The reporter of the Yangtze River Daily learned from the People's Literature Publishing House that a few days ago, the agency published the "Road of Tang Poetry" co-authored by the Nobel Prize winner French writer Le Clézio and Peking University professor Dong Qiang.
"The Road of Tang Poetry" book shadow.
In the book, Le Clézio, with the help of Dong Qiang, read Tang poems in depth, expressed his views, and expressed the influence of Tang poems on his life and creation. As the spark of modern people's thought collides with the ancient Tang poems, from the perspective of foreign writers, Le Clézio reads the Tang poems with a different taste. In his view, Tang poetry is the peak reached in the history of human literary creation; at the end of his writing, the artistic conception of Tang poetry is far-reaching and long-lasting, just like the French title "The River of Running Poetry".
From many perspectives
Classical Chinese literature is a very modern literature
In 2019, Le Clézio and Dong Qiang were in Du Fu Caotang.
"Entering the world of Tang poetry, I was almost unprepared, but it was not entirely accidental. At that time, I read Li Bai's "Sitting Alone in the Pavilion Mountain", a 1962 English version. In the poem, there is a man sitting there quietly, communicating face-to-face with a mountain. ”
Le Clézio wrote in the preface to The Road to Tang Poetry that he still remembers the excitement of reading the poem. At that time, in the Western world, the public was not as concerned about environmental issues as it is now. Mountains belong to the landscape and are called "sublime", attracting many brave people to climb. However, Li Bai mentions an obvious truth in the poem: the mountain is a quiet, solemn, and respectable place (in the name of Jingting Mountain, there is the word "jing"). In the presence of the mountain, all man—the fragile, ephemeral—can do is sit down and look at the mountain in silence.
He argues that the practice of poetry in European literature (writers of ancient Greek, roman, and later modern Roman or Saxon languages) made us accustomed to a sense of movement, to desire and passion, and that emotions were often fleeting. In contrast, Li Bai, who sat facing Jingting Mountain, brought him a completely different thing. He was not yet accustomed to his education, to the language he had learned: it was a kind of peace, a kind of inner peace. It is not difficult to achieve this peace. Just sit back and watch the mountains in silence. There is not even a need for a mountain dedicated to reverence.
Le Clézio's love for Tang poetry also lies in some poems that we are not familiar with, but he is extremely impressed. For example, Du Fu's "See the Fireworks" is a poem that Le Clézio has never forgotten, and he has always hoped to find the well surrounded by fireworks in Du Fu's Caotang.
Le Clézio in his hometown of Nice in 2020.
"Tang poetry—so to speak, all true poetry—is perhaps the best means of maintaining contact with the real world. It is a kind of blended poem that guides us to swim outside, let us feel the order of nature, feel the continuation of time, feel the dream. When I first read Li Bai, the message he conveyed was so obvious that I was amazed and at the same time felt an urgent call. I didn't exclaim, 'It's so beautifully written, I can't even wait to read it further.' Instead, I rushed out of the house in search of the mountain, to find my Jingting Mountain, a mountain in front of which I could sit. Silently look at the mountain and become one with it. ”
In his preface, Le Clézio said that in the library he had borrowed all the books related to this distant era of the Tang Dynasty. He read Confucius's Analects and Zhuangzi. Later, Mencius, especially Mozi's unique ideas, gradually discovered the fertile soil of Chinese literature. People call it classical Chinese literature, but from many angles, it is a very modern literature.
The French version of the book became a bestseller in France
On the evening of December 22, 2021, the People's Literature Publishing House specially held the "French Nobel Laureate Invites You to Take the 'Road of Tang Poetry' - The New Book Sharing Meeting of the Road of Tang Poetry". Dong Qiang, co-author of this book, tells the origin of the creation of "The Road of Tang Poetry". "I have a long friendship with Le Clézio and he has a special meaning for me," he said. Simply put, the reason why I am still studying French literature today and becoming a professor at Peking University is closely related to two people, one is Milan Kundera, and I am his student. The other is Le Clézio. Dong Qiang also introduced that the French version of the book has become a bestseller in France after it was published in France.
