府努力達成一項國際協議之際,個人的決定也可以幫助解決這一問題。

奧斯特羅姆的工作對以下這種觀點提出了挑戰:當人們共享有限的資源時,最終會把資源破壞掉。這種“共享的悲劇”觀點認為,對公共利益非常重要的資源需要進行高度的監管或私有化。奧斯特羅姆在這個領域進行了多年的研究。

諾貝爾評審人員說,基於大量有關使用者管理魚類資源、牧場、森林、湖泊和地下水資源的研究,奧斯特羅姆得出結論:結果往往要比標準理論所預測的要好。

原因在於,長期來看,人們常常會設立機構、社會網絡和互動途徑來解決這個問題。舉例來講,美國馬裡蘭州的龍蝦工人對他們工作的地區進行非正式的監管,限制人們的進入。在這些“龍蝦幫”流行的地方,有更多的龍蝦。

耶 魯大學環境經濟學家柯秦(Matthew Kotchen)說,更大范圍來看,這類社會網絡並不總能產生良好效果。舉例來講,距離緬因港口更遠的地方,龍蝦更少。他說,更重要的是,奧斯特羅姆的工 作指出了很多經濟學家忽略了的社會網絡的重要性,原因之一是這些經濟學家無法開發出準確的模型來描述社會網絡的運作方式。

他說,只因為你不知道如何為其建模,並不意味著你就能忽視它們。

在斯德哥爾摩舉行的宣布諾貝爾和平獎的新聞發布會期間,奧斯特羅姆接受了電話採訪。她說,諾貝爾經濟學獎是“巨大的驚喜”,我仍感覺有點震驚。奧斯特羅姆曾獲得加州大學洛杉磯分校的政治學博士,不過她說她把自己視為一位政治經濟學家。

威廉姆森現為加州大學伯克利分校的教授,曾獲得卡內基梅隆大學的博士。他因“對經濟治理、尤其是企業邊際的分析”而獲獎。企業邊際是一些經濟決策在市場上做出、而其他則是在企業內部做出的原因。

威廉姆森的工作源於60年代末他在司法部反壟斷部門的工作經歷,他注意到對企業內部運作方式的關注很少。

Associated Press
奧利弗﹒威廉姆森在自己家中,手中拿著自己的一本經濟學著作
威廉姆森解釋說,過去經濟學家研究企業的方式是把它看作是一個可以把輸入轉變成輸出的“黑箱”,他們並沒有研究裡面的東西。而我們把這個“黑箱”打開了。威廉姆森在美國西部太平洋時間凌晨3點半被諾貝爾獎委員會的電話叫醒。

他發現,那些標準理論認為留給市場去做會更有效率的很多經濟決策,實際上最好是留給公司內部。

諾貝爾評審人員說,競爭性市場運轉的相對較好,原因是買賣雙方在意見出現分歧的時候,可以轉向其他的交易伙伴。不過當市場競爭有限時,更有利於沖突解決的是企業而不是市場。

諾貝爾經濟學獎是六項諾貝爾獎中唯一不是1896年瑞典工業家阿爾弗雷德﹒諾貝爾(Alfred Nobel)遺囑中提到的獎項。該獎項的正式名稱是“瑞典中央銀行紀念阿爾弗雷德﹒諾貝爾經濟學獎”。

這兩位經濟學家將分享1,000萬克朗(合142萬美元)的獎金。奧斯特羅姆說,她希望把獎金捐出來,支持研究和研究生。

Justin Lahart

2009年10月11日 星期日

"Leszek Kołakowski". "Bronisław Geremek"."Ralf Dahrendorf".


Wikipedia article "Ralf Dahrendorf".
Wikipedia article "Bronisław Geremek".
Wikipedia article "Leszek Kołakowski".

