As "the greatest English-language writer since Shakespeare", Joyce did "show off" in Ulysses: symbolism, nesting, foreign languages, isolated words, Old English, Latin, harmonic stems... These sophisticated word games abound in Ulysses.
Two sentences and one metaphor, three lines and one allusion. Without a bit of strong background knowledge, I really don't have the ability to "nibble" Ulysses through. The problem is that most readers aren't "Joe's scholars" and don't have the time and energy to study Old Joe's wordplay word for word.
What to do?
A new translation of Ulysses
Mr. Liu Xiangyu, a "Qiao scholar" who has been studying Ulysses for many years, said: Don't worry, I have put all my life's learning into this new translation of Ulysses.
This new translation, which is like a "martial arts secret book", was carefully polished by Mr. Liu Xiangyu for 20 years, combining accuracy and easy to read.
On July 31, 2021 (Saturday) 19:30-20:30, Shanghai Translation Publishing House invited scholar and translator Dai Congrong and editor and translator Feng Tao to talk about the special features of the translated version of Ulysses.
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Today, let's take a look at what "unique moves" Mr. Liu Xiangyu taught in his translation to understand Ulysses:
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Readers who regularly read translated works know that annotations are important. Because of the different cultural backgrounds, social customs, and ways of thinking of the East and the West, without the help of annotations, readers are prone to "get lost" in the text. Encyclopedic works such as Ulysses especially require detailed annotations.
"Ulysses" integrates various genres such as poetry, prose, and drama, and also incorporates many elements such as film, music, painting, sculpture, philosophy, history, religion, etc.
Don't have enough knowledge reserves? It doesn't matter, Mr. Liu Xiangyu is an expert in this area, he does not avoid cumbersome, should note, as far as possible for the reader to remove the obstacles when reading.
How did Mr. Liu Xiangyu make a note? Let's take the first chapter of the opening chapter, which "dissuaded" many readers, as an example. Let's take a look at the original text (it doesn't matter if you don't understand):
The opening paragraph is about the appearance of Morrigan, the second male protagonist of Ulysses, showing a mysterious and strange scene of religious rituals.
What is the significance of this ritual? What are the various tools mentioned in the article useful? What do their weird words mean?
Mr. Liu Xiangyu wrote 9 notes for the short 527 words at the beginning (Note: here is the number of Chinese translations), a total of 1099 words, which is extremely meticulous. And look --
(1) The prototype of Morrigan the Bucks is mainly from Oliver St. John Gogarty. Gogati (1871-1957) was also a well-known Irish writer who actively participated in the Irish Renaissance movement. Joyce met him at the National Library in late 1902 and early 1903 while on vacation in Dublin, when Gogarty was studying for a medical degree at Oxford University, was a literary talent, determined to become a famous doctor and poet, admired Yeats, and admired Joyce. Because of their common interests and topics, Joyce and he talked speculatively, but due to differences in beliefs and temperaments, a distrust of him soon developed a relationship with him, so their friendship soon broke down. This is not difficult to see in the description of Morrigan in this chapter. In addition, Molly Bloom's lover Boylan also has the shadow of Gogarty.
(2) In the simulated Mass below, this bowl with soap foam will become a holy grail, and the top of the staircase will become the steps of the altar.
(3) The razor is a symbol of the butcher, implying that the priest is a butcher.
(4) When priests do Mass, they must tie their robes with belts, "not wearing belts" implies that they do not keep the priest's holy oath; "yellow" in Christianity has the meaning of "light of hell", "depravity", "betrayal", "jealousy", "fraud", etc., so in medieval religious paintings, Judas and pagans often wear yellow clothes.
(5) Original Latin: Introiboad altare Dei. From Psalms, Psalms, Old Testament, 43. This passage is a parody of Catholic Mass. Morrigan was imitating the priest's movements and language as soon as he appeared. There is a strong irony in his parody.
(6) "Golden Cut" is the nickname Morrigan gave Stephen. Kinch is similar in form to Kinchin (child), and its pronunciation is also a simulation of the sound made when a knife cuts a thing. In his article titled James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist, Goggarty mentioned that Joyce gave him the absurd name Malachi Morrigan, but he gave Joyce an even worse nickname: Kinch, a word reminiscent of "lynch." Because Stephen attended a Jesuit-run school, Morrigan called him a Jesuit monk.
(7) "Turret" is a round platform on the top of the tower, which was once equipped with rotating artillery, hence the name.
(8) Morrigan imitated the stern tone of the officers during the army's early morning grooming of the officers who ordered the disheveled soldiers to return to the barracks, and then used a comical tone to simulate what Jesus said to the disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus' original words were: You take it and eat it, this is my body. You all drink this, for this is the blood of my covenant, which is shed for many and forgiven of sins. (See New Testament Matthew 26) This passage is commonly spoken in The Communion ceremony to show that the bread and wine are part of the Body of Christ. In addition, there are so-called black Masses that desecrate the Mass ceremony, with the as the eucharistic table, and the holy bread and holy wine are placed on it, often turning the Mass into an obscene farce. Christine, translated here as "Christ woman," is generally a woman's name, but Morrigan deliberately pronounced Eucharist as christine, thus associating it with "Christ." White blood cells allude to menstrual or vaginal secretions of, or may be associated with the mysterious process of transforming the blood of Christ and the holy wine into holy blood. Chapter 15 of the book ends with a description of the "Black Mass."
