The business card impressively printed: "Sixty best-selling books are sold at home and abroad, and the only person who translated poems into English and French." People say that Xu Yuanchong is arrogant, but Xu Yuanchong thinks he is crazy but not arrogant.
"Fake" means grandiose, arrogant and boastful. Xu Yuanchong wondered, "My books are sixty, and now there are more than sixty. You can count it. I wrote 60 books and said that I wrote 120, which is bragging. " He is the only expert in China who can translate between classical poetry and English-French verse, which doesn't fool anyone.
"Crazy" means open-minded, bold and high-spirited. The master said that if you can't be moderate, you must be arrogant. In the English version of The Analects of Confucius, Xu Yuanchong translated "crazy" into "radical" (radical and energetic), which in a word revealed the meaning of Confucius' "crazy people are enterprising". He said, "We China people should be confident and have a little crazy spirit."
Xu Yuanchong, an 89-year-old translator, loves to talk about "we China people". In his view, "I" and "we China people" are almost the same subject.
"He is noisy, active and restless. Personal ideals and national ideals are consistent. " He Zhaowu said.
194 1 At the end of the year, the Pacific War broke out, and Colonel Chennault led the American Volunteer Air Force to support China. Due to the lack of translators, all the boys from The National SouthWest Associated University Foreign Languages Department were collectively recruited to the Flying Tigers.
At the reception to welcome Chennault, the phrase "Three People's Principles" chilled both the host and the guest who didn't understand the language-no one knew how to translate it. The host of the reception was Huang, a senior Kuomintang official. He personally went into battle and translated the word into: nation, people's sovereignty and people's livelihood. On the contrary, the American soldiers present could not find North.
All the boys in the Department of Foreign Languages of the General Assembly are sitting below. In the crowd, I saw a teenager with a sword and eyebrows raise his hand, and then a "loud voice" full of loyalty: for the people, for the people and for the people. (For the people, by the people, and for the people) Explaining Sun Yat-sen's words in Lincoln's words, both sides suddenly realized.
At National Southwest Associated University, Xu Yuanchong of the Department of Foreign Languages always leaves a deep impression on people. "His voice is loud, positive and restless, and his personal ideal is consistent with the national ideal" is the impression given by his classmate and a famous expert in the history of ideas, while "aggressive" is the evaluation of another classmate, Yang Zhenning.
He has a nickname "Xu Cannon", and he has always been open-minded and outspoken. No matter how angular a person is, he will be polished to be sophisticated and sleek after middle age, but until now, his old classmates mentioned him with the same evaluation. Yang Zhenning even said, "I found him as energetic as before, if not fuller."
He commented on Chinese and western cultures: "Greece and Rome are both small countries, and the history of the United States is not long, only more than 200 years. China's 5,000-year-old culture has to go out. "
He commented on the current situation of domestic translation circles: "Mastery means publishing Chinese and foreign translation works in at least two languages, which is equivalent to the Nobel Prize in foreign languages."
He commented on his translation level like this: "It is not an academician who wins an academician, but a thousand poems are given to Europe and the United States."
He commented on the significance of studying in France: "If I also went to the United States, then in the twentieth century, no one may be able to translate China's classical poems into English and French rhymes."
This suggestion has deeply worried the translation circles in China.
Han Shishan, editor-in-chief and writer of Shaanxi Literature, once published an article criticizing him in the newspaper, entitled "Xu Yuanchong's Conceit". Xu Yuanchong also answered an article "Is it conceit or self-confidence", which is well-founded and restrained. Voted in the same newspaper, but the other party didn't publish it. The old man found Han Shishan frankly and said, "Why don't you publish it in your Shanxi literature?" The other party is not a layman and says, "Good." So they became friends. There is a banner hanging in Xu Yuanchong's living room, which reads, "The Wan Li on the riverside is full of clouds and the autumn grass is fragrant." It is this unforgettable Mo Bao.
What happened to people with this personality in the 1950 s and 1970 s can be imagined During the anti-rightist movement in 1950s, Xu Yuanchong taught English and French in two foreign language colleges in Beijing. At that time, he made three suggestions: first, to develop Mao Zedong Thought; Second, Stalin destroyed counter-revolutionaries and killed too many good people; Third, the translation of "* * * productism" is incorrect. The original text does not contain the word "production", which is translated by the Japanese, just like translating "China" into "zhina", which is derogatory; In the first sentence of the manifesto of the * * * Producer Party, it is said that the ghost of * * * productism is lingering in Europe, and it is necessary to change "ghost" into "ghost" and "wandering" into "frequent appearance"-because European countries will not be afraid of that lingering ghost.
