《猶勝我的文字》中英文完整版 - 李安

《猶勝我的文字》中英文完整版
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More Powerful Than My Words (猶勝我的文字)


[中時人間] 斷背山 影音重現記
◎安妮．普露 ◎宋瑛堂／譯 (2006.03.05)

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斑痕纍纍的咖啡壺 小說<斷背山>作者談電影《斷背山》

(譯文完整刊載於2006三月號印刻文學生活誌)

懷俄明‧安妮普露 (Annie Proulx)‧文
溫哥華‧宋瑛堂‧譯

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"More powerful than my words" (by Annie Proulx)
February 4, 2006


ANNIE PROULX, the author of Brokeback Mountain, doubted her story
of illicit love in rural Wyoming could ever be filmed. Then she
saw Ang Lee's movie and was overwhelmed.


AS A STUDENT OF history and a writer of fiction, I have focused
my interest on social and economic change in rural communities -
Vermont, Newfoundland, Texas, Wyoming. I am something of a
geographic determinist, believing that regional landscapes,
climate and topography dictate local cultural traditions and
kinds of work, and thereby the events on which my stories are
built. Landscape is central to this rural fiction. I have been
interested in the disappearance of dairy hill farms in New
England, the collapsing fishing industry in Atlantic Canada and
the slow fade of cattle-ranching in the west.

我熱愛研讀歷史、撰寫小說，興趣集中在鄉村社群的社會與經濟變遷，地
點包括佛蒙州、紐芬蘭、德州、懷俄明州。我可以說是地理決定論者，相
信一地的景觀、氣候與地形能主宰當地文化傳統與工作類型，而我創作的
事件也構築在這些事物之上。這種鄉村小說以自然景觀為中心。我一向有
興趣書寫的背景包括新英格蘭區丘陵酪農業的消失、加拿大的大西洋沿岸
漁業的傾頹過程，以及美國西部牧牛業的緩蝕現象。

Close Range contains nine stories, including Brokeback Mountain,
ostensibly concerned with the Wyoming landscape and making a
living in hard, isolated livestock-raising communities dominated
by white masculine values, but also holding subliminal fantasies.
Most of the stories are loosely based on historical events, such
as the botched castration in People in Hell Just Want a Drink of
Water.

《懷俄明州故事集》(Close Range: Wyoming Stories) 一書收錄九則短篇
小說，《斷背山》是其中之一。《懷俄明州故事集》表面上的主題是懷俄
明的自然景觀，主角是白種男性價值觀宰制的當地畜牧社群，故事探討當
地人在孤立環境中刻苦求生的事跡，但篇篇故事中也隱含想像。這些故事
中，多數概略以史實為根據，如《身居地獄但求杯水》中描寫的閹割失敗
故事。

Brokeback was not connected to any one incident but based on a
coalescence of observations over many years, small things here
and there.Some time in early 1997 the story took shape. One night
in a bar upstate I had noticed an older ranch-hand, maybe in his
late 60s, obviously short on the world's luxury goods. Although
spruced up for Friday night, his clothes were a little ragged,
boots stained and worn. I had seen him around, working cows,
helping with sheep, taking orders from a ranch manager. He was
muscular in a stringy kind of way. He leaned against the back
wall and his eyes were fastened, not on the dozens of handsome
and flashing women in the room, but on the young cowboys playing
pool. Maybe he was following the game, maybe he knew the players,
maybe one was his son or nephew, but there was something in his
expression, a kind of bitter longing, that made me wonder if he
was country gay. Then I began to consider what it might have been
like for him - not the real person against the wall, but for any
ill-informed, confused not-sure-of-what-he-was-feeling youth
growing up in homophobic rural Wyoming. A few weeks later, I
listened to the vicious rant of an elderly bar-cafe owner who was
incensed that two "homos" had come in the night before and
ordered dinner. She said that if her bar regulars had been there
(it was darts tournament night), things would have gone badly for
them. Brokeback was constructed on the small but tight idea of a
couple of home-grown country kids, opinions and self-knowledge
shaped by the world around them, finding themselves in emotional
waters of increasing depth. I wanted to develop the story through
a kind of literary sostenente.

《斷背山》與單一事件並無關聯，但創作的根據是經過多年的觀察點滴融
合而成。故事成型的時間點落在一九九七年初。某天晚上，我在懷州北部
一間酒吧注意到一名老牧場工，大約年近七十。他顯然欠缺奢侈品，儘管
在周五晚盛裝找樂子，衣服仍稍嫌襤褸，皮靴骯髒破舊。在這之前，我在
附近見過他照顧母牛、幫忙趕羊、聽任一名牧場經理的指揮。他的身材細
瘦，筋肉結實。他背靠著酒吧後方的牆壁，現場有數十名清秀佳人與美女，
他的視線卻固定在打撞球的年輕牛仔。也許他認識撞球手，也許其中一人
是他的兒子或甥侄，但他的表情透露出一種殷切渴望的意念，讓我懷疑他
是鄉村型的同性戀者。隨後我開始思索他生長的情境——我指的並非背靠
酒吧牆的這人，而是泛指所有生長於仇視同性戀的懷州鄉下、資訊貧乏、
意識混沌、不確定內心感覺的年輕人。幾星期後，我聆聽一位經營餐飲酒
吧的老婦人抱怨，她說前晚店裏來了兩個「homo」（譯註﹕英文的homo帶
有嚴重貶意）吃晚餐，讓她火冒三丈。她還說，假如當時店裏坐了常客
（那一夜舉辦飛鏢錦標賽），那兩人肯定有苦頭受。《斷背山》的骨架小
巧而緊緻，圍繞著兩名土生土長的鄉下男孩，思想與自覺皆由四周環境形
塑，兩人卻發現涉足漸行漸深的情感水域。我當時希望透過一種文學
sostenente（支架）來推演故事。

