不朽的喬伊斯Joyce Immortal

文、譯/文潔若

愛爾蘭和挪威都是小國，地處歐洲的邊陲。十二世紀以來，愛爾蘭受英吉利統(tǒng)治者的壓迫，民族獨立運動從未停止過。一九四九年成立愛爾蘭共和國。挪威呢，一八一四年就被丹麥割與瑞典，一九〇五年獨立為挪威王國。

[2]詹姆斯·喬伊斯十六歲時，是個虔誠的男孩兒。后來逐漸放棄了家庭與學校灌輸給他的天主教信仰，開始堅定地搜尋新價值和新追求。他博覽群書，偶然讀到易卜生的作品，立即興奮不已，一九〇〇年四月一日，十八歲的他在英國雜志《半月評論》發(fā)表評論《易卜生的新戲劇》，此文獲得年過七旬的易卜生的稱許，使喬伊斯深受鼓舞。從而下定決心，走上文學道路。

[3]易卜生的劇本中，喬伊斯最看重《培爾·金特》。一九〇七年十一月十日，喬伊斯的弟弟斯坦尼斯勞斯在日記里寫道：“吉姆2吉姆（Jim）是詹姆斯（James）的愛稱。告訴我，他要把他的故事《尤利西斯》擴大為一本小書（short book），寫成都柏林的培爾·金特。”

[4]一九八三年二月，蕭乾翻譯的《培爾·金特》由四川人民出版社出版。五月，《培爾·金特》由中央戲劇學院公演。導演是中央戲劇學院院長徐曉鐘先生。劉少奇夫人王光美等人也觀看了演出。

[5]一九九〇年至一九九四年，當我和蕭乾合譯《尤利西斯》時，第十五章中斯蒂芬醺醺地與妓女們廝混，活脫兒就是十年前我們在劇院的舞臺上看到的培爾·金特！

[6]第十五章使人聯(lián)想到《培爾·金特》第二幕第六場。在山妖大王的指揮下，眾小妖壓在培爾身上，還要把他的眼睛摳出來。幸而，遠處的教堂鳴鐘了。眾小妖逃之夭夭。

[7]第十五章是《尤利西斯》一書中最離奇古怪的一章。時間是午夜十二點鐘。故事始于馬博特街。在貝拉·科恩夫人所開的窯子里達到高潮。布盧姆忽然榮任市長，接著又成了愛爾蘭國王，隨后遭到眾人的攻擊，被驅(qū)逐出境。這些幻想消失后，他到窯子去找斯蒂芬。斯蒂芬喝醉后掄起手杖擊碎了妓院的燈，飛奔到街上。布盧姆產(chǎn)生了錯覺，把斯蒂芬當成自己那夭折了的兒子魯?shù)?，就攙著他沿街走去。

[8]布盧姆和培爾·金特都喜歡漫游，不過，布盧姆是上午八點出門，十八個小時后就回到妻子瑪莉恩身邊了。培爾則走南闖北，忽而摩洛哥，忽而埃及，多年后才返回家鄉(xiāng)，與圣潔的索爾薇格團聚。

[9]出生在愛爾蘭的首都都柏林的英國戲劇家蕭伯納（一八五六至一九五〇）對阿奇博爾德·亨德森說：“它3指《尤利西斯》。引起了我的興趣。其實，我年輕時在都柏林生活過。喬伊斯那有文學才智的寫作也吸引了我。那是經(jīng)典性的。我不認為不加掩飾地描寫性的方面需要什么限制?！也荒苁褂脝桃了瓜壬脑~句，我的手過分拘謹，無法落筆?！斈甑哪切┒及亓秩耍菐湍贻p的醫(yī)學生確實是那樣的。談話用臟字眼兒，在性行為上也不檢點。他們相信那樣才有詩意，充滿生機。我想把那些都柏林青年組織成幾個俱樂部，目的是閱讀《尤利西斯》。讓他們討論并回答‘咱們是這樣的嗎？’我希望回答是否定的?！偃粢粋€人舉起一面鏡子來照你的本來面目，哪怕你把鏡子打碎也是白搭。去拿肥皂和水吧?！?Richard Ellman, James Joyce, Oxford University Press, 1959, Page 576

