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Transcription Series of Famous Masters of the Past Dynasties
Let the heart live
In April 1980, Paul and I walked into the writers' ballroom in Beijing and saw a glowing face, smiling at us. I immediately knew that it was Shen Congwen, and ran over and kept shouting: Mr. Shen, Mr. Shen, I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it! He held my hand and still smiled faintly. (Beijing, April 1980) (Courtesy of Nie Hualing)
Shen Congwen Commentary is the only book created by Nie Hualing in English overseas, and the words reveal the love and admiration of overseas Chinese for Shen Congwen. The book is also the first biography and research monograph of Shen Congwen in the English-speaking world, which plays a vital role in the dissemination of Shen Congwen in the English-speaking world, and thus becomes a typical case of Chinese literature and the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. However, since its publication in 1972, no Chinese translation has been published, and even in the field of professional research, it has been known for a long time and has not seen the real face.
At an academic conference in the winter of 2015, Professor Jiang Shaochuan, through my master's supervisor Professor Zou Jianjun, invited me to participate in his newly approved major project on philosophy and social science research of the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, "Research on novels of Overseas Chinese Writers from Hubei From the Perspective of Chu Culture", and asked me to carry out research represented by Nie Hualing and other writers. Fast forward to the winter of 2018, Teacher Jiang called to invite me to participate in the Nie Hualing Literary Creation Symposium held by Wuchang Shouyi College, and I had the honor to meet Nie Hualing's daughter and dancer Wang Xiaolan (that is, Lan Lan in "Three Lives AND THREE"), and Mr. Yang Jianzhong, the person in charge of the Nie Hualing Literature Research and Promotion Project in Guangshui City. Wang Xiaolan listened to the paper I read, "Geographical Feminism and Nie Hualing's Writing in Chinese Literature", and commented: "In my memory, I often heard my mother at home talk about 'trapped in one place' and 'going out', which expressed a meaning to your thesis. "I took the opportunity to take out a copy of Shen Ts'ung-wen from the National Library and asked her if the book had been translated, and she was shocked and apologetically told me that the Shen Congwen Commentary was already being translated.
Soon, Wang Xiaolan wrote to tell me that she was not satisfied with the previous translation and asked if I could take over the translation of shen congwen's commentary. I replied to her that when I was an undergraduate, I liked Shen Congwen and took Shen Congwen's research course, and then studied Nie Hualing, but I had not translated before, so I could try to translate a chapter, and if I was satisfied, I would continue to translate. Professor He Jixian of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences read my trial translation and thought that he could continue to translate. At that time, while taking care of my pregnant wife in Fuzhou, I was writing my doctoral dissertation while re-reading Shen Congwen and Nie Hualing and translating Shen Congwen's Commentary. Every morning, I was woken up by the alarm clock, and at night, I turned off the lights with the Fuzhou Zhenhai Tower that I could see, so I knew that the Zhenhai Tower turned off the landscape lights at two o'clock in the morning. Although the pressure is extremely high, it feels full and happy because everything is about pregnancy and production.
In the summer of 2019, I graduated from Wuhan University with a ph.D. and also submitted the translation of Shen Congwen's Commentary to Professor He Jixian for translation. A few months later, Mr. He returned me the translation full of revision annotations, and he was so serious that he did not let go of punctuation. During the epidemic period, I studied, revised, and improved the translation school one by one, and finally the controversial point was communicated back and forth with Mr. He and the telephone was finalized many times. The most difficult part of the translation is almost the same as the difficulty of Nie Hualing's writing of Shen Congwen's Commentary: due to the shortage of overseas Shen Congwen books and materials, she searched through scholars and writers such as Xia Zhiqing and Wen Jianluo, a Chinese-Hong Kong poet of the International Writing Program, so she used either mostly documents from the Republic of China period, or mostly overseas and Hong Kong publications. When translating these references, the translator tried to find the original documents one by one for verification, but he was unable to catch it, and finally asked Teacher He to help verify it. Even so, there are still one or two pieces of literature that cannot be verified, and can only be left for the Fang family to correct. Around the summer of 2020, the polished translation was finally handed over to the publisher. After several publishing houses, Beijing United Publishing Company took over the publishing. After the proof draft came out, Wang Xiaolan, He Jixian and I discussed the details of typesetting and other details for more than half a month, and finally agreed to print it in the factory, and I had the "Shen Congwen Commentary" in front of the reader's eyes.