(9) Morrigan's mouth full of gold teeth reminds Stephen of Chrysostomos, a Greek word meaning "golden-mouthed" and generally referring to St. John Chrysostomos (345-407), one of the early founders of Christianity, or the ancient Greek rhetorician Dion Kristostomos (50-117). Take the former here.
From the character image, name setting, to the scene archetype, to the religious and cultural significance, all of them are included, even the "bowl" and "razor" used in Morrigan's ceremony, and the "yellow nightgown" worn by morrigan are explained in the notes.
It is also instructive that the translator will briefly indicate the source of reference in the annotations, and interested readers can fully use it to follow the vine and explore the melon on their own.
Readers can also flip to the beginning of the third chapter, which is almost entirely Stephen's inner monologue:
What the hell was Stephen thinking? According to what we know of Ulysses and this character, he is extremely intelligent, leaping in thinking, and well educated, so that in his contemplation of existence, life, and the world, there are many profound philosophical allusions, and if there is no commentary, I am afraid that only the reader with philosophical academic training can barely keep up with the ideas of the character.
Fortunately, Mr. Liu Xiangyu made a very detailed comment on this passage:
(1) Aristotle, in his treatises On the Soul and On sensation and perceptuality, discusses the forms of existence of visible and audible things. Joyce had read Victor Carson's English translation. This does not seem to be a direct quotation, but Stephen's own interpretation.
(2) This is the saying of the German mystic Jacob Bermai (1575-1624). He believed that everything on earth was created by God, so God signed everything, and people could only understand its meaning if they read it with the eyes of the heart. The rusty boots mentioned below are a pair of boots discarded by the buck Morrigan, which he borrowed to wear on his feet.
(3) The Irish educator and philosopher George Berkeley Bishop (1685-1753) believed that what we "see" is not objects, but marks of color.
(4) Aristotle believed that "transparency" is not peculiar to air, water, and transparency, but to varying degrees exists in all forms as ordinary properties; and color exists in the appearance or form of the form, thus becoming their boundary, or it is itself such a boundary. Therefore, the degree of transparency of the shapes determines their color.
(5) In his biography of Johnson, Boswell recounts that Dr. Johnson "stomped his feet" on a stone (...) strikinghis foot with mighty force against a large stone，tillhe rebounced from it. “I refute itthus.” ) in order to refute the Bishop of Berkeley's idealistic view that things do not exist, in order to prove the existence of "stones." Stephen here proves the existence of form in the way that Aristotle "bumps his head".
(6) Medieval legends about Aristotle.
(7) Original Italian: maestrodi color che sanno. This is Dante's praise for Aristotle (Divine Comedy Hell, Part 4).
(8) Original German: nacheinander.
(9) Speaking of Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4. See chapter 1, note 90.
(10) Original German: nebeneinander. The German dramatist and critic Gottholt Lessing (1729-1781) discussed the relationship between visual art and poetry in his Laocoön, arguing that poetry deals with temporal relations, and that its different parts develop in the visible "one after the other" chronological order; while the plastic arts (such as painting) deal with spatial relations, and its different parts develop in the visible "one by one" spatial juxtaposition.
(11) "He" is Morrigan. Stephen wore not only the boots that Morrigan had discarded, but also the pants he had discarded.
(12) In his Song of the Creator, the English poet Blake refers to "Los" as the "Creator", saying that the world is knocked out by the Creator with a mallet; Plato refers to the Creator of the material world as "Demiurgos", and in Gnostic mysticism and theosophy, "Timeo" is called "the architect of the world". It is said that Timeo is the second only god to God, and he uses a mallet to knock everything in the world into different shapes according to God's will.
(13) Sandymount, meaning "sand mountain", is the name of a beach southeast of Dublin. Stephen came out of school and is now strolling northwest along this stretch of beach. "Into Eternity" speaks from Blake's long poem "Milton".
(14) "Wild coins of the sea" refers to various shells. See Dixie's discussion of coins in Chapter 2 of this book.
(15) This sentence may be derived from a ballad in a Scottish dialect.
These seemingly incomprehensible passages are also much less difficult to follow the translator's notes. This is really friendly for readers who want to challenge Ulysses.
2 Second form: more than 500 pages of notes
By purchasing the Liu Xiangyu translation launched by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House this time, you can not only get two books of "Ulysses" (first and second volumes), but also receive a translation of the more than 500 pages of translation notes "Translating the Book of the Heavens of the "Untranslatable" - "Ulysses"" can be obtained.
Background knowledge that cannot be explained in detail in the notes is presented in more detail in the notes. In addition, Mr. Liu Xiangyu also analyzed the similarities and differences in the details of each translation from multiple angles such as translation theory, translation practice, and horizontal comparison of translations.
For the general reader, this notebook is a reference for reading aids; for professional readers and scholars, it is a treatise of great academic value that discusses literary translation.
For the use of this note, please refer to the previous tweet 👉 of the translator and click here to read.
3 Third form: 4 appendices
In order to make it easier to read Ulysses, Mr. Liu Xiangyu also appended four appendices after the translation:
Timeline of Joyce's life and creation
Ulysses: Symbolic chapter structure
Joyce, Bloom, Stephen Family Relationship Table
Editions and manuscripts of Ulysses
These 4 appendices are very helpful for quickly combing through the relationships of the characters and understanding the structure of the chapters.
Excellent translations, well-prepared notes, scholarly notes and appendices – this is the right way to open Ulysses.
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Ulysses
Ulysses
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[Ireland] by James Joyce
Translated by Liu Xiangyu
Shanghai Translation Publishing House