读哲学书的摇滚巨星斯普林斯汀

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.”

音乐家、最新图文书《不法之徒皮特》(Outlaw Pete)的作者喜欢读宇宙学方面的书籍：“我发现男人和女人都在努力回答我们所能自由问出的最为深刻的问题。”

What books are currently on your night stand?

现在你的床头柜上放着什么书？

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.

我刚读完《白鲸》(Moby-Dick)，因为人们总说它很难读，所以我一直都不敢碰它。结果我发现它是个美丽的男孩冒险故事，并不那么难读。警告：读了这本书你会了解到很多关于鲸鱼的事，比你愿意知道的还多。另一方面，我简直不愿意看到它结束。另外还有加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔库斯(Gabriel García Márquez)的《霍乱时期的爱情》(Love in the Time of Cholera)。它涉及了人类爱情的多种方面。

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

所有时代中你最喜欢的小说家是谁，如今仍在写作的小说家呢？

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.”

我喜欢俄国小说家，契诃夫(Chekhov)的短篇小说，还有托尔斯泰(Tolstoy)和陀思妥耶夫斯基(Dostoyevsky)。我四年前才开始读他们的作品，发现他们在心理层面上完全是现代的。我个人最喜欢《卡拉马佐夫兄弟》(The Brothers Karamazov)，当然还有《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.

我喜欢的当代作家有：菲利普·罗斯(Philip Roth)、科马克·麦卡锡(Cormac McCarthy)和理查德·福特(Richard Ford)。《美国牧歌》(American Pastoral)、《我嫁给了共产党人》(I Married a Communist)和《安息日剧院》(Sabbath’s Theater)很难超越。科马克·麦卡锡的《血色子午线》(Blood Meridian)是我阅读的分水岭。它结合了福克纳(Faulkner)与瑟吉欧·莱昂(Sergio Leone)的意大利式西部片风格，所以特别吸引我。我喜欢理查德·福特写的新泽西。《体育记者》(The Sportswriter)、《独立日》，以及《地势》(The Lay of the Land)都给我留下了美好的记忆，它们又深刻又欢快，还完美地写出了泽西海滩。

Who are your favorite New Jersey writers?

你最喜欢的新泽西作家是谁？

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.

我喜欢罗斯放荡粗鲁的幽默，非常精彩，经久不衰。还有刚才说的福特。当然沃尔特·惠特曼(Walt Whitman)也很棒。一到夏天，我总是想拿起《草叶集》(Leaves of Grass)在门廊坐一会儿，离开的时候就更快乐了一些。

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

有没有什么书影响你，让你决定成为歌曲创作者和音乐人，或者对你的艺术发展有帮助？

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.

我翘掉了大学的大部分课程，当上了巡演音乐人，所以直到二十八九岁才开始认真地阅读。然后就读到了弗兰纳里·奥康纳(Flannery O’Connor)、詹姆斯·M·凯恩(James M. Cain)、约翰·契弗(John Cheever)、舍伍德·安德森(Sherwood Anderson)，以及伟大的黑色小说作家吉姆·汤普森(Jim Thompson)。这些作家对我在1978-82年间的音乐有很大影响。他们把一丝地理概念和黑暗之感带入我的创作，拓宽了我对流行歌曲成就的视野，直到今天仍然是我对于自己希望取得的成就的基准。

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

你最喜欢的词曲创作者是谁，你最喜欢哪个音乐人的回忆录？

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.

我不熟悉写小说的音乐人，但是说到回忆录，基思·理查兹(Keit Richards)在《滚吧，生活》(Life)中对音乐的热爱难以超越。我还觉得埃里克·克莱普顿(Eric Clapton)的自传有惊人的启示意义，而且非常感人。当然我也喜欢鲍勃·迪伦(Bob Dylan)的《编年史》(Chronicles)，它令我以身为音乐人而自豪。

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

在你的书架上人们会惊奇地找到什么书？

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.

我读过很多宇宙学的书，以及很多哲学方面的书。我还喜欢读棒球方面的书，刚刚读完马里安诺·李维拉(Mariano Rivera)的自传。在宇宙学方面，丹尼斯·奥伊尔拜(Dennis Oyerby)的《宇宙的孤独之心》(Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos)是我最早喜欢上的书之一。我发现男人和女人们都在努力回答我们所能自由提出的最深刻的问题。它也适当解答了我当时的小问题。这本书让我对哲学感兴趣，读了伯特兰德·罗素(Bertrand Russell)的《西方哲学史》(The History of Wester Philosophy)。我刚读完吉姆·米勒(Jim Miller)的《经审视的生活》(Examined Lives)以及莎拉·贝克威尔(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?

