不朽的乔伊斯Joyce Immortal

文、译/文洁若

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。

[2]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。

[3]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2吉姆（Jim）是詹姆斯（James）的爱称。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。”

[4]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。

[5]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！

[6]第十五章使人联想到《培尔·金特》第二幕第六场。在山妖大王的指挥下，众小妖压在培尔身上，还要把他的眼睛抠出来。幸而，远处的教堂鸣钟了。众小妖逃之夭夭。

[7]第十五章是《尤利西斯》一书中最离奇古怪的一章。时间是午夜十二点钟。故事始于马博特街。在贝拉·科恩夫人所开的窑子里达到高潮。布卢姆忽然荣任市长，接着又成了爱尔兰国王，随后遭到众人的攻击，被驱逐出境。这些幻想消失后，他到窑子去找斯蒂芬。斯蒂芬喝醉后抡起手杖击碎了妓院的灯，飞奔到街上。布卢姆产生了错觉，把斯蒂芬当成自己那夭折了的儿子鲁迪，就搀着他沿街走去。

[8]布卢姆和培尔·金特都喜欢漫游，不过，布卢姆是上午八点出门，十八个小时后就回到妻子玛莉恩身边了。培尔则走南闯北，忽而摩洛哥，忽而埃及，多年后才返回家乡，与圣洁的索尔薇格团聚。

[9]出生在爱尔兰的首都都柏林的英国戏剧家萧伯纳（一八五六至一九五〇）对阿奇博尔德·亨德森说：“它3指《尤利西斯》。引起了我的兴趣。其实，我年轻时在都柏林生活过。乔伊斯那有文学才智的写作也吸引了我。那是经典性的。我不认为不加掩饰地描写性的方面需要什么限制。……我不能使用乔伊斯先生的词句，我的手过分拘谨，无法落笔。……当年的那些都柏林人，那帮年轻的医学生确实是那样的。谈话用脏字眼儿，在性行为上也不检点。他们相信那样才有诗意，充满生机。我想把那些都柏林青年组织成几个俱乐部，目的是阅读《尤利西斯》。让他们讨论并回答‘咱们是这样的吗？’我希望回答是否定的。……假若一个人举起一面镜子来照你的本来面目，哪怕你把镜子打碎也是白搭。去拿肥皂和水吧。”4Richard Ellman, James Joyce, Oxford University Press, 1959, Page 576

[10]乔伊斯曾对翻译《尤利西斯》第十八章的贝努瓦-梅琴（Benois-Mechin）说：“我写了那么多谜语，出了那么多难题，以便让教授们忙上几个世纪，争论着我是什么意思。那是唯一确保人不朽的办法。”5同上，第521页。

[11]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。

[12]《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。

[13]果然，我的忘年交冯建明用英文写的The Trans figurations 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。……”

[14]李维屏先生本人主要著作有《乔伊斯的美学思想和小说艺术》《英美意识流小说》《英美现代主义文学概观》《英国文学通史》等。

[15]最后再谈谈《芬尼根的守灵夜》。二〇一三年九月，我在上海石羽、何为伉俪家小住。《芬尼根的守灵夜》的责任编辑曹杨先生（上海人民出版社编辑部副主任）和薛羽先生给我送来了该社出版的这部天书的第一卷，译者为戴从容教授。倪为国先生那篇“写在前面的话”十分精彩。这里只引用最后一段：“乔伊斯唯一没有想到的是，时至今日，虚无主义的‘恶魔’已经在世界各地到处张贴‘文学已经死了’的讣告，且浸淫到各个领域，每个角落，汉语文学界、思想界也不例外。于是，我写下这些文字，算是一个编者对《芬尼根的守灵夜》的如是说。”

[16]戴从容教授非但翻译的《芬尼根的守灵夜》比《尤利西斯》难上好几倍，她还有一个刚上小学的孩子，学校又有那么多教学、科研任务，她竟然把《芬尼根的守灵夜》翻译出来。戴从容热爱这个工作，她是以一种执着、锲而不舍的精神来翻译的。后面还有三卷，我在等待戴教授大功告成的那一天。

[17]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。

[18]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。

[19]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。

[20]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。

[21]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。 □

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 ‘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…”

[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.