倫敦傳真-哲人已遠 新歐洲帷幕漸啟…

  • 2009-10-11
  • 中國時報
  • 【江靜玲】

 今年是歐洲聯盟(EU)邁向建制化的關鍵年,攸關歐盟未來發展的「里斯本條約」是否可以順利通過,對這個二戰後跨世紀的歐洲和平工程,將是一個重要考驗。

 值此同時,歐洲失去了三位對歷史、哲學、社會和政治具深遠影響力的思想家。三位思想家背景不同,但出生成長在同世代,均經歷二戰歐洲戰 火,都把深刻的思想化為行動。而在這些思想的背後,他們也都有著豐富、複雜,終身不斷探索尋找自我定位或人格特質的過程。伴隨著這層追尋、思考和創造路途 的,則是他們各自在戰亂中流離失所的傷痛記憶。

 這三個在少年與青年時期,親身見證過一九三九年到一九四五年,二次世界大戰的歐洲當代思想家,他們打骨子裡了解,為什麼需要創立一個自由歐洲。

 擔任過波蘭外長的社會歷史學家和政治家格瑞邁克(Bronislaw Geremek),三人中年紀最輕,卻在去夏車禍中,意外最早過世。一九三二年出生在波蘭猶太商人之家的格瑞邁克,父親在戰爭時遭殺害,四三年時,他隨著 母親偷渡離開波蘭猶太區,並在母親改嫁後,跟著繼父改姓Geremek,接受羅馬天主教的教育。

 成人後的格瑞邁克認為,自己不是猶太人,也不是天主教徒。對於自己孩童時期在華沙猶太區內目睹的生死記憶,他僅在一次訪問中,輕描淡寫的說,「我關上記憶的盒子,並鎖上它。」

 格瑞邁克或許把早年的記憶上了鎖,但他沒有鎖住自己總是想看到波蘭外面事務的欲望。一九八九年,東歐共產社會主義瓦解那段期間,整個社會 政經情勢變的不可預測,格瑞邁克把目光投向其他非暴力政權移轉國家,在波蘭官方和團結工聯的協商中,扮演關鍵角色。他對建立一個和平歐洲深信不移,生前深 入參與歐盟新憲章討論,堅持「歐盟迫切需要一個新的政治框架。」

 今年七月在英國牛津辭世的歷史學者克拉考斯基(Leszek Kolakowski)以對馬克思主義批評分析著稱。一九四三年在波蘭德國佔領區內,十五歲的克拉考斯基看到自己的父親被德軍拘捕殺害。被送到一所木製玩具工廠裡做工的克拉考斯基,靠著一本殘破不全的百科全書自學。他後來常開玩笑說,「我知道所有有關A 、D、E的知識,但從B到C完全空白,因為被地方農民拿去當柴火燒了!」

 儘管可以對自己早年自學經驗談笑風生,克拉考斯基終身只要見到低空飛行的飛機,直覺反應便是轟炸要開始了。他在一九七○年進入牛津大學擔 任資深研究員。冷戰時期,他的著作在波蘭受到禁止,但私下影響巨大。受到他的啟蒙,波蘭興起反對運動和聯盟。一九八○年代後,他以寫作、訪問和募款各種方 式在海外支持波蘭反對勢力,對一九八九年中歐和東歐區域共產社會主義瓦解,有很大作用。

 社會衝突論的開山者兼奠基人、德裔英國社會學家達倫道夫(Ralf Dahrendorf)則在今年六月過世。一九四四年時,出身漢堡政治家庭的達倫道夫因為參與校園反納粹運動被捉進蓋世太保監獄中。

 十天的監禁裡,十五歲的達倫道夫目睹蓋世太保牢獄中的慘狀,有次他看到一個犯人被吊起來,慢慢的死亡。少年時的獄中十天,成為達倫道夫終 身吶喊自由的源頭。他後來擔任德國國會議員、歐盟對外關係委員,倫敦政經學院院長,並入籍英國,成為英國上議員議員,受封為終身勖爵。但他始終以自由派自 居。

 達倫道夫不相信「強大歐洲」。他生前,在一次訪談中,我們提到這個問題,達倫道夫說,他樂見歐洲創造一個屬於自己的集團,並有必要在特定 範圍裡建立規範,但歐洲不需要在兩個集團或國家間創造強權,「歐洲本身在十九世紀、二十世紀,深受少數強權迫害之苦,誰還願意重蹈覆轍呢?」

