J. K. Rowling on Her Pen Name Robert Galbraith

Track 5

by David Greene

翻译：德孟

J. K. Rowling on Her Pen Name Robert Galbraith

J.K.罗琳戏谈笔名“罗伯特·加尔布雷思”

Track 5

by David Greene

翻译：德孟

2013年4月，J.K.罗琳隐瞒了自己的身份，以笔名“罗伯特·加尔布雷思”出版了“科莫兰·斯特莱克”（Comoran Strike）系列的第一本犯罪推理小说《布谷鸟的呼唤》（The Cuckoo’s Calling）。此举曝光时，众皆哗然。2014年6月，同一系列的第二部小说《蚕》（The Silkworm）出版。2015年10月，罗琳推出了系列第三部小说《罪恶生涯》（Career of Evil），随后在11月，她接受了关于新书的采访。在本文节选的片段中，罗琳笑谈了自己笔名背后的小趣事。

(Soundbite of song, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”)

David Greene (Host): This is from the band Blue Öyster Cult. And the author Robert Galbraith loves them. Actually, lyrics from this group are all over Galbraith’s latest book, “Career of Evil.”

J. K. Rowling: To be honest, it’s the guitar1)hook. I’m a real2)sucker for guitars...and always have been.

Greene: OK.

Rowling: I’ve had a3)crush on many, many of guitarists.

Greene: OK, let’s4)sort something out here. Robert Galbraith is actually a pen name for the woman who brought the world this.

(Soundbite of music, “Hedwig’s Theme”)

Greene: “Harry Potter.” Yes, it’s J. K. Rowling. A few years ago, she wanted to start writing5)crime novels but didn’t want people to know it was her. And so she hid behind the name Robert Galbraith. It worked for a little while. She was6)outed after the first novel came out in 2013,which means, among other things, she can now actually do interviews. But she’s still using the name on her crime novels, and Robert Galbraith certainly still lives on in her mind.

Rowling: I mean, Robert’s a very real person to me.

Greene: Oh, yeah? What’s, what’s he look like? What’s, what’s the image we should have?

Rowling: Well, he’s younger than me.

Greene: OK.

Rowling: But he’s a kind of7)craggy guy. I had a whole...um,8)biography...very9)detailed biography worked out for him. There are certain10)individuals who helped me in this, and we, together,11)concocted a12)CV for Robert Galbraith, who is ex-13)military and who is working in the14)private security industry. And that’s why when he produces this novel, he doesn’t want to have his face15)plastered all over his books because he has a day job. And I have to say that the whole16)cover worked really17)remarkably well.

Greene: You know, I, I know that...um, I mean, your18)publisher knew who you were, so19)in terms of finding the20)purity of a frst-time author， that， that wasn’t a part of it. But, but in terms of your relationship to21)reviewers and readers, um, I mean, what, what was the different...

Rowling: Well, actually…Sorry to22)interrupt.

Greene: No, no.

Rowling: But actually, my publisher didn’t know who I was when they frst saw the book.

Greene: Oh, you gave them the23)manuscript—they didn’t know that you were J. K. Rowling?

Rowling: Oh, no, no, no, no, no...

Greene: Wow!

Rowling: ...no, no. My editor saw it without knowing who I was, yeah.

Greene: Wow. And then your editor accepted the manuscript, and you were like, hey, by the way...

蓝牡蛎崇拜乐队（Blue Öyster Cult）是成立于1969年的美国乐队，被称为重金属摇滚的鼻祖。其作品多为风格鲜明的科幻及恐怖题材。1986年以后乐队停止活动，后于1998年复出。其代表作是于1976年推出的《（别害怕）死神》（(Don’t Fear) The Reaper）。而他们的歌曲《罪恶生涯》（Career of Evil）的标题和歌词皆被罗琳的新作所引用。罗琳的新作中有不少于50个地方引用了该乐队的歌曲标题或歌词，乐队的主唱兼吉他手还成为了书中的角色。

