Mahabharata - A Modern Retelling
基本信息
Hardcover: 928 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (24 Mar. 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393081753
ISBN-13: 978-0393081756
Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 4.6 x 24.4 cm
内容简介
Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, a hundred times more interesting than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization. Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti s English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope."
编辑推荐
Carole Satyamurti s modern retelling of this ancient, vast, and various story is a gift to be grateful for. It gives us, as all poetry should, access into a world we did not know or did not know well enough and which henceforth we will visit again and again. --David Constantine
[Satyamurti s] aim has been to produce a readable and gripping narrative, focusing on the story, for the reader who may have little or no previous knowledge of the epic, and in this she has been resoundingly successful. Her lines of iambic pentameter, with their rhythms, stresses and flow of ordinary English speech, give the narrative an easy, elegant momentum. Scenes of action are vivid and charged with a fast, drumming beat, quickening the reader s answering pulse. The very rare infelicity Bhishma s name, for example, is glossed as awesome , a word for ever tainted by the Friends generation only accentuates how her remaking, a monumental task that has resulted in a narrative poem nearly three times as long as Paradise Lost, is a remarkable achievement. --New Statesman
In her vibrant retelling of this set of tales from ancient India, British poet Satyamurti elegantly captures stories of family conflict, family rivalry, jealousy, pride, ambition, honour, defeat and love woven through the long Sanskrit poem[...] [She] succeeds in making this ancient masterpiece accessible to modern readers. --Publishers Weekly
作者简介
Carol Satyamurti is a poet, sociologist, and translator. The author of many books of poetry, she has taught regularly for the Arvon Foundation and for the Poetry Society (UK). She lives in London. Vinay Dharwadker (University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the author of Cosmopolitan Geographies: New Locations in Literature and Culture (2001) and a book of poetry, Sunday at the Lodi Gardens: Poems (1994). He is the editor of The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry (1994) and The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan (1999), and the translator of a collection of Kabir's work called Kabir: The Weaver's Songs (2003). Wendy Doniger (Ph.D. Harvard University) is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. She first trained as a dancer under George Balanchine and Martha Graham and then went on to complete two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian Studies (from Harvard and Oxford). She has taught at Harvard, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984 she was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, in 1989 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1996 a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1997 president of the Association for Asian Studies. She has been awarded seven honorary degrees, and her book The Hindus: An Alternative History was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
如果你对宏大叙事和探讨人性永恒主题感兴趣,请务必将这部现代复述版加入你的书单。我最喜欢它对“局外人”视角的运用。很多时候,叙事焦点会巧妙地从主要英雄身上移开,转向那些在历史洪流中被忽略的小人物,通过他们的眼睛来折射战争的残酷和王权的腐朽。这让整个故事的立体感和层次感瞬间丰富起来,不再是单一的“善恶对决”,而是充满了灰色地带的生存博弈。比如,对那些侍奉在王室中的仆从的描写,虽然篇幅不长,但其刻画的深刻程度,足以让人感受到那个时代底层生命的无奈与挣扎,这是原著中往往被宏大叙事所掩盖的部分。这种细致入微的关怀,让这部史诗读起来既有磅礴的气势,又有令人动容的温度,简直是文学改编的典范之作,值得反复品味。
评分坦白讲,我原本是抱着“试试看”的心态打开这本书的,毕竟《摩诃婆罗多》原版的内容体量和语言风格,对于现代人来说门槛太高。然而,这个现代复述版完全颠覆了我的预期。它最大的优点在于其“可读性”,但这种可读性绝不是以牺牲深度为代价换来的。作者似乎深谙如何提炼复杂的人物关系网和错综复杂的事件线索,将其梳理得井井有条,逻辑清晰。我尤其欣赏作者在处理阿周那的迷茫与最终觉醒时的笔法。那一段心路历程的刻画,细腻入微,充满了哲学的思辨,却又贴合人性最真实的软弱与渴望。每次读到关键的对话场景,我都能感觉到一股强大的情感张力在文字间酝酿爆发,仿佛能听到那些古代哲人的低语,又像是触摸到了当下社会中人与人之间难以言明的隔阂。这不只是一部史诗的转述,更是一部关于“如何在纷乱中寻求解脱”的当代指南。
评分这本《摩诃婆罗多》的现代复述版,简直是一场文学的饕餮盛宴!作者的叙事功力非凡,将那个宏大、复杂到令人望而生畏的史诗,拆解成了既有史诗的厚重感,又不失现代读者阅读节奏的流畅篇章。初读时,我本担心这种“复述”会不会削弱原著的宗教神秘感或历史的庄严性,但事实证明,我的担忧是多余的。它巧妙地捕捉到了核心冲突——那场兄弟阋墙、命运捉弄的悲剧——并用当代人的视角重新审视了“正义”与“宿命”的边界。角色的塑造尤其令人称道,即便是那些在原著中稍显脸谱化的人物,在这里也拥有了令人信服的内心挣扎和道德困境。比如,尤多希提拉的坚守与局限,卡尔纳那充满悲剧色彩的忠诚,都让人在阅读过程中不断反思,到底什么才是真正的“法”(Dharma)。作者没有急于给出答案,而是将我们带入了一个永恒的伦理迷宫,让人在合上书页后,依然久久不能平静,回味无穷。它不仅仅是讲了一个古老的故事,更像是一面镜子,映照出我们内心深处的矛盾与选择。
评分我得说,这次的阅读体验,与其说是“阅读”,不如说是一次沉浸式的文化溯源。尽管我并非印度文学的资深研究者,但这部复述版,以其精炼又不失韵味的语言,成功地搭建起了一座通往古老智慧的桥梁。最让我赞叹的是它对战争场面描写的方式——没有过度渲染血腥,而是将笔触聚焦于个体在巨大冲突下的心理震荡。当描述到俱卢之野上的黄昏,战士们面对的不仅仅是敌军,更是自己选择的后果时,那种无声的、深入骨髓的悲凉感,是通过文字扑面而来的。叙事者仿佛是一位高明的剧场导演,深知何时该拉近镜头展示一个眼神的动摇,何时该拉远景展示命运的宏大无情。这种叙事节奏的控制力,极大地提升了作品的艺术价值。它成功地保留了史诗的精髓,同时又摆脱了古典叙事可能带来的沉闷,让一个千年故事焕发出新的生命力,绝对值得每一个寻求深度阅读的读者珍藏。
评分这部作品的文字质感,是我近期阅读中体验最佳的之一。它不像某些翻译作品那样生硬或过于欧化,而是带着一种属于东方哲思的韵味和节奏感。每当叙事者开始描述那种宿命般的循环,总会不自觉地停下来,细细咀嚼那些措辞的选择。它似乎有一种魔力,能够将读者瞬间拉回到那个充满神祇干预、却又极端人性化的古老世界。更让我感到惊喜的是,复述者在处理那些神谕和预言时,并没有简单地将它们当作推进情节的工具,而是将其融入到角色的内心独白中,使得“天命”这个概念不再是外在强加的枷锁,而是内化为角色无法逃避的自我认知。这种处理方式,使得全书的氛围保持了一种持续的、压抑而又壮丽的基调。对于那些渴望从阅读中获得精神滋养,而非仅仅是故事消遣的读者来说,这本书提供了坚实的支撑。
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