在小說《THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO》裡﹐有一段文字教我陷入了深思。記得早陣子《泰晤士報》有篇討論何解這部瑞典偵探小說大受歡迎的文章﹐裡面說這部小說廣受讀者喜歡﹐因為到了這一個世紀﹐大家都開始不相信我們的政府﹐都以為政府在我們背後有不可告人的秘密。是主角BLOMKVIST的怒火﹐感動了大家。

我想﹐我所講的那段文字﹐就是《泰晤士報》所講的那些怒火的其中一個例子。

那是主角反擊控告他誹謗的人成功之後﹐接受傳媒訪問的一段對話。電視節目主持剛問他為何以為「斯得歌爾摩股市大跌對瑞典經濟打擊甚大」之說無稽。

BLOMKVIST回答說﹕

你該要分清楚兩樣東西﹕瑞典經濟跟瑞典股市市場。瑞典經濟是指所有每天在這個國家生產的貨物和服務的總和。從Ericsson電話﹑Volvo汽車﹑Kiruna和Skövde的運輸。這些就是瑞典經濟。今天瑞典的經濟﹐跟一個星期前的﹐同樣強勁﹐或者同樣的差。

(You have to distinguish between two things - the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The Swedish economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in this country every day. There are telephones from Ericsson, cars from Volvo, chickens from Scan, and shipments from Kiruna to Skövde. That's the Swedish economy, and it's just as strong or weak today as it was a week ago.)

瑞典股市市場則完全是另外一回事。裡面沒有經濟﹐因為沒有貨物和服務的生產。一切只不過是一些人想像一﹑兩個小時後﹐市場上面那些公司的市值如何的遊戲。根本跟現實和瑞典經濟無關。所以﹐股市大跌不會影響國家經濟。

(The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn't have a thing to do with reality or with the Swedish economy. So it doesn't matter if the Stock Exchange drops like a rock.)

斯得歌爾摩股市大跌﹐那只表示一班投機者會把資金從瑞典公司轉至德國公司而爾。所以﹐記者應該找出這些人﹐然後標籤他們為叛徒。就是這一班人為了顧及他們那些客人的利益﹐妄顧給瑞典經濟帶來的傷害。

(It only means that a bunch of heavy speculators are now moving their shareholdings from Swedish companies to German ones. So it's the financial gnomes that some tough reporter should identify and expose as traitors. They are the ones who are systematically and perhaps deliberately damaging the Swedish economy in order to satisfy the profit interests of their clients.)

讀畢了這段文字﹐我想到的﹐是我的出生地 - 香港。

當然，以上的中文,還是英文，都是翻譯來的。因為《THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO》本身是一部瑞典小說。