george orwell and The name George Orwell was first heard from my deceased friend Dong Leshan.My understanding of this British writer and his two important works is only through Leshan's introduction.In the 1990s, when I translated, I decided to start writing only at the appointment of Brother Leshan.In writing this short essay, I should begin by mentioning my acquaintance with this social critic and translator of Orwell's classics. In 1972, the dark clouds overhead had not yet dissipated, but the torrential storm that turned China upside down in the early days of the "Cultural Revolution" had lost its momentum, and many "left" policies had been revised.Although the May 7th Cadre School was not explicitly abolished, the decentralized cadres were transferred back to the city one after another to resume work.The school I was at has been cancelled, and the faculty and staff have been merged into Beijing International Studies University.Leshan used to be in the Second Foreign Language School, but the two cadre schools he and I belonged to were both located in Chadian.In April of this year, Leshan and I left Chadian together and became colleagues at the Second Foreign Language Institute. From then on, we began a friendship that lasted for nearly 30 years, and we collaborated several times in translating and introducing some foreign works until our old friend passed away in 1999.At the Second Foreign Language Institute, the two of us were not qualified to teach for the time being due to unpaid "old debts", so we were stuffed into the reference room of the English Department together, and we had to meet almost every day and have the opportunity to talk.In this way, I not only learned about his life experience, but also realized that he was extremely well-read and knowledgeable.Both Leshan and I are interested in translation. What to translate and how to translate have become topics we often discuss.It was during a conversation that Leshan mentioned that there were two works that predicted the future of society that were worthy of translation.One is A. Huxley's "Wonderful New World", and the other is George Orwell's.Although the descriptions of these two books are different—one focuses on technological progress, the other focuses on the social system and the nature of political power, but the two books have the same theme, and both can be called cautionary novels, warning people to pay attention to the future of mankind, so as not to be devastated. disaster.I hadn't read either of these books at the time.I didn't have a chance to read it until the end of the "Cultural Revolution" and Leshan was invited by "Compiler Reference" to translate and publish it.But I read another fable written by Orwell shortly after I heard Leshan introduce the British writer.

About George Orwell and before the "Cultural Revolution", I met a young friend who was proficient in English and loved Western literature through work.He has accumulated a lot of English original books, all of which were brought in by overseas relatives. In the middle of the "Cultural Revolution", due to a special opportunity, this friend was allowed to go abroad to visit relatives. Before the trip, he gave me some books, including a thin booklet - the British Penguin Edition series.Naturally, I felt like a treasure and read it overnight.The feeling after reading it is "great shock".The story of an animal rebellion on an English farm is told in fable form.The animals were unbearably abused by the owner of the farm and inspired by the thoughts of an old pig. Finally, one day a revolution broke out, driving the owner away, and becoming the owner himself. "Manor Farm" was also renamed "Animal Farm".But after the success of the revolution, under the leadership of the new leader Zhu, things happened that no one thought of.Grain production has increased year by year, but rations have become less and less.Animals fight day and night without seeing any results.The windmill was destroyed by the storm is not a quality problem, but bad guys sneaked in to destroy it.What's even more horrifying is the massacre to clear the enemy from within.After being suspected, you must confess your crimes. Many innocent animals were brutally killed for trumped-up charges.These scenes are also very familiar to people who have experienced a special historical period in our country.Is this fable alluding to China? Readers can't help but ask.But this problem can be clearly understood by turning the title page of the book.It was first printed and distributed by a British publishing house - Martin Secker & Warburg in 1945, and it was included in Penguin Books in 1951 and has been reprinted continuously. In 1945, the Chinese revolution had not yet fully won.The author died in January 1950.The People's Republic of China had just been established for a few months.It is self-evident that it has nothing to do with China's affairs.Since it has nothing to do with China, it goes without saying that the author wrote this story based on some events that happened during Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union.One could even say that Napoleon alluded to Stalin, and that Snowball, who was expelled from the farm, was Trotsky incarnate.The brutal killing of small animals is the epitome of the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.We know that since the first socialist country appeared in human history, the oppressed and exploited classes certainly regarded it as the hope of mankind, but the capitalist world launched a siege against the Soviet Union.Anti-Soviet and anti-communist works—either slanderous rumors or exaggerated facts—all pointed their finger at this emerging country.Could it be another vulgar pamphlet prepared by such reactionary literati? If the author uses animal fables to describe human beings, it is just an unconventional way, in order to make people feel that the story is more absurd and comical.

Time is relentless, and more than half a century has passed since the publication of this book. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, and the Soviet Union and a series of socialist countries in Eastern Europe were disintegrated one after another. It has been more than ten years since now.Many myths in the past have been debunked one by one. Although it cannot be said that the truth has been revealed, the fog that covered people's eyes and ears in the early years has finally gradually dissipated.Many things that should not have happened in socialist countries, many things that were distorted, covered up or whitewashed, have been exposed one after another, and the true colors have been restored, and some have been corrected and rehabilitated.Today, even if you admit that you are talking about the CPSU, you will not be accused of "creating out of thin air" and discrediting the revolution.But we can’t define this book because it is not an anti-Soviet or anti-Communist pamphlet, and its meaning is far more far-reaching than exposing a certain autocratic country or a certain regime that implements dictatorship.The history of nearly a hundred years has taught us clearly that any revolution, any post-revolutionary regime, if it loses democratic supervision and a sound rule of law, it may go to the opposite side. To escape the fate of being enslaved.What it talks about is the process of alienation of the revolution, calling on the people to be vigilant and prevent totalitarianism from appearing in the name of revolution.The day when this book was written coincided with the defeat of German fascism by the Allies, and people's memory of Hitler's various crimes was still fresh.We have reason to believe that what happened in Animal Farm is not without the shadow of the German fascist dictatorship.Mr. Li Shenzhi made this analysis in his review of another "dystopian novel" "Wonderful New World": "What is the most memorable and reflective historical fact in the twentieth century? In the simplest terms, it is Utopias of the left and the right arose to a great extent, and the result was a catastrophe unprecedented in human history."