导读：威廉·福克纳（1897—1962），20世纪最伟大的作家之一，美国“南方文学”派的创始人，也是整个西方最有影响的现代派小说家之一。他的代表作品有《喧哗与骚动》、《八月之光》等。福克纳从小生长在美国南方，年轻时曾在当地邮政局做过一阵不太负责任的局长，后因玩忽职守而被辞退。他游历过许多地方，但最终依然回到美国南方，并且所有的作品都以南方为背景。1949年，因为“他对当代美国小说作出了强有力和艺术上无与伦比的贡献”，福克纳获诺贝尔文学奖。他在斯德哥尔摩发表的获奖感言是诺贝尔文学奖最精彩的感言之一。他捐献了自己获得的奖金，要成立一个基金以支持鼓励文学新人，最后建立了国际笔会/福克纳小说奖。
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work — life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up?
Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.
He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His grieves grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has changed and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail . He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance .
The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
我感到这份奖励不是授予我个人，而是授予我的工作——一生用辛劳和汗水为人类精神所做的工作，不是为了名，更不是为了利，而是为了用人类精神的原材料创造一些原先不存在的东西。所以这份奖励只是暂时给我保管。为这笔奖金发表一篇与它的本来目的和象征相符合的演说辞并不困难，但我更愿意在欢呼声中做另一件事情，把这个激动人心的时刻献给那些可能正在聆听我讲话的、同样献身于艰苦的文学事业的年轻男女们，在这些人当中肯定有人将来会站在我现在站着的地方。
我们今天的悲剧是一种肉体上的恐惧，它已经持续了那么久，以至于我们几乎都能忍受它了。现在已经没有任何关于灵魂的话题，有的只是一个问题：“我什么时候会被炸得粉身碎骨？”
正因为如此，今天从事写作的年轻人已经忘记了关于人类内心深处的自我斗争的题材，只有这个题材能写出好的文章，因为只有它是值得去写的，是值得付出辛劳和汗水的。
人们必须重新回忆它，必须告诉自己，世界上最可卑的事情就是恐惧；并且告诉自己，永远忘记它，在自己的工作室里不给任何东西留下位置，除了那些古老的真理和心灵的真实。缺少了这些普遍的真理，任何故事都是短命的、注定要被忘记的——这些真理就是爱与荣誉，怜悯与自尊，同情与牺牲。如果人们不注意这些真理，他们的工作就是无用的。他们不是在写爱情而是在写情欲，在他们描写的失败中没有任何人失去任何有价值的东西；在他们描写的胜利中找不到希望，更糟糕的是找不到怜悯和同情。他们的悲剧没有建立在普遍的基础上，不能留下任何伤痕；他们不是在写心灵，而是在写器官。
在人们学到这些真理以前，他们在写作中会认为自己已经高高在上，并且看见了人类的末日。我拒绝接受关于人类末日的说法。当然，我们可以很轻易地认为人类是不朽的，因为他可以永远存在：当最后一块无用的礁石在血红色的、死气沉沉的黄昏中伫立，世界末日的钟声在它上空渐渐远去时，仍然会有一个声音，那是人类仍然在用微弱但永不停息的声音说话。我拒绝接受这种情景。我相信人类不会仅仅存在，他还将胜利。人类是不朽的，这不是因为万物当中仅仅他拥有发言权，而是因为他有一个灵魂，一种有同情心、牺牲的觉悟和忍耐力的精神。
诗人、作家的责任就是书写这种精神。他们有权力升华人类的心灵，使人类回忆起过去曾经使他无比光荣的东西——勇气、荣誉、希望、自尊、同情、怜悯和牺牲，从而帮助人类生存下去。诗人的声音不应该仅仅成为人类历史的记录，更应该成为人类存在与胜利的支柱和栋梁。
