Press: "The Nazis shattered the minds of a generation to pieces, and Lenz and a group of conscientious writers began to pick it up little by little. Today marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of siegfried lenz, one of Germany's greatest contemporary novelists and a prominent representative of German-language post-war literature, two years before the death of the writer known as the "German Conscience."
Siegfried Lenz
Lenz and Nobel Prize winners in literature, Glass, are recognized as the "Big Three of Contemporary German Literature", and Lenz is even more popular among ordinary readers than the former two, and Lenz himself has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. His masterpiece "German Lessons" is listed among the world's top 50 novels, is the designated reading for German middle school students, and has been translated into nearly 40 languages, which is of landmark significance in the history of contemporary German literature.
Chinese writers Yu Hua and Mo Yan have both confessed to the influence of Lenz's German Lessons on them, saying: "I remember that the book shocked me at that time, and in a child's innocent narrative, my reading experienced thrills. It's a novel that I didn't want to lose after reading it, and I never returned it to the school library. Mo Yan said: "Glass and Lenz, their attraction to me is even greater than the attraction of Germany, and if I can meet them, I think it will become my grand festival." ”
West Lenz's German Lessons
Written by | Yu Hua
In the summer of 1998, I met the Albanian writer Catarell in Turin, Italy, and we sat in the theater restaurant in Turin and talked through translators, eating and drinking without interpreters. At this time, Catarell had emigrated to France and was supposed to be an Albanian-French writer. In the early nineties, writers published one of his novels, The General of the Dead Army, which I happened to read. He is probably the most important writer in Albania today, and like other Eastern European writers in exile in the West, he was once unable to return to his homeland. There was no longer a problem when we met, and he could go back at any time if he wanted. But he told me he didn't go back much. The reason is that he feels tired every time he returns to Albania, and he says that as soon as he goes back, his home in Tirana will be as lively as a bar, and people who know and don't know him will visit him, at least twenty people.
Because China and Albania once had a friendship of "confidants in the sea, and the ends of the world are like neighbors", I was very excited when I chatted with Catarell, I mentioned Hoxha and Shehu, he mentioned Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the names of the four national leaders of the year appear frequently in our pronunciation. Catarell, who visited China during the Cultural Revolution, was extremely accurate when he spoke of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai Chinese pronunciation. We were as elated as two star chasers talking about the names of four rock stars. At that time, an Italian literary critic always wanted to interject and chat with us, but he could not enter our conversation without our experience.
Later we talked about literature, and we talked about the German writer Siegfried V. Lenz, I don't know why I said it, but probably we all love Lenz's novel German Lessons. This novel, which can be interpreted as anti-fascist, can be published in the socialist countries of the time.
Catarell told a story about his German Lessons. The aforementioned General of the Dead, an important work by Catarell. He told me that he couldn't publish it in Albania when he finished writing it, and he wanted the book to be smuggled to the West for publication. His method is very beautiful, that is, he hides the book in the book and smuggles it out. He commissioned a friend to first typeset and print it in the printing house, with a circulation of only one volume, and then he carefully tore off the cover of "German Lessons" and pasted it on to become the cover of "The General of the Dead Army". In this way, the German Lenz helped the Albanian Catarell, and the book selling dog meat with a sheep's head smoothly passed the customs inspection, went to France and many other countries, and later came to China.
I told a story about my German lessons. The first time I read Lenz's novel was Bread and Movement, and the second time I was German Lessons. At that time, I was at the Lu Xun Academy of Literature, and I remember that this book shocked me at that time, and in the innocent narrative of a child, my reading was experiencing thrills. It's a novel that I didn't want to lose after reading it, and I never returned it to the school library. This book was translated into Chinese published in the 1980s, when the publishing industry was still in the era of the planned economy, and the vast majority of books were only one edition, and when they bought it, they bought it, and if they couldn't buy it, they would never have it. I knew that if I returned German Lesson II, I might lose it forever. I kept it around until I graduated and had to return the borrowed book or I would be fined three times the price of the book. Of course I chose the fine, I said the book was lost. I brought it back to Zhejiang, and later when I settled in Beijing, I brought it back to Beijing.
Then in 1998, a Chinese and an Albanian, in a country called Italy, each told a story about a German. At this time, I think that literature is really infinitely beautiful, and when it is remembered by people through reading, it is also remembered by people in other and more ways.
[de] Siegfried Lenz by Xu Changju, translated
South Seas Publishing Company
March 2013
This article is the preface to the book "German Lessons", author: Yu Hua, published with the permission of the publishing house, integrated and edited: square grid, pictures from the Internet, unauthorized reproduction.