Xu Yuanchong, a translator known as a giant in China's translation industry and a professor at peking university's School of Journalism and Communication, died in Beijing early this morning at the age of 100. The interface culture reporter interviewed several friends and friends who often interacted with Xu Yuanchong, listening to their memories of the translator's life.
Fan Xiangzhen, the editor of the China Translation Publishing House, often went to Xu Yuanchong's home because of his work contacts. Just yesterday, her colleague was still making an appointment with Xu Yuanchong's nanny to visit again next week.
Fan Xiangzhen said that xu Yuanchong has books in almost every room in his home, whether it is a computer room or his own bedroom. Even in the room that the Xu family rented for the nanny at the opposite door, there was a whole wall of books. Not to mention that the living room of Xu Yuanchong's family is filled with works translated and published by Xu Yuanchong.
In Fan Xiangzhen's view, although Xu Yuanchong is old, his mental state has always been very good, there is no problem in going up and down the stairs, and he also likes to eat sweets, especially cream cakes. There is even the habit of staying up late, sleeping when sleepy during the day and continuing to work at night. On several occasions when she visited the house, she heard that Xu Yuanchong did not fall asleep until five or six o'clock in the morning.
However, after the death of his lover a few years ago, Xu Yuanchong was not in a very good state, "thinking that he was suddenly old." Some recovery during this time. Every time Fan Xiangzhen took the media to visit the elderly, he could feel that he was "frank, frank, and willing to communicate." On April 18, Xu Yuanchong had just celebrated his 100th birthday, and the publishing house celebrated his birthday and launched his commemorative edition of the book, "The response was good, CCTV and Xinhua News Agency have reported."
Xu Jun, a French translator and senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University, and Xu Yuanchong are friends who have known each other for more than 30 years, but have also publicly expressed different ideas about Xu Yuanchong's translation of "The Red and the Black". He told Interface Culture that the last time he and Xu Yuanchong met was four years ago. At that time, Xu Jun, together with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, was invited to visit Xu Yuanchong's home, "The daughter-in-law took her doctoral dissertation "Xu Yuanchong Translation Thought Research" to ask Xu Lao for advice, we talked for more than an hour, before leaving, Xu Lao also proposed a word to his daughter-in-law - to create a theory of literary translation with Chinese characteristics."
Talking about his impression of Xu Yuanchong, Xu Jun recalled: "He really did not stop translating in his life. In Xu Jun's view, For translation, Xu Yuanchong has a clear goal and regards it as a lifelong career - translation can absorb excellent external culture, and at the same time promote Chinese culture to the world, through cultural exchanges, let the world achieve "beauty and commonality". "This spirit of translation is even more valuable and urgent in this era, and from this point of view, his contribution to Chinese culture going out is forward-looking." Xu Jun said.
Xu Jun also said that although he and Xu Yuanchong have different views on translation methods, he believes that translation should try to reproduce the style of the original work and show the personality of the original author; while Xu Yuanchong tends to increase the original content more clearly on the basis of eating through the original content, "but we have always openly debated and communicated, and our goal is the same, that is, to seek truth." In Xu Jun's impression, Xu Yuanchong rarely talked about anything else, that is, about the fun in the translation process, the treatment of certain words, "sometimes I also pour a little cold water, but he has his own principles and persistence."
Cheng Chaoxiang, a professor at Peking University's School of Foreign Chinese and a shakespearean research scholar, told Interface Culture that when he was a graduate student at Peking University in 1984, he took a translation class opened by Xu Yuanchong. "He asked us to compare the translations, and the course was very practical" and "I was very passionate about taking translation classes.". When Cheng Chaoxiang was the president of the Outer Court, he also dealt with Xu Yuanchong, "He is a person who is particularly serious about cultivating talents and has put forward many suggestions for us."
Cheng Chaoxiang saw that "Xu Yuanchong's Translation of Shakespeare's Plays (a total of 4 volumes)" has a total of 13 plays, not the whole episode, but it has been translated more. Xu Yuanchong said that he was not very satisfied with "The Tempest" before his death, but he also translated it, and in Cheng Chaoxiang's view, his translation of Shakespeare is very distinctive. "To translate Shakespeare's work, there must be in-depth research, and if there is no research, it is likely to go wrong." It can be seen that Xu Yuanchong's translation has a deep research foundation. Cheng Chaoxiang said that the translation of literary imagery is very difficult to do, but Xu Translation can translate very accurately, not only that, "Each era has its own language, and his translation is more like modern language, which can be said to be a translation that keeps pace with the times." ”
Regarding some controversies about Xu Yuanchong's translation before his death, Fan Xiangzhen believes that although these controversies exist, Xu Yuanchong is a translator who is difficult to get out of the circle after all, so that more people can understand the contribution of the translation industry to Chinese culture. "He has translated well and badly, and he knows it himself." Fan Xiangzhen's colleagues once asked him to revise the upcoming "Xu Yuanchong's English Translation of Mao Zedong's Poems", and Xu Yuanchong would read them one by one and say why they were translated in this way. "He's controversial and he's really level." Cheng Chaoxiang believes that translation is originally a more controversial field, otherwise there would not be so many versions. In his opinion, Xu Yuanchong's translation speed is fast and accurate, "and he has been working all the time and has dedicated his life to the translation cause." ”