[10]喬伊斯曾對翻譯《尤利西斯》第十八章的貝努瓦-梅琴（Benois-Mechin）說：“我寫了那么多謎語，出了那么多難題，以便讓教授們忙上幾個世紀，爭論著我是什么意思。那是唯一確保人不朽的辦法?！?同上，第521頁。

[11]一晃兒蕭乾和我合譯的《尤利西斯》已經(jīng)出版二十年了。我對一九九四年《尤利西斯》出版時在國內(nèi)引起的轟動記憶猶新。

[12]《尤利西斯》出版后，我曾想把《芬尼根的守靈夜》也譯出來。蕭乾卻對我說：“《尤利西斯》被稱為天書，其實《芬尼根的守靈夜》才是真正的天書?！斗夷岣氖仂`夜》對語言的改變太大，對譯者的要求太高?！碑敃r我還不服氣，嘗試了一頁，就放棄了。然而，我相信，喬伊斯在中國的年輕一代中也能找到知音。

[13]果然，我的忘年交馮建明用英文寫的The Trans figurations of the Characters in Joyce’s Novels（《喬伊斯長篇小說人物的變形》）于二〇〇五年由北京外文出版社出版。博士生導師李維屏在該書前言中寫道：“……馮建明博士撰寫的《喬伊斯長篇小說人物的變形》一書為我國喬學的發(fā)展起到推波助瀾的作用。這部著作具有兩個明顯的特點。首先，這是一部由中國學者用英語撰寫的有關喬伊斯的學術著作，而且這表明中國學者已經(jīng)可以與外國喬學家平等地對話與交流?！瓎桃了乖?jīng)說過，《尤利西斯》將迫使教授和學者們‘爭論幾個世紀’，而《芬尼根的蘇醒》則‘將使批評家們至少忙上三百年’?！颐靼琢诉@樣一個道理：從事喬學研究者不但要執(zhí)著，而且也要創(chuàng)新。……”

[14]李維屏先生本人主要著作有《喬伊斯的美學思想和小說藝術》《英美意識流小說》《英美現(xiàn)代主義文學概觀》《英國文學通史》等。

[15]最后再談談《芬尼根的守靈夜》。二〇一三年九月，我在上海石羽、何為伉儷家小住?！斗夷岣氖仂`夜》的責任編輯曹楊先生（上海人民出版社編輯部副主任）和薛羽先生給我送來了該社出版的這部天書的第一卷，譯者為戴從容教授。倪為國先生那篇“寫在前面的話”十分精彩。這里只引用最后一段：“喬伊斯唯一沒有想到的是，時至今日，虛無主義的‘惡魔’已經(jīng)在世界各地到處張貼‘文學已經(jīng)死了’的訃告，且浸淫到各個領域，每個角落，漢語文學界、思想界也不例外。于是，我寫下這些文字，算是一個編者對《芬尼根的守靈夜》的如是說?！?/p>

[16]戴從容教授非但翻譯的《芬尼根的守靈夜》比《尤利西斯》難上好幾倍，她還有一個剛上小學的孩子，學校又有那么多教學、科研任務，她竟然把《芬尼根的守靈夜》翻譯出來。戴從容熱愛這個工作，她是以一種執(zhí)著、鍥而不舍的精神來翻譯的。后面還有三卷，我在等待戴教授大功告成的那一天。

[17]最后談談改革開放以來的感受。一九四九年十月，中國人民站起來了。然而，政治運動頻仍，無辜的犧牲者不計其數(shù)。

[18]今年三月二十八日的《解放日報》刊載了《跨界對話，擦出多少火花》一文，其中莫言先生對楊振寧先生說：他（指莫言先生本人）能得獎，是因為這個時代，如果沒有三十多年來中國的改革開放與進步，就沒有他這么個作家。楊振寧先生說，他回國九年多了。他覺得中國最大的改變，不是建起了很多高樓大廈，而是農(nóng)村和農(nóng)民的思維方式。

[19]對我而言，現(xiàn)在確實是最好的時代。我出生于一九二七年，經(jīng)歷過一九三七年的七七事變，抗日戰(zhàn)爭。一九七九年二月，蕭乾先生拿到一紙改正書，全家人的生活起了很大變化。

[20]從八十年代起，上海的博士生，年輕有為，一批一批地積極要求到邊遠地區(qū)，到最艱苦的地方去，把自己的青春年華揮灑在那里，改善當?shù)厝说纳睢８脑飙h(huán)境，造福當?shù)乩习傩?。正是有這一批批不講功利的年輕人，才真正賦予了我們整個時代希望的色彩，讓我們的時代越來越好。

[21]詹姆斯·喬伊斯經(jīng)常是悲觀的。倘若他看到了二十一世紀的這些中國博士生，我相信他會感到無比欣慰。 □

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.

