만약 우리의 언어가 위스키라고 한다면

by Haruki Murakami, 무라카미 하루키

위스키 성지의 그 맛과 아름다운 풍토가 하루키의 언어 속에 촉촉이 녹아든 향기로운 에세이.

만약 우리의 언어가 위스키라면, 이처럼 고생할 일은 없었을 것이다. 나는 잠자코 술잔을 내밀고 당신은 그걸 받아서 조용히 목 안으로 흘려 넣기만 하면 된다. 너무도 심플하고, 너무도 친밀하고, 너무도 정확하다. 그러나 유감스럽게도 우리의 언어는 그저 언어일 뿐이고, 우리는 언어 이상도 언어 이하도 아닌 세상에 살고 있다. 우리는 세상의 온갖 일들을 술에 취하지 않은 맨 정신의 다른 무엇인가요 바꾸어 놓고 이야기하고, 그 한정된 틀 속에서 살아갈 수밖에 없다.

그러나 예외적으로, 아주 드물게 주어지는 행복한 순간에 우리의 언어는 진짜로 위스키가 되기도 한다. 그리고 우리는—적어도 나는—늘 그러한 순간을 꿈꾸며 살아간다. 만약 우리의 언어가 위스키라면, 하고.

—머리말 중에서

Genres: Literature, Japanese Literature, Japan, Fiction

127 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2001

About the author

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.

Reviews

[吕不理 · Rating 5 out of 5]

失策。睡前选这本书读 咯咯笑得清醒不说 还馋酒来。读艾莱岛这 想起家里有瓶布赫拉迪 可惜不是泥煤风味。

“多数人以为年头越多越好喝，但并非那样。既有岁月使之得到的，又有岁月使之失却的。”不管是哪个年份酒 有酒喝就好幸福。

请了年假睡大觉 减肥许久没碰酒 今天破戒全怪村上春树。但不给一个屎。毕竟此刻也像是那种一生中不会有很多次的幸福体验了。

[庆忌 · Rating 4 out of 5]

去看电影，发现电影票过期了，昨天的。于是重新买了一张，等待开场的一个小时时间，在西西弗看完了这本小书。村上的散文随笔，比他的小说对我来说有意思得多。他总能把简单的事情说的浪漫诙谐富有想象力。他显然对爱尔兰印象太好了，我看了书也印象太好了。那里有布鲁姆先生，有村上春树，还有喝不完的黑啤和威士忌，你说谁不想去？

[Eliza]

I think my copy is still in GZ hmm

[Yiwei · Rating 4 out of 5]

大概八年前，读高中的我偶然听到陈慧琳 《你的语言是威士忌》，轻缓释然的女声让我止不住一遍又一遍地循环这首歌，知道它的灵感来自于村上春树的《如果我们的语言是威士忌》后，就对这本书留了个印象。


今天在睡前花了半个钟头读完，村上春树的笔触还是让我如沐春风。配合游记的插图，就像跟着夫妇俩来了次威士忌朝圣。好啦，去苏格兰的艾莱岛(Islay)尝纯麦芽威士忌可以加入我的必做清单里了。还有品尝村上春树推荐的爱尔兰早餐——省去午餐（代之以喝一杯吉尼斯黑啤）。热燕麦片粥和糖水煮杏、刚烤好的小圆面包和吐司、自制香肠和水煮荷包蛋喝咖啡。

最后摘抄下我最喜欢的书中原句：
“如果我们的语言是威士忌，当然就不必费此操办了。只要我默默递出酒杯、您接过静静送入喉咙即可，非常简单非常亲密非常准确。然而遗憾的是，我们居住在语言终究是语言、也只能是语言的世界里，我们只能将所有事物置换成另一种不带酒意的东西才能表达出来，我们只能生活在这一局限性之中。不过也有例外——我们的语言有时会在稍纵即逝的幸福瞬间变成威士忌，而我们——至少我——总是梦见那一瞬间：如果我们的语言是威士忌……”

[Yuki Suzuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

大好きな友達に、いつかの誕生日プレゼントにもらった本。ウィスキーが大好きだったけど、もっと好きになった。アイルランドへ旅がしたくなる。丁寧な味わい方、生き方を教えられた本。村上氏の本はほとんどが英訳されているが、これはまだなっていない。なぜ、英語になっていないのか、不思議。英訳を希望します。

[Yejin Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

언젠가 경비행기를 타고 아일레이 섬으로 여행을 떠나고 싶다.

