Early in my career, I lost my health halfway.
I am used to being poor, humble and sleepy.
The company of youth makes many ghosts, and the bald head is mine.
If the sky is sentimental, it is old, and it has never been separated by one or two stars.
This is a mourning poem written by Mr. Yang after the death of his beloved wife. For nearly 60 years, Mr. Wang and his beloved wife have been taking care of each other. People familiar with them say that such a loving couple is rare. For 60 years, Yang He's name has never been separated, although only Yang accepted our visit today.
Mrs Dai Naidie's sketch is hung on the living room wall. Mrs Dai Yang Naidi's original name was Grety Margaret Taylor, and her father was an English missionary. Dai Naidie was born in Beijing and has been interested in China and Beijing since he was a child. From 65438 to 0936, Yang entered Oxford University in England and met him through a friend. Soon, I found that Mr. Wang was a very interesting companion. He was well versed in China's classical literature.
It was probably Yang's strong China traditional culture that made him fall in love with him. Later, Dai Naidie simply switched to learning Chinese and became the first person to learn Chinese at Oxford University. It is their common interests in life, emotion and career that make them bosom friends and pave the way for their future translation work. ...
1940, Yang returned after graduation. It is hard to imagine how such a beautiful young English girl followed Yang to China, which was at war at that time. But from the day they came together, they both faced everything in the world as a whole.
After returning to China, Mr. and Mrs. Yang kept going back and forth between cities in southwest China, and their lives were very difficult. It was not until 1943 that it was recommended by friends to the National Compilation Hall led by Liang Shiqiu. At that time, only the people in the National Compilation Museum were engaged in the Chinese translation of western classics, and no one had translated them into Chinese. In fact, since the end of 19, in sharp contrast to the prosperity of foreign language translation, foreign language translation in China has always been in a weak position. Therefore, until the 1940s, westerners knew almost nothing about China's literary and historical classics. Liang Shiqiu hopes that Mr. and Mrs. Yang can lead a department dedicated to translating China classics into English.
At that time, Yang chose to translate Purple Tongzhi Sword because he felt that "some people haven't seen it yet". Although due to the war, the English version of Zi Jian was unfortunately lost and could not be published, it was the initial effort of China scholars to introduce cultural classics to the west, and Dai Yang's translation career in China began.
Soon, Yang He was found to have a unique advantage in translation. It is often Yang who vividly interprets China's classical works, while his typewriter flies around like a fly.
In Yang's view, with the help of others, it seems that nothing can't be translated. Even China's Songs of the South is no exception. Simply put, translation is to translate one language into a second language. That's it. Mr. Wang said, "If you understand it, you should translate it into a foreign language."
Yang and his wife came to Beijing at the invitation of China foreign languages press. At that time, foreign languages press (the predecessor of China Foreign Languages Bureau) had just founded the English version of China Literature magazine, which marked the beginning of the introduction of China's literary works to the western social system. During this period, Yang and his wife translated a lot of China's works at an amazing speed.
The three-volume English version of A Dream of Red Mansions is one of the works here, which is the only complete translation in China so far, and the only complete translation is The Story of the Stone translated by British sinologist Hawkes. The publication of two English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions is not only a major event in cultural exchange between China and English-speaking countries, but also a major event in literary translation, which has promoted the translation process of China's classical novels. In less than ten years, three other English versions of China classical literature, such as Water Margin translated by Sha Boli (1988), have been published one after another.
Yang and his love life for half a century can be said to have gone through hardships-they spent time in prison together during the Cultural Revolution, and their eldest son set himself on fire in Britain after he went insane ... It was not until he retired from the Foreign Languages Bureau that the two old people went shopping hand in hand to register for medical treatment that things got better. Unfortunately, Dai Naidie entered his twilight years in poor health. She doesn't talk much and doesn't go out, so Yang has been with her for the last days of her life.
It can be said that Yang and He created a unique example of the close integration of Chinese and Western cultures with their perfect combination of career and life. For decades, their perfect cooperation has earned them the reputation of "translation masters". They not only created miracles in the history of translation, but also created legends of their lives.
