|
楼主 |
发表于 2012-4-7 21:33:05
|
显示全部楼层
“吾最恨人家子弟,凡遇读书,都不理会文字,只记得若干事迹,便算读过一部书了。” ——金圣叹
语言
小说的语言不仅是载体,也是打动我们的直接工具。“冰火”的语言看点有三:1. 自创语言,主要见于叙述隔海相望的游牧部落;2. 历史语言,主要见于文中时而夹杂的一些古雅文字;3. 叙述中的语言功力。这里主要谈第三点,遗憾是漂亮之处太多,只能点到为止,在此略作欣赏罢了。
1. 小词的精巧
The rain came down and down and down.
埃达的卫队在半路被截杀,周围躺满尸体,埃达腿部亦受到重创,此句中之down and down and down,对叙述雨中的谋杀而言,这句话很冷静,很漂亮,有此时无声胜有声之效
The moon was peeping over the castle wall when he told Podrick Payne that he was going to pay a call on Varys.
泰瑞昂将去见自己所爱的女郎,不说天色已黑,而说月色撩人,有味道。
2. 文字的力与势
The north went on forever.
Tyrion Lannister knew the maps as well as anyone, but a fortnight on the wild track that passed for the kingsroad up here had brought home the lesson that the map was one thing and the land quite another.
起笔的短句真有气势。
They had left Winterfell on the same day as the king, amidst all the commotion of the royal departure, riding out to the sound of men shouting and horses snorting, to the rattle of wagons and the groaning of the queen’s huge wheelhouse, as a light snow flurried about them.
这个句子的节奏相当漂亮。最后的小句收得很紧凑——上路了,喧嚣被打包地抛在脑后;和上边句子的起笔有得一比。
3. 巧妙的对话
“Yes, she’s a sweet sight,” he told her, “though not half so sweet as you.”
“Oho.” She grinned. “I’d best be careful. This lordling has a honeyed tongue.”
“Taste it and see.”
格里乔伊作为人质从小被寄养在临冬城,现在他回到家,这是他与路上邂逅的女子调情时的对话,最后一句让人生动地在脑海中浮现出一个口齿伶俐的浪荡子的形象。
4. 哲理性
“A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose.”
这是饲养传信乌鸦的伊蒙对私生子乔恩所吐露的肺腑之言。这位前朝后人更让人肝颤的话是:你必须做出选择,并伴随这个选择渡过余生。(是否让你想起海明威?)
5. 深刻的流畅
写断了腿的布朗那章的意识流,写丹内妮浴火重生之前的恍惚心态那章,都堪称让人掩卷之后仍无法平息心绪的段落,但我还是选择这里的一段,比上述两段简短,但仍不失整饬之美,Sobbing, Sam took another step.这个结构反复出现,让我们如临其境地看到步履维艰,看到山姆的懦弱,看到山姆的坚持,看到山姆的执着或者刻板:
Sobbing, Sam took another step. This is the last one, the very last, I can’t go on, I can’t. But his feet moved again. One and then the other. They took a step, and then another, and he thought, They’re not my feet, they’re someone else’s, someone else is walking, it can’t be me.
…
Sobbing, Sam took another step. It felt more like he was falling down than walking, falling endlessly but never hitting the ground, just falling forward and forward. I have to stop, it hurts too much. I’m so cold and tired, I need to sleep, just a little sleep beside a fire, and a bite to eat that isn’t frozen.
…
Sobbing, Sam took another step. He had been cold so long he was forgetting what it was like to feel warm.
…
Sobbing, he took another step. The snow swirled down around him. Sometimes it fell from a white sky, and sometimes from a black, but that was all that remained of day and night.
…
Sobbing, he took another step. The crust was broken where he set his feet, otherwise he did not think he could have moved at all.
…
Sobbing, he took another step. A root beneath the crust caught his toe, and Sam tripped and fell heavily to one knee, so hard he bit his tongue. He could taste the blood in his mouth, warmer than anything he had tasted since the Fist. This is the end, he thought. |
|