J. K. Rowling on Her Pen Name Robert Galbraith

Track 5

by David Greene

翻譯：德孟

J. K. Rowling on Her Pen Name Robert Galbraith

J.K.羅琳戲談筆名“羅伯特·加爾布雷思”

Track 5

by David Greene

翻譯：德孟

2013年4月，J.K.羅琳隱瞞了自己的身份，以筆名“羅伯特·加爾布雷思”出版了“科莫蘭·斯特萊克”（Comoran Strike）系列的第一本犯罪推理小說《布谷鳥的呼喚》（The Cuckoo’s Calling）。此舉曝光時，眾皆嘩然。2014年6月，同一系列的第二部小說《蠶》（The Silkworm）出版。2015年10月，羅琳推出了系列第三部小說《罪惡生涯》（Career of Evil），隨后在11月，她接受了關于新書的采訪。在本文節選的片段中，羅琳笑談了自己筆名背后的小趣事。

(Soundbite of song, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”)

David Greene (Host): This is from the band Blue ?yster Cult. And the author Robert Galbraith loves them. Actually, lyrics from this group are all over Galbraith’s latest book, “Career of Evil.”

J. K. Rowling: To be honest, it’s the guitar1)hook. I’m a real2)sucker for guitars...and always have been.

Greene: OK.

Rowling: I’ve had a3)crush on many, many of guitarists.

Greene: OK, let’s4)sort something out here. Robert Galbraith is actually a pen name for the woman who brought the world this.

(Soundbite of music, “Hedwig’s Theme”)

Greene: “Harry Potter.” Yes, it’s J. K. Rowling. A few years ago, she wanted to start writing5)crime novels but didn’t want people to know it was her. And so she hid behind the name Robert Galbraith. It worked for a little while. She was6)outed after the first novel came out in 2013,which means, among other things, she can now actually do interviews. But she’s still using the name on her crime novels, and Robert Galbraith certainly still lives on in her mind.

Rowling: I mean, Robert’s a very real person to me.

Greene: Oh, yeah? What’s, what’s he look like? What’s, what’s the image we should have?

Rowling: Well, he’s younger than me.

Greene: OK.

Rowling: But he’s a kind of7)craggy guy. I had a whole...um,8)biography...very9)detailed biography worked out for him. There are certain10)individuals who helped me in this, and we, together,11)concocted a12)CV for Robert Galbraith, who is ex-13)military and who is working in the14)private security industry. And that’s why when he produces this novel, he doesn’t want to have his face15)plastered all over his books because he has a day job. And I have to say that the whole16)cover worked really17)remarkably well.

Greene: You know, I, I know that...um, I mean, your18)publisher knew who you were, so19)in terms of finding the20)purity of a frst-time author， that， that wasn’t a part of it. But, but in terms of your relationship to21)reviewers and readers, um, I mean, what, what was the different...

Rowling: Well, actually…Sorry to22)interrupt.

Greene: No, no.

Rowling: But actually, my publisher didn’t know who I was when they frst saw the book.

Greene: Oh, you gave them the23)manuscript—they didn’t know that you were J. K. Rowling?

Rowling: Oh, no, no, no, no, no...

Greene: Wow!

Rowling: ...no, no. My editor saw it without knowing who I was, yeah.

Greene: Wow. And then your editor accepted the manuscript, and you were like, hey, by the way...

藍牡蠣崇拜樂隊（Blue ?yster Cult）是成立于1969年的美國樂隊，被稱為重金屬搖滾的鼻祖。其作品多為風格鮮明的科幻及恐怖題材。1986年以后樂隊停止活動，后于1998年復出。其代表作是于1976年推出的《（別害怕）死神》（(Don’t Fear) The Reaper）。而他們的歌曲《罪惡生涯》（Career of Evil）的標題和歌詞皆被羅琳的新作所引用。羅琳的新作中有不少于50個地方引用了該樂隊的歌曲標題或歌詞，樂隊的主唱兼吉他手還成為了書中的角色。

