The power of reading

In 1935, shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Company published the first large-scale anthology of modern Chinese literature, "The New Chinese Literature Series", which was completely completed in ten volumes, written by Cai Yuanpei, and each volume was selected by famous artists. Among them, Lu Xun is responsible for the fourth volume of the novel".

In the preface to the Second Collection of Novels, Lu Xun has a sharp criticism of the creation of "awakened intellectual youth", who are trapped in the darkness around them, and are influenced by the decadent literature of the late nineteenth century in the West, and they cannot find a way out spiritually.

For only one young man, Lu Xun showed special favor, not only praising him as "China's most outstanding lyric poet", but also praising his society: The Asakusa Society's quarterly magazine "shows effort in every issue" and "sings truth and beauty to lonely people"; Shen Zhongshe is "China's toughest, most honest, and longest-struggling group".

This young man with little prestige is Feng Zhi.

First acquaintance with romanticism

In 1905, Feng Zhi was born in Zhuozhou (now Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province) in a bankrupt salt merchant's family, originally named Feng Chengzhi, the character Junpei, but he hated the vulgar habits of the extended family, did not want to bear their cultivation, and gave himself the nickname Feng Zhi when he was in middle school. "To" is inspired by "Zhuangzi Chasing Distant Journey" "to no oneself", he hopes that he can give up the ego and enter a broader realm of life.

Feng Zhi

In 1921, at the age of 17, Feng Zhi was admitted to the preparatory department of Peking University, and two years later, during the summer vacation, he was invited to participate in the founding of the Asakusa Society, a literary and art society in Shanghai. At this time, Feng Zhi was widely opened by his extensive reading of the literary works of Famous Chinese and foreign artists, and realized the important role of foreign literary works in promoting the new cultural movement. After the summer vacation, he transferred to the German Department of Peking University and began to try to translate the works of poets such as Heine and Goethe.

You know, where the lemon blooms,

Golden oranges shine in the gloomy leaves,

A wisp of lavender wind blows from the blue sky,

Guava silence, laurel pavilion —

Do you know that place?

Get there, get there!

Oh, my lover, I want to go with you!

- [German] Goethe's "The Lost Lady"

In the summer of 1925, due to the dispersal of the asakusa society, Feng Zhi, Together with Yang Han, Chen Xianghe, and Chen Weimo, founded the weekly magazine "Shen Zhong", and he organized and edited it himself and sent it to the Peking University Printing House for typography. At that time, it was called "Shen Zhong Society". The difference between "Shen Zhong" and "Asakusa" is that "Asakusa" only publishes creations, while "Shen Zhong" attaches equal importance to creation and translation.

Feng to the manuscript

At that time, "Shen Zhong" was unknown in the literary and art circles, and a few years later, Feng Zhi wrote in his "Autobiography": "Every issue is like a bell sinking in the abyss: it makes a sound, and there is no echo." "Shen Zhong Magazine was published for 10 issues and then stopped publishing.

But this sound was heard by Lu Xun. In August 1926, with the support of Lu Xun, the semi-monthly magazine "Shen Zhong" was founded and published by the Beixin Bookstore, which lasted until the beixin bookstore moved to Shanghai in early 1927.

"Feng Zhi's Complete Translations" is actually taken

In the 1920s, Feng Zhi mainly focused on the works of the German Romantics, he translated the poems of Goethe, Heine, and Reinau, translated Heine's "Travels on the Halts", wrote articles introducing Hoffmann, Kleist, and Petofi, and absorbed foreign nutrients to enrich his creations. But even in some of his early translations, Feng Zhi still showed a unique sense of calm and longevity.

I love someone like that, on his high forehead,

Textured depictions of the autumn of life,

He bears heavily, endures deeply,

Not a single bit of hypocrisy flashed through his eyes.

- [Poland] Riedel, "Autumn of Life"

Rolf Trauzettel, former head of the Department of Sinology at the University of Bonn in Germany, said: "In Feng Zhi, the rustic and artistic translation shows creativity, he transforms everything into melody and rhythm, and from it an incomparable emotion arises. ”

From lyrical to contemplative

At the end of the 20s, Feng Zhi's two early poems "Yesterday's Song" and "Journey to the North and Others" were published one after another, but with the retreat of creative passion in adolescence, he was sensitively aware of the defects of lyrical centrism, consciously realized that his works were "shallow in content and low in mood", and the sense of creative crisis became more and more intense, but he was unable to find an effective way to break through himself.

