Why We Write: Making Writing as Part of Life

我们为何写作：让写作成为生活
Why We Write: Making Writing as Part of Life
时间：11月25日，周日，16:00 – 17:30
Time: November 25, Sunday, 16:00 – 17:30
地点：树德生活馆
Venue: Shuter Life
作家／Writers: Helena von Zweigbergk (瑞典／Sweden), Wojciech Jagielski (波兰／Poland), 世宾／Shi Bin(中国/ China)，郑小驴/Zheng Xiaolu（中国 / China）.主持人／Moderator:刘炜茗／Liu Wieming(中国／China)

第三届中欧国际文学节开幕式后的第九场活动于11月25日下午4点在广州树德生活馆举行。活动以“我们为何写作”为主题，邀请四位来自中国、瑞典和波兰的作家一一谈谈他们为何写作。
The ninth event of The 3rd EU-China International Literary Festival was held on December 25 in Shuter Life, Guangzhou. In theme of “Why We Write”, four writers from China, Sweden and Poland were invited to discuss why they write.

本场活动我们邀请到了著名记者、广播员的瑞典畅销小说家Helena Von Zweigbergk,针对世界冲突地带著书的波兰作家Wojciech Jagieski, 中国诗人、评论家世宾，作家、文学编辑郑小驴。活动主持人是《南方都市报》文化副刊部主编、作家刘炜茗主持。
We were joined by Helena Von Zweigbergk, who was an established journalist and broadcaster before she started to write best-selling novels; Wojciech Jagielski, who has written books from several conflict zones around the world; and poet and critic Shi Bin from China; and Zheng Xiaolu, a literary journal editor and award-winning author, in conversation with Liu Weiming, author and director of the literature and Periodical Department of the Southern Metropolis Daily.

作家们一一自我介绍后，主持人刘炜茗先生邀请四位作家谈谈自己为何写作。
After the self-introduction by four writers, Mr. Huang Jingtao invited them to discuss why they write.

Wojciech Jagielski先生提到他一开始的职业是记者，通过不断讲故事，写故事，他开始了他的职业生涯。他其实是一名战地记者，职责是及时且准确地把信息发回报社。但随着工作时间和经验的积累，他发现即时短篇的报道难以完全表达当地所发生故事完整的情况以及他内心复杂的情绪。在那之后，他开始写作以更好地表达他内心所想及故事全貌。但让他写虚构小说是很困难的，他需要了解故事的内核。例如遭遇阿富汗战争的人民的内心所思所想及他们与世界上没经历这类事情的人们的心理有何相通之处。他创作一本书时，需要了解所写的那部分特定人群与全球其他人群内心的相连之处，这样他才可以开始创作一部小说。他写作的目的就是和读者分享他对中东战争等一些事情的思考以及对他自身思考。
Wojciech Jagielski mentioned that he was a journalist at the early stage of his career. At that time, he constantly wrote stories and told stories. Actually he was a war correspondent at that time. He need to write and send the reports to newspaper office in time and accurately. As time went by, he found that it was difficult for him to showcase the complete situations and backgrounds of the case and express his views on the issues thoroughly though short news. After that, he began to write some books to express his thoughts and to show the situations and backgrounds to readers. Additionally, it’s difficult for him, however, to write some fictions. Before writing, he needed to learn about the core of the story. For example, when he wrote some stories in Afghanistan War, he first need to learn about how people in Afghanistan thought about the war and figure out the connection between the group of people and other people in the world. He added that he wrote to share some of his thoughts about Middle East War and himself with readers.

世宾先生谈到自己从事诗歌创作以及写作是很纯粹，不以之来谋生。他创作诗歌的动力源于爱：对一位女孩的爱，对周围人的爱，对生命的爱，对尊严的爱。而这也是文学最终的目的。虽然这有些许的乌托邦，但这也正是文学的追求。小说是说生活中黑暗的一面，描绘一些细节；诗歌是寻找生命中的最高可能。他也提到人成为人的道路是十分困难的，有无数的力量让人变成一个屈服于物质，权力，虚荣，甚至是爱的人。这些都是人的障碍。唯有爱可以应对之，而这也是诗歌探寻的重点。他还提到，虽然写诗无法帮其谋生，他创作诗歌的道路也因此必然是孤独的。除了爱之外，他愿意为之还出于他内心对这世界的职责。希望能为世上一些同样坚守自我，不屈服于现实的心灵写下一些文字。
Shi Bin mentioned that he didn’t make a living by writing poems. His purpose for writing poetry was very purified. He wrote poems for love, including love for a girl, for surrounding people, for dignity and for life. It’s exactly the ultimate purpose of literature, although it might sound Utopian. Novels revealed the darkness of our life, while poetry showed the highest possibilities of our life. He added that, it’s an arduous journey for people to develop and improve themselves. There exited a lot of barriers, including greed for materials, power, vanity and even love, which could be addressed only with love. And it’s also the priority of poems. Additionally, he was also willing to shoulder this responsibility to write some poems for the ones who stick to be themselves and contribute to our society.

