Photo courtesy of Wang Bing
"Oppenheimer" book cover photo courtesy of interviewee
Recently, the movie "Oppenheimer" directed by Nolan is being released, and the current Douban score is as high as 8.8 points.
Robert Oppenheimer was a Jewish-American physicist known as the "father of the atomic bomb." In August 1942, Oppenheimer was appointed chief scientist of the Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb; In July 1945, he led the creation of the world's first atomic bomb.
Since then, Oppenheimer has wisely affirmed not only the dangers of nuclear bombs, but also hopefully mentioned the potential benefits of nuclear energy. Oppenheimer became a very famous scientist of his generation and one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century.
The film "Oppenheimer" was inspired by the original book of the same name, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "Oppenheimer". With the release of the film, the Chinese edition of the book has been launched simultaneously, translated by Wang Bing, a doctor of mental hygiene at Peking University.
"Oppenheimer's Biography" is written by Kay Bird and Martin A. Written by J. Sherwin, it traces Oppenheimer's life and explores Oppenheimer's enigmatic personality. Over the course of 25 years, the author consulted thousands of documentary records, such as archival materials and personal collections in the United States and abroad, a large number of documents preserved by Oppenheimer himself in the Library of Congress, and thousands of pages of records accumulated by the FBI during more than 25 years of surveillance of Oppenheimer, and interviews with nearly 100 of Oppenheimer's close friends, relatives, and colleagues.
A few days ago, Wang Bing, the translator of the Chinese edition of "Oppenheimer", was interviewed by a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network, and shared the process of translating this work in combination with Nolan's film.
When Wang Bing watched the movie, the most memorable clip was the moment when the nuclear bomb exploded. "We must have seen the light before we heard the sound, and finally felt the dust storm caused by the power of the nuclear explosion, because the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound and the speed of wind." I think it's a great metaphor. We see the light, we see the power at the moment of the explosion, but what then comes tells us what exactly we created? ”
Wang Bing believes that the theme of this film is the same as the title of the biography - "Oppenheimer: The Triumph and Tragedy of the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" in the United States". "I like to stay at the end of tragedy because we are used to celebrating victory, but only tragedy makes people reflect. Nolan has a kind of heroism that is to awaken all people, and I feel that today is more than ever a time that requires a spirit of reflection. ”
Oppenheimer lives both in the world of scientists' truth-seeking and in the level of social justice seekers seeking good
China Youth Daily: What was your motivation to translate Oppenheimer's Biography?
Wang Bing: The first biography I translated was "The Biography of Leonardo da Vinci", and Han Xiao, the editor of CITIC Publishing House, who I have worked with for many years, has always been very enthusiastic about films, and she also heard that "Oppenheimer" will be adapted into a movie. After she recommended the book to me, I read it and found that there were two references to Leonardo da Vinci.
The first is that people like Leonardo da Vinci and Oppenheimer are rare historical figures, and we may not be able to become them, but the ideal state they embody is something we can refer to. For me, they provide a "human" specimen and frame of reference that you can compare and choose according to your own values and preferences; The second mentions that getting Oppenheimer to lie is as difficult and impossible as getting Leonardo da Vinci to modify the anatomical diagram.
When I read these two places, it felt as if it was some kind of fate, just like Nolan mentioned Oppenheimer's name in his previous film "Creed", laying a foreshadowing. Da Vinci sought beauty in seeking truth, Oppenheimer lived in the world of scientists' truth-seeking while living at the level of a social justice seeker seeking good, and at the same time, he lived in a philosophical world.
China Youth Daily: What is the special experience of the translation process? Which ones impress you?
Wang Bing: It's a long process. In 2022, I spent almost a year translating Oppenheimer. In the process of translation, the state of my mind belongs to the kind of single-threaded, basically only focusing on this one thing, which is good for "social fear", only dealing with words, and having the opportunity to quietly enter the trajectory of a person's fate and enter his spiritual world. This brings me inner satisfaction.
Originally, my knowledge of Oppenheimer was also very limited, and the countless details of Leoppenheimer's life in this book are unknown to the public, waiting for us to discover. Oppenheimer's inner world "plays a lot", and his dramatic life experience is very touching.
