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Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

Liu Shaoming (1934.7.9-2023.1.4)

Twenty-two years ago, Lu Hao asked me to write a column for Hong Kong's Hong Kong newspaper. Once Mr. Lin Xingzhi, the founder of "Xinbao", set up a family banquet, and invited Liu Shaoming, Dong Qiao, Zheng Shusen, Jiang Yun and several other gentlemen together, and several gentlemen talked about their youth during the banquet, it turned out that Mr. Liu and they were all "Mochizuki factions", Yue referred to Mr. Lin Wenyue, and Mrs. Dong Qiao was present, and also smiled and pointed out that it was indeed true. On that day, Mrs. Lin arranged a lot of famous dishes, including civet, which frightened Lu Gongzi's face, and he kept watching us eat with fear, and finally he begged Mr. Lin's nanny for rice and cut himself off.

In this way, I became acquainted with several gentlemen. Before leaving, Mr. Liu specifically told me to use a fax machine, because he likes faxing. After returning to Shanghai, I bought a new fax machine, whose only function was to receive Mr. Liu's letters, because everyone was already using e-mail.

Mr. Liu likes to send faxes, and if he reads a few words in the newspaper, he will also send a letter. He called me Mao Yatou when he met and called me Dr. Mao, his handwriting is flying like a prescription, a full piece of paper is often only twenty or thirty words, and one or two words need to be exhaustively recognized, so that I reply to his letters, and it is also overwhelmed, and sometimes he circles one or two on my letter, and sends me back to ask me what words are. While I feel guilty, I also give birth to a little pleasure, hehe.

Mr. Liu demanded that the world be clear and crisp. He went to Shanghai with Mr. Zheng Shusen, Mr. Zheng was meticulous, hairstyle cufflinks and leather shoes, all in the best position, he said that the palm was also meticulous, talking about Zhang Ailing's American past, but also from Hong Kong, and then was asked by Mr. Zishan a few words, and flashback back to Shanghai, Mr. Liu next to him sighed, scooped up a spoonful of sea melon seeds, sneaked into his mouth, clicked and chewed directly to eat, panicked everyone immediately let him spit out, after he spit it out, fifty words five times fast forward to finish Zhang Ailing's American situation, and then said to Mr. Zheng ,you're still a young man.

He likes to talk about other people's young man, Mr. Zheng listens to it and smiles, every time Mr. Liu puts a young hat on others, it is he who wants to start another conversation. For several years, Mr. Liu and I were both awarding awards at the Hong Kong City Literature Festival, and at the end of the collective discussion session, Mr. Bai Xianyong spoke like Kunqu opera, singing and sighing, this "remarkable" and that is also "so remarkable", our juniors listened, only felt that Yin Ziyan was red, Mr. Liu listened to it and asked the young man to directly express his position, which one to choose. However, there was also a time when Mr. Liu was called a young man.

That day, Mr. Liu was also in Shanghai, and a table of people was eating at the heron in Jing'an Temple. After a round of wine, Mr. Ho Zhenya entered. Mr. He was in his eighties at that time, but his body was stronger than Gao Qi, and as soon as he sat down, he asked, Is there anyone older than me? Mr. He looked at Mr. Liu and said, they are all young people. Mr. Liu lowered his head, and Zhou Botong met Wang Chongyang, and he could only eat seriously. Mr. Ho later passed away suddenly on the way to the Taiwan Conference, bringing an end to the generation of pioneers who pioneered the cultural undertakings of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mr. Liu Shaoming also left in January this year. Remembering that day at a table of dinner, I actually walked a third, and suddenly felt that in this era where everyone is desperately trying to pretend to be tender and advertising all kinds of age reduction, relying on the old and selling the old is really a good style.

Even, looking at it today, relying on the old and selling the honest is really a magic weapon for literary research. Mr. Lau is a translator, writer, and literary critic whose writing and translation achievements are amazing and unique. Among them, his translation research not only has the ease of entering and exiting Chinese and English, but also has a unique vision of understanding people and the world. We once asked him at the dinner table about the translation of famous works, and he gave an example from David Hawkes' translation of "A Dream of the Red Mansion", which is also mentioned in the "Discussion of Huo's Translation of "Stone Records" and included in his anthology "Words Are Things".

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

"Words Are Things", by Liu Shaoming, Liaoning Education Press, May 1999, 211 pages, 12.00 yuan

Mr. Liu compared Hawkes' translations and thought that Hokes's oral imitation was very skillful, but Hawks' grasp of the more subtle relationships between the characters lacked fire. For example, in the first time of the novel, Jia Yucun saw Zhen Shiyin, and hurriedly smiled: "The old gentleman leans on the door and looks, dare to see what news is in the market?" Shiyin smiled and said, "Fei Ye, because the little girl was crying, she led him in to play - it was very boring, and Brother Jia came just right." Please enter the small fast, and you can eliminate this eternal day with each other. Here, "Brother Jia came just in time", which was translated by Huo's to: Your coming is most opportune, dear boy, Mr. Liu commented on this "dear boy" and said: These two words come from the mouth of Shiyin, not only spoiling the scenery, but also giving readers a misunderstanding of the relationship between the two of them, not to mention the disappearance of the "light as water" realm between Shiyin and the rainy village.