How bold. Fortunately, the leaders at that time thought that what he said was an "academic problem" and did not label him "correct". But since then, Xu Yuanchong has never got rid of such evaluations as "arrogance" and "top student".
During the "Cultural Revolution", "smelly Laojiu" stood in the scorching sun and was criticized. Others are disheartened. Xu Yuanchong was criticized for thinking about how to translate Chairman Mao's poems into English and French rhymes and enjoy himself. He is very demanding on translation, and every sentence should be witty. The original poem has duality and pun, so the translation must also have duality and pun.
"The red flag at the foot of the mountain is picturesque." He translated it as below/below/the wind is spreading/the red flag is rolling. "The sky is high and the clouds are light, and you can see the geese flying south." He translated it as the sky is high/the clouds are light/the geese fly south and can't be seen. Beauty in sound, meaning and rhythm.
There is a saying in Inscription for Female Soldiers that "I don't like red clothes, but I love armed clothes". He translated "red clothes" into "pink powder" and "armed clothes" into "facethepowder", which just explained the correspondence between "red" and "martial arts" and the repetition of "clothes".
As a result, these good poems drew "hundreds of whips" for Xu Yuanchong, because they "distorted Mao Zedong Thought and escaped the class struggle". One hundred whips were whipped by the rebels with branches, and Xu Yuanchong could not sit still. According to Ms. Jun, his wife must find a life buoy, blow enough air and use it as his chair.
"Is that still a translation?"
"Translation, at that time, I could only translate Mao Zedong's works, not only Chairman Mao's poems, but also what I copied."
"Continue to translate after being beaten?" "Oh, it's even worse to be idle."
"You have an inspiration almost every day, and I only have one for many years." Yang Zhenning said
1998 At the end of spring, a symphony orchestra composed of German artists came to Beijing to perform, and played the song of the earth by the famous composer Mahler. The second and third chapters of music are named "Lonely Shadow in Cold Autumn" and "Youth" respectively, and it is pointed out that they are based on China's Tang poems.
According to the newspaper, there were many experts in the audience at that time, and no one could tell which poem these two chapters came from. Later, various cultural newspapers successively published Chinese versions of these two chapters in German. At the same time, they also published the instructions of Vice Premier Li Lanqing: "We must make clear the two Tang poems played by German artists as soon as possible."
The Tang poems in Song of the Earth were first translated into French by French woman writer Gao Xue, then into Jade Book, and then into German by German writer Hyman. Now it has been translated from German to Chinese, and the situation has changed a lot, and the words are confusing. In Lonely Shadow in Cold Autumn, the sentences such as "Blue autumn fog permeates the lake and the grass leaves are covered with frost" and "I'm sleepy, the lights are out, and I can't help but want to sleep" have aroused many speculations from experts and scholars, and have been praised by the media as the "Sphinx mystery" in the 20th century.
The Sphinx met Xu Yuanchong.
According to the report of Wen Hui Reading Weekly at that time, the German lyrics of the author of Lonely Shadow in Cold Autumn were signed by Tschangz. "Xu Jun said at a glance:' This is Zhang Ji'." He immediately found out Goshen's jade book, compared it with Chinese and French, and then analyzed the sentences in the poem one by one according to the method of "dividing words" used by impressionist poetesss, and finally found the prototype of these two chapters-the lonely shadow of cold autumn is Zhang Ji's a night-mooring near maple bridge, and youth is Li Bai's Passing Traveler.
Han Shishan, who criticized Xu Yuanchong's conceit, also mentioned this matter in the same article, saying, "It takes real effort."
