《哈利·波特》十一谈

萨姆·利思

Even Homer nods1. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire， Harry is fighting a duel with Voldemort when he accidentally does something （Priori Incantatem） that causes the Dark Lords wand to spit out， in reverse order， spectral2 images of the people he has killed. Harrys father， James， comes out before his mother， Lily—when， according to the established story， he died in the process of trying to help his wife and child escape. Fans feverishly speculated as to whether JK Rowling was setting up some crafty plot twist. She eventually admitted it was a mistake， due to “late-night writers fatigue”; the text was corrected in later editions.

荷马也有打盹时。《哈利·波特与火焰杯》中，哈利在跟伏地魔决斗的过程中意外（通过闪回咒）致使这位黑魔王的魔杖以逆时间顺序吐出他所杀之人的幽灵影像。哈利的父亲詹姆斯出现在母亲莉莉之前，而在既定的故事中，他是在帮助妻儿逃跑的过程中丧生的。粉丝们曾拼命猜测J. K. 罗琳是否在制造某种巧妙的情节反转。最终她承认这是由于“作家在深夜疲惫不堪”而犯的一个错误;该错误在之后的版本中得到了更正。

Childrens books can be political. Rowlings brilliant decision was to have her characters grow up at the same rate as her readers. Each book was set in one school year， and grew longer， darker and more adult in theme. By the time we reached book four， Goblet of Fire， we were seeing do-gooding Hermiones Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare formed in response to the bond slavery of these sock-loving poppets3. In the person of the hack4 journalist Rita Skeeter， Rowling sent up5 the tabloid press. The ministry of magic sent up Whitehall bureaucracy. And， as any fool could plainly see， the storys master narrative—with purebloods fighting a war of annihilation against “mudbloods6”—is about the struggle against the basic blood-and-soil7 fascism.

儿童读物也可以涉及政治。罗琳非常明智地让她笔下的人物跟读者同步成长。每本书都以一学年为背景，篇幅越来越长，主题越发黑暗和成人化。读到第四卷《火焰杯》时，我们看到了好心的赫敏为使热爱袜子的小精灵免遭世代奴役，创办了家养小精灵权利促进协会。借雇佣记者丽塔·斯基特这一人物，罗琳讽刺了八卦小报，而借魔法部嘲讽了英国政府的官僚作风。再者，傻瓜也能清楚地看出，故事的主线叙事，即纯血巫师对“泥巴种”发起的毁灭之战，是关于跟本质上强调“血与土”的法西斯主义斗争。

Some people can be as dumb as stumps. In several places in the US， copies of Rowlings books were burned by fundamentalist8 Christians who believed they were encouraging children to take up witchcraft. “Behind that innocent face is the power of satanic darkness，” said pastor Jack Brock of the Christ Community church in Alamogordo， New Mexico， in 2001. “Harry Potter is the devil and he is destroying people.”

有些人蠢若木樁。在美国多地，罗琳的书被原教旨主义基督徒焚烧，他们认为这些书是在鼓励孩子们学习巫术。“那张天真面孔之下隐藏的是撒旦的黑暗力量。”来自新墨西哥州阿拉莫戈多基督教社区教堂的牧师杰克·布罗克在2001年说道，“哈利·波特就是撒旦，他在毁灭人们。”

You could sell childrens books to grownups. The craze for Harry Potter got so febrile9 that， in order to cater to a market of grownups wishing to enjoy his adventures but embarrassed to be seen reading childrens books in public， in 1998 Bloomsbury released the first so-called “adult” edition. Not with added smut10， just with more sombrely designed covers.

童书在成年人中也有市场。《哈利·波特》热潮变得如此白热化，为了迎合那些渴望体验哈利的冒险之旅，却又不好意思被人看到在公共场合阅读儿童读物的成年读者，1998年布鲁姆斯伯里出版公司推出了首个所谓的“成人”版本。成人版并非增加了淫词秽语，只是封面设计更显阴郁而已。

Some books are so secret you cant even share them with their translators. At the height of the madness—roughly， Goblet onwards—the midnight launches were so tightly policed that translators didnt get their copies until the English-language edition was in the shops. French translators， for instance， worked in teams and non-stop; every hour that passed saw the English edition cannibalising potential sales.

有些作品保密之甚，以致其译者都无法得知。在最疯狂的时候，大约自《哈利·波特与火焰杯》之后，午夜发售活动受到严密监管，以致英文版在书店上架后译者才能拿到待译书稿。其中，法语版的译者以团队形式合作，持续作战;每过一小时，英文版就会抢走潜在销量。

Some people were never going to go for it11. In retrospect， A. S. Byatt12 might have been the wrong person for the New York Times to commission to appraise13 the series success. “Ms Rowlings world is a secondary secondary world， made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of childrens literature，” she wrote in apparent bafflement. “It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons， and the exaggerated mirror-worlds of soaps， reality TV and celebrity gossip.” She wasnt being intentionally bitchy， only rigorous， but it made her about as popular as a coldsore with the true believers.

