This is Mr. Xu Yuanchong's memoir of The National SouthWest Associated University. He reviewed his mental journey and life details when he was studying, and also vividly described the elegant demeanor of professors and students of Lianda University.
If you ask me why I want to read such a book, I will give two reasons: First, I will know a rich and interesting soul, know a world-class translator, and learn from him a valuable quality of pursuing beauty and ideals to the extreme; Second, to understand the true meaning of education, The National SouthWest Associated University created a "miracle in the history of world education" in an extremely difficult environment. Many mysteries behind this miracle are hidden in the details of this memoir, which is worthy of our investigation.
1. School governance and students' outlook in The National SouthWest Associated University;
The National SouthWest Associated University has been alive for less than nine years, but he has trained many masters in the fields of literature, science and technology, politics and education for China, including two Nobel Prize winners, 174 academicians of the two academies, eight "two bombs and one satellite" founding fathers, and a large number of outstanding writers, translators and educators.
studious, homesick and independent, these three characteristics constitute the mental outlook of the students in the General Assembly.
For example, Yin Haiguang, who made his mark at the General Assembly, had correspondence with Russell, Einstein and others. He once founded a magazine with Hu Shi * * *, and later they parted ways. He sharply criticized Hu Shi and said: "In the early days, Hu Shi preached democracy and science, which was radiant and scored 8 points; In the middle period, Hu Shi, including the ambassador to the United States and the president of Peking University, scored 6 points for his mediocre performance; In the late period, Hu Shi was praised by others. He didn't dare to speak hard and didn't do anything. He could only give 4 points. "
"I love my teacher, but I love the truth more"
Wang Zengqi, a student of Chinese Department, is often praised by teachers such as Wen Yiduo and Shen Congwen, but he is a person who doesn't care much about politics, and can even be said to be indifferent to politics. He disapproves of Wen Yiduo's participation in politics and bluntly criticizes it, thinking that literati should concentrate on research and creation and shouldn't ask too much about politics. Wen Yiduo was eager to love talents, but he didn't think he was satisfied. When he saw that Wang Zengqi was in a poor mental state, he took the initiative to see him. The tolerance of the General Assembly is evident.
Xu Yuanchong himself is the same. His translation concept is not the same as that of his teacher Qian Zhongshu. They had a discussion. Mr. Qian said, "I can't convince you on this issue, and you can't convince me. Let's disagree."
2. The National SouthWest Associated University's professor style;
Wen Yiduo once made a subtle metaphor for Tang poetry. He said, "Five-character quatrains are the best works in Tang poetry, and twenty words are twenty immortals, so there is no room for one to make up the numbers." Li Bai, who Wen Yiduo talked about Japanese translation, is also original in his opinion. He said, "A well-known sentence is so mysterious and subtle that it can't stand translation ... Beauty is untouchable, and it will be destroyed as soon as it sticks to your hands. Taibai's five laws are like this, and so are Taibai's quatrains. This poetic beauty is completely expressed by syntax. "
Mr. Liu Wendian of Chinese Department is a madman who is knowledgeable and arrogant. He looks down on writers and once publicly said in class, "Chen Yinque is the real professor. He should get 4 yuan, I should get 4 yuan, and Shen Congwen should only get 4 yuan." Once he ran an air raid alarm, he saw Shen Congwen running, too, and turned and said, "I ran to preserve the quintessence of Chinese culture, and students ran to preserve the hope of the next generation, but damn it, why did you run?"
3. The National SouthWest Associated University's influence on Xu Yuanchong's translation ideas.
What Xu Yuanchong has done is mainly the translation between Chinese, English and French. In fact, it is not difficult to translate between Britain and France, but it is difficult to translate between China and Britain and between China and France. Why? Because about 9% of western languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese can find equivalents, that is to say, each word can have a corresponding translation, and they all belong to Latin or Germanic languages. However, the equivalence between Chinese and these western languages is much less, and only about 4% of them can find equivalents, which means that it is impossible to adopt the principle of equivalence when translating between Chinese and western languages, and a lot of free translation must be used.
if you can't find an equivalent word, you can't be completely faithful to the original text. In this case, the translated content is either not as good as the original or better than the original, and literary translation should choose the expression better than the original as far as possible, which is the "optimization translation theory" advocated by Xu Yuanchong.
The influence of two teachers of General Assembly, Wu Mi and Qian Zhongshu.
In a letter to Xu Yuanchong, Qian Zhongshu said that there are two ways to translate poems, one is colorless glass translation and the other is colored glass translation. Let me explain a little. The so-called "colorless glass translation" refers to literal translation, which pursues truth and pays attention to the equivalence between the translated text and the original words, but it may lose the aesthetic feeling of the poem and thus "offend the poem"; And "colored glass-like translation" refers to free translation, which pursues the beauty of the translation, but it may lose its truth, that is, it is not completely faithful to the original poem, and thus "will offend the translation"
Xu Yuanchong agrees with Mr. Qian's assertion that beauty is a dilemma, but he holds the opposite view on how to choose. He believes that poetry is noumenon and is the first; Translation is the method, and it is secondary. Poetry requires beauty and translation requires truth; Translation of beautiful poems is not beautiful, which can not be regarded as true; Only seeking beauty as far as possible without distortion is the principle of poetry translation. Therefore, seeking truth is a low standard, a necessary condition and a negative requirement; The pursuit of beauty is a high standard, a sufficient condition and a positive requirement.
further put forward the theory of "three beauties", that is, the beauty of meaning, sound and form mentioned above. Meaning refers to meaning and artistic conception, sound refers to rhyme and rhythm, and form refers to the form and structure of words. Not all translations can achieve the "three beauties", but efforts should be made in this direction in translation.
Bian Zhilin translated "leaves are dropping down like the spray of a waterfall" as "The Boundless Forest Sheds Its Leaves Shower by Shower",
Xu Yuanchong translated "while I watch the long river always rolling on" as "The Endless River Rolls Its Waves Hour After Hour".
Yang Zhenning once joked with Xu Yuanchong, "You get an inspiration almost every day, but I only get one for many years."