A road to the soul of the universe - missing the translator Yi Lijun

The Spring Festival is approaching, and I sent a blessing voice to Teacher Yi Lijun, and I look forward to hearing her echo. The echo did not sound for a long time. There was a faint uneasiness in my heart, but I didn't dare to think about it much, until the bad news came on February 7, and I knew that I would never hear Teacher Yi's voice again.

In the sadness of falling into nostalgia, bit by bit, endlessly. Once again, my mind goes back to the 1980s, the unforgettable era. It was then that I met Teacher Yi Lijun.

Translator Yi Lijun (1934-2022)

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In the autumn of 1979, I walked into the campus of Beijing Foreign Chinese College and began an eight-year study career. In the age of passion, literature shines with a special luster and occupies an important place in campus life. If any teacher or student publishes a literary work or translation, it is a big thing, and it will attract countless envious and even admiring eyes. For a long time, as a literary youth, I always looked at Teacher Yi from a distance with such eyes.

One day, it should be in 1983, Teacher Yi accompanied a thin but elegant old lady to find me, and before she could get closer, she said loudly: "You are Xiao Gao, this is Teacher Yang Leyun of World Literature!" "Oh my God, Teacher Yi's voice is so big, her eyes are so big, as soon as she opened her mouth, the entire Corridor of the Eastern European Language Department seemed to be shaking." It turned out that Teacher Yang was close to retirement and was looking for a successor, so he entrusted Teacher Yi to help, and Teacher Yi finally recommended me through careful understanding. In this way, I established a relationship with World Literature, and naturally had the opportunity to contact and interact with Teacher Yi.

From the early 1980s onwards, readers often read Polish literature translated by Han Yi in World Literature. Ivaškiewicz's essays "Strawberries", "Chopin's Old Garden", "Overnight in the Mountains", etc., Milosz's poetry, Ruževich's novella "My Daughter", Audorska's novella "Emerald Eyes", Mrogek's humorous sketches, and so on. They are all unique and charming works, or flickering philosophical light, or presenting the beauty of words, or full of the power of thought... You know, it was just after an absurd era that foreign literary works, to some extent, became the "alternative nutrition" for countless Chinese readers and writers. When we were reading books, we all liked to write down some wonderful paragraphs or sentences. In Ivaškiewicz's prose and Milosz's poetry, there are too many such passages and sentences. Strawberry, in particular, still remembers its beginning:

It's September, but the summer is in full swing. The weather was unusually warm, and not a single yellow leaf could be seen on the tree. Between the lush branches, there may be a slight sparseness in a few places, and perhaps there is a leaf here or there that is slightly paler in color; but it is inconspicuous and difficult to find without careful searching. The sky is as sparkling as sapphire, and the tall mistletoe trees are full of business and full of faith in the future...

Such sentences especially resonate with us. At that time, the reform and opening up had just begun, and we really felt that every day was fresh, sunny, and really full of faith in the future. I also remember this sentence in "Overnight in the Mountains":

All kinds of emotions are like mountain eagles, soaring and flying away, leaving me only the sister of the deep mountain silence - the inner silence. This double silence, like two chain cups, filled with the fragrance of clear mountain springs and moss in the mountains, poured me inside and out. All my thoughts and memories have left me, and my soul has found a way to the soul of the universe...

Ivaszkiewicz is a master of prose, good at blending narrative, depiction, imagination, philosophy and lyricism, simple and profound, true and full of charm, and still and moving, virtual and real, and these are transmitted to us through the translator's pen. Many people did not know at that time that Han Yi was actually Teacher Yi's pen name, "Han" was the harmonic sound of Han in the name of Mr. Yi Teacher Yuan Hanrong, and "Yi" was the harmonic sound of Yi. When I first learned that Han Yi was Teacher Yi, I felt that Teacher Yi was really too powerful, the translation was accurate, the gods were transmitted, all kinds of genres and styles could be controlled, and he was really a translator, and he was in our department, right next to us.

The author of this article took a group photo with Mr. Yi Lijun

When we were studying in school, Beiwai still paid more attention to language teaching, language teaching was Teacher Yi's job, taking up most of her time, and literary translation could only be done on weekends and winter and summer vacations, for decades, almost to the last moment of life. This means being in a state of labor for the rest of your life. If there is no inner motivation, firm will and tenacious perseverance, how can we complete such a lifetime of persistence!

