It’s always exciting every year in October when the Nobel Prizes are announced. We get to witness the acknowledgement of some of humankind’s greatest minds in six fields – literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and activism for peace.

每年10月诺贝尔奖揭晓之际都总是激动人心。我们能够见证六大领域 —— 文学、医学和生理学、物理学、化学、经济学以及和平活动的杰出人物获奖。

This year, however, part of the excitement will be taken away, since there won’t be a Nobel Prize in literature due to the fact that the Swedish Academy – the institution that awards the prize – was involved in a sexual harassment scandal.

然而今年，这一令人激动的奖项却少了一项，由于诺贝尔文学奖颁奖机构瑞典文学院深陷性骚扰丑闻，诺贝尔文学奖停颁一年。

People worry that a scandal like this will affect the reputation of the Nobel Prizes. But at the same time, we have to ask ourselves whether we really need these awards after all.

人们担心，这样的丑闻将会影响诺贝尔奖的声誉。但同时，我们不得不扪心自问：我们真的需要这些奖项吗?

According to Jana Gallus, an economist from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, one of the reasons that people give out awards is to establish a legacy. In the case of the Nobel Prizes, they encourage people to achieve more by acknowledging the hard work of top figures in different fields.

瑞士苏黎世大学经济学家亚娜·加卢斯认为，人们颁发这些奖项的一大原因在于留下遗产。就诺贝尔奖而言，通过嘉奖不同领域顶尖人物的辛劳工作，鼓励人们取得更多成就。

Awards may also help establish standards of what’s considered high quality. For example, if you’re having a hard time deciding which movie to watch, one of them having an Oscar under its belt will probably help you to make your mind up. And by reading the books that have won The Man Booker Prize or listening to songs that have been awarded a Grammy, you get an idea about what “great” literature and music look and sound like – at least in the eyes of judging panels.

这些奖项或许也有助于建立起被视作高质量的标准。打个比方，如果你对于看哪部电影感到难以抉择，观影备选中的一部奥斯卡得奖影片或许能帮你做出决定。而通过阅读一本“布克奖”获奖书目，或者听首“格莱美”金曲，你就能明白什么才是“杰出的”文学作品和音乐 —— 至少在评审团的眼中。

Sure, awards can backfire. There was the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015 and 2016, when it turned out that all 20 actors nominated for two years in a row were white. There was also the #GrammysSoMale movement in January, when Alessia Cara was the only woman to win a solo Grammy this year. But still, it was these incidents that brought the problems of racism and gender inequality into the public eye once more. And with influential voices – like that of black actor Will Smith, who refused to attend the Oscars ceremony – the problems became more likely to be noticed and dealt with instead of being buried silently, again.

当然，这些奖项也会遭到抵制。2015-2016年，奥斯卡连续两年所提名的20位男演员都是白人，从而引发了#奥斯卡太白运动。今年1月还有#格莱美太男人运动，因为阿莱西娅·卡拉是今年唯一一位获得格莱美单人奖的女性。但至少，正是这些事件使种族歧视以及性别不平等的问题反复进入到公众视野中。而那些具有影响力的声音 —— 就像拒绝出席奥斯卡颁奖礼的黑人演员威尔·史密斯那样 —— 能让这些问题得到更多关注，并被妥善处理，而不是再一次被默默无视。

Maybe these awards do matter, and we do need them – just not while they are under the shadow of a sexual harassment scandal.

或许这些奖项的确十分重要，我们也的确需要它们 —— 但并不是这种笼罩在性骚扰丑闻阴影下的奖项。

So when it comes to this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, I’m going to have to say: “No, thanks.”

所以对于今年的诺贝尔文学奖，我要说：“不， 谢谢。”