爱华网Happy 201st, SnowWhite!
By Stefany Anne Golberg
白雪公主201大寿
蒸馏译
blog.sina.com.cn/zhengliu2009
In 1810, the Grimm Brothers firstwrote down the story of Snow White, as told to them by someanonymous German folks. I’ve read this story countless times sincediscovering it in my adolescence. Even so, it’s the Disney version,Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, that is the definitive SnowWhite story for me, though I hadn’t seen it since I was a child.The look of Snow White --- her blue-and-red capped sleeves, hercherry-colored lips --- and the seven dwarfs with their funnynames, are all from Disney’s telling. This Snow White is sopalpable for me, and for most Americans, that one might believeSnow White an American invention.
1810年，也不知道格林兄弟是听了哪个德国老百姓讲述《白雪公主》的故事之后，率先记录下这个童话故事。自从我懵懂记事以来，我已经听过这个故事无数次了。即便我长大后没再看过迪斯尼版的《白雪公主和七个小矮人》，它给我留下的印象依然是最深刻的。身着蓝红相间的宽大圆筒袖，长着樱桃色红唇的白雪公主以及七个小矮人各自那俏皮的名字都出自迪斯尼版。这种形象的白雪公主耳熟能详，甚至大多数美国人认为白雪公主是美国人创作出来的童话人物。
How is it that fairy tales can beso far removed in content from our daily experience, and yet haveso much power over it? We sing fairy tale songs and our sleep isdappled with fairy tale leitmotifs. We tell fairy tales toour children. Why? To improve them? To delight them? To terrorizethem? To learn the consequences of god and evil? As those who haveread them can confirm, the stories recorded by the Brothers Grimm(Snow White included) are horrifying and grisly. They are not atall what we mean today by “child-friendly.” Do you remember how, inthe original Cinderella, the stepsisters tried to force theglass slipper to fit them by slicing off parts of theirfeet?
童话故事的内容怎么会与日常生活经验如此大相径庭呢，还对日常生活经验的影响如此巨大呢？我们大唱童话歌曲，就连梦境也满是斑驳的童话主题。我们还给小孩子讲童话故事。为什么？促进孩子成长？逗孩子乐？吓唬孩子？让他们懂得善有善报恶有恶报？读过格林兄弟童话故事（也包括作品《白雪公主》）的人都说，格林童话相当恐怖骇人听闻。其故事压根儿就不属于如今的“儿童读物”。还记得在《灰姑娘》原作中，两个恶姐妹试图削掉一部分脚以便能穿上水晶鞋吗？
Experts will tell you that fairytales --- folk tales --- were never meant for children at all. Inthe not-so-long-ago days of yore, the people of the world wereilliterate, and in need of entertainment. It might be thatfolktales, they say, had no moral or even practical purpose. Fairytales were outrageous because they were soap opera, full of themelodramatic fantasies of average people: dirty beautiful maidsrescued by princes; animals punished for greed; children punishedfor greed; blood; revenge; true love. If your child happened to belistening to this pulp and became terrified into obedience, wellthat was merely a bonus.
专家会告诉你童话，即民间传说对儿童来说一点儿意义都没有。在不久前往昔的日子里，世人在不识字的情况下，需要娱乐活动。白雪公主可能是不带任何道德指向或实际目的的民间传说了。童话故事让人深恶痛绝，因为它们都是充满大众戏剧性想象的肥皂剧。浑身脏兮兮的美少女被王子解救；被因贪婪而受惩罚的动物或小孩子所解救；被流血、复仇、真爱所救赎。要是你的孩子碰巧听到了这些低俗而耸人听闻的内容后被吓得诚惶诚恐、惟命是从，那真是童话故事唯一的一点儿好处。
Maybe fairy tales became the stuffof childhood because children are often the stars of fairy tales.(In the Grimms’ Snow White, she was just seven years old.) Or, ifnot children, they feature animals or magical figures or magicalanimals, which all appeal to children. I think this became the casebecause children and animals and fairies all carry the burden ofbeing the agents of hope. Hope is what most fairy tales share,wherever they are told, and for whatever audience. The word “fairytale” is synonymous with “hope”. Fairy tales are aspirational evenwhen they are sad. The crueler a fairy tale is, the more hope itinspires, in children and adults. Maybe the point of fairy tales isjust to tell us hope’s story, to remind us of itsexistence.
也许童话故事已经成为童年的东西，因为儿童往往是童话的主角。（格林笔下的白雪公主才只有7岁）。童话的主角可以不是儿童，但也都是以小孩子喜欢的动物或仙子或神兽为主角。我认为造成这种情形的原因是儿童、动物和童话是承载希望的媒介。无论童话讲到哪儿，也无论听众是谁，希望都是大多数童话所共有的元素。“童话”这个词与“希望”同义。即使伤感的童话也能激励人的抱负。童话越是残酷，其在儿童和成年人内心所激发的希望就越多。也许童话的主旨就是向人们讲述希望，让人记住希望还在。
Walt Disney glommed on to thissingle aspect of fairy tales --- hope --- and owned it. The baselevel of hope in yours average fairy tale is increased fiftyfold ina Disney version. Of all the ubiquitous elements in the Snow Whitestory --- the poison apple; Mirror, Mirror, on the wall --- thosewe most associate with hope come from the Disney version. Love’sFirst Kiss. Whistle While You Work. Hi-Ho, It’s Off To Work We Go.Some Day My Prince Will Come. The very innovation of animating thestory makes the hope more real.