1) hook [h?k] n. 引誘手段

2) sucker ['s?k?] n. 對……著迷的人，容易上當的傻子

3) crush [kr??] n.（短暫的）迷戀

4) sort out 解決，整理

5) crime [kraIm] n. 犯罪

6) out [a?t] v. 揭露，使暴露，公布

7) craggy ['kr?gI] adj. 粗獷的，多皺紋的

8) biography [baI'?gr?fI] n. 傳記

9) detailed ['di?teIld] adj. 詳細的

10) individual [IndI'vIdj??l] n. 個人

11) concoct [k?n'k?kt] v. 策劃

12) CV=curriculum vitae，簡歷

13) military ['mIlIt?rI] n. 軍人

14) private security industry 私人安保行業

15) plaster ['pla?st?] v. 醒目地張貼

16) cover ['k?v?] n. 虛假的背景和身份

17) remarkably [rI'ma?k?blI] adv. 顯著地，非常地

18) publisher ['p?blI??] n. 出版者，發行人

19) in terms of 就……而言，在……方面

20) purity ['pj??rItI] n.（語言、風格等的）純粹，純正

21) reviewer [rI'vju??] n. 評論者，評論家

22) interrupt [Int?'r?pt] v. 中斷，插嘴

23) manuscript ['m?nj?skrIpt] n. 原稿，手稿

Rowling: Well, we had this very, very, very funny lunch where he didn’t know who he was coming to meet. He thought he was meeting my24)agent, who was also Robert’s agent, and then I25)turned up. So that was...that was, eh, one of the most26)memorable lunches of all our lives.

Greene: Your editor was like...

Rowling: I remember...

Greene: ...“Yo, what you, J. K., what are you doing here?”

Rowling: Well, he looked at me, I think...he said, he, sorry, I remember him putting his hands in his hair and saying, “This is too much information.”

Greene: OK. So her editor knew Robert Galbraith was J. K. Rowling, and he kept it a secret. But then a newspaper got a27)tip and revealed who Galbraith really was. Did you get what you were looking for28)out of that pen name? I mean, now that you were outed, do you feel like you, you know...

Rowling: I think I, I think I did. I’ll be honest and say, I wish I had longer. I had this,29)in retrospect, perhaps crazy hope that I’d get three books out. I was never going to out myself. But I was...I always knew if the books had any success, it would become harder and harder to remain30)anonymous because, quite reasonably, people would say, well, I would like to interview him or ask him some questions. And it was going to become a diffcult pose to31)sustain.

Greene: Someone would try to32)track you down in the woods or something and find you.

Rowling: Yeah. And, yeah. And that’s the way it goes. You know, when I...you feel...well, OK, that’s fair game. When I was outed, I was sad that...the game was up.

Greene: That’s Robert Galbraith...OK, J. K. Rowling. Her latest crime novel “Career of Evil” is out now, and she talks much more about it elsewhere in the show.

24) agent ['eId??nt] n. 代理商，經紀人

25) turn up 出現，露臉

26) memorable ['mem?r?b?l] adj. 難忘的

27) tip [tIp] n. 內幕消息

28) out of 從……中

29) in retrospect 回顧

30) anonymous [?'n?nIm?s] adj. 無名的，匿名的

31) sustain [s?'steIn] v. 維持，支撐

32) track sb. down 追蹤某人

語法小知識

What is/are sb./sth. doing…? 可用于詢問為什么某人或某物出現在某個地方。例如：What are these shoes doing on my desk?為什么這些鞋子在我的書桌上？

