"Time seems to have forgotten to turn him into an old man." Five years ago, I handed over to Mr. Xu Yuanchong for the final review of the full-page character newsletter "Xu Yuanchong: The Lone Ranger of Translation" that was about to be published in Wen Wei Po, and Mr. Xu laughed when he read the sentence at the beginning: "It is like this!" That's right! Time just forgot to turn me into an old man! Hahaha..."
As he laughed, his dentures came loose and his voice suddenly became muffled. He continued to chat loudly according to the original rhythm, freeing up one of the two hands that was gesturing like a stream of clouds, and pulling his cheeks together with lightning speed to help the dentures return to their position...
He laughed very vigorously, worked with great energy, argued about issues with great energy, and gave interviews with special energy... Infecting people who come into contact with him will be very energetic that day. Where he resembles an old man, more like a child with innocent and glowing eyes, it is no wonder that young people mention this respectable old man, and the adjective he likes to use is "cute love".
But time has not forgotten to turn him into an old man after all, but it just can't bear to take him away too quickly. It allowed him to write "Xu Yuanchong's 100-year-old Self-Statement", let him celebrate his 100th birthday on April 18, and let him record a Children's Day message to the children on May 27. In the hot season, time finally decided to let him ride the wind. Since he could no longer touch the books of the world, he simply ran to another attachment—his lover Zhaojun had been waiting for him in heaven for three years.
Mr. Xu, all the way!
On February 20, 2019, this reporter and Fu Xiaoyue, a reporter of Guangming Daily, went to visit Mr. Xu Yuanchong. Photographed by Mr. Xu's niece and granddaughter-in-law
Xu Yuanchong: A lone traveler
Published on June 2, 2016 in the "Close Range" special edition of Wen Wei Po
Xu Yuanchong, a 95-year-old translator, is an "outlier" — time seems to have forgotten to turn him into an old man.
In the evening, in the Changchun Garden of Peking University, he always had to ride his bicycle alone and walk for an hour. Cycling is his second-best fitness project, and swimming is his favorite. Two years ago, the staff of the swimming pool saw that he was in his 90s and did not dare to let him go again.
His lover Zhaojun wanted to ride with him, but he refused. Xu Yuanchong has always liked to walk alone. On January 20, 1939, 77 years ago, he was a first-year student at Southwest United University, writing in his diary: "I used to like to walk my path alone; now I also like to walk my path alone, and I will walk my own path alone in the future." ”
He later embarked on the road of translation, advocating the "three beauty theory" of sound beauty, shape beauty, and italian beauty, and "making up for loss with creation" and other translation methods. He was often refuted by the translation circles, and was even labeled as a notoriety such as "a few relics in the literary world" and "a sinner who advocated indiscriminate translation through the ages". Xu Yuanchong advocates the spirit of warriors, which is like a test. A foreign masterpiece is often translated by dozens of translations, such as "The Red and the Black", which has been translated by Zhao Ruihong, Luo Yujun, Hao Yun, Wen Jiasi, Xu Yuanchong, Guo Hong'an, Luo Xinzhang, Zhang Guanyao, and other 20 or 30 people. In the evaluation language of others, "each has its own advantages" and "see the wisdom of the people" are common words. Xu Yuanchong was more truthful and didn't like these words, "There must be a high and low!" "Simply, he compares, he draws conclusions, and the conclusion is that he translates better than others. Someone laughed at him behind his back: "The queen mother sells melons and sells herself and boasts." Xu Yuanchong looked disdainful: "Then it also depends on whether my melon is sweet or not!"
Is "melon" sweet or not? In the past two years, he has received three very tough and bullish "appraisal medals": first, the 2014 "Northern Lights" Outstanding Literary Translation Award of the International Federation of Translators, xu Yuanchong became the first Asian translator to receive this honor since the establishment of the award in 1999; the second is the "International Sinology Translation Daya Award" jointly established by Hanban and Peking University; and the third is the 2015 "Chinese Light - Annual Person of the Year for Spreading Chinese Culture" selected by the Ministry of Culture and other units.
