British writer - Chapter 319 A few thousand words, that’s enough

The empty set of settings is enough for these French people to discuss.

They sat on the floor with their clothes on and discussed the setting of the Cthulhu Mythos enthusiastically.

On a summer night, even when sailing on the sea, it is still a bit sultry.

Verne called to the crew to open the window,

The sea breeze passed through the hall, gently brushing against the cheeks with the salty smell of sea water, bringing a bit of coolness.

Occasionally, a few seagulls accompanying the ship flew over, and their calls were particularly clear in the silent night.

Lu Shi said, “Do you really want to spend the night here?”

Verne sighed,

“We can’t drive away the tourists in the cabin, right?”

“That’s…ok.”

Lu Shi couldn’t say anything else.

He turned to Gu Hongming,

“Mr. Gu, come to me… um… you are not going to New York, right? After all, there is no need to go around Europe and then walk across the Atlantic Ocean from China to the United States.”

As he spoke, he opened the door,

Gu Hongming walked into the cabin, closed the door, moved a chair and sat down at the desk.

Lu Shi poured him tea,

“How have you been lately? After the classes at the Capital University resumed, the results were pretty good, right?”

Gu Hongming nodded repeatedly and said: “Those students all regard you as their idol after watching “Lord of the Flies”~”

Lu Shi was not surprised.

Any modern work written at the beginning of the 20th century would inevitably trigger a conflict between old and new cultures.

“Lord of the Flies” is probably a vernacular work that many new young people dream of.

During this period of time traveling, he has realized that things that are commonplace in the eyes of modern people are all revolutionary at this point in time.

No wonder the French leftist Georges Clemenceau regarded Lu Shi as his “godfather”.

Lu Shi waved his hand,

“Let’s not talk about this.”

Gu Hongming said “hmm”, took out a small bamboo box and handed it over.

“This is the textbook currently used in the university hall. Please take a look at it, little friend Lu.”

Lu Shi:? ? ?

“Show me what these are for?”

Gu Hongming said: “Of course I ask you to study and judge. See which of them are qualified and which are not qualified as teaching materials.”

Help people to the end,

Send Buddha to the West.

Since Lu Shi had already produced teaching materials for the university hall, he didn’t mind taking a look.

He flipped through a few books at random,

“Lecture Notes on Ethics

,””Complete Collection of Commentaries on the Book of Songs

,””Comprehensive Interpretation of the Book of Changes

,”…

The book “Fifteen Years of Wanli” seems unusually out of place among them.

The author of the textbook is either Zhang Baixi or someone like Wu Rulun or Zhang Heling. How can he be evaluated at will?

Even if it’s evaluation, Lu Shi is not good at it.

He chuckled,

“Mr. Gu, if I had understood these things, I would have passed the imperial examination long ago.”

Gu Hongming was stunned for a long time, and then joked: “It’s a good thing you didn’t win. Otherwise, the entire world’s literary world would have lost a great talent.”

As he spoke, he rummaged through the book box.

“Look at this.”

He took out a book called “Translation Essentials

,”Author: Lin Shu.

Lu Shi was speechless,

“You want me to evaluate this?”

You just made the contradiction public, how can you objectively evaluate the teaching materials written by others?

Gu Hongming said in a low voice: “Little friend Lu, I am good at translation and advocate honesty, expressiveness and elegance, but these three points are only the principles of translation after all. Some technical things are needed in the teaching materials.”

Translation is a skill. It may be correct to make high-level suggestions, but it often cannot guide specific work.

Lu Shi read through the “Summary of Translation” at a glance.

“This book contains many errors.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, many Chinese translators, including Lin Shu, were crossing the river by feeling for the stones.

Therefore, there is inevitably a problem of compilation rather than translation.

This is the limitation of the times.

Gu Hongming whispered: “Well, Mr. Lu, how about you write a textbook?”

This is Lu Shi’s specialty,

He also chose a similar direction for his graduation thesis.

only,

“Not enough time?”

He looked at each other and asked: “You must disembark in Lisbon. Otherwise, you will have to go all the way to West Africa or even South America.”

Gu Hongming sighed deeply.

For European and American universities, translation is not a particularly important subject.

Because they have their own scientific research capabilities and a complete system.

But not the Capital University!

The pursuer is to desperately learn from the excellent culture of other countries, take its essence and discard its dross.

In this case, the translation department is of course important.

Unfortunately, there is a severe shortage of teaching resources in today’s universities. Even Lin Shu, who compiled the textbooks, is a second-hand man who barely understands foreign languages. How can we eliminate the rough and select the essential?

Isn’t it Lin Shu alone who has the final say as to what those foreign books say?

“well……”

Gu Hongming sighed again.

Lu Shi said: “Mr. Gu, to be honest, the basis of translation is vocabulary. But now, how many people in China are really proficient in the vocabulary of other languages? In this case, it is true that I am asked to write translation teaching materials. It’s a castle in the air.”

Gu Hongming hurriedly said: “You don’t have to worry about this. The university has a foreign liberal arts department, and we also send many international students, especially to Japan, in various disciplines, studying medicine, studying literature… In short, as long as you are willing If you write it, we will be sure to use it as a teaching material.”

Lu Shi thought for a while, thinking about how to solve the problem of lack of time.

After a while, he thought of a countermeasure,

“I’ll try to write it down.”

After saying that, he turned around and started writing.