One of the things that struck me about this biography was that Oppenheimer may have been much better than us in many ways, that he lived in a big time, but that many of his psychological difficulties were not alien to anyone. The key point that runs through Oppenheimer's entire character's soul is: introspection. He is able to engage in self-awareness, self-doubt, self-criticism, etc.
I have my own compass in my heart and want to live a worthwhile and meaningful life
China Youth Daily: As a psychology researcher, what personality traits impressed you about Oppenheimer?
Wang Bing: Some people have analyzed Oppenheimer's personality and think that he belongs to the "swan personality". On the one hand, he gains superiority, aura and glory, and even immunity in a way that outperforms others; On the other hand, he is very tenacious when he endures pain, he wants to maintain his grace, he will not be a loser but only a martyr.
There is such an anecdote in Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer worked very hard in college, but he would make everyone think that he didn't work hard, so he secretly tried not to be discovered. When you look at these details, you will see how proud he is to maintain his swan feathers, even if his feet are constantly skiing, he has to show arrogant grace.
Through the movie "Oppenheimer" and biography, we see that Oppenheimer is not a paranoid person who pursues success, and he has many entanglements and doubts.
Wang Bing: I often say that there is a kind of anxiety throughout the book of Oppenheimer, including when watching movies, I also feel that this person has an existential anxiety, Oppenheimer has very high expectations for "how to spend his life", "what role he plays in history", "what is the meaning and value of his life", including his search for power, aura, reputation, etc., and it is also because of his "existential anxiety".
Oppenheimer was a "man who couldn't sit still" and his focus was scattered, as if to "maximize life." An important point of existential anxiety is that after we are thrown into the world without knowing anything, some people are conformist, others are thrown wherever they go, and some people think "where am I going to throw myself". Oppenheimer, like Leonardo da Vinci, has an independent soul, has its own compass in his heart, and wants to live a worthwhile and meaningful life.
Of course, this "compass" also has occasional "inaccurate" times, so there is a calibration problem. In the book, Oppenheimer is always "proofreading the compass", he constantly tries and makes mistakes on the tortuous road, and trial and error is also a process of trial and error. I think in the biography, it is because of his hesitation and contradictions that this person has become close. Oppenheimer's "vacillation" makes sense, and each wavering may be a "reconfirmation" of what you really want.
Oppenheimer's life, including his shining era, is precisely an era of great chaos, where forces are wrestling, and we also see that the old order of the world has been broken and the new order has not yet been formed, so the human heart is turbulent, confused, and does not know where to go. But Oppenheimer wanted to be an ever-wise decision-maker in the torrent of his time, so he would overturn or question what he had done before. Today, we also face many challenges and uncertainties, and making a wise decision is to stop and ask your heart.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Network: How did the translation of "Oppenheimer" affect and change your state of mind?
Wang Bing: First of all, I was relieved. I haven't felt this way for a long time, maybe it's already dark when I open the book at noon and look up again. When I finished translating, I let out a long breath, it was a kind of mixed feelings after accompanying a person through a life of ups and downs.
Especially when I translated the end of this hundreds of thousands of words biography, it ended with a very plain, emotionless sentence: "Now that cabin in Eagle's Nest Bay is gone, it was destroyed in a hurricane and replaced by a community home now known as Oppenheimer Beach." This sentence made me feel mixed feelings, because the life and ending he experienced were particularly embarrassing, everything was dull, and Oppenheimer could only accept the judgment of posterity after his death.
I wrote in the afterword: "As a naïve scientist, Oppenheimer wanted to bring permanent peace to the world with the century-old achievements of physics; As the maker of the atomic bomb, his achievements plunged the world into unprecedented disasters and crises. In 1965, on the 20th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he recited two lines from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am the Grim Reaper, the destroyer of all worlds." ’”
I hope that I can introduce Oppenheimer to everyone as fairly as the two authors of "Oppenheimer's Biography", but it is undeniable that everyone who reads Oppenheimer and watches movies will form their own Oppenheimer, which is a process of recreation.
China Youth Daily / China Youth Network reporter Shen Jiequn Source: China Youth Daily
Source: China Youth Daily