《食蓼之虫》简介:

婚姻生活的第一万种可能

渐行渐远却无法分离的亲密关系

《食蓼之虫》是日本作家谷崎润一郎小说作品,讲述貌合神离的斯波要与美佐子夫妻二人从起意到确定离婚的过程。看似和谐的夫妻关系,分离已成定局,但牵绊绵延。两人各自都有另外的伴侣,却都不愿主动结束婚姻。斯波要时不时去找欧亚混血女郎露易丝,还与岳父大人的年轻女伴阿久渐生暧昧;美佐子与情人阿曾定期相会,做着长相厮守的准备——渐行渐远的夫妻却又对彼此有所期待,相互揣度,相互试探,对离婚之于年幼儿子的影响顾虑重重,对离婚之后的生活心怀忐忑,两人竟达成合约,“采取连自己都难以察觉的渐进方式来达到分离的目的”。

关于书名,作者有一段解释:“调查一下,发现中国谚语‘蓼虫不知苦’是日本谚语的元祖。我没尝过蓼叶,看来非常苦。此谚语好像是嗤笑爱的人沉溺于爱,不觉察对方的缺点,但日本把本来的意思略加引申,很多时候也用于人各有秉性,所以应该任个人所好,他人不要干涉。总之,我用作小说的题目是依照后者的解释。”

1.本书探讨一对夫妻在婚姻关系中的思考和挣扎,斯波要和妻子美佐子之间没有特别的变故,但貌合神离,于是共同探索全新的婚姻模式,令人深思婚姻与夫妻的意义。即使放在当前来看,也丝毫不过时。

2. 谷崎润一郎是日本唯美派文学大师,日本近代文学的代表作家之一,1958年三岛由纪夫以《食蓼之虫》等作品推荐谷崎润一郎候选诺贝尔奖。此次推出的《食蓼之虫》作为谷崎润一郎作品创作中的一个重要转折点,提出了对日本文化的重新考量,转向对日本传统美学的欣赏,具有特别的意义。

3.小说用大量篇幅描绘日本传统艺术净琉璃,并通过岳父的女佣阿久和旅居上海的弟弟的描写阐述了新旧社会变革交替里的矛盾,笔触细腻,深受著名作家郁达夫等人的赞赏。

《食蓼之虫》摘录:

p36 ...the very fact that he was a child of the merchants' quarter made him especially sensitive to its inadequacies, to its vulgarity and its preoccupation with the material. He reacted from it toward the sublime and the ideal. It was not enough that something should be touching, charming, graceful; it had to have about it a certain radiance, the power to inspire veneration. One had to feel forced to one's knees before it, or lifted by it to the skies. Kaname required this not only in works of art. A woman-worshipper, he looked for the same divine attributes in women, but he had never come upon what he was looking for either in art or in women. p51 Kaname for his part was not purposely displaying a strength he did not feel; but perhaps a contagious air of strength and virility ab...