"Journey to the West" is the closest novel of the four masterpieces to children - it has the hero hero Sun Wukong who is riddled with children, and the "adventure to fight monsters story line" that children like. But if you directly show the original work of "Journey to the West" to children, many children cannot read it.
Wu Cheng'en is the final finisher of "Journey to the West", he was a person in the 16th century, that is, 500 years ago, the writing language at that time, even if it is "vernacular", has been very different from our language, and the way Zhang Hui novels are written at that time is very different from the modern narrative method. We need a modern version of Journey to the West, not only a story adaptation, but a translation of its essence and its dross in the true sense. This undoubtedly requires real writers to complete.
There are many precedents abroad, such as Sweeb's Greek Myths and Legends, Lamb's Shakespeare Stories, Junichiro Tanizaki's translation of The Tale of Genji, and so on.
"Journey to the West for Children" is a very successful translation of "Journey to the West", written by young writer Sun Zhizheng.
Born in 1980, Sun Zhizheng has published several books and his writing is well recognized in the industry. His writing, which has a very prominent feature, is that it is simple and authentic, and at the same time it contains great energy.
There is also a story about the origin of this book. That year, Sun Zhi was suffering from "Smoke Disease" (which can cause cerebral hemorrhage when severe). This disease, which occurs only three out of every 100,000 people, can be life-threatening when the attack is severe. Then he thought, what do you want to leave for your 9-year-old child? After much thought, he decided to rewrite his favorite classical masterpiece, Journey to the West.
After the completion of the manuscript, Mr. Chung Shuhe, a well-known publisher and author of "Nian Lou Xue Short", gave a positive evaluation, believing that Sun Zhizheng's adaptation of "Journey to the West" had done a great job for children's education: "There is no fairy tale book in ancient China. Nuwa, Fuxi, The Yellow Emperor, and Emperor Yan are all legends of their ancestors, the king, and it is history, and the grandmother will not sit by the fire pond to tell her little grandchildren. The Monkey Sun in "Journey to the West", a 18,000-mile struggle, can satisfy children's curiosity and imagination, and can be regarded as a good children's book; but it is after all a work five hundred years ago, and it is not written specifically for children. Its content may not be suitable for children, and the text may not be easy for children to understand. Therefore, it is also necessary to rewrite it as "Fairy tale book." ”
The most impressive thing about "Journey to the West for Children" is that its language uses "children's language", but it does not have the slightest pretense of innocence, but is sincere and flexible.
First of all, it successfully achieves that "when a child looks at it, the picture of the story immediately appears in his mind".
Take the opening chapter as an example: it directly deletes the obscure part about the branches of heaven and earth, and writes from the birth of Sun Wukong, without obscure words. On the contrary, "stones on the top of the mountain", "holes in the body of stones", "rolling out stone balls"... Any child can effortlessly imagine the corresponding picture.
Children who have just advanced from reading picture books to reading pure text books need time to master "relying on abstract words to build concrete images in their minds", and excellent "children's edition masterpieces" can make them accessible to this skill.
When writing stories for children, you must understand their way of thinking, know their unspoken expectations - they hope to harvest all kinds of magical experiences in the story - but also always remind themselves to put aside the language habits of adults, and find ways to tell the story in concrete, interesting, lively language.
Children have limited patience and have their own unique requirements, and they don't let their eyes stay on "stories they can't understand" or "boring stories" they can't remember.
Secondly, it has successfully achieved "short and concise, rhythmic", children read happily, but also can improve the sense of language. Reading "Journey to the West for Children" will find that its language is very rhythmic. On the one hand, this is due to the "Journey to the West" itself, compared with modern texts, "short and concise" is a prominent feature of ancient texts, on the other hand, it is also due to the intentions of the translator Sun Zhizheng.
There are a large number of poems in the original "Journey to the West", and the poetry requires a higher sense of rhythm in the translation, and it is more difficult to ensure that children can understand it. In the 50th time of the original book, there is such a poem:
"The saga is towering, and the mountains are majestic. The saga towers soar, and the mountains are majestic and obstruct the blue sky. Strange rocks are piled up like sitting tigers, and the pines hang obliquely like flying dragons. The birds on the ridge are beautiful and beautiful, and the plums in front of the cliffs are fragrant. The streams of water flowed cold, and the peak clouds dimmed and came fiercely. And I saw the drifting snow, the cold wind, the roaring hungry tiger roaring in the mountains. Jackdaws pick trees without shelter, and wild deer nests without a trace. Sighing pedestrians are difficult to progress, frowning and frowning and covering their heads. ”
"Journey to the West for Children" is slightly processed, and the rhyme is still beautiful, but it is shorter, less difficult words, and more convenient to remember:
"Majestic, majestic, shaded, blocked in the sky." Strange rocks sit on tigers, and pines hang on flying dragons. Drifting snow, freezing wind, roaring hungry beasts roaring in the mountains. Crows have nowhere to roost around the trees, and wild deer have nowhere to hide. The stream flowed cold, and the clouds came fiercely. ”
Although ancient poetry is the best way to cultivate children's sense of language rhythm, from a realistic point of view, if children are allowed to choose their own books, they will most likely choose story books instead of ancient poems. Therefore, when choosing a storybook for your child, you may wish to pay special attention to those words with a strong sense of rhythm.
Children with a good sense of language rhythm will have a very big advantage in language learning: they can master the grammar rules without a teacher, can find sick sentences at the first time, and can write smooth and imposing articles.
Parents buy "children's versions of classical masterpieces" for their children for similar purposes: First, they hope that children can contact the works that have withstood the test of time as soon as possible and develop a good reading taste from an early age. The second is to hope that these books can help children do traditional cultural enlightenment. From this point of view, "Journey to the West for Children" can be regarded as a very good book.
Author: □ still
Source: Minbei Daily