波兰：历史的进步是一场葬礼的国度奥尔嘉·托卡丘克

nicholasxw

上周六的坠机事件，包括波兰总统在内的这么多人的突然罹难，是一个令人难以接受的事实。而飞机在俄罗斯卡廷森林（1940年苏联对波兰军官进行大屠杀的现场）附近坠毁，又是一个令人难以置信的不可思议的巧合。当我们听闻这一噩耗后，一切归于平静。当时，人民冲向互联网并打开电视，因为没有一个事件能够超出媒体而存在，即使是最悲惨的。
　　第二天，当人们开始走出教堂时，我收到了一条匿名短信，就像那些宣传烛光守夜活动或者鼓励人们在车上系黑丝带的短信一样，它明显是群发给许多人的。短信内容如下：“历史绕了一个大圈后，又回到亚当·密茨凯维奇（Adam Mickiewicz）笔下波兰作为国家之中的基督国度（Christ of Nations）的时代。让我们在上帝这份爱的光环下团结起来。让我们通过兄弟情谊来使我们的祖国变得更为强大。”
　　看完短信后，直到现在我还觉得惊恐万分。
　　两个世纪之前，当我们的国家丧失了主权并且被俄罗斯、普鲁士及奥地利三大帝国瓜分的时候，波兰的浪漫主义者们，例如作为诗人和民族主义者的密茨凯维奇，宣称波兰的独立只有在人们作出极大牺牲的情况下才会到来。从那时起，这个关于殉难者或以自己的死换来别人的生（Messianic victim）的神话在国家危机的每个时刻就会浮现。这种思维方式常常被政治家们所利用；众所周知的1944年的华沙反对纳粹党的起义就是由这种思维方式造成的。这次起义从一开始就注定失败，造成了20万人的牺牲。
　　自从总统在空难中遇难后，波兰人为了战胜死亡再次精诚团结。
　　星期日下午，我打开了电视，随着夜晚渐渐来临，民族、受害者、神秘的巧合、征兆、被诅咒之地、真正的爱国主义、卡廷、真相这些字眼频频在我耳边萦绕。在几天前还互相攻击的政治家们现在用发抖的声音谈论着“深层含义”与“卡廷的玄学”。仅仅20年以前，这些政治家当中有些人为了遵循共产党的路线，隐瞒了卡廷惨案的真相。
　　这令我想起：当个人或集体受到重创时，荣格心理学中称为“歇斯底里的机能丧失”（abaissement du niveau mental）--即意识水平下降--的现象就会出现。这时，集体心理阴影会湮没人们的理智。受到惊吓的心灵试图从中发现意义，但却被古老的神话所诱惑。
　　我同情受害者的家属。我不能停止去想逝去的96人以及他们在面临死亡那一刻的恐惧。从死亡的角度来看，人与人之间没有区别；他们没有身份上的界限--无论是总统还是乘务员，也没有信仰之分或国界之别，有的只是一个个非常珍贵的生命。
　　但有时，我担心我们国家的人民只有在受害者的尸体旁、在棺木和坟墓之上，才能够团结起来。像那些对着古老图腾起舞的部落成员一样，我们只去感激亡灵却忽略生者。当政府屈膝祈祷时，天主教会，作为过时心态的监护者，统治着公共文化风俗和集体经历。
　　我讨厌将我们的民族认同建立在葬礼的队伍和失败的起义之上。我梦想波兰成为一个现代化的社会，一个不是由历史的沉重，而是由我们的个人成就，我们的自我价值观和对未来的认知所确定的社会。

英文原文：
New York Times，April 16, 2010
Op-Ed Contributor
Where History's March Is a Funeral Procession
By OLGA TOKARCZUK
Wroclaw, Poland
IT is hard to come to terms with the deaths of so many people, including the Polish president, from the plane crash last Saturday. And it is hard to believe the uncanny coincidence that the plane went down near the Katyn forest in Russia, the site of the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in 1940. When we heard, everything went quiet. Then people rushed to the Internet and switched on their TVs, because no event, not even the most tragic, exists beyond the media.
The next day, as people began to emerge from church, I received an anonymous text message, sure to have been sent to lots of people, like similar messages announcing candlelight vigils or encouraging people to tie black ribbons to their cars. This message said: “History has come full circle. Mickiewicz's Poland as the Christ of Nations is returning. Let us be united by this love from God. Let us strengthen the fatherland through brotherhood.”
I felt a shudder of horror that hasn't really left me to this moment.
Two centuries ago, when our nation lost its sovereignty and was partitioned among Russia, Prussia and Austria, Polish Romantics like the poet and nationalist Adam Mickiewicz declared that independence would come only with great sacrifice. Ever since, this myth of the martyr, or messianic victim, has emerged during times of national crisis. This way of thinking has frequently been exploited by politicians; one famous result was the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis in 1944, which was doomed from the outset and cost 200,000 lives.
Since the president's crash, the Poles have again united over death.
I turned on the TV Sunday afternoon, and the more the night drew on, the more I heard words like nation, victim, mystical coincidence, sign, accursed place, true patriotism, Katyn, truth. Politicians who only a few days ago were at each other's throats are now speaking, in trembling voices, of “deep meaning” and “the metaphysics of Katyn.” Not much more than 20 years ago, some of these same people suppressed the truth about the deaths at Katyn to follow the Communist Party line.

I am reminded that when a major trauma occurs, the kind that is both individual and collective, something happens that Jungian psychology calls an “abaissement du niveau mental” - a lowering of the level of consciousness. Intellect gives way to the gloom of the collective psyche. The horrified mind tries to find meaning, but lets itself be seduced by old myths.
I feel for the families of the victims. I can't stop thinking about the 96 people who died and their terror at the moment of death. From death's perspective, there are no differences between people; there are no presidents or flight attendants, no faiths or nations. There is just the person, always dear.
But sometimes I fear that the people of my country can unite only beside victims' bodies, over coffins and in cemeteries. Like tribesmen who dance around old totems, we ignore the living and can only appreciate the dead. While the government prays on its knees, the Catholic Church, which is the custodian of this anachronistic mentality, has a monopoly on communal ritual and collective experience.
I am sick of building our common identity around funeral marches and failed uprisings. I dream of Poland becoming a modern society that is defined not by the crippling nature of history, but by our individual achievements, a sense of our own self-worth and ideas for the future.
Olga Tokarczuk is the author of the novel “Primeval and Other Times.” This article was translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones from the Polish.
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