The early 1960s seemed the right period. The two characters had
to have grown up on isolated hard-scrabble ranches and were
clearly homophobic themselves, especially the Ennis Del Mar
character. Both wanted to be cowboys, be part of the Great
Western Myth, but it didn't work out that way; Ennis never got to
be more than a rough-cut ranch hand and Jack Twist chose rodeo as
an expression of cowboy. Neither was ever a top hand, and they
met herding sheep, animals most real cowpokes despise. Although
they were not really cowboys (the word cowboy is often used
derisively in the west by those who do ranch work), the urban
critics dubbed it a tale of two gay cowboys. No. It is a story of
destructive rural homophobia. Although there are many places in
Wyoming where gay men did and do live together in harmony with
the community, it should not be forgotten that a year after this
story was published, Matthew Shepard was tied to the buck fence
outside the most enlightened town in the state, Laramie, home of
the University of Wyoming. Note too the fact that Wyoming has the
highest suicide rate in the country, and that the preponderance
of those people who kill themselves are elderly single men.

場景設定在六○年代初似乎對味。兩位主角必定生長於孤立而困苦的牧場，
顯然自己也仇視同性情慾，恩尼司尤其忌諱。兩人都想當牛仔，想成為西
部大迷思的一分子，無奈事與願違﹔恩尼司充其量只是粗獷的牧場工，傑
克則走上牛仔競技的路，過過牛仔癮。兩人皆成不了氣候。後來兩人牧羊
時結識，而正牌牧牛工多數鄙視牧羊的差事。雖然兩人並非真正牛仔（在
美國西部牧場業界，「牛仔」一詞通常貶多於褒），城市影評人卻標榜
《斷背山》是兩名同志牛仔的故事。不對。本片敘述的是具摧毀暴力的鄉
村恐同情結。懷州不乏同志家庭與鄰里和諧相處的例子，過去與現代皆然，
但我們不應該忘記，《斷背山》一文刊載後一年，卻發生同性戀青年馬修‧
薛坡德（Matthew Shepherd）遭人捆綁於圍籬樁凌遲的慘案，案發地點忝
為懷州大學的所在地樂壤彌（Laramie），也是全州思想最開明的城市。
同樣值得一提的是，懷俄明亦是全美自殺率最高的一州，而自戕的案主多
數為單身老漢。

In my mind, isolation and altitude - the fictional Brokeback
Mountain, a place empowering and inimical - began to shape the
story. The mountain had to force everything that happened to
these two young men. I have many times heard Wyomingites who have
gone east for one reason or another, talk about how badly they
missed their natural terrain, the long sight-lines, the clear
thin air, how claustrophobic were trees and how dead the
atmosphere without the constant flow of wind, and I find it so
myself. It seemed to me that the story could balance only on love,
something all humans need and give, whether to one's children,
parents, or a lover of the opposite or same sex. I wanted to
explore long-lasting love and its possible steep price tag,
homophobic antipathy and denial. These characters did something
that, as a writer, I had never experienced - they began to get
very damn real. Usually I deal in obedient characters who do what
they are told, but Jack and Ennis soon seemed more vivid than
many of the flesh-and-blood people around me and there emerged an
antiphonal back-and-forth relationship between writer and
character. I've heard other writers mention this experience, but
it was the first time for me.

在我腦海中，孤立與高山這兩個特點開始虛構出《斷背山》，而這座山具
有觸發潛力的作用，也可隨時反目成仇，發生在兩名年輕主人翁身上的一
切必然源自這座山。我時常聽見為了種種原因而東遷的懷州人有感而發，
他們深切懷念老家的天然山水、綿長的視覺線、清澈淡薄的空氣，認為樹
林令他們產生密室恐懼症，而缺乏徐徐不間斷的清風令大氣層死氣沉沉。
我也有同感。我認為本故事唯一能與大自然抗衡的事物只有愛，而愛是普
世人類需要並付出的東西，無論對象是個人的子女、雙親或同性異性愛人
皆然。我想探討歷久不衰的愛與可能付出的慘痛代價，探討仇視同性戀的
情結與否認性向的堅持。我知道這故事將充滿禁忌卻仍執意動筆。故事中
的人物冒出了一種現象，而這種現象是我從事文字工作至今未曾體會過的
經驗——這些角色開始變得活靈活現。我應對的角色通常對我言聽計從，
但傑克與恩尼司不久卻變得比我周遭許多血肉之軀更為生龍活虎，進而與
我建立起文人與虛構人物間的應答輪唱關係。我聽過文字工作者提及這種
經驗，如今卻首度發生在我身上。

As I worked on the story over the following months, scenes
appeared and disappeared. (The story went through more than 60
revisions.) The mountain encounter had to be, shall we say
"seminal"? - and brief. One spring, years before, I had been in
the Big Horns and noticed distant flocks of sheep on great empty
slopes. From the heights, I had been able to see 100 miles and
more to the plains. In such isolated high country, away from
opprobrious comment and watchful eyes, I thought it would be
plausible for the characters to get into a sexual situation.
That's nothing new or out of the ordinary; livestock workers have
a blunt and full understanding of the sexual behaviours of man
and beast. High lonesome situation, a couple of guys - expediency
sometimes rules, and nobody needs to talk about it and that's how
it is. One old sheep rancher, dead now, used to say he always
sent up two men to tend the sheep "so's if they get lonesome they
can poke each other". From that perspective Aguirre, the hiring
man, would have winked and said nothing, and Ennis' remark to
Jack that this was a one-shot deal would have been accurate.

