"These cats are a lot like you and me
And we found other people
Have all kinds of minds. ”
This is a poem by the poet Eliot in The Practical Cat Sutra of the Old Possum.
Since the publication of this book in 1935, the famous British composer Alan Rosthorne has adapted six of these poems into a symphonic poem to recite the Cat Sutra, which was a great success. Later, the equally famous Andrew Weber adapted the book into the musical Cats. Let's talk about a statistic, "Cats" is currently the most successful and longest-running musical in the History of the United Kingdom, and it also maintains the record of the longest and most consecutive performances in the Broadway Theater in the United States, which is not only widely loved by children around the world, but also a musical that many adults are crazy about.
The Practical Cat Sutra of the Old Possum, by T.S. Eliot, translated by Sanke, Northern Literature and Art Publishing House, July 2022.
All kinds of cats, like all kinds of people
As a former dog and currently a "cat slave", I claim to know a little about cats and dogs. The dog is straightforward, loyal, and the joys and sorrows are clear at a glance. But cats are mysterious animals. It is sometimes gentle and lovely, sometimes cold and fierce, and the stray cat is a group of jungle beasts. I once heard the cat's mournful cry all night on an island, and during the day, I found that most of the island cats were wounded, and although they were thin and strong, they were either missing ears, or blind in one eye, and there were still blood stains on their bodies, and presumably there would be several fierce battles every night.
In the Practical Cat Sutra of the Old Possum, it is written about various cats. Like humans, they have different personality preferences, class identities and conflict struggles, so all the cats in the poem are personified as "he" or "she".
As a knowledgeable and skilled poet, Eliot's astonishing powers of observation and imagination are vividly reflected in this book. Among them, the representative of the "bad cat", Grotteg, was rude and savage, with the nickname "Terror of Thames". He roamed the barges, wandered the jungle, ruthlessly attacked other cats, and even killed his villainous guys—Elliot didn't write that directly, but he whispered "long gone" because the follower had accidentally wet Groteig's beard in a bar. The cat often stood alone at the bow of the ship like a leader, showing his majesty.
The final battle of the "bad cat" Grottegg.
The depiction of the hypocritical side of this tyrant cat, Eliot's poem appears in the harbor "Gentle Moon" and Grotegg's "amorous side", in contrast to people hearing that "Grotteg ran out!" "The horror was overwhelming. The other oppressed cats led by the Siamese cat finally rose up to resist, and in the place where "a hundred victims" had been driven out of the sea by Grottegg, Grotero also jumped down in horror, ending his life full of evil. His demise brought universal celebration, and even people cheered in Bangkok, the hometown of the Siamese cat far away from Britain. It can be seen that tyrants are not the scourge of one family and one city, but the enemies of the whole world.
One of the infamous pair of Jiangyang thieves is Montgogelli and Loplantitiser, who are complicit, haunted, steal, rob and cheat, and do a lot of bad things. Still, all the bad cats pale in comparison to the cat named McCavitty.
The translator notes that McCavitty is the king of crime among cats. A famous scholar named John Sutherland studied that Eliot was modeled after the supervillain Professor Moriarty in The Sherlock Holmes.
McCavitty: Mystery Cat.
The cat was "a master of crime who tested the law by example" and was "the confusion of Scotland Yard, the despair of the rapid SWAT team". Unlike the brutal Grotteg, Montgogelli and Loplantitser, who have done all the bad things, Eliot focuses on his appearance and the consequences of his crime when writing about McCavitti, but omits how he acts, because people cannot witness how he did evil, and the London Metropolitan Police "can't find his footprints in any archive of Scotland Yard" and "the investigation is useless - McCavitty is not there!" "This cat has sunken eye sockets," his brow filled with thoughts, and his head bulged high—because he was a cat-shaped demon, an evil monster.
In Elliot's pen, such a cunning demon who always has a reason to excuse himself in the face of trouble looks gentle and elegant, and his speech and demeanor are polite and polite. With such a deceptive appearance, it is no wonder that people are difficult to guard against. Compared to him, the bad cats described earlier are nothing more than a piece of cake, because Elliott tells us that McCavitty is "the cat who controls them all the time, the Napoleon of the crime world." He is a highly intelligent, well-disguised, extremely dangerous terrorist criminal.