After leaving, Yang's life seems to have solidified. He stopped his translation work, and only the millions of words they left will remain in people's hearts forever. Yang Yi heard from his brother that he didn't like Dream of Red Mansions, but he still crustily skin of head and translated with his wife.
Mr Yang's wife, Dai Naidie, is English. In half a century, Yang and He jointly translated China's literary works into English, from pre-Qin prose to China's classical novels, Selected Novels of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Selected Legends of Tang Dynasty, Selected Pinghua of Song and Ming Dynasties, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Travel Notes of Lao Can, Scholars and A Dream of Red Mansions. Dai Naidie's mother once said to her, "If you marry a man from China, you will regret it." But Dai Naidie has no regrets. She said, "I fell in love with China culture and married Yang"1999165438+10/8, and died, and Yang also stopped his translation work. During his stay in Nanjing, Yang helped find more than 4,000 Oracle bones. At that time, Nanjing had just been liberated, and western countries were caught off guard and closed their embassies. The Chargé d 'affaires of the Canadian Embassy in China is Lanning, who is a friend of the couple. Before leaving Nanjing, he told Yang that he had found an old wooden cabinet with bone pieces wrapped in paper and words engraved on it when he was packing the embassy's belongings. Lan Ning thought it was a cultural relic of China and could not be taken abroad, so he asked Yang what to do with it. Yang went to see this batch of cultural relics, which must be Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty. Then he called a tricycle and sent it to Nanjing Museum. Dean Zeng wrote to thank him and told him that this batch of Oracle Bone Inscriptions had been handed over to Beijing for study and preservation.
Yang Yi told reporters that what moved him most was that after the Cultural Revolution, when Yang was released from prison after serving four years, he donated more than 200 paintings and calligraphy cultural relics collected in his life to the Palace Museum in Beijing for free. Looking back on my experience of learning English when I was young, I don't have much real experience, because I was very interested in English when I was studying in middle school, but I never continued to learn English seriously. After liberation, I worked as an interpreter for many years.
When I was in high school, I read a lot of English books, many of which were English versions of European literary masterpieces, including ancient Greek poems, Dante's Divine Comedy, French Hugo and other novels, and I read everything, not limited to British and American literature. 1934 went to England to read Greek Latin literature, and at the same time read many various books, including philosophy, history, mankind and so on. When I was studying in middle school and university, I read more books after school, both at home and abroad. The disadvantage of this aspect is that it is chaotic and complicated, and there is no systematic research on some things as planned; However, because I have dabbled in many aspects and gained some extensive cultural knowledge, it is still useful in translation work. I met many young friends who love translation. They often feel distressed in translation because their knowledge is too narrow and they lack extensive knowledge in all aspects. No matter how good the English grammar is, they can't translate the original meaning. My other little experience is that when I first started learning English, I needed a clear purpose and a strong interest. If, like when I was young, learning English is a tool to satisfy my thirst for knowledge, then I can try to read some English books that I feel strongly interested in, not only some famous books, but also any aspect. Mainly reading, writing, listening and speaking more; After a long time, there will be results. Houhai in Beijing is full of tourists this season. The rickshaw known as "Hutong Chuanzi" ushered in their bumper harvest year. They come and go freely in the intricate alleys, know every point like the back of their hand, and know more about the minds of people with high noses and green eyes. While bargaining in fluent English, they chatted with foreigners about the famous foods in Beijing: tripe, bean juice, pimple, mustard pile ... these names, which are almost indistinguishable to foreigners, made them wide-eyed and completely "confused".
The bustling and solemn palace in the past has been purged, and its gate has changed, emitting an ambiguous petty bourgeoisie. Almost all the houses along the street have been separated, and after transformation, they have become shops, bars and cafes, invading and spreading to the depths of hutong. Deep in the hutong, someone's door is always closed, avoiding the curious eyes of tourists. All along the street are shows, jokes and eyeball economy; Only they are the masters of the imperial city. This is a serious story and daily life. The wooden door of the old house is mottled with red paint, but the stone lion at the door tells you that even low-key has its origin.
