Chapter 160 I also talk about translation

Comrade editors of "Hundred Schools of Thought on Contemporary Literary Translation" have long asked me to write translation articles, and Comrade Ji Xianlin often reminds me.But I never dared to write.The reason is simple. I haven't translated much, so I can't be considered a translator.I only know one language—English, but I’m not proficient (in order to pass the master’s exam, I must have two foreign languages. When I was studying in the United States, I once learned French for a summer, and I almost forgot it after the exam. !) have significant limitations in translation.I also had a painful experience: my master's thesis at an American university was an English translation of Li Qingzhao's Shuyu Ci.The subject was chosen for me by my advisor, and it was a very hard job for me!I bite the bullet and translated Shuyu's words into prose paragraphs, and then I went to my tutor's house once a week to discuss how to translate it into "poetry" while having tea.In this way, I translated one poem every week, and within half a year, I managed to finish writing the thesis.I still feel sad when I think about it. Fortunately, no Chinese has seen my paper!Therefore, I dare not do translation work anymore.

In the winter of 1927, I saw several prose poems written in English by the Lebanese poet Gibran himself from an American colleague. I especially liked one of them very much. I loved its superb philosophy full of oriental flavor. and eloquent words.It happened that in the second year I taught a course of "exercise" at Yenching University, and I asked the students in the exercise class to translate it segment by segment, and then I discussed with them individually, but the revised translation was not collected stand up. In 1930, after my mother passed away, I fell ill and was bored on the sick bed. After re-reading this book, I felt that it was really necessary to translate it and make it available to all. I'll hand it over to them.

After that, it was probably the mid-1950s!I also translated the prose poem "Gitanjali" written in English by the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore himself, and several short stories.Tagore is a poet I have admired for a long time. (In particular, I have been to India three times since the early 1950s, so I have a better understanding of the background of his works.) Like Gibran's, his poems are also full of oriental flavor. Superb philosophies and fluent words, but their social and family backgrounds are different, and their religious beliefs are different. Tagore's poems are more innocent, cheerful, and full of mystery, while Gibran's poems are like an old man who has experienced many vicissitudes. People talk about the principles of life, but there is a touch of sadness in the calm.In short, when I translated the prose poems of these two writers, I didn't feel hard work, but only enjoyed a kind of beauty!Later, at the request of the Indian writer Anand, I translated a fairy tale "Princess Pomegranate" written in English by himself. Because I have been to India, I can still understand the background of the story in the work.Afterwards, I translated the collection of poems by King Mahendra of Nepal, which was a task given to me by the "superior". The English translation of the original poems has rhymes, and I had to translate them into sentences that rhymed in the same way, which seemed difficult.Around 1978, relevant parties gave me another English-translated prose poem "The Lampburner" by Maltese President Buttigieg.This collection of poems was delayed in my hands for a long time, and it was not until I returned from a visit to Japan in May 1980 that I hurriedly translated it.I have never been to Malta, and I have no perceptual knowledge of the customs there, so I have to translate it literally.

When the translation was finished and transcribed in mid-June, I fell ill and handed in the paper without even translating the preface. Generally speaking, I have translated very few literary works.One is that I only like to translate my favorite works, and they must be written in English by the author himself. I am always worried that the retranslated things will not be faithful to the original works. Second, I only dare to translate prose poems or novels, but not poetry.I have always felt that poetry is a very musical literary form.When I was studying in the United States, I took several poetry classes.There are many works of British and American poets, all of which I like.Such as Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron and so on.When the teacher read aloud on the stage, the sonorous syllables with ups and downs always make me fascinated, but if I translate these verses in Chinese, even if the original meaning is not lost, the musicality will be lost.

I have always thought that translating poetry is a thankless job, and I would not have dared to try it if it wasn't for the "task" I couldn't quit. Third, I think that in order to translate foreign literary works well, one must have a relatively rich grasp of some domestic literary vocabulary.When encountering a good sentence, there is room for discretion only when there are more vocabulary.When I choose an appropriate word to translate a good sentence, it often makes me happy day after day.This joy is greater than writing a satisfactory work by myself, but it is a pity that this kind of joyful enjoyment is not often available!

That's all I can say about literary translation. "Shallow" people don't have "deep" language. I am deeply honored and ashamed that this rambling talk can be included in the list of "Hundred Schools of Thought". First edition October 12, 1983. )