Gu Hongming was surprised,

“You want to write now?”

He originally thought that if the other party agreed, it would take several days to conceive and another ten days to write, and then he would go to the Port of Havana or New York to send the manuscript to the country by mail.

But looking at it now, it seems like it will be done before arriving in Lisbon.

this……

“How can it be?!”

The word “confused” is written all over Gu Hongming’s face.

Lu Shi was still working hard.

“What did you say?”

Gu Hongming asked: “Little friend Lu, how many words are you going to write?”

Lu Shi said: “A few thousand words is enough. If students in the translation department can study these thousands of words thoroughly, their studies will not be in vain.”

Gu Hongming fell into silence,

“…”

After a long while, he joked: “I didn’t expect that in order to save time, you would also write classical Chinese.”

Lu Shi curled his lips,

“I didn’t say I wanted to write in classical Chinese. Vernacular is used well and it’s not cumbersome.”

Gu Hongming was even more confused and dragged his chair forward.

The name of the article is:

“On the basic skills of translation, taking the first chapter of “La Traviata” as an example”

“puff!”

Gu Hongming burst out laughing on the spot,

“You kid, you’re quite vindictive! I’m afraid you’re going to slap someone in the face!”

Lu Shi also smiled and said, “Who is that person?”

Gu Hongming tapped Lu Shi with his finger in the air, but did not answer and turned to read the article.

It begins with an overview, which talks about the history of the discipline of translation studies.

——

The history of translation practice is as long as the history of human civilization.

Western translation first began in the third century AD and has a history of more than 2,000 years.

As a country with ancient civilization, China has an even longer history of translation.

…

——

It is not difficult to see from this beginning that this article is not just about translation skills but not translation principles, as the title suggests.

Next, Lu Shi divided into multiple subtitles:

“Language and Speech

,””The two meta-functions of language: cognitive and communicative

,””Internal Language and External Language

,”…

Two thousand words were written in the blink of an eye.

Gu Hongming was sweating on his forehead as he watched.

Lu Shi’s linguistic skills are so solid!

Such a systematic explanation has probably not yet appeared in European academic circles.

However, is the space enough?

I just said “a few thousand words is enough”, but after writing so many words from the beginning, there is almost no “survival” space for the subsequent content about translation.

Lu Shi did not hesitate and wrote another subtitle——

“Disciplinary Framework of Translation Studies”.

The point is coming!

Gu Hongming looked over attentively.

Unexpectedly, what he saw was not text, but framed pictures composed of Chinese phrases and lines.

Lu Shixian wrote “Translation Studies

,”Then, two arrows are drawn from it, leading to “practice” and “idea” respectively.

The former is further subdivided,

They are “translation training”, “translation assistance” and “translation review”;

The latter is also subdivided,

…

It took Lu Shi less than five minutes to complete the entire picture.

Gu Hongming is stupid,

“It’s over…it’s over now!?”

Lu Shi nodded,

“Well, Mr. Gu is also a translator. Do you think there are any imperfections?”

“Ah this…”

Gu Hongming stared at the frame diagram, hoping to find loopholes.

However, not at all!

Seeing him speechless, Lu Shi couldn’t help but snicker.

The framework diagram he drew was summarized in “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies”, which was published by American scholar James Holmes (also known as “Holmes”) at the Third International Conference on Applied Linguistics in Copenhagen.

This paper is considered to be the foundation of the construction of translation discipline.

“Gu…”

Gu Hongming swallowed his saliva,

“So simple?”

He devoted his life to promoting Sinology to the world, and he did a lot of translation.

Therefore, when I see the career I am engaged in being summarized in such a simple way, with no faults to be found, I am of course extremely shocked.

Lu Shi said: “It is not difficult to understand this diagram; but it is difficult to establish the system of this diagram. Can the current Capital University do it?”

Gu Hongming pondered for a moment and finally shook his head.

“Say less it will take twenty years.”

Lu Shi smiled,

“Looking at it now, it will indeed take twenty years. By the time I finish writing this paper… article, it won’t take that long.”

How arrogant are these words!

But coming from Lu Shi’s mouth, it was not offensive.

Gu Hongming said: “I will wait and see.”

Lu Shi moved his wrist and said, “Next, it’s time to take the first chapter of “La Traviata” as an example to talk about specific translation techniques.”

After speaking, he wrote a paragraph in French:

“Mon avis est qu’on ne peut créer des personnages quelorsque…”

Gu Hongming whispered: “So, can you silently write the original text of “La Traviata”?”

Lu Shi said: “It’s only the first chapter.”

He didn’t tell the truth.

But Gu Hongming still couldn’t help but muttered: “Madman!”

Lu Shi continued to write,

——

A considerable amount of ambiguity in French is eliminated by combining gender and number.

Take this sentence as an example,

People who don’t understand will split the sentence and translate it into “I firmly believe that only by deeply understanding and studying human nature…”

In fact, its true translation is very brief.

…

——

Gu Hongming tried hard to keep a straight face and prevent himself from laughing.

Because this is no longer a slap in the face,

Instead, he tied Lin Shu to a target and shot arrows at him crazily.

Too cruel!

Gu Hongming was curious,

“Little friend Lu, have you read Qin Nan’s translation? Is it The Legacy of La Traviata in Paris?”

Lu Shi said, “I’ve seen it.”

I did read a lot when I was in college.