你读过的关于音乐的最好的书是什么？

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.

格雷尔·马库斯(Greil Marcus)的《神秘列车》(Mystery Train)始终保持在名单前列，紧接着是彼得·格拉尼克(Peter Guralnick)的《开往孟菲斯的最后一班火车》(Last Train to Memphis)。我还会把迪伦的《编年史》也列进来，还有丹尼·拉诺伊斯(Daniel Lanois)最近的书《开掘灵魂》(Soul Mining)，它对创作音乐提出了与其他书籍不同的见解。乔弗雷·奥布莱恩(Geoffrey O’Brien)的《点唱机奏鸣曲》有几段非常好，特别是一开头讨论伯特·巴卡拉奇(Burt Bacharach)事业生涯的部分。

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

上一本让你大笑的书是什么？

Richard Ford’s “The Lay of the Land.”

理查德·福特的《地势》。

The last book that made you cry?

上一本让你哭泣的书呢？

Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”

科马克·麦卡锡的《道路》(The Road)。

The last book that made you furious?

上一本让你愤怒的书是什么？

“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.

安德鲁·罗斯·索金(Andrew Ross Sorkin)的《大而不倒》(Too Big to Fail)，迈克尔·刘易斯(Michael Lewis)的《大空头》(The Big Short)，还有戴尔·马哈里奇(Dale Maharidge)的《美国这样的地方》(Someplace Like America)，照片是迈克尔·S·威廉姆森(Michael S. Williamson)拍的。我读了一些关于最近金融崩溃的书，还给《美国这样的地方》写了前言。这些书里描述的骇人听闻和大胆包天的犯罪行为直接启发了我的《毁坏的球》(Wrecking Ball)这张专辑。

What kind of reader were you as a child?

你小时候是个怎样的读者？

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.

我读的第一本书是《OZ国奇遇记》，那是一个慵懒的夏天，我在新泽西兰道尔夫街家中的门廊上读了这本书。我记得自己为这本书，也为阅读这个行为感到激动不已。当时我最喜欢的角色是伟大而强大的Oz本人。电影里那些精彩的话可以代表他，不过书里没有。“别在意那个帷幕后面的人。”他是个骗子艺人，用超越自身的方式取得成就。“别在意那个帷幕后面的人。”这是美国文学中最伟大的一句引语。

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

如果说有一本书令你成为今天的样子，会是哪一本呢？

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.

要说出一本比较困难，但弗拉纳里·奥康纳的确对我有很大影响。你可以在她的书中感受到上帝的不可知性，生命不可触及的神秘令她笔下的人物感到困惑，我在自己每一天的生活中也能感受到。它们蕴含着我童年时感受到的黑暗哥特气氛，仍然能让我感觉置身黑暗的谜之漩涡中心，头顶有星辰，脚下有大地，这是何等幸运。

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

如果能和三位作家共进晚餐，你会邀请谁呢？

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·罗斯、基思·理查兹，托尔斯泰——我还要再请一位，就是鲍勃·迪伦。他们有很多生活经历，大家七嘴八舌一定很精彩。

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

你有没有什么一读再读的书？

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.

我一般不会重读什么书，但吉姆·汤普森的小说有着精确、肮脏的力量，无情的暴力和纯洁，它总能在一秒钟内吸引我。它们是最心理化的犯罪小说之一。我喜欢詹姆斯·M·凯恩和埃尔默·莱昂纳德(Elmore Leonard)，但是吉姆·汤普森在我心里有特殊的地位。

What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

有没有什么书你至今没读过，让你感到尴尬？

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.

我很晚才读到《愤怒的葡萄》(The Grapes of Warth)，是在我写《汤姆·杰德的鬼魂》(Ghost fo Tom Joad)很久之后。不管怎样，它完全符合我对它的希望。我还没读过《伊甸之东》(East of Eden)，但我很想读。

What do you plan to read next?

你接下来打算读什么书？

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.

我喜欢索尔·贝娄(Saul Bellow)的《奥吉·马奇历险记》(The Adventures of Augie March)，有人刚刚给了我一本《雨王亨德森》(Henderson the Rain King)，所以接下来我可能读这本。