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Teacher Yi has loved poetry since he was a child, and after being admitted to the department of Chinese of Wuhan University, he was selected as a public international student with excellent results. When she was informed that she would be sent to Poland to study language and literature, she was elated but heartless at the meeting and said that studying language and literature in Poland was her best choice, and the great Polish poet Mitskević's "Ode to Youth", which she had read in middle school. If she was sent to another country, she would immediately return home. Mr. Yuan Hanrong, who later became her life partner, recalled: "These few big words of hers were completely stunned. What a wild with an unobstructed mouth and a straight heart! "Simple, bold, straight-talking, kind hearted and clear love and hate, Teacher Yi has not changed much in his life." Such a character, in the ups and downs of the decades, did not bring her too much trouble, it is really her life luck, but also the luck of Polish literary translation. Of course, Teacher Yi's greatest luck and happiness is to meet Mr. Yuan Hanrong. Mr. Yuan studied physics, calm, careful, rational, good thinking; Teacher Yi studied literature, bold, rough, emotional, love expression. But they also have common characteristics: sincerity, honesty, aversion to hypocrisy, and consistency in appearance. In addition, it is particularly important that Mr. Yuan loves literature as much as Teacher Yi. Mr. Yuan has been familiar with scriptures since he was a child, writes well, and from time to time Yaxing has a big haircut, and also writes some poems. They approached each other while studying in Poland, studied together in the cold window of Warsaw for six years, and soon after returning home, they became a couple. In the journey of life, Mr. Yuan's timely reminder must have made Teacher Yi take a lot of detours. Teacher Yi is also very obedient to Mr. Yuan. I listened to Teacher Yi more than once: "He listens to me a lot about small things in the family, but he has the final say in all major matters." "Mr. Yuan will help carefully proofread, polish and read through each translation of Teacher Yi, and after retirement, he will simply participate in the translation with Teacher Yi." Once, when receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Gdansk in Poland, Mr. Yi took Mr. Yuan's hand and emotionally said to the guests at the scene: "Every translation of mine is permeated with my husband's painstaking efforts, but he has always been reluctant to leave his name." So my little achievements actually contain his labor. "This is truly an enviable and respected ideal couple.

Yi Lijun and Yuan Hanrong translated the novels of Nobel Laureate Tokarczuk

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Teacher Yi likes literature, has a deep foundation in Chinese, and is proficient in Polish, and it is only a matter of time before he engages in literary translation. It's just missing an opportunity. She never dreamed that this opportunity was actually provided by Premier Zhou Enlai. Mr. Yuan recorded in detail the origin of the incident in his memoir "Trivia Picking Up Zero" written in his later years:

At a foreign affairs work conference, Premier Zhou Enlai asked the diplomats present: "Has anyone read this "Ancestor Sacrifice"? "The whole seat was silent, and no one answered. The Prime Minister said: "An excellent literary work like this, which is widely accepted by the masses, should be translated into Chinese." After a while, Mr. Sun Shengwu, who was in charge of foreign literature publishing at the People's Literature Publishing House, asked Ye Mingzhen, the editor of the society who lived outside the north, to come to Lijun and ask if She could translate the Ancestor Sacrifice. ...... Ye Mingzhen saw that she was a little hesitant, and said: Translating this work is indeed very meaningful, but there is no fee, and there are certain risks, you must consider it clearly. Lijun promised to think about it and discussed it with me. I said, "The opportunity to translate and publish this work is the most important thing. If you don't translate, who can you translate? If you are not sure of translating well, I am afraid that no one will be able to translate well, not to mention that you are teaching in the north, and it is relatively easy to find an opportunity to consult Polish experts..." In this way, the matter of translation is determined.

