第2451期:First South Korean Writer to Win Nobel in Literature

South Korean writer Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. The Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee said her work “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” 韩国作家韩康周四荣获 2024 年诺贝尔文学奖。瑞典学院诺贝尔委员会表示，她的作品“直面历史创伤，暴露了人类生命的脆弱”。 Born in 1970, Han Kang is the first South Korean to win the literature prize. Kang began her career in 1993 with the publication of several poems in Literature and Society. She published her first story in 1995 with Love of Yeosu. 韩康出生于1970年，是第一位获得文学奖的韩国人。康于1993年开始了她的职业生涯，在《文学与社会》上发表了几首诗。1995年，她发表了第一篇小说《丽水之恋》。 In 2016, Kang won the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian. It tells the story of a woman’s decision to stop eating meat and her family’s worry about her mental health. The novel was the first of her books to be translated into English and was seen as her major international breakthrough. 2016年，康凭借《素食者》获得曼布克国际奖。它讲述了一名女性决定停止吃肉以及家人对她心理健康的担忧的故事。这本小说是她第一本被翻译成英文的书，被视为她在国际上的重大突破。 In a talk with the Booker Prizes, published last year, Kang said the book was written during a difficult period in her life. She questioned whether she could finish the story or even survive as a writer. 在去年出版的布克奖颁奖典礼上，康表示这本书是在她人生的困难时期写成的。她质疑自己能否完成这个故事，甚至能否作为一名作家生存下去。 "I was suffering from severe arthritis…To this day, I feel awkward when I hear about the novel's ‘success,'” she said. “我当时患有严重的关节炎……直到今天，当我听到这部小说的‘成功’时，我都感到很尴尬，”她说。 In the novel Human Acts, Kang explored the 1980 killing of hundreds of students and unarmed civilians by the South Korean military in the city of Gwangju, where she grew up. 在小说《人类的行为》中，康探讨了 1980 年韩国军队在她长大的光州市杀害数百名学生和手无寸铁的平民的事件。 "In seeking to give voice to the victims of history, the book confronts this episode with brutal actualization and, in so doing, approaches the genre of witness literature," the Academy said. 该学院表示：“为了向历史受害者发出声音，这本书以残酷的现实来面对这一事件，并以此接近了见证文学的类型。”Kang is the second South Korean to win a Nobel Prize. Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to restore democracy in the South and improve relations with North Korea. 康是第二位获得诺贝尔奖的韩国人。韩国前总统金大中因其在韩国恢复民主和改善与朝鲜关系的努力而获得2000年诺贝尔和平奖。 The literature prize has long faced criticism that it is too centered on European and North American writings. It has also been awarded mainly to male writers. Kang is only the 18th woman to receive the award among more than 100 winners. 长期以来，文学奖一直面临着过于以欧洲和北美作品为中心的批评。该奖项也主要颁发给男性作家。Kang是100多名获奖者中第18位获得该奖项的女性。 Past winners of the prize include well-known writers like Irish poet W.B. Yeats, American writer Ernest Hemingway and Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In 2016, American singer Bob Dylan also received the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” 该奖项的历届获奖者包括爱尔兰诗人 W.B. 叶芝、美国作家欧内斯特·海明威和哥伦比亚的加布里埃尔·加西亚·马尔克斯。2016年，美国歌手鲍勃·迪伦也因“在伟大的美国歌曲传统中创造了新的诗意表达方式”而获奖。 Mats Malm is Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy. He told reporters, “I was able to talk to Han Kang over the phone. She was having an ordinary day, it seems, she had just finished supper with her son." 马茨·马尔姆 (Mats Malm) 是瑞典学院常务秘书。他告诉记者，“我能够通过电话与韩康交谈。她今天过得很平常，好像刚刚和儿子吃完晚饭。” The prize comes with a money award of $1.1 million. 该奖项奖金为 110 万美元。