 哲人已遠。三位經過戰亂的歐洲思想家相繼辭世,走入歷史。但在歷史長河裡,象徵歐盟新憲章的「里斯本條約」,卻是另一個開端。(clchiangr@yahoo.com)

2009年10月10日 星期六

Giuseppe Verdi

Spotlight:

Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
What was Verdi's last opera? Italian composer of operas Giuseppe Verdi was born on this date in 1813. Though he showed musical promise as a youngster, Verdi's early progress was not a given. He hoped to study organ at the Milan Conservatory, but was not accepted to the school, due to what they deemed his inadequate training. So, Verdi studied privately; his pieces met with acclaim, with many of them performed eventually at La Scala. Among his most famous works are Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Don Carlos and Aida. A fan of William Shakespeare, Verdi wrote operas based on three of his plays: Macbeth, Othello and his final opera, the comic Falstaff. When Verdi died in 1901, nearly 30,000 people lined the streets for his funeral procession.

Quote:

"Verdi is my god and my other influences are Berlioz and Puccini, with a dash of Debussy in my orchestration."George Lloyd

2009年10月9日 星期五

Herta Müller Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Herta Müller Wins Nobel Prize in Literature


Published: October 8, 2009

Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German novelist and essayist who writes of the oppression of dictatorship in her native country and the unmoored existence of the political exile, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Skip to next paragraph
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Herta Müller, 56, emigrated to Germany in 1987 from her native Romania.

Michael Sohn/Associated Press

Herta Müller at a news conference on Thursday in Berlin. Ms. Müller is a relative unknown outside of literary circles in Germany.

Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy described Ms. Müller as a writer “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” Her award coincides with the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Europe.

Ms. Müller, 56, emigrated to Germany in 1987 after years of persecution and censorship in Romania. She is the first German writer to win the Nobel in literature since Günter Grass in 1999 and the 13th winner writing in German since the prize was first given in 1901. She is the 12th woman to capture the literature prize. But unlike previous winners like Doris Lessing and V. S. Naipaul, Ms. Müller is a relative unknown outside of literary circles in Germany.

She has written some 20 books, but just 5 have been translated into English, including the novels “The Land of Green Plums” and “The Appointment.”

At a packed news conference on Thursday at the German Publishers & Booksellers Association in Berlin, where she lives, Ms. Müller, petite, wearing all black and sitting on a leopard-print chair, appeared overwhelmed by all the cameras in her face. She spoke of the 30 years she spent under a dictatorship and of friends who did not survive, describing living “every day with the fear in the morning that in the evening one would no longer exist.”

When asked what it meant that her name would now be mentioned in the same breath as German greats like Thomas Mann and Heinrich Böll, Ms. Müller remained philosophical. “I am now nothing better and I’m nothing worse,” she said, adding: “My inner thing is writing. That I can hold on to.”

Earlier in the day, at a news conference in Stockholm, Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Ms. Müller was honored for her “very, very distinct special language” and because “she has really a story to tell about growing up in a dictatorship ... and growing up as a stranger in your own family.”

Just two days before the announcement, Mr. Englund criticized the jury panel as being too “Eurocentric.” Europeans have won 9 of the past 10 literature prizes. On Thursday Mr. Englund told The Associated Press that it was easier for Europeans to relate to European literature. “It’s the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of,” he said.

Ms. Müller was born and raised in the German-speaking town of Nitzkydorf, Romania. Her father served in the Waffen-SS in World War II, and her mother was deported to a work camp in the Soviet Union in 1945. At university, Ms. Müller opposed the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu and joined Aktionsgruppe Banat, a group of dissident writers who sought freedom of speech.

She wrote her first collection of short stories in 1982 while working as a translator for a factory. The stories were censored by the Romanian authorities, and Ms. Müller was fired from the factory after refusing to work with the Securitate secret police. The uncensored manuscript of “Niederungen” — or “Nadirs” — was published in Germany two years later to critical acclaim.

