Zhang Ying
Howard Goldblatt, Chinese name is Ge Haowen, a famous American translator and the best translator of Chinese literature, who has translated more than forty works by more than 20 famous artists, including Xiao Hong, Chen Ruoxi, Bai Xianyong, Li Ang, Zhang Jie, Yang Dai, Feng Jicai, Gu Hua, Jia Pingwo, Li Rui, Liu Heng, Su Tong, Lao Ghost, Wang Shuo, Mo Yan, Hongying, Alai, Zhu Tiantian, Zhu Tianxin, and so on.
Among them, Ge Haowen's translation of Mo Yan's series of works played an important role in Mo Yan's later winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
This article is the second part of An interview with Ge Haowen. See the first part
Ge Haowen, who knows chinese literature best: I am with Xiao Hong
I returned to Taiwan from Chinese mainland, and Gao Xinjiang's China Times asked me to give a public speech. The lecture hall was full of people, and I was the only foreigner. Poor Gao had to talk about Chinese novels and Taiwanese novels at the beginning, but I didn't agree at the time, so why did the Taiwanese want me, a foreigner, to tell them about Taiwanese novels?
Halfway through my speech, I mentioned that I had just returned from Chinese mainland and gone to Beijing and Xiao Hong's hometown. As a result, Gao Xinjiang's eyes next to me suddenly widened and his face was pale, and he didn't know what I was going to do. Later, he said that I was good not to say anything more, otherwise he and I would be immediately invited away by the police. Thankfully I didn't cross that red line, and he was happy.
Xiao Hong
In 1981, Heilongjiang held a conference to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the birth of Xiao Hong, and they invited me to Come to China, so I went to Harbin at my own expense. This time I gave a speech about Xiao Hong in Harbin, And Hulan County invited me to give a speech there, and there were seven or eight hundred people in Xiao Hong's hometown, listening to me, a foreigner, telling them about Xiao Hong.
Later, when I finally had a chance, I talked to Xiao Jun about Xiao Hong. Because one of Mr. Lu Xun's centenary meetings was held in the western United States, the organizers invited Xiao Jun and a Russian translator named Guo Baoquan, plus a far-left scholar with the task of monitoring them. During the day we meet and discuss, and in the evening we eat and drink.
At that time, Xiao Jun was still drinking, so I asked, "Elder Xiao, can I ask you a little rudely?" He replied of course. I said, "There is a short article in "Ji Ji Hong" that she went to see you one day in the French Concession, and when Xiao Hong opened the door, her face was all blue. Did you hit that?
Xiao Jun was angry and unhappy, as if he wanted to hit me. Someone next to you said, forget it, you two are love enemies, don't argue. He laughed, I laughed, and it was all right. Later, he talked to me about Xiao Hong.
However, Xiao Qian later told me that Xiao Jun told others a lot of things about Xiao Hong, and later compiled a collection of Xiao Hong's letters, most of which were to protect his own reputation, and many things he said were different from the facts themselves. I can also understand some of Xiao Jun's practices in order to safeguard his own interests.
Xiao Jun was basically quite polite to me, and my visit also improved his situation, and he was better than before.
One year, when we went to Hulan, in the car, he told some people who also had experience in the cowshed about their experience of labor reform in those years, and some things were very cruel, but they laughed and said it, which surprised me very much. I asked him, "Elder Xiao, can you still laugh at this encounter?" He replied, "Xiao Ge, we can't cry all our lives, you haven't participated in the Cultural Revolution, you can't understand the days we live." So we treat these things as a game, just laugh. "I didn't ask anything afterwards.
I think it is very happy for me to know Xiao Jun.
Song Jia, who plays Xiao Hong
I also mentioned Xiao Hong to Duanmu. Compared with Xiao Jun, Duanmu's heart and chest are relatively wide. I came to his house a few times, and he was very willing to talk to me about Xiao Hong. Once we were talking in the living room of his house, he told me about her and Xiao Hong's days in Hong Kong. Soon after they went to Hong Kong, because Xiao Hong's health was very poor, the doctor said that she had a tumor in her body and had to take it out. As a result, later on the operating table, Xiao Hong's body did not have a tumor at all, but died because of surgery.
Duanmu recalled to me that he went to the ward to see her and pulled her to the place where she was operated on, and before he could finish speaking, he cried loudly. He regretted that he should not let Xiao Hong go to the knife, he had to take responsibility for it, he had been uneasy about it all his life, and hated his decision. "If I hadn't done that, Xiao Hong might still be there."
I comforted him for half a day, he was still crying like that, I was really scared, fortunately, at this time his wife ran in and asked him "Duanmu Duanmu, what happened"?
Xiao Hong's former residence
The last time I picked up Duanmu, he moved to a new home, he had a cat without a tail, but he was not in good health. That time we went out for a walk, all the way to Tiananmen Square, in front of a clock about the return of Hong Kong, he did not go, to my book, let's take a group photo okay? So we took pictures, he sat me standing, he grabbed my hand, very tightly. At that time, he may have felt that his life was not long, and it was not long before he died.
Later, Xiao Jun's daughter Xiao Yun wanted to compile some books for her father, and asked me for a letter written to me by her father, but I did not leave a copy at that time and gave her the original. But she did not copy me as promised, nor did she contact me again, and the letters disappeared. Later, when I was cleaning up the books, I accidentally found that I still had several letters from Xiao Jun.
Xiao Hong played by Tang Wei
I also have a baby, Wang Guanquan compiled a book "Missing Xiao Hong", including many people's articles, and an article I wrote is also in it. I took the book with me at that time, and one by one I asked the authors Ding Ling, Xiao Jun, and Duanmu to sign it. On the first page of the book all the authors signed their names, which I found interesting because these people are gone now.
So far, I have translated a total of four books and written ten articles about Xiaohong. I am also going to write a novel for Xiao Hong.