有些人永遠不会大胆一试。事后看来，《纽约时报》委托A. S. 拜厄特来评价《哈利·波特》系列之成功或许是失策。“罗琳女士机智地将各种儿童文学中衍生出来的不同主题拼凑起来，创造了一个次而又次的世界。”她的文字中明显透露出困惑。“《哈利·波特》为这样的读者而写：他们的想象力限于电视卡通以及充斥着肥皂剧、电视真人秀和名人八卦的夸张镜像世界之中。”她并非刻意刁难，只是态度苛刻而已，但这一论断让她在《哈利·波特》的真爱粉中几乎像唇疱疹一样不受欢迎。

Theres more than one way to skin a copyright cat14. Try selling your own story set in Hogwarts and see where it gets you （hint： court）. But Rowling and her publishers have been imaginative enough to see that online fan fiction15 is a rich way for enthusiasts to participate in her world; not to mention helping sustain the craze. She has given her official blessing， with two caveats16： dont publish it commercially， and no smut.

应对版权问题的方法不止一种。试试兜售自己写的霍格沃茨故事，看看会发生什么（提示：法庭）。但罗琳和她的出版商们别出心裁，认识到网络同人小说是一种非常有趣的方式，可让粉丝参与她的世界，更不用说帮助维持这股热潮了。对此，罗琳给出了她的正式许可，不过要注意两点：不要商业性出版，不要污言秽语。

Writers can get a taste for violence. Those who dont know the books may imagine them to be sentimental. But， oh boy， did old JK get slap-happy17 as the series went on. According to the main Potter fandom wiki “158 known individuals have been confirmed to have died”. By the last couple of books， major characters dropped like flies. I wont say which， other than—spoiler—most of them.

作家也可以一尝暴力之味。那些不了解《哈利·波特》的人也许会认为它们是感伤煽情之作。可是，天呐，随着该系列的展开，亲爱的罗琳变得忘乎所以。最大的哈利·波特粉丝维基网站显示，“已有158名出场人物确认死亡”。到最后两本书，主要人物纷纷死亡。我不会说都是谁——剧透——只能说大多数角色。

Boarding schools might be fun. After decades of decline， boarding schools reported a surge in applications from the late 1990s which headteachers attributed to the “Harry Potter effect”. Some set about building more boarding houses to cope with the demand. Alex Renton， author of a polemic18 against these schools， Stiff Upper Lip19， points out that like the authors of most boarding-school stories， Rowling went to a day school.

寄宿学校可以很有趣。经历了几十年的萧条之后，寄宿学校反映，从1990年代末开始，其申请人数急剧上升，这些学校的校长将这一现象归于“哈利·波特效应”。一些学校开始修建更多的宿舍来满足需求。反对寄宿学校的论辩书籍《不动声色》的作者亚力克斯·伦顿指出，跟大多数写寄宿学校故事的作者一样，罗琳上的也是走读学校。

You can never stay anonymous. Rowling， like Stephen King， tried seeing what would happen if a bestselling author published pseudonymously. The first Cormoran Strike thriller， 2013s The Cuckoos Calling， appeared on the shelves under the nom de plume20 of Robert Galbraith （supposedly “a former plainclothes Royal Military Police investigator”） and was well received. It took all of three months for the Sunday Times to out Rowling as the author.

你不能永远匿名。跟斯蒂芬·金一样，罗琳曾试着观察畅销书作家以笔名发表作品会怎么样。首部“侦探柯莫蓝·史崔克”系列惊险小说《布谷鸟的呼唤》2013年出版，署名为罗伯特·加尔布雷斯（据说此人为“前皇家军队警察便衣侦查员”），备受好评。《星期日泰晤士报》花了整整3个月才证实罗琳是此书的作者。

Theres always a bit more. Though Rowling has concluded the series， she hasnt left the characters alone. As well as the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the 18，000 words of additional content on the original Pottermore website， Rowling produced real-life versions of in-universe books： Quidditch Through the Ages， Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

總会有更多。虽然罗琳已经完结了《哈利·波特》系列，但她并未放下个中人物。除了剧本《哈利·波特与被诅咒的孩子》和原创Pottermore网站上的1.8万字补充内容外，罗琳还将《哈利·波特》魔法宇宙中的书带进了现实，出版了《神奇的魁地奇球》《神奇动物在哪里》以及《诗翁彼豆故事集》。

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）