Mickiewicz's poem "The Sacrifice of the Ancestors" was originally planned to write four, but in fact only three were written. The poet first wrote the second and fourth parts in one breath, then devoted himself to patriotic activities, and wrote the third part after six or seven years. The first part was never completed. The second part recreates the ancient ritual of paying homage to the dead, but uses this ritual to indict real-life sins. The fourth part tells a love tragedy, which is basically the narration and confession of the protagonist Gustav. In the special reality of China in the late 1960s, the second and fourth parts of "Ancestor Sacrifice" seemed a bit out of place. The third part is the core and essence of the whole poetry drama, and the most suitable for translation into Chinese. As a result, Teacher Yi officially embarked on the road of literary translation from the translation of the third part of the "Ancestor Sacrifice". In 1970, Beiwai moved to Shayang, Hubei Province, according to the instructions of his superiors. During the day, after participating in the batch fight, they also had to grow vegetables, raise pigs, grow rice, and build dormitories and classrooms by themselves. The following year, teaching work was added. It was all full during the day, and I had to squeeze in time at night to do some translation, and I had to do it secretly, because this was not a task assigned by the school. In this way, it took a year or two of intermittent effort to complete the first translation. After returning to Beijing, he used his spare time to look up the dictionary to find information, constantly improved, and also used the opportunity of the escort to visit and find the former mentor to solve many difficult problems. Mr. Yuan proofread, polished and copied from beginning to end, and the two carefully reviewed it many times before handing over the translation to the publishing house. In 1976, when Teacher Yi saw the sample book of "Ancestor Sacrifice", he was so excited that he wanted to cry.

Mr. Yi Lijun

Later, Mr. Yi translated Mitskevich's long poem "Mr. Tadushi" by Mr. Mitskevich alone or in cooperation with Mr. Yuan, Xiankevich's "Crusader Knight" (volume 1 and volume 2), and the three-million-word "trilogy": "Fire and Sword" (volume 1 and volume 2), "Torrent" (three volumes) and "Vvodyovsky Knight" and other classic works. Mr. Yi translates Polish classic literature as well as Polish modern and contemporary literature. In fact, translating classic literature is enough for her to do for a lifetime, but Teacher Yi is willing to jump out of her comfort zone from time to time and meet new challenges. In her words, "It's more enjoyable!" ”

From the very beginning, Gombrowicz, an outlier in the Polish literary scene, broke with tradition and model, and insisted on making literature independent. His unique contribution is also based on this: the introduction of modernity into Polish literature. "Ferdi Duquet" is his masterpiece, full of absurdity, vulgarity, gaming and immodest atmosphere, black words, strange words, anti-words, slang, puns, falsifications, harmonics, synonyms, polysemantic words abound, completely disregarding grammar and rules, it is enough to understand it is enough for the translator to be nervous. In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Yi spent a year and three months nibbling on this work of more than 200,000 words, which was equivalent to the time they spent translating the "Torrent" of more than 1.3 million words.

Tokarczuk was an encyclopedic writer. Realism, romanticism, modernism, magic and mystical atmosphere, fairy tales and mythological overtones, constitute a wonderful mixture in her work. History, culture, nature, folklore, medicine, psychology, anatomy, biology, film, music, etc. are all her concerns and interests. She is a writer with a broad path and advanced concepts, and it is conceivable that Teacher Yi and Teacher Yuan need to consult how much information and knowledge they need to understand in order to accurately grasp her works. Twenty years later, Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mr. Yi Lijun (center) with Nobel laureate Tokarchuk (left).

The poet Herbett is simple and kind, while the essayist Herbert is esoteric and likes to drop the book bag. Blue Eastern Europe introduced three collections of herbed essays, one of which, Still Life with a Horse's Chew, devoted to Dutch painting and involved a great deal of expertise and fine art terminology, making translation extremely difficult. We first thought of Teacher Yi. At that time, Teacher Yi was over eighty years old, and when we asked her to translate this book with trepidation, we did not expect that she would happily agree. Later, when handing over the manuscript, Teacher Yi even said several times: "Fooled!" Fooled! Translating Herbert, he can torture people to death! ”

Yi Lijun's translation of the prose of the Polish poet Herbert

These works are all first translations. When it comes to translation, first translation and retranslation are two completely different concepts. First translation means discovering and illuminating, it means starting from scratch, understanding, grasping, facing and solving all difficulties, it means pioneering, foundational and constructive work. In addition to Gombrowicz, Tokarczuk and Herbert, How many Polish writers and Polish works have been translated by Mr. Yi for the first time! Khimbolska, Ružević, Miloš, Mrowzek... It's a long list. I once said in an interview: "If we pay attention to Mr. Yi Lijun's translation path, we are basically following her through the history of Polish literature." ”

In addition to the translation, Mr. Yi also painstakingly wrote several monographs such as "Polish Literature" and "History of Polish Post-War Literature", which provided the necessary guide for Chinese readers to approach Polish literature.

