He was praised by Mr. Lu Xun as "China's most outstanding lyric poet". The "Biography of Du Fu" written by him is still an important souvenir of Du Fu Caotang. He has been engaged in translation for nearly 60 years and is a pioneer and founder of the translation and research of Chinese German literature. He was the first to introduce rilke, a world-class modern poet, to Chinese readers. He is Feng Zhi, who served as the first head of the Department of Western Languages and Literatures of Peking University after the adjustment of the department, the first and only member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (separated from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since 1977), the first director of the Institute of Foreign Literature, and devoted his life to the teaching, research and promotion of foreign literature.
The four-volume Complete Translations of Feng Zhi was recently launched by Century Wenjing. This is the first time that Feng Zhi's translation has been published in the form of a complete collection, of which heavy translations such as "Aesthetic Education Book" and "The Learning Era of Vilian Meister" and the contents of volume IV have been out of print on the market for many years, and works such as "Lamentations" and "The Earthquake of Chile" have been supplemented from Republic of China periodicals for the first time. Many of the precious image materials included in the book, such as translated manuscripts and historical pictures, were also published for the first time.
A generation of people who have learned from Both China and the West
Mr. Feng Zhi has both a solid foundation in traditional Chinese studies and a profound attainment in Western studies, and has written a wide range of works and multiple identities throughout his life.
In the 1920s, Feng Zhi, who studied German at Peking University, joined the "Asakusa Society" and the "Shen Zhong Society", where he created and translated poems at the same time, and quickly emerged in the new poetry circle. Unlike many romantic poets, Feng Zhi's poems showed contemplative character from an early age and received many praises, but he was sensitively aware of the flaws of lyrical centrism. His 1940s Collection of 14 Elements pushed new poetry from romanticism through symbolism to Chinese-style modernism, becoming a masterpiece and milestone of Chinese sonnets.
In 1930, Feng Zhi went to Germany to study, began to study existential philosophy and German literature, and learned from Rilke and Goethe, thinking about how to find a deeper and timeless way of expression.
Most of the poets that Feng Zhi pays attention to have strong philosophical meaning and distinct modern characteristics. Volume I of the Complete Works of Translations contains works by Von Zhi's translations of Poets such as Goethe, Hölderlin, Heine, Nietzsche, Georg, Rilke, brecht, and others. Among them, some of Goethe's most well-known poems, such as "Promethean Friar" and "Lamentations of Mary's Bath", as well as Feng Zhi's representative work of "Thirteen Brief Interpretations of Goethe's Poems", are included. In the 1940s, Feng Zhi translated an excerpt from Faust, Lamentations, but since then many of Feng Zhi's translated poems have not been included, and the editor has supplemented them by consulting the Republic of China periodicals. Heine is a German poet known and loved by Chinese readers, and this volume includes Feng Zhi's Selected Poems of Heine, the long poems "Germany, a Winter's Fairy Tale" and "Eight Poems from the Collection" published in the 1950s.
Feng Zhi's translation of poems by poets is exemplary in his mastery of rhythm, rhythm, mood, and atmosphere. Tao Dewen, former head of the Department of Sinology at the University of Bonn in Germany, said: "In Feng Zhi, the rustic and artistic translation showed creativity, he transformed everything into melody and rhythm, and from it an incomparable emotion emerged. ”
Feng Zhi's translated poems not only complemented his creations, but also had a profound impact on the development of modern Chinese poetry. The poet Wang Jiaxin said: "The encounter between our generation and Rilke is through Mr. Feng Zhi, and it is the encounter with 'Lilke of Feng Zhi'. Feng Zhi's Rilke can also be said to be the fusion of two poetic souls. From Feng to the translator Rilke, we really understand what is the 'spirit of poetry'. ”
Eternal partner, Mrs. Yao Kekun once co-translated "The Learning Era of Weilian Meister" with Feng Zhi
A panoramic view of classic Literature in German
In addition to poetry, Feng Zhi's translations also include letters, novels, annals, prose and other genres, with a rich and complete variety. Feng Zhi's eyes are like a torch, and his selection is a classic in the field of German literature and philosophy, and adapts to the profound and simple ideas of the original work in a kind and natural tone.
Volume II contains the Book of Aesthetic Education and Ten Letters to a Young Poet. The former is one of 27 letters written by Schiller to the Duke of Augustenburg, Denmark, between 1793 and 1794. In the context of the French Revolution, Schiller based on Kant's principles, deeply analyzed many theories in aesthetics, arguing that in order to reform the country and obtain political freedom, it is necessary to first improve the character of the times and restore the integrity of human nature. The solution of political problems must be false to aesthetic problems, and people can only move towards freedom through beauty. The latter is a brief letter that Rilke wrote to a young poet when he was about 30 years old. In his letters, he spoke of the many doubts and sorrows faced by young people: poetry and art, love between the sexes, seriousness and cynicism, sorrow and doubt, hardships of life and profession, and explored the esoteric nature of aesthetic, faith, loneliness, love, sorrow, and other topics.
Volume III is Goethe's novel "The Age of Learning of Villien Meister", as the most brilliant representative of the German "cultivation novel", showing the magnificent process of the individual's evolution between the inner quest and the external encounter.
Volume IV contains Feng Zhi's translations of the Goethe Chronicles, The Journey of the Harz Mountains, The Songs of the Distant Distance, and translations from outside the collection. The Goethe Chronicle, compiled by The German Biedermann and translated by Feng Zhi, examines in detail the life, experience and creative process of the great poet Goethe, showing the interactive relationship between the life and creation of a generation of literary heroes. "Travels in the Harz Mountains" is a representative work of Heine's early prose. The translations were included in the translations published by Feng Zhi, but not in his various anthologies during his lifetime, including short stories, van Gogh's letters, and Kierkegaard's feelings.
"No lying, no hypocrisy, no bragging, no patting"
Mr. Feng has achieved fruitful results in his studies, but he never boasts about himself and always maintains a humble and cautious style. Mr. Ji Xianlin wrote that he was "simple, sincere, not lying, not hypocritical, not bragging, not patting horses, treating people with sincerity, getting along with him, making people feel like sitting in the spring breeze." He treats translations with great rigor, carefully considering every word he uses, and polishing a translation over the course of decades until the most satisfactory version is made.
The thick four sky blue covers of the book, packed in a dark blue envelope, have a soft touch and elegant color, such as the silence of the mountains and the profound sea, alluding to Mr. Feng's depth, simplicity and humility.
A whole box in the hand, heavy, that is the classic weight.
In the field of foreign literary studies, Feng Zhi is recognized as a big banner. But he said: "In the field of German literature, I often compare me to a 'tour guide', I lead 'tourists' into this area, and in this area, it is often not the 'tour guide' who can discover more and understand more, but the sincere 'tourist'." I hope that more sincere "tourists" can enjoy the world of German literature under the guidance of this predecessor "tour guide" and enjoy "foreign nutrients".
(Original title: "Tour Guide" in the World of German-Speaking Literature)
Source: Beijing Daily
Author: Zhao Ting
Process Edit: u020
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