The Bear 熊（英文版）

Faulkner's novels possess a certain esoteric quality that demands careful rumination to fully appreciate their depth, and the novella The Bear is no exception. The narrative follows a youth named Ike who first enters the wilderness and witnesses fierce hunting hounds trembling before the ancient bear Old Ben, thus learning the meaning of fear. On his second venture, accompanied by a mongrel dog, he confronts the bear and realizes bravery when the small dog charges forward barking fiercely. Four years later, under the mentorship of the seasoned hunter Sam, Ike matures in skill, physical endurance, psychological resilience, and courage, gradually apprehending the mysteries of nature and the subtle communion between humanity and the natural world. On his birthday, casting aside the trappings of civilization—his rifle, watch, and compass—Ike enters the forest one last time to engage in a life-and-death struggle with the bear unarmed. In doing so, he undergoes a rite of passage into adulthood and a more expansive understanding of life. Employing allegorical techniques, the novel recounts a boy’s coming-of-age and portrays a quintessential Faulknerian hero. The bear symbolizes the primordial earth untainted by human industry, while Ike allegorically represents human society's evolution through hunting, agriculture, and industrialization. Rich in multidimensional symbolism and imagination, the literary and artistic achievements of The Bear have earned it a place alongside Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Melville’s Moby-Dick as one of the three great animal epics in American literary history. The work conveys how humanity’s innate greed and the revolutions brought by science and technology have led to the degradation of the natural environment essential for survival, as well as the distortion and alienation of human nature. To overcome existential confusion and crises, humankind must, like Ike, embrace courage, compassion, and benevolence, holding a reverent awe for nature as a sacred entity, and recognize that our fate is intertwined with the natural world in a harmonious coexistence.

我大概看懂一個小男孩遇到了一頭熊，但是並沒有開槍打死它。 後來搜索了豆包，這是講的人與自然，人不可毀滅自然。 單詞量得話。我大概讀懂了10%，大部分還是不懂的，完全懂的句子不多，有四五句印象深刻， 有所收穫，值得一讀。

合上《The Bear》的最後一頁，我坐在窗邊，望着遠處。福克納的文字像密西西比的叢林一般厚重稠密，讀時需要撥開層層疊疊的枝葉，才能看到一點天光。可一旦合上書，那隻熊就留在心裏了——龐大、沉默、不肯離去。 這是一個關於成長的故事。艾薩克·麥卡斯林從十歲起跟着獵人進入荒野，追蹤一頭傳奇的老熊。那頭熊是整片原始森林的化身——“He was the biggest bear in the country, and the oldest, and the best; he had killed two men and broken many dogs.” 它不可征服，不可馴服，是所有獵人追逐卻永遠無法真正捕獲的幻影。男孩用數年時間學習追蹤，忍耐飢餓、潮溼、恐懼，最終在某次狩獵中，他獨自走進叢林，放下槍，與那頭熊面對面相遇。他沒有開槍，而熊看了他一眼，轉身離去。 讀到這一段時，我忽然意識到，成長可能不是“得到”，而是“看到”。艾薩克沒有殺死那頭熊，但他看見它了——看見它的龐大與從容，也看見自己作爲一個人類的渺小。福克納借老獵人山姆·法澤斯之口說：“You have to learn to be proud, and you have to learn to be humble. Pride is what makes you a man, but humility is what makes you a hunter.” 驕傲與謙卑看似對立，卻是同一枚硬幣的兩面。驕傲讓人敢於走進叢林，謙卑讓人懂得如何走出來。我們每個人都在追蹤着自己生命裏的那頭熊——可能是某種理想，一個答案，或者僅僅是證明自己“夠好了”的證據。但真正重要的或許不是追到它，而是在追蹤過程中變成的那個自己。 小說的後半部分，艾薩克長大了，荒野漸漸被伐木公司吞噬，那頭老熊也死了。他繼承了家族的土地，卻選擇放棄。因爲他發現那片土地是祖父從印第安人手中奪來的，上面壓着血債與罪惡。他說：“It was not the land itself that was wrong, but the owning of it—because the land was never meant to be owned.” 這片土地從來沒有“屬於”過任何人。他放手，不是因爲不愛，而是因爲明白了有些東西從一開始就不該被佔有。讀到這裏，我想起生活中很多我們拼命抓緊的東西——一段關係、某個身份、一種執念——我們以爲抓住它們就能定義自己，可最終讓我們自由的，恰恰是鬆開手的那一刻。 故事的結尾，艾薩克老了。荒野被砍伐殆盡，那頭老熊早已死去，獵人們也四散而去。他最後一次回憶起那個瞬間——他放下槍，獨自站在叢林中，熊注視着他，他注視着熊。福克納寫道：“He had seen the bear, and the bear had seen him, and they had known each other for what they were.” 他們看見了彼此真實的樣子，不多不少。沒有徵服，沒有佔有，只是在某一個時刻，兩個生命在叢林中短暫相遇，然後各自回到自己的沉默裏。 我現在好像明白了一些事情。我們生命中許多珍貴的東西——童年、理想、某些人與人的連接——都像那頭熊一樣，是無法真正“抓住”的。它們出現，停留片刻，然後消失在密林的另一頭。我們之所以耿耿於懷，是因爲我們總想要一個“結果”——要麼抓住它，要麼親手殺死它。可福克納告訴我們，最好的結局也許是：你看見了，你認出了，然後你放手讓它走。你不再追了，不是因爲你放棄了，而是因爲你已經得到了你該得到的東西。 那隻熊還在我心裏站着，龐大而安靜。而我終於可以不再舉起那把槍了。

There was an old bear, fierce and ruthless, not merely just to stay alive, but with the fierce pride of liberty and freedom, proud enough of the liberty and freedom to see it threatened without fear or even alarm. And a little dog, nameless and mongrel and many-fathered, grown, yet weighing less than six pounds, saying as if to itself, “I can’t be dangerous, because there’s nothing much smaller than I am; I can’t be fierce, because they would call it just a noise; I can’t be humble, because I’m already too close to the ground to genuflect; I can’t be proud, because I wouldn’t be near enough to it for anyone to know who was casting the shadow, and I don’t even know that I’m not going to heaven, because they have already decided that I don’t possess an immortal soul. So all I can be is brave. But it’s all right. I can be that, even if they still call it just noise.” He had heard about a bear, and finally got big enough to trail it, and he trailed it four years and at last met it with a gun in his hands and he didn’t shoot. His father didn’t shoot either . “ Courage, and honor, and pride,” his father said, “and pity, and love of justice and of liberty. They all touch the heart, and what the heart holds to becomes truth, as far as we know the truth.