获诺贝尔奖后的晚宴讲话
V.S. Naipaul’s Banquet Speech after His Award
维·苏·奈保尔
By V.S. Naipaul
国王、王后陛下，诸位殿下，尊敬的诺贝尔奖得主们，女士们、先生们：
Your majesties, your royal Highnesses, honoured laureates, ladies and gentlemen:
诺贝尔奖的获得者总会遇到这样的情况——招来媒体的广泛注意。数不胜数的采访，多得应接不暇，多得让我开始觉得自己已经丧失了自发思考的能力了。我渴望有人提问，而因为此刻将不会有任何提问，我想我应该开始我的两分钟演讲了——这演讲会是轻松活泼的，就如老牌的喜剧演员，笑话就发生在他去演播室的路上。
One of the things that happen to people who get the Nobel Prize, is that they also get a lot of media attention. Many interviews, too many, so many that I begin to feel now that I’ve lost the capacity for spontaneous thought. I need the questions and since there not going to be any questions now, I thought I would begin the two-minute speech which is meant to be light, like the old fashion comedian, the man you know to whom things happened on the way to the studio.
好，那就开始吧。在来斯德哥尔摩的路上发生了一件事：我的手表表带断了。于是，有好几个离奇的时刻，我发现自己凝视着躺在飞机地板上的手表。这并不是比喻，没有表带的手表就在这里。这是什么意思呢？其骇人的象征意义又是什么呢？结果是，整个隆重的诺贝尔周，我都没有戴手表。伟大的恺撒大帝登陆埃及时脸朝地直挺挺地跌倒在潮湿的海滩上——你可以想象得到他手下的官兵是怎样的惊惶失措——直至后来这个充满雄韬伟略的男子大声呼喊：“非洲，我把你弄到手了！”几个世纪以后，尤里安大帝在一天早上练兵时，盾牌的柳织部分掉了，只剩下把手或者说手柄拿在手上，当时所有人都觉得多么可怕啊，然而大帝最后高声呼喊：“我拥有的，我都抓住了！”
Well then. Something happened to me, on the way to Stockholm. The strap of my wristwatch broke, and for some surreal moments I found myself looking at my watch on the floor of the plane. This is no metaphor, here is the strapless watch. What did it mean? What was the awful symbolism? The fact that all through, this grand Nobel week, I was to be without my watch. The great Caesar landing in Egypt fell flat on his face in the wet shore—you can imagine the consternation of his officers, until the great and resourceful man shouted, “Africa, I’ve got you!” Some centuries later, the Emperor Julian, training one morning with his soldiers, lost the wicker part of his shield, he was left holding only the grip or the handle. How terrible for everybody until the Emperor shouted, “What I have, I hold!”
我没有这些大人物的足智多谋，因而我一直找不出化不祥之兆为喜讯的言词，直到今晚，我才恍然大悟：这个诺贝尔周，留给我的时间即将告终，而当它又再开始的时候，那将是崭新的一页了。此刻，我的无带之表恢复正常了，它告诉我，没有带着凶兆，我的时间正匆匆流尽——我的两分钟完了。
Not having the resourcefulness of these great men, I could find no words to make the bad symbolism good, until tonight, when I understood, that time was to stop for me, during this Nobel week, and that when it began again it will be truly new. Now my strapless watch,benign again, tells me without threat, that my time is running out, my two minutes are up.
奈保尔（1932年8月17日—?），出生于加勒比地区特立尼达岛的一个印度婆罗门家庭，祖父1880年作为契约劳工从印度北部漂洋过海移民特立尼达。奈保尔年幼时，父亲凭自学谋到特立尼达英语《卫报》记者之职，于是举家从乡间小镇搬迁到特立尼达首府西班牙港。
奈保尔在父亲的熏陶下从小便立志做作家。 奈保尔在西方享有盛誉，他和拉什迪、石黑一雄并称“英国移民文学三雄”。其作品曾获毛姆奖、布克奖等不少重要文学奖项，2001年荣获诺贝尔文学奖，这表明他“当代经典作家”地位的确立。重要作品有《米格尔街》（1959）、《毕斯瓦斯先生的房子》（1961）、《河湾》（1979）、《抵达之谜》（1987）、《奈保尔家书》（1999）等。作品主要写印度、非洲、加勒比地区人的生存状况，表现了后殖民时代的世态人心。奈保尔是继康拉德之后又一位伟大的编年史作家。
