British translation "Jin Ping Mei", half a dream

80 -year -old Rui Xiaowei lives in an apartment in the Heide Park in Chicago. It is about one mile of the office in his office in the campus of the University of Chicago. Essence Now the wife drives him once a week, staying at most a few hours each time, and look at the email. The rest of the time was at home. In addition to the accompaniment of his wife, there was also a golden retriever hunting dog Copper, who had been living for six years, but Rui Xiaowei, who walked the dog, could not do it. Since it was diagnosed with muscle atrophy side sclerosis (ALS) in May 2012, his health is getting worse and worse. His hands have been trembling and cannot be typed anymore. Turning up, I often feel tired, and I can only lie in bed most of the time. "I know very well that I was weaker every day, and I couldn't do anything." Rui Xiaowei told China News Weekly. "I miss that time very much. At that time, I could concentrate on doing one thing. I have a clear goal in life. Now my life has no goal."

"During that time" refers to his day when he translates the Chinese classical novel "Jin Ping Mei". This set of English translations known as the "master classic" is the most complete and academic European and American language "Jin Ping Mei" translation version today. From the beginning of 1982 to the end of the fifth volume at the end of last year, the University of Princeton University Publishing has spent more than 30 years, accounting for nearly half of Rui Xiaowei. If he counts the time of reading "Jin Ping Mei" for the translation of "Jin Ping Mei" before writing the translation; or when he first read "Jin Ping Mei" from his youth, he was fascinated by it. At the beginning, the origin of this strange book was almost a lifetime.

"I didn't do this only in my life, but translating" Jin Ping Mei "is a major project in my life," he said.

Live a childhood in the war in China

The fate of Rui Xiaowei and "Jin Ping Mei" should start with his childhood in China.

In 1933, Rui Xiaowei was born in an American missionary family in Nanjing, China. His parents who were proficient in Chinese gave him a Chinese name that integrates east -west culture. Rui is the transliteration of the family surname Roy. The English name David is transliterated, and David is from the David King in the Bible. Two years later, the younger brother was born. Parents also gave a "effect" name "Rui Xiaojian" as the brother in accordance with China's habits. The name was widely known as the US ambassador to China in China in the early 1990s in the early 1990s.

Like his brother, Rui Xiaowei was determined to be a "Chinese expert" very early, but his interest was not political but literary research. "What I do in my life is what I want to do, and I never want to do something else in the past." Rui Xiaowei said.

Rui Xiaowei's interest in literature is largely from his father Rui Taoyu. Mr. Lao Rui has studied at Oxford University, England. He not only knows European and American literature, but also creates and published poetry. After being sent to China by the Presbyterian Club in 1930, Ru Taoyu was assigned to the then Jinling University as a professor of philosophy. In 1936, Rui Xiaowei returned to the United States with his parents. Two years later, the War of Resistance Against Japan had erupted when he returned to China. Jinling University moved to Chengdu in order to avoid the war and settled in the campus of Huaxi University. The Richee family moved from Hong Kong and Hanoi to Chengdu to return to school.

Seven years living in Chengdu are a childhood happiness and fear of war. He still remembers that he and his younger brother climbed to the ancient city wall of Chengdu like all naughty boys; remember that his brother fell down from the ginkgo tree in his yard once and fell to break the blood, and he himself on the campus's playground While watching the US garrison playing baseball, the ball flying out by the player's shot broke his arm. He also remembered that the Japanese army hid in the air defense cave with the whole family when he came to the air strike; once a Japanese army dropped a bomb in a park in the center of Chengdu, more than 100 civilians were killed. "After that air strike, I went to the street with my mother from that park. It was the first time I saw the corpse that was blown up. I remember I didn't cry, but I was terrified." China News Weekly recalls.

In 1945, Ruotao took his family back to the United States to study at Princeton University. After receiving a doctorate degree in 1948, he returned to China again. Rui Xiaowei was sent to a American boarding school in Shanghai to study. At that time, the end of the Kuomintang War, the Kuomintang was defeated, and Rui Xiaowei clearly remembered that one day in May 1949, he was sitting in the classroom to answer his geometric class test questions at the end of his geometric period, and he heard the gongs and drums outside the window -the PLA Enter the city.