Helena von Zweigbergk女士写作出于一些原因。她可以通过写作与世界交流。当她还是一个小孩时，她十分害羞，而阅读和写作帮助她更好地与世界交流。写作还可以让她知道人的思想过程是如何的。写作可以让她更好地了解世界，并与世界交流。她表示，由于自身背景的不同，每个人对于为何写作的原因和看法也会有所不同。她还说道，每次当她自己说英语的时候，都会觉得自己不是自己，因为说的不是自己国家的语言，而作家可以通过阅读和写作来构建这种属于自己的语言。她也说道，世界是可以变得更好的，但前提是我们要相信这，相信人们是会互相尊重的，世界是充满爱。
Helena von Zweigbergk believed that she could communicate better with people throughout the world by writing. When she was a child, she was too shy to communicate with others. After reading and writing, she could better understand people’s thoughts and communicated with them better. Writing enabled her to learn more about the world and communicate better with people around the world. She added that people might have different views on why we write for their different cultural and development backgrounds. She also mentioned that, when she spoke English, it felt like she was not herself, because English was not her mother language. Authors, however, could create their own languages by reading and writing. She also held the belief that our future was bright and promising. But first, we need to believe that people would respect each other and the world was full of love.

郑小驴先生表示，好的文学作品是无国界的，超越民族，语言和文化的。他开始写作源于一个梦，源于一个人。关于一个梦，他提到，在他三岁晚上，两个男的小偷潜进了他的房间，两个窃窃私语要偷走他家的东西， 后来他尖叫了一声，他的家人被吓醒了，开灯进了他的房间，可没有看见小偷，训斥了他几句后，便关灯出去了，可在这之后，两个小偷又出现了，像坏叔叔看着小孩那样扭曲地对着他笑。这个梦在他脑海中存在多年，以至于他都无法分清这是现实抑或只是个梦。关于一个人，他指的是他的外祖父。他的外祖父遇到了一个基督教徙，给了他祖父一本圣经，自从看了这本书后，他的性情变得十分温和。外祖父还告诉他当别人打他左脸的时候，把右脸迎上去让别人打。当时他无法理解。现在他开始文学创作后，他才逐斩理解这句话的份量。作家在掌握了写作这门技能后，应知道，写作不是为了生活而写作，而是为了写作而生活。这就是写作对我们而言最大的意义。他还补充道，作家的身上布满了眼睛，不断地观察周围，收集信息，并转换成文字和语言表达出来。
Zheng Xiaolu said that, good literature was across the borders, races, nations, languages and cultures. He wrote for one dream and one person. In terms of one dream, he elaborated on it. One night, when he was 3 years old, two male thieves came into his room and whispered to each other about what and how to steal. After hearing about that, he screamed. His parents woke up and got into his room. They turned on the light but found nothing. They left the room after blaming Zheng Xiaolu. After that, two thieves appeared and laughed ugly at Mr. Zheng. And then, the two thieves left. The dream left in Mr. Zheng’s mind up till now. And he couldn’t figure out if it was a dream or reality. The person he mentioned was his grandfather. His grandfather ever encountered a Christian. And the Christian gave his grandpa a bible. After reading the bible, his grandpa became gentle. His grandpa also told Mr. Zheng that if someone hit his left face, he should show his right face to be hit by others. At first, he couldn’t understand that. After he started writing, he gradually understood the meaning and importance of his grandpa’s words. He said that writers should make writing as part of their life instead of making a living by writing. He added that, writers’ bodies were filled with eyes so that they could observe their surrounding objects and people and use words to express their feelings and thoughts.

主持人最后总结道，文学是一个宽广的永恒的话题，跨越种族，文化，时间等等。
Finally, Host Liu Wieming concluded that literature was an eternal and broad topic, which was across races, cultures, time and other areas.
（邓斯婷 报道| 邓斯婷 翻译）
(Covered by Deng Siting, translated by Deng Siting)