TRANSLATION1. 在新世纪全面建设小康社会,加快改革开放和现代化建设步伐,顺利实现第三步战略目标,必须在加强社会主义法制建设、依法治国的同时,切实加强社会主义道德建设、以德治国,把法制建设与道德建设、依法治国与以德治国紧密结合起来,通过公民道德建设的不断深化和拓展,逐步形成与发展社会主义市场经济相适应的社会主义道德体系。这是提高全民族素质的一项基础性工程。
In the new century, we are building a society in which people lead a fairly comfortable life, quickening the pace of reform, opening up and modernization, and attaining the strategic goals for the third stage. While we are strengthening the socialist legal system and the rule of the country by law, we must earnestly improve socialist morality, rule the country by virtue, and closely integrate the improvement of the legal system with the improvement of morality and the rule of the country by law with the rule of the country by virtue. Through a continuous process of deepening and broadening the improvement of civic morality, a socialist moral system suitable for our socialist market economy will gradually take shape and develop. This is a basic program for improving the quality of the whole Chinese nation.
2. 我同书籍,即将分离。我虽非英雄,颇有垓下之感,即无可奈何。
这些书,都是在新中国成立以后,来到我家的。最初零零碎碎,中间成套成批。有的来自京沪,有的来自苏杭。最初,囊中羞涩,也曾交臂相失。中间也曾一掷百金,稍有豪气。总之,时历三十余年,我同它们,可称故旧。
十年浩劫,我自顾不暇,无心也无力顾及它们。但它们辗转多处,经受折磨、潮湿、践踏、撞破,终于还是回来了。失去了一些,我有些惋惜,但也不愿去寻觅它们,因为我失去的东西,比起它们,更多也更重要。
它们回到寒舍以后,我对它们的情感如故。书无分大小、贵贱,古今、新旧,只要是我想保存的,因之也同我共过患难的,一视同仁。洗尘,安置,抚慰,唏嘘,它们大都体味到了。
Soon I'll part with my books; I'll have to, the way the ancient hero Xiang Yu parted with his favorite lady Yu Ji at Gaixia.
The books had arrived at my home since 1949, the year the country was liberated. At first they came piecemeal and, later, in set or in bulk, some from Beijing and Shanghai, some from Suzhou and Hangzhou. During the first few years, as I was financially embarrassed, sometimes I had to turn from the books that I would have liked to give everything in exchange for. However, there were occasions on which I threw my money on books with quite a sense of lavish generosity. In short, having kept them company for over 30 years, I felt lifelong intimacy with them all.
During the ten years of the disastrous "Cultural Revolution" I was not in the mood to, nor was I fit enough to bother about my books, as I was not even sure where I myself would end up. But, having been taken from place to place, getting moistened and damaged, tortured and trampled underfoot, they eventually had come back to me. Some of them had got lost, for which I was really sorry, but I thought I would not go and retrieve them, for I had had more to lose in those years and what I had lost other than the books was far more important than the books.
After their return home I felt about them with the same affection as I did earlier. I treated them alike, whether they were big or small, old or new, expensive or inexpensive, classical or contemporary, since they had been in my collection and, therefore, gone through thick and thin with me. I would sigh with significance, when I dusted and caressed them and then found a place for them to go to. I guessed they must have sensed how I felt about their return.
3. 已经是很不短的时间了,热闹的艺坛上,天才与小丑无法分清。不知浪潮翻过了多少回合,惊涛裂岸,沙石混沌,我们并未太多地在电视上报刊上见过何海霞;但京城消息传来,他还在活着,他还在作画。好了,活着画着,谁也不多提他;提他谁也心悸。百鬼多狰狞,上帝总无言。他的艺术是征服的艺术,他的存在是一种震慑。
面对着他的作品,我无法谈论某一方面的见解,谈出都失水准,行话全沦为小技,露出我一副村相了。我只想到项羽,力举千鼎,气盖山河。它使我从病痛中振作,怯弱生勇,改造我的性格。这个时代有太多的委琐,也有太多的浮躁,如此大的气势和境界,实在少之甚少,是一个奇迹。打开他的画册。我曾经独坐一个晌午又一个晌午,任在那创造的大自然里静定神游,作一回庄子,化一回蝴蝶。但是,当我第一次看到他的近照,枯老赢瘦,垂垂暮年,我感到了一个寂寞的灵魂。啊,正是精神寂寞,他才有大的艺术。
Over a long period of time, "geniuses" and "clowns" have been mixed up in the hectic realm of art, like rocks and sand mixed and driven by stormy waves along the shore. We have not seen much of He Haixia on the TV or in the newspapers, but as rumor from Beijing has it, he is still around. Around as he is, there has not been much mention of him, because the mere mention of his name makes one scared. Ghosts are hideously clamorous while God is silent. He Haixia's art is the art of conquest; the fact that he is still around is awe-inspiring.