The translation is only a small cut of the insignificant life journey of Shen Congwen Commentary. Just a brief review of the cultural and time-space journey of "Shen Congwen Commentary" can make our hearts full of surprise and respect: Nie Hualing was scattered from China to overseas, and then looked back at China, remembered China, wrote China overseas, created "Shen Congwen Commentary" in English, and then translated into Chinese in half a century, returning to China, the place of origin of literature. It is only in this context that we can better appreciate the subtle emotions expressed by Nie Hualing in the preface to the translation of Shen Congwen Commentary: "I am glad that this English edition of Shen Congwen Commentary, which was released nearly fifty years ago, can now be published in China in the transfer of time and space. ”
Notes of the translator of Shen Congwen Commentary
Wen | Liu Yujie
[United States] by Nie Hualing
Translated by Liu Yujie
Beijing United Publishing Company Phoenix One Force
Shen Congwen celebrated the 120th anniversary of his birth
The English edition was first published 50 years later
Chinese edition was first published
Phoenix One Force exclusive release
Shen Congwen: A writer who transcends human suffering and moves towards basic humanity
Nie Hualing: Founder of the International Writing Project/Nobel Peace Prize Candidate/Works Listed in the "Top 100 Novels of the twentieth century Chinese"
★ An introduction to Shen Congwen's life and his time
★ Comment on Shen Congwen's writing style
★ Interpret the noble feelings of "countrymen"
★ Discusses Shen Congwen's unique contribution to Chinese literature
About the Author
Nie Hualing, born in Wuhan in 1925, is a Chinese-American writer. He graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of National Central University (the predecessor of Nanjing University) in 1948 and went to Taiwan with his family in 1949. In 1964, he went to the United States to teach at the University of Iowa, engaged in writing and painting at the same time, and received an honorary doctorate from three institutions, including the University of Colorado. In 1967, Nie Hualing and his wife co-founded the "International Writing Project", in which more than 1,000 writers and poets from more than 100 countries and regions participated. In 1976, Nie Hualing and his wife were nominated as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. Nie Hualing's works include novels, essays, reviews and biographies, some of which have been published in China, the United States and Italy, among which the novel "Mulberry Green and Peach Red" is listed as one of the "Top 100 Novels of the twentieth century Chinese".
Translator Profile
Liu Yujie was born in 1989 in Hui County, Henan Province. Doctor of Literature from Wuhan University, he is currently working at the College of Literature of Minnan Normal University. Mainly engaged in overseas Chinese literature, Chinese and foreign comparative literature research, his academic papers, translations published in Chinese Literature, Drama Literature and other journals, among which, the paper "Local and Non-local in Globalization" won the first prize of the "Second Master's and Doctoral Forum of the Chinese Literary Geography Society" organized by the Chinese Literary Geography Society.
Synopsis
The first edition of the English edition of Shen Congwen's Commentary was published in 1972 by the New York Biography Publishing House. The author, Nie Hualing, is a well-known female writer of Chinese descent who has an influence in the world of Chinese literature that cannot be ignored. In "Shen Congwen Commentary", the author not only introduces shen Congwen's life and the era in which he lived, tells the life course of Shen Congwen from a soldier to a writer and art historian, but also discusses the unique contribution of Shen Congwen and his works to Chinese literature from the perspective of aesthetics and artistry, and comments and analyzes the modern themes, styles and imagery of Shen Congwen's works, aiming to help readers understand this literary master who has a far-reaching influence in the history of modern Chinese literature and is still highly respected to this day.
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