接下來幾個月，我撰寫這篇故事期間添加了部分場景，也讓有些場景消失
（這一篇歷經超過六十次改寫）。 山上邂逅的過程必須——姑且用「萌生
情愫」（譯註﹕seminal一語雙關，可做「初期的」與「精液的」解釋）這
詞吧——而且稍縱即逝。從前有一年春天，我來到大角山區（Big Horns），
留意到遠方大片空曠的山坡地上有幾群羊。登高望遠的我極目可見一百多
哩外的平原。在如此與世隔絕的高山區，遠離狂言怒罵與有色眼鏡，我認
為文中人可能產生情慾激盪。這種事既不新奇也不稀罕﹔與牲畜為伍的工
作者完全能諒解人獸之間的性互動。男男置身寂寥的山巒之間，有時只圖
將就，事後雙方絕口不提，就這麼簡單。一位老牧羊工生前常說，他習慣
一次派兩男上山趕羊，「如果覺得寂寞，兩人可以互戳。」假設從這個角
度來看，文中僱用兩男牧羊的阿吉瑞會眨一眼示意，不予置喙，而恩尼司
對傑克表示僅此一次的說法也沒錯。

The complicating factor was that they both fell into once-in-a-
lifetime love. I strove to give Jack and Ennis depth and
complexity and to mirror real life by rasping that love against
societal norms that both men obeyed, both of them marrying and
begetting children, both loving their children, and, in a way,
their wives. Many gay men marry and have children and are good
fathers. Because this is a rural story, family and children are
important. Most stories (and many films) I have seen about gay
relationships take place in urban settings and never have
children in them. The rural gay men I know like children, and if
they don't have their own, they usually have nephews and nieces
who claim a big place in their hearts. For both characters to
marry women enlarges the story and introduces two young wives who
move from innocence and happy trust to some pretty hard lessons
about real life. Alma and Lureen give the story a universal
connection, for men and women need each other, sometimes in
unusual ways.

讓情況複雜化的因素是，兩人產生了終身難得的戀情。我極力為傑克與恩
尼司製造縱深與複雜性，也極力映照真實生活，方法是讓戀情與兩人遵奉
的社會準則產生摩擦，讓兩人各自成家生子，疼愛小孩，就某種意義而言
也愛妻子。許多男同性戀結婚生子，照樣是好父親。由於本故事的背景是
鄉野，家庭與兒女更形重要。我見過以同志關係為主題的多數小說（以及
許多電影），場景皆設定在都會區，而且從未生兒育女。我所知的鄉村男
同志喜歡小孩，如果自己膝下猶虛，通常侄甥輩會在他們心中劃出大片勢
力範圍。若讓兩名男主角各與女人結婚，不僅能橫向擴充故事，也能介紹
兩名女子的變化——從無知清純、歡心信任的少婦，演變為苦嘗人世辛酸
的人妻。艾爾瑪與露琳使本故事獲得不分男女的迴響，因為男人與女人互
相需要對方，有時候需要的方式逸出常態。

It was a hard story to write. Sometimes it took weeks to get the
right phrase or descriptor for particular characters. I remember
vividly that driving on Owl Canyon road in Colorado down over the
state line one afternoon and thinking about Jack Twist's father,
the expression "stud duck", which I had heard somewhere, came to
me as the right way to succinctly describe that hard little man,
and a curve in the road became the curve that killed Ennis'
parents. The scene for the kiss when Jack and Ennis reunite after
four years occurred in its entirety as I drove past the Laramie
cement plant - so much for scenery. In fact, I did most of the
writing while I was driving. The most difficult scene was the
paragraph where, on the mountain, Ennis holds Jack and rocks back
and forth, humming, the moment mixed with childhood loss and his
refusal to admit he was holding a man. This paragraph took
forever to get right, and I played Charlie Haden's and Pat
Metheny's Spiritual, from their album Beyond the Missouri Sky
(short stories) uncountable times, trying to get the words. I was
trying to write the inchoate feelings of Jack and Ennis, the sad
impossibility of their liaison, which for me was expressed in
that music. To this day, I cannot hear that track without Jack
and Ennis appearing before me. The scraps that feed a story come
from many cupboards.

