A young friend of mine heard that I was revising the translation of How Steel was Tempered and wrote to ask me to leave him a copy after the book was published. He said that when he was in primary school at the end of the Cultural Revolution, he grabbed a comic book and turned it upside down from beginning to end, but the original book has been inexcusably unread. He is eager to read it. What he said is probably representative among young people.
People who went to college in the fifties and sixties were in a very different situation. Not only did everyone watch it, but also many times. Read it carefully. You will see the action after reading it. Not long ago, a doctoral supervisor in our school sent a message to college students about the meaning of life. At the beginning, he said that Pavel Colta King's famous words have been with him all his life, urging him to seize every second and do something beneficial to the development and progress of mankind and enrich his spiritual life. The situation of this old professor is also representative among the elderly.
Young people, old people, people who have read it, and people who want to read it but don't, all think that How Steel was Tempered is a good book worth reading. In fact, the strong response caused by the publication of this work has already proved that it is an exciting book.
The author of this book, Nikolai ostrovsky, is a Russian, an ordinary worker, a Red Army soldier and a grassroots cadre of the Communist Youth League. 1904 was born in Ukraine. How the Steel was Tempered is not his autobiographical novel, but it does have many plots based on his own experience. Like Pavel Colta King, the hero of the novel, he was poor and out of school when he was young, worked as a coolie, fought in the Red Army and was injured. Later, he was blind and paralyzed. Desperate, he didn't want to eat, drink, breathe or wait for death, so he picked up the only weapon he could use-a pen. No, that's not accurate, because he couldn't carry it anymore. But by dictation, let relatives and friends take notes. It took three years to overcome unimaginable difficulties and create this immortal masterpiece, realizing the ideal of returning to combat posts.
At the end of the novel, Paul finally received a telegram from the state Committee in almost desperate expectation: "The novel is highly appreciated and will be published soon. Congratulations on its success. " In real life, ostrovsky was not so lucky, but experienced more hardships. After the novel was sent to the publishing house, it was rejected at the beginning. Later, through the efforts of my friends, I was carefully admitted to a magazine. The first part and the second part of the novel were published in the unimportant position of 1932 and 1934 respectively, but during these three years, the critics didn't mention anything about it, and it seems that this work has never been discovered. What an awkward silence.
On the other hand, readers ignore the indifference of critics and do not wait for anyone's recommendation and guidance. During the manuscript period, works spread like wildfire among local readers. During the magazine serial, people who borrowed books from the library lined up. People can't wait for the publication of each issue of the magazine. Letters rained down on the editorial department. A reader wrote directly to the author: "Nicholas, good brother! I am writing to you from an assembler you don't know in Krasnodar garage. It's five o'clock in the morning and I've been reading your Paul story all night. I have a deep affection for him. I poked all his enemies with a pen. The magazine was punctured. Now I have nothing to do and I don't know how to get back to the library. " Here you can see the reader's excitement.
The critics continued to remain silent. Until the end of 1934, the famous journalist and writer Mi Korsoff came to Sochi on the coast of the Black Sea and found a mummy-like ostrovsky in a small wing for an interview. March 1935, 17 published a newsletter report "Courage" in Pravda. Ostrovsky's name and deeds first appeared in national newspapers and spread to every corner of urban and rural areas overnight, becoming a legendary hero. In the same year, in June 5438+10, he was awarded the highest honor of the country-Lenin medal. In the two years before the author193665438+died on February 22nd, this novel was reprinted fifty times in various languages.
How steel was tempered has become a book that people can't put down. When they read this work, they often burst into tears with excitement. Repeated reading is not attracted by the tortuous and bizarre plot, but is eager to know how the event develops and how it ends. They have long been familiar with the development and ending of the event. They read this work again and again, only because it aroused their strong voices, violently shocked their hearts and brought them endless spiritual strength.
