【Fredrik Backman: A Man Called Ove ｜一个叫欧维的男人决定去死】
2021-12-28
A Man Called Ove ｜一个叫欧维的男人决定去死
by Fredrik Backman
To love someone is like moving into a house
Death is a strange thing
You have to love me twice as much now
I’m asking you to drive a car
Her laugh
Other quotes
To love someone is like moving into a house
To love someone is like moving into a house, Sonja used to say. At first you fall in love in everything new, you wonder every morning that this is one’s own, as if they are afraid that someone will suddenly come tumbling through the door and say that there has been a serious mistake and that it simply was not meant to would live so fine. But as the years go by, the facade worn, the wood cracks here and there, and you start to love this house not so much for all the ways it is perfect in that for all the ways it is not. You become familiar with all its nooks and crannies. How to avoid that the key gets stuck in the lock if it is cold outside. Which floorboards have some give when you step on them, and exactly how to open the doors for them not to creak. That’s it, all the little secrets that make it your home.
爱上一个人就像搬进一座房子，一开始你会爱上新的一切，陶醉于拥有它的每一个清晨，就好像害怕会有人突然冲进房门指出这是个错误，你根本不该住得这么好。但是经年累月后，房子的外墙开始陈旧，木板七翘八裂，你会因为它本该完美的不完美而渐渐不再那么爱它。然后你渐渐谙熟它所有的破绽和瑕疵。天冷的时候如何避免钥匙卡在锁孔里；哪块地板踩上去的时候容易弯曲；怎么打开一扇橱门又不让它嘎吱作响。这些都是会赋予你归属感的小秘密。
Death is a strange thing
Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.
死亡是一桩奇怪的事情。人们终其一生都在假装它并不存在，尽管这是生命的最大动机之一。我们其中一些人有足够时间认识死亡，他们得以活得更努力、更执着、更壮烈。有些人却要等到它真正逼近时才意识到它的反义词有多美好。另一些人深受其困扰，在它宣布到来之前就早早地坐进等候室。我们害怕它，但我们更害怕它发生在身边的人身上。对死亡最大的恐惧，在于它与我们擦肩而过，留下我们独自一人。
You have to love me twice as much now
“You have to love me twice as much now,” she said.
And then Ove lied to her for the second - and last - time: he said that he would. Even though he knew it wasn’t possible for him to love her anymore than he already did.”
他们沉默地站了很久，彼此拥抱着。最后她抬起头面向他，严肃地注视着他的眼睛。 “现在你得加倍爱我。”她要求道。 于是欧维对她撒了谎，说他会的。尽管他心里很清楚，他已经不可能比现在更爱她了。
I’m asking you to drive a car
“Now you listen to me,” says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. “You’ve given birth to two children and quite soon will be squeezing out a third. You’ve come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You’ve learned a new language and got yourself an education and you’re holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I’ll be damned if I’ve seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now….I’m not asking for brain surgery. I’m asking you to drive a car. It’s got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well.” And then he utters seven words, which Parvaneh will always remember as the loveliest compliment he’ll ever give her. “Because you are not a complete twit.”
“现在你听我说，”欧维平静地说，同时他小心地关上了门。”你已经生了两个孩子，而且很快就会有第三个。你从一个遥远的地方来到这里，很可能是为了躲避战争和迫害以及其他各种乱七八糟的事情。你学会了一门新的语言，并接受了教育，你还在维持一个明显无能的家庭… 我不是要你去操刀脑部手术，我只是要你开一辆车。它有一个油门、一个刹车和一个离合器。历史上一些最大的笨蛋已经弄清了它的工作原理。你也会的。” 然后他说了一句话，帕尔瓦内将永远记住这句话，作为他对她最可爱的赞美。”因为你不是一个完全的傻瓜。”
Her laugh
She laughed and laughed and laughed until the vowels were rolling across the walls and floors, as if they meant to do away with the laws of time and space.
她笑啊笑啊，直到元音在墙壁和地板上滚动，仿佛要无视时间和空间的法则。
He had never heard anything quite as amazing as that voice. She talked as if she was continuously on the verge of breaking into giggles. And when she giggled she sounded the way Ove imagined champagne bubbles would have sounded if they were capable of laughter.
他从来没有听到过像这种声音一样令人惊讶的东西。她说话时，仿佛一直处于笑声的边缘。当她咯咯笑的时候，她的声音就像欧维想象中的香槟酒泡，如果它们能够笑的话，听起来会是这样。
And that laughter of hers, which, for the rest of his life, would make him feel as if someone was running around barefoot on the inside of his breast.
在他的余生中，她的笑声会让他觉得好像有人在他的胸膛内赤脚奔跑。
Other quotes
People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.
人们说欧维看到的是黑白分明的世界。但她是彩色的，是他所拥有的所有颜色。
You only need one ray of light to chase all the shadows away.
你只需要一束光就能赶走所有的阴影。
It is difficult to admit that one is wrong. Particularly when one has been wrong for a very long time.
承认自己的错误是很困难的。特别是当一个人已经错了很久的时候。
A job well done is a reward in its own right.
做得好的工作本身就是一种奖励。
Ove feels an instinctive skepticism towards all people taller than six feet; the blood can’t quite make it all the way up to the brain.
欧维对所有身高超过六英尺的人都有一种本能的怀疑；血液不能完全到达大脑。
All people at root are time optimists. We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like ‘if’.
所有的人在根源上都是时间乐观主义者。我们总是认为有足够的时间与其他人一起做事情，有时间对他们说些什么。然后就发生了一些事情，然后我们站在那里，紧紧抓住”如果”这样的字眼。
And time is a curious thing. Most of us only live for the time that lies right ahead of us. A few days, weeks, years. One of the most painful moments in a person’s life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead. And when time no longer lies ahead of one, other things have to be lived for. Memories, perhaps.
You miss the strangest things when you lose someone. Little things. Smiles. The way she turned over in her sleep. Even repainting a room for her.
The two men looked at each other for a moment. Then Sonja’s father nodded. And Ove nodded curtly back. And then they rose to their feet, objective and determined, in the way two men might behave if they had just agreed to go and kill a third man.
They never had much, but they always had enough.