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1、Writer Ann Morgan set herself a challenge to read a book from every country in the world in one year. She describes the experience and what she learned.I used to think of myself as a fairly cosmopolitan sort of person, but my bookshelves told a different story. Apart from a few Indian novels and the
2、 odd Australian and South African book, my literature collection consisted of British and American titles. Worse still, I hardly ever tackled anything in translation. My reading was confined to stories by English-speaking authors.作家安娜-摩根给自己设下了一个挑战在一年的时间里从世界上每个国家的文学作品中选出一本进行阅读。 她讲述了自己的这段经历以及她的收获。我曾经认
3、为自己是一个见多识广，海纳百川的人，但我的书架表明这并非事实。 除了几本印度小说，零散的一些澳大利亚和南非的书之外，我的藏书全是英美文学。更糟糕的是，我几乎从来没有尝试过阅读译本。我的阅读局限于以英语为母语的作者的作品。So, at the start of 2012, I set myself the challenge of trying to read a book from every country (well, all 195 UN-recognised states plus former UN member Taiwan) in a year to find out what
4、I was missing.With no idea how to go about this beyond a sneaking suspicion that I was unlikely to find publications from nearly 200 nations on the shelves of my local bookshop, I decided to ask the planets readers for help. I created a blog called A Year of Reading the World and put out an appeal f
5、or suggestions of titles that I could read in English.所以，2012 年伊始，我给自己设定一个挑战，在一年的时间里读完来自世界上 195 个国家的 195 本小说，看看我在过去的阅读中错过了什么。开始时，我根本无从下手，因为我暗自怀疑我是否能在当地的书店找到来自近 200 个国家的出版物。于是，我决定向全球读者求助。我创建了一个名为“一年读遍世界”的博客， 请网友们推荐我能够用英语阅读的作品。The response was amazing. Before I knew it, people all over the planet were
6、 getting in touch with ideas and offers of help. Some posted me books from their home countries. Others did hours of research on my behalf. In addition, several writers, like Turkmenistans Ak Welsapar and Panamas Juan David Morgan, sent me unpublished translations of their novels, giving me a rare o
7、pportunity to read works otherwise unavailable to the 62% of Brits who only speak English. Even with such an extraordinary team of bibliophiles behind me, however, sourcing books was no easy task. For a start, with translations making up only around 4.5 per cent of literary works published in the UK
8、 and Ireland, getting English versions of stories was tricky.我的博客收到了意想不到的回应。世界各地读者很快给我提供了各种点子和帮助。有些人给我寄来来自他们国家的书，有些人花费几小时的时间帮我做调查。而且，一些自己是作家的人，像是土库曼斯坦的 Ak Welsapar,巴拿马的 Juan David Morgan,把他们还未正式出版的小说译本寄给我，让我有机会阅读 62%只会英语的英国人根本没机会阅读的作品。即便有一群如此出色的爱书者默默支持着我，寻找这 195 本书仍非易事。首先，在英国和爱尔兰，只有 4.5%的世界文学作品被翻译并且
9、最终出版，要得到一些英文版的图书并不容易。Small states小国寻书This was particularly true for francophone and lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) African countries. Theres precious little on offer for states such as the Comoros, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique I had to rely on unpublished manuscripts for several of thes
10、e. And when it came to the tiny island nation of Sao Tome & Principe, I would have been stuck without a team of volunteers in Europe and the US who translated a book of short stories by Santomean writer Olinda Beja just so that I could have something to read.这一问题在寻找来自说法语和葡萄牙语的非洲国家的作品是尤为明显。类似科摩罗，马达加斯
11、加，几内亚比绍，莫桑比克这些国家，译成英文的作品少之又少- 我不得不数次依靠阅读没有发表的手稿来完成任务。在寻找来自小岛国圣多美普林西比的作品时，要不是一群来自欧洲和美国的志愿者帮我翻译了圣普作家 Olinda Beja 的一本短篇小说合集，我的读书计划就很难完成了。Then there were places where stories are rarely written down. If youre after a good yarn in the Marshall Islands, for example, youre more likely to go and ask the loc
12、al iroijs (chiefs) permission to hear one of the local storytellers than you are to pick up a book. Similarly, in Niger, legends have traditionally been the preserve of griots (expert narrators-cum-musicians trained in the nations lore from around the age of seven). Written versions of their fascina
13、ting performances are few and far between and can only ever capture a small part of the experience of listening for yourself.此外，还一些国家的故事很少用文字记录下来。比如在马绍尔群岛，如果你想听一个的好故事，你应该去请求当地 IROIJ(即首领)的准许，让当地说书人给你讲故事，而不是去书店买本书。同样的，尼日尔，传说历来是由 GRIOT(专业的说书人兼音乐家，从七岁开始接受本国神话传说方面的训练)负责，他们的表演十分精彩，但是落在文字上的内容寥寥无几，而且难以传达现场聆
14、听表演带来的感受。If that wasnt enough, politics threw me the odd curveball too. The foundation of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 although a joyful event for its citizens, who had lived through decades of civil war to get there posed something of a challenge. Lacking roads, hospitals, schools or basic infrastruc
15、ture, the six-month-old country seemed unlikely to have published any books since its creation. If it hadnt been for a local contact putting me in touch with writer Julia Duany, who penned me a bespoke short story, I might have had to catch a plane to Juba and try to get someone to tell me a tale fa
16、ce to face.如果这些困难还不算什么，政治问题可是给我出了个大难题。南苏丹在 2011 年 7 月9 日才正式建立，对饱尝了几十年内战之苦的苏丹人命来说，这无疑是一个大喜讯，但同时也带来了一个问题。这个六个月前才成立的国家缺乏一切诸如道路，医院，学校的基础设施，更别说有出版机构出版图书了。如果不是一个当地人帮我联系上了作家 Julia Duany, 给我专门写了一个短篇小说，我可能就得搭上飞到 Juba 的一班飞机，找个人当面给我讲个故事了。All in all, tracking down stories like these took as much time as the reading and blogging. It was a tall order to fit it all in around work and many were the nights when I sat bleary-eyed into the sma