Yang's home is hidden in Xiaojinsi Lane in Houhai. "Xiaojinsi Hutong" is pronounced in Beijing dialect, showing a contempt for wealth. Before that, his last residence was even more bluffing, called "Baiwanzhuang". To Yang, his wealth is just a hollow name. Pushing open the door is extremely simple-although he was born in a royal family.
Yang's life is so simple that there is almost no change. He often sits on the sofa in the living room and just sits there to kill an afternoon. He smokes the cheapest cigarettes, his favorite wine has been banned by doctors, he looks down on boring TV programs, and his eyes are gradually unable to read. The old man's thinking is still clear and his memory is first-class. It seems that the clever brain will be his last aging organ, but other organs are unable to provide fun for this most outstanding organ in the whole body. Wealth and Yang Zong have a passing fate. As the only son of the governor of Tianjin China Bank, Yang has been wearing a yellow jacket presented by Yuan Shikai since childhood, symbolizing the status of a maharaja. After his father died, he was only seven or eight years old and had to dress up and attend the board meeting in the name of his father. However, this rich family property was quickly lost by the speculative business of the two uncles. Coupled with the devaluation of the currency and the theft of servants, by the time of liberation in 1949, Yangjia's farmland had been sold out, and the bank deposits were actually wiped out.
Yang was born in the 4th year of the Republic of China (19 15) and belongs to the tiger zodiac. Before giving birth to him, his mother had a dream: a white tiger jumped into her arms. Bai Huxing is a bad star, but the fortune teller said that this dream is both a bad omen and a good omen: this boy will be the only male in the family, and his father loves his son and has made great achievements through hardships. "I don't know if my career in this life is brilliant, but I am really the only boy of my mother. My father died when I was 5 years old. In the past 70 years, I have really experienced many hardships. Therefore, the fortune teller can say that his calculation is not bad. "
When Yang's autobiography was published in Italy, its title was From a Rich Young Master to Comrade party member, which revealed his personal destiny based on wealth and politics. The Chinese version published in mainland China is "Journey with Wine", which is the obscurity of an intellectual. When it comes to Hong Kong people who believe in geomantic numerology, the title becomes "White Tiger Stars Follow Life".
Yang often says that he is not superstitious about what the white tiger says, but he is not afraid to talk about it. At the beginning of his autobiography, he linked his birth with his father's death and thought that this was his fate. This contradictory attitude exposed his inner pain. His only son, who was schizophrenic because of his involvement in the Cultural Revolution, finally set himself on fire with gasoline, which became another evidence of the fortune teller's "White Tiger Theory" and the biggest difference between him and Dai Naidie. After graduating from high school, Yang and his teachers and friends went to Oxford, England. At that time, Oxford only accepted one Asian student every year. When he learned that Yang had only studied Greek and Latin for five months and passed the entrance examination, the school officials thought that he must have passed the examination by luck and insisted that he postpone his entrance examination for one year. This luxurious China master has just toured the European continent this year, visiting casinos, brothels, nightclubs and deserts ... drinking various pubs and reading a lot of books. He is unruly by nature, proud of breaking the rules and doing all kinds of naughty things in school.
From an early age, Yang was not a diligent person. His academic performance in Oxford is not excellent. He devoted all his energy to books and social activities that interested him, but his literary talent and wisdom are well known in Oxford. "Because I know that even taking the exam is meaningless to me. I'm going back to China. " For fun, he translated "Li Sao" in Oxford in one breath according to the format of18th century English heroes. This year, he was 24 years old, and this was his first contact with translators. His great talent and independence in translation surprised the British. As a classic, this translated poem stands on the library shelves of European universities.
