-the author's inscription
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On October 25th, 2009, the Independent published Delia, a professor of Oriental Studies at Leeds University. Yang, a famous translator during the Cultural Revolution.
Of course, I translated Celebrity literally. The original text is "I feel that the authority has fouled", which means "contempt for powerful people". My translation level is not high, so I will translate it into a "celebrity" for the time being. Unfortunately, the domestic media translated this title into "Yang, a fallen translator in China", and it seems that our eulogy was reprinted by others.
More importantly, "celebrity" is precisely the greatest demeanor of this translation master. If we avoid these two words, where can we find a little shadow of Mr. Yang?
For months, I've always wanted to write something as a souvenir for Lao. It's just that every time I start writing, I always feel that I can't say it. At this point, I finally understand that it is not easy to make it clear.
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Born in a banker's family since childhood, he went abroad to study in his youth. The middle-aged translations of Selected Works of Lu Xun and A Dream of Red Mansions are well-known at home and abroad and are well received by Mao Zedong. More than half a year old, I am in prison; In his later years, he sorted out national heritage and eventually became a master. This is a sketch of Yang Yisheng. All the news media, all interviews with people, focus on the old man who only drove the crane for a long time after his death.
In this era when masters died one after another, Yang's death was a bit of a heroic end. Unlike Ji Xianlin and Ren Zhi's death, he made no achievements in theory, so he could not constitute a "big burial" in academic circles. His death was also different from Wang's, and he was a generation of historical celebrities and cultural relics. In today's "cultural relic fever", the death of Wang is undoubtedly a great shock to the antique industry; Yang's departure and the death of academicians such as Qian Xuesen also have very different meanings. Qian and Bei were the founders of modern science and technology in China, but only this, the translator Yang can't compare with them.
But some people are doomed not to be forgotten, because in this era when the history of science and technology is the primary productive force and economic construction is the core, we should pay more and more attention to some seemingly unimportant people and their stories.
19 15 autumn, in this year full of drastic changes, Yang, who was born in Tianjinwei, seems to have a unique celebrity temperament. The descent of "White Tiger Star" seems to show a "celebrity" attitude.
"White Tiger Star" is the bane. Before Yang was born, his mother dreamed that a white tiger jumped into her stomach, which was a very ominous omen at that time. Yang, who is always optimistic and open-minded, never takes it seriously. Although he lost his father in childhood, his childhood was lonely, his wife in his later years, and his life was full of hardships and hardships, Yang still faced it calmly and positively, and his English memoir "White Tiger Star is Taking a Life" in his later years still took this as a lesson.
Celebrity is a style, which Yang has been pursuing all his life, which can be described as an incisive attitude. In childhood, when the May 4th Movement was in full swing, rebellious thoughts also penetrated into Xiao Yang Xian Yi's mind. When Yang was four or five years old, several private school teachers were severely "taught" by him for teaching him the Four Books and Five Classics of "Self-denial and Reciprocity", and were finally kicked out of Yang's family in a despondent manner. This was a very bold move at that time, especially in the "teacher of heaven and earth".
Looking after the elders at the age of three and the children at the age of seven, if what Yang did in his childhood was purely ignorant and fearless, then the subsequent facts proved that Yang was not a playboy in his childhood. Because he "kicked out" countless private school teachers, he was finally surrendered by a poor and unyielding poet, Mr. Wei Ruzhou, who had no sticks or "benevolence and morality".
Although Mr. Lao Wei was a handsome former poet, he was not corrupt and incompetent in the Qing government, nor did he want to collude with Yuan Shikai and others. He refused to be an official and suffered for life. He is a private school teacher for the rich. After Yang drove away other private school teachers, the Wei teacher bravely shouldered the heavy responsibility of Yang's "enlightenment". In addition to teaching Twenty-four History of Tang Poetry and Song Poetry, Wei also taught Professor Yang the truth of being an intellectual at the time of national survival through historical stories in China and the West. Just enlightened Yang suddenly realized that in China at that time, only "Western learning" was the way to save the country.
A few years later, Yang insisted on going to middle school to receive a "new learning" education, and Mr. Wei also had his own choice. After Yang was admitted to the best missionary middle school college in Tianjin at that time, Mr. Wei, who was in his sixties, left a book of poems and a letter to Yang one night and quietly left the Yang family, regardless of the Yang family's hard retention. Mr. Wang knows that his knowledge is limited, and only when Yang receives systematic education in middle schools, universities and even studying abroad can he have a chance to acquire real knowledge.
He is always serious and dignified. In his later years, Yang recalled his first teacher and really perfected himself according to Mr. Wei's strong personality. "Teacher Wei has influenced my life's outlook on life. He is a real gentleman."
