On May 9, General Secretary Xi Jinping held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Before the talks, General Secretary Xi Jinping presented more than 10 selected Chinese translations of French literary masterpieces as national gifts, including the Chinese translation of "The Three Musketeers" translated by Li Yumin, a famous translator and professor at the School of Foreign Chinese Languages of Capital Normal University.
In 1964, France became the first Western power to establish formal diplomatic relations with China. In the same year, Li Yumin, a graduate of the Department of Western Languages of Peking University, went to the University of Rennes in France for further study as one of the first batch of students sent to study in France by the People's Republic of China. In this city in the northwest of France, Li Yumin has formed an indissoluble bond with French literature.
The biggest investment of a lifetime
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Li Yumin and the national gift version of "Three Musketeers".
Li Yumin has won many translation awards such as the French Poetry Society Translation Award and the Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award, and has translated more than 100 translation works, including Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris and Les Misérables, Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Monte Cristo, Camus's The Outsider and The Plague, half of which he translated and introduced to Chinese readers for the first time.
However, Li Yumin admitted in an interview with China Report that when he first graduated from Peking University, he did not feel that he had the ability to translate books independently. It was not until 1978 that he was assigned to teach at the branch of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese (the predecessor of the School of Foreign Chinese of Capital Normal University) that Li Yumin, who was not confused, wrote and published his first translation, and since then he has devoted himself to the translation of French literature, and has been working for 45 years.
During his studies at Peking University, Li Yumin's understanding of French literature was still limited to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but in his two years at the University of Rennes, he came into contact with more modern and contemporary French writers and works, which greatly benefited his subsequent education and literary translation work.
"When I came back from France, I didn't buy anything, except for two boxes of books, and that was the biggest investment of my life." These two boxes of original French works have been preserved by Li Yumin to the present, and most of the classics he has translated are also included.
Among the many classics of French literature, Stendhal's The Abbey of Parma is particularly special for Li Yumin, as it is the first book he attempts to translate. "The translation of the Convent of Parma was entirely of my personal interest and was never published." Li Yumin recalled, "When I was in college, I mostly read French literature in general terms, without seeking to understand it very much, and the translation needed to be cut word by word. ”
In two years, he translated more than 1 million words, and this experience also laid an important foundation for him to teach and enter the field of translation in the future.
One pass is all the way
"Translators are not omnipotent." Li Yumin said that maintaining enthusiasm for doing things is his "unique heart sutra". "I've always felt that people don't suffer when they do more things, so I don't reject anything I encounter, and I can do it. I am a person who can't be idle, and I have to be busy with things at hand to feel steady. A life of doing nothing all day long is too tiring for me. ”
Li Yumin believes that one pass is all the way, whether it is study, life or work, even if it seems inconspicuous, as long as you get started to do it and solve the problem, you will definitely have a harvest.
It is precisely by relying on his continuous exploration in practice that Li Yumin has opened his "road to heaven" to the treasure hall of translation: "There is no special teacher to teach me how to translate, but the knowledge and experience gained through the accumulation of one book and one word at a time. ”
In Li Yumin's view, maintaining the ability to learn is the most important quality of a translator. In 2010, Li Yumin won the second Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award for his The Troubles of School, which can be described as a true "new book" in his library of translations of century classics. Old friends from the past work, those complicated grammar, difficult to understand ancient French, and other difficulties and pain points have become invalid in front of this new book, and what makes Li Yumin the most troublesome is the fashionable words in the mouths of young students. In the face of these fashionable new words and idiomatic slang, apart from reading all kinds of materials and turning to French friends for help, all we can rely on is continuous learning and accumulation.
Adhering to this mentality, today, 85-year-old Li Yumin still has not given up his translation work. He joked that the first 40 years of his life "achieved nothing", as if he was preparing for the next 45 years, and then spent 45 years doing 85 years.
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Li Yumin shows reporters his manuscript.
Translating is my joy
"There is no transition in my life, except that I have more freedom of time, which is the same as when I was not retired." Li Yumin told reporters, "Translating is my pleasure. As long as I'm in good shape, I'll work. It's been more than 20 years since I left teaching, and my energy is not diminished compared to when I first retired, and sometimes even more efficient. ”
In recent years, many old friends around him have passed away due to health reasons, and Li Yumin feels lonely and lonely, but also pays more attention to his body. If you feel tired, you won't be forced to finish the work at hand like you did when you were younger, but go with the flow, get some sleep or exercise, and rest before continuing to work.
"If I had rested a lot the night before and woke up at 3 a.m., I would have gotten up and done things. My day can have five or six mornings. "Being able to schedule freely and do what I like is a virtuous circle for me, allowing me to maintain my strength." ”
Li Yumin has always believed that you cannot become a true translator without love, and the meaning of translation is to build bridges for cultural exchange. In his view, translation is not a mechanical copying of the meaning of words, but writing in the language of the country, and conveying the essence of the original work through the translator's understanding and words. He is gratified when a reader falls in love with French writers and French literature through his translations.
Five years ago, during the night talks in Nice, French President Emmanuel Macron gave General Secretary Xi Jinping a French manuscript of the "Introduction to the Analects" published in 1688; At the tea party in Yu Garden, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave back the first Chinese translation of the French masterpiece "La Traviata". On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, these "book gifts" full of translators' efforts and love have once again become a link between the cultures and emotions of the two countries.
At the end of the interview, Li Yumin recalled that he revisited France on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and visited Rennes again with the same batch of classmates who studied in France. ”
Written by: China Report reporter Li Yingjing
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Lijuan
Editor: Zhao Jun