這故事難寫。有時為了替某角色找出貼切的文句或描述詞，往往一斟酌就
耗上數星期。我至今仍印象鮮明的是，某日下午，我從科羅拉多州開車上
貓頭鷹峽谷路，越過州際線，心裏想著傑克的父親，這時我不知在何處聽
過的「老大公鴨」一詞浮現腦海，我認為用來描述這個鐵石心腸的矮子簡
潔有力，而貓頭鷹峽谷路的彎道也成了恩尼司雙親斷魂之地。至於傑克與
恩尼司睽違四年後重逢熱吻的一幕，全部靈感來自我開車途經樂壤彌水泥
廠的時候——稱不上是美景。事實上，我從事「寫作」通常利用的是開車
時間。最困難的一幕是恩尼司在山上摟著傑克哼歌搖擺，那一刻混合了童
年失怙的情緒與拒絕承認自己抱的是男人的矛盾。這一個段落，我怎麼寫
也覺得不對勁，只好反覆播放查理‧海登與帕特‧麥席尼專輯Beyond the
Missouri Sky (Short Stories)裏的Spiritual，聽了無數次，盡量從中
汲取靈感。我想捕捉的是傑克與恩尼司內心初具雛形的情愫、兩人關係的
悲苦無奈，而這首歌正能為我表達出這些意境。直至今日，每聽到這首曲
子時，傑克與恩尼司必定現身我眼前。哺育一則故事的殘餚往往來自許多
碗櫥。

I WAS AN AGEING FEMALE writer, married too many times, and though
I have a few gay friends, there were things I was not sure about.
I talked with a sheep rancher to be sure that it was historically
accurate to use a couple of white ranch kids as flock-tenders in
the early '60s, for I knew that in previous decades it had been
mostly Basques who did this job, and today it is often men from
the South American countries. But jobs were scarce in Wyoming in
that period and even married couples with children got hired to
herd sheep. One of my oldest friends, Tom Watkin, with whom I
once published a rural newspaper, read and commented on the story
as it developed. I thought too much about this story. It was
supposed to be Ennis who had dreams about Jack, but I had dreams
about both of them. I still had little distance from it when it
was published in The New Yorker on October 13, 1997. I expected
letters from outraged religio-moral types but instead got them
from men, quite a few of them Wyoming ranch hands and cowboys and
the fathers of men, who said "you told my story", or "I now
understand what my son went through". I still, eight years later,
get those heart-wrenching letters.

我是個年邁的文字工作者，結離婚紀錄多不勝數，雖然擁有幾位同志朋友，
有時動筆時仍難免產生疑慮。我訪問過一名牧羊業者，以確定六○年代初
的業者有無可能僱用兩名白人青年趕羊，因為我知道，六○年代前的幾十
年，牧羊人多半是巴斯克人（編按﹕Basque，原居於庇里牛斯山麓的民族），
而現在通常由南美洲男人包辦牧羊業。然而那段時期懷州工作難找，即使
帶了小孩的已婚夫婦也有可能受僱看羊。我曾與湯姆‧瓦特金（Watkin）
發行過一份鄉村報紙，他是我最老的朋友之一。在我創作《斷背山》的過
程中，曾承蒙他閱讀指教。這個故事讓我朝思暮想，原本應該是恩尼司夢
見傑克，現在卻成了我夢見他們兩人。一九九七年十月十三日發表於《紐
約客》雜誌後，我仍不肯釋懷。我本以為會接到震怒的宗教道德人士撻伐
的信件，但來信者卻是男人，其中相當多數屬於懷州牧場工與牛仔，以及
兒子已成人的父親。他們說「妳道出了我的故事」或是「我總算明瞭我兒
子的苦衷」。時過八載，我仍不時接到這類令人心痛如絞的信件。

When I got Diana Ossana's and Larry McMurtry's request to option
the story for a film with money from their own pockets - unusual
for screen-writers - I was immediately beset with doubts. I
simply did not think this story could be a film: it was too
sexually explicit for presumed mainstream tastes, the general
topic of homophobia was a hot potato unless gingerly skirted,
and, given Hollywood actors' reluctance to play gay men, it would
likely be difficult to find a good cast, not to say a director.
It was only because I trusted Larry's and Diana's writing skills,
film experience, and especially Larry's incomparable knowledge of
the west's mores and language that I signed the contract. It
didn't take them long. Within a few months I was reading their
powerful screenplay constructed from the story, but richly
augmenting it, adding new flesh to its long bones, filling out
the personalities, introducing a little humour and new characters
who moved the story along its close-set rails. Yes, the
screenplay was beautiful, but my worries continued. What
producers would be interested in a story about homophobic gay
Wyoming ranch hands? What actors would have the guts to do this?
What director would take the risk? How severely would the
screenplay be clawed to pieces? The freedom-granting, yet hostile,
landscape, of course, would be utterly lost, and with it, the
literal grounding of the story. I thought the screenplay was as
far as the movie would go, and I wasn't sorry

劇作家自掏腰包買下改編權是少有的情形。賴瑞‧麥克默吉與黛安娜‧歐杉
納自費向我要求買下《斷背山》的改編劇本權時，我立即充滿疑慮。我根本
不認為這故事能拍成電影，原因有三﹕第一、據推測，主流品味無法接受如
此露骨的情色描繪﹔第二、如不謹慎閃躲的話，仇視同性戀的大主題將成為
燙手的山芋﹔第三、好萊塢演員不願飾演男同志（儘管許多男同志演起異性
戀來精彩萬分），屆時可能很難湊出合適的演員陣容，物色導演更是難上加
難。我信任賴瑞與黛安娜的改編技巧與拍片經驗，尤其認為賴瑞對西部風俗
道德與語言的掌握力無人能比，因此才簽下合約。他們的動作很快。短短幾
幾個月後，我拜讀到兩人改編的劇本，不僅大受感動，也發現劇本讓原文豐
富不少，為長長的骨架增添新血肉，充實了人物個性，帶入些許幽默與新角
色，提升劇情推演的步調。劇本改編得漂亮沒錯，我仍感到憂心忡忡。這劇
本刻劃的是排斥同性情慾的同志牧場工，有什麼樣的製作人會感興趣﹖什麼
樣的演員有膽飾演﹖什麼樣的導演願冒這個險﹖開拍之後，劇本會支離破碎
得多嚴重﹖能解放人心卻時而殘酷不仁的景觀，無疑將被遺漏，而隨之付諸
東流的是故事的文學根基。我以為電影列車開到劇本這一站後必定停擺。果
真如此，我也不覺得遺憾。