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Mr. Wang's attitude towards celebrities really influenced Yang's life.
Young Yang, brave and determined, is a "strike leader". 1925 When the May 30th Movement broke out, Yang bravely organized his classmates to take to the streets. The school sent teachers' representatives to dissuade Yang, who was in the limelight. Has Yang Can Xian Yi's temper been "discouraged"? He suddenly clashed with the teacher's representative. I didn't expect this teacher representative to be the same.
"If you are fired, you will be fired!"
Yang Xianyi twisted his neck, glanced at the teacher's thoughtful eyes and rushed out of the classroom with his classmates.
But this teacher has always attached great importance to Yang's talent. It is his duty to be sent to dissuade students. However, he appreciates Yang's talent and courage. Soon after, the teacher wrote and directed the drama "Xi Shi" and recruited actors. The first woman was Zhang Meiru, a famous actress in Tianjin at that time, but Hero was "auditioned" in all the missionary schools in Tianjin. The teacher suddenly thought of the high-spirited student leader, and it happened. As a result, the two celebrities ignored their differences as soon as they met. After three glasses of wine, master and apprentice became partners of "actor" and "director".
However, although Yang is bold and radical, he is timid on the stage, especially in the face of a beautiful female number one, who is too nervous to speak. The teacher carefully guided Yang's stage performance and taught him to understand the script. Gradually, Yang understood the core of the drama spirit and used it freely on the stage, which made the teacher praise him.
"A revolutionary can't just shout in the street"-the teacher's teaching penetrated into Yang's heart, and he began to look at the young teacher with a new eye. A few years later, Yang went abroad to England and met the teacher on the street in London. At this time, Yang is high flyers of Cambridge University, and this teacher is also the high foot of a generation of drama master Bernard Shaw.
Being in a foreign land, celebrities are not afraid of loneliness, but they are afraid of having no friends. On the banks of the Thames in 1935, the master and the apprentice became friends who never looked back. Soon, they established lifelong feelings that transcended the feelings between teachers and students.
This teacher is Mr. Huang, a master of contemporary drama.
Teacher Wei Ruzhou in his youth and Huang Weiyang in his youth laid an indelible tone for Yang's world outlook. In fact, Yang's road to translation began with "the wrath of celebrities".
In the class in Cambridge, a professor named brenton became Yang's tutor, while Mr. brenton was a typical English gentleman, keeping his mouth shut about Shakespeare, Dryden and Pope, which made Yang, who had a strong sense of national pride, unbearable. Educated by Mr. Wei Ruzhou since childhood. China is a country of poetry, and only Qu Yuan and Li Bai are top poets in the world. How can these western poets compare with China's poets and sages?
In class, Yang asked the teacher questions and mentioned the names of Qu Yuan and Li Bai. Unfortunately, Professor brenton shrugged his shoulders, but he didn't know these people. Yang was in a hurry and held it in his hand to show the teacher Li Sao. Brenton couldn't read Chinese characters, but he was noncommittal.
"I want to translate Li Sao into English!"
In a rage, young Yang decided to translate Li Sao. Brenton also said that he would like to examine this mysterious and beautiful oriental poetry country through Yang's brushwork. If he doesn't turn back, how can a celebrity go back on his word? However, Li Sao is a famous ancient poem in China, and it is very difficult to translate it into vernacular Chinese, and it is really difficult to translate it into English.
Yang struggled to choose Li Sao as his first novel, but with his profound knowledge of western learning and classical literature, after several months of efforts, he finally translated Li Sao into English. Perhaps because he is a celebrity, Yang's translation is magnificent, fluent and slightly exaggerated and sarcastic, which not only reveals Qu Yuan's celebrity style incisively and vividly, but also endows him with a brand-new literary connotation, even the always harsh Professor brenton marvels at it.
Until now, this book is still on the shelves of European university libraries as a commemoration of Yang's youth.
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In Britain, Yang not only won the title of "foreign professor", but also won his lifelong happiness-a man named Li Xiaolan? Margaret. Taylor's girl walked into Yang's fiery heart.
This entry is fifty years of sharing weal and woe.
Celebrities are not without feelings. On the contrary, the biggest feature of celebrities is that it is difficult to control their feelings and vent them to the extreme. Moistened by love, Yang devoted himself to translation with the greatest enthusiasm after returning to China. Translation is a hard job, especially Chinese-English translation, which is almost a hard job that non-native English translators dare not try. Yang did it, and he did it better than western sinologists.
The True Story of Ah Q, The Scholars, Zi Tong Zhi Jian, A Dream of Red Mansions ... all kinds of famous works were translated into beautiful and meaningful English by Yang and spread to Britain, the United States, Australia, Belgium and other countries. For the first time, oriental culture went abroad in this way, which surprised western scholars. The most beautiful writing, culture and spirit in the world are in this vast and mysterious land of China.
