评论
打印
William Golding was losing his faith in humanity.
威廉·戈尔丁丧失了对人性的信心。
Serving aboard a British destroyer in World War II, the philosophy teacher turned Royal Navy lieutenant was constantly confronted by the atrocities of his fellow man.
第二次世界大战时，他在英国驱逐舰上服役，这位哲学老师变成了皇家海军中尉，不断遭到同胞的残暴对待。
And when he returned to England to find Cold War superpowers threatening one another with nuclear annihilation,
当他返回英国，发现冷战的超级大国用核武器来互相威胁时，
he was forced to interrogate the very roots of human nature.
他不得不质疑人性的根源。
These musings on the inevitability of violence would inspire his first and most famous novel: "Lord of the Flies."
这些关于暴力不可避免地沉思，激发他写出了第一本也是最著名的一本小说：《蝇王》。
After being rejected by 21 publishers, the novel was finally published in 1954.
在遭遇了21个出版商的拒绝后，这本小说终于在1954年出版。
It takes its title from Beelzebub, a demon associated with pride and war -- two themes very much at the heart of Golding's book.
书名来自于巴力西卜，一个和骄傲及战争有关的恶魔--这两个主题正是戈尔丁这本书的核心。
The novel was a bleak satire of a classic island adventure story, a popular genre where young boys get shipwrecked in exotic locations.
这是一部凄凉的讽喻小说，讲述了一个经典的岛屿冒险的故事，一种流行的体裁，即小男孩们在异国他乡遇到了海难。
The protagonists in these stories are able to master nature while evading the dangers posed by their new environments.
这些故事中的主角们可以掌握大自然，同时规避了新环境带来的危险。
The genre also endorsed the problematic colonialist narrative found in many British works at the time,
这种体裁也支持了有问题的殖民主义叙述，这在当时的英国许多作品中被发现，
in which the boys teach the island's native inhabitants their allegedly superior British values.
在故事中，男孩们教岛上的原住民他们那些所谓的优越的英国价值观。
Golding's satire even goes so far as to explicitly use the setting and character names from R.M. Ballantyne's "Coral Island"
戈尔丁的讽刺作品甚至明确使用了R·M·巴兰坦的《珊瑚岛》的场景设定和角色名称，
one of the most beloved island adventure novels.
《珊瑚岛》是最受人喜爱的岛屿冒险小说之一。
But while Ballantyne's book promised readers "pleasure... profit... and unbounded amusement," Golding's had darker things in store.
但是，当巴兰坦的作品向读者承诺“愉悦、利益、以及无限的娱乐”时，戈尔丁的作品中却拥有更加的黑暗东西。
"Lord of the Flies" opens with the boys already on the island, but snippets of conversation hint at their terrifying journey
《蝇王》的开头，男孩们就已经在岛上了，但是对话的片段已经暗示了他们恐怖的旅程，
their plane had been shot down in the midst of an unspecified nuclear war.
他们的飞机在一场未指明的核战争中被击落。
The boys, ranging in age from 6 to 13, are strangers to each other.
这些男孩的年纪从6岁到13岁不等，彼此并不认识。
All except for a choir, clad in black uniforms and led by a boy named Jack.
除合唱团外，其余均身着黑色制服，并由一个名叫杰克的男孩带领。
Just as in Ballantyne's "Coral Island," the boy's new home appears to be a paradise -- with fresh water, shelter, and abundant food sources.
就像巴兰坦的《珊瑚岛》一样，这个男孩的新家似乎如天堂一般--拥有淡水，庇护所和丰富的食物来源。
But even from the novel's opening pages, a macabre darkness hangs over this seemingly tranquil situation.
但是即使从小说的开篇页来看，这个看似平静的情境被恐怖的黑暗笼罩着。
The boys' shadows are compared to "black, bat-like creatures" while the choir itself first appears as "something dark... fumbling along" the beach.
男孩们的影子被比作“黑色的蝙蝠状的生物”，而合唱团首次出现时则是“有些黑暗...在海滩上摸索着”。
Within hours of their arrival, the boys are already trading terrifying rumors of a vicious "beastie" lurking in the woods.
在他们到达的几小时内，男孩们就已经在互相传言，潜伏在树林里的一个邪恶“野兽”的恐怖传闻。
From these ominous beginnings, Golding's narrative reveals how quickly cooperation unravels without the presence of an adult authority.
从这些不祥的开始，戈尔丁的故事揭示了合作如何迅速瓦解的，在没有成年人的职权下。
Initially, the survivors try to establish some sense of order.
最初，幸存者试图建立某种秩序感。
A boy named Ralph blows into a conch shell to assemble the group, and delegate tasks.
一个叫做拉夫的男孩通过吹响海螺来集合大家，并委派任务。
But as Jack vies for leadership with Ralph, the group splinters and the boys submit to their darker urges.
但是当杰克要争夺拉尔夫的领导权时，这个小组分裂了，男孩们屈服于更加黑暗的驱使。
The mob of children soon forgets their plans for rescue, silences the few voices of reason, and blindly follows Jack to the edge of the island, and the edge of sanity.
暴徒般的孩子们很快忘记了他们的营救计划，沉默掉少数理性的声音，然后盲目地跟着杰克到了岛的边缘，以及理智的边缘。
The novel's universal themes of morality, civility, and society have made it a literary classic,
这本小说包含道德、文明和社会这些主题，使其成为文学经典，
satirizing both conventions of its time and long held beliefs about humanity.
它讽刺了时代的常规习俗和长期以来对人类的信仰。
While island adventure stories often support colonialism, "Lord of the Flies" turns this trope on its head.
尽管岛屿冒险的故事时常支持殖民主义，《蝇王》却调转了这种风格。
Rather than cruelly casting native populations as stereotypical savages, Golding transforms his angelic British schoolboys into savage caricatures.
戈尔丁并没有残酷地将土著人口作为刻板印象的野蛮人，而是将天使般的英国男生转变为野蛮的讽刺形象。
And as the boys fight their own battle on the island, the far more destructive war that brought them there continues off the page.
并且当男孩们在岛上打他们自己的战争时，将他们带到那里且更具毁灭性的战争仍在继续。
Even if the boys were to be rescued from themselves, what kind of world would they be returning to?
即使男孩们从他们自己的战争中获救，他么又将返回什么样的世界呢？
With so few references to anchor the characters in a specific place or period, the novel feels truly timeless -- an examination of human nature at its most bare.
由于很少有参考文献将人物对应到特定的地点和时期，这本小书似乎是永恒的巨作--从根本上考验人性。
And though not all readers may agree with Golding's grim view, "Lord of the Flies" is unsettling enough to challenge even the most determined optimist.
尽管并非所有读者都同意戈尔丁的严厉观点，但《蝇王》足够令人不安，甚至可以挑战最坚定的乐观者。
