Chapter 10 Todtnau Mountain Postscript Cai Hongjun (1)

① All Chinese book titles in this article use the translated names of the domestic version. ② Cai Hongjun, born in Nanjing in 1957, graduated from Shanghai International Studies University and the University of Würzburg, Germany, with a master's degree in German literature.He used to be the editor of Beijing "World Literature".Since 1995, he has been engaged in the copyright agency work of German and Chinese books and periodicals.Selected, edited, translated and published a variety of German literary works in mainland China and Taiwan. In 1990, he won the "Rainbow Translation Award" from the Chinese Writers Association.one

At noon on October 7, 2004, the Swedish Academy announced that it would award the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Austrian female writer Elfriede Jelinek.Like many people, I was also very surprised that Jelinek won the award. First, because the German writer Grass won the Nobel Prize for Literature five years ago. Normally, the award will not be awarded to German writers so soon; The second is that even if it is awarded to Austrian writers, the first thing I think of is Peter Handke and Elfried Mayer, known as the "Austrian Literary Lady" (die Grande Dame der sterreichischen Literatur). Luc (Elfriede Mayröcker).Of course, Jelinek is also a German writer with high literary achievements, and he is very original in terms of the content and form of his works.Her works are also numerous, including poems, plays, novels, radio plays, screenplays, as well as a large number of essays and essays.Although she is an Austrian, the great writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (German-speaking area) all publish their works in Germany, and the readers are all in common. , and rarely divided into "German writers", "Austrian writers", "Swiss writers".Jelinek is the first Austrian writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and also the twelfth German-language writer in history to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.Jelinek is an "award-winning professional" who has won dozens of literary awards, including Germany's most important literary award - the Buchner Prize (Georg-Buchner-Preis, 1998), and the types of awards It is also complete, including poetry awards, drama awards, radio drama awards and screenplay awards. In 2004 alone, it won four literary awards.The circulation of her works is also considerable. Before she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the original German version of "Die Klavierspielerin" (Die Klavierspielerin) was printed in 29 editions, and "Die Liebhaberinnen" (Die Liebhaberinnen) was printed in 25 editions. "Die Ausgesperrten" (Die Ausgesperrten) printed 11 editions, "Lust" (Lust) printed 10 editions, and her German editions have a total circulation of several million copies.Her plays are staged in German and Austrian theaters and often cause a sensation.Abroad, from the French translation and publication of the first foreign language version of her "Oh Wildnis, ob Schutz vor ihr" in 1987 to her winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Jelinek's books have been translated into French , Spanish, English, Portuguese, Slovenian, Danish, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Dutch, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swedish Chinese, Turkish, Serbian, Croatian, Chinese (traditional characters) and other 23 foreign languages, with more than 90 different versions.Therefore, Jelinek is a first-class writer of contemporary German literature and deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature.

When I heard the news of Jelinek's award, I was attending the annual Frankfurt International Book Fair in Germany. Every year, more than 6,000 publishing houses from more than 100 countries around the world participate in this five-day world's largest book fair , as a copyright agent, these are also the busiest days of my year.That night, I received faxes and emails from two publishing houses in mainland China, hoping to purchase the simplified Chinese characters copyright of several novels by Jelinek. In the next few days, I received faxes from several domestic publishing houses. , letters, phone calls, more than a dozen mainland publishing houses hoped to purchase the copyright of Jelinek's simplified Chinese characters.Some publishing houses offer very high prices, assuming they are determined to win.Such enthusiasm and eagerness have never been encountered in my copyright agency career in the past ten years, including when I represented Nobel Prize winners Glass and Kelters in 1999 and 2002.

In order to better arrange the copyright of Jelinek's simplified Chinese characters, I was responsible for the copyright of Rowohlt Verlag and Berlin Verlag, which own all the copyrights of Jelinek, on the morning of October 8. Everyone has reached a consensus: Jelinek's works are numerous and diverse, and it is impossible to publish her major works in one or two publishing houses in mainland China within a year; moreover, If one or two publishing houses do it, the risk will be relatively large; in addition, the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded every year, and Chinese readers always seem to be particularly fond of new Nobel Prize winners.Therefore, it is necessary to break the past practice of publishing the main works of a Nobel Prize writer by one or two publishing houses, and according to the different strategic focus and resource advantages of each publishing house, try to make most of Jelinek’s The works are arranged to be published in several publishing houses in mainland China, and all of them will be published within the next year.Although there are several publishing houses publishing the same author's book, each publishing house will make a choice and trade-offs because each of them publishes different works. They will publish separately and at the same time, and they can leverage each other in terms of publicity and promotion. , so that the influence of the writer and his works can be expanded, and readers' enthusiasm for reading can be more fully improved, so that Jelinek can be understood by more Chinese readers in the shortest possible time, and his works can be more widely known. Much attention.