[2] 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” on Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken (1899). This review was praised by the over-70-year-old Ibsen,which gave Joyce the courage and will to embark on his literary journey.

[3] 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”.

[4] 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.

[5] 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!

[6] Joyce’s Chapter 15 makes one think of Scene 6, Act 3 of Ibsen’s play,when a devilish mob, under the command of the Mountain King, pressed their weight on top of Peer and threatened to put out his eyes. Luckily church bells rang in the distance whereupon the mob dispersed.

[7] Chapter 15 may be the most bizarre chapter of all in Ulysses. The time is midnight, and the action begins on Mabott street and reaches climax in the brothel run by Madame Bella Cohen.Bloom suddenly becomes first honorable magistrate, then the King of Ireland, until attacked by the mobs and driven out of the country in exile. After these hallucinations vanish, he enters the brothel again to look for Stephen, who gets drunk, breaks the brothel’s light with his cane and runs into the street. Bloom has delusions again, mistakes Stephen for his own dead son Rudy, and leads him away down the street.

[8] Both Bloom and Peer enjoy wandering about, the difference being the former leaves his home at 8 a.m. and returns to his wife Molly’s side 18 hours later whereas the latter wanders the world, now in Morocco, now in Egypt,coming home only years later to reunite with his angelic Solveig.

[9] Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), the Dublin-born English dramatist, told Archibald Henderson about Ulysses“I was attracted to it by the fact that I was once a young man in Dublin, and also by Joyce’s literary power, which is of classic quality. I do not see why there should be any limit to frankness in sex revelation. … I could not write the words Mr. Joyce uses: my prudish hand would refuse to form the letters. … The Dublin ‘Jackeens’ of my day, the medical students, the young bloods about town,were very like that. Their conversation was dirty, and it de fined their sexuality,which might just as surely have been presented to them as poetic and vital. I should like to organize the young men of Dublin into clubs for the purpose of reading Ulysses, so that they should debate the question ‘Are we like that?’which would, I hope, be answered in the negative. … If a man holds up a mirror to your nature… It is no use breaking the mirror. Go for soap and water”.

[10] When translating Chapter 18 of Ulysses, Benois-Mechin was told by Joyce “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality”.

[11] 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.

[12] 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.

[13] Not surprisingly, in October 2005 Beijing Foreign Literature Press published Trans figurations 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 ‘a(chǎn)rgue 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…”

[14] Mr. Li Weiping counts among his main publications Joyce’s Aesthetics and His Art of the Novel, English and American Novels of Stream of Consciousness, Main Concepts in Modern English and American Literature and General History of English Literature.

[15] Please allow me to conclude with a few words on Finnegans Wake.In September 2013, while a guest at the Shanghai home of Shi Yu and He Wei, I received the first volume of this enigmatic book translated by Professor Dai Congrong, from Mr. Xue Yu and Mr. Cao Yang, chief editor of the book’s translation and vice chair of the editing department of the Shanghai People’s Publishing House. Mr. Ni Weiguo wrote a brilliant “Foreword” of which I quote the last paragraph “The only thing that Joyce did not anticipate is that the demon of nihilism has by now posted all over the globe the obituary ‘literature is dead’, which has spread to all fields and corners including those of Chinese literature and thinking. For that matter,what words I write amount to an editor’s commentary on Finnegans Wake.”

[16] Professor Dai Congrong managed translating Finnegans Wake, a work several times more difficult than Ulysses, despite her having a child who just started elementary school or her load of responsibilities in teaching and research at her university. Dai Congrong loves her work. She carries on with her translation with a persistent, undaunted spirit. With three more volumes to come, I look forward to the day of Professor Dai’s final triumph.

[17] Finally I want to re flect 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 sacri ficed.

[18] 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.

[19] 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.

[20] 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 popu-lace, better the environment and bene fit 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.

[21] 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.