Screen-writers almost always deal with adapting novels to film,
and necessarily great chunks are excised, crunched, plots
straitjacketed, dialogue transmuted into television-speak. This
was different. Larry and Diana were working with a short story
that came with a sturdy framework. But there was not enough there.
I write in a tight, compressed style that needs air and loosening
to unfold into art. They had to invent, enlarge and imagine. It
was, in a real way, a collaboration. I began to wonder why movie
people didn't prefer short stories to novels, since the
opportunity for original work is built in.

劇本作家改編為電影的材料幾乎清一色是小說，因此有必要大幅切除、壓
縮內容，將原有情節綁手綁腳，對話也質變為電視語言。這一次不同。賴
瑞與黛安娜改編的素材是架構堅實的短篇小說，可供改編的內容反而不夠
多。我的寫作風格屬於緊湊、濃縮，需要灌注空氣並加以鬆綁，以開展為
藝術品，因此他們必須捏造、擴張並想像。實際而言，改編本片劇本的工
作等於是與原作攜手創作。我開始納悶的是，為何電影人不棄長篇而就短
篇，因為改編短篇小說時，本身就具有劇作家原創的空間。

Over the next few years, several producers and directors appeared
on the horizon, but there were problems with all of them. Larry
liked an interesting young filmmaker who had made a funny and
original short feature. I met this fellow in Tucson, liked him,
and hoped he would understand the place and the characters. We
arranged to meet again in Wyoming so he could look at the terrain
and possible scene sites. He came with a photographer, adviser,
location person and others. That meeting turned into something I
think of as "The Wyoming Death Trip". From the start, everywhere
the tender-hearted city-folk looked there was a dead animal.
First, it was deer by the side of the highway, then squashed
rabbits on the tarmac. We stopped at a sheep-herder's home
quarters. He was out with the sheep, but, as it was spring, there
was a makeshift pen with a few dozen bum lambs in it. One of the
film entourage spied a dead lamb by the side of the fence and
freaked. He decided (erroneously) that the lambs were starving to
death, and, a man of action, rustled around until he found a bag
of feed, poured some into a pan and set it in the pen. Keith, the
ranch hand showing us around, blanched. I suggested we leave the
lambs, hoping the sheep-herder paid to look after them would not
pursue us with a machete. We went to an untenanted house that
might work as Ennis' and Alma's place. But as soon as we stepped
inside, there, near the hem of a long curtain that reached the
floor, lay a dead mouse. We finished the day at a lonely ranch
house outside Ucross called "the old Childress place". Empty for
years, the crawl space below was a haven for rattlesnakes, the
interior home to other animals needing shelter. We looked into a
dusty room with a hole in the ceiling where once the stovepipe
exited. The Los Angeles people sucked in their breaths as one,
for on the floor lay the dried remains of a rabbit, discarded by
an owl. That was it. These urban people just did not get it that
Wyoming has a lot of wildlife and that the wildlife sometimes
gets dead. Animals and rural places were clearly alien to them,
and just as clearly I knew they could not make this film. And I
pretty much gave up on the whole idea. It wasn't going to happen
because there were no producers or directors who understood the
rural west, the rural anything. Old story.

接下來幾年間，陸續有幾位製作人與導演表示興趣，但每一個人都遇到了
問題。賴瑞看上了一位年輕電影人，他的背景很有意思，曾拍過一支有趣
而別具創意的短片。我在突桑與他碰面，很欣賞他，希望他能了解實地與
劇中角色，因此安排他來懷州，由我帶他參觀山水與可能的拍片地點。他
帶了攝影師、顧問、地點探勘者以及其他人員。現在回憶起來，我將那次
的見面暱稱為「懷州死亡之旅」。從一開始，這群細神經的城市人所見之
處必定出現動物死屍。首先是一頭鹿，被撞死在公路邊，然後是柏油路面
上被壓扁的幾隻兔子。我們來到一位牧羊人的住家。他正好外出放羊，但
當時是春天，一座臨時羊欄內關了幾十頭bum lamb。電影人之一瞧見了圍
欄邊死了一頭小羊，大驚失色，認定（誤認）整群小羊有被餓死之虞。坐
而言不如起而行的他四處翻找，終於拖出一袋飼料，在平底鍋裏倒了一些，
放進圍欄裏。帶我們參觀的牧場工吉斯（Keith）氣得臉色發白。我提議大
家別管小羊的死活，只希望領薪水的牧羊人別拿開山刀來追殺我們。我們
找到一間無人居住的房子，可能用來當作恩尼司與艾爾瑪的家，屋裏有一
道長長的落地窗簾，我們踏進屋裏，第一眼就看見窗簾邊躺了一隻死老鼠。
那天最後一站位於優克羅斯基金會（Ucross）旁的孤寂牧場屋，基金會稱
之為「秋崔斯老家」，已多年無主，地板下的空間成了響尾蛇的溫床，屋
內則躲了尋求蔽蔭的其他動物。我們探進一間塵封的房間，天花板有個洞，
原本是火爐煙囪的出口處。這群洛杉磯人不約而同吸氣後憋住，因為橫陳
地板上的是貓頭鷹拋下的死兔乾屍。就此打住。這群城市人無法理解懷州
到處是野生動物，而野生動物陳屍是常見的景象。顯而易見的是，對他們
而言，動物與鄉野是陌生的景象，而同樣顯而易見的是，我知道他們拍不
成這部片子。我差不多已經死心了。故事無法搬上大銀幕，因為沒有製作
人或導演能理解西部鄉野，無法體會任何鄉野。這不是什麼新聞。

