[Cay Marchal]沒有女人的世界

一個德國人用中文敘述他的日本經驗,是一篇很久沒有在人間副刊上看過的好文。好像在錢都看到三上博史大喊「莫名其妙」,也像海景酒店裡的外國佬記述他所親眼目睹的日本式殺人。在我高中二年級的時候,曾有一個大姊頭(一個我一直逃避、卻又很想好好面對的女人)這麼說:「你覺不覺得日本小說的翻譯本文字都很生澀堅硬,可是卻因此變得好看異常,如果換成用日文去理解,搞不好其實根本沒那麼好看…」當時的我不是很明白這其中的微妙在哪裡,但是我知道安部公房在小說裡描述「…玻璃桌墊邊緣的死亡般的藍色…」的確讓我發抖好一陣子。

這些用異國語言發聲的異鄉人有時候就像催眠那樣,把我們帶到旅行也無法到達的世界邊緣。像是沒有女人的大阪,只能用短刀的殺人。總是活在想像的現代台灣,虛構的第三世界。讓我覺得,當個觀光客永遠不夠。

15 thoughts on “[Cay Marchal]沒有女人的世界

  1. ” 剎那間,我以為我的確會看到他的臉突然有某種內在暴力餘震的痕跡(是閃電似的地震,比地上的地震更加美麗、更有肉體性)。 ”

    因為不是本國人

    所以跟文字有距離

    才能寫出這種句子吧~:D

    很多時候或許就是因為我們離的太近

    而看不出自己時常看到的那一面~:)

  2. 博士啊,那篇我之前讀完感動到發抖...我忙完再來聊...

    因為革新的關係,我這陣子又重拾日本戰國史,然後我發現
    我之所以對三國史那樣不熟與無感,很可能因為對於Koei
    的三國系列無好感造成的...可是另一方面,那種異國性
    陌生的魅力(基於情感而不是智識)也有很大的關係...

    真的要去忙了XD

  3. 半藏,
    他在描寫異國的事情時,同時也用著帶著異國氣味的語言,這種經過雜交的不純物真的是好有魅力啊~結尾也實在…棒透了…

    Lesson,
    我想很多人不同意,不過我覺得這是這個導演的巔峰之作,後來的電幻、花與愛莉絲等,雖然也都很精緻,可是沒有這個早期作品來的生猛有勁。好看!

    waylim,
    真高興也有人喜歡這篇文章,嗚嗚,好感動~只是我翻來找去,只知道他前年在聯合報寫過專欄。其他就一無所知了…

  4. 博士你那個連結人間轉po的時候好像出點小錯,誤植了一小段別篇文章...我有點文字潔癖啦XD

    其實這篇有村上的味道,但因為是短篇所以那種透明感又更強烈,無累贅,可是如果只是寫一些天真
    的東西是根本無法收納我們這些人內心隱藏的怨念,這是髒亂有機的現實世界,我們做愛並被別人做,而不是純情來純情去...

    《國境之南、太陽之西》出軌的阿始厚著臉皮對妻子說:「從明天開始吧!我想我們可以從頭開始。妳……覺得呢? 」妻子輕輕地微笑回答:「我想這樣很好。」

    有時刻意想去療癒什麼反而會讓人感到假掰(這大概可以解釋為什麼蔡康永在《桃色蛋白質》電王文華的時候會讓我有爽感),以旁觀者姿態說出的淡薄語氣其實比想像中更能撫慰人心

    媽的我又想念起以前認識的一個無羞恥感的女人了...

    連結裡有沙未思...沒想到台灣也有這樣認真的傢伙(樂天那邊倒是很多),感動推XD

  5. waylim,
    每次談到村上傑作時,《國境之南、太陽之西》常常被忽略,很多都比較喜歡看起來比較炫的冷酷異境之類的大部頭。可是我常覺得大多數的男人只要摸摸自己的LP,就應該可以同意這是一部總結村上初戀情節的最終佳作,在這之後,他好像幾乎就沒在寫這類主題了。可見這是一部完美安慰了村上心靈的補完作品(都是我自己妄加猜測的XD)

    初戀無限美啊…

    沙未思是啥?(哇這問題會不會有笨到?)

    德老專欄啊,好像是2003年間在聯合上刊載的。都是些小品。連結在此。只有些斷簡殘篇而已。

  6. 太猛了… 讓我學十年德文,未必能用德文寫出這麼流暢的東西。

    博士所說的那個大姊頭… 應該讓她到咱們翻譯研究所來演講;她把「翻譯腔」講成一種可以創造藝術成就 (甚至超越原作) 的東西,當令本所莘莘學子信心大增 orz

  7. 枕頭阿亮,

    其實他的文章還是有些不流暢、甚至可以說是「誤用」的地方。不過正因為這種誤用才美的XD

    原來你念翻譯所啊,兩年前我也想過這個可能性,不過後來覺得自己也許擅長考試,但不適合繼續唸書,所以就放棄了XD

  8. ”其實他的文章還是有些不流暢”

    是啊,博士提供的那些連結又都回到蘋果日報專欄的水準了,不過採樣太少,
    不曉得是他質素的極限還是文字使用的極限...

