Chapter 51 first quarter

History is a long river. In the infinitely long historical process, no matter what kind of person or event can only occupy a moment.How many earth-shattering events are but a few lines of words in later generations, and how many strong and promising people are just pale symbols without flesh and blood in later generations.People in the history of the Republic of China, such as Sun Yat-sen, are four words: "overthrow the Qing Dynasty"; for example, Yuan Shikai, are three words: "be an emperor"; One word: "Bribe the President"... In the face of the contrast between short life and infinite time, there is still a great sorrow for historical figures who can only exist as symbols: the stingy history only leaves them with a few words, and these few words often portray them out of shape. They may even be beyond recognition; moreover, groundless anecdotes may be more famous than serious ones, and unsubstantiated unofficial histories are often more widespread than those who believe in history.Things that a person does well with seriousness and hard work may not necessarily leave traces in later generations; some things that have not been exhausted or even triggered by a certain chance, even if they are not big, are If it is not done well, it will be spread for a long time.

As a result, the truth is obscured and the characters are distorted. Fuzhou native Lin Shu (Lin Qinnan), born in 1852, seems to be an example of this situation.Even among those who are not majors in literature and history, there are quite a few people who know Lin Shu, a cultural celebrity who spanned the two periods of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. This is by no means because he is one of the most outstanding masters of ancient prose in the late Qing Dynasty——Late Qing Classical Chinese Literature How many people are willing to care about the situation? Lin Shu’s fame lies in two things that have nothing to do with his excellent classical Chinese poems and essays: one is that he does not know any foreign languages, yet he is an extremely influential translator; the other is that he opposed The rising vernacular is a representative of the cultural conservatives who resist the trend of history.

How did one become a great translator without knowing a foreign language? It's about cooperating with people. In the spring of 1897, Lin Shu's wife, Liu Qiongzi, died of illness. Lin Shu was deeply saddened, and his family advised him to go to his friend Wei Han to relax.At Wei Han's home, Lin Shu met Wang Shouchang who had returned from studying in France.In order to relieve Lin Shu from his grief, Wang Shouchang, who greatly admired French literature, introduced Dumas fils's masterpiece to him, saying that your writing is so good, we can jointly translate this masterpiece.

Among Wang Shouchang's vivid narrations while holding the original French novel in his hand, and Lin Shu's essays forming square characters, the famous "Lin Shu's Translated Novels" and "Great Translator Lin Shu" appeared.Lin Shu thoroughly comprehended the spirit and style of the original work, and mobilized his profound knowledge of ancient prose and active ingenuity to make the simple classical Chinese translation faithful to the original work, with fluent sentences, full of emotion, and fascinating.After the translation was completed, a hundred copies were first printed and distributed to relatives and friends of Lin, Wang, and Wei. Unexpectedly, it spread quickly and caused a huge sensation. It is known as "China's Prodigal Intestine" (Yan Fu's words).

The success of the translation of La Traviata in Paris won a lot of applause. This good start prompted him to continue to cooperate with Wang Shouchang, Wei Yi, Zeng Zonggong, Chen Jialin, Li Shuxuan, Wang Qingtong, Mao Wenzhong and many other people who are proficient in foreign languages. In the past 20 years, he has translated more than 180 foreign works.Many Chinese read and fell in love with Shakespeare, Dickens, Scott, Defoe, Owen, Hugo, Dumas, Dumas, Balzac, Ibsen, Cervantes, Tolstoy for the first time , Montesquieu and other famous works of Western masters are the translations of Lin Shu.

Since he does not know foreign languages, there are of course many mistranslations and mistranslations in the translations, and he also translated some third- and fourth-rate works that are not worth translating; and because of different levels of translation, the quality of his translations is also uneven in terms of whether they are faithful to the original works. .However, it was an era when the country was just opening and Chinese people were hungry for foreign cultures. Lin’s translation novels in classical Chinese became a window for Chinese people to see the world. At that time, a large number of young students were fascinated by Lin’s translation novels. Some of them became the backbone of the cultural circles of the Republic of China and the New Culture Movement.

During Lu Xun's entire student days, he accompanied Lin Shu's translation of novels. Every novel translated by Lin Shu must be bought, and he discussed it in many correspondences with his younger brother Zhou Zuoren.And Qian Zhongshu embarked on the road of studying foreign languages ​​because of the great influence of Lin's translated novels. After reading Lin's translated novels, he admired them and felt deeply unsatisfied. He studied foreign languages ​​diligently, and later became a great scholar who is proficient in both Chinese and Western languages. Translating Western novels was very successful for Lin Shu, but Lin Shu inevitably felt resentful about "being famous for his last skills", because in terms of the level of writing, even if others said that his simple classical Chinese translations were good, he felt that Really good, or his ancient poetry.

The experience of translating foreign literary works earned him the nickname of "a great translator who does not understand foreign languages".This one and only special case can attract people's attention and enhance his legend. A hundred years later, Lin Shu may still be somewhat complacent about this.