I am not qualified to comment on any particular aspect of his works, for whatever I say would be short of professionalism, turning technical terms into frivolities, thus laying out bare a layman's follies. At this point I think of Xiang Yu, the ancient heroic general, who had unusual physical strength and overwhelming will power. It has braced me up from the suffering of ailments, turned what is cowardly in me into courage, thus toughening up my character. In this era characterized by too much pettiness and flightiness, it is really a miracle that we should find such dynamic forcefulness and artistic excellence as shown in his works. I remember sitting at home alone, for the whole of one morning after another, with his album open in front of me, my mind wandering about in the artistic natural world created by the artist, feeling as if I were Zhuangzi transformed into a butterfly fluttering around. But the first time I saw a recent photo of him, emaciated and aged, I sensed a lonely soul in him. Ah, but it is the loneliness of his soul that makes the great art and the great artist.
4. 例如我翻译莎士比亚,本来计划于课余之暇每年翻译两部,二十年即可完成,但是我用了三十年,主要的原因是懒。翻译之所以完成,主要的是因为活得相当长久,十分惊险。翻译完成之后,虽然仍有工作计划,但体力渐衰,有力不从心之感。假使年轻的时候鞭策自己,如今当有较好或较多的表现。然而悔之晚矣。
再例如,作为一个中国人,经书不可不读。我年过三十才知道读书自修的重要。我披阅,我圈点,但是恒心不足,时作时辍。五十以学易,可以无大过矣,我如今年过八十,还没有接触过《易经》,说来惭愧。史书也很重要。我出国留学的时候,我父亲买了一套同文石印的前四史“,塞满了我的行箧的一半空间,我在外国混了几年之后又把前四史原封带回来了。直到四十年后才鼓起勇气读了《通鉴》一遍。现在我要读的书太多,深感时间有限。
无论做什么事,健康的身体是基本条件。我在学校读书的时候,有所谓“强迫运动”,我踢破过几双球鞋,打断过几只球拍。因此侥幸维持下来最低限度的体力。老来打过几年太极拳,目前则以散步活动筋骨而已。寄语年轻朋友,千万要持之以恒地从事运动,这不是嬉戏,不是浪费时间。健康的身体是做人做事的真正的本钱。
Take the translation of Shakespeare for example. I had initially planned to spend 20 years of my spare time in doing the translation, finishing two plays a year. But I spent 30 years instead, due primarily to my slothfulness. The whole project would probably have fallen through had it not been for my fairly long life. After that I had other plans for work, but, because of my approaching senility, somehow I failed to do what I had wished to. Had I spurred myself on in my youth, I would have done more and better work. Alas, it is too late to repent.
Another example. The reading of Chinese classics is a must for all Chinese. But it was not until I was over 30 that I came to realize the importance of self-study in the matter of classics. I did read carefully though, marking words and phrases for special attention with small circles and dots. But my efforts at self-study were off and on. Confucius says, "I shall be free of great faults if I can live long enough to begin the study of Yi/at the age of 50." I feel ashamed to admit that I haven't even touched Yi though I'm now over 80. Chinese history books are equally important. When I was leaving China to study abroad, father bought a set of Tone Wen lithographic edition of The First Four Books of History, and crammed them into my travelling box, taking up half of its space. Several years later, however, after drifting along abroad, I returned home carrying with me the same books all unread. It was not until 40 years later that I plucked up enough courage to read through Tong Jian. So many books still remain to be read, and I much regret not having enough time to do it.
Whatever you do, you need a sound body first of all. In my school days, in response to the so-called "compulsory physical exercises", I went in for many sports at the expense of many pairs of sneakers and rackets, thus luckily building up a minimum of good physique. When I was approaching old age, I did tai ji quan (shadow boxing) for several years. Now I only do some walking exercises. Dear young friends, my advice to you is: Do physical exercises perseveringly. That has nothing to do with merrymaking or time-wasting. Good health is the wherewithal for a successful life and career.
5. 船在树下泊了片刻,岸上很湿,我们没有上去。朋友说这里是“鸟的天堂”,有许多只鸟在这棵树上做窝,农民不许人捉它们。我仿佛听见几只鸟扑翅的声音,但是等到我的眼睛注意地看那里时,我却看不见一只鸟的影子。只有无数的树根立在地上,像许多根木桩。地是湿的,大概涨潮时河水常常冲上岸去。“鸟的天堂”里没有一只鸟,我这样想道。船开了,一个朋友拨着船,缓缓地流到河中间去。
Our boat slowed to a halt under the tree and stopped there for a moment. We did not get off to the bank as it was wet there. My friends said the tree was a "paradise" for the birds; many birds had nested in it and peasants would not allow anyone to catch them. I seemed to have heard the sound of some birds flapping their wings, but when I turned to look I could not see any one there. Instead there were numerous roots standing on the ground like wood stakes. The ground was wet, probably washed by the tides. "Birds' Paradise", but there were no birds in it, I wondered. Our boat, poled by a friend, moved on and glided toward the middle of the river.