  9. hmmm…sorry….I don’t quite get you. What book do you mean? I haven’t read any book of Cay Marchal. I have only read several articles of his column on China Times. He wrote them in Chinese, not translated from German.
    Somehow, I think this message is for Cay Marchal himself. (not me, obviously)
    And I know you, Dan Bloom. You are a famous guy 🙂

  10. Hello,
    Email me and say hello!
    here is an article I wrote about Mr Marchal, after finding him through your website. thanks so much. — DAN BLOOM in CHIAYI CITY

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2005/12/18/2003284994

    Writing in Chinese is a learning curve for German expatriate

    Cay Marchal visited Taipei on a stopover and was inspired enough to return and become an author of Chinese books

    By Dan Bloom

    A Guide to My Foreign Soul in Taiwan
    By Cay Marchal
    Aquarius Books
    NT$280

    Cay Marchal was on his way from Germany to Japan in 2001 when his plane touched down in Taipei for a stopover, but he ended up staying in the city for two days because Typhoon Nara was keeping planes grounded.

    That was his initial taste of Taiwan, and later, after a year working as a German teacher in Japan, Marchal decided he wanted to come here to live and work on a Ph.D. dissertation. He was accepted as a visiting scholar at Academia Sinica, in Nankang, and the 31-year-old German national has been here ever since.

    Marchal, who writes under a Chinese pen name, has also done something few Westerners here have done. In September, he published a book of essays that he wrote in Chinese, and the book was released by a major publisher in Taipei, with several Chinese-language newspapers taking note of the unusual way the book found its way to publication in Taiwan.

    Titled A Guide to My Foreign Soul in Taiwan, Marchal’s book was published by Aquarius Books in Taipei. The first printing was 3,000 copies and a second printing has been released as well. In addition, Marchal has appeared on a few TV and radio shows and sat for several newspaper interviews, to promote the book.

    “The book happened like this,” Marchal, a native of Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany, said in a recent e-mail. “Two years ago, I submitted some freelance essays to [a Chinese-language newspaper] and the editors there later asked me to write a weekly column. I did this for about a year-and-a-half, and I wrote all the columns in Chinese by myself. After writing about 60 columns, I thought it might be interesting to try to collect them into a book, for publication here, and I was lucky enough to find a publisher at Aquarius Books.”

    When asked how, as a native German-speaker he learned to write in Chinese, Marchal explained, “I first started studying Chinese in 1994 in Germany, taking classes for about two years, and then studying on my own. Later, I went to Beijing for about 10 months in 1996 and 1997.”

    Marchal finished his masters degree in 2000, writing a paper about The Book of Changes, and in 1999 studied French literature, Chinese and Arabic philosophy at the Ecole Normale.

    “I had always thought about trying to write in Chinese, the idea was always in the back of my mind. So in the 1990s, I began trying to write some short sketches, diary entries, letters, things like that, even some classical Chinese verses. But I was always, quite frankly, scared about this attempt to write in Chinese. It’s a daunting challenge.”

    “In the winter of 2001, I met an editor of a Chinese-language literary magazine in Osaka, while I was working in Japan, and during our conversations and meetings, I began to feel that maybe, yes, someday it might be possible to actually write in Chinese. Later, when I came to Taiwan, I began to see my way even more clearly.”

    “In my book, I have written also about the problem of trying to write in Chinese,” Marchal said. “There is an American writer in Japan named Ian Hideo Levy, and he is one of the few non-Japanese writers to write novels in Japanese directly by his own hand, without translations, so I guess he has gone through similar experiences as I have in trying to write in Chinese.”

    “There is also a Persian woman named Fatima, or Yen-ying in Chinese, her name is very famous in Chinese literature, because the writer Eileen Chang wrote about her in some essays: how they lived together as students in Hong Kong during World War II in the 1940s, how they went out to the cafes and to cinema, how was their life in these small dormitories students used to live in at that time,” Marchal said.

    “In my book, I write a lot about Taiwan and Asia. But I approached everything from a subjective [point of view], writing about and thinking about things that happened to me,” Marchal said.

    “In my book, readers will find some stories about my days in Taipei, a mixture of Graham Greene-like ironical impromptu [writing] and classical Chinese prose,” Marchal said.

    “For example, one story in the book focuses on a poster of Che Guevara that I saw in a bar here one day, and another chapter is about those coffee-table books with wedding photos that one can find near the Zhongshan MRT station, and another story is about how Vincent van Gogh studied calligraphy.”

    “Actually, my book is not about Taiwan so much as about how a European, or a cosmopolitan person, might see the world here in Taiwan,” Marchal said.