After the national liberation, Yang devoted himself to the construction of the new regime with great enthusiasm. He even put down his beloved translation work and devoted his time to the torrent of building a new China.
Celebrities are patriotic, including Qu Yuan, Ji Kang and Wang Guowei. A real celebrity is not a sleepy study, nor a bohemian figure, but faces all the beauty of time with unique enthusiasm and world outlook.
After 1949, Yang, a foreign professor, became an ordinary worker in the new regime. After his identity changed, he drafted a declaration and speech supporting the construction of a new China on behalf of the "Nanjing National Revolution" and published it in Xinhua Daily. He also wrote a series of articles to publicize and expound the economic policies, land policies, cultural and educational policies, literary and artistic policies and even religious policies of New China. At that time, Yang simply became the "press spokesman" of the new China in Nanking. Although he is not from party member, he has already regarded himself as party member to be strict with himself. In front of work, he neglected his wife and children, and even when his third son and youngest daughter, Yang Chi, were born, he was not around. At that time, he had many titles. He is not only the "leader of the takeover working group" of the compilation museum, but also the head of the Nanjing Revolutionary Committee, the director of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association and the director of the World Peace and Security Committee. He was even appointed as the "Deputy Secretary-General" of Nanjing CPPCC. In those busy and dark years, Yang Guo lived a full life.
During his stay in Nanjing, he and Chen Yi, Ke Qingshi and other leaders became friends on the wine table and in the study.
1953, I met Yang and asked him, "Do you think Li Sao can be translated?"
"Madam President, can all literary works be translated?" Yang asked without thinking.
Celebrities are always celebrities. No matter how busy he is at work and how much he loves his country, once he enters the field he is interested in, he will soon show his personality, self-confidence, courage and even some self, but all this comes from his talent and self-confidence. Even in the face of almost myth at that time, Yang in his thirties still made no secret.
Like other intellectuals, Yang suffered a lot during the Cultural Revolution. And his self-confidence and contempt for powerful people are even more exposed.
He despised the Gang of Four, Lin Biao and others. He likes drinking to drown his sorrows. Therefore, he became the most alcoholic prisoner in the prison. Occasionally, when listening to the radio, he heard that Lin Biao was not in the ranking of national leaders. He judged that Lin Biao must have stepped down.
So, he was deeply excited and tore up the quotations about Lin Biao on the second page of The Little Red Book and threw them away. A week later, when the jailer checked, he saw that Yang's "little red book" was missing a page and said nothing.
Yang happily told the inmates that Lin Biao had collapsed.
The news has not been officially announced, but Yang told his guess to the suffering prisoners with his political sensitivity. If his guess is wrong, it would be a crime of decapitation at that time, but celebrities are not afraid of death-look at Kong Rong who scolded Cao, Mi Fei who drummed, Ji Kang who was puffed up and played the piano. Who takes decapitation seriously?
Yang is not afraid of decapitation. A few days, as he expected. Lin Biao was depressed, and he was released. For him, a few years in prison is just another feeling of life.
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Yang Yisheng has three titles, namely, doctor Yang, celebrity and revolutionary. Among these three titles, "True Celebrities" can best reflect Yang's temperament.
"Intellectuals" is a somewhat outdated word, but now we seem to like to bring up the past. In the photos of National Southwest Associated University, Zhijiang University and yenching university, and in the back of Ji Xianlin, Hu Shi and Liang Shiqiu, we often find some nostalgic comfort with some words, but when we seriously face Qian Xuesen's question, we suddenly become speechless-what is a master? What is a celebrity? What is the responsibility of intellectuals?
If a student chases his teacher, we will give him severe punishment, but if Yang was severely punished at that time, will there be a generation of celebrities in the future?
If a young student dares to challenge the teacher, can there be a teacher like Huang to persuade a student magnanimously? In today's materialistic world, can the relationship between teachers and students develop into girlfriends for half a century?
If a translator faces his translation work with great enthusiasm and struggles with traditional classics, can we stop him from getting the opportunity to support his family in the torrent of "publishing industrialization"?
If an intellectual who dares to complain and tell the truth is no longer "dealt with", or is regarded as a "freak" by some organs and individuals and "entered another book", will we go further from the era when masters gather?
It seems that there are too many ifs, but there is no answer. In addition to the development of science and technology and technological innovation, a nation seems to need something similar to backbone, blood and spirit. Therefore, we don't expect that generation of celebrities who drive cranes westward to become peerless celebrities that we can't catch up with, that's all.