1) hook [hʊk] n. 引诱手段

2) sucker ['sʌkə] n. 对……着迷的人，容易上当的傻子

3) crush [krʌʃ] n.（短暂的）迷恋

4) sort out 解决，整理

5) crime [kraIm] n. 犯罪

6) out [aʊt] v. 揭露，使暴露，公布

7) craggy ['krægI] adj. 粗犷的，多皱纹的

8) biography [baI'ɒgrəfI] n. 传记

9) detailed ['diːteIld] adj. 详细的

10) individual [IndI'vIdjʊəl] n. 个人

11) concoct [kən'kɒkt] v. 策划

12) CV=curriculum vitae，简历

13) military ['mIlItərI] n. 军人

14) private security industry 私人安保行业

15) plaster ['plaːstə] v. 醒目地张贴

16) cover ['kʌvə] n. 虚假的背景和身份

17) remarkably [rI'maːkəblI] adv. 显著地，非常地

18) publisher ['pʌblIʃə] n. 出版者，发行人

19) in terms of 就……而言，在……方面

20) purity ['pjʊərItI] n.（语言、风格等的）纯粹，纯正

21) reviewer [rI'vjuːə] n. 评论者，评论家

22) interrupt [Intə'rʌpt] v. 中断，插嘴

23) manuscript ['mænjʊskrIpt] n. 原稿，手稿

Rowling: Well, we had this very, very, very funny lunch where he didn’t know who he was coming to meet. He thought he was meeting my24)agent, who was also Robert’s agent, and then I25)turned up. So that was...that was, eh, one of the most26)memorable lunches of all our lives.

Greene: Your editor was like...

Rowling: I remember...

Greene: ...“Yo, what you, J. K., what are you doing here?”

Rowling: Well, he looked at me, I think...he said, he, sorry, I remember him putting his hands in his hair and saying, “This is too much information.”

Greene: OK. So her editor knew Robert Galbraith was J. K. Rowling, and he kept it a secret. But then a newspaper got a27)tip and revealed who Galbraith really was. Did you get what you were looking for28)out of that pen name? I mean, now that you were outed, do you feel like you, you know...

Rowling: I think I, I think I did. I’ll be honest and say, I wish I had longer. I had this,29)in retrospect, perhaps crazy hope that I’d get three books out. I was never going to out myself. But I was...I always knew if the books had any success, it would become harder and harder to remain30)anonymous because, quite reasonably, people would say, well, I would like to interview him or ask him some questions. And it was going to become a diffcult pose to31)sustain.

Greene: Someone would try to32)track you down in the woods or something and find you.

Rowling: Yeah. And, yeah. And that’s the way it goes. You know, when I...you feel...well, OK, that’s fair game. When I was outed, I was sad that...the game was up.

Greene: That’s Robert Galbraith...OK, J. K. Rowling. Her latest crime novel “Career of Evil” is out now, and she talks much more about it elsewhere in the show.

24) agent ['eIdʒənt] n. 代理商，经纪人

25) turn up 出现，露脸

26) memorable ['memərəbəl] adj. 难忘的

27) tip [tIp] n. 内幕消息

28) out of 从……中

29) in retrospect 回顾

30) anonymous [ə'nɒnIməs] adj. 无名的，匿名的

31) sustain [sə'steIn] v. 维持，支撑

32) track sb. down 追踪某人

语法小知识

What is/are sb./sth. doing…? 可用于询问为什么某人或某物出现在某个地方。例如：What are these shoes doing on my desk?为什么这些鞋子在我的书桌上？

