Hu Shi once selected five people to translate the complete works of Shakespeare: Liang Shiqiu, Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Chen Xiying and Ye Gongchao, but only Liang persisted.
Liang Shiqiu said: "Three conditions must be met to translate "The Complete Works of Shakespeare". First, he must be uneducated. If he is knowledgeable, he will do research and textual research; second, he must be uneducated. There must be no genius. If there is genius, he will do research, write novels, poems and dramas and other creative work; thirdly, he must live for a long time, otherwise he will not be able to complete the translation. It is a fluke. These three conditions. I have it all, so I completed the translation of this masterpiece."
Disciple Yu Guangzhong said when talking about his teacher's achievements in translating the complete works of Shakespeare: "Since the May Fourth Movement, there have been more than a few translations by Western writers. There are hundreds of translators, but Mr. Liang Shiqiu is still the first person to translate the complete works of a great writer. "No one knows about Liang Shiqiu's great achievements in translating the complete works of Shakespeare. Liang Shiqiu has always done so. "The article is as high as his forehead."
Yu Guangzhong said in the article "Liang Weng Biography of Shakespeare": "Shakespeare only took twenty years to write, but Mr. Liang Shiqiu translated it for thirty-six years, but we don't want it." Forget that Shakespeare wrote continuously in the peaceful London, while Liang Weng was translated from place to place in the troubled China, from before the Second World War to the Second World War. After the First World War, he translated from the cold North to the hot South China Sea, and translated Qiu Lang of the past into Liang Weng of today."
In his later years, Liang Shiqiu spent seven years writing the million-word "English Literature". history". He sat at his desk every day and kept writing. His wife, Han Jingqing, discovered that there was often a pool of blood on the cushion of Liang's chair. He had hemorrhoids bleeding due to sitting at his desk for too long, but he was so focused on writing that he didn't even know it.
Idea 1: Ability and perseverance
Idea 2: Research on modern management and humanities
Idea 3: Looking at foreign literary translation through Liang Shiqiu’s translation of the complete works of Shakespeare The relationship between the work and the translator - fidelity and re-creation
Attachment: Liang Shiqiu and his translation of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare"
Taiwan's "United Literature" reporter Qiu Yanming passed away after Liang Shiqiu A comprehensive interview was conducted with Liang in the past few months. When talking about the "Complete Works of Shakespeare" translated by Liang Shiqiu, Liang Shiqiu said excitedly, "It's Shakespeare again, and I have broken off friendship with him." Yes, Liang Shiqiu declared his break with Shakespeare after the publication of his translation of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare". Why? The 40 volumes of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" were translated by him alone, and the last 30 volumes were translated after he was 56 years old and spent 10 years. The entire collection took 38 years of his precious life. When he learned that his grandson Macbeth ("Macbeth", one of Shakespeare's plays) in the United States had failed the grade with a D, his grandfather Liang Shiqiu wrote back and said: "It doesn't matter, it's of no use at all. It has wasted half my life." Shakespeare's translation did give Liang Shiqiu worked very hard. Liang Shiqiu wrote in a letter to his daughter Wen Qiang: "Proofreading 10 Shakespeare books a week makes me miserable and almost exhausts me to death! ... The pain of translating books is no less than giving birth to a child." Especially the translation of books In the last few years, when he was over 60 years old, he suffered from diabetes and gallstones, and later had a cholecystectomy. With his old and sick body, Shakespeare had to deal with the difficulties of translating, which had to make him suffer so much that he even spoke angry words. In the following years, his condition worsened and his age increased. He often felt powerless and unsure about whether he could successfully complete this huge project. In a letter to Wen Qiang, he said: "I plan to complete this work in the remaining years...but whether God will allow me...I am not sure myself, I can only rely on you to pray for me!" For this reason, he sometimes "really hates Shakespeare." Why did Tubia write so much?” Liang Shiqiu's "resentment" does not mean that he is tired, but only shows that the project of Shakespeare's translation is huge and difficult, which is beyond the comprehension of others. On the contrary, he felt quite comforted by the translation of Shakespeare's complete works. He once said that this matter was probably the "biggest contribution" he could make. Thinking of this, "the psychological satisfaction cannot be expressed in words." He said: "I have dedicated 30 years of my life to Shakespeare, and I am just enjoying myself.
