生活中无处不在的母亲，有一天突然失踪了，一个家庭就此乱作一团。丈夫和子女发寻人启事、登广告，想方设法寻找母亲，也开始追寻她的记忆。在没有母亲的日子里，作为女儿，开始思考自己曾经对母亲的不孝敬；作为儿子，开始反思自己曾经对待母亲的冷漠；作为丈夫，开始思考自己曾经对待妻子的不理解和不尊重……小说中的母亲也是我们每个人的母亲。她们在家庭生活中湮没了自我，默默无闻，辛苦一辈子，她们的存在既是不可或缺，然而又似乎可有可无，尤其在家庭成熟、子女成人之后。作家的深意在于：通过生命中的深情回望，在一个尚来得及的时刻，重新寻找和发现母亲，并且在被社会生活填塞已满的心灵深处重新留出母亲的位置。
此书无疑是韩国小说家申京淑迄今最成功的作品。它曾是连续14个月名列韩国各大书店畅销书榜第一名、力挫村上春树《1Q84》的唯一韩国小说。出版不到10个月，其销量便突破100万册，版权出口22个国家，创造了当代韩国文学作品的神话，被韩国家庭奉为必备藏书的“母爱圣经”，并荣获2009年最受博客喜爱的好书，在韩国掀起了一阵“母亲旋风”。2011年5月，该书英文版进军美国市场，出版后第一周便登上《纽约时报》畅销书榜，成为首本译成英文后进入《纽约时报》畅销书榜的韩国出版物。
第一章 没有人知道 Nobody Knows
It’s been one week since Mom went missing.
妈妈走失已经一周了。
The family is gathered at your eldest brother Hyong-chol’s house, 1)bouncing ideas off each other. You decide to make 2)flyers and hand them out where Mom was last seen. The first thing to do, everyone agrees, is to draft a flyer. Of course, a flyer is an old-fashioned response to a crisis like this. But there are few things a missing person’s family can do, and the missing person is none other than your mom. All you can do is file a missing-person report, search the area, ask passersby if they have seen anyone who looks like her. Your younger brother, who owns an online clothing store, says he posted something about your mother’s disappearance, describing where she went missing; he uploaded her picture and asked people to contact the family if they’d seen her. You want to go look for her in places where you think she might be, but you know how she is: she can’t go anywhere by herself in this city. Hyong-chol 3)designates you to write up the flyer, since you write for a living. You blush, as if you were caught doing something you shouldn’t. You aren’t sure how helpful your words will be in finding Mom.
你们一家人聚集在哥哥亨哲家里，商讨着寻找妈妈的事情。你决定写寻人启事，散发到妈妈失踪地点的周围。大家都同意先起草寻人启事。当然了，用写寻人启事的方式来处理这样的重要问题实在是很老套的方法。家里有人失踪了，失踪的还是妈妈，家人能做的也不外乎这么几件事。申报失踪、四处搜寻、逢人便问见过长得这样的人吗。你那在网上开服装店的弟弟说他已经在网上发帖，说明妈妈失踪的经过和地点，同时，他也上传了妈妈的照片，请那些看到与照片相似人物的人与你们家联络。虽然你也想到妈妈可能去的地方找找，但是你也知道，在这个城市妈妈一个人哪也去不了。亨哲指定你来起草这份寻人启事，因为你以写作为生。你一下脸红了，就像做了亏心事被人揭穿了似的。你毫无把握自己笔下的文字是否真的能帮你们找到妈妈。
When you write July 24, 1938, as Mom’s birth date, your father corrects you, saying that she was born in 1936. Official records show that she was born in 1938, but apparently she was born in 1936. This is the first time you’ve heard this. Your father says everyone did that, back in the day. Because many children didn’t survive their first three months, people raised them for a few years before making it official. When you’re about to rewrite “38” as “36,” Hyong-chol says you have to write 1938 because that’s the official date. You don’t think you need to be so 4)precise when you’re only making homemade flyers and it isn’t like you’re at a government office. But you 5)obediently leave “38,” wondering if July 24 is even Mom’s real birthday.
