格拉斯：打破沉默第一人

又一顆文學巨星隕落了。剛剛去世的諾貝爾文學獎得主君特·格拉斯被譽為德國戰后最重要的作家。半個多世紀以來，他的作品和政治言論一直備受爭議，但他從不掩飾自己的觀點。也許，那是因為他目睹了二戰期間眾人緘口、良心泯滅導致的悲劇。格拉斯走了，他留給我們的是無比珍貴的精神財富。

Günter Grass， Nobel 1）Laureate and celebrated literary figure， respected as an edgy issuer of warnings， decried as a touchy 2）egomaniac.

The Tin Drum was his first novel. It sold millions of copies， and was translated into more than 40 languages. To this day it’s his best-known book. The film version won an Academy Award. Apparently from a child’s viewpoint， Grass showed how easily ordinary people were corrupted in the Nazi era. Oskar refuses to grow. The grownups compromise themselves. Time and again， Grass asked about the guilt of individuals for the Nazi’s crimes. It 3）spurred him to write and was a basic motif in his books.

In 1959， at its publication， it was said Germany had once again found a place in world literature.

The writer Amos Oz lives in Israel on the edge of the Negev Desert. He was a friend of Grass， and reading The Tin Drum had an enormous effect on him.

Amos： In my family， they 4）boycott every German product. I remember The Tin Drum， published in Hebrew in 1975， and it gave me an electric shock. I read this book， and it was no longer possible for me to just hate everything German.

5）Danzig was the main setting for many of Grass’ stories. It was once a German-Polish city. Günter Grass returned many times looking for the Danzig， where he was born in 1927. His father， Willi， was German. His mother， Helena was from the 6）Kashubia minority.

His childhood experiences became raw material for his stories. Grass grew up in humble circumstances， a two-room apartment. To read， he had to go up to the 7）attic. His parents ran a grocery store.

Günter： （via translator） This was the entrance， and this was the shop window， and that was actually the kitchen window， which was added to the shop so they could sell milk as well.

Grass recreated the street from his childhood in The Tin Drum. “The Nazis marched along it. We were glad to be seduced，” he said.

At 15， Grass became a 8）Luftwaffe Auxiliary. He volunteered for the front and wanted to serve in a 9）submarine. But in late 1944， he was drafted into the tank division of the 10）Waffen SS. He was 17. Years later， he looked back in shame. He never wanted to take another oath. It was a lesson for life. He learned the war had been lost as a casualty in a military hospital. Being an American prisoner of war gave him time to reflect.

Günter： （via translator） OK， I was young， I wasn’t involved in any war crimes. I didn’t know about all that， but I also didn’t ask any questions when it came to certain subjects. As far as Danzig was concerned， it was also a kind of obsession to revive what I recognized politically as being lost forever using literary means. In later books， I also returned to Danzig. But in 11）these first three books， there’s an obsessive 12）invocation of something that had been destroyed and lost， which could be 13）resuscitated by literary means.

His 14）memoir， Peeling the Onion， caused an 15）uproar. In 2006， for the first time， Günter Grass revealed he had served in the Waffen SS in the final months of the war.

Günter： （via translator） I didn’t expect so much hate or desire to 16）annihilate me or reckless journalistic practises. That upset me a lot， and all that was left for me was to react by writing poems.

A few months after the book was published， Günter Grass and his publisher， Gerhard Steidl， were in the Jewish Center in New York， where Grass read from his memoir. Here he wasn’t met with open hostility， but he provided no reason for remaining silent for so long about having been in the Waffen SS.

Grass was always 17）argumentative， but 18）scarcely any other of his works generated so much criticism as his prose poem， “What Must Be Said.”Even the title suggested that Grass was claiming to voice what others didn’t dare to.

君特·格拉斯是諾貝爾獎的獲得者，享譽全球的文學大家，他因向世人發出言辭犀利的警示而備受尊敬，同時也被人們稱為敏感的自大狂。

《鐵皮鼓》是他的第一部小說，銷量高達數百萬冊，被翻譯成四十余種文字。到目前為止，這是他最廣為人知的著作。由該書改編的電影還獲得了奧斯卡獎。小說顯然是通過一個孩子的視角進行述事，格拉斯通過此書向人們表明，在納粹統治時代的德國，普通人很容易就會墮落。主人公奧斯卡拒絕長大，而大人們則違背了自己的道德信仰。格拉斯一而再，再而三地拷問每一個人面對納粹罪行的負罪感。正是這一點促使他拿起了筆，這一點也成為他創作的基本主題。

該書在1959年出版后，世人評論說，德國文學再一次在世界文學界有了立足之地。

作家阿摩斯·奧茲住在以色列內蓋夫沙漠的邊上，他是格拉斯的朋友。閱讀《鐵皮鼓》一書對他產生了巨大的影響。

阿摩斯：我的家人全都抵制德國產品。我記得《鐵皮鼓》的希伯來語版在1975年出版，這本書給了我一記當頭棒喝。看了這本書后，我再也不能只是簡單粗暴地痛恨所有與德國有關的東西了。……