Yong Paijun had something to say
Advocate reading life and pay tribute to famous masters. To this end, the Yongpai Literature and Art Channel launched the "Editor Looks at famous artists" column, specially invited Ms. Zhong Zhenxin, former executive editor of "Chinese Literature" and senior literary editor, to host, telling the wonderful stories brought by her cooperation with famous Chinese and foreign writers over the years, and reproducing the style of the masters behind the masterpieces.
Having a poet as a translator is undoubtedly a double blessing for both the author and the reader. In particular, the translation of poetry by poets is a combination of pearls and wonderful pens. Mr. Yang Xianyi, who is well-known at home and abroad, is such a rare poet translator. Whether it is in Chinese or foreign translation, the poet's flexible pearl-like words and deep-tasting artistic conception can be perfectly conveyed through the clever pen of another poet, just as the author directly writes in his native language, which is difficult for ordinary translators to reach.
When I started working in the mid-1980s, I had the privilege of working with Mr. Yang for a few years at China Literature magazine. At that time, the English and French departments of "Chinese Literature" always had foreign experts finalize the manuscript, and important manuscripts would invite foreign sinologists to act as the main translators, such as Ge Haowen of the United States, Jannar of the United Kingdom, Louis Eli of New Zealand, and the American translator Sha Boli who later joined the Chinese nationality. The editorial department of Chinese, which is responsible for selecting and writing manuscripts, also has no shortage of poets and writers.
Mr. Yang is the editor-in-chief of our magazine, and in addition to determining the topic of each issue, he also has to do a lot of translation and finalization work, and sometimes writes articles to introduce the creative status of Chinese writers to foreign readers. His work is quite busy. Fortunately, the expert building where Mr. Yang lives is in the compound of our unit, and it is more convenient to commute to work. In addition to work, our newly assigned college students often went to Mr. Yang's house to watch some foreign movie videos, and every time they went, they would be warmly welcomed by the hospitable Mr. Yang and bring out delicious snacks to entertain us. Mr. Yang and his British wife Dai Naidi also watched with us, sometimes encountering difficult English sentences, Mr. Yang would personally do "simultaneous interpretation" for us, his words and deeds were like a very kind elder, completely without the shelf of a big translator.
Although for Mr. Yang, because he put his main energy into the translation career, his reputation as a translator somewhat obscured the light of being a poet, his poetic talent will also "overflow" from time to time outside of work, surprising readers. If Mr. Yang calls his translation a job, "because Nedi likes it, I do it", then writing poetry is a graceful thing that truly reflects his talent and temperament.
Mr. Yang's passion for writing poetry dates back to his youth. In January 1915, Mr. Yang Xianyi was born in a wealthy family in Tianjin. Grandfather and several uncles have passed the temple test to become Hanlin, which is a rare "five sons Dengke" family. His father, Yang Yuzhang, was proficient in poetry and opera, studied in Japan, and served as the president of the Bank of China in Tianjin after returning to China. His three uncles also had experience studying in France, Germany and the United States. When Mr. Yang went to private school, he learned to write old poems with an excellent school teacher, and he was very perceptive and soon able to write poems that made the teacher appreciate such a poem as "milk swallow cut red apricot rain, and the flowing warbler cries out green poplar smoke".
Of course, out of the naughty nature of the teenager, he also joked with the tutor who taught him english, using her name "Xu Jiansheng" as an upper link, and proudly pointed out a "quick shot" downlink. In 1928, Mr. Yang entered the Tianjin Xinxue College founded by the British Church of London Christians and received a formal Western-style education. In addition to reading a wide range of books, Mr. Yang showed a strong interest in Chinese and foreign poetry. At that stage, he read a lot of works by Western poets, fell in love with the poems of the Romantic poets Keats, Shelley and others, and began to write poetry compositions in English. He once translated some of his favorite poems into old-style poems. The first attempts at translation were poems by Longfellow, Milton, and others, as well as poems from Shakespearean plays, and even the poems of the ancient Greek poet Safu were transcribed from english translations. For him, it is a very happy thing for him to move freely between Chinese and Western cultures. Of course, this kind of self-conscious training also laid a solid foundation for his later literary career of writing and translating poetry.
Therefore, when he was studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, "out of fun", he translated "Departure" with heroic poetry, which surprised the British and made sense.
In 1940, Mr. Yang returned to China after receiving a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University, and also "brought back" a beautiful English girl, that is, Dai Naidi, who later became his wife. It is worth mentioning that Dai Naidi was born in Beijing, and only returned to The United Kingdom after the age of 7, his father was a missionary who once taught at Yenching University, which also contributed to Dai Naidi's lifelong love affair with China. When she was studying in Oxford, she was a classmate of Mr. Yang Xianyi's French literature class, and because she loved Chinese culture, she simply switched to Chinese literature and became the first person to obtain a degree in Chinese literature from Oxford University. From loving ancient and mysterious China – fascinated by Chinese culture – falling in love with Mr. Yang, who is young and dashing, exports chapters, and can also speak fluent English, this is naturally a natural thing. So Gladys (Ms. Dai's English name) became Gladys Yang (with her husband's surname Yang), and Mr. Yang gave her the Chinese name, Dai Naidi, was also "born", although readers often wrote to her name as Dai Naixuan.