你写下妈妈的生日：1938年7月24日，父亲却纠正地说你妈妈生于1936年。居民身份证上写着她1938年生，但实际上她是1936年生的。你还是头一回听说这件事。父亲说，那个时代，个个都是这么做的，因为那时很多孩子出生不满百天便夭折了，人们只好养到两三岁以后再去登记户籍。你正要把“38”改成“36”，亨哲却认为你还得写1938，因为户籍上记录的日期就是那样的。尽管你觉得这只是自制的寻人启事，又不是在政府机构办事，没有必要那么精确，但你还是听话地保留“38”。不过，同时你又想，那妈妈的生日7月24日，又是正确的吗？
A few years ago, your mom said, “We don’t have to celebrate my birthday separately.” Father’s birthday is one month before Mom’s. You and your 6)siblings always went to your parents’ house in Chongup for birthdays and other celebrations. All together, there were twenty-two people in the immediate family. Mom liked it when all of her children and grandchildren gathered and 7)bustled about the house. A few days before everyone came down, she would make fresh 8)kimchi, go to the market to buy beef, and stock up on extra toothpaste and toothbrushes. She pressed sesame oil and roasted and ground sesame and 9)perilla seeds, so she could present her children with a jar of each as they left. As she waited for the family to arrive, your mom would be visibly animated, her words and her gestures revealing her pride when she talked to neighbors or 10)acquaintances. In the shed, Mom kept glass bottles of every size filled with plum or wild-strawberry juice, which she made seasonally. Mom’s jars were filled to the brim with tiny fermented 11)croaker like fish or 12)anchovy paste or fermented 13)clams that she was planning to send to the family in the city. When she heard that onions were good for one’s health, she made onion juice, and before winter came, she made pumpkin juice infused with 14)licorice. Your mom’s house was like a factory; she prepared sauces and fermented bean paste and 15)hulled rice, producing things for the family year-round. At some point, the children’s trips to Chongup became less frequent, and Mom and Father started to come to Seoul more often. And then you began to celebrate each of their birthdays by going out for dinner. That was easier. Then Mom even suggested, “Let’s celebrate my birthday on your father’s.” She said it would be a burden to celebrate their birthdays separately, since both happen during the hot summer, when there are also two 16)ancestral rites only two days apart. At first the family refused to do that, even when Mom insisted on it, and if she 17)balked at coming to the city, a few of you went home to celebrate with her. Then you all started to give Mom her birthday gift on Father’s birthday. Eventually, quietly, Mom’s actual birthday was bypassed. Mom, who liked to buy socks for everyone in the family, had in her dresser a growing collection of socks that her children didn’t take.
你妈妈从几年前就说：“不要再单独为我过生日了”。父亲的生日是在妈妈生日的前一个月。以前每逢生日或者别的节日，你们几兄弟姐妹都会回到位于井邑的父母家。如果大家都聚齐了，单是直系亲属就有二十二人。妈妈喜欢所有儿孙团聚一堂的喧闹气氛。每次家庭聚会的前几天，她就腌泡菜，跑到市场买牛肉，准备备用的牙膏牙刷。她还要榨香油，把芝麻和紫苏子分别炒熟捣碎，你们走的时候，她就能让你们每人带上一瓶。你妈妈在等候家人团聚的日子里总是欢欢喜喜的，无论是遇见村里的邻居，还是碰到熟人，她言谈举止间都会洋溢着骄傲。库房里，妈妈摆放着大大小小的玻璃瓶，里面盛满了她在每个季节亲手酿制的梅子汁或者野莓汁。妈妈的酱缸里盛满了准备分发给城里家人的黄鱼酱、鱼酱和蛤蜊酱。当她听到别人说洋葱对身体好，她就做洋葱汁。冬天来临之前，她就做好添加甘草的老南瓜汁。你妈妈的房子就像个工厂，一年四季都在为家人制造着各种东西：各种调味酱、大豆酱、糙米。不知从什么时候开始，子女们去井邑的次数越来越少，反而是父亲和妈妈去首尔的次数越来越多了。于是，你们也开始改为在城里的饭店吃饭来为父母庆祝生日了。这样一来，的确少了些麻烦。后来妈妈甚至说：“我的生日就跟你父亲的一起庆祝吧。”她说，他们两个的生日都在炎热的夏天，那时还有两次只是相隔两天进行的夏季祭祀，分开来庆祝生日太折腾了。尽管妈妈坚持这么做，起先你们家人都不愿意，即使你妈妈不愿到城里来，你们也会三三两两地赶回乡下跟妈妈过生日。后来，大家都开始在父亲生日那天也给妈妈送生日礼物了。最后，慢慢地，妈妈确切的生日也就悄悄地被忽略了。妈妈喜欢为家里的每个人都买袜子，然而买回来的袜子都没有被孩子们拿走，放在衣柜里越积越多。
作者简介
申京淑，韩国著名小说家，被誉为“韩国二十世纪九十年代的文学神话”。1963年生于全罗北道井邑郡，毕业于汉城艺术大学文艺创作系。1985年，以中篇小说《冬季寓言》入选《文艺中央》新人文学奖，从此开始文学创作活动。主要作品有小说集《直到江水流淌》、《风琴的位置》、《吃土豆的人》、《钟声》、《草莓地》等，长篇小说有《深深的忧伤》、《单人房》、《火车七点出发》、《紫罗兰》、《李真》、《母亲》等，散文集有《美丽的树阴》、《睡吧，我的忧伤》等。曾获韩国日报文学奖、当代青年艺术家奖、现代文学奖、万海文学奖、东仁文学奖、二十一世纪文学奖、李箱文学奖、吴永寿文学奖等。
a moving story
评论已关闭。