A long time later, Focus films showed interest. That was
encouraging, as it, in an earlier incarnation known as Good
Machine, had produced the successful film version of The Laramie
Project. I had met one of the people involved with that film in
Denver one night, and we had gone up the street looking for a CD
of Jim White's Wrong-Eyed Jesus!, which was a great favourite of
mine at that time. So I was inclined towards Focus. They were
suggesting Ang Lee as the director, and I thought, here we go
again. Could a Taiwanese-born director, probably a thorough-going
urbanite, who had recently recreated The Hulk, understand Wyoming
and the subterranean forces of the place? I doubted it. But the
wheels were rolling now. I didn't know what to expect and tried
not to think about it.

過了許久，Focus公司表現出興趣，我感到鼓舞，因為Focus的前身是好機
器公司(Good Machine)，曾成功將「真相拼圖」（The Laramie Project）
改編成電影。在這之前，我曾在丹佛與該片工作人員之一認識，兩人上街
尋找吉姆‧懷特的《耶穌看走眼》。這片CD是我當時最喜歡的專輯。所以
我鍾意Focus。他們提議請李安執導，那時我心想，不會吧。一個出身台灣
的導演，也許是徹頭徹尾的都市人，最近才將《綠巨人浩克》搬上大銀幕，
他憑什麼能領會懷州和潛藏本地的地力﹖我真心懷疑。但製片的巨輪已開
始滾動。我愈想愈茫然，因此盡量別去想。

On a New York visit I met James Schamus briefly, and Ang Lee in a
funky boite far downtown. I was nervous about meeting Ang Lee,
despite his reputation as brilliant and highly skilled. Would we
have anything to say to each other? Were the cultural gaps
surmountable? We smiled and made small talk for a while and then,
reassured by something in his quietness, I said that I was very
afraid about this story, that making stories sometimes took me
into off-limits places and that I feared the film would not
follow that path. He said that he was afraid, too, that it would
be extremely difficult to make into a film. He said he had
recently lost his father. I remembered from my mother's death, a
few years earlier, the vast hole in the world that opened and
could not be pulled closed. I had a glimmering that Ang Lee might
use his sorrow creatively, transferring a personal sense of loss
to this film about two men for whom things cannot work out, that
he might be able to show the grief and anger that builds when we
must accept severe emotional wounding. I felt we both knew that
this story was risky and that he wanted to take the story on,
probably for the creative challenge and, perhaps, (though he
didn't say so) for the gasping euphoria when you get into unknown
but hard-driving imaginative projects. However slender, there was
a positive connection.

有一次我前往紐約，與詹姆士‧謝慕斯（James Schamus）短暫會晤，然後
在曼哈頓南端一家充滿奇趣的小餐廳與李安見面。雖然素聞李安精明能幹，
見面前我仍不免緊張。我們兩個找得到話題嗎﹖文化鴻溝是否難以跨越﹖
我們面帶微笑閒聊了片刻，接著，他的寡言讓我壯起膽子，我向他坦承自
己為這故事非常擔憂，坦承編寫小說的過程有時引領我進入禁區，而現在
我擔心改編成電影後，劇情無法隨原著恣意擅闖。他說他也很擔心，他認
為這故事改編成電影的困難度極高。他說他最近喪父。我憶起幾年前母親
過世時，彷彿天地之間開了一個大洞，再也無法合攏。遇見李安後，我心
生一線希望，認為李安或許能將悲傷化為創作力，將個人傷痛轉移到這部
兩男苦戀成空的電影。我期許他詮釋出面對慘重的情傷時堆積內心的那種
悲憤。我認為我倆心知這故事的風險度高，而他也願意接下這份戰帖，也
許看上的是創意的挑戰，也許（雖然他並未明言）為的是希望享受前景不
明卻必須用盡想像力的計劃時那種大口喘氣的欣快感。儘管兩人搭起的連
線細微，總算是條具正面意義的連線。

Later, there were some disagreements. In the written story the
motel scene, after a four-year hiatus, stood as central. During
their few hours in the Motel Siesta, Jack's and Ennis' paths were
irrevocably laid out. In the film that Ang Lee already had shaped
in his mind, the emotional surge contained in that scene would be
better shifted to a later point and melded with the men's painful
last meeting. I didn't understand this until I saw the film in
September 2005 and recognised the power of this timing. Although
I have always known that films and books have different rises and
falls, different shapes, it's easier to know that in the abstract
than on the killing ground. At some point, I wrote a letter
pleading for the motel scene, which went for naught. It was out
of my hands, no longer my story, but Ang Lee's film. And so I
said goodbye to Jack and Ennis and got on with other work.

