I don’t know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves， but I suppose that anyone writing a book， or a poem， or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It‘s probably buried so deep that they don’t even know it‘s there.

　　我不知道这些获奖的男男女女是否想到过自己能荣获诺贝尔奖，但我猜想在世界上任何一个地方，任何一个写书、写诗或者写剧本的人或许内心深处都怀有这个隐秘的梦想。它可能深埋心底，以至于他们甚至不知道它的存在。

　　If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize， I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact， during the year I was born and for a few years after， there wasn‘t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So， I recognize that I am in very rare company， to say the least.

　　如果之前有人告诉我说我有一线希望获得诺贝尔奖，我会觉得那与我站上月球的几率一般大小。事实上，我出生的那年和之后的几年，世界上没有哪个人被认为优秀到足以获得诺贝尔文学奖。所以，我明白，至少可以说，我加入了一个极少数人群体。

　　I was out on the road when I received this surprising news， and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare， the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn’t have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read. When he was writing Hamlet， I‘m sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: “Who’re the right actors for these roles?” “How should this be staged?” “Do I really want to set this in Denmark?” His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind， but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. “Is the financing in place?” “Are there enough good seats for my patrons?” “Where am I going to get a human skull?” I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare‘s mind was the question “Is this literature?”