評論
打印
Culture
文藝版塊
Children's literature
兒童文學
Grimm's stuff
陰森的格林童話（注：Grimm諧音grim）
How unpleasant should children’s books be?
童話書應該有多令人不舒服？
The Brothers Grimm. By Ann Schmiesing.
《格林兄弟》，安·施米辛著。
Once upon a time there were two little boys who lived in a deep, dark forest.
從前，有兩個小男孩住在幽深、黑暗的森林里。
Their name was Grimm, and so was their life.
他們姓格林，他們的生活也很“陰森”。（注：Grimm諧音grim）
Their father died, and their mother was poor.
他們的父親去世了，母親很貧窮。
She slaughtered pigs, while their aunt castrated cocks with a knife.
母親宰殺豬，阿姨用刀閹割公雞。
When the boys grew up Napoleon invaded, and one brother travelled to war.
當兩個小男孩長大后，拿破侖入侵了，于是其中一個兄弟去打仗。
He saw villages burned, girls raped and piles of corpses so big the villagers could not bury them.
他看到村莊被燒毀，女孩被強奸，成堆的尸體多到村民們無法把它們埋起來。
But this story has a happily ever after.
但這個故事有一個幸福美滿的結局。
Because when the boys grew up they wrote down stories.
因為男孩們長大后，他們寫下了許多故事。
They penned “Snow White” and “Cinderella” and indeed the line “happily ever after”.
他們創作了《白雪公主》和《灰姑娘》，還有那句“從此過上了幸福的生活”。
There were hints of their life in their tales, though, as a new book by Ann Schmiesing, an academic, shows.
不過正如學者安·施米辛在一本新書中所展示的那樣，他們的故事中也有他們的人生痕跡。
For they also wrote a tale called “How Some Children Played at Slaughtering”.
因為他們還寫了一個故事，叫做《孩子們怎么玩屠殺游戲》。
In it, one boy slits another’s throat; his brother drowns in the bath; his mother hangs herself with guilt; his father dies of grief.
在故事中，一個男孩割開了另一個男孩的喉嚨，弟弟在浴缸里淹死，母親因內疚而上吊自殺，父親則悲痛過度而死。
A forgotten children’s classic.
這是一篇被遺忘的兒童經典作品。
This is a story about children’s stories.
這本新書是關于童話的故事。
It is about what stories should include--sugar, spice and all things nice, or frogs, snails and incest? --and how dark their telling should be.
探討了故事應該包括什么——糖果、香料和所有美好的東西，還是青蛙、蝸牛和亂倫？——以及故事的講述應該有多黑暗。
In the Grimms’ day, the answer was very.
在格林兄弟的時代，答案是非常黑暗。
In these stories fathers abuse daughters, Rapunzel falls pregnant and Red Riding Hood is duped into bed (“My, how hairy you are, granny!”) and raped.
在這些故事中，父親虐待女兒，長發公主懷孕了，小紅帽被騙上床（“哎呀，奶奶，你的毛真多！”）并被強奸了。
In a Swiss telling of “Snow White”, the girl is a “slut”, the seven dwarves are murdered and their house is burned down.
在瑞士版本的《白雪公主》中，白雪公主是一個“蕩婦”，七個小矮人被謀殺，他們的房子被燒毀。
Disney did not go with that version.
迪士尼沒有采用這個版本。
This debate still matters now.
這場辯論現在仍然很重要。
Children’s books cause conniptions.
兒童書籍會引起震怒。
In Britain Roald Dahl was edited to remove words such as “fat” that, to some modern eyes, seemed objectionable and (as Dahl might have put it) fizzwiggling.
在英國，羅爾德·達爾的作品在編輯過程中刪除了一些在現代人看來令人反感和尖嘴毒舌（這個詞是達爾發明的）的詞，比如“胖”。
In 2023, 17 American states tried to censor more than 100 books.
在2023年，17個美國州試圖審查超過100本書。
“There is a sort of tug-of-war through the history of children’s writing between instruction and delight,” says Sam Leith, author of “The Haunted Wood”, a book about children’s literature.
“在兒童文學寫作歷史中，存在著一種在教益和娛樂之間的拔河比賽。”《鬧鬼的森林》的作者山姆·利思說，這本書是關于兒童文學的。
The debate is fraught partly because the stakes--and the sales--are high.
這場辯論很激烈，部分原因是利害關系很重大，童書銷售量也很高。
The personal stakes are high, too.
個人利害關系也很大。
Reading is dangerously independent.
閱讀是危險的獨立行為。
It offers children their first escape from their parents.
為孩子們提供了第一次逃離父母的機會。
Go into Narnia or Neverland or Wonderland and you--like Lucy or Peter Pan or Alice--go alone.
一走進納尼亞、夢幻島或愛麗絲的仙境，你就像露西、彼得·潘或愛麗絲那樣獨自前行。（注：這里的典故分別來自《納尼亞傳奇》《彼得·潘》《愛麗絲夢游仙境》。）
And what you see there will shape you: for ever after you will know what lies behind the wardrobe door (furs and firs), what eating Turkish delight leads to (trouble) and what to do with bottles saying “DRINK ME” (don’t).
你在書里看到的東西會塑造你：從此以后，你會知道衣柜門后面有什么（長毛野獸和冷杉），吃土耳其軟糖會導致什么（麻煩），以及看到寫著“喝我”的瓶子該怎么辦（不要喝）。（注：這里的典故分別來自《納尼亞傳奇》《愛麗絲夢游仙境》。）
When Martin Amis, a British novelist, said that he would write a children’s book only if he “had a serious brain injury”, he distilled centuries of disdain.
英國小說家馬丁·艾米斯曾說，除非他“腦部嚴重受傷”，否則他不會寫兒童讀物。他的這句話概括了幾個世紀以來人們對兒童讀物的蔑視。
Until the 18th century there was no distinct children’s literature.
直到18世紀才出現了類別鮮明的兒童文學。
Though not everyone was so dismissive: John Locke argued that, since children’s minds were “as easily turned this or that way, as water”, books should be written specially for them to guide them.
盡管并非所有人都如此不屑一顧：約翰·洛克認為，由于兒童的思想“就像水一樣容易被引向這個或那個方向”，因此應該專門為兒童寫書來指導他們。（注：約翰·洛克是英國政治哲學家。）
And, sounding slightly less like Britain’s foremost political philosopher and slightly more like someone’s six-year-old, they should have “as many pictures of animals…as can be found”.
而且洛克還說了一句不那么像英國最重要的政治哲學家，而更像是某個六歲孩子會說的話：童書應該“包含能找到的盡可能多的動物圖片”。