But there are also intangible rewards. From Shakespeare's works, I have developed an attitude towards life, a strong interest in everything in the world, and an understanding and tolerance for everything in the world. ”
How did Liang Shiqiu and Shakespeare’s friendship and resentment come to be? At first, Liang Shiqiu had no close relationship with Shakespeare. During his studies at Tsinghua University, he read “Hamlet” and “Julius”. ?Caesar" and several other plays, Teacher Chao Lin taught him to read "Shakespeare's Historical Plays" by Kule Kauch. When they went to study in the United States, Professor Ji Tuizhi from Harvard taught them to read "Macbeth" and "Henry IV." At the same time, he had seen several performances of Shakespeare's plays. His knowledge of Shakespeare was just that. He had translated 40 complete works of Shakespeare and could not even imagine that Liang's relationship with Shakespeare for more than 30 years was related to Hu Shi. Sir. At the end of 1931, Hu Shi began to take charge of the Translation Committee of the China Education and Culture Fund (i.e., the U.S. Boxer Grant Committee) and organized large-scale translation projects. One of them was the translation of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare", which was originally planned to be completed by Wen Yiduo and Xu. Zhimo, Ye Gongchao, Chen Xiying and Liang Shiqiu are expected to complete the work in five to ten years, with a tentative budget of 50,000 yuan. Liang Shiqiu immediately started translating and planned to deliver two volumes a year. However, the other four never started, so the task was completed. At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, he completed 8 plays, 4 tragedies and 4 comedies. In 1936, the Commercial Press published the translation of these 8 plays. During the Anti-Japanese War, he also completed the translation of a historical drama. It was basically discontinued until 1959, when Liang Shiqiu continued his Shakespeare translation project. He stipulated that he would translate two thousand words a day, one book every two months, and he would translate it into five or six books a year. He was unable to complete the scheduled task due to work, so he worked overtime the next day, especially when he suffered from various illnesses. In the spring of 1966, Liang Shiqiu felt the most difficult when he translated the last few books. , less interesting, and wanted to "bite the bullet and have to do it." He was particularly worried that God would not take the time to complete this task. After this year's final sprint, it was finally completed in 1967. In August 2016, he completed the translation of 37 volumes of all Shakespeare's plays, which were published by Taiwan's Far East Book Company. , the "Chinese Language Society" held a grand celebration in Taipei. Hu Shi, the initiator of this project, had promised to hold a reception to celebrate the translation of the complete works. Unfortunately, Mr. Hu Shi passed away five years ago and was unable to attend this grand celebration. It took Liang Shiqiu another year to translate three of Shakespeare's poems. At this point, all 40 of Shakespeare's works have been translated, which took him nearly 40 years. His contribution to the translation of all Shakespeare's works goes without saying. The first is his translation principle. Change it to fluent Chinese and make it more popular. Liang said: "No, Shakespeare is like this and needs to be true. " It seems that in the translation standards of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", he first followed "faithfulness". Not only in terms of style, but also insisted on preserving the authenticity of the obscene content in Shakespeare's works, without making usual abridgements. His daughter Wen Qiang occasionally read Shakespeare's plays, but felt that there were many obscenities in them and it was difficult to read aloud, so she reminded her father whether he could remove the sexual elements in the translation. He told his daughter that as early as 1818, Thomas Bowdler had deleted all the pornographic parts of Shakespeare's plays. , compiled a so-called "readable at home" complete collection. This method of eliminating pornography is called Bowdlerism. "Shakespeare and sex" has always been an important proposition in Shakespeare's studies: " Shakespeare is the greatest English writer who writes about sex. He's effortless and natural, with sex dripping from every pore. "There have always been mixed reviews about this. Liang Shiqiu believes that it is normal for dramas to contain obscene elements, both at home and abroad. This is because the scripts are mainly for performances and are not meant as desk literature for people to read. They can be adapted to the place, time and people at any time. In addition, in the past, the audience for theaters was mainly male, so there were no taboos or restrictions.
Liang Shiqiu found it incomprehensible that the British literary community was debating whether Shakespeare was a pornographer. He also quoted a sonnet by Shakespeare, which describes the theme of sexual desire and expresses the poet's strong aversion to sexual intercourse, to illustrate that Shakespeare's works are not necessarily the most erotic. Liang Shiqiu believes that most of the obscene words in Shakespeare's plays are expressed through word games, especially puns, which are usually subtle and cannot be appreciated by ordinary people. When Zhu Shenghao translated Shakespeare's plays, he deleted this aspect and some more confusing places. According to Liang Shiqiu's estimate, more than 200 lines were deleted from each play. He felt quite sorry for this. He believed that "the obscenity of Shakespeare's original work should still be preserved to preserve its authenticity." Not only did he preserve the truth, but as a translator, he also pointed out many "anachronisms" in Shakespeare's plays, that is, the so-called "Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong" in China and other time and space dislocations. Liang Shiqiu's translator of Shakespeare's works read a large number of reference books, and because of his profound knowledge, he was able to find many errors in Shakespeare's works. He once wrote a special article "Shakespeare and Anachronisms", so I won't go into details here. Liang Shiqiu is not only a translator of Shakespeare's works, but also an expert in Shakespeare's studies. Liang Shiqiu’s scholarly character can be seen from the two points of preserving truth and distinguishing errors.
Liang Shiqiu has been translating Shakespeare for 40 years without any reward. He has been working hard for many years and has received little encouragement during this time. He said: "Three people led me, encouraged me, and supported me, so that I could complete the translation of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" on and off for more than 30 years: Mr. Hu Shi, my father, and my wife." Especially his wife. Cheng Jishu was the only person who accompanied Sha Yi and cared about him during his long journey. At the celebration of the translation of Shakespeare's plays, the famous female writer Xie Bingying said loudly in her speech: "The completion of the translation of Shakespeare's complete works should be half attributed to Mrs. Liang!" Liang Shiqiu was very moved by this. He said that his wife tolerated him doing such unprofitable work for so many years, and created a pleasant environment for him both physically and mentally so that he could concentrate on his work with peace of mind. While Liang Shiqiu was translating, she was hunched over her desk for a long time without knowing the moment. Cheng Jishu shouted from time to time: "Get up! Get up! Walk with me in the courtyard." She wanted him to rest and adjust. Whenever Liang Shiqiu translated a play and was about to hand the manuscript to his wife, Cheng Jishu would use an ancient shoe sole awl to punch holes in the edge of the manuscript paper, and then sew it with thread staples to look like a thread-bound book. We commend Liang Shiqiu for spending nearly half his life independently completing Shakespeare, and we cannot forget the unknown and virtuous woman beside him.
Liang Shiqiu made great contributions to culture throughout his life. He wrote dozens of prose books, represented by "Yashe Xiaopin"; he taught for decades, and his teachings were all over the world; he wrote a variety of teaching materials and dictionaries, which benefited future students. Just the fact that he spent 38 long years of his life to complete the translation of the 40-volume "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" is an immortal event and will forever be recorded in the cultural history of the Chinese nation.