The Chinese translation of How Steel was Tempered has also been warmly welcomed by readers in China. This book was first translated by Comrade Yimei according to the English translation and published by Shanghai Xinzhi Bookstore on 1942. For more than half a century, generations of young people have been educated and encouraged by it. Like our heroes such as Liu Hulan, Dong Cunrui, Huang Jiguang, Lei Feng and Jiao, Pavel Colta King is universally respected and loved by young people. His famous saying: life is the most precious thing for people. Everyone has only one life. A man's life should be spent like this: looking back, he will not regret wasting his time, nor will he be ashamed of his meanness and vulgarity; On his deathbed, he can say, "My life and all my energy have been devoted to the most magnificent cause in the world-the struggle for the liberation of all mankind." It is written in notebooks by many people, hung on the bedside and posted on the wall as the motto of life.
Since the publication of How Steel was Tempered, it has flourished for 60 years. The reason is that it not only truly and profoundly depicts the vast picture of Ukrainian life before and after the October Revolution, but also shapes the glorious image of a generation of heroes represented by Pavel Colta King. Paul's spirit has become the banner of the times. Since its birth, this image has gone abroad and become an example for progressive young people all over the world to learn.
Paul's spirit has long gone beyond the boundaries of the times. The specific content of today's era is very different from that of Paul's era. Take China as an example. After the "Cultural Revolution", China entered a new era of reform, opening up and socialist modernization. We are faced with new situations, new tasks and many new problems to be solved. In real life, we may not be asked to launch 17 times a day to capture a castle like Paul, nor will we be asked to step on frozen mud to build a small railway when suffering from typhoid fever, but in the great March of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics, Paul's selfless dedication to the progress and liberation of mankind; Combine lofty ideals with every concrete action, be down-to-earth and work hard; Fearless, tenacious, enterprising and hard-working spirit; The spirit of endless life and struggle is still the strongest voice of the times. In the construction of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization, Paul's spirit is still our powerful weapon.
We admire how steel is tempered, not that it is perfect.
From today's perspective, some paragraphs and chapters of this work, such as the description of the peasant class, intellectuals and even some aspects of the new economic policy, are not without bias.
This can be said to be the imprint of the times. If we are familiar with the creative background of this book, then these flaws are not difficult to understand.
How Steel was Tempered was published many times before and after the author's death. These versions differ in text and content to varying degrees. For example, the names of historical figures purged in the late 1930s were all deleted in later versions, and they were only restored after rehabilitation, and there were other changes. 1989, the Soviet Youth Guards Publishing House published a new three-volume Collection of Ni ostrovsky, in which How Steel was Tempered was collated according to the fifth edition and manuscript signed by the author before his death at the end of 1936, and it was a rearranged text. The book also published some manuscripts in the form of annotations in the appendix that were not published in the Russian version in the past. The editor of the new anthology thinks that this version should be the most consistent with the original work and can become the standard text of the blueprint for future versions. Thanks to the kindness of Mosconi ostrovsky National Museum and the editor of the new anthology, you sent me a set, which enabled me to review the translation according to this new edition and supplement the newly published text. For the convenience of readers, the newly added translation has been directly embedded in the text. Comrades who are interested in studying version differences can refer to Russian version 1989.
Compared with the previous edition, the new part is about 40 thousand words, which are scattered in different places of the book. One or two short words, one or two sentences, and one or twenty pages long, or even a separate chapter. The content involves many aspects, such as the friendship and love between young Paul and tonia, Red Army soldiers Sheria and Rita, Paul and Daya, the war of the Red Army, the mentality of ordinary citizens, Paul's joining and quitting the "workers' opposition", the struggle between Bolshevik Party and Trotskyites, the warm scene of socialist construction and so on. In addition, there are many large and small modifications.
In this way, this Chinese version can also be said to be the latest full translation.
The first edition of this book was published by People's Literature Publishing House, 1976. People's Literature Publishing House is responsible for publishing this book by Comrade Sun, and the editor-in-chief is Comrade Wang Jiaxiang.
Both of them are predecessors in the translation field and have done a lot of work for the publication of this book silently. Comrade Wu Sheng retired gloriously, and Comrade Jia Xiang died unfortunately. I would like to express my sincere thanks and deep memory to them.
Huangshunan
1994 July in Nanjing Normal University