On March 6th, 1966, Sheng Cheng, then 67, came to France for the third time.
The last time was from January to April, 1935, and it was six years since he became famous in 1929. At that time, I was appointed by the relevant parties to Europe to investigate the case of stealing treasures from the Forbidden City. Although I have been in and out of France many times, I have also visited my teachers and friends one by one, but strictly speaking, I can only be regarded as passing by. In a blink of an eye, it has been more than 3 years. France is still the France he knows, and Paris is still the Paris that has a soft spot for him?
After p>3 years of ups and downs, he has been a professor in Peking University, Guangxi University, Sun Yat-sen University and Lanzhou University and an editor of Zhonghua Book Company. During the Anti-Japanese War, he also served as the director of the Political Department of the 19th Route Army, the chronicle of the battlefield condolences and investigations in Taierzhuang, the director-general of the International Propaganda Committee of the Shanghai National Salvation Association from all walks of life, and the executive director of the Wuhan All-China Anti-Enemy Association. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he took part in the reception work in Northeast China and Peiping successively, and in 1947 he took part in the reception of Taiwan Province University. He didn't want to be stuck in Taiwan Province for 18 years. If he hadn't seized an accidental opportunity to dredge Jiang Jingguo directly and allowed him to visit his daughter in the United States, he would still have to sink there.
No matter what twists and turns he has experienced, France has always been his second hometown. He can't adapt to America. In his view, if he stays in the United States, the result can only be to follow in the footsteps of his old friend Hemingway; In France, he will make a comeback.
naturally, the first thing to do after arriving in Paris is to visit Valery's widow. In 1933, his first child was named Paul to commemorate Valery's kindness in meeting him, so the two families became godparents. Although Valery has been dead for many years, his kindness has not diminished.
In p>1955, he translated Wachovia's masterpiece The Seaside Cemetery, which was once regarded as a great event by the sinologists in Paris. Some people even suggested that his translation be translated back into French, thinking that France would have two Valery.
it goes without saying that widow Valery's kindness to meet her old friend did not hinder her frankness. During the dinner, she said to Sheng Cheng: "The letter you sent to Valery at that time was transferred from the French Academy. Gide happened to be at my home when I handed it over. Valery read it and handed it to Gide. After reading the letter, Gide said,' This China native is amazing and will contribute to our literature and writing in the future.' So Valery wrote back to you. But now, your French is not working. "
The French in his heyday was impeccable, and his contribution to French literature was recognized by his peers because of his earliest use of short sentences. At present, however, it is difficult to even read newspapers. When I was in America, my eldest daughter also reminded me of his English like Mrs. Valery. After the war, the languages of all countries have undergone tremendous and profound changes; He admitted painfully that he was indeed a little behind the times.
It seems that if you really want to "make a comeback", you must first give up all vanity and return to French from the beginning. After a short stay in Paris, he plunged into the southern city of Avignon. The south has always been a place with special charm for artists. Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, etc. have all settled here, and Avignon is located on the new axis of postwar Europe, which helps to strengthen his determination to start from scratch.
In Avignon Shengcheng, he runs around, listens everywhere, looks everywhere, and sometimes remembers more than 1 new words a day. He practiced making sentences by writing poems, and scrutinized the composition based on the ancient buildings in the south. In his own words, "The Rhine, the Mediterranean, the sunshine in the south and the three-dimensional sense of ancient buildings are the important background for my second impact on French literature".
More than two years have passed, and Sheng Cheng has the heart to test his achievements in re-creation. He returned to Paris and presented a poem he had just written to Madame Valery. The lady nodded and said, "Your French is OK again"; Friends joked that "you graduated again". This restored his confidence. The so-called "Liu (Sheng) Lang came again today", so far it is not empty.
and shinlang seems to catch up with something every time he comes. The first time was "Dada Madness Year", and this time it was "68 Storm". A few days after he returned to Paris, college and middle school students who hated the current education system began their rebellion. There are parades everywhere, and the eyes are full of rolled flags. The dusty revolutionary memory was suddenly awakened, and Sheng Cheng stood on the side of the students. In the occupied Orton Grand Theatre and Pantheon, in the Latin quarter where roads are dug and foundations are built and the police are nervously confronted, where students are active, there is a resounding sound of success. His poems written with the latest words that students like spread like wildfire; His name, together with the name of another old man who was also devoted to sports, Jean Paul Sartre, was told by people.