“Niederungen” and other early works depicted life in a village and the repression its residents faced. Her later novels, including “The Land of Green Plums” and “The Appointment,” approach allegory in their graphic portrayals of the brutality suffered by modest people living under totalitarianism. Her most recent novel, “Atemschaukel,” is a finalist for the German Book Prize.

Even in Germany, Ms. Müller is not well known. “She’s not one of these public trumpeters — or drum-beaters, like Grass,” said Volker Weidermann, a book critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper. “She’s more reserved.”

Ms. Müller also has a low profile in the English-speaking world, although “The Land of Green Plums” won the International Dublin Impac Literary Award in 1998.

Writing in The New York Times Book Review in 2001, Peter Filkins described “The Appointment” as using the thuggery of the government as “a backdrop to the brutality and betrayal with which people treat one another in their everyday lives.”

Lyn Marven, a lecturer in German studies at the University of Liverpool who has written about Ms. Müller, said: “It’s an odd disjunction to write about traumatic experiences living under a dictatorship in a very poetic style. It’s not what we expect, certainly.”

Michael Naumann, Germany’s former culture minister and the former head of Metropolitan Books, one of Ms. Müller’s publishers in the United States, praised her work but said she was “not a public intellectual.”

She has, however, spoken out against oppression and collaboration. In Germany, for example, she has criticized those East German writers who worked with the secret police.

A spokeswoman for Metropolitan, a unit of Macmillan that released English translations of “The Land of Green Plums” and “The Appointment” in the United States, said the publisher would reissue hardcover editions of those books. Northwestern University Press, which published the paperback version of “The Land of Green Plums,” said it was reprinting 20,000 copies.

In Germany, Ms. Müller’s publisher, Carl Hanser Verlag, was also scrambling to reprint more copies of “Atemschaukel,” as well as other titles from her backlist. Asked whether winning the prize while relatively young could hurt her work, Ms. Müller said: “I thought after every book, never again, it’s my last. Then two years pass, and I start writing again. It doesn’t feel any different after I’ve won this prize.”

The awards ceremony is planned for Dec. 10 in Stockholm. As the winner, Ms. Müller will receive 10 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.4 million.

Motoko Rich reported from New York, Nicholas Kulish reported from Berlin. Also contributing reporting was Victor Homola in Berlin.


文化社会 | 2009.10.11

赫塔·米勒和她的罗马尼亚

诺贝尔文学奖再次光顾德国。赫塔·米勒获得了文学世界的最高荣誉。德国之声罗马尼亚部记者Fodica Binder认为,她是一个根在罗马尼亚的作家,一个口无遮掩的作家。

一个作家可以把苦难直接转化成文学作品,不加柔化,不予中和。这是赫塔·米勒每一本书都证明了的,无论是在罗马尼亚写就的,还是移民德国后 创作的。她的美学感觉具有地震仪般的准确性,她非同寻常的文学天才从一开始就有了固有的定义。赫塔·米勒的正义感,她那不可动摇的道德直线,她对一切形式 迫害与愚蠢行为的绝不宽容,使她成为共产党秘密情报机构眼里的可疑对象。

今年诺贝尔文学奖的这位女得主在大学时代就非常接近罗马尼亚德语作家行动团体Banat。理查德·瓦格纳也是这个圈子的成员。虽然这个团体刚开始时 是非政治性的,但他们的成员受到秘密情工机构的迫害,有些成员甚至被逮捕。在赫塔·米勒拒绝合作之后,罗马尼亚秘密情工机构不断地威胁着她。尽管情工机构 对她施加了种种刁难、陷害和恐吓,她始终忠于自己的原则,甚至冒着生命危险。