These awards will be printed with his new business card, right? He has always liked to introduce himself on business cards, such as "sixty books sold at home and abroad, the only person who translated poems into English and France", "bequeathed a thousand poems to the United States, not academicians than academicians". On the day I went to visit him, I saw his simple and crowded study, bedroom and reception room, and the shelves on the wall that had been bought from the second-hand market for 15 yuan a few years ago were stuffed with old and new works. When I asked, there were more than 120 copies, and I joked: "Then you have to change your business card again, right?" Change it to 'Book Sale Chinese and Foreign Hundred Books'! "Oh-ha-ha! You know that! "He was cheerful like a child." I'm crazy, but I'm crazy and not arrogant, to tell the truth. 120 is 120, and I will never say 200. Xu Yuanchong changed Mao Zedong's phrase "modesty makes people progress, pride makes people backward" to "pride makes people progress, inferiority makes people backward," believing that "when we Chinese, we should be confident, and we should have a bit of a crazy spirit." His voice was like a bell, his expression was agitated, and a pair of large hands with green tendons protruding in the air were compared, and from time to time he gave himself a thumbs up.
Although the industry is quite critical of his flaunted personality and does not fully agree with his translation methods, his pioneering and successful achievements in translating between Chinese, English and French are indeed irrefutable. At the 1999 symposium for Chen Zhanyuan, Xu Yuanchong, Zheng Yonghui, Guan Zhenhu, Qi Xiang, Gui Yufang and other "six elders" in the translation industry, Mr. Liu Mingjiu, who was then president of the French Literary Research Association, commented on Mr. Xu, "In the field of Chinese translation, which can only be entered by masters, he is the most accomplished person... His self-evaluation (referring to "the only person who translated poetry into English and France") does not have any moisture, no exaggeration, and it is well deserved, why should it not be benevolent? ”
"I am 'well deserved, deserved', these 8 words are not my own words." Xu Yuanchong emphasized this point. But don't you think that these 8 words are actually embedded in anyone's heart before he says them. Guided by the heart, even if you walk alone on the translation path, you never hesitate.
When he rushed to the road, he chose to go light, and the weight of his reputation was temporarily unloaded, just like the dusty "Northern Lights" medal at the top of the cupboard. From 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., under the night curtain, with light inspiration, he wanders freely in Shakespeare's masterpieces. Forgetting his age and forgetting the medical judgment that he "can only live for 7 years at most" because of rectal cancer in 2007, Xu Yuanchong made a big ambition after the fame of the "Northern Lights": "I want to finish Shakespeare!" ”
● Challenge Shakespeare's complete works in his nineties
Shakespeare is not so easy to translate. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (another say 38) and 3 poems, for a total of 40 works. The four tragedies of Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear are well known, as well as the four comedies of The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Everyone Rejoices, and Twelfth Night.
Translating shakespeare's complete works by oneself is a daunting hard bone: one is the amount; the second is that the English of Shakespeare's period is too classical, and it is very difficult to read today; the third is that there are many puns, how to be as vague and affectionate as the original, which is a great test of the translator's skill.
In China, the first to "eat crabs" was Liang Shiqiu, from 1931 to 1968, he spent a full 38 years to translate Shakespeare's complete works, the style of the complete works is the early vernacular style, in the "letter, Da, Ya" translation standard, he first followed the "letter"; the second to make this ambition is Zhu Shenghao, before his death in December 1944, he spent nearly 10 years to translate 31 and a half shakespeare plays, to be precise, Zhu Shenghao left a set of Shakespeare "quasi" complete works for the present. This set of prose style "quasi" complete collection is quite carefully translated, with words and sentences paying attention to flatness, rhyme, rhythm, and musical beauty flowing everywhere; the third is Fang Ping, who began to translate Shakespeare's "Henry V" from the fifties of the last century, but the political movement in the sixties and seventies made the translation plan stagnate, and then it was continued, until his death in 2008, so that after translating two-thirds of Shakespeare's works, in 2014, Fang Ping drove the Crane West for 6 years, The Shanghai Translation Publishing House has launched a poetic version of Shakespeare's complete works translated by him.
The hardships of translating Shakespeare's complete works are lamentable. Today, Xu Yuanchong, a ninety-year-old man, how dare he make such a bold statement?