In 1930, Feng Zhi went to Germany to study, studying in Berlin and Heidelberg, when he became fascinated by the great German-language poet Rilke. Rilke's early poetry was also based on feelings, but after becoming Rodin's secretary in Paris, he realized under rodin's influence that the poet must observe everything modestly and carefully to discover the essence of things. Rilke opened a brand new window for the troubled Feng Zhi, and he could not help but share his joy in his letters to Yang Han and others: "[Rilke] made me 'see' the plant is not humble, endures the wind and snow, enjoys the sun, blossoms in the spring, bears its fruit in the autumn, and the branches are glorious, neither exaggerated nor ashamed... That's a real example for us. ”

Rilke

Feng Zhi began to eagerly translate "Ten Letters to a Young Poet", which concentrated Rilke's proverbs on young poets. Feng Zhi wrote in his letter: "In these ten letters, I breathe more affectionately in the breath of a great poet. I translated it, I gave it to the youth of China with absolute sincerity; I only hated that when I was in my twenties no one translated such a good thing to me. ”

The Complete Works of Feng Zhi Translations, Volume II

Throughout the 1930s, Feng Zhi almost interrupted his poetry and instead studied existential philosophy and German literature extensively, thinking about how to find a deeper and timeless way of expression. The poets and philosophers he translated and studied during this period, such as Rilke, Kierkegaard, Hölderlin, etc., had a strong philosophical meaning and distinct modern characteristics.

By the end of the 1930s, he became close to Goethe again, but at this time, the Goethe he came into contact with was no longer the soaring Goethe who wrote "The Troubles of Young Werther", but Goethe, who had entered classicism and had a deeper understanding of the universe and life. In 1935, Feng Zhi began to translate Goethe's novels and the German "coming-of-age novel" masterpiece "The Age of Study of Villien Meister".

Feng Zhi was with the children

After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Feng Zhi came to Kunming and worked as a professor of German at the Department of Foreign Languages of Southwest United University. During the great turmoil of national life and death, Feng Zhi carried with him poems by Du Fu and Lu You, the Complete Works of Lu Xun, and the writings of Goethe. Why Goethe? In Goethe's works, Bao Juyunei's broad mind echoes the magnificent historical period. Due to the crazy bombing of Japanese planes, the houses in the city were destroyed, and Feng Zhi's family moved to a forest hut, in addition to teaching in the city, Feng Zhi immersed himself in reading here, listening to the ups and downs of the loose waves at night, and continued to co-translate Goethe's "The Learning Era of Villien Meister" with his wife Yao Kekun.

Villien Meister was an idealistic and energetic young man who was born into a family of the civic class, but was dissatisfied with the mediocrity and mercenary interests of the civic class, and hoped to transform society through theatrical art and aesthetic education. He wandered around, met all kinds of characters, and finally obtained the art of life, becoming a constant seeker of human perfection and lofty social ideals. Goethe shows the magnificent process of personal evolution between internal quest and external encounters, for Feng Zhi, "During the difficult years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, [Goethe] gave me a lot of courage to overcome difficulties and correct mistakes."

Feng Zhi continued to accumulate the power to compose poetry from extensive social experience and translation research, until in 1941, he suddenly re-emerged with an urgent desire to write poetry, and wrote 27 sonnets in one fell swoop. This contemplative work of aria lamenting everything in life not only shook the poetry world at that time, but also stood the test of time and became a banner of Chinese modernism.

Feng Zhi's complete collection of translations is a real picture

Tour guide for German literature

As early as the 1920s, the heroic Feng Zhi had translated Heine's love poem "Yingge Wanjie". By the 1950s, when Feng Zhi translated Heine's poetry collection again, he was undoubtedly influenced by more times. In 1956, Heine's Selected Poems was published by the People's Literature Publishing House, and Heine was vigorously translated as a "progressive revolutionary poet" and had a deep connection with the political background of the time.