In recent years, the author has written some poetry books for children, so I have read a lot of Chinese and foreign children's poems. I have seen some people for many years hold a very stubborn idea that the poems written for children should be positive and can only show the happy side of life. There is no doubt that this is a view that makes children mentally retarded. Don't you know that every child is a future adult, children's books should provide them with life experience and wisdom, and human life is not only sunshine, but also tears and wounds.
Railroad cats.
There are also bad cats and good cats in the "Practical Cat Classic of the Old Possum", which is normal literary education. Covering a child's eyes so that they don't see the complex side of society is tantamount to deceiving children and fooling them about real life. The Old Possum's Practical Cat Sutra has become a favorite book for almost many children around the world, not only because it interestingly depicts the personality behavior of various cats, but also because Eliot, with his characteristic humor, teaches children the wisdom to distinguish between good and evil and social complexity through poetry. How can a child who only believes in flowers and honey in the world meet villains like McCavitti and Grotteger?
Good cat and cat with a lot of personality
Naturally, the Old Possum's Practical Cat Sutra also has good cats, cats with complex ideas, and cats with personalities. The elderly Gambi cat Jenny Dot, a saint-like idealist. Although she is old, she is still doing her best to change the world. She was even willing to teach the rats to music and weave, teach them to be polite, and bake a cake for them; Even the cockroaches that run around are her concerns, and she forms "these disorderly hillbillys" into a scout army to guide them to do good.
The significance of everything she does is to establish a harmonious order, and an affection for the family. Such a kind and generous old cat, no wonder Elliot said, "Let's cheer for the old Gambi cat three times," and the translator humorously wrote in the appendix to the book, "T.S. Eliot's Cat Poem," "Well, I cheer a fourth time."
The old Gambi cat.
As for Jackley, he was the handsome teenager among cats. Cheerful, healthy and energetic, they are beloved creatures of the goddess of dance, representing the spirit of freedom and uninhibited. The elderly Diuteronomi is the opposite of them, he has lived many dynasties and witnessed the changes in the vicissitudes of the sea, but what he has learned from history is not wisdom, but obedience, good at pretending to be confused. He has always lived carefully, and is a typical example of "a person who knows the times as a handsome master". The theater cat Gus and the railway cat Schimbersch, one is a performance artist, the other is a loyal railway commuter, and Eliot's description of them is vivid and childlike.
The city cat Bastorf Jones is a rich man, flamboyant, vain, and vassal; The elder Morgan, on the other hand, was a pirate who washed his hands in a golden basin and was transformed into a decent uniform, which meant that he had entered high society, even though he was no more than a janitor waiter.
The fantasist and magician in this book is Mistoffrey, whose whimsical life is impressive; The most individual cat is Ram Tum Tagle. This cat is a rebel, defiant of all customs, going his own way, never bending his knees to anyone, and is what the philosopher Benjamin called the "uncertain" force that cannot be solidified.
Ram Tum Tagle.
Elliot's unique black humor
Although the "Practical Cat Sutra of the Old Possum" is mainly about cats, it is very surprising that a poem "The Terrible War between the Poodle and the Pericle Dog" appeared. In his poem, Eliot describes the dogs of other races that joined the war, but in this so-called terrifying battle, the opposing sides have been barking wildly until the "great Lambas cat" appears on his back and the dogs disperse. Eliot's unique black humor, which brings the reader a deeper meaning after a smile, points not only to the temperament of the dog family, but also to the uneasiness that the Second World War of the 1930s was about to sweep across Europe.
The terrifying battle between the poodle and the perician.
The book has had fourteen editions and fifteen editions. The book translated by the poet Sank is a Chinese-English translation, containing fifteen poems, each of which is accompanied by detailed notes by the translator, which helps readers fully understand the poem and the cultural implications beyond the poem. The appendix at the end of the book is the translator's nearly 10,000-word analysis of the reading and translation of this book, which is the most detailed essay on the "Cat Classic" that the author has read in recent years.
Illustrator Yin Xia is surprisingly a doctor of physics, and her brushes are both freehand and vividly figurative—all cats are taller than pedestrians, and a cat is even about the size of a building. The mystery of the cat is organically linked to the streets, jungles, and urban corners, and the cat protagonists have their own postures, which is a well-illustrated collection of children's poems, as well as a "sociological" beginner's book that allows children to understand a broader and more complex human life and an introductory "treasure book" for learning poetry. Because the poet said, "Every cat must have three names," and every poem may have three meanings—I believe you can read them out.
Text/Blue Blue
Editor/Zhang Jin Shen Chan Luo Dong
Proofreading/Xue Jingning