Xu Yuanchong had his own path numbers—he had broken it all to zero, only looking at his feet. "I don't care if it's 37 or 38, I just turn it over one by one and keep turning it over." And each one, he dissolved into every page, every sentence. Translate at least 1,000 words a day, otherwise don't sleep.
Such a gathering of sand into a tower has yielded surprising results. On April 12, 2016, at the opening ceremony of the 45th London Book Fair, Xu Yuanchong's translation of "Six Kinds of Shakespeare Tragedies" was jointly launched by China International Publishing Group and Dolphin Publishing House. The series includes four tragedies and Romeo and Juliet and Anthony and Klyubba. Opening "King Lear", the passage where the children see the money eyes open, Xu Yuanchong's version is "The father wears torn clothes, and the children ignore it." Fathers have money, and children smile. Fate is a prostitute, poor and loves to be rich", and the previously widely circulated version of Zhu Shenghao is "the old father is dressed in a hundred knots, and the children do not know each other; the old father is full of gold, and the children are filial piety." Fate is like a prostitute, and the poor are abandoned."
Also launched at the London Book Fair was Xu Yuanchong's Tang Xianzu's "Peony Pavilion" translated from Chinese to English. In 1616, Shakespeare and Tang Gong died successively. At the London Book Fair 400 years later, these two Chinese and Western theater giants had an "encounter" across language and time and space because of Xu Yuanchong's "matchmaking".
Just as Shakespeare and Tang Gong "met", Xu Yuanchong turned and left, continuing his date with the text. He went on to translate Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Wish. Xu Yuanchong thought it would be more appropriate to translate the title as "Wish wish" because "some evil people are not happy."
● "The Way of Neutralization" and "The Use of Physics and Chemistry"
How could he be so prolific? Xu Yuanchong replied lightly with the word "habit".
"Talking about Habits", which is a text selected by the Southwest United University's "Freshman English Reader", written by William James, the father of psychology, is about "planting a behavior and harvesting a habit; planting a habit, harvesting a character; planting a character, harvesting a destiny." Many of Xu Yuanchong's habits have lasted for many years or even most of his life: for example, keeping a diary every day since high school; translating a poem every day after getting up from college; working five or six hours at night for more than 20 years since retirement... Every year is like a habit, but also a concentration and belief.
One person who has added a heavy weight to Xu Yuanchong's concentration and faith is the philosopher Feng Youlan. On August 2, 1939, Xu Yuanchong listened to Feng Youlan's lecture on the "Way of Neutralization" at the United Nations General Assembly, and made an excerpt: "A person can eat three bowls of rice, only one and a half bowls, everyone says that he is 'medium', in fact, he has to eat three bowls to be 'medium'. 'Zhong' is just the right amount, four bowls are too much, two bowls are too few..." Xu Yuanchong once thought that half of the thing was "medium", and after listening to Mr. Feng's speech, he understood that the way of neutralization is to have one point of heat and one point of heat, and one point of light and one point of light. Translating 1,000 words a day can not only ensure the progress of translation, but also do not delay eating and sleeping, which is the "neutralization" practiced by Xu Yuanchong.
Xu Yuanchong also made an excerpt for another speech by Feng Youlan: "When we see a certain A hitting a certain B, we are indignant, but after the fact, it is not for all; if A hit me, we will still be indignant afterwards. Applied philosophy requires learning to 'rationalize emotions' so that there can be feelings and not be burdened by emotions. This statement can be described as "the right medicine for the symptoms" for Xu Yuanchong.
Xu Yuanchong loved to be angry and argumentative, and some people simply gave him the nickname "Xu Cannon". He and Zhao Ruihong debated the question of "who is red and who is black" in "Red and Black", discussed with Xu Jun the issue of equivalent translation and re-creation of translation, refuted the clichés of Feng Yidai, fought back against Han Shishan's questions of self-confidence and conceit, and provoked controversies with Jiang Feng, Lu Gusun, Wang Zuoliang, etc.
