不朽的乔伊斯
Joyce Immortal
文、译/文洁若[1]
爱尔兰和挪威都是小国，地处欧洲的边陲。十二世纪以来，爱尔兰受英吉利统治者的压迫，民族独立运动从未停止过。一九四九年成立爱尔兰共和国。挪威呢，一八一四年就被丹麦割与瑞典，一九〇五年独立为挪威王国。
Both Ireland and Norway are small countries on the fringes of Europe. Oppressed by the British since the 12th century, the Irish movement toward independence had never ceased until the founding of the Republic of Ireland in 1949. As for Norway, it became an independent kingdom in 1905, following its own history of being given to Sweden by Denmark in 1814.
詹姆斯·乔伊斯十六岁时，是个虔诚的男孩儿。后来逐渐放弃了家庭与学校灌输给他的天主教信仰，开始坚定地搜寻新价值和新追求。他博览群书，偶然读到易卜生的作品，立即兴奋不已，一九〇〇年四月一日，十八岁的他在英国杂志《半月评论》发表评论《易卜生的新戏剧》，此文获得年过七旬的易卜生的称许，使乔伊斯深受鼓舞，从而下定决心，走上文学道路。
James Joyce was a pious boy at 16. In later years he gradually gave up the Catholic faith given to him by his family and schools and began to search determinedly for new values and pursuits. A voracious reader, he came upon Ibsen’s work and was thrilled by it. On April 1st, 1900, at the age of 18, he published, in the English magazine Fortnight Review, a review entitled “Ibsen’s New Drama”. This review was praised by the over-70-year-old Ibsen, which gave Joyce the courage and will to embark on his literary journey.
易卜生的剧本中，乔伊斯最看重《培尔·金特》。一九〇七年十一月十日，乔伊斯的弟弟斯坦尼斯劳斯在日记里写道：“吉姆告诉我，他要把他的故事《尤利西斯》扩大为一本小书（short book），写成都柏林的培尔·金特。”
Of all the plays by Ibsen, Joyce was partial to Peer Gynt. On January 10, 1907, Joyce’s brother Stanislaus wrote in his diary “Jim told me that he intends to expand his story Ulysses into a short book, turning it into Peer Gynt of Dublin”.
一九八三年二月，萧乾翻译的《培尔·金特》由四川人民出版社出版。五月，《培尔·金特》由中央戏剧学院公演。导演是中央戏剧学院院长徐晓钟先生。刘少奇夫人王光美等人也观看了演出。
In February of 1983, Sichuan People’s Publishing House published Xiao Qian’s Chinese translation of Peer Gynt. In May that year, the play was staged by China’s Central Drama Academy under the direction of its president Mr. Xu Xiaozhong. Ms. Wang Guangmei, widow of China’s late chairman, Liu Shaoqi, came to view it with others.
一九九〇年至一九九四年，当我和萧乾合译《尤利西斯》时，第十五章中斯蒂芬醺醺地与妓女们厮混，活脱儿就是十年前我们在剧院的舞台上看到的培尔·金特！
When Xiao Qian and I collaborated on translating Ulysses into Chinese from 1990 to 1994, how the intoxicated Stephen fooling around with prostitutes in Chapter 15 struck us like Peer on the academy’s stage ten years earlier!
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一晃儿萧乾和我合译的《尤利西斯》已经出版二十年了。我对一九九四年《尤利西斯》出版时在国内引起的轰动记忆犹新。
20 years have gone by since our translation of Ulysses saw publication. I remember only too well the sensations that the news caused in Chinese and international press.
《尤利西斯》出版后，我曾想把《芬尼根的守灵夜》也译出来。萧乾却对我说：“《尤利西斯》被称为天书，其实《芬尼根的守灵夜》才是真正的天书。《芬尼根的守灵夜》对语言的改变太大，对译者的要求太高。”当时我还不服气，尝试了一页，就放弃了。然而，我相信，乔伊斯在中国的年轻一代中也能找到知音。
After Ulysses came out, I fancied the idea of translating Finnegans Wake as well, but Xiao Qian told me “Ulysses might be called book of enigma, but Finnegans Wake is the real book of enigma. No matter how difficult, Ulysses is translatable whereas Finnegans Wake alters language too much and places too high a demand on translators”. Not willing to back down at the time, I attempted one page and gave up. However, it was my belief that Joyce would find kindred spirits among China’s younger generations.
