讀哲學書的搖滾巨星斯普林斯汀

The musician and author of the new picture book “Outlaw Pete” likes reading about cosmology: “I find men and women struggling to answer the deepest questions we can ask freeing.”

音樂家、最新圖文書《不法之徒皮特》(Outlaw Pete)的作者喜歡讀宇宙學方面的書籍：“我發現男人和女人都在努力回答我們所能自由問出的最爲深刻的問題。”

What books are Currently on your night stand?

現在你的牀頭櫃上放着什麼書？

I just finished “Moby-Dick,” which scared me off for a long time due to the hype of its difficulty. I found it to be a beautiful boy’s adventure story and not that difficult to read. Warning: You will learn more about whales than you have ever wished to know. On the other hand, I never wanted it to end. Also, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel García Márquez. It simply touched on so many aspects of human love.

我剛讀完《白鯨》(Moby-Dick)，因爲人們總說它很難讀，所以我一直都不敢碰它。結果我發現它是個美麗的男孩冒險故事，並不那麼難讀。警告：讀了這本書你會了解到很多關於鯨魚的事，比你願意知道的還多。另一方面，我簡直不願意看到它結束。另外還有加夫列爾·加西亞·馬爾庫斯(Gabriel García Márquez)的《霍亂時期的愛情》(Love in the Time of Cholera)。它涉及了人類愛情的多種方面。

Who is your favorite novelist of all time, and your favorite novelist writing today?

所有時代中你最喜歡的小說家是誰，如今仍在寫作的小說家呢？

I like the Russians, the Chekhov short stories, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. I never read any of them until the past four years, and found them to be thoroughly psychologically modern. Personal favorites: “The Brothers Karamazov” and, of course, “Anna Karenina.”

我喜歡俄國小說家，契訶夫(Chekhov)的短篇小說，還有托爾斯泰(Tolstoy)和陀思妥耶夫斯基(Dostoyevsky)。我四年前纔開始讀他們的作品，發現他們在心理層面上完全是現代的。我個人最喜歡《卡拉馬佐夫兄弟》(The Brothers Karamazov)，當然還有《安娜·卡列尼娜》(Anna Karenina)。

Current favorites: Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and Richard Ford. It’s hard to beat “American Pastoral,” “I Married a Communist” and “Sabbath’s Theater.” Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” remains a watermark in my reading. It’s the combination of Faulkner and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns that gives the book its spark for me. I love the way Richard Ford writes about New Jersey. “The Sportswriter,” “Independence Day” and “The Lay of the Land” are all set on my stomping grounds and, besides being poignant and hilarious, nail the Jersey Shore perfectly.

我喜歡的當代作家有：菲利普·羅斯(Philip Roth)、科馬克·麥卡錫(Cormac McCarthy)和理查德·福特(Richard Ford)。《美國牧歌》(American Pastoral)、《我嫁給了共產黨人》(I Married a Communist)和《安息日劇院》(Sabbath’s Theater)很難超越。科馬克·麥卡錫的《血色子午線》(Blood Meridian)是我閱讀的分水嶺。它結合了福克納(Faulkner)與瑟吉歐·萊昂(Sergio Leone)的意大利式西部片風格，所以特別吸引我。我喜歡理查德·福特寫的新澤西。《體育記者》(The Sportswriter)、《獨立日》，以及《地勢》(The Lay of the Land)都給我留下了美好的記憶，它們又深刻又歡快，還完美地寫出了澤西海灘。

Who are your favorite New Jersey writers?

你最喜歡的新澤西作家是誰？

Roth for his bawdy, rowdy humor, excellence and longevity. Ford, as I mentioned above; and of course Walt Whitman is pretty good. The summer always makes me want to pick up “Leaves of Grass” for a while and sit on the front porch. I come away happier.

我喜歡羅斯放蕩粗魯的幽默，非常精彩，經久不衰。還有剛纔說的福特。當然沃爾特·惠特曼(Walt Whitman)也很棒。一到夏天，我總是想拿起《草葉集》(Leaves of Grass)在門廊坐一會兒，離開的時候就更快樂了一些。

What book, if any, most influenced your decision to become a songwriter and musician or contributed to your artistic development?

有沒有什麼書影響你，讓你決定成爲歌曲創作者和音樂人，或者對你的藝術發展有幫助？

I skipped most of college, becoming a road musician, so I didn’t begin reading seriously until 28 or 29. Then it was Flannery O’Connor; James M. Cain; John Cheever; Sherwood Anderson; and Jim Thompson, the great noir writer. These authors contributed greatly to the turn my music took around 1978-82. They brought out a sense of geography and the dark strain in my writing, broadened my horizons about what might be accomplished with a pop song and are still the cornerstone literally for what I try to accomplish today.