Since ancient times, poets have formed an indissoluble relationship with wine, and Mr. Yang is no exception, and his good wine is famous. It is said that when he was unjustly imprisoned during the "Cultural Revolution", because he had just drunk alcohol at home, he was still drunk, and he was mistaken by the prisoners in the same prison for drinking and making trouble before he was arrested, saying that his wine smelled "very good, it must be high-end goods", and asked him "how much is one or two". Some people jokingly called him "the most alcoholic prisoner". Imprisoned and unable to accompany wine, Mr. Yang "relieved his worries with poetry", teaching prisoners to recite Tang poems and explaining "The Song of Long Hate" to them, and silently reciting Shakespeare's verses when he was alone. Such cultivation is comparable to the realm of self-esteem.
Every year on New Year's Day, when our magazine gathers for dinner, Mr. Yang will bring a few bottles of liquor to share with his colleagues. Mr. Yang often blushes when he drinks, but he never gets drunk, probably what he pursues is a kind of "immortal" realm. Mr. Yang has a Wei and Jin style in the world, Huang Miaozi called him "modern Liu Ling", and also drew a cartoon for him entitled "Wine Immortal", in which Mr. Yang held a wine jar to enjoy himself, living off the image of a wine man, and truly responded to a sentence in his poem" "There is smoke and wine, I wish for enough". Of course, he is accustomed to treating guests with wine, and he will also sing with poetry: "My family has a big song, and I have been waiting for the king for a long time." He Dang had been in the house and drank it three or two buckets. This was written to his classmate and translator Wang Yizhu of Tianjin Xinxue Academy. When asked about his longevity secret, his answer was surprising: "Smoke, drink, don't exercise." ”
Mr. Yang once talked about his experience teaching at Guiyang Normal College during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. At that time, he often gathered with mr. Yin Shigong, a scholar and poet who was also in Guiyang, and sometimes sang and wrote a lot of old style poems, which may be regarded as a high-prolific period for Mr. Yang. Often in 10 minutes, he can follow the original rhyme and a song of seven laws, and he laughs that he has "eaten a lot of white wine and rice" because of this. Such an agile poetry can be called "waiting for Marco"!
In 1995, Mr. Yang published a collection of poems in Hong Kong, "The Collection of Silver Warped", which contains more than 130 old-style poems created over the years, including the cynical works of needlework and the angry eyes of King Kong, as well as the cheerful and direct lyrical words of the chest, and many witty and humorous oil poems, from which we can see his open and free style of life. Most of these poems were collected by friends to survive, because Mr. Yang often "idled" the poems he wrote and did not care. Some of the poems were copied and preserved by his careful classmates at that time, and later sent back to him.
For his life, he summed it up in "Title Ding Cong's Comic Portrait for Me": "Little boy owes the wind, and now the bad old man." Learn to make half a bottle of vinegar, poetry to play a cylinder of oil. Unscrupulous, greedy and greedy. Shame on the gray hair, hard work as a scalper. ”
The University of Hong Kong awarded Mr. Yang Xianyi an honorary doctorate (1993) for his "significant contribution to the development of intellectual knowledge and human well-being" and "outstanding achievements in literature and history", and the always witty Mr. Yang did not forget to write a poem after attending the grand "coronation" ceremony: "The mouse has a real farce, and the monkey is crowned with prestige." ”
Mr. Yang Xianyi lived in the small golden silk alley in his later years.
Mr. Yang Xianyi is talented and a translator, but he has always been indifferent to fame and fortune and humble. Someone once said that if Mr. Yang focused his energy on academic research, he could have become a university scholar like Qian Zhongshu. At that time, the articles he wrote at the Beibei National Compilation Museum had reached a high academic attainment, but when he compiled the collection, he called himself "Zero Ink New Notes" and "Translation of Yu Even Pick". He translated Homer's Odysseus from Greek, Virgil's Pastoral from Latin, and the French heroic epic Song of Roland from Medieval French. However, Mr. Yang looked at these outstanding achievements very indifferently, and he modestly said: "I have not done much, that is, I have turned over a little German, turned a little French, turned over a little Greek, turned over a little Italian, or I have turned a little English or something; the number is not too much, that is, "Dream of the Red Chamber", "The Journey of the Old Remnant" and "The History of Ru Lin" have been translated into foreign languages, and introduced to Europe and the United States..." How many translators have exhausted their lifelong achievements in such a few words are flatly explained, what kind of arrogance and mind!
Mr. Yang is a poet, and naturally he often shows his true disposition. "Every time you see something wrong, you should take a stand, and you don't care if you encounter something you gain or lose." These two poems just show Mr. Yang's sense of responsibility as an intellectual. As he proves with his life's actions, at important historical moments, Mr. Yang will change his usual moderation, and his words and deeds are full of poet passion. What people dare not say, do something, and do something and do not do something is not only a kind of courage, but also a high righteousness that goes straight to the hearts of the people.
About the Author
Zhong Zhenxin, a native of Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Peking University. He was the executive editor of Chinese Literature (bilingual edition). Editor, New World Press. The books he has edited have won the Lu Xun Literature Award and the Excellent External Propaganda Book Award. He has won awards such as the Youth Excellent Paper Award of the Central State Organs, and some of his works have been reprinted by publications such as Selected Essays, Readers, and Youth Digest and broadcast on Beijing Literature and Art Station. He is the author of the novel "The Star Traveller" (by Jack London) and other works.
First Instance: Chen Qing Second Instance: Gong Hongya Third Instance: Tang Danwen Final Trial: Wang Cunzheng