见证时间的噪音

Testimony and Noise of Time

《见证》和《时间的噪音》都是以前苏联作曲家肖斯塔科维奇为主人公的文学作品,前者是肖斯塔科维奇的口述回忆录,后者是传记小说。小说作者朱利安·巴恩斯亲承其创作、深受前述回忆录的影响,但两者在体裁定位、关注焦点、表达手段等方面的诸多不同蕴含着含义丰富的深刻差异。通过对两书就同一事件、相同人物、相似场景的描写与感悟的对照阅读,可以看到《时间的噪音》中缺少一种作者的生活智慧和写作才能所难以弥补的、对民族苦难和屈辱人生的切身感受和刻骨体验,恰如俄罗斯谚语所言“狼不知道羊的恐惧”。

Testimony:The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich and Noise of Time are the literary works about Shostakovich,a former Soviet composer.The former is Shostakovich’s oral memoirs,while the latter is a biographical novel.Though Barnes was deeply influenced by the memoirs writing Noise of Time,Noise of Time differs from The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich in genre orientation,focus of attention and means of expression.Through a comparative reading of the descriptions and comprehension of the same event,same person and similar scenes in the two books,we can see that Noise of Time lacks something that the author’s life wisdom and writing ability can’t make up for,that is,his personal feeling and profound experience of national sufferings and humiliation.After all,just as the Russian proverb goes,“wolves don’t know the fear of sheep”.