Periodic Table of Elements
by Primo Levi
Periodic Table of Elements translated by Mou Zhongyuan is an anthology of Italian writer Primo Levi’s. It not only has autobiographical elements, but also blends fables, imagination and even history. By interpreting the characteristics of 21 elements, the author delves into his growth and experience before and after the World War II, and deeply questions the hidden connection between humanness and this material world.
The two identities of chemist and Auschwitz survivor coexist extremely strong in Levi. For him, chemistry is 「a school of politics」, and the material world of chemistry presents him with a number of subtle ethical and moral metaphors, which helps him face the displacements he has experienced as an Italian Jew during his fascist years.
Levi uses the inert gas 「argon」 to refer to the barrier between the Jewish community he grew up in and other ethnic groups in Piedmont; and the unstable and volatile gas 「mercury」 to refer to Italy that was subdued by Hitler at that time; he also uses the feature of 「zinc」which indicates inertness and impurity in order to carry out chemical reactions to make a powerful irony of Hitler’s ridiculous saying 「Jews are all impurity and must be eliminated」. The story of 「cerium」, 「vanadium」and 「gold」vaguely restore the painful memory of the author’s previous experience as a chemical engineer in Auschwitz; Levi’s perspective of life is also exposed in the last chapter 「carbon」, where he restores the transmission and circulation of a carbon atom between the world and human bodies from a transhistorical perspective. Each reader is forced to consider in the same way as Levi: since life is an accidental and random reorganization of all matters, is life definite to be nothingness?
《元素周期表（精）》
普裡莫·萊維
由牟中原翻譯的《元素周期表(精)》是義大利作家普裡莫·萊維風格強烈的文集，既有自傳因素，又糅合了寓言、想像，甚至歷史。作者通過闡釋二十一種元素的特性，鉤沉了自己在二戰前後的成長、生活，對人類道德和物質世界的隱蔽關聯進行了深邃動人的追問。
化學家和奧斯維辛倖存者這兩個身份，在萊維身上如此強烈地共存著。對於萊維而言，化學是「一所政治的學校」，化學的物質世界向他呈現諸多微妙的倫理和道德隱喻，幫助他面對身為一個義大利猶太人在法西斯歲月中經歷的諸般流離。
萊維用惰性氣體「氬」來隱喻他成長的猶太社區和皮埃蒙特地區其他族裔之間的隔膜；用「汞」這種不穩定、易揮發的氣體來指代當時服膺於希特勒的義大利知識分子；而用元素「鋅」「惰性、必須要有雜質才能進行化學反應」的特性來有力諷刺了當時希特勒鼓吹的「猶太人是一種必須要去除的雜質」的荒謬言說。「鈰」、「釩」、「金」的故事則隱約還原了作者在奧斯維辛擔任「化學工程師」的經歷的痛苦記憶；而萊維對生命的看法也在 後一章「碳」中揭露無遺，作家以超歷史的視角還原了一枚碳原子在天地萬物和人體之間的傳遞和循環。每個讀者也被迫和萊維面臨一樣的思考：既然生命都是物質的偶然、隨機重組，那生命必定是虛無的嗎？