1987年2月赫塔·米勒移民德国,在德国继续她的文学创作。她的所有作品都能让人感觉到那未能愈合的创伤,即使有时候这种痕迹隐藏在文字的最深处。

她的长篇小说、杂文,甚至她那些在最近22年里在德国写就的拼贴诗,都以最高水平的美学素质向西方展示独裁政权下的可怕日子。赫塔·米勒与罗马尼亚 的联系不仅仅体现在那"永不消逝的过去"上,而且也铭刻在语言之中。罗马尼亚语言在她的文字里出现,并经常通过具有独特表现力的比喻和语句放射光芒。

1989年后,赫塔·米勒经常回罗马尼亚参加各种文化活动。她的长篇小说大部分现在已经译成罗马尼亚语。她从来没有停止过对公众讲真话,无论在哪个国家。

这在她最新的长篇小说《呼吸钟摆》中再次得到证实。这是一部以风格全新的、文学色彩浓郁的笔墨描述独裁政权和意识形态造成的苦难的小说。

作者:Rodica Binder / 平心

责编:达杨



德女作家慕勒 獲諾貝爾文學獎

〔編 譯張沛元/綜合八日外電報導〕向來是諾貝爾文學獎得主熱門人選的德國女作家荷塔.慕勒,八日摘下二○○九年諾貝爾文學獎桂冠,成為第十二位獲得此一殊榮的 女文豪。生於羅馬尼亞的慕勒過去批評共產政權不遺餘力,被譽為是羅馬尼亞文學良心,在柏林圍牆倒下二十週年之際,她的獲獎被視為諾貝爾獎對共產主義垮台的 肯定。

破紀錄!今年已有四女性獲獎

慕勒也是今年諾貝爾獎頒發至今第四位獲獎的女性,為該獎自一九○一年首度頒發以來、女性得獎人數最多的一年。今年的諾貝爾獎迄今已頒發醫學、物理、化學與文學獎,其中醫學獎有兩名女性獲獎,化學獎與文學獎各有一名女性得獎。

瑞典學院在頌詞讚揚慕勒的作品,「有詩歌的精練,散文的率直,描述無家可歸者之境況」。現年五十六歲的慕勒對於獲獎深表震驚,「我很驚訝,還不太敢相信,我現在不知道該說什麼。」

瑞典學院秘書長英格朗表示,慕勒的作品風格極為獨特,這一方面源自於她身為被起訴的羅馬尼亞異議人士的背景,一方面也基於她在自己的國家,對政治體制、對主流語言以及對自己的家庭的異鄉人身分。慕勒將可獲得一千萬瑞典克朗(約台幣四千五百九十四萬兩千元)的獎金。

慕 勒於一九八二年在文壇初試啼聲,發表短篇故事集「低地深淵」(Niederungen),但隨即遭當時共黨政府審查刪修。一九八四年,慕勒在德國出版完整 版,同年又在羅馬尼亞出版「受壓迫的探戈」。這兩本書都是描述一個羅馬尼亞的德語小村莊在貪瀆、偏執與壓迫下的艱苦生活,「羅馬尼亞國營媒體痛批這些作 品,但在羅馬尼亞以外,德國媒體卻對這兩本書予以好評,」瑞典學院說。

慕勒向來公開批判羅馬尼亞獨裁者西奧塞古的共產政權與秘密警察,曾因 拒絕當線民而丟了畢生第一份工作,最後被禁止在羅馬尼亞出版作品;一九八七年,慕勒與同為作家的夫婿移居德國,稍後陸續出版「狐狸當時已經是獵人」(一九 九二)、「風中綠李」(一九九四),以及「約定」(二○○一)等小說,皆詳盡刻畫在停滯腐敗的獨裁政權統治下的日常生活。慕勒的著作多以德文為主,但有部 份作品被翻譯為英文、法文與西班牙文。

慕勒的父親在二戰時曾參與納粹黨衛軍。許多德裔羅馬尼亞人在一九四五年被遣返至蘇聯,慕勒的母親也不 例外,在勞改營待了五年。多年後,慕勒在作品「Atemschaukel」中描述德裔羅馬尼亞人流亡蘇聯的故事。慕勒曾在德、英與美等地許多高等學府客座 講學,目前定居柏林。




網誌存檔