As soon as the dust of the movement settled, he wrote a long article entitled "Fruit ripens because of division" and sent it to his old friend Charles de Gaulle. In the article, he analyzed the origin of this "storm" in detail with the rich experience and experience of a student movement, connecting the May 4th Movement in China and the Dada Movement in Europe and America half a century ago. Its intention was "for reference only" and so on. These two kinds of behaviors, which are somewhat absurd to others, are unified in prosperity. This "one" is the cultural position of the century that he has always adhered to: freedom, justice and the supremacy of human welfare. Under this premise, public is public, private is private, and what should be done? Just as he never tried to use his personal relationship with the president or other "big shots" for his own benefit, he was never a fanatical ideologist, so there was no fundamental conflict between supporting the "storm" directed at Charles de Gaulle's regime and cherishing the friendship with Charles de Gaulle himself. Charles de Gaulle obviously understands and appreciates this life realm of "doing what you want from your heart and not exceeding the moment". Not only did he immediately instruct the internal publication of Sheng Cheng's articles, but he also prepared to invite Sheng Cheng to be his consultant when he drew up the failed plan to visit China and meet with Mao Zedong the following year. The award of the Knights of the Legion of Honor to Sheng Cheng was originally based on his motion. It was only because Sheng Cheng refused to accept his resignation at that time (for fear that he would not be able to return to his roots in the future) that he had to postpone it to Mitterrand in 1985.
from escaping from Taiwan Province on August 1, 1965 to returning to the mainland on October 1, 1978, most of the 13 years were spent in France, mainly in Paris. Although he failed to reproduce the glory of the late 192s, he still showed great vitality. His apartment is just a hut in the 14th district, but its influence has spread all over Europe. In order to support himself and carry forward the traditional culture of China, he has been running a Chinese-style "private school" to teach the Book of Changes for nine years without interruption since 1968, and more than 1 scholars from all over the world come to listen to lectures or choose studies in each period.
a cultural context of more than p>4 years ago has been continued under the new historical background, and its depth is greatly different. Accordingly, his admirers, followers and researchers also organized a literary salon called "Friends of Sheng Cheng", which had a dinner once every Saturday at noon. Sheng Cheng gave lectures on various topics of interest and answered your questions. Sometimes he will improvise poems and write inscriptions and sell them on the spot. Even after he returned to China to settle down, the activities of the "Friends of Success" continued unabated; From time to time, he also sent short letters and poems for his friends to read and appreciate. Wen Ze, a China writer, is extremely rare in modern times.
Of course, the beneficiaries of Sheng Cheng are not limited to the small circle of scholars. In 1975, French Culture Radio invited him to make a special broadcast of the May 4th Movement in China, which was broadcast six times, each time for half an hour, and was widely praised. Two years later, the station invited him to broadcast "From the Revolution of 1911 to the May 4th Movement" again, which was broadcast for 1 times, and each time was still half an hour, which was another great success. After the program, the French Literati Association awarded a special prize.
Sheng Cheng's childlike innocence and vitality often bring some dramatic factors to his life, the most incredible of which is a commercial advertisement promoting spices made at the invitation of French TV in 1974. After 9 minutes of filming, the director said in surprise, "You are a professional actor!" " He didn't know that in 1927, when Sheng Cheng was the poorest, he did work with a Japanese actor named Ashan Jiawa and made several films in a row, before he was born!
but the main interest in this period was in linguistic research. As early as in Taiwan Province, he tried to focus on solving several difficult problems in the study of ancient Chinese from Malay. This is a subject entrusted to him by Gao Benhan, a famous Swedish sinologist, in 1935. When he met Gao Benhan again in 1966, he talked about the progress and got the high approval of the latter. After that, he began to make further preparations for in-depth research. For this reason, he even taught himself Hungarian and Turkish regardless of his age. After returning to China, he finally made a breakthrough in this field, and completed a series of monographs, such as The Relationship between Malay Language Family and Ancient China Language and Characters, The Relationship between Names and Place Names in China and Malay Semantics, although for most people, these are all like "gobbledygook".
Needless to say, Sheng Cheng is also an excellent poet and scholar of poetry (it would be strange for a person who devotes himself to poetic life like him not to be in touch with poetry), but because his main poetry works (including the early published collection of poems "Beauty in Autumn Heart" and the later collection of poems "Roar of Crazy Years") are all written in French, most of his poetic works are overseas. Fortunately, this situation has fundamentally changed-Beijing Language and Culture University Press and Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House have successively published four volumes of Sheng Cheng Anthology. For the convenience of people, the author read the translation of his poem "Evolution-To paul valery" written in 1927 several years ago, which was a momentary pleasure. In the author's opinion, this work, with its broad realm, precise image, light transformation and seamless integration, is full of adolescent passion, vitality, meditation and yearning, even today, it can be attributed to Excellence. I don't know how many such heroic works are left in the poetry collection, but I hope that the people concerned can make all the contributions as soon as possible. Taking translation as an organic part of modern Chinese poetry has gradually become a kind of cognition in recent years. According to this logic, a poem like Transmutation, which was first started in a non-native language and then translated into the native language, has more reason to be included in the pedigree of modern Chinese poetry. If so, it is not known that Sheng Cheng's poems will eventually lead to the rewriting of the history of new poetry.