不小心听了短篇小说“地狱-天堂”(Hell-Heaven)，让我对作者

Jhumpa Lahiri发生了兴趣。由此知道她出版过一本以意大利语写的短篇小说集

In other words (我翻译成《随想》)。

The crossing是小说集的第一篇。

I want to cross a small lake. It really is small, and yet the other shore seems too far away, beyond my abilities. I’m aware that the lake is very deep in the middle, and even though I know how to swim I’m afraid of being alone in the water, without any support.

译文：

我想横渡一个小湖。那湖真的挺小的，但是我感觉对岸非常遥远，非我力所能及。我知道湖的中间挺深。尽管我会游泳，我害怕一个人游离岸边。

中文译者感想：

初读这一段，感觉文笔非常“幼稚”。我无法知道翻译者是否“尽心尽力”地反应出作者“用心在写”。也许，这是这本书吸引我的地方。（我一口气读完200多页。）而且，一边读，一边想着应该把它翻成中文，和朋友们分享。

在我学会踩水之前，小小的游泳池深水那一边，意味着“会淹死人”。在我勉强能从一头游到另外一头后，我成为“两性人”：我会轻松地离开浅水池，慢慢地越游越紧张，因为我在游向“死亡区”。在到达“对岸”后，我马上变得胸有成竹，因为我知道等待着我的是能“脚踏实地”的浅水区。

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. Her debut, internationally-bestselling collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, The New Yorker Debut of the Year award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was translated into twenty-nine languages. Her first novel, The Namesake, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. Her second collection, Unaccustomed Earth, was a #1 New York Times bestseller; named a best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among others; and the recipient of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2012.

基于机器翻译：Jhumpa Lahiri 生于英国伦敦，在美国罗德岛州长大。她的处女作、国际畅销书集《疾病的解释》（Interpreter of Maladies）获得普利策小说奖（the Pulitzer Prize for fiction）、笔会/海明威奖（the PEN/Hemingway Award）、《纽约客》年度新人奖（Debut of the Year award）、美国艺术与文学学院艾迪生·梅特卡夫奖，以及提名《洛杉矶时报》图书奖。它被翻译成二十九种语言。她的第一部小说《同名》是《纽约时报》著名图书、《洛杉矶时报》图书奖决赛入围者，并被《今日美国》和《娱乐周刊》等出版物选为年度最佳图书之一。她的第二个系列《不习惯的地球》（Unaccustomed Earth）是《纽约时报》畅销书第一名；被《纽约时报》书评、《华盛顿邮报》和《洛杉矶时报》等评为年度最佳图书；和弗兰克奥康纳国际短篇小说奖的获得者。 Lahiri 于 2002 年获得古根海姆奖学金，并于 2012 年入选美国艺术与文学学院。

“Gorgeous . . . the most unusual of self-portraits. It is fitting that Italy, a nation with no unifying language for centuries, should inspire a writer of Jhumpa Lahiri’s stature to organize her reflections around the concept of exile. Why abandon the English language that made her famous, and move with her family to Rome? Because she was in love . . . Lahiri’s exuberant tone may surprise readers used to the understatement and quiet grace of her acclaimed novels and short stories.  In Other Words presents the same author with a different voice—a new expressive vein. The [book’s] bilingual format is appropriate: All the personal experiences are connected to linguistic ones, all the linguistic issues refracted through the author’s life.  In Other Words ends at a crossroads, with Lahiri set to leave Rome and return to America, not knowing what will come of her affair with Italian. Dante’s words [about exile] seem relevant when speaking about In Other Words, a book that is everywhere about displacement and the discoveries it can lead to. Lahiri reached out to Italian when English stopped offering her the solitude she craved as a writer; now that she has left Italy we must wait to see where the arrow of exile points her.” —Joseph Luzzi, The New York Times Book Review

基于机器翻译：“华丽的 ...最不寻常的自画像。意大利，

一个几个世纪以来没有统一语言的国家，应该激励一位

具有 Jhumpa Lahiri 地位的作家围绕流放的概念组织她的思考，

这是合适的。为什么要放弃让她出名的英语，

和家人一起搬到罗马？因为她恋爱了 ... Lahiri充满活力的语气

可能会让习惯了她广受好评的小说和短篇小说的读者感到惊讶，

因为她的文笔不再是那么轻描淡写和安静优雅。换句话说，

作者以不同的声音呈现自己——借用一种新的表达方式。

 [书的]双语形式[注：意大利语原作、由别人翻译成为英语]

是恰当的：所有的个人经历都与语言相关，所有的语言问题

都通过作者的生活折射出来。《In Other Words》完成时，

作者又站在一个十字路口：Lahiri准备离开罗马返回美国，

她不知道她与意大利语的恋情会有什么变化。但丁（Dante ）

[关于流放]的话似乎与《In Other Words》有关，因为这本书到处

都是关于流离失所及其可能导致的发现和感叹。当英语不能

再为她提供她作为作家所渴望的孤独时，Lahiri寄希望于

意大利语。现在她已经离开了意大利，我们必须等着看流放之箭

把她指向何方。” ——约瑟夫·卢齐，《纽约时报》书评专栏