Ernest Hemingway’s Powerful Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald欧内斯特·海明威致F. 斯科特·菲茨杰拉德的一封有力信件

【导读】本文选自《欧内斯特·海明威精选书信1917—1961》。在1934年出版新书《夜色温柔》（Tender is the Night）后，F. 斯科特·菲茨杰拉德向他的朋友欧内斯特·海明威征求其对这本书的真实看法，海明威给予了回应。在这封回信中，海明威表达了其对友谊的珍视，对菲茨杰拉德才华的认可，以及对他未来的期许。这封回信也再现了海明威对作家们颇具价值的写作建议，例如注重人物塑造的真实性，重视倾听与观察等等。这封信件不仅体现了海明威对菲茨杰拉德作品的深刻批评与建设性建议，还展现了他对文学创作原则的坚持、对个人生活的关切以及对友谊与未来的美好期待。这封信件不仅是两位文学巨匠之间友谊的见证，也是文学创作理论与实践相结合的宝贵财富。

Key West

基韦斯特

28 May 1934

1934年5月28日

Dear Scott：

亲爱的斯科特：

I liked it and I didn’t like it. It started off with that marvelous description of Sara and Gerald1 （goddamn it Dos2 took it with him so I can’t refer to it. So if I make any mistakes—）. Then you started fooling with them， making them come from things they didn’t come from， changing them into other people and you can’t do that， Scott. If you take real people and write about them you cannot give them other parents than they have （they are made by their parents and what happens to them） you cannot make them do anything they would not do. You can take you or me or Zelda3 or Pauline4 or Hadley5 or Sara or Gerald but you have to keep them the same and you can only make them do what they would do. You can’t make one be another. Invention is the finest thing but you cannot invent anything that would not actually happen.

这本小说让我又爱又恨。你在开头对萨拉和杰拉尔德的描写真是精彩绝伦（该死的，多斯把书拿走了，让我无法查阅。所以要是我哪里搞错了——）。然后你就开始戏弄他们了，乱改他们的出身，将他们写成其他人，这可不行啊，斯科特。如果你以真实人物为原型进行创作，你就不能为他们设定不同于现实的父母（人物可是由他们的父母及自身经历塑造的），也不能编排他们做出他们根本不会做的事。你可以以你、我、泽尔达、保利娜、哈德利、萨拉或杰拉尔德为原型，但必须保持人物的本色，只能让他们做符合他们性格的事。你不能将一个人写成另一个人。创作是极好的，但你不能创作出完全脱离实际的东西。

That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best—make it all up—but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

我们状态好的时候就该如此——编写故事——但要编得真实，接下来故事才能发展得顺理成章。

Goddamn it you took liberties with peoples’ pasts and futures that produced not people but damned marvellously faked case histories. You， who can write better than anybody can， who are so lousy with talent that you have to—the hell with it. Scott for gods sake write and write truly no matter who or what it hurts but do not make these silly compromises. You could write a fine book about Gerald and Sara for instance if you knew enough about them and they would not have any feeling， except passing， if it were true.

该死，你竟然随意地篡改人物的过去和未来，这样创作出的可不是活生生的人物，而是一些可恶的、精彩绝伦的伪造病历。你呀，你比任何人写得都好，滥用才华到不得不——算了，不说了。斯科特，看在上帝的份上，你就写吧，实实在在地写，无论会伤害到什么人或是物，都不要这样稀里糊涂地勉强凑合。如果你足够了解杰拉尔德和萨拉，就可以写一本关于他们的好书，而且，如果写得真实，他们除了一时的不快，不会有其他想法。

There were wonderful places and nobody else nor none of the boys can write a good one half as good reading as one that doesn’t come out by you， but you cheated too damned much in this one. And you don’t need to.

这部作品中有许多精彩之处，其他人，包括那些同行，都写不出哪怕一半这样引人入胜的段落。不过在这本书里，你虚构得过头了，其实你没必要这么写。

In the first place I’ve always claimed that you can’t think. All right， we’ll admit you can think. But say you couldn’t think; then you ought to write， invent， out of what you know and keep the people’s antecedants straight. Second place， a long time ago you stopped listening except to the answers to your own questions. You had good stuff in too that it didn’t need. That’s what dries a writer up （we all dry up. That’s no insult to you in person） not listening. That is where it all comes from. Seeing， listening. You see well enough. But you stop listening.

首先，我一直都说你不会思考。好吧，我们就姑且承认你能思考。那就说你像是不会思考吧。会思考的话，你就应该按照你知道的去写、去创作，并把人物的身世和过往梳理清楚。其次，很久以前你就不再倾听了，就光听你自己问题的答案。书里有些素材很好，但同样是不必要的。这就是让作家灵感枯竭的原因（我们都会这样，我可不是针对你）——倾听的缺失。这正是一切问题的根源所在。观察与倾听，二者缺一不可。你观察得不错，可就是不再倾听了。

It’s a lot better than I say. But it’s not as good as you can do.

这本书比我说的要好得多，但你还可以写得更好。

You can study Clausewitz6 in the field and economics and psychology and nothing else will do you any bloody good once you are writing. We are like lousy damned acrobats but we make some mighty fine jumps， bo， and they have all these other acrobats that won’t jump.

在创作时，你可以研究克劳塞维茨的军事理论，学习经济学和心理学，其他的知识对你而言并无半点助益。伙计，我们就像蹩脚的杂耍演员，却也能做出惊人的跳跃动作，而其他的杂耍演员却做不到。

For Christ sake write and don’t worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what. I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket. You feel you have to publish crap to make money to live and let live. All write but if you write enough and as well as you can there will be the same amount of masterpiece material （as we say at Yale）. You can’t think well enough to sit down and write a deliberate masterpiece and if you could get rid of Seldes and those guys that nearly ruined you and turn them out as well as you can and let the spectators yell when it is good and hoot when it is not you would be all right.

看在上帝的份上，只管写吧，别管同行们会如何评价，也别担心它能否成为杰作之类的。我要写九十一页垃圾，才能写出一页好文章呢。我总想着把那些垃圾丢进废纸篓，但又觉得必须发表些垃圾作品来赚钱，大家相互宽容，都有活路。大家都在写，但你写得足够多、写得尽量好了，就会有同样多的杰作原材料（正如我们在耶鲁所说的那样）。你不可能等到思考得足够透彻了，才坐下来写出一部天选杰作。如果你能离塞尔迪斯和那些差点毁了你的人远点，尽你所能施展你的才华，让读者在你写得精彩的时候欢呼，在你写得糟糕的时候大骂，那你就做得很不错了。

Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.