The Paper's reporter Wang Yi
On April 18, 2021, on the morning of Xu Yuanchong's 100th birthday, Wang Qiang, a former student, dialed the video of his fellow teacher, "Elder Xu wears a 'birthday' laurel crown, with a rosy complexion and a loud voice. We talked for about ten minutes. He told me that he was writing an autobiography of "A Hundred Years of Dreams" (tentative name). I told him that I was translating a novel by a Scottish writer and that I must have given it to him when it was published, correcting it like a 'batch of assignments' in those days. Wang Qiang told the surging news reporter.
Wang Qiang, co-founder of Zhen Foundation, studied in the Spanish Department of Peking University from 1980 to 1984, and was in the same class as Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental (educational institution), and Wang Qiang was the class president. Xu Yuanchong once taught translation classes for their undergraduates, and in a past interview, Geng Jie's Xu Yuanchong once said bluntly, "Yu Minhong is not the best, Wang Qiang is better than him." Shen Di, a relative of Xu Yuanchong, also recalled, "Grandpa (Xu Yuanchong) said that in terms of translation, Wang Qiang is the only one who will surpass me. ”
On June 17, after Xu Yuanchong passed away, Wang Qiang, who was in Hong Kong, was interviewed exclusively by the surging news reporter. "What an honor it is for me to have such a teacher. We all know that my husband is very old, but his health has always been quite good. Knowing this news still feels very sudden, I have not yet eased up. Wang Qiang said. The following is presented in the form of oral statements from respondents.
Xu Yuanchong took a group photo with Wang Qiang and wrote an inscription for Wang Qiangxin. Photographed at Mr. Xu's home on June 18, 2018. Courtesy of respondents
"Batch homework" like that year
"Batch homework" like that year refers to the time when I was studying at Peking University in the 1980s. In 1983, Mr. Xu was transferred to Peking University and opened a course of "English Translation of Tang and Song Poetry" for graduate students, and also opened a translation course for our undergraduate students. There were only more than 50 undergraduate students in that class, divided into three small classes, usually separate classes. Mr. Xu's translation class is a compulsory course, and it is also a public class with three small classes together, and we are probably the only undergraduate students he has taught at Peking University in the first semester of his senior year.
Mr. Xu's translation class, English to Chinese and Chinese to English each accounted for half of the course. I remember that his first lecture was a translation of a well-known United Nations document. Class once a week, with an assignment assigned after class. Every Friday afternoon, the squad leader collects homework and sends it to Mr. Xu's home, which was in Weixiu Garden, not far from his current residence. Mr. Xu did not have a graduate assistant, but took the red pen to annotate himself. He was very serious, and where he translated well, he would tick off, and where he didn't translate well, he would cross and write annotations to point out problems. At that time, everyone had no sense of literature, and now I think that if I could leave the homework book he annotated, it would be good.
In the eighties, it was a really happy time. We often go to the homes of the old gentlemen, sometimes we do have something to ask for advice, and sometimes we just have nothing to do and want to talk to the gentlemen. It is not necessary to listen to them explain professional issues, we listen to what they say, and when it comes to the meal, we can still rub a meal at Mr.'s house. I also had a meal at Mr. Xu's house, and the teacher's mother cooked according to Teacher Jun. Mr. Xu usually wears a nightgown at home, he has lived in France, and he likes to drink milk and eat cake. And when speaking English, there are often some Pronunciation of French words, such as translate (translation), which he generally reads as "Traduction" and concise (concise) as "Concision". Listening to him speak English is pretty exciting.
Photographed on June 18, 2018, at Mr. Xu's home, Wilde's book is on the computer. Courtesy of respondents
"Not to the russian island, I do not fall"
Mr. Xu's lectures were very vivid. He would often ask us in class, "How do you translate it?" "Everyone is talking about it, in fact, they are waiting for Mr. To reveal the mystery." In one class, a female classmate, speaking in English, read Caesar's name directly as Chinese "Caesar" instead of [ˈsi:zə], which caused the whole class to laugh. Mr. Xu did not laugh, he told us that the female classmate's pronunciation was also correct, "because Caesar's Latin pronunciation is 'Caesar'." "Later, in retrospect, this shows both the old man's erudition and his understanding.
Another time when talking about the comparison of Chinese and foreign poetry, Mr. Xu introduced that there are palindrome poems in China and there are also palindromic poems in the West. A sentence napoleon said when he was exiled to Elba Island, "Able was I ere I saw Elba." This sentence makes sense when read from left to right and from right to left. How to translate? Some people say that "the heart does not die until the Yellow River", and some people say that "no tears are shed without seeing the coffin". He listened to it with a slight smile and gave his own answer, "Until I reach the Russian Island, I will not fall", Mr. Xu translated Napoleon's momentum as a victorious general, and also brought out the helplessness of the hero's end. Moreover, in the translation, "island" and "inverted" rhyme together, "to" and "upside down", "I" and "Russian" sound similar, similar, plus the word "no" repeats, it can be said that "yinmei" is used to translate "shape beauty". He advocated that the translation should talk about the three beauty of "meaning, form, and sound", and the theory of three beauty is actually to integrate his own theory into the teaching.
In The Shopkeeper, I recounted how I bought the book "The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady" taught by the sinologist Hans Hermann Frankel in the United States. The first book I bought after I arrived in the United States was Plum Blossom and Miyagi. Fu Hansi's wife was Zhang Chonghe, one of the four sisters of the Zhang clan in Jiuru Lane, Suzhou, who was also a calligrapher and painter, and used a brush on the title page of the book to title her husband "Selected Translations of Chinese Poems".