（歌曲《（别害怕）死神》片段）

大卫·格林（主持人）：歌曲来自蓝牡蛎崇拜乐队。而作家罗伯特·加尔布雷思喜爱这个乐队。事实上，在加尔布雷思的新书《罪恶生涯》中随处可见这个乐队的歌词。

J.K.罗琳：说实话，这是出于吉他的诱惑。我是个真正的吉他乐迷……一直都是。

格林：好吧。

罗琳：我迷恋过很多，很多吉他手。

格林：好，我们来理清楚一件事。罗伯特·加尔布雷思其实是一个女人的笔名，她创造了以下这个世界。

（音乐《海德薇主题曲》片段）

格林：《哈利·波特》。没错，正是J.K.罗琳。几年前，她想要开始写犯罪小说，但又不想让人知道是她写的。因此她以“罗伯特·加尔布雷思”这个名字隐瞒了自己的身份。有那么一小段时间是瞒得住的。但是在2013年她的第一本小说出版后，她的身份就曝光了。这就意味着她现在确实可以接受采访，以及做其他很多事了。但她的犯罪小说仍然署名罗伯特·加尔布雷思，而罗伯特·加尔布雷思仍继续活在她的脑海中。

罗琳：我想说，罗伯特对我来说是个相当真实的人。

格林：哦，是吗？他长……长什么样？我们该怎样想象他的形象？

罗琳：嗯，他比我年轻。

格林：好的。

罗琳：但他是个比较粗犷的男人。我有一整部，呃，为他而设计的传记……非常详细的传记。有几个人协助我，我们共同为罗伯特·加尔布雷思建了一份简历。他是军人出身，如今在私人安保行业工作。这就是他推出这部小说时不希望在书上露脸的原因，因为他有份全职工作。而且我得说整个假身份掩盖得十分成功。

格林：你知道，我，我了解……嗯，我是说，你的出版商知道你是谁，所以倘若是初出茅庐的作者，他们就会审视其语言是否纯正，而你却不用面对这个。但就你和评论者、读者的关系而言，呃，我的意思是，（他们和出版商的评价）有什么不同……

罗琳：嗯，事实上……抱歉打断一下。

格林：不，没关系。

罗琳：但实际上，我的出版商首次看到这本书时，他们并不知道我是谁。

格林：哦，你把手稿给了他们—而他们不知道你是J.K.罗琳？

罗琳：噢，不不不不不……

格林：哇！

罗琳：……不，不。是我的编辑在不知情时看了手稿，对。

格林：哇。然后你的编辑接受了这份稿子，而你说，嘿，顺便说一下……

罗琳：唔，在他不知道自己将要跟谁见面的情况下，我们一起吃了顿非常、非常、非常搞笑的午餐。他以为他要和我的经纪人，也是罗伯特的经纪人见面，然后我就出现了。所以那是……那是，呃，我们这辈子最难忘的午餐之一。

格林：你的编辑当时说……

罗琳：我记得……

格林：……“哟，你在这，J.K.，你为什么在这儿？”

罗琳：唔，他看着我，我想想……他说，他，不好意思，我记得他用手捋着头发说，“信息量太大了。”

格林：好。所以编辑知道罗伯特·加尔布雷思就是J.K.罗琳，但他保守了这个秘密。但后来一家报社得到了小道消息，揭露了加尔布雷思的真面目。你有没有得到你想从这个笔名中寻求的东西？我是说，既然你已经暴露了，你感觉自己像自己吗，你明白我的意思的……

罗琳：我认为，我认为我得到了。我想说句心里话，我希望我能隐瞒得久一点。回头想想，我有过或许算是疯狂的愿望，希望自己能瞒到出完三本书。我从没打算主动揭露自己。但我是……我一直都明白只要这几部书取得任何成功，继续保持匿名就会变得越来越困难。因为人们会说，哎，我想采访一下他或者问他几个问题。这是情理之中的事。那么要维持这个状态就会变得困难。

格林：有人会试图在树林里追踪你之类的，把你揭露。

罗琳：对。是的。现实就是这样的。你知道，当我……你感觉到……嗯，好吧，这是公平游戏。当我被揭露的时候，我为游戏结束而难过。

格林：这就是罗伯特·加尔布雷思……好吧，是J.K.罗琳。她的最新犯罪小说《罪恶生涯》现已面世，在另外的节目中她会谈到更多关于这本新书的内容。