Since 1980s, Xu Yuanchong has devoted himself to translating Tang poetry, Song ci and Yuan Qu into English and French rhymes. The difficulty in poetry translation lies in the refinement of words, and classical poems all pursue the word "public". Xu Yuanchong's poetry translation should not only rhyme neatly, but also be full of realm. There are metaphors, metonymy, personification and antithesis in classical poetry, and the translated English-French verse should also have metaphors, metonymy, personification and antithesis, for fear of ruining the good things of China culture, which is almost harsh. Yang Zhenning, his old classmate, said: "He made special efforts to make the translated poems full of rhythm and rhythm. In essence, it is almost impossible to do well, but he did not back down. "
It's just so interesting. Thoughtful and meticulous thinking is a "bitter" job, but it is a pleasure for people who are passionate and deeply loved. Xu Yuanchong often sleeps in front of a poem at night, worrying about anxiety, smiling when he is inspired by generate, and being in the spirit of heaven. His student, Yu Shiyi, a professor of foreign languages in Tsinghua University, recalled what he looked like when he was teaching in Peking University. "Riding a bike, I jumped down to discuss with you."
Du Fu's famous sentence "Falling leaves are like waterfalls, but I see the long river running" was once regarded as untranslatable by the famous poet Yu Guangzhong. "Boundless falling wood, followed by" rustling ",is a grass prefix, and grass is also considered wood; The Yangtze River stretches as far as the eye can see. After the "river", it is "rolling", which is also a three-point water. This glyph, visual impact, no matter what kind of translator you are, there is no way. " The translation of this poem is very typical, and we can basically see the difficulty of conveying artistic conception between different cultures.
Yu Xiansheng probably didn't know that this poem had been translated by "experts" at that time, and there was more than one person. Xia Xiaoxiao was translated by the famous poet Bian, and the three words were translated into "Shower by Shower"; The rest is completed by his student Xu Yuanchong, ending with "hourafterhour", which rhymes with Bian's translation.
Leaves fall like a waterfall: endless forests shed leaves one after another; And I watch the long river always roll forward: endless rivers roll with waves hour after hour. "Caotous" is translated by repeating sh (shed and shower), and "Sanshui Store" is translated by repeating R (river and roll). Sound and meaning are unique, and those who smell it are beautiful.
Xu Yuanchong likes to ask himself when translating: Can you see silent paintings and hear silent music in the translation? This is his basic requirement for translation. The predecessors translated The Book of Songs: Picking Wei, translating "I was away, and Yangliu said" Yi Yi "into" softness "(slightly swaying), and translating" Now I think about it, it's raining "into" Feifei ". He doesn't like it. He thinks it's "artistic conception and prose". After thinking about it, the inspiration came: "weeping willow" means "weeping willow" in English and "saulepleueur" in French, both of which mean tears. Following this breakthrough, he translated "Yi Yi" into English as "shedtear" and French as "enpleurs", and tears came out.
Translating The West Chamber is a big project. This wonderful book, which Jin Shengtan called "the Wonder of Heaven and Earth", contains all the features of China's plays: bedding, writing style, metonymy and metaphor. Only the slang of the Yuan Dynasty mixed in it is enough to make the translator scratch his head. For a simple example, when Zhang Sheng saw Yingying for the first time, he shouted, "I suddenly realized the injustice of the 500-year affair!" What is "karma", how to understand "romance" and how to make readers of Romeo and Juliet understand this?
Xu Yuanchong's translation is: If it is not the beauty who has lost the seeds of love in my heart for five years and has been forgotten, who else? Isn't that her-the beauty who planted the seeds of love in my heart 500 years ago. )
"Borrowing a box" is a compromise. Zhang Sheng described Yingying like this: "Below is a jade skirt embroidered with golden lotus, and above it is a long bamboo shoot with red sleeves." The two metonymies in one sentence-"Golden Lotus" and "Jade Bamboo Shoot" are words with China characteristics. Literal translation will lose the charm of the past. In English, Xu Yuanchong found the word "lily-like" corresponding to "golden lotus" with the same cultural characteristics, and used "cone" to describe "jade bamboo shoots", which is really a translation from poetry to close-up.
By the end of the last century, Xu Yuanchong had published nearly 60 translated works. So far, his works have broken through the 100-mark, covering four types: Chinese-English, English-Chinese, Chinese-French and French-Chinese. The English translation of China's Songs of the South, The Book of Songs, The Romance of the West Chamber, 300 Tang Poems, 300 Song Poems, 300 Yuan Poems and 300 Immortal Poems is almost in one go. Yang Zhenning, an old classmate, smiled and said to him, "You have inspiration almost every day, and I only have one for many years."