Except for this year's experience in Shanghai, Rui Xiaowei has hardly entered a formal school in China, and most of them rely on their father and family teachers. When he moved back to Nanjing from Shanghai in 1949, Rui Xiaowei had a wide range of reading for European and American literature. He began to ask his Chinese tutoring, Mr. Zhao Yaman, who had helped Sai Pearl translation "Water Margin" to teach him Chinese reading and writing. "I think since I am so interested in literature, I have to read those Chinese literature works as much as possible. And I am particularly fascinated by Chinese characters, and I think it is much more interesting than writing letters." He said.

Soon, Rui Xiaowei can read most of novels. From "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to "Dream of Red Mansions", he reads interesting. But when he was 17 years old in 1950, he picked up a full book "Jin Ping Mei" in Nanjing, and he never put down the book again. He repeatedly granted the course of "Jin Ping Mei" at the school

"At that time, I heard that there were a lot of pornographic descriptions in" Jin Ping Mei ". It was a banned book. I originally wanted to read it as a Huangshu. After reading it, I found out that those comments were misleading. The content of" Jin Ping Mei "was far away. More than that, "Rui Xiaowei said," it described the descriptions of the Ming Dynasty from clothing, diet, to judicial system, to corruption. For example The funeral customs and costumes, the ink in the book is not less than those fragrant scenes. The top Chinese literary works before this are mostly princes. In world literature, such a detailed description of Life Life Novels is also rare at that time. "

In 1950, Rui Xiaowei returned to the United States to prepare for the University of the United States. During his studies at Harvard University, he has always taken Chinese literature as a major, from classical to May 4th literature, from poetry to drama. , But "Jin Ping Mei" is always at hand.

However, if you want to introduce the value of "Jin Ping Mei" to the Western audience, it is not easy. Before the translation version of Rui Xiaowei came out, only the version of English readers could read by the 1930s and translated by Clement Egerton and translated by Bernard Miall in the 1940s. The version of the former is replaced by Latin, and the latter is translated from the previous German translation to English.

After graduating from the doctor, he entered the Princeton University to teach. Rui Xiaowei once taught the English version of "Jin Ping Mei". After transferring to the University of Chicago in 1967, the school asked him to choose the theme of teaching freely. He simply issued a course of the original Chinese version of "Jin Ping Mei", and the result was only one student. "His parents are also missionaries. He also grew up in China. Chinese is very good. The two of us spent two years studying the 3,000 pages of books carefully." Rui Xiaowei said.

This study also made him realize another unusual place of "Jin Ping Mei": the book quotes the classics, but these allusions and verses have not marked the source. The author of "Jin Ping Mei" is obviously a highly educated person. He hopes that the reader is as well as he is just like him, and he can identify the source of the allusions by himself. "Rui Xiaowei analyzed.

The feeling of this author and readers has aroused the interest of Rui Xiaowei. He is determined to find out the source of these allusions! This is a time -consuming and laborious project. He first recorded the allusion and introduction found in the book on the small card. A total of more than 10,000 cards were collected, and there were more than 10,000 cards. Chinese literary works, when you see the similar one, find the relevant card nuclear pair from the cabinet.

This work lasted for many years. During this period, he repeatedly issued the class of "Jin Ping Mei" at the school. Each process of re -reading and re -preaching the novel made him more obsessed with it. "You might read the general literary work once, but the real classic you will think it is more exciting than what you know every time." When he decided to translate this masterpiece, Rui Xiaowei had already finguished it. Essence "Before the translation, I have studied this book for more than 20 years," he said.

But the actual translation work takes longer.

"I knew at the time that it took at least decades to complete this translation. Many people told me that I couldn't finish it, and I was not sure if I could complete it. I know I will not be abandoned halfway, but I don’t know if I can Live so long. "

In the beginning of the more than ten years, Rui Xiaowei has a heavy teaching task. Only cold and summer vacations can concentrate on translation and progress slowly. In 1999, he retired in advance and went all out to translate "Jin Ping Mei" until May 2012. "It was completed that afternoon. I was impressed by that day. At that time, the office of Ted Foss, deputy director of the East Asian Research Center of Chicago, was downstairs in my office. After I finished writing the last word, I went downstairs and told him. He followed me. When I came to my office, I showed him the last part of it. He found a coincidence: I just added 100 notes behind this 100th book. "Rui Xiaowei said.