[Ryo · Rating 4 out of 5]

「我們住在只有語言的世界。我們只能把一切事物，轉換成某種清行動的東西來述說，只能活在那限定性中。不過也有例外，在僅有的幸福瞬間，我們的語言真的可以變成威士忌。」

這本是作者去蘇格蘭及愛爾蘭旅遊時，寫下的遊記。與其說是遊記，更像是一場品酒之旅🤣 艾雷島的單一麥芽威士忌之聖地巡禮🥃

以前認為威士忌是蘇格蘭的名產，其實它最早(1920以前）是從愛爾蘭產出的，因為產單一麥芽威士忌的艾雷島，離愛爾蘭最近，可以先導入製造原料-大麥、美妙的水及泥煤。
說到泥煤，我個人最愛的一款威士忌-Ardbeg，具有獨特的泥炭混煙燻風味。 作者在書中也有提到這款威士忌， 是他在這次旅行中品嚐到的七款裡的其中一種，Ardbeg 20年(我喝的是10年），他是這麼形容的：有土腥味，很粗獷、很野， 但聞久了卻會覺得香，用台灣味來形容的話，我覺得像正露丸的味道，一種清新的、被治癒的味道。

這「土腥味」正是成為艾雷島威士忌的基調。

作者除了去品酒，也參觀了當地的蒸餾廠，釀酒在當地是一個很神聖的工作，這也是他們自古以來的傳統，雖然當地有不同的蒸餾所，彼此競爭，卻也是夥伴關係，他們在島上將釀酒這個產業看成是一體的，因為釀造出威士忌的，是人，是生活在這的人們的生活方式與性格創造出這令人留戀的美妙香味。

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

"もし僕らのことばがウィスキーであったなら、もちろん、これほど苦労することもなかったはずだ。僕は黙ってグラスを差し出し、あなたはそれを受け取って静かに喉に送り込む、それだけですんだはずだ。とてもシンプルで、とても親密で、とても正確だ。しかし残念ながら、僕らはことばがことばであり、ことばでしかない世界に住んでいる。僕らはすべてのものごとを、何かべつの素面のものに置き換えて語り、その限定性の中で生きていくしかない。でも例外的に、ほんのわずかな幸福な瞬間に、僕らのことばはほんとうにウィスキーになることがある。そして僕らは——少なくとも僕はということだけれど——いつもそのような瞬間を夢見て生きているのだ。もし僕らのことばがウィスキーであったなら、と。"

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the beginning of the book, Murakami expressed that if this book could spur you to go to Scotland and Ireland to have a go at Scotch(even if you're teetotal), then he would be really glad. Having finished the book in the small hours while itching for a night cap, I think he has every reason to be.

[Le Zeng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little book about Whiskey and make me want to visit Islay Island.
It gives a good list of single malt I'd love to try.

Scotland single malt whiskey
Lagavulin
Laphroaig
Bowmore
Oban 14 years

Irish Whisky
Jameson,
Tullamore Dew
Bushmills
Powers

[Anne Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

薄薄易讀的一本書

[Xovee Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

绝美的文字

[Cher Z]

馋死了！

[ARCHIMBOLDI · Rating 4 out of 5]

可爱的小书

[Alina]

A plea to Japanese language translators and publishers somewhere to have Murakami's 1999 whisky travelogue translated into english..

[Jungeun · Rating 3 out of 5]

무라카미 하루키처럼 세상에 관심사가 이토록 많고, 그 관심사 하나하나에 깊이 파고들 줄 알았다면, 인생이 훨씬 가득 차 있고 즐거웠을까? '위스키', 그것도 스코틀랜드와 아일랜드의 위스키라는 주제 하나 만으로 책을 한 권 써낸 그의 열정이 신기하면서도, 독자의 입장에서는 재미있다. 그와 같에 하나의 구체적인 테마를 정해서 여행을 다니는 것도 나쁘지 않은 방법인듯...!!

[Hung-ya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murakami went to Scotland and discovered the secret to good whisky! A very very pleasant journey for readers!

[Aye Aye · Rating 5 out of 5]

不喝酒的我，都感觉要不要试试看威士忌🥃