绿槐高柳，熏风入弦，盈盈夏日与书为伴，让清风拂去心头的躁动，在一卷书香中安度时光。今天我们将继续为大家推荐约翰·斯坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》，在名著中启迪智慧、汲取力量。

译本序（节选自《愤怒的葡萄》，人民文学出版社，2022）

在社会改良进步的过程中，诸如《愤怒的葡萄》之类的批判性作品始终在发挥着不可或缺的监督作用，美国的食品和药物管理局（FDA）就是在批评声中设立并逐步完善的。这种自我批判的精神部分来自社会主义思潮和黑幕揭发运动的合力。北美洲原本是滋育空想社会主义的沃土……恩格斯为《英国工人阶级状况》英译本美国版（1887）作序时寄望于美国诸多工人组织的团结：“这些分散的争吵不休的队伍最近就会形成一个长长的战斗行列，在敌人面前摆下一条严整的战线，武器在预示风暴来临的沉寂里闪闪发光。”……社会主义的长处在大萧条后更加耀眼，翻译家杨静远二十世纪四十年代后期留学美国密歇根大学，撰写的学期论文就是斯坦贝克和厄普顿·辛克莱小说的比较，这两位作家的作品当时被冠以“社会主义”之名……

（插图选自《愤怒的葡萄》，人民文学出版社，2022）

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The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit -- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.

And the smell of rot fills the country.

Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates -- died of malnutrition -- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

 

词汇学习

• root  n. 根，根部；根本，根源

    v. （使）生根，（使）扎根

• weed  v. 锄草

    n. 杂草，野草

• dissipate  v. 驱散；浪费；挥霍
• flare  v.  闪耀，闪烁
• erect  adj. 直立的，垂直的

    vt. 树立；建立；使竖立

（单词注释来自有道词典）

本书记录了美国著名作家、诺贝尔文学奖获得者约翰·斯坦贝克重寻美国之旅。倾听真实的美国的声音，细嗅草木的芳香，感受斑斓的色彩和光——这些是58岁的约翰·斯坦贝克出发时的目标，即重新发现这个他书写了许多年但已经不了解的国家。带着贵宾犬查理，开着定制的露营车，斯坦贝克从纽约出发，开始了环游美国的旅行东北部的缅因州，西海岸的加利福尼亚，南方的得克萨斯州……行程一万多公里、跨越三十四个州的旅行见证了变化中的美国。

The idea of the great American novel continues to thrive almost as vigorously as in its nineteenth century heyday defying 150 years of attempts to dismiss it as amateurish or obsolete. In this landmark book the first in many years to take in the whole sweep of national fiction, Lawrence Buell reanimates this supposedly antiquated idea demonstrating that its history is a key to the dynamics of national literature and national identity itself.

 

文案策划及录音：图书借阅部 李圣昭

编辑：宣传策划小组 王丹