Every time there was a verbal dispute or a pen and ink fight, Xu Yuanchong was an indignant look, and once he finished writing, he used Feng Youlan's "reasoning and emotion" to successfully relieve emotions. At this time, he was so naïve that he had no choice but to distinguish between "friend and foe". For example, after Xu Yuanchong published his memoir "Remembrance of the Lost Water Years", he did not shy away from suspicion and gave a book to his old classmate Zhao Ruihong, and inscribed on the title page, "Fifty years of 'Red and Black', who is red and who is black understands." For another example, after writing a rebuttal article against Han Shishan, Xu Yuanchong could not find a place to publish for a while, and even made a phone call to Han Shishan, saying that he wanted to publish it in the "Shanxi Literature" edited by Han, and Han was not a layman, and gladly agreed, and the two became friends for a long time.
I didn't quite understand Xu Yuanchong's childlike innocence. That time I went to his house, I suddenly understood. By chance, I said to Xu Yuanchong, "Your military merit badge is half of Teacher Zhaojun's." He stopped: "How could it be! I've published so many books, did she have fifty or sixty? "A lot of words, to the effect that although his lover took good care of him, it had nothing to do with the book. We don't think we need to understand, he has to understand, why say those things that he thinks must be understood! For him, it is really necessary, but how to live a life after the truth - lover or lover, old classmate or old classmate, "no fight, no deal" or "no deal"...
● Chinese translators can make Chinese culture go global
No, Xu Yuanchong was angry again. He saw a special report published in Wen Wei Po on April 22, 2016 on the translation into English in the Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, which compared the translations of foreigners Bai Zhi (Birch) and Chinese Wang Rongpei, and concluded that "the two translations have their own characteristics, but it is clear that the translators have different understandings and feelings of traditional Chinese culture." This reminds Xu Yuanchong of an article in the third issue of English World in 2015, which mentioned a view of the American sinologist Yuwen Soan, "China is spending money to translate Chinese classics into English, but this work is unlikely to work, and no one will read these English translations... Translators should always translate a foreign language into their native language, and should never translate their native language into a foreign language. Being able to translate from Chinese to English, English to Chinese, Chinese to French, and French to Chinese was precisely Xu Yuanchong's proud move, and he was angered by Yuwen Suan.
Also holding the same view as Yuwen was the British sinologist Greyham. Xu Yuanchong asked: "Greifical 10 points in English, 5 points Chinese, 8 points in English, but Chinese 10 points, which is better?" He asked sarcastically, "You say that no one reads these English translations, so why are you reading my translations?" ”
He "moved out" Feng Youlan again, and Feng Youlan once said that "the more you know, the greater the meaning." Chinese naturally knows much more about classical Chinese poetry than foreigners, and Xu Yuanchong believes that the translation of Chinese is stronger than that of foreigners. He took Li Shangyin's "Untitled" as an example, which contains two sentences: "The golden toad locks and burns incense, and the jade tiger draws silk back to the well." Greyham's English translation roughly means: "A golden toad bites the lock, unlocks it and burns incense; a jade tiger pulls the well rope, hits the well water and escapes." In this regard, Xu Yuanchong's judgment is: "Grehan has no understanding of poetry, so the translation is meaningless." These two poems precisely describe the meeting between the poet and the rich lady -- the golden toad is the door knocker on the door of the rich and noble family in the Tang Dynasty, and biting the lock means that the door is locked at night; burning incense in the morning and evening is the custom of the Tang Dynasty people, in order to pray for the heavens and worship the gods; the jade tiger is the ornament on the reel; "pulling silk" means to pull up the well rope; "drawing well" means to open the well water, and the Tang Dynasty people all draw water at dawn for all-day use; the main language omitted before "entering" and "returning" is "I". So Chinese translation means: "When the incense is burned and the door is locked, the poet enters the door; in the morning, when the well rope is drawn to fetch water, the poet goes home." Why would a poet do this? Because he and the rich lady are secretly dating, afraid of being discovered. In the original poem, the "incense" and "phase" of "burning incense" are homophonous, the "silk" and "thought" of "silk" are homophonous, and "incense" and "silk" imply "acacia". "Greham knows that." Xu Yuanchong said, "No wonder he translated it ridiculously. ”
Xu Yuanchong corrected Yuwen Suo'an again: "He translated Du Fu's "Jianghan" as 'Old Horses in Ancient Times, Don't Have to Take Long Distances', and translated 'Old Horses' as 'Old Officials', which actually meant that Old Horses have the wisdom of knowledge, rather than taking their physical strength; he also translated Li Bai's 'Walking Pleasure and Spring' in Li Bai's "Drinking Alone Under the Moon" into The Joy I find will surely last till spring (the happiness I find will definitely extend to spring), and misunderstood the meaning of 'taking advantage of the beautiful spring light in time to have fun'. ”
Therefore, the special report in Wen Wei Po rose to the level of "whether Chinese translators can make Chinese culture go global, and whether Chinese can realize the Chinese dream." Xu Yuanchong specially wrote an article entitled "Literary Translation and the Chinese Dream" to challenge Yuwen Soan.
