亲爱的汉斯·范登布鲁克:
Thank you for your letter telling me of the removal of one of my books from the Nijmegen library. And that it is accused of discrimination against black people, homosexuals and women. And that it is sadism because of the sadism.
谢谢你来信告诉我,我的书被奈梅亨图书馆下架了。这本书被控有歧视黑人、同性恋和妇女的内容。这就是施虐。
The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth.
我害怕歧视的是幽默和真理。
If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women it is because of these who I met were that. There are many "bads"--bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even "bad" white males. Only when you write about "bad" white males they don't complain about it. And need I say that there are "good" blacks, "good" homosexuals and "good" women?
如果我写了对黑人、同性恋和女性不利的内容,那是因为我遇到了这些人确实如此。有很多“坏东西”——恶犬,恶性审查;甚至还有“品行不端”的白人男性。只有给白人男性冠以“恶名”时,他们才不会大做文章。我是不是还需要再夸赞一下黑人、同性恋和女性?
In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see. If I write of "sadism" it is because it exists, I didn't invent it, and if some terrible act occurs in my work it is because such things happen in our lives. I am not on the side of evil, if such a thing as evil abounds. In my writing I do not always agree with what occurs, nor do I linger in the mud for the sheer sake of it. Also, it is curious that the people who rail against my work seem to overlook the sections of it which entail joy and love and hope, and there are such sections. My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the "light" and never mentioned the other, then as an artist I would be a liar.
身为作家,我只是在作品里用文字记录下我的所见所闻。如果我写下“虐待狂”,那是因为它确实存在,无非杜撰,如果作品里出现一些可怕的行为,那是现实生活中真实发生的。如果邪恶行为遍布各处,并不意味着我与之为伍。在我的作品中,我并不总是认同所发生的一切,也不是为了揭露黑暗面而不愿抽身。而且,令人奇怪的是,那些批评我作品的人似乎无视了其中欢乐、爱和希望的章节,这些内容也是确实存在的。每一天,每一年,甚至这一生我都经历了起起落落,光明和黑暗。如果我只是不停地歌颂“光明”,绝口不提“阴暗”,那么身为一个艺术家,我不过是个骗子罢了。