我翹掉了大學的大部分課程，當上了巡演音樂人，所以直到二十八九歲纔開始認真地閱讀。然後就讀到了弗蘭納裏·奧康納(Flannery O’Connor)、詹姆斯·M·凱恩(James M. Cain)、約翰·契弗(John Cheever)、舍伍德·安德森(Sherwood Anderson)，以及偉大的黑色小說作家吉姆·湯普森(Jim Thompson)。這些作家對我在1978-82年間的音樂有很大影響。他們把一絲地理概念和黑暗之感帶入我的創作，拓寬了我對流行歌曲成就的視野，直到今天仍然是我對於自己希望取得的成就的基準。

Who are your favorite musician-writers? Your favorite memoir by a musician?

你最喜歡的詞曲創作者是誰，你最喜歡哪個音樂人的回憶錄？

I’m not familiar with the musician/novelist, but as far as memoirs, it’s hard to beat Keith Richards’s love of music that shines through in “Life.” I also found Eric Clapton’s autobiography to be surprisingly revealing and very moving. Of course I loved Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles.” It made me proud to be a musician.

我不熟悉寫小說的音樂人，但是說到回憶錄，基思·理查茲(Keit Richards)在《滾吧，生活》(Life)中對音樂的熱愛難以超越。我還覺得埃裏克·克萊普頓(Eric Clapton)的自傳有驚人的啓示意義，而且非常感人。當然我也喜歡鮑勃·迪倫(Bob Dylan)的《編年史》(Chronicles)，它令我以身爲音樂人而自豪。

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

在你的書架上人們會驚奇地找到什麼書？

I read a lot on cosmology and a reasonable amount of philosophy. I also like to read about baseball, having just finished Mariano Rivera’s autobiography. For cosmology, “Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos,” by Dennis Overbye, was one of my first favorites. I find men and women struggling to answer the deepest questions we can ask freeing. It also puts in scale whatever my small problems of the day might be. The book that turned me on to philosophy was Bertrand Russell’s “The History of Western Philosophy.” I just finished “Examined Lives,” by Jim Miller, and “How to Live; Or, A Life of Montaigne,” by Sarah Bakewell.

我讀過很多宇宙學的書，以及很多哲學方面的書。我還喜歡讀棒球方面的書，剛剛讀完馬裏安諾·李維拉(Mariano Rivera)的自傳。在宇宙學方面，丹尼斯·奧伊爾拜(Dennis Oyerby)的《宇宙的孤獨之心》(Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos)是我最早喜歡上的書之一。我發現男人和女人們都在努力回答我們所能自由提出的最深刻的問題。它也適當解答了我當時的小問題。這本書讓我對哲學感興趣，讀了伯特蘭德·羅素(Bertrand Russell)的《西方哲學史》(The History of Wester Philosophy)。我剛讀完吉姆·米勒(Jim Miller)的《經審視的生活》(Examined Lives)以及莎拉·貝克威爾(Sarah Bakewell)的《如何生活；或蒙田的一生》(How to Live; Or, A Life of Montaigne)。

What are the best books about music you’ve read?

你讀過的關於音樂的最好的書是什麼？

At the top of my list remains Greil Marcus’s “Mystery Train,” followed closely by Peter Guralnick’s “Last Train to Memphis.” I’d include Dylan’s “Chronicles” and a recent book by Daniel Lanois, “Soul Mining,” that gives insights into the making of music I found unique from any other book out there. “Sonata for Jukebox,” by Geoffrey O’Brien, has some lovely chapters in it, particularly its opening discussions of Burt Bacharach’s career.

格雷爾·馬庫斯(Greil Marcus)的《神祕列車》(Mystery Train)始終保持在名單前列，緊接着是彼得·格拉尼克(Peter Guralnick)的《開往孟菲斯的最後一班火車》(Last Train to Memphis)。我還會把迪倫的《編年史》也列進來，還有丹尼·拉諾伊斯(Daniel Lanois)最近的書《開掘靈魂》(Soul Mining)，它對創作音樂提出了與其他書籍不同的見解。喬弗雷·奧布萊恩(Geoffrey O’Brien)的《點唱機奏鳴曲》有幾段非常好，特別是一開頭討論伯特·巴卡拉奇(Burt Bacharach)事業生涯的部分。

What’s the last book you read that made you laugh?

上一本讓你大笑的書是什麼？

Richard Ford’s “The Lay of the Land.”

理查德·福特的《地勢》。

The last book that made you cry?

上一本讓你哭泣的書呢？

Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”

科馬克·麥卡錫的《道路》(The Road)。

The last book that made you furious?

上一本讓你憤怒的書是什麼？

“Too Big to Fail,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin; Michael Lewis’s “The Big Short”; and “Someplace Like America,” by Dale Maharidge, with photographs by Michael S. Williamson. These are a few of the books I read on the recent financial collapse, and I contributed the foreword to “Someplace Like America.” The criminal outrage and recklessness described in these books led directly to my “Wrecking Ball” album.