Xu Yuanchong could only type and could not use the Internet, so his lover Zhaojun called me: "Mr. Xu has written a new article to argue with the self-righteous sinologist in the United States. When I went to get it, Xu Yuanchong's anger towards Yuwen Soan had subsided, presumably thanks to Feng Youlan's "rationalization of feelings."
I later recommended the article to Wen Wei Po and published it on May 28, 2016.
● The Six Sutras inject me, and the heart is strong
Don't look at Xu Yuanchong always admiring Feng Youlan, but what he really admires is actually a point of view that can be used to support himself. He is not superstitious about anyone and always takes only the part he thinks is right.
- To Lu Xun, Xu Yuanchong disapproved of the literal translation he advocated, but instead referred to the "in the article ... Sui Ku Sanmei: Yimei with the feeling of the heart, one also; the beauty of the sound to the ear, two also; the beauty of the shape to the eye, the third also" to take, put forward their own "three beauty theory" in the field of translation;
For example, Qian once praised him in his reply that "the translation is very successful, dancing in shackles with rhyme and rhythm, dancing flexibly and freely, amazing", but Qian agrees with Robert Frost's "poetry is something lost in translation", Xu does not see it this way, he believes that translated poetry is not "there is no gain", but "there are gains and losses", if you can "create and make up for the losses" like Bo Bai's English translation of the Greek "Homer Epic", it is "more lost";
-- For Zhu Guangqian, Xu Yuanchong felt that Zhu Shi's statement that "'from the heart to desire, not exceeding the rules' is the mature state of all art" is very reasonable, isn't the translation also like this, "not exceeding the rules" is seeking truth, "from the heart" to seek beauty, combined is "to seek beauty as much as possible without violating the truth-seeking", but "not exceeding the rules" is a negative expression, Xu Yuanchong in his bones more agree with Beethoven's statement that "for more beauty, there is no law that cannot be broken."
……
In this way, the views of various famous artists were freely picked up by Xu Yuanchong, which was quite a bit of the meaning of "the six classics note me". He expounded his understanding of Lao Tzu's "Tao, Very Dao" as if he were saying a tongue twister: "The truth can be known, but it is not necessarily the truth that everyone often knows." The way of translation is known, but it is not the way of literal translation. ”
Those who can "inject me into the Six Sutras" must have an incomparably strong heart. Yang Zhenning once wrote a preface to Xu Yuanchong's "Remembrance of the Lost Water Years": "I found that he was as aggressive as ever in everything as before—if not more, just like when we were in the first year of college together 60 years ago..." Xu Yuanchong's nature can not be worn down in decades, and his lover is indispensable to the king.
Terujun is a strange woman with a story. Her original name was Zhao Jun. In 1948, 15-year-old Zhao Jun came to Xibaipo to work on secret codes. The first time I met Chairman Mao, the chairman asked her what her name was, and she replied, "Zhao Jun." The chairman said, "Zhaojun is going to be out of the jam!" From then on, she changed her name to "Terujun". After the founding of New China, Zhaojun, who had participated in the revolution before liberation, had a bright future and "could choose any job", but she chose to study, so she met Xu Yuanchong, who returned from studying in Paris to teach, and the two married in 1959.
