Esther Kinsky muses on a river in England 經濟學人.Jan18th2018

A river runs through itEsther Kinsky muses on a river in England

Readers of W.G. Sebald will see his influence in 「River」, Ms Kinsky』s third novel

W.G. Sebald 的讀者將會看到他在《河》的影響，這本書是Kinsky的第三本小說。

River. By Esther Kinsky. Translated by Iain Galbraith. Fitzcarraldo; 368 pages; ￡12.99. To be published in America this autumn by Transit Books.

《河》, Esther Kinsky著, lain Galbraith翻譯，Fitzcarraldo出版；368頁；12.99英鎊。將會在今年秋天由Transit Books在美國發布。

IN HER post-war childhood beside the Rhine, the narrator of Esther Kinsky』s third novel learns that 「every river is a border.」 Flowing water both divides and connects city and country, past and present. The 「liminal habitat」 that runs through 「River」 is the Lea: a tributary of the Thames thatsnakes its marshy, scruffy waythrough to north-east London.Tramping these post-industrial zones of makeshift enterprise, neglect and dilapidation, 「bashed and bedraggled by the times」, the solitary heroine summons other rivers from her atlas of memory.She revisits waterways not only in Germany but Canada, Croatia, Hungary, India and Israel.

在戰後的Rhine(萊茵河)度過童年，Esther Kinsky第三本小說中的主角認為「每條河流都是一個邊界」。古今往來，潺潺流水同時分隔、連接著城市和國家，貫穿在《河》里的「有限的居所」指的是Lea(利河):這條河是Thames（泰晤士河）的支流，蜿蜒地穿過泥濘、曲折的河道，流向倫敦東北部。流經這些臨時搭建的戰後工業區，（這些工廠）無人問津，破敗不堪，「隨時間流逝而興衰」，這個女主角將回憶版圖中的河流不斷重現。不僅是Germany（德國），她也重訪了Canada（加拿大），Hungary（匈牙利），India（印度），Israel（以色列）的河流。

Although rooted in the author』s own long residence in London, 「River」 is a novel, not a documentary expedition.Episodes of satire and fantasy, such as a stint broadcasting for a Kafka-like version of the BBC World Service, push it towards eerie German gothic fiction rather than the London-bred 「psychogeography」 of Iain Sinclair or Peter Ackroyd.Light on plot, rich in atmosphere, 「River」meanders like its liquid locales. It also traces a path into the past, which leads back to the narrator』s much-travelled father, and the 「post-war condition」 of his ravaged continent.

即使作者長期紮根於倫敦，《河》卻是小說，而不是探險紀實。書中充滿了諷刺和充滿想像的章節，比如有一段由BBC世界服務播出的Kafka版的播報，使得這本書比起lain Sinclair或 Peter Ackroyd倫敦式的「精神地理學」，更像怪誕的德國哥特小說。書中著重渲染氣氛，情節輕巧，《河》就像真實的河流一樣蜿蜒，追溯到過去，至其遊歷四方的父親，還有他走過的戰後破損的大陸。

The woman who hasfled her own hinterlandfor the ragged fringe of London discovers a dreamlike city ofmelancholy magic. Thisspiritual nomadmeets in this 「capital of chameleons」 Hasidic Jewish, Croatian, Kurdish and African neighbours.With these encounters, Ms Kinsky nods to the waves of settlement that have stitched a score of migrant narratives into east London』s tattered fabric.

這個女人從她家鄉逃出，去往倫敦破敗的邊境，她發現了一個有著憂鬱魔力的夢般城市。在「變色龍之都」，這個精神流浪者遇見了Hasidic Jewish, Croatian, Kurdish 和非洲的鄰居。因為這些邂逅，Kinsky對趨之若鶩的移民浪潮深信不疑，一起描述在破敗的倫敦篇章上記錄下的移民故事。

Yet theperpetual fluxof London, where 「Nothing began…and nothing ended」, cannotlay the past to rest.Regret and reliefmingle asshe packs again for another new life in eastern Europe.From her enigmatic photographs, or the half-buriedhistorical traumasthat haunt these 「landscapes of bereavement and implacable homelessness」, readers of the great W.G. Sebald—another self-exiled German—will suspect that his shade hasstrolled withMs Kinsky by the Lea.Iain Galbraith, who has also translated Sebald, gives 「River」, and all its 「lumber of cumbersome jetsam」, a special English poetry of grunge and grime.

然而這長久的「無始無終」的倫敦波動，使得人們不能放下過去。她在倫敦東部開啟一段新生活的時候，遺憾和慰藉交織著湧上心頭。從她拍攝的謎一般的照片，或是半隱著的歷史創傷，其「喪親之痛的場景和顛沛流離的生活」縈繞於心，讓W.G. Sebald的讀者——另一個自我放逐的德國人——懷疑Sebald的亡靈和Kinsky一起漫遊在Lea（利河）河畔。該書譯者lain Galbraith，也翻譯過Sebald的作品，把《河》中「漂泊的沉重往事」，編成了一首grunge和grime混搭的英國特別詩。

Edit by Lutra, Jan 20th 2018.

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