A video recorded by Le Clézio is played live, and he talks about his feelings about women and love in Tang poetry through comparative literature. Dong Qiang said that he added some content that the French version of the book did not have in the Chinese edition, mainly related to the Western acceptance of Tang poetry, including Le Clézio's change in the reading understanding of the entire poetry.
Talking about the origin of the book's name, Dong Qiang said, "Why do I have to let Chinese titled 'The Road of Tang Poetry'?" The French people like the imagery of the river, the rivers of poetry are always rushing, the French people especially like this topic, and after I proposed it, Le Clézio immediately accepted it, saying that the topic was good - because he himself has the ability of a novelist to grasp the big scene, and it is very remarkable to be able to find this way in so many things. ”
At the end of the sharing session, a video recorded by Le Clézio was played live, which is an understanding of the absoluteness in Tang poetry. He said: "Tang poetry, especially Li Bai's poetry, is full of the power of love, which is a kind of cosmic kinetic energy force, which is the reason why Tang poetry is incomparably powerful, bringing a kind of eternity to Tang poetry. I thank you all for sharing these moments of beauty and emotion with me, which Tang poetry brought to us. ”
"Dong Qiang and I created this book, dedicated to the Tang poems of Acura humans." "1,300 years of time separated us from Tang poetry, but it is still alive today."
Le Clézio once came to Wuhan to give lectures
In 2015, Le Clézio came to Wuhan to give lectures, participated in a number of literary exchange activities on different themes in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Provincial Library and other places, and delivered many speeches.
Le Clézio was born in Nice, France, and spent his childhood in Africa. Perhaps influenced by a life of displacement, his work incorporates different elements from Europe, Africa and Latin America. His early works, Proceedings and Lovely Land, are ethereal and silent, with characters swaying in a sea of color. His later works are more committed to expanding people's psychological space and showing a more dignified poetry. Most of his characters are outside the mainstream civilization and are often at the bottom of society. In 2008, Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "integrating multiculturalism and the spirit of adventure, being innovative and fond of poetic adventures". Like many well-known Western writers, he was wary of the "modern disease" caused by economic development.
During his lecture at Han University, le Clézio was interviewed by Liu Gonghu, a reporter of Yangtze River Daily, at the School of Humanities of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In the opening remarks, he introduced himself, saying that literature is his life and encouraging students to read more books.
Professor Xu Jun, the main translator of Le Clézio's Chinese translation and professor of French literature at Nanjing University, interjected that the Le Clézio he saw in his spare time was either writing or reading, and a bag was always carried on his body, which always contained two things - his manuscript and someone else's book, "This bag is his soul."
At the scene of the French Literature Week event in hubei provincial library, a female reader who insisted on writing was confused that writing was a difficult thing, many people would say that huaicai was like pregnancy, and wondered what Mr. Le Clézio thought. Le Clézio replied very seriously: "This is a very interesting thing that you illustrate from a female perspective. I'm not going to compare that way. Le Clézio believes that life is a real, painful and difficult process, but this is not the case with literary creation, and its difficulties cannot be compared with pregnancy and childbirth, "Literature lies in the virtual world, in the space of imagination, in the difficulties and other emotions experienced in literary creation, far from the pregnancy experienced by the flesh." Of course, they all have a kind of weight, but the weight of the flesh in the abdomen and the talent on our shoulders is different. ”
He also humorously added: "After the birth of a newborn, parents begin a long work to raise and educate their children, and after the creation of literary works, it is a matter of fame and fortune." ”
(Yangtze River Daily reporter Wan Jianhui correspondent Li Ran)
【Editor: Zhang Jing】
For more exciting content, please download the "Greater Wuhan" client in major application markets.