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Teacher Yi and Mr. Yuan are both workaholics, and they can't stay idle, and they feel fulfilled by doing something. This is a typical mentality of the older generation of literati: always hope to be useful to the country and society. This is also the greatest meaning and value of their lives.

Only when they are at parties or events can they enjoy a little relaxing time. Mr. Yang Leyun, the predecessor of "World Literature", not only appreciates Teacher Yi's talent, but also likes Teacher Yi's personality. Teacher Yi also has special respect for Mr. Yang. The two of them were very close together. There was a time when Mr. Yang would convene a party once a year and invite a few people, including Teacher Yi and Mr. Yuan. Mr. Sun Shengwu and Mr. Gao Mang are also often guests. Mr. Jiang Feng has also participated once or twice. Mr. Yang will call me this offspring every time. Mr. Yang will always make two special dishes at each gathering: steam pot chicken and chicken mushroom soup. Teacher Yi will also bring a few more dishes. At such a moment, I saw the enthusiastic, authentic, and outspoken Teacher Yi again.

Several times, Teacher Yi asked for a return invitation and invited Mr. Yang and I to her house for a party. Due to the similarity of majors, our topics can revolve around Eastern European literature. At that time, Mr. Yi had already received many honors, including the "Knight of the Cross of the Republic of Poland" awarded by the President of Poland, the "Medal of Merit of the National Education Council" awarded by the Polish Minister of Education, and the "Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Introduction of Polish Culture in the World" awarded by the Polish Foreign Minister. But she said nothing about it. Later, in an interview with World Literature, when I asked Teacher Yi to talk about the honors she had received, she just said lightly: "There is nothing to say about this." ”

The accolades received for his translation achievements are numerous

The visit of Polish friends and Polish writers will make Teacher Yi particularly happy. What impressed was Tokarczuk's visit. It was in March 2008, when Tokarczuk was invited to visit Beijing, and when he heard that Mr. and Mrs. Yi had translated two of her novels, they offered to meet the two translators. They talked about China, Poland, literature, life, the sea and the sky, laughter, and talked for two and a half hours, completely like a family gathering. When Tokarczuk heard that Teacher Yi and Mr. Yuan's daughter were the same age as her, he immediately said, "Then you are my Chinese mother and father!" ”

In October 2019, when the Nobel Prize jury announced that Tokarczuk had won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, the media quickly discovered that Mr. Yi and Mr. Yuan had already translated Tokarczuk's works, and Mr. Yi had also written the preface to each other. In those days, Teacher Yi's phone was almost broken. She patiently answered wave after wave of reporter interviews. Afterwards, the old man said to me on the phone: "It's so fun! It was so much fun! For her, her translation had a repercussion, which was her highlight moment.

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At the end of 2020, Mr. Yuan, who had been bedridden for many years, passed away, and only she herself knew how much of a blow this caused to Teacher Yi. Losing his spiritual support, the old man suddenly fell into a depressed state. They love each other too much, have been dependent on each other for their lives, Mr. Yuan died just a year ago, Teacher Yi hurriedly drove to the west of the crane, must be looking for Mr. Yuan to go, certainly.

Raindrops may fall to the ground with me, because as I slowly merge with silence, I will also become dew, clouds, raindrops; stones, plants, snakes; numbers, measurements, volumes; symphonic poems of multidimensional time and space...

I read Teacher Yi's translation over and over again, as if I wanted to see Teacher Yi again through these words. The words have a spirit, and in a trance, I seem to really see Teacher Yi, optimistic, free, walking with a big grin, walking on "a road to the soul of the universe."

About the Author

Happy Editor-in-Chief of World Literature

(Editor-in-charge: Sun Xiaoning)