後來我們略有意見相左的現象。依照原著，分隔四年後住進汽車旅館的一
幕具有中心意涵。傑克與恩尼司在午睡汽車旅館共度數小時之間，已為兩
人分別鋪下不歸路。李安已在腦裏完成佈局後，認為那一幕的情緒高潮最
好向後推移，融入兩人痛苦的最後私會。我一直不了解他的用意何在。後
來我在二○○五年九月看了電影，總算體會到導演如此安排所產生的劇力。
雖然我一向知道電影與原著的劇情起伏不一，轉折形態也互異，實際經歷
到兩者之間的衝突時才知道多難割捨。拍片過程中，我曾寫信懇求導演保
留汽車旅館那一幕，結果不了了之。我無計可施，《斷背山》已經不是我
的故事，而成了李安的電影。因此我向傑克與恩尼司道別，埋頭進行其他
工作。

Before I finally saw the film, I had heard from Larry and Diana
that it was very good, that the language was intact, that the
actors were superb. But I was not prepared for the emotional
hammering I got when I saw it. The characters roared back into my
mind, larger and stronger than they had ever been. Here it was,
the point that writers do not like to admit; film can be more
powerful than the written word. I realised that if Ang Lee had
been born in Barrow or Novosibirsk it would likely have been the
same. He understands human feelings and is not afraid to walk
into dangerous territory. Seeing the film disturbed me. I felt
that, just as the ancient Egyptians had removed a corpse's brain
through the nostril with a slender hook before mummification, the
cast and crew of this film, from the director down, had gotten
into my mind and pulled out images. Especially did I feel this
about Heath Ledger, who knew better than I how Ennis felt and
thought, whose intimate depiction of that achingly needy ranch
kid builds with frightening power. It is an eerie sensation to
see events you have imagined in the privacy of your mind, and
tried hopelessly to transmit to others through little black marks
on a page, loom up before you in an overwhelming visual
experience. I realised that I, as a writer, was having the rarest
film trip: my story was not mangled but enlarged into huge and
gripping imagery that rattled minds and squeezed hearts.

在我看見電影之前，我聽賴瑞與黛安娜稱讚電影很棒，對話是原音重現，
演員的演技也令人激賞。只是，我進戲院前並沒有心理準備，不知情緒即
將大受撞擊。原著的角色轟然重回腦海，比原本的角色更大更強。行筆至
此，我必須坦承一點，而這一點，文字工作者並不喜歡承認﹔在我們這個
時代，電影可以拍得比文字更具威力。我恍然大悟，就算李安出生在巴羅
（編按﹕Barrow，位於美國阿拉斯加州最北端）或新西伯利亞，結果可能
一樣。他能洞悉人類的七情六慾，而且不怕走進危險領域。欣賞這部電影
擾亂了我的情緒。古代埃及人製作木乃伊之前，必須以細鉤伸入屍體的鼻
孔鉤出腦袋，而這正是我對此片觀後感的寫照。我感覺本片的演員與工作
人員，從導演以降，全深入了我的心靈，鉤出一格格的畫面。希斯萊傑給
我的感受特別深刻。他比我更能體會恩尼司的心境與想法，能細膩勾勒出
渴望受人疼愛的小牧場工，而且愈演衝擊力愈驚人。原本是在私密的腦中
想像出的情境，極力透過書頁上的小黑點向他人傳達影像未果，如今卻活
生生呈現眼前，帶來一份排山倒海的視覺經驗，這是一種異樣的感受。我
明瞭到，身為文字創作者的我體驗到至為罕有的電影之旅﹕我的原著非但
未受肢解，反而茁壯為巨大而動人心弦的意象，震撼了大腦，壓擠了人心。

The film is intensely Wyoming. Although it was shot mostly in
Alberta, the production designer Judy Becker toured Texas and
Wyoming, noting landforms and long views. So visually accurate is
the film that a few weeks after I saw it for the first time, I
was driving through the Sierra Madre. It was a windless,
brilliant day, the aspen lit by slant-handed autumnal light;
hunting season and time for the fall shove-down when stockmen
with Forest Service allowances move their cows and sheep to the
lower slopes before the early storms. As I came around a corner I
had to stop to let a band of sheep cross the highway. In the
trees on the upslope stood a saddled horse, bedroll tied on
behind, rifle in scabbard; behind it stood a laden packhorse. No
rider in sight. I thought I would wait a minute and see if Jack
or Ennis might come out of the trees; then I shook my head,
feeling wacky to have tangled the film and reality, and pretty
sure that neither character was going to show.

