Han Kang's Nobel Prize Banquet Speech (2024)

As I was leaving my afternoon abacus lesson, the skies opened in a sudden downpour傾盆大雨.

當我結束下午的珠算課時，天空突然下起了傾盆大雨。

This rain was so fierce that two dozen children wound up huddled蜷縮 under the eaves of the building.

雨勢如此猛烈，二十多個孩子不得不擠在建築物的屋簷下避雨。

Across the street was a similar building, and under those eaves, I could see another small crowd.

街對面有一座類似的建築，在那屋簷下，我看到另一小群人。

If I could see another small crowd, it was almost like looking into a mirror.

既然我能看到另一群小人物，這簡直就像照鏡子一樣。

Watching that streaming rain, the damp soaking浸泡 my arms and cuffs, I suddenly understood.

看著那連綿不斷的雨水，感受著浸透我手臂和袖口的溼氣，我突然明白了。

All these people standing with me, shoulder to shoulder, and all those people across the way were living as an 'I' in their own right.

所有這些與我肩並肩站著的人，以及對面那些人都作為獨立的個體在各自生活著。

Each one was seeing this rain just as I was; this damp on my face, they felt it as well.

每個人都像我一樣看著這場雨；我臉上的溼氣，他們也感同身受。

It was a moment of wonder—this experience of so many first-person perspectives觀點.

這是一個充滿奇蹟的時刻——體驗如此眾多的第一人稱視角。

Looking back over the time I have spent reading and writing, I have relived重溫 this moment of wonder again and again, following the thread of language into the depth of another heart.

回顧我閱讀和寫作的時光，我一次次重溫這個奇蹟時刻，沿著語言的線索深入他人的內心。

An encounter with another interior內部, taking my most vital and most urgent questions, trusting them to that thread and sending them out to other selves.

與另一個內心世界相遇，帶著我最重要、最緊迫的問題，信任這些線索，並將它們傳遞給其他的自我。

Ever since I was a child, I have wanted to know the reason we are born, the reason suffering and love exist.

自童年起，我就想知道我們為何出生，痛苦與愛為何存在。

These questions have been asked by literature for thousands of years and continue to be asked today.

這些問題千百年來一直由文學提出，並延續至今。

What is the meaning of our brief stay in this world?

我們在世間短暫停留的意義是什麼？

How difficult is it for us to remain human, come what may, in the darkest night?

無論發生什麼，在最黑暗的夜晚，我們要保持人性是多麼困難啊！

There is language that asks what we are made of.

有一種語言在追問我們是由什麼構成的。

It insists on imagining into the first-person perspectives of the people and living beings that inhabit居住於 us, one another.

它堅持去想象棲息於我們體內、彼此之間的那些人和生靈的第一人稱視角。

Literature that deals in this language inevitably不可避免地 holds a kind of body heat.

處理這種語言的作品不可避免地帶有一種體溫。

Just as inevitably, the work of reading and writing literature stands in opposition to all acts that destroy life.

同樣不可避免的是，閱讀和創作文學的工作與一切毀滅生命的行為相對立。

I would like to share the meaning of this award, which is for literature, with you—standing here in opposition to violence—together.

我想與大家分享這一文學獎的意義——我們站在這裡，反對暴力，共同分享這份屬於文學的榮譽。

Thank you.

謝謝。