Chapter 101 Section 8 takes over as chief editor of PEN

One morning in early May 1992, Lan Xi's family called me and asked if I could go to her house right away.When I went to her study, I saw her hugging the typewriter with her arms around her and crying with her head on the typewriter.She raised her head and said to me: "Bangyuan! I can't translate this poem. I need to use it in the next issue of the quarterly magazine. What should I do?" It was a short poem by Bai Ling.Over the past twenty years, the quarterly magazine has translated more than 200 new Taiwanese poems into English, almost half of which are her happy translations. Now Lanxi has amnesia.At that time, I had no choice but to bear the feeling of being left alone by my friends, so I took over the editorial work of the English Quarterly.

In the past, I only knew that Lanxi often used Mr. Yin Zhihao's check to pay. After I took over the editor, Mr. Yin fell ill, and he took the initiative to donate 500,000 yuan to the quarterly magazine to publicize his literary achievements.For political and cultural political publications, the Information Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs buy hundreds of copies each issue as gifts to allies, and the book money is all of our income.A rather "sympathetic" commissioner from the Cultural Affairs Council privately advised us that we can apply for subsidies under the "Cultural Heritage Column" plan, so I asked Yan Juanying and Chen Fangmei, students from the art history group who had attended my "Advanced English" class at National Taiwan University , taking turns writing an English paper for each issue of the quarterly journal.Yan Juanying obtained a degree from Harvard and returned to China as a researcher at the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, starting with "The Beauty of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty"; Since the beginning of "Art", I have been writing for ten years, helping the quarterly magazine to obtain a subsidy for printing costs from the Cultural Council.

the most difficult time.My friend Wenyue applied for a part of the manuscript fee subsidy from her father "Mr. Lin Bozuo Foundation" on her behalf.There were two times when the assistant's monthly salary could not be paid, and Yindi made private donations to tide over the difficulties.PEN has a magnificent council, which only holds regular meetings. Regarding my actual predicament, I just say, "Those who can do more work..." After the dinner, everyone returned to their comfortable jobs.When I was 70 years old, I was exhausted physically and mentally. I asked the board of directors to find someone to replace me. They laughed and said, "You have done a good job. Life begins at 70." After that, the meeting was adjourned.

I have happily established a steady team of English translators in PEN Quarterly, which we call "the team".The earliest one was Kang Shilin (Nicholaskoss). When he taught in the English Department of Fu Jen Catholic University in early 1981, Tan Deyi, who was a part-time lecturer at National Taiwan University, introduced Lanxi and me to him.Professor Kang is a monk of the Catholic St. Benedictine Order. He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Indiana University, specializing in comparative fiction, China in Western literature, religion and literature, research on works of Chinese-American writers, and Chinese-English translation of novels.After I took over as the editor-in-chief, he was my most reliable translator and final editor. I asked him to read every editor's note I wrote.In addition to the books I edited and compiled by Columbia University Press in the future, he is also my first reader (English, reader, also means "review").In the past twenty years or so, we have been talking about translations from small to small, to reading and life, and we can't finish talking as soon as we meet.He knows that I have used Jane Austen as my bedside book for many years, so that I can feel comfortable physically and mentally. Whenever I travel to Britain and the United States and hold meetings, he often brings back various editions, audio and video tapes for me.In 2000, I read Ke Ci's new work "Humiliation", and I was greatly attracted by the book's creativity. I insisted that he take the time to read it, so that we could have a good discussion.It is really rare to have a real literary friend of comparative literature!

Because of his dedication to religion, he has sincere sympathy for people.When Lan Xi first fell ill.Once we waited for her at the restaurant we had appointed for a long time, so he searched from house to house along the alley of Yixian Road, and he found her in another restaurant.After I moved to "The Last Study Room", he often visited Taoyuan from Xinzhuang, and invited his friends such as Li Dasan and Gao Tianen to talk about the current situation of Chinese and foreign literary circles. , scrutinizing the door between the two languages, forgetting the separation of years in the mountains.Bao Duanlei, who joined our team in the early 1990s, is also a professor of the English Department of Fuzhou University. For many years, he has written a column in Taiwan's oldest English newspaper "China Post". His favorite poetic works are still our best. partner.

Another member of my English translation team from Fu Jen Catholic University is Ouyang Wei.When he was the dean of the Furen Institute of Foreign Languages, the Institute of Translation and Translation, which he and Professor Kang enthusiastically promoted, was shelved by the Ministry of Education. Lan Xi and I once made a petition to the Department of Higher Education, emphasizing the importance of academic training of translation talents.Got to pass.The graduates of the first and second batches of the Institute are all excellent, such as Wu Minjia, Tang Liming, Zheng Yongkang, and Du Nanxin, who have been writing essays, novels and artist reviews for PEN’s quarterly magazine for more than ten years. We have seen the flowers and fruits cultivated, full of It is gratifying.Among them, Wu Minjia is a student of my National Taiwan University. The English translation of Xiao Lihong, and Du Nanxin's translation of Pinglu's "The End of the World" were published by Columbia University in 2000 and 2006.Of course, their talents are not only taught by the institute, but also because they grew up with diplomat parents abroad, completed their English middle school education, and have good training in translation.Back in Taiwan, I went to the foreign language department of a university and took part in Chinese literature courses. The most important thing is that I not only love literature, but also have a good level of writing.

The Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literatures of National Taiwan University has indeed had a golden age in terms of school literature. Since the late 1980s, young The younger generation, such as Song Meiwei, Zhang Hanliang, Peng Jingxi, and Gao Tianen, were invited to participate in PEN, and began to "run around the world" with us, writing theme papers, holding international annual meetings, and assisting and continuing the editorial work of PEN's quarterly magazine.The younger successors include Zheng Xiuxia, Shi Jialin, and the current editor-in-chief Liang Xinrong.A group of literary partners gathered the consensus that "our Taiwanese literature is very important", and in the process of constantly recruiting talents, they made friends with many masters of English translation at home and abroad, such as Ge Haowen, Minford, Ma Yueran, Xi Mi: especially Tao Wangji, and In his twenties, he translated poetry for a quarterly magazine. Since 1983, he has translated hundreds of the best new poems in Taiwan.

When I first took over as editor-in-chief, I often looked at the rows of quarterly magazines on the shelf next to the editor's desk. They were very different from ordinary magazines on the market. They didn't have any advertisements or decorations. They looked like books! I want to Give them the content, the spirit, and the permanence of the book, not just regular conversations with pen pals.Tell me about your recent achievements.I want to give each quarterly a theme, presented from different angles, so that it can exist independently. The first topic that came to my mind was the "military literature" that has been published in Taiwan for half a century.Sometimes collectively referred to as "nostalgia literature".The actual reason is that around 1949, most of the people from other provinces who came to Taiwan were related to the army.There has always been a cultural tradition of Confucian generals in the Chinese military. After coming to Taiwan, some retired to run newspapers or magazines, and some went to teach; young and successful poets who devoted themselves to literary writing include Ji Xian, Qin Zihao, Shang Qin, Luo Fu, Tong Xian, etc. Their earliest works were often based on nostalgia, and many of them were good articles filled with blood and tears. They should not be dismissed as "anti-communist stereotypes" in the light of later political views.

The second generation who grew up in the military dependents’ village received a good education, had a broad horizon of thought, and the talented ones absorbed various techniques from world literature.After Taiwan's economic prosperity, "United Daily News" and "China Times" established the annual literary award, which was like adding fuel to the fire, encouraging many second-generation writers, such as Ai Ya, Sun Weimang, Zhu Tianwen, Zhu Tianxin, Zhang Dachun, Xiao Feng, Su Weizhen, Yuan Qiongqiong and Zhang Qijiang, etc., I often invite to give some words of encouragement as judges or award presenters.Not only was I the earliest reader of their earliest works, but I was also able to see the overall development after 1980.In 1990, the University of Colorado held the "International Symposium on Taiwan Modern Literature". The paper I published was titled "Military Village Literature" and analyzed the "inheritance and abandonment of nostalgia".Seven years later, he republished "Hometown, Grief and Grief: Looking Ahead from Zhang Qijiang": read "Literature on the Second Drift" at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and published three consecutive English issues on related topics in PEN Quarterly. Translating novels, poems, and prose, all focus on and extensively study the deep meaning of this aspect of Taiwanese literature.In 2003, Wang Dewei and I edited "The Last of the Whampoa Veterans and Dispersed Stories".

Other themes that I've picked up after a lot of reading are: "The Situation of the Modern Woman," "Books," "Are You Who?——Different Life", "Taiwanese Science Fiction", "Natural Beauty and Love", "Childhood", "Family Love", "Memories of Rural Changes", etc. The original works of each issue are very exciting, compiled into a collection, Worth thinking about after reading. I remember that the spring issue of 1994 was deeply moved by reading an article "Who Are You" in Han Xiu's "Refraction"

This work narrates her life experience - the tormenting story of a girl with an American father and a Chinese mother who was exiled to Xinjiang during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China.I also found the Taiwanese poet Su Shaolian's "Su Nuo's Life" and the story of a Chinese youth who grew up in the United States "The Floating World".Combined into one episode, it explores the different life situations faced by the young people of that generation due to the different political environment. The theme of the winter issue that year was family affection, including Roland's "Time Tunnel "When I was a Child", Yang Mu's "White Mang Flower in August and November", Yuan Qiongqiong's "Pull the Gong", Xin Dai's "When I Left Home" and Chen Fangming "Meeting and Happy Staring".A PEN reader from Australia sent a long letter, saying how she missed the war her father had encountered in the same era when she read it. It can be seen that the same feelings are not outside the world. The theme of the Autumn 1995 issue, "Beauty and Love of Nature", was inspired by Liu Kexiang's collection of essays "The View of Little Rats", and wrote about the creatures in nature with poetic prose.It is a pure heart's view on nature and life: at the same time, it is inspired by Chen Huang's "Pigeon Torrey" to develop the vision of natural knowledge.These two books are still in my collection to this day.All things are born in nature and the beauty of the mystery of existence is full of poetic care in the writing of young authors in their thirties and forties, not only out of the fervent concept of conservation, but also the helplessness of witnessing the so-called civilization's destruction of ecology.Such a way of writing may only be found in modern Taiwan.Taiwan has a small land and a large population, and literature is often full of gratitude and cherishment for the love of the land, and this kind of gentle and leisurely mood can only be found in the years of living in peace.I think that works on mountains, oceans, and ecological conservation in recent decades are the characteristics of modern Taiwanese literature.This quarterly magazine has been published for nearly forty years.Taiwan's literature can be said to be a loyal and solid bridge.Those who study the history of Taiwanese literature in the future will meet us on this bridge. Even without the sense of mission of "Our Taiwan", translation itself is already a very fascinating job.However, it must be when you have reached a very high level of comprehension of two languages ​​and can enjoy the situation of two cultures.Literary translation can only be done if you can move in and out freely. Instead, a dictionary is just a kind of assistance, a kind of verification.This team and I get together happily, work, talk about literary jargon, and sometimes understand each other tacitly, and then care about each other.Although it "delayed" my creative years, it was also enjoyable and fulfilling.For young translators, it should be more meaningful. I have worked hard for the PEN Quarterly for nine years, plus the previous twenty years of Lanxi, and the successor for eight years. I have translated more than 400 short stories, more than 300 essays, and nearly 800 poems. Artists and works are introduced. There are more than 130 authors, and the representative authors in Taiwan during the past 37 years are rarely missed.International PEN will publish two publications every year.Almost every issue has reprinted Taiwanese works, and sometimes our pictures are also used on the cover, such as the 1993 autumn issue "Yetang Residual Lotus".I wonder if there will be a day when someone will write a history of international cultural exchanges, writing that "our Taiwan" has been so resolutely following the changing of the seasons, with a refined and simple appearance, and has never stopped appearing, and they will praise our perseverance. Spiritual and cultural self-confidence beyond geographical boundaries. During those many years, I certainly knew that all the efforts lacked the English translation of the novel, and thus lacked a strong persuasive force.So 1990.When Mr. Guo Weifan, chairman of the Cultural Affairs Council, invited the Advisory Committee of the "Chinese Book Translation Project", I happily attended the meeting and made suggestions. Everyone issued a list of books to be translated, available translators and review By.There were more than ten meetings, each time Chairman Guo personally presided over, listened carefully, discussed the way to proceed, and the Cultural Development Council did prepare a budget.Suddenly, Mr. Guo was transferred to be the Minister of Education. In the next five years, three directors changed. Each new member invited the same consultation meeting, but it was presided over by a deputy chairman. Criticize a few sentences, revise them, perfunctory some petty bureaucratic words of "thank you for your valuable opinions", and then adjourn the meeting.This kind of meeting was held for the third time, and I asked the deputy chairperson who presided over the community culture expert: "Why do we have to repeat the discussed matters that have been agreed upon?" He said: "If the chairperson is changed, the rules of the game must also be changed." I Say, "I'm busy. I don't play any games." Get up and go.From then on, I no longer "take time out" to hold such meetings, and I no longer have confidence in Taiwan's official cultural policies. I have been a consultant for many years since the publication of PEN Quarterly, but I was too busy to ask about its actual business.It took me nearly ten years! How can I describe the gains and losses of those ten years? I have been waiting, observing and pleading for my successor, but it was a place with no funding, no establishment, no salary, no publicity, and no applause. strange job.The masters of a generation later than me feel such dedication after a little consideration, and even don't know who to fight for, and they say they are too busy and refuse to take over.In fact, I should have realized that maintaining this publication is a super lonely drudgery, and that real writers are "lonely men".The PEN Club was originally an organization based on literature and friends, but after Lanxi retired, the international friendship she established, such as the original PEN members such as English and French, has gradually withered. Year after year, my love for the PEN Quarterly seems to have been wading from shallow water to deep water step by step, and it was not until the millennium ago that I was able to get rid of it.There is a heart of reluctance, but time is not forgiving, and liberation is liberation.I have walked forward with the yoke on my back, and what I have accomplished is of course a Quixote role.