    “You know, while I am here, it’s never possible to forget the distance between Taiwan and Europe and the loneliness of living in a foreign country without being able to see, on a regular basis, all the people I know back in Europe — my family, my friends, my mentors. For me, living in Taiwan at this period in my life, I can say that it feels a bit like being Yen-ying in Hong Kong in the 1940s, but without somebody like Eileen Chang helping me out.”
    This story has been viewed 897 times.

  11. Publishing Futures: circa May 2006

    What’s new in the English-speaking-written book world? Here’s a brief rundown of new books in
    the book pipeline, not published yet but being written as we chat, and as
    this is websposted circa April – May 2006:

    Jennifer Cody Epstein is writing a book titled IRON ORCHID, and it’s
    going to be an historical novel based on the true story of Pan
    Yuliang, a celebrated and controversial female Chinese painter born
    into poverty at the turn of the century, who escaped life in a brothel
    to attend the Shanghai Academy of Art in 1917 and went on to have a
    flourishing career in Paris.

    Sophie Judah is busy writing JWALANAGAR STORIES, depicting Jewish
    shtetl life in, of all places, yes, a small Indian village among Benay
    Israel Jews.

    Remember that wacky TV game show producer Chuck Barris? Well, the GONG
    SHOW guy is writing a satire titledTHE BIG QUESTION, set in the
    near-future, when a producer discovers the formula for the ultimate
    reality/game show, where contestants compete for millions of dollars
    — and face on-camera execution if they lose. Ouch!

    Now here’s a good one to keep track of: Pushcart Prize-winning author
    Lance Olsen is currently writing a book titled ANXIOUS DREAMS, and
    guess what? It’s a retelling of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” that is
    to say, Gregor’s plight as seen through the eyes of those around him –
    hysterical mother, stern father, unfaithful sister, pragmatic
    household cook – as well as through the eyes of a young woman in
    contemporary London, reading Kafka’s novella for the first time. Might
    make a fabulous movie, too, someday in the future. Very Kafkesque.

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu is busy writing a book, too. This is titled
    GOD’S DREAM, and he’s writing it with Douglas Carlton Abrams, and it’s
    their first co-authored children’s book. The story is about all the
    loving things we can do every day to make a difference. Sweet. Nice.
    Might even touch some readers here and there.

    Ever wonder why married men cheat on their wives? Well, family
    counselor and Jewish rabbi M. Gary Neuman is toiling away on a new
    book to be titled CONFESSIONS OF CHEATING HUSBANDS, and it’s based on
    research about why men cheat and what wives can do to keep their
    spouses from straying. Fat chance. Men are men. Women are from Venus.
    Remember?

    Duke professor of African-American studies and urban anthropology John
    L. Jackson, Jr. is writing an important book now titled RACIAL
    PARANOIA: The Paradox at the Heart of Black and White, and it’s a look
    at the historical and contemporary manifestations of racial paranoia
    in USA society, and what this phenomena means for the way Americans
    understand race and racial differences.

    Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner is writing a book, too. It’s going
    to be titled TAKE THE LEAD, LADY!, and it’s being written in
    collaboration with Gloria Feldt (an author and former president of
    Planned Parenthood Federation of America). It will be about Turner’s
    path to stardom and reveal some of her private struggles and triumphs
    for the first time, as well as some details on how she persevered in
    the face of health and family issues.

    Patricia Pearson is working on a scary book! It’s called SCREAMING
    LIKE A GIRL: A History of Being Afraid, and it will be about the many
    dangers facing the modern world (bird flu, climate change, global
    terrorism) and what we can do about them (besides just panic!) and she
    will discuss the psychology, biology, and cultural background behind
    our fears. Oi!

    Richard Wiseman is writing, as we speak, a book titled QUIRKOLOGY:
    The Curious Science of Everyday Lives. I have no idea what it is
    about.

    But Saul Frampton’s WHEN I AM PLAYING WITH MY CAT, HOW DO I KNOW THAT
    SHE IS NOT PLAYING WITH ME? sounds like a great book coming down the
    publishing pipeline soon. It starts off with the moment when French
    writer Michel de Montaigne suffered the deaths of five of his six
    children – and of his brother, and of his best friend – in quick
    succession, and withdrew to the tower of his chateau outside Bordeaux
    to write and prepare himself for his own death. Sad, but powerful
    stuff.

    Meanwhile Harvard psychiatrist George Vaillant is writing FAITH, HOPE
    AND JOY: The Neurobiology of Positive Emotions, showing how we are
    hardwired to positive emotions in spite of what we might think of as
    evidence to the contrary.

    First he wrote FINDING MEANING IN THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE and now
    Jungian Analyst James Hollis is writing WHY GOOD PEOPLE DO BAD
    THINGS, which explores the dark side in each of us. You will want to
    read this book!

    (via research at
    Publishers Lunch)

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