這部電影分秒漲滿了懷俄明。李安讓動物死屍入鏡，也加入精彩的鬥毆鏡
頭，忠實呈現西部風情。雖然本片拍攝地點大半在加拿大的亞伯大省，製
片設計師茱蒂‧貝克事前周遊德州與懷州，記下地形地物與廣角景觀。由
於場景設計實在逼真，觀賞電影後幾星期，我開車途經母山，那天的天氣
晴朗無風，山楊木在斜射的秋陽下閃耀，此時正值狩獵季節，領森林處津
貼的牧場工在秋天開始趕牛羊下山，趁提早報到的風雪來襲前下山到海拔
較低的山坡。我駛過一個轉角，不得不停車讓羊群穿越公路。路邊上坡的
樹林裏站了一匹馬，背著馬鞍，後面捆著鋪蓋捲，步槍放在槍套中﹔這匹
馬的後方站了另一匹，背滿了貨物。四處不見馬主。我本想稍等一會兒，
看看傑克或恩尼司會不會走出樹林﹔但我隨即搖搖頭，暗罵自己精神失常，
居然分不清電影與現實。我相當確定他倆不會現身。

Aside from the two-faced landscape, aside from the virtuoso
acting, aside from the stunning and subtle make-up job of ageing
these two young men 20 years, an accumulation of very small
details gives the film authenticity and authority: Ennis' dirty
fingernails in a love scene; the old highway sign "entering
Wyoming" not seen here for decades; the slight paunch Jack
develops as he ages; the splotch of nail polish on Lureen's
finger in the painful telephone scene; her mother's perfect Texas
hair, Ennis and Jack sharing a joint instead of a cigarette in
the 1970s; the switched-around shirts; the speckled enamel coffee
pot; all accumulate and convince us of the truth of the story.

除了詭譎的景觀，除了精湛的演技，除了讓兩位青年瞬間老化二十歲的驚
人巧妙化妝術，凡事注重小細節的態度為本片堆砌出真實性與權威﹕恩尼
司在一場激情戲中的髒指甲﹔已匿跡數十年的「進入懷俄明」公路標識﹔
隨年歲增長，傑克小腹微凸﹔令人心痛的一幕中，露琳在電話上通報消息，
指甲蔻丹醒目﹔露琳母親燙整得服服貼貼的德州髮型﹔恩尼司與傑克在一
九七○年代輪流抽大麻而非香煙﹔內外調換的襯衫﹔斑痕纍纍的琺琅咖啡
壺﹔全數鉅細靡遺呈現之後，讓觀眾相信本故事的真實性。就算有些人懷
疑年輕男子應該不會在白雪皚皚的山巒間談情說愛，卻不會有人不信斑痕
纍纍的咖啡壺的存在，而如果咖啡壺屬實，其餘皆然。

____________________________________________________________________

以下是我的幾點注釋：

◎ [註一]：《More powerful than my words (猶勝我的文字)》一文由
Annie Proulx 於 2006.2.4 發表，宋瑛堂的中文翻譯版節錄部份以
《斷背山 影音重現記》的標題刊登於 2006.3.5 中國時報，完整中譯
全文以《斑痕纍纍的咖啡壺》為標題，副標題為：小說<斷背山>作者
談電影《斷背山》，刊載於 2006 三月號印刻文學生活誌。另一個中
文節譯版本由關影所譯，《Ang_Lee》版上有貼過，請搜尋「More
powerful than my words」。

◎ [註二]：Annie 說最困難的一幕是她在寫恩尼司在山上摟著傑克哼歌
搖擺那一段：當時我反覆播放查理‧海登與帕特‧麥席尼專輯 Beyond
the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) 裏的 Spiritual，聽了無數次，
盡量從中汲取靈感。我想捕捉的是傑克與恩尼司內心初具雛形的情愫、
兩人關係的悲苦無奈，而這首歌正能為我表達出這些意境。直至今日，
每聽到這首曲子時，傑克與恩尼司必定現身我眼前。

我已經把 pat metheny & charlie haden - spiritual.mp3 這首歌上
傳到下列網址，請笑納，我覺得這首曲子跟《斷背山》很搭，也非常
適合拿來做《斷背山》的 Music Video。
http://s17.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3O0EMXYY9BSVO0K2MQLS7I1E6U

◎ [註三]：Focus (焦點影業) 是環球的子公司，近來的電影藝術成就都
很高，頗受好評，幾乎可說是品質保證。Focus 的前身是好機器公司
(Good Machine)，主管是 James Schamus，《斷背山》角逐第78屆奧
斯卡入圍最佳影片，如果得獎，就是兩位製片人 James Schamus 和
Diana Ossana (編劇之一) 上台領獎。James Schamus 和 Good
Machine 跟李安是有革命情感的，我記得從《喜宴》甚至《推手》的
時候他們就已經合作了，當時李安是個小導演，Good Machine 是個小
公司，《喜宴》在柏林影展得到金熊獎，以至於海外版權的大賣，是
雙方合作一個重要的勝利，關於他們一起合作的奮鬥史詳情請參考
《十年一覺電影夢》。這次 Focus 表達對《斷背山》的興趣，並推薦
李安當導演，應該從十三年前同為同志電影的《喜宴》就可看出脈絡。

◎ [註四]：好機器公司 (Good Machine)，曾成功將「真相拼圖」（The
Laramie Project）改編成電影。The Laramie Project 台灣翻譯為
《同志死亡事件》，另一部相關的電影就是《仇恨之罪（The Matthew
Shepard Story）2002》，Annie 在本文中也有提到這件事。我之前在
《Ang_Lee》版發表過幾篇介紹這兩部電影的文章，請搜尋作者
「Davidgood」或關鍵字「懷俄明」。


~~ By Davidgood ~~


--
Everything.
Everyone.
Everywhere.
End...or Eternity? 結束...還是永恆...
~~ For《Six Feet Under》 ~~

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