The 100 notes are considered to be a relatively few chapters in the Richi version of "Jin Ping Mei". There are more than 4,000 annotations added by the translators of the book, which explains the allusions in the book to the fullest. After the translation was completed, Rui Xiaowei personally wrote indexes and reviewed schools. It was not until the end of last volume at the end of last year.

"I never felt tired. Some people suggested that I hire graduate students to do those trivial indexing work, but I think a good translation must be done by one person from beginning to end." He said.

If you read it as "Fifty Degree", you will be disappointed

Despite his discomfort, his talk is very strong. In an interview with "China News Weekly" for a long time, he kept coughing. The reporter advised him to say, "If you do n’t rest, talk about it for a while." Said no.

In the thirty years when Rui Xiaowei was translated in "Jin Ping Mei", the surrounding world rushed forward. The first is the advent of the electronic era. Rui Xiaowei was the first group of scholars in this new era. When he started writing, his personal computer just started application in the United States. With the encouragement of his wife, he bought one and started electronic writing. But he has only changed the computer twice since there, and now he is still using the one bought 14 years ago. He spends about 15 minutes on the computer every day. He has no social media account or even mobile phone. "I don't need those." He said, but the younger generation around was deeper and deeper in the virtual world. Rui Xiaowei could see clearly, but didn't like it. "Sometimes I take a bus to school, and the young people in the car are playing with their mobile phones lowered. Near the school, those students are playing with their mobile phones when they cross the road, so I can't stand it."

What is even more curious is how a reader who spent his life to complete a giant translator faces readers who have been used to Twitter reading within 140 words, and a world that is lost in the speed?

Rui Xiaowei didn't seem to worry about this. He said that after the five -volume translation was published year by year, he could receive a letter from many readers, telling him that they had finished this volume, and was eager to look at the next volume to come out as soon as possible. Some of his own relatives also read the book. "It is not easy to read such a long book in any era. You can see that there are not many people who read from the beginning to the end from beginning to end, but there are many readers. Tell me that when they first read "Jin Ping Mei", they became addicted and wanted to read it in one breath. "

As for whether English readers can understand the Chinese story of this 16th century, they will still treat it as a pornographic reading, and Rui Xiaowei feels: "Many people may think of it as pornographic books, but when they start reading, they will find that those who start reading, those The pornographic paragraph is actually very scattered in the book, which is scattered in many historical and cultural content. If they have to read it as "Fifty Degree" (Best Subsid English Porn Novels), they may be disappointed of."

Synchronization with the evolution of the electronics era is a huge change in China. In 1978, Rui Xiaowei visited China with the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At that time, he had felt that China was changing, but what really shocked him was that during 1993, his younger brother Rui Xiaojian served as ambassador. Visit your brother and travel in many cities in China. "I lived in Chengdu only when I was in Chengdu. When I went back that time, I stood on the street and looked around. The contrast was very strong." He said.

After the translation of "Jin Ping Mei" is out, many people suggest that Rui Xiaowei produces another reduction, remove annotations, streamlined content, and allow more readers to read easily. But his health is no longer allowed to continue working. Rui Xiaowei was unbelievable. He didn't feel that he had just been diagnosed with a coincidence of the diagnosis after the translation work was completed, showing the destined opportunity in the underworld. However, he believes that "Jin Ping Mei" more than 400 years ago was hidden in the "Tianji" of later generations, which not only applied to China, but also applied to the world.

"When I taught" Jin Ping Mei "at the university, I read the novel for a while every day, and then look at the New York Times. I think the corruption in Washington I saw in the news is exactly the same as the corruption in" Jin Ping Mei ". Although it is set in Qinghe County, you will find that the geographical characteristics in the book will find that Qinghe is actually the capital, and the emperor is inspired by Ximen Qing. I dare not order the real name. "Rui Xiaowei said.

"This book gives me the theory of 'moral derivation': the emperor is an intermediary connecting 'heaven' and 'people'. Throughout society. Conversely, if the emperor is corrupt, the whole society will be bad. So whether it is emperor, king, chairman or president, their personal moral standards are very important to the entire country. "

Source: China News Weekly

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