（歌曲《（別害怕）死神》片段）

大衛·格林（主持人）：歌曲來自藍牡蠣崇拜樂隊。而作家羅伯特·加爾布雷思喜愛這個樂隊。事實上，在加爾布雷思的新書《罪惡生涯》中隨處可見這個樂隊的歌詞。

J.K.羅琳：說實話，這是出于吉他的誘惑。我是個真正的吉他樂迷……一直都是。

格林：好吧。

羅琳：我迷戀過很多，很多吉他手。

格林：好，我們來理清楚一件事。羅伯特·加爾布雷思其實是一個女人的筆名，她創造了以下這個世界。

（音樂《海德薇主題曲》片段）

格林：《哈利·波特》。沒錯，正是J.K.羅琳。幾年前，她想要開始寫犯罪小說，但又不想讓人知道是她寫的。因此她以“羅伯特·加爾布雷思”這個名字隱瞞了自己的身份。有那么一小段時間是瞞得住的。但是在2013年她的第一本小說出版后，她的身份就曝光了。這就意味著她現在確實可以接受采訪，以及做其他很多事了。但她的犯罪小說仍然署名羅伯特·加爾布雷思，而羅伯特·加爾布雷思仍繼續活在她的腦海中。

羅琳：我想說，羅伯特對我來說是個相當真實的人。

格林：哦，是嗎？他長……長什么樣？我們該怎樣想象他的形象？

羅琳：嗯，他比我年輕。

格林：好的。

羅琳：但他是個比較粗獷的男人。我有一整部，呃，為他而設計的傳記……非常詳細的傳記。有幾個人協助我，我們共同為羅伯特·加爾布雷思建了一份簡歷。他是軍人出身，如今在私人安保行業工作。這就是他推出這部小說時不希望在書上露臉的原因，因為他有份全職工作。而且我得說整個假身份掩蓋得十分成功。

格林：你知道，我，我了解……嗯，我是說，你的出版商知道你是誰，所以倘若是初出茅廬的作者，他們就會審視其語言是否純正，而你卻不用面對這個。但就你和評論者、讀者的關系而言，呃，我的意思是，（他們和出版商的評價）有什么不同……

羅琳：嗯，事實上……抱歉打斷一下。

格林：不，沒關系。

羅琳：但實際上，我的出版商首次看到這本書時，他們并不知道我是誰。

格林：哦，你把手稿給了他們—而他們不知道你是J.K.羅琳？

羅琳：噢，不不不不不……

格林：哇！

羅琳：……不，不。是我的編輯在不知情時看了手稿，對。

格林：哇。然后你的編輯接受了這份稿子，而你說，嘿，順便說一下……

羅琳：唔，在他不知道自己將要跟誰見面的情況下，我們一起吃了頓非常、非常、非常搞笑的午餐。他以為他要和我的經紀人，也是羅伯特的經紀人見面，然后我就出現了。所以那是……那是，呃，我們這輩子最難忘的午餐之一。

格林：你的編輯當時說……

羅琳：我記得……

格林：……“喲，你在這，J.K.，你為什么在這兒？”

羅琳：唔，他看著我，我想想……他說，他，不好意思，我記得他用手捋著頭發說，“信息量太大了?！?/p>

格林：好。所以編輯知道羅伯特·加爾布雷思就是J.K.羅琳，但他保守了這個秘密。但后來一家報社得到了小道消息，揭露了加爾布雷思的真面目。你有沒有得到你想從這個筆名中尋求的東西？我是說，既然你已經暴露了，你感覺自己像自己嗎，你明白我的意思的……

羅琳：我認為，我認為我得到了。我想說句心里話，我希望我能隱瞞得久一點。回頭想想，我有過或許算是瘋狂的愿望，希望自己能瞞到出完三本書。我從沒打算主動揭露自己。但我是……我一直都明白只要這幾部書取得任何成功，繼續保持匿名就會變得越來越困難。因為人們會說，哎，我想采訪一下他或者問他幾個問題。這是情理之中的事。那么要維持這個狀態就會變得困難。

格林：有人會試圖在樹林里追蹤你之類的，把你揭露。

羅琳：對。是的。現實就是這樣的。你知道，當我……你感覺到……嗯，好吧，這是公平游戲。當我被揭露的時候，我為游戲結束而難過。

格林：這就是羅伯特·加爾布雷思……好吧，是J.K.羅琳。她的最新犯罪小說《罪惡生涯》現已面世，在另外的節目中她會談到更多關于這本新書的內容。