The translation of the world famous book Chinese born in Yunnan, "Les Misérables", took half a century of arduous process to complete. There is no translator's preface before the book, no trek after the book, and not a single word of the translator is mentioned in even the publication notes. When people read this huge work, does anyone know the weight of the four words "Li Dan and Fang Yu"?
Fang was 98 years old at the time, born into an intellectual family in Wujin, Jiangsu Province, and his father, Fang Yi, was the director of the dictionary editorial department of the Shanghai Commercial Press. At the age of 18, Fang Yu was admitted to the first batch of female students in Chinese history in Shanghai, and crossed the ocean to study French literature at the University of Lyon in France, while studying vocal music under Madame Mardais of the Lyon Conservatory. Li Dan was born in Changsha, Hunan In 1901, li Dan was admitted as a public student in 1921 like Fang Yu and went to the Lyon Conservatory of Music in France to study violin. He developed a keen interest in French literature and attended academic lectures on "masterpieces" every weekend.
In 1927 and 1928, Fang Yu and Li Dan held a high hope and returned to China after completing their studies. At that time, the country was full of wars, disasters, and unemployment, and Fang Yu and Li Dan, who were in a whirlpool, had thought again and again that they would dedicate the "Les Misérables" that had always shocked their hearts to the countless Chinese Jean Valjean and Kusaiette who were still living in the tragic world. They got married in 1929. In the same year, the first part of "Les Misérables", translated by Li Dan and proofread by Fang Yu, was published, entitled "Poor Man", which was included in the first collection of the Commercial Press's "Universal Library" and published in nine volumes. However, during the 1932 "1.28" incident, the Commercial Press was bombed by Japanese aircraft, and they had to send other translations to the museum's office in Hong Kong. They waited every day for the manuscript to be published, but after the hundreds of thousands of words of translation poured into the hopes, painstaking efforts, and spiritual hopes of the two people were sent, they sank into the sea, and there was no news, and no one knew its whereabouts.
Some people have said that the fate of the Chinese translation of the book "Les Misérables" is worse than that of "Les Misérables". In 1937, the "July 7" Lugou Bridge Incident occurred, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in full swing, Fang Yu left Shanghai with his two children, arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam by boat, from the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to Yunnan, and then Li Dan also came to Kunming. Since then, the family has never left Kunming. Mr. Li Dan has taught at Yunnan University, Yunnan Normal University, and Yunnan Academy of Arts. Ms. Fang Yu has taught at Oriental Language College, Sino-French University, Kunming Normal University, and Yunnan Academy of Arts. In 1954, the Ministry of Culture organized the translation and publication of a number of foreign literary masterpieces, specially invited Li Dan and Fang Yu to Beijing to participate in the national translation work conference, and decided to ask Li Dan to retranslate "Les Misérables". Since then, Li Dan has been teaching French and violin playing while devoting himself to the translation of Les Misérables. In May 1958 and June 1959, the first and second new translations of Les Misérables were published by the People's Literature Publishing House. Just as the third translation was completed, China suffered an unprecedented catastrophe. The translator was sent to the "cowshed", and the couple was physically and mentally devastated.
In 1971, the couple was released from the "cowshed", and before they could be rehabilitated and hat removed, the old man turned over the third translation of "Les Misérables", which was bitten into pieces by rats, from the bottom of the box. Li Dan was 71 years old and Fang Yu was 68 years old. This year's Li Dan suddenly grew old fast. Teeth fell out, people withered, and their backs arched. Li Dan's spirit became worse and worse, and he went to the library on crutches to find materials and began to cough up blood, but the fourth part was translated under such circumstances. He was admitted to the hospital with the original work of the fifth part, and li Dan never returned home, and Li Dan died in May 1977...
Just when Li Dan had just died of illness, his body had not yet been cremated, and the memorial service had not yet been held, the responsible editor of the People's Literature Publishing House sent people to Kunming to take away the third and fourth translations, and in September and December 1980, the two "Les Misérables" that Fang Yu assisted in proofreading were published. 3 months after Li Dan's death, Fang Yu pounced on the desk, and this buried head was 9 months. In 1979, the fifth part of Les Misérables was translated by Fang Yu, signed by Li Dan and Fang Yu. In June 1984, the People's Literature Publishing House published the last part of Les Misérables. At this point, Les Misérables has completed its half-century of difficult translation.