A Trip to Yan’an (II)延安之行（下）

In the morning we were taken to where the Liberation Daily had been printed when Yan’an was the revolutionary center. Our friend George Hatem， when he wasn’t doctoring， had helped produce the English edition. As a precaution against Japanese and， subsequently， Kuomintang bombings， the newspaper had been housed in the Cave of the Ten Thousand Buddhas—a cavern about 60 feet square which had been hewn out of solid rock over 1，000 years ago. Two huge pillars supported the ceiling. Every inch of the walls and pillars was lined with rows of carved Buddhas and female figures in the lush natural style of the Tang Dynasty.

次日上午，我们被领去参观延安作为革命中心时期印刷出版《解放日报》的地方。当初马海德在不看病问诊时还帮着办过报纸的英文版呢。为了防范日本鬼子和后来国民党反动派的轰炸，报社设在了万佛洞，这是一座约六平米见方的洞窟，从坚硬岩壁上凿出，距今已有一千多年。窟顶由两根大立柱支撑，石壁和石柱上雕出一排排佛像观音，都丰腴饱满、栩栩如生，尽显唐代遗风。

They originally had been colored， but Hu Zongnan had set fire to the printing equipment when he retreated， blackening the paint. The figures were still beautiful. Each one was different in posture and expression， and had been created in sets by different sculptors over several centuries. Beside each set was a plaque inscribed with the names of the artists and the devout Buddhists who had sponsored the carvings1.

这些雕像原本是彩雕，但胡宗南从延安撤离时放火烧毁洞内的印刷设备，雕像也因此被熏黑了。尽管如此，雕像依然精美，姿态表情各异，能看出是在几百年间由不同的雕刻师完成的，每组雕像旁有一块铭牌，刻的是雕刻师和为本组雕像捐资的善男信女的姓名。

We visited a large experimental farm outside Yan’an. They had found a good wheat variety for cold climates and were trying to improve it. Their wheat expert turned out to be a man who had been studying agriculture at Cornell while I was there taking an army course in Chinese. Small world department. His English was very good. He had returned to China in 1945.

我们还去参观了延安郊外的一个大型实验农场。农场发现了一种耐寒小麦良种，正在努力改良。巧的是，他们的专家当年在康奈尔大学修农学时，我正在那修陆军班中文课程，这世界可真小。而且他英语讲得相当不错。1945年，他学成归国。

The farm was also pushing apples. For one thing they had discovered that the slopes held water better when strips of fields were alternated with strips of orchards. For another， apples grew well here. They had several varieties. My favorite， and the one which seemed to thrive the best， was a type called the “banana apple”. Crisp and juicy， it did actually have the flavor of bananas. The farm had given 100，000 grafts the previous year to the co-ops， free of charge， to improve the local stock. They would be bearing fruit within three years.

农场也在推广苹果种植。一来，他们发现农田果园轮作能改善坡地的储水效果。二来，苹果树在这里长势很好。这里的苹果有好几个品种，我最喜欢吃，也是长得最好的一种叫“香蕉苹果”，清脆多汁，果真有股香蕉味儿。去年农场免费给合作社十万株嫁接枝，以改善当地品种砧木，这些嫁接树苗三年内就能结果。

As any farmer will tell you， fruit is a risky crop. If you don’t dispose of it all in season， it starts to go bad. You have to preserve it or refrigerate it， and that requires capital and equipment poor hillside regions don’t have. Here again， the experimental farm people distinguished themselves. They found that the yellow soil caves were natural refrigerators， cool and dry. Apples stored in October keep most of their natural juice and flavor until the following May or June. Big cities like Xi’an could be supplied all during the usually apple-less first half of the year. Another source of income for the farming co-ops.

农民都知道，水果种植有风险，一旦滞销水果就会腐烂。所以必须保鲜或冷藏，这样一来就需要资金和设备，而这恰恰是贫困山区所缺乏的。在这个难题上，实验农场的人又立了大功，他们发现黄土窑洞就是天然的冷藏库，凉爽干燥。十月份储存的苹果，一直到转年五六月份还大部分保留着原汁原味，可以在基本不产苹果的整个上半年供应像西安等大城市。这成了农业合作社另一个收入来源。

According to the lunar calendar it was Moon Festival Day. The time of the year when the moon is at its roundest and people celebrate the harvests. In the afternoon we bought moon cakes and lots of fruit and invited the kids from the operetta company over. The boys had a basketball match， but half a dozen of the girls came. A pretty Hui ethnic girl from Kaifeng sang Henan opera tones. （She was the only member of the troupe who had dietary scruples but they had a special kitchen for her. It’s government policy to respect the customs of ethnic minority people.）

照农历算这天是中秋节，是一年中月亮最圆、人们喜庆丰收的节日。下午我们去买了月饼和许多水果，邀请歌剧团的孩子们来做客。男孩们正打篮球赛来不了，但来了六七个姑娘。一个来自开封的漂亮回族姑娘唱了几段豫剧。整个剧团里就她一个有饮食忌讳，但剧团还是为她开了小灶。这是尊重少数民族风俗习惯的国家政策。

Others did some north Shaanxi songs. We were amused by a cute number called Husband and Wife Have a Tiff. Gao Min， a charming mezzo-soprano from Jiangsu Province， wrote out the words and rehearsed us a couple of times. She was surprised that I didn’t have any of the pear-shaped tones some foreigners use for rendering Chinese folk songs. Obviously she had never heard of unpretentious Brooklyn speech.

