Anne Carson Wins the 2026 Nobel Literature Prize

Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts! Sarah, quick question. If you won the biggest prize in the world, where would you want to be when the phone rings?欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts！Sarah，问你个问题。如果你赢得了全世界最大的奖，你希望电话打来时自己在哪里？

Yes. Yesterday, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Anne Carson. She is 76, from Canada. And when the Academy called her, she was in Iceland, listening to the wind.有。昨天，2026年诺贝尔文学奖颁给了安妮·卡森。她76岁，加拿大人。而学院给她打电话时，她正在冰岛听风声。

Most people have not. She is a poet, but also a professor. She teaches ancient Greek, a language nobody speaks today. And she translates poems that are 2000 years old.大多数人都没读过。她是诗人，也是一名教授。她教古希腊语，一门今天没人说的语言。她还翻译2000年前的诗。

Here is the fun part. She takes those very old stories and writes about our life today. Love, loneliness, heartbreak. The prize committee praised her bold and inventive work.有意思的就在这里。她拿那些特别古老的故事，写我们今天的生活。爱情、孤独、心碎。评委会称赞她的作品大胆又有创造力。

Sure. Her most famous book is Autobiography of Red, from 1998. The hero comes from a Greek myth. He is a monster with three bodies and red wings. Hercules kills him with one arrow.当然。她最有名的书是1998年的《红的自传》。主角来自希腊神话。他是个有三个身体、红色翅膀的怪物。赫拉克勒斯一箭射死了他。

Exactly, and Carson changes everything. In her book, the monster becomes a shy modern boy. He has small red wings. He hides them at school. His mother is cold. His brother is cruel to him.没错，而卡森改了一切。在她的书里，怪物变成了一个害羞的现代男孩。他有小小的红色翅膀。在学校他把翅膀藏起来。妈妈很冷漠。哥哥对他很坏。

You got it. Later he falls in love with Hercules. But Hercules does not love him back. Years later they meet again in another country, and it becomes a painful love triangle. The story ends near a volcano.你说对了。后来他爱上了赫拉克勒斯。但赫拉克勒斯不爱他。多年后他们在异国重逢，变成一段痛苦的三角恋。故事在一座火山前结束。

Feelings are like a volcano. Quiet on the outside, burning hot inside. The book takes about 4 hours to read. Many readers say those 4 hours changed how they see poetry.感情就像火山。外面安静，里面滚烫。这本书大概4小时能读完。很多读者说，这4小时改变了他们对诗歌的看法。

Book two is The Beauty of the Husband, from 2001. It is about her own failed marriage. 29 short parts. Each part starts with one line from the poet Keats. The wife knows her husband keeps cheating, but she cannot leave him.第二本是2001年的《丈夫之美》。写她自己失败的婚姻。29个短章。每章开头引用诗人济慈的一句诗。妻子知道丈夫一直在出轨，却离不开他。

Yes! That is the exact question in the book. And this book won the T. S. Eliot Prize. Carson was the first woman to win it.对！这正是书里的问题。而且这本书拿了T.S.艾略特诗歌奖。卡森是第一位拿到这个奖的女性。

You said it better than I could. One book uses a myth. The other uses a marriage. Same heart.你说得比我好。一本用神话，一本用婚姻。同一颗心。

For years. Like the Japanese writer Murakami, her name comes up every October. In 2020 the prize went to another poet, Louise Gluck, so people thought Carson had to wait. This year the wait ended.很多年了。跟日本作家村上春树一样，每年10月都会提到她。2020年奖给了另一位诗人露易丝·格吕克，所以大家觉得卡森还得等。今年等待结束了。

The Academy secretary said Carson felt surprised and very happy. She did not have much time to talk. She only said she was in Iceland, listening to the wind.学院秘书说，卡森又惊讶又开心。她没时间多聊。只说自己在冰岛听风声。

That is a beautiful way to put it. One more number for you. The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor. And she is only the 19th woman to win the literature prize in more than 120 years.你说得真好。再给你一个数字。奖金是1200万瑞典克朗。而且120多年来，她只是第19位获奖女性。

Start with Autobiography of Red. Read it like a story, not like homework. A boy with wings, learning to live with being different. If the volcano part makes you stop and think, the book has done its job.从《红的自传》开始。把它当故事读，别当作业。一个长翅膀的男孩，学着跟自己的不一样相处。如果读到火山那段你停下来想了想，这本书就算成功了。