Why did this book make me unforgettable? Fu Hansi once came to Peking University to study, and one day he sat in the last row of our class, listening to Mr. Xu's translation class, and the two old gentlemen also had a discussion about the book in class. Mr. Xu said that the book "Plum Blossoms and Palace Beauties" is very concise and concise in its commentary on Chinese poetry, to the point. For example, why does "grass" always involve the detachment of Chinese? For example, how did the image of "willow" become a symbol of the farewell of classical Chinese poetry? But Mr. Xu believes that the title of the book is not beautiful enough to translate.
"Thankfully I have another world, a world of translation"
In 1996, I returned to Beijing from the United States and participated in the founding of New Oriental. At that time, I went to see Mr. Xu, who was typing on a very old computer at home and did not have a printer. I bought him a new computer and printer in Zhongguancun. Sir began to use a typewriter very early, and when he used a computer keyboard to type, he was also accustomed to pressing the key with two fingers. I think it was only after the mid-1980s that Mr. Xu ushered in his own academic harvest. I remember visiting him in those years, and every time I was given new books, such as the People's Literature Publishing House, his translation of Maupassant's "On the Water", and his English autobiography in the United States. Every time he gave me a book, he would sign the title page of the book.
In 2018, Shi Mu Passed Away. The next afternoon, I asked my classmates from Peking University to go to see the teacher. About two o'clock to Mr. Xu's house, we are actually very nervous, the teacher is very old, encountered such a thing, really do not know how to comfort him. Unexpectedly, as soon as I entered the door, I saw him sitting on the couch typing in front of the computer. Before we could comfort him, he pointed to the computer screen and said he was translating The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, "Fortunately, I have another world, a world of translation." Otherwise faced with such a (widowed) reality, I really don't know how to survival down. ”
I saw that he used a simple copy, the paper industry is yellow, and the font is very small, sometimes need to use a magnifying glass to see, so I take the simple copy to the copy shop near Peking University, enlarge the font, copy the whole book, and then return it to the teacher. Before leaving, I couldn't help but ask him, "Do you need help in life?" Need money? "Mr. Xu's answer to me will never be forgotten. He said, "Wang Qiang, I am already this age, I can't eat anything, I don't have any requirements for living, and my salary and royalties (income) are enough for me to live well." If you want to do something for me, one day in the future, please donate all my translations to the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature in my name. "I said at the time, teacher, please rest assured, you must be sure, I will complete this matter according to your wishes."
"The beauty in his mind is not part, but the whole"
Mr. Xu is very witty and humorous in private. Around 2004, his classmates at Southwest United University, Mr. Yang Zhenning and Ms. Weng Fan, were newly married, and Mr. Xu did the east to invite everyone to a small gathering. There were about ten people at that dinner, and it was at a restaurant in the park near Peking University. I remember that during the banquet, Mr. Xu beckoned me to his side, translated Su Shi's poem "A Tree of Pear Blossoms Pressing Begonias" into English and French, probably two pages of paper, and handed me to read it in Mr. Yang's ear, and he (Yang Zhenning) was also the back of his ear. After reading the result, Mr. Yang was a little shy, bowed his head and smiled, while Mr. Xu laughed at the side.
Speaking of translation, in fact, Mr. Xu is not simply literally pronounced, nor is it the "three beauty" theory that can summarize his translation ideas. In particular, some of his later ideas, in his works such as "Literature and Translation" and "The Art of Translation", there are still many deep thoughts, not only the exchange of literal translation, but the questioning between the respective cultural traditions across the chapters. After all, he had the experience of studying at Southwest United University and studying in France, and he also received private school education and home schooling in his childhood.
Mr. Xu was simple in his thoughts. Yes, he's very emotional at times, but I think that whether it's his arguments over translations and his red-faced arguments, or his memories of his first love and his ability to burst into tears, what is consistent behind these emotions is his purity and concentration. He believes in beauty, concentrates on beauty, the beauty in his mind is not part, but all, he is an aestheticist, whether it is to treat the translator, or to look at women, to that emotional point, his intensity is not anger, not abuse, but the demand for beauty makes him involuntarily, to argue with reason. Other than that, his life was very simple. In the past forty years, China's changes have been earth-shaking, who can not yearn for a good material life? Who can refuse all the desires in life? But if you go to see his home, it hasn't changed much over the years, the floor is still cement floor, the sofa is still the sofa, the bed is still the bed, and his daily work habits are still so regular. Every time he went to his house, he never talked about international current affairs, did not talk about the shortness of parents, and talked about translation for decades.
Sentient beings do not necessarily live long. If all his desires revolve around beauty and pursue beauty at all levels, can these desires still be called desires? When he raises his voice, he is not defending his own face, but defending the creation of beauty in his mind. No matter what he says, you actually understand that he will say it behind closed doors or in front of you, because that's what he thinks, and it's the same thing that few people can do.
If one's emotions are concentrated to the extreme, one becomes very simple, and then all things are one. For decades, his focus on this was translation. How small it may seem, but when all his desires, all his love, are placed on this point, and this "point" moves slightly, we can see infinity in him. It is precisely this simplicity, purity and simplicity that makes him seem so easy to get excited, but in fact, his heart is like a calm sea, without even a ripple. To borrow a Buddhist term, I think Mr. Xu has turned his daily life into a kind of cultivation, and he has already reached the realm of "abstinence and wisdom". When I think of Mr. Xu, I sometimes think of Kant, who has never even been out of his hometown in his life, walking around the town every day, looking up at the stars, and regularly allowing the residents of the town to use his travel to correct the time for his own clock.
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Ding Xiao