还有姑娘唱了几首陕北歌曲，我们被一首叫《夫妻拌嘴》的俏皮歌逗乐了。来自江苏的漂亮女中音高敏把歌词写下来，教我们唱了几遍。见我没有外国人唱中国民歌时那种带鼻音的腔调，她很吃惊。显然她从未听过不拿腔拿调的布鲁克林英语。

The next day was our last in Yan’an. We visited the famed Precious Pagoda. Built in Tang times， it stood atop a high hill from which there was a wonderful view in all directions. A big old bell of cast bronze stood in a wooden frame not far from the pagoda. Also made in Tang， it had hung in a local temple， long since gone. It was inscribed with the names of worshipers who claimed they had been cured of their ailments， and of women who believed their prayers for sons had been answered. They had all chipped in to pay for the bell and present it to the temple. An expensive gift. It had been used as an alarm in the Liberated Area days.

转天是在延安的最后一天，我们参观了著名的宝塔。宝塔建于唐代，坐落在一座高山顶上，在此远眺，四面八方的美景尽收眼底。离宝塔不远的一个木头架子里有一口古老的铜钟。钟也是唐代铸造的，原来挂在当地的一座寺庙里，寺庙早已不存。钟上刻着信众的名字，有的说自己病症全消，还有女子相信求子成功是菩萨显灵。就是这些人筹款铸了这口钟送给寺庙，是件贵重礼物。这口钟当年曾在解放区当过报警钟。

To my amazement， along with various holy figures on the bell， there was Pigsy. Old Pigsy was a folklore figure who allegedly accompanied Xuan Zang， a devout Buddhist monk， to India 1，000 years ago to bring back holy scriptures. Their other companion was Monkey， whose X-ray eyes2 could penetrate the disguises of the many demons who beset them on their way. The adventure of these three3 was an important part of Chinese children’s fairy tales and puppet shows. They appeared， too， in Beijing opera.

有意思的是，钟上刻的各种神像中竟然有猪八戒。猪八戒是民间故事人物，据说一千年前曾跟随虔诚的玄奘法师去印度取经。同去的还有孙悟空，他火眼金睛，能看穿一路上阻拦他们的妖魔鬼怪。师徒几人的历险故事是中国小孩子看的神话和木偶戏的重要题材，京剧中也有他们的身影。

Monkey was a typical children’s hero. He could work powerful magic， was fearless， humorless， and treated women with disdain. Pigsy appealed more to the grown-ups， though the kids liked him too， as a raffish comedian. Brave enough when he had to fight， he was a good-natured slob the rest of the time， a glutton and a lecher whenever the opportunity presented. Due to certain minor deficiencies in my own character， I have always found Pigsy entirely lovable. But I never expected to see him commemorated on an ancient bronze temple bell. That must have been quite a congregation4. No wonder Tang was a Golden Age.

孙悟空是孩子们心中的大英雄。他神通广大，无所畏惧，不苟言笑，不近女色。猪八戒则是个俗气十足的滑稽人物，孩子们倒也喜欢，但他更招成年人喜欢。打斗时他勇敢无畏，其他时候则憨厚、懒惰，逮着机会就贪吃贪色。可能我自己性格有些小缺点，我一直觉得猪八戒十分可爱。不曾想他还被刻在古庙铜钟上被人纪念，看起来信众规模还不小，难怪说唐朝是个“盛世”。

We took off the following morning at 5：30 by bus， arrived in Tongchuan by 3：30 in the afternoon， got on a train at 4：30， reached Xi’an at 11 in the evening， returned to the hotel by pedicab， had a wash and fell into bed， bone weary， around midnight.

第二天早上我们五点半乘长途汽车离开，下午三点半到铜川，四点半又坐上火车，晚上十一点才到西安，坐三轮车回旅馆后，冲了个澡就倒在床上，浑身疲惫，此时已过半夜。

1 Buddhists在此处并非指和尚僧人等出家人，而是指信奉佛教的百姓，因此不能直接译为“佛教徒”。信众捐资修建佛像是一种传统，sponsor即指“捐资”，如译为“赞助”则脱离了中国文化语境。

2 the Monkey和X-ray eyes都属于中国神话元素翻译到英文中的变形，在英译汉时需要采取回译策略，译为“孙悟空”和“火眼金睛”。

3 《西游记》中为师徒四人，沙博理此处记述有误，因此译文进行了模糊处理。 4 con-gregation本意指教会会众的集会，此处指前来参拜的信众规模之大，quite更添几分感叹的意味。