In the past sixty years, whether it is adversity and good times, whether it is a lover who has been beaten by rebels or has become a publisher, Zhaojun's worship and admiration for Xu Yuanchong shines like a star forever. Mr. Xu's ear back, every time I called his home, I answered Teacher Zhaojun, and she always used the fullest emotions and the most gorgeous words to fervently praise her "male god", "He is not simple!" "What a miracle he is!" "Think about it, is there anything he does that someone else can replace?!" ...... Heaven took such care of Xu Yuanchong that he tasted the ultimate taste of career and love. Xu Yuanchong was originally a confident and open-minded person, and with the fact that he had been held, protected, believed, respected, and praised by his lover for sixty years, his feelings were not very good. The 90-year-old dares to challenge Shakespeare's complete works, which is absolutely the pride of giving up who I am and looking at the crowd!
● Create the "Three Beauty Theory" and drink Tong Xia Xiaolu
Zhaojun also has a characteristic that can be seen at a glance - beauty.
This is very much in line with Xu Yuanchong's taste. When Xu Yuanchong recalled the life of the Southwest United University, he did not shy away from his admiration for several beautiful female classmates. Once, he and his friends Wu Qiong, He Guoji, Chen Mei, and Wan Zhaofeng walked to Heilongtan, and along the way talked about the criteria for choosing a lover, and everyone proposed to use 26 standards, each of which began with a different English letter, such as "ability, beauty, character, academics, equality, family lineage" and so on. Xu Yuanchong attaches the greatest importance to "beauty", and for this reason argues endlessly with Wan Zhaofeng and He Guoji, who value "character" more.
Xu Yuanchong's preference for beauty should be the beginning of his "three beauty theory". Directly above his desk hangs a picture written to him by an old friend, "Translating ancient and modern poems, translating world famous works, creating the theory of three beauty, drinking TongXia Xiaolu." ”
In the pursuit of sound beauty, shape beauty, and italian beauty, Xu Yuanchong has never wandered. Xu Yuanchong said, "Mr. Qian (Zhongshu) talked about it in "Lin Shu's Translation", and reading Lin Shu's translation found it attractive, even better than some other more 'faithful' translations. This shows that Mr. Qian intellectually seeks 'truth' and emotionally loves 'beauty', which is his contradiction. But I'm not contradictory. Qian Zhongshu lamented that "a beautiful wife is unfaithful, and a faithful wife is not beautiful", calling Xu Yuanchong's translation "unfaithful beauty".
The reason for the "disloyalty" is that Xu Yuanchong emphasizes the "re-creation" of translation. For example, in the "Book of Poetry, Tsevi", "Once upon a time, I went to the past, and Yang Liu Yiyi." Xu Yuanchong saw that his predecessors translated "Yiyi" as "softly sway" and "Feifei" as "flying", and always felt that "there is no difference between it and prose in terms of rhetorical mood". When he did it himself, he understood "Yiyi" to mean that Yiyi did not want to leave tears, and it happened that the English of "weeping willow" was "weeping willow" and the French was "saule pleureur", which had the meaning of tears; he also translated "Feifei" as "heavy snow bending branches", so that readers could see the image of soldiers returning home after the war. Xu Yuanchong's re-creation of the translation was rejected by some people and criticized by others. Xu Yuanchong explained: "Western translations pay attention to reciprocity, word to word, and 90% of the vocabulary of their main script is reciprocal. Chinese differs from other texts in that it is only half equal. Although reciprocity does not violate objective laws, it does not exert subjective initiative. Without distorting the author's meaning, the translator must reflect the taste, essence and soul of a national culture. Xu Yuanchong said modestly: "No one is perfect, no one is perfect, and the 'Three Beauty Theory' is an ideal state, and I am willing to work towards it." ”
Yang Zhenning, an old classmate, sighed: "He especially tried his best to make the translated poems rich in rhyme and rhythm, which is almost impossible in essence, but he did not back down." Xu Yuanchong not only did not retreat, but also rose from "knowing" and "good" to the realm of "music". He successively translated the "Book of Poetry", "Chu Ci", Tang poems and Song Ci, "Xi Xiang Ji", "Peony Pavilion", etc. into English or French, pursuing both neat rhyme and realm, transforming the beauty created in China into the beauty of the whole world. Schopenhauer said, "The highest goodness is beauty, and the highest pleasure is the creation of beauty." "Isn't what Xu Yuanchong enjoys every day the highest level of fun?"
Author: Jiang Shengxin, a reporter of this newspaper
Photo: All photo by Jiang Shengxin except for the signature
Editor: Li Yang