果然，我的忘年交冯建明用英文写的The Transfigurations of the Characters in Joyce’s Novels（《乔伊斯长篇小说人物的变形》）于二〇〇五年由北京外文出版社出版。博士生导师李维屏在该书前言中写道：“……冯建明博士撰写的《乔伊斯长篇小说人物的变形》一书为我国乔学的发展起到推波助澜的作用。这部著作具有两个明显的特点。首先，这是一部由中国学者用英语撰写的有关乔伊斯的学术著作，而且这表明中国学者已经可以与外国乔学家平等地对话与交流。……乔伊斯曾经说过，《尤利西斯》将迫使教授和学者们‘争论几个世纪’，而《芬尼根的苏醒》则‘将使批评家们至少忙上三百年’。……我明白了这样一个道理：从事乔学研究者不但要执着，而且也要创新。……”
Not surprisingly, in October 2005 Beijing Foreign Literature Press published Transfigurations of the Characters in Joyce’s Novels written originally in English by my young friend Feng Jianming. Mr. Li Weiping, the dissertation advisor, wrote in his preface for the book “… Dr. Feng Jianming’s Transfigurations of the Characters in Joyce’s Novels will make a great boost for our country’s studies of Joyce. It has two obvious features. It is the first scholarly study on Joyce written by a Chinese scholar in English, thereby demonstrating that the Chinese scholars are capable of discourse and exchange on par with foreign Joyce specialists. Joyce had said Ulysses would force the professors and scholars to ‘argue for several centuries’, whereas Finnegans Wake ‘will keep critics busy for at least three hundred years’… I came to the understanding that Joyce researchers not only need to be persistent but innovative…”
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最后谈谈改革开放以来的感受。一九四九年十月，中国人民站起来了。然而，政治运动频仍，无辜的牺牲者不计其数。
Finally I want to reflect on how I have felt since the days of rectifications. The Chinese people did stand up in October 1949. However, during the unceasing political movements countless innocent lives were sacrificed.
今年三月二十八日的《解放日报》刊载了《跨界对话，擦出多少火花》一文，其中莫言先生对杨振宁先生说：他（指莫言先生本人）能得奖，是因为这个时代，如果没有三十多年来中国的改革开放与进步，就没有他这么个作家。杨振宁先生说，他回国九年多了。他觉得中国最大的改变，不是建起了很多高楼大厦，而是农村和农民的思维方式。
The March 28th edition of Liberation Daily this year published an essay entitled “Conversations Across Borders Ignited Countless Sparkles” which quoted Mr. Mo Yan telling Mr. Yang Zhenning that he (Mr. Mo Yan himself) could win the Nobel literary prize was due to this epoch; without the progress and changes in China in the last thirty years, there would not be a writer like him. Yang replied that he has returned to China for more than nine years now, and he felt that the greatest changes in China was not in building many skyscrapers but in the countryside and how farmers thought about things.
对我而言， 现在确实是最好的时代。我出生于一九二七年，经历过一九三七年的七七事变，抗日战争。一九七九年二月，萧乾先生拿到一纸改正书，全家人的生活起了很大变化。
As for me, the present time period is truly the best. I was born in 1927 and experienced the July 7th Incident of 1937 and the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In February, 1979, Mr. Xiao Qian was given a decree of rehabilitation, which bettered a lot for our whole family.
从八十年代起，上海的博士生，年轻有为，一批一批地积极要求到边远地区，到最艰苦的地方去，把自己的青春年华挥洒在那里，改善当地人的生活。改造环境，造福当地老百姓。正是有这一批批不讲功利的年轻人，才真正赋予了我们整个时代希望的色彩，让我们的时代越来越好。
From the 80’s on, many groups of talented and young PhDs from Shanghai volunteered to go to the boundary lands and other remote, difficult territories, dedicating their youth and sweat in order to improve the lives of the local populace, better the environment and benefit the masses. It is these young people, group after group of them, with their lack of concern for material return and honorary titles, who beautify our time with hope and make it better still.
詹姆斯·乔伊斯经常是悲观的。倘若他看到了二十一世纪的这些中国博士生，我相信他会感到无比欣慰。
James Joyce was pessimistic more often than not. If he met these young Chinese intellectuals of the 21st century, I believe he would feel greatly relieved and pleased.
[1] 文洁若，翻译家。1927年7月15日出生于北京，原籍贵州，1950年清华大学毕业。是中国翻译日文作品最多的人。日本作家川端康成、三岛由纪夫、芥川龙之介以及松本清张的作品，很多都是经由她之手被引荐给中国读者的。她与丈夫萧乾晚年合译爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》，更是一件文坛盛事。