This kind of "dear boy", we ordinary readers see, and it is over. The master is actually in these places, just like Mr. Liu said that Acheng helped others change the script, so here to add, "dinner at night", there to make up a "it's going to rain", the essence of life, between the virtual and the real. Da Ze travels the dragon and phoenix in the world, and the poor also come to the doorstep. Mr. Liu has a famous article, "Who Spreads What Wild", which says that once, he was a guest in a small town in eastern America, and he accidentally saw two little girls on the street scolding each other, and one suddenly scolded each other: Your mother wears T shirt! Your mother wears T shirt! Mr. Liu is conceited about his English prowess, and he can't figure out why the T-shirt is dirty. Later, I was not ashamed to ask, and finally figured out that the local area was exquisite, even if a decent woman went to the banquet without dressing all night, wearing a T-shirt was a self-inflicted humiliation.

This insight can only be achieved through experience. So ask ChatGPT "If you were Baoyu, who would you choose as your wife", the machine replied, choose "Jia Mu", because Jia Mu is true love for Baoyu. I don't know what Mr. Liu will say when he sees his ChatGPT debut, maybe he will write a book "The Times When Words Can't Be Moving".

Looking back now, you will feel that Mr. Liu is actually an old-school person, although he has done a lot of work, whether it is running "Modern Literature" with Bai Xianyong, Ouyang Zi, Li Oufan, etc. at NTU in the sixties, or translating Orwell's "1984", Xia Zhiqing's "History of Modern Chinese Novels", and even helping Zhang Ailing find a job in the United States, it seems that they are all trendy actions, but in their bones is a resistance to the sense of nothingness that constantly overflows the embankment. He wrote "The Age When Words Can Still Move People", lamenting that "words have become discourse today", and the ancients and people today are blurred. The era he wanted was "reading Ba Jin's "Home", and seeing the section where Mingfeng threw himself into the lake, he suddenly felt miserable"; It is that even if you are "Chen Ben Cloth", you can stand up to the heavens and the earth, and you can still "sleep in Chang'an City".

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

The magazine "Modern Literature" founded on March 5, 1960 by members of the "North-South Society" of the Department of Foreign Languages of NTU

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

The publication of Modern Literature was written by Liu Shaoming: "We intend to systematically translate and introduce Western modern art schools and trends, criticisms and ideas in stages, and select their representative works as much as possible. We do not do this to imply our preference for foreign art, but only to follow the progressive principle of 'the rock of the other mountain'... We feel that the old art forms and styles are not enough to express our artistic emotions as modern people. So, we decided to experiment, explore and create new art forms and styles. ”

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

Liu Shaoming's translation of "1984"

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

Liu Shaoming et al. trans. History of Modern Chinese Fiction

On 29 November 2018, I went to Lingnan University with Luk Hao Po Ye to meet Mr Lau, and this was the last time we saw Mr Liu. That day, the big sun, Mr. Gan Qi did the east, Mr. Liu was very interested, called us to his office to send a bunch of books, he looked bright, meat and vegetarian, but also claimed that "a hundred diseases, not good at walking, to take fifty pills a day", Lu Hao immediately laughed at him, then your body is better, five years ago, you also said, take a hundred pills a day. Mr. Liu was unimpressed, raised his head and hated the world, lowered his head to eat, and stamped us a young man from time to time. After lunch, we took a photo together, and before parting, Mr. Liu said, I am old, you should come to Hong Kong more.

Friend, you shed tears in your teacup

From left: Gan Qi, Peng Teng, Mao Jian, Mr. Liu Shaoming, Lu Hao, Xiao Bao.

Times are booming forward. Looking back, his reliance on the old and selling the old, in this era, can be regarded as temperance. As he admires Auden's explanation of the "function of poetry": it is nothing more than helping us to appreciate life better. Or, conversely, help us bear the pain of life. That's it, when I remembered the expression on his face when he said we were still young men, somewhat tinged with a hint of pride and a hint of melancholy. And this pride and melancholy runs through almost all of his writing and translation, in the words he wrote in "Old Hong Kong", that is: If you understand the taste, then you should also reach the age of "the sad boss in front of the bottle". To quote an old saying from an old novel: "Friend, you shed tears into your teacup!" ”

Goodbye, Mr. Liu.

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