In the 1970s, when Feng Zhi retranslated Heine, he was in a different state of mind. In his Autobiography, he described himself as having spent a decade of "humiliation and inaction" from 1966 onwards, "In 1973, I indignantly translated Heine's long poem "Germany, a Winter's Fairy Tale", and wrote a poem that concluded with "Shooting Poisonous Eagles with Thousands of Arrows in Unison". At that time, Feng Zhi was nearly old, and the life of the cadre school seriously damaged his health, and he relied on Heine's verses to support his belief in waiting for the light of dawn in the dark night, and the translated poems were also full of anxiety, tension, enthusiasm, and agitation:

A new generation is growing,

Completely devoid of mannerisms and sins,

There is free thought, free joy —

I want to declare everything to it.

That kind of youth has sprouted,

They understand the poet's pride and kindness,

Take warmth from the heart of the poet,

From the poet sun-like mood.

--Heine, Germany, a Winter's Fairy Tale

In 1977, Feng Zhi resumed his post as director of the Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and he immediately campaigned to restore the work of foreign literature research that had been stagnant for a decade. Since the 1980s, his early translations of classic works have been published one by one, such as the translation of the "Aesthetic Education Book" in the 1940s by He Linzhi through the supplementary translation and proofreading of his disciple Fan Dacan, and the "Learning Era of Weilian Meister" finally met with readers after more than 40 years of dust.

Despite translating his works, Feng Zhi has never modestly considered himself not a "translator", saying:

In the field of german literature, I often compare me to a 'tour guide', I lead the 'tourists' into this area, and in this area, it is often not the 'tour guide' who can discover more and understand more deeply, but the sincere 'tourist'.

"I am always affectionate with gratitude"

Feng Zhi devoted his life to the research, teaching and promotion of foreign literature, and strived to inherit and promote the work carried out by the pioneers of new culture to introduce the essence of Western literature and promote the development of new literature, and the translation career ran through his entire creative and research career, pouring out his enthusiasm and life, and intertwining with his life experiences, reflecting his personality charm.

Feng Zhi became a banner in the foreign literary circles in his later years, but he always maintained a low-key and sincere style, Ji Xianlin said: "Mr. Feng is a very cute and very approachable person. He is simple, sincere, does not lie, does not hypocrisy, does not brag, does not pat horses, treats people with sincerity, gets along with him, and makes people feel like sitting in the spring breeze. I've never seen him lose his temper. ”

Gao Mang painted Feng Zhi to "The Years Urge People to Be Late and Heavy"

The translator Gao Mang told a story of Feng Zhi, the Swedish playwright and novelist "Strindberg", Feng Zhi wrote "Stirling Bay", Gao Mang did not understand the reason, Feng Zhi explained to him that when he was studying at Peking University, he listened to Mr. Lu Xun's class, Mr. Lu Xun said: The name Sterling Bay is generally translated as Strindberg, and he thinks that this translation is inappropriate. He said that burg has the meaning of fort, and if the name of the person ends with burg, it is translated as "fort", that is, it is translated and expressed. As for ending with berg, it cannot be translated as "fort", because it is neither transliterated nor translated. Until his later years, Feng Zhi also wrote an essay "Heideberg Chronicle", advocating the transliteration of German place names ending in berg as "Berg", such as Heidelberg, Nuremberg, etc.

The poet Zou Difan once asked Feng Zhi about the origin of the phrase "China's most outstanding lyric poet", and Feng Zhi replied that there was no need to quote that sentence, it was outdated. He was unwilling to boast from Mr. Lu Xun, but he always took to heart the teachings of teachers who had the grace of knowing.

I will always have a deep affection of gratitude

Looking at you, for our time:

It was destroyed by stupid people,

But its maintainers live a lifetime

Being left out of this world —

How many times have you seen a glimmer of light,

Turning his head, he was covered by dark clouds.

—— Feng Zhi, "The Fourteen Elements of Lu Xun"

In 1993, Feng Zhi died of illness in Beijing. He confessed in my will that no ceremony would be held behind him, and that if it was necessary to inform relatives and friends, he would not be given any title or title before his name. He exhorted his children and grandchildren: "I hope that the descendants who are related to me will be honest and work hard, not deceive the world and steal their names, do not harm nature and reason, and strive to be good sons and daughters of the Chinese nation." ”