Digging to Freedom

以柏林墙为背景的童话

The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall would hardly seem the occasion for an entrancing picture book, but the British author-illustrator Tom Clohosy Cole’s “Wall” is just that. The narrator is a little boy stuck in East Berlin with his mother and sister, while his father has ended up in the West. Out of this wrenching scenario Cole has fashioned a tight little narrative that has all the ambient foreboding of a fairy tale, the sense of children at the mercy of enormous, irrational, half-understood forces. But with a morose, shadowy palette of midnight blues and browns and a flat, elongated look that calls to mind Cold War poster art, it’s clear that the evil lurking is a distinctly modern one: jackboots and rifles, not malevolent spells, but what’s the difference to a child whose parent has been taken away?

柏林墙倒塌25周年似乎不是推荐一本引人入胜的图画书的好时机，但是英国作家、插画家汤姆·科勒霍西·科尔(Tom Clohosy Cole)的《墙》(Wall)就是这样一本好书。叙述者是一个小男孩，他和妈妈、姐姐(或妹妹)被困在东柏林，而他的爸爸在西柏林。以这个令人心酸的情况为背景，科尔讲述了一个紧凑、短小的故事，它具有童话故事的所有氛围和预兆，也描绘出孩子们在面临强大、荒谬、似懂非懂的势力时的感受。阴郁灰暗的深蓝色和棕色色调，细长扁平的人物形象，让人想起了冷战时期的海报艺术，显然，潜伏的恶势力是个现代人物——穿着长筒靴、拿着来福枪——而非恶毒的魔咒，但是对这个父亲不在身边的孩子来说，这有什么不同呢?

The book’s first spread shows the wall in all its menacing, repressive glory: A guard tower is shrouded in darkness to the east, while to the west the sunset sky reveals throngs of agitated people congregating, many pointing up to the guards. On the left, darker side of the page we see the book’s opening words: “My mom said that while the wall was being made, . . .”; to the right, the sentence continues: “. . . our dad got stuck on the other side.” It’s a wonderful in medias res opening — for this child “the wall” exists without explanation, just as the sun or the mountains do. It cleaves the page just as it has divided his city and his family.

这本书的第一面展示了这道威武、压抑的墙：一个面向东方的警戒塔隐藏在黑暗中，而西面落日的天空展示出一群焦躁不安的人，很多人用手向上指着卫兵。在灰暗的左侧页面，我们看到了这本书的开篇语：“我妈妈说，这道墙修建的时候……”;后半句在右侧页面：“……我爸爸被困在了另一边。”这个精彩的开篇语直奔主题。对这个孩子来说，“那道墙”没有任何来由，就像太阳和山脉一样。它把页面分开，就像把这座城市和他的家人分开一样。

“I worried he was lonely, but Mom said life was better over there,” the story continues. So our narrator begins trying to imagine a way to get to the other side of the wall. He knows that some people in East Berlin do try to escape: We see an image of the boy looking out his window as two hopefuls shimmy across a tightrope, followed by another of a soldier seen from behind, holding a limp body, with fields of razor wire in the background. The image is just otherworldly enough to be disturbing rather than grisly — the way he’s carrying the gracefully draping body almost evokes Sleeping Beauty.

“我担心他会孤独，但是妈妈说那边的生活更好，”故事继续写道。所以我们的主人公开始努力设想到墙那边去的方法。他知道东柏林这边的确有人想逃走。我们看到这个男孩向窗外张望，看到两个满怀希望的人扭动着身体穿过一根拉紧的绳索，后面跟着一个士兵(我们看到的是他的背影)，他抱着一个软弱无力的人，背景是一大片铁丝网。这个画面像是来自异界，令人不安，但并不可怕——他抱着那个优雅、松垮的身体，像抱着睡美人。

Eventually the boy starts digging a hole in a field. He works until it goes all the way under the wall. One night the family slips out and goes to it, ready to escape in a decidedly old-fashioned way. They are stopped by a “thunderous voice” calling “HALT!” But a happy surprise follows: The soldier declares that “nothing should come between a father and his family,” and on the next page we see the family watching the sunrise in West Berlin from the edge of the woods. When they reach the father’s apartment, Cole gives the story one last spin, as the father is himself at work digging a hole right through the floor, with dirt smudges on his face. The exhausted arrivals are bathed in a beatific light, but behind them you can still just glimpse the field of razor wire, looking like a surreal roller coaster. It’s an ending with just the right dose of fairy tale. Maybe in real-life East Berlin, just explaining your situation to the nice soldier didn’t do the trick. But the wall did come down.

最后，这个男孩开始在地里挖洞。他不停地挖，一直挖到墙下面。一天晚上，这家人悄悄溜出去，走到洞边，他们显然打算用传统方式逃走。忽然，他们听到一个“雷鸣般的声音”：“站住!”但是接下来发生了一个意外之喜——这个士兵宣布：“父亲不应该和家人分开”。在下一页，我们看到这家人在树林边望着西柏林的日出。他们到达父亲的寓所时，科尔给这个故事设计了最后一个情节转折点——这位父亲也在地板上挖洞，脸上还有泥点。疲惫不堪的一家人沐浴在幸福的阳光中，但是你仍能看到他们身后的那片铁丝网，它看起来像个超现实的过山车。这个结局的童话意味恰到好处。在东柏林的现实生活中，仅仅通过向一位好心的士兵解释你的情况估计不能成功逃离。但是那面墙的确倒塌了。