Yang's translation of Li Sao is full of ridicule and exaggeration, and he doesn't respect the original. "I always thought that Li Sao was a fake, and its real author was not Qu Yuan, but Liu An, the king of Huainan in Han Dynasty who was several centuries later than him." Since the original works are fakes, the translated works can be more unconstrained. David hawkes, a famous British sinologist, commented on Yang's translation: "The poetic translation of Li Sao is similar to the original in spirit, just like Easter eggs and egg rolls made of chocolate."
"David is a good friend of Nadi and me, and we all think what he said is very funny." 1953, as a special member of the CPPCC, Yang was received by Chairman Mao together with a group of scientists and artists. "He (Chairman Mao) has gained weight, but he looks healthy. He came over and shook hands with us. Zhou Enlai followed him and introduced us to him in turn. " Zhou Enlai said to Chairman Mao at that time: This is a translator who translated Li Sao into English.
"Chairman Mao loves China's classical poems, and Li Sao is one of Chairman Mao's favorite works. He held out his sweaty palm and warmly shook me and said,' Do you think Li Sao can be translated, huh?' Madam President, can all literary works be translated? I answered without thinking. "
The chairman's reaction was a slight smile, awkward and somewhat disapproving. "Later, I thought that Chairman Mao obviously didn't believe that a great poem like Li Sao could be translated into other languages. Of course, he is right to doubt this ... Chairman Mao writes poems himself, but he doesn't understand. " Unfortunately, there is no chance to discuss this issue with Chairman Mao again. After graduating from Oxford University with an honorary degree, Yang couldn't wait to return to China. After studying abroad for seven years, many things have changed. He was a handsome guy who spent a lot of money in first class when he went. After he came back, he even lived by selling books and borrowing money from others-his big family in Tianjin was empty and fell into poverty. However, when he went, he was single, and when he came back, he won a beautiful woman-Dai Naidie was with him.
Dai Naidie Margaret Dai Naidie is a classmate of Young's French literature class. She was born in China and her father was a missionary. She once taught in yenching university and worked for a local trade union in China. Naidi grew up with different feelings for China. In her impression, London is "gray" and Beijing is "colorful", with all kinds of delicious food and fun.
But when she returned to China again, the family was full of war and poverty, lack of materials and people were displaced. Many intellectuals, like them, have nothing to lose when they have a letter of appointment to teach, and their journey to the mainland is bumpy.
During his teaching in the rear, Yang made many like-minded friends, such as Liang who was teaching at Fudan University at that time. They both like poetry and wine, and helped them drink a lot of spirits with French poetry and literature.
"One night he came to my house, and I had a whole bottle of white wine soaked in longan, which I usually hid under my bed. Coincidentally, there is also a jar of the same size under the bed, which is filled with kerosene ... The color of kerosene is light yellow, just like Longyan wine. " At that time, the power supply was abnormal and there were frequent power outages. When I visited Liang, I took Yang's kerosene bottle in the dark and poured him a full bowl.
"He tasted it and said that my wine seemed very strong and had a special taste, but he drank the wine in the bowl without hesitation." Fortunately, Liang was not poisoned, so he went to the Yang family the next day, still strong and lustful, and loved to pursue young and beautiful ladies. Because of the scandal, he got into a fight with the dean with his beautiful wife, hitting table after table and losing his job.
People that Yang appreciates often meet two conditions: love wine and love women. He therefore likes Cao Cao. If Mr. Lao Yang says that a person is "interesting", that is the highest evaluation. Liang is obviously a man of temperament. At the end of 1970, Yang met Liang who had also been in prison. By that time, Liang had finished translating Shakespeare's sonnets and also translated the German version of Faust. He is interested in Chinese medicine in his motherland. He specially gave Yang Yi a bottle of his own special aphrodisiac water!