沃尔特·迪士尼将童话唯一的特征——希望据为己有。大众童话所表达的朴素希望在迪士尼版中全部被放大了50倍。《白雪公主》中所特有的童话元素——毒苹果、魔镜，魔镜告诉我——这些与希望最相关的元素均源自迪士尼版。例如：王子的初吻。工作时欢快的口哨。伊喉，下班了我们走。我的白马王子总有一天会来的。将白雪公主拍成动画片的创意让其所传达的希望变得更加真实。
Disney’s emphasis on optimismmakes the differences between the Grimm and Disney version of SnowWhite all the more apparent. In Grimm, Snow White doesn’t earn herplace in the dwarfs’ home by happily cleaning it with the help ofall the forest animals (as in the movie), but rather walks intotheir home uninvited, eats their dinner, and passes out (remember,she is seven). Walt Disney gave the dwarfs a much larger and morepersonal role; they are noble, honorable and true. (In traditionalfairy tales, little men are sinister and weird. They are creaturesof the underground, known to steal babies and take sexual advantageof women in their sleep.) In both the Disney and Grimm versions,Snow White falls into a state of suspended animation and is put ondisplay in a glass coffin. In the Grimm version, though, she is notawakened by love’s first kiss. Instead, the prince becomesenchanted with the comatose Snow White and begs the dwarfs to lethim take her. As the prince’ servants carry the coffin away ontheir shoulders, one trips and sends Snow White tumbling out of hercoffin, dislodging a bit of poison apple from her throat and savingher life.
迪士尼强调乐观主义，这让格林版《白雪公主》和迪士尼版《白雪公主》差别迥异。格林的作品中，白雪公主并没有在森林中的动物帮助下，雀跃着为矮人们打扫房间而获得居留权（像电影中那样），相反，她擅自闯入矮人们的房子，吃掉他们的晚餐后，便昏了过去（记得吗？她只有7岁）。沃尔特·迪士尼赋予矮人们更丰富更人性化的角色。他们圣洁、高尚、真实。（在传统通话中，小矮人们总是阴险可怕的。他们生活在地下，以偷盗儿童和趁女性熟睡时奸污女性而著称。）不论是迪士尼版，还是格林版，白雪公主因窒息而假死过去，并入殓水晶棺材。在格林笔下，虽然白雪公主没能被王子的初吻唤醒，但王子迷上了沉睡中的白雪公主，并乞求矮人们允许他将白雪公主带走。王子的随从将水晶棺材扛上肩头时滑了一跤，将白雪公主从棺材中颠了出来，同时也颠出了卡在她喉咙中的那块毒苹果，救了白雪公主一命。
The most profound contrast betweenthe Grimms’ Snow White and Disney’s is the ending. In bothversions, the stepmother dies. Her death is necessary for the“happy ending” to take place --- namely, the marriage of Snow Whiteand the prince. It is necessary for our hope not to bedisappointed, and we cheer it however it comes. In the Disneyversion, the stepmother is chased to a mountain precipice by thedwarfs and the animals of the forest. She falls, and dies. In theGrimm tale, the stepmother attends the wedding of Snow White, wereshe is made to put on a pair of red-hot iron shoes and dance to herdeath.
格林版与迪士尼版之间显著的差异在于其结局。在两种版本中，白雪公主的继母都死了。她的死是白雪公主和白马王子喜结良缘的“喜剧结局”的必要铺垫。这让我们内心的希翼不至于失望十分必要，而且无论希望是如何得来的，我们都会为之欢呼雀跃。在迪士尼版中，继母被小矮人和森林中的动物们追打到悬崖边上，掉下去摔死了。而在格林版中，继母出席了白雪公主的婚礼，她误穿上一双烧红的铁舞鞋发狂地舞蹈至死。
In fairy tales, “good” triumphsover “evil”, but how this happens isn’t simple. It’s quite commonfor traditional fairy tales to have complicated, even troubling,conclusions --- Conclusions where innocent princesses get theprince only if they torment and kill their adversaries. What Disneydid with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and all the Disney fairytale films, was give us what we really want from “happily everafter”: an ending with no guilt, no loose ends. An ending wherehope is resolved. Maybe that’s why all other Snow Whites andCinderellas disappear in the face of Disney’s. Orson Welles saidthat a happy ending depends on where you stop your story. WaltDisney’s genius was that he knew just when, and how, we like ourendings. Not with hope but satisfaction.
在童话故事中，“善”总是战胜“恶”，但其胜利过程并不简单。传统童话一般都具有复杂的，甚至让人烦的结局——清纯的公主最终得到了王子的爱、即使两人折磨甚至是弄死了反面人物。迪士尼对《白雪公主与七个小矮人》的改编以及其他迪士尼童话电影都让我们感到一种“从未有过的幸福与快乐”：一种没有负罪感的宽泛的多结局结尾。一种强化“希望”这一主题的结尾。也许这就是为什么迪士尼公司没有上演其他版本的《白雪公主》和《灰姑娘》的原因。奥森·韦尔斯认为童话的喜剧结尾取决于你把故事讲到哪里结束。沃尔特·迪士尼聪明就聪明在他知道什么时候结尾和怎样收尾以取悦读者。他改编的童话故事，不是让人看了后满怀希望，而是得到心理满足。
