经济学人下载:天堂里的日子

Books and Arts; Book Review;Nancy and Lawrence Durrell；Days of heaven；
文艺；书评；南希和劳伦斯·德雷尔；天堂里的日子；

Amateurs in Eden: The Story of a Bohemian Marriage, Nancy and Lawrence Durrell. By Joanna Hodgkin.
《Amateurs in Eden》：一场波西米亚姻缘的故事，关于南希和劳伦斯·德雷尔。Joanna Hodgkin着。

Given Greece's economic woes and role as yet another Mediterranean holiday destination, it is hard to appreciate the freedom, sunlight and sense of space that it provided 50 or more years ago. Intrepid travellers would come to explore ruins and ancient villages in solitary peace, and sleep under the stars on empty sandy beaches. The islands were especially enticing, and no books contributed more to their image as a paradise than those by the Durrell brothers,Lawrence and Gerald. “Prospero's Cell” (1945), Lawrence's diary of life on Corfu, and “My Family and Other Animals” (1956), Gerald's account of his experiences as a child there, are brilliant, contrasting views of life on this Greek island in the 1930s, and remain popular to this day.

如今，希腊只是个平凡的地中海休假景点，经济也正处于萧条时期，让人很难重温这里50余年前自由的空气、美好的阳光和海阔天空的舒畅感觉。当时，胆大的旅行者喜欢探索遗迹，寻找宁静的古代小镇，也喜欢在静谧的海滩上安然入眠，沾沐一身星辉。希腊诸岛格外诱人，素有人间天堂的美誉，德雷尔（Durrell）兄弟（劳伦斯Lawrence和杰拉德Gerald ）的著作对此贡献最大。劳伦斯1945年出版的日记集《Prospero's Cell》讲述了他在科孚岛上的生活，杰拉德1956年的《My Family and Other Animals》，则描述了自己20世纪30年代在那里度过的童年时光；该书才华横溢，与劳伦斯的书相映成趣，时至今日依然畅销。

“Amateurs in Eden” is written by Joanna Hodgkin, the daughter (from a later marriage) of Lawrence Durrell's first wife Nancy. It tells Nancy's story, complete with a full description of her “unsatisfactory parents” and unhappy childhood, and an account of her life after she left Lawrence. The heart of the book, and the subject of greatest interest, is a portrait of their marriage and their four seemingly idyllic years on Corfu. They met in bohemian London when she was an art student and he was working for an estate agent and writing poetry.From the start they were a striking but “odd couple”. She was tall, willowy, beautiful. He was three inches shorter and stocky; his lack of height a “secret sorrow”. Yet he had no shortage of charm. He could turn a mundane event into a colourful drama, and she fell under his spell. After two years together, both 22, they married and left England—“Pudding Island”, according to Durrell. His widowed mother and her three younger children (including Gerald) soon followed them to Greece.
乔安娜·霍奇金（Joanna Hodgkin）是劳伦斯的首任妻子南希（Nancy）改嫁后生的女儿，撰写了《Amateurs in Eden》一书，将南希一生的故事娓娓道来，从她不称职的父母、不快乐的童年一直讲到离开劳伦斯之后的日子。本书的核心部分（也是最有趣的话题），便是南希和劳伦斯在科孚岛上四年田园牧歌式的伉俪情缘。两人当年初见时，波西米亚主义正在伦敦盛行。她是个艺术学生，而他是个写诗的房产经济人。这“奇怪的一对儿”从一开始就很引人注目。姑娘很修长，苗条而美丽，小伙子却挺敦实，足足比她矮了三英寸——海拔不够是个心病。不过身高可不是问题：他能把庸常俗务变成精彩的戏剧，让她为他的魔力倾心。两年后，这对22岁的年轻人结了婚，离开了英格兰（他称之为“布丁似的岛”）。他的寡母很快带着三个弟妹跟着他俩搬到了希腊。

Their time in Corfu was mainly one of simple happiness: isolated, primitive, strangely serene, removed from the wider reality of international events. Many years later Durrell said: “I shall really never, never ever forget a youth spent there, discovered by accident. It was pure gold.” They swam and sailed and he, finding his voice as a writer, completed his first major novel, “The Black Book”.
科孚岛上的时光是一场简单的幸福：与世隔绝、简单淳朴、宁静异常，远离世间各国的纷纷扰扰。多年后，他回忆道：“蓦然回首，发觉当年岛上的韶华永难忘却。彼时岁月纯净如金。”那时，他们会一起游泳，一起开船；他也开始作为一名作家崭露头角，完成了第一部重要小说《The Black Book》。

Yet Lawrence and Nancy were complicated characters, and the marriage had its problems. Lawrence could be cruel and obsessively jealous, and would use words “to lacerate and destroy”. The strains were evident when they met Henry Miller in Paris in 1937. Superficially, the visit was a success. But Lawrence, who was inclined to build “a wall of ice” to separate intimates from other people, was determined to keep Nancy on the sidelines—“decorative but insignificant”—and Nancy retreated into silence.Back in Corfu there were times of “rare and precious content”, but the onset of war changed things for ever. They moved to mainland Greece and in 1941 fled to Egypt. With Cairo under threat, Nancy travelled with their one-year-old child to Jerusalem; Lawrence was unable to persuade her to return to him. He would marry three more times. Nancy eventually had over 30 years of “loving closeness” with Teddy Hodgkin.
然而两人都不是省油的灯，他们的婚姻自有问题。有时，劳伦斯为人冷酷，醋劲十足，还会用言辞“伤害并摧毁（别人的心）”。1937年，他们在巴黎与亨利·米勒（Henry Miller）会面，紧张局势就十分明显。这场会面看起来一切和谐；实际上劳伦斯常常筑起一道“冰墙”把爱侣和外人隔开，这次便决定只让南希当个陪衬：“无关紧要的装饰品”，于是南希只好黯然陷入沉默。回到科孚岛后，“珍稀的满足”余韵尚存；但随后战争爆发，永远改变了一切。他们搬到希腊本土，又在1941年逃往埃及。后来德军兵临开罗城下，南希带着1岁的孩子去了耶路撒冷。从此，劳伦斯再也没能唤回她。时光荏苒，他又成婚3次，她则与泰迪·霍奇金（Teddy Hodgkin）相依相守30年。

Ms Hodgkin understandably takes her mother's side, but she is at pains to stress that there are many ways to tell the story of a marriage. Despite some misprints, incorrect dates and verbal infelicities, her account is of interest. Many will agree that Durrell's best work is infused with his love of Greece, and that his poetry deserves to be better known. The critical acclaim that greeted the novels of “The Alexandria Quartet” may have been a bit excessive in the 1950s and early 1960s, but these books deserve more readers now.
人们能够理解霍奇金女士站在她母亲的立场讲述这个故事的原因。不过，她在书中尽力强调：要想讲述婚姻的故事，可以有很多视角。这本书中有些印刷错误、日期错误、表述错误，但是故事本身还是很有价值。很多人都会同意，德雷尔最好的作品中饱含着他对希腊的深情，他的诗作也应该得到更多赏识。评论家称，《The Alexandria Quartet》中的几本书对二十世纪五、六十年代的人可能有点激进；如今，它们值得更多的读者去欣赏。