"A year later, I heard that he died. I don't know if he was killed by his own medicine. He is a man with the same temperament as me. Unfortunately, scholars and poets like him are rare now. " Long before he was imprisoned, Yang and He suffered long-term political hostility. A Brief History of China Ancient Literature translated by Yang was written by a professor in Shandong. The professor followed the Soviet Union's Unified Party History and quoted Chairman Mao's words at the end of every chapter in the history of literature. "I think this kind of writing is ridiculous, and it doesn't meet the needs of foreign readers at all, so I got the consent of the editor and deleted all the quotations. As a result, the length of this book is less than half of the original. During the exam, they found this thing: how dare you delete quotations from Chairman Mao! They were shocked and dumbfounded. "
During the period of 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" swept across the country in an instant, with Beijing bearing the brunt. "There are posters everywhere, and all the walls are painted with red paint. In just a few days, the whole city has become a' Red Sea'. "
Yang recalled the "Cultural Revolution" with the absurdity of black humor. In his Foreign Languages Bureau, the rebel side criticized the two leaders. Besides beating drums, they surrounded Yuto and posted posters everywhere. "Obviously, the main crime of these two leaders is to love to eat good things. The poster is full of detailed records of the food they ate earlier. It's like the Foreign Languages Bureau suddenly turned into a hotel with menus written in big letters everywhere. "
Criticism quickly spread from leaders to "experts" and "bad elements" like Yang.
-"Three dining tables are stacked together, one on top of the other. They politely helped me climb to the top of the table, when the crowd gathered around the table and began to denounce me, asking me why I opposed Chairman Mao and why I defended Khrushchev ... "
-"They asked us to stand in a row with our heads down on the stage, and then let us stretch our arms back and hold our heads high. ..... My arm muscles are very flexible and elastic, so I can make this gesture easily. "
-"for a while, I was ordered to clean the toilet ... and I did a good job, scraping off all the old dirt left on the bedpan and washing it with clear water. Soon, my efforts and meticulous work were praised by people. The toilet in the editorial department of China Literature has become the cleanest toilet in the Foreign Languages Bureau. "
Yang began to show slight signs of schizophrenia. He often hears voices and has the illusion of persecution. Dai Naidie is faced with loneliness and distrust. All her colleagues stopped talking to the blond foreigner. Wherever she goes, she will meet hostile eyes. People avoided her like the plague. Some radical students even shouted "Down with American imperialism" in front of her!
The leader of Dai Naidie's unit asked her: Why don't you become a citizen of China? Nai Dieh responded, "Only by joining China can you love China? What are you, party member? There is no internationalism at all! "
1968 April, American Jew Epstein and his British wife were arrested and imprisoned. Less than a month later, it was Yang's turn and his English wife's turn. On the day when Yang was arrested, the couple were relatively silent at home, silently drinking white wine to eliminate their worries.
When yangjin was in prison, he smelled of alcohol. The inmates thought he was arrested for drinking and making trouble. He sniffed and said, "Your wine smells good. It must be high-end goods. How much is it? "
Yang told him that the wine he bought was not loose, but by the bottle. When he left home, he and his wife had just drunk two-thirds of a bottle, and there was one-third left in the bottle. This makes the prisoners drool.
Yang quickly won the respect of his inmates, but at the same time, he was put in another women's prison. They are most worried about their three children, but the comrades in prison told them that the children were taken care of. Only after Dai Naidie was released from prison did she know that her three children had no money to live in, no food and no clothes to wear, and all lived in the countryside.
Yu Dafu's niece, Yu Feng, is in Banbuqiao Prison with Dai Naidie. Ryan said that in prison, this respectable British woman still maintained her civilization and grace. She loves cleanliness and brushes the prison walls with a toothbrush. Every day when delivering meals to the prison, Ryan could hear Dai Naidie's voice across the corridor, and he did not forget to say thank you to the jailer. In prison, Yang remained sensitive to politics. 197 1 September, the Lin Biao incident happened suddenly, but the prisoners in the prison knew nothing about what was happening outside. Traditionally, prisoners are allowed to listen to the celebration broadcast of Tiananmen Square on the radio every National Day. This year, Yang noticed that Lin Biao didn't come out as usual, made a speech in a hoarse voice, and didn't even mention his name.