On the evening of the 8th, I wrote to more than a dozen Chinese publishing houses that may publish foreign literary works: "Currently, except for "The Piano Teacher", the simplified Chinese characters of all Jelinek's works can be authorized to Chinese publishing houses. ..." Publishers interested in publishing Jelinek's works quickly sent relevant information, but they knew little about Jelinek's creation at that time, and all the selections they proposed were mentioned in media reports. Those few novels are especially focused on her masterpiece "The Piano Teacher" and her famous novel "A Woman Chasing Love".

The reason why Jelinek is still unknown to readers in China, I think there are two main reasons: First, domestic scholars who are engaged in German literature, it should be said, most people know Jelinek, Shanghai scholar Professor Yu Kuangfu I also introduced Jelinek in the book "History of German Literature" written a few years ago. However, her main works are all related to sex, and many of her works have caused a sensation in Germany. The National People's Congress will have concerns due to differences in national conditions and publishing policies.Second, domestic publishing houses often put readability first, and do not pay enough attention to literary value and originality.I have been engaged in the translation, introduction and research of German contemporary literature for more than 20 years, and I have been engaged in the copyright agency of German books for more than ten years, but I have only read a few novels by Jelinek in the past. In the late 1990s, when Professor Ning Ying from the Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences asked me to recommend a bibliography for the series of "Women's Novels That Have Been Sensational in the 20th Century" by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, I recommended Jelinek The most famous novels are "The Piano Teacher" and "A Woman Chasing Love".Professor Ning Ying cooperated with Professor Zheng Huahan of Beijing International Studies University to translate "The Piano Teacher" into Chinese and handed it over to Beijing October Publishing House. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, it was not published, and the manuscript was "pressed" for several years. Chinese readers also missed an opportunity to get to know Jelinek before she won the award.I have not read any of Jelinek's other works. On October 11th, I spent a few hours reading through more than a dozen of her books. It was regarded as a "crack-up" of Jelinek, and I shared the "catch-up experience" and Jelinek's main works The summary was hastily typed into the computer and sent to Southern Weekend, which had received a letter asking for a manuscript, and the dozen or so mainland publishing houses interested in publishing Jelinek's works. "Southern Weekend" (October 14, 2004) published my "experience of making up for bad luck" (unfortunately, I mistyped my name and became Cai Mingjun) as a summary of "Information". In addition to introducing the influence and awards in the literary world and the main contents of several other novels that have not been mentioned by the media, she also focuses on her drama creation:

Jelinek's novels basically attack the male society and hierarchical society fiercely, often expressing themes such as sex, violence, crime, and power. There is also no punctuation.In addition to "The Piano Teacher" and "A Woman Chasing Love", she also wrote the prose "Oh Wildnis, ob Schutz vor ihr, 1985), the novel "Lust" (Lust, 1989), "The Death of the Dead". The Children" (Die Kinder der Toten, 1995), "Greed" (Gier, 2000). "Lust" is written in the valley of the Alps, where AIDS is prevalent, and the factory manager has to give up looking for women and women, and takes his wife Gerti as the object of lust.In order to escape her husband's violence, Gerti often fled abroad, and later fell in love with Michael, a college student, but in the end she did not escape the fate of being insulted and bullied.When the book was published, it was controversial because it involved "pornography", and it was called "Porno-Parodie". "Children of the Dead" has 667 pages and is Jelinek's longest work so far. It is said that she spent decades writing this book. It combines Jelinek's creative themes and can be called a tripod made.The novel tells a somewhat absurd story: among some Austrians who are away on vacation, three dead people try to return to the world.The dead woke up and returned to reality as non-dead people. The author presented Austria as the kingdom of the dead, and was criticized by many parties. "Greed" continues the theme of men's violence against women. The rural policeman Kurt uses his power to find women to vent their desires and try to occupy their property.The subtitle of this book is "An Entertainment Novel", which integrates crime solving, erotic novels and entertainment.