安德魯·羅斯·索金(Andrew Ross Sorkin)的《大而不倒》(Too Big to Fail)，邁克爾·劉易斯(Michael Lewis)的《大空頭》(The Big Short)，還有戴爾·馬哈里奇(Dale Maharidge)的《美國這樣的地方》(Someplace Like America)，照片是邁克爾·S·威廉姆森(Michael S. Williamson)拍的。我讀了一些關於最近金融崩潰的書，還給《美國這樣的地方》寫了前言。這些書裏描述的駭人聽聞和大膽包天的犯罪行爲直接啓發了我的《毀壞的球》(Wrecking Ball)這張專輯。

What kind of reader were you as a child?

你小時候是個怎樣的讀者？

The first book I read was “The Wizard of Oz,” one lazy summer on my front porch on Randolph Street in New Jersey. I remember being thrilled by the book and the act of reading. Over time my most beloved character became the great and powerful Oz himself. He’s summed up by that great quote that’s in the film, but not in the book: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” He’s a carny phony, in way over his head, who manages to pull it off anyway. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” One of the great quotes in American literature.

我讀的第一本書是《OZ國奇遇記》，那是一個慵懶的夏天，我在新澤西蘭道爾夫街家中的門廊上讀了這本書。我記得自己爲這本書，也爲閱讀這個行爲感到激動不已。當時我最喜歡的角色是偉大而強大的Oz本人。電影裏那些精彩的話可以代表他，不過書裏沒有。“別在意那個帷幕後面的人。”他是個騙子藝人，用超越自身的方式取得成就。“別在意那個帷幕後面的人。”這是美國文學中最偉大的一句引語。

If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

如果說有一本書令你成爲今天的樣子，會是哪一本呢？

One would be difficult, but the short stories of Flannery O’Connor landed hard on me. You could feel within them the unknowability of God, the intangible mysteries of life that confounded her characters, and which I find by my side every day. They contained the dark Gothicness of my childhood and yet made me feel fortunate to sit at the center of this swirling black puzzle, stars reeling overhead, the earth barely beneath us.

要說出一本比較困難，但弗拉納裏·奧康納的確對我有很大影響。你可以在她的書中感受到上帝的不可知性，生命不可觸及的神祕令她筆下的人物感到困惑，我在自己每一天的生活中也能感受到。它們蘊含着我童年時感受到的黑暗哥特氣氛，仍然能讓我感覺置身黑暗的謎之漩渦中心，頭頂有星辰，腳下有大地，這是何等幸運。

You’re hosting a literary dinner with three writers. Who’s invited?

如果能和三位作家共進晚餐，你會邀請誰呢？

Philip Roth, Keith Richards, Tolstoy — and one extra, Bob Dylan. A lot of life experience there, and the babbling in different tongues would be wonderful.

菲利普·羅斯、基思·理查茲，托爾斯泰——我還要再請一位，就是鮑勃·迪倫。他們有很多生活經歷，大家七嘴八舌一定很精彩。

What books do you find yourself returning to again and again?

你有沒有什麼一讀再讀的書？

I don’t read many books twice, but Jim Thompson novels — due to their concise, dirty power, their relentless violence and purity — can always draw me in for a second time. Some of the most psychological crime writing ever done. I love James M. Cain and Elmore Leonard, but Jim Thompson holds a special place in my heart.

我一般不會重讀什麼書，但吉姆·湯普森的小說有着精確、骯髒的力量，無情的暴力和純潔，它總能在一秒鐘內吸引我。它們是最心理化的犯罪小說之一。我喜歡詹姆斯·M·凱恩和埃爾默·萊昂納德(Elmore Leonard)，但是吉姆·湯普森在我心裏有特殊的地位。

What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

有沒有什麼書你至今沒讀過，讓你感到尷尬？

I read “The Grapes of Wrath” very late, long after I’d written the song “Ghost of Tom Joad.” However, it ended up being everything I’d hoped it to be. I haven’t read “East of Eden” yet, and I’d like to.

我很晚纔讀到《憤怒的葡萄》(The Grapes of Warth)，是在我寫《湯姆·傑德的鬼魂》(Ghost fo Tom Joad)很久之後。不管怎樣，它完全符合我對它的希望。我還沒讀過《伊甸之東》(East of Eden)，但我很想讀。

What do you plan to read next?

你接下來打算讀什麼書？

I loved “The Adventures of Augie March,” by Saul Bellow, and someone just gave me “Henderson the Rain King,” so that may be up next.

我喜歡索爾·貝婁(Saul Bellow)的《奧吉·馬奇歷險記》(The Adventures of Augie March)，有人剛剛給了我一本《雨王亨德森》(Henderson the Rain King)，所以接下來我可能讀這本。