He quickly seized this signal and found evidence: the foreign congratulatory message published in the People's Daily, the party newspaper, and the congratulatory message from Prince Sihanouk was only sent to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, which was extremely unusual. "At that time, Prince Sihanouk was considered to be China's closest friend. He spent most of his time in Beijing. If Lin Biao continues to be favored, Sihanouk will never make such a serious mistake. "
After thinking for a moment, Yang picked up his "little red book" and tore up the preface written by Lin Biao on the first page.
A week later, the guard walked into the cell and asked everyone to hand over all their "little red books". When he got Yang's book, he found that Lin Biao's preface had disappeared. The doorman was puzzled, turned it over again, and still couldn't find the preface. "Without further ado, he threw the little red book back to me and took all the other prisoners' books. "
This move made all the prisoners feel very strange. Yang was secretly happy. He told his cellmate that the weather outside might change soon.
1972 In the spring, the guard suddenly took Yang to a big room, hung a piece of cardboard with a name on it around his neck, turned on all the lights, called a photographer in to take pictures of Yang, and sent him back to his cell after taking pictures.
All the prisoners look sad: it seems that Yang is going to be shot.
But the next day, Yang was taken out, and a prison official had a sincere conversation with him, to the effect that you did both good and bad things. It was right to arrest you at the beginning, and it was right to let you go; You have lived in prison for four years, and your food expenses will be deducted from your salary. After all this, they announced that Yang was out of prison. Shortly after Yang was released from prison, he was also acquitted. In the era of great political pressure, the price for this foreign couple is undoubtedly huge.
Long before Dai Yang and his wife got married, their mother was very worried about the marriage, and Nadi's mother, selena, opposed it even more vehemently. She even said to her daughter: If you get married, your marriage will not last for four years, and your future children will commit suicide and die.
A curse or a prophecy? Yang Zui's favorite son, Yang Ye, became nervous gradually because of his father's involvement in the Cultural Revolution, and set himself on fire with gasoline during menstruation. This has become the eternal estrangement between Dai Yang and the love of his life. It has always been thought that Yang was busy with politics and neglected his children during his son's rebellious period. Naidie was faithful to his choice: Yang and China, and never regretted or wavered. Whether it was war, exile or poverty ... it was not until her son died that she began to doubt what she had done. Deep down, she was deeply depressed because her mother's prediction had come true.
After the "Cultural Revolution", Yang's political career continued, and his academic ambition was also displayed. During this period, in addition to continuing to translate works with Naidie, he often had the opportunity to meet friends and travel, and wrote many exciting poems. Yang laughed at himself: "knowledge is half a bottle of vinegar, and poetry hits an altar." Although many poems are satirical limericks, on the whole, Mr. Lao Yang's spirit was cheerful during this period: he lived in the apartment of "Baiwanzhuang" and had no contact with Ding Bai. He often makes friends with Liao, Li, Li, Xin and Yu Feng ... Besides traveling together, they also reward each other in poetry, painting and calligraphy.
In his later years, Dai Naidie was trapped in Alzheimer's disease. Yang has never left her side. Her friend went to visit her. Sometimes she doesn't recognize them, but she keeps smiling, and her white curly hair loosely surrounds the old lady's red face. In this way, Ryan drew a portrait for her. He wrote two lines on the painting: the golden hair turns silver white, but the heart of gold will not change.
After Naidie's death, this painting has been with Yang's desk. He wrote a poem in memory of his dead wife:
Early in my career, I lost my health halfway.
I am used to being poor, humble and sleepy.
Youth is a ghost, and the bald head is mine.
If the sky is sentimental, it is old, and it has never been separated by one or two stars.
Youth companion became a ghost, friends passed away one after another, and fewer and fewer people accompanied him to drink and write poems. Some people say that Yang may be the last intellectual in China. He is a scholar-bureaucrat, a foreign doctor and a revolutionary. He was wearing a blue-gray sweater with the burrs washed off, sitting on the sofa, thin and silent, looking out of the window. This is the afternoon in Xiaojinsi Hutong. The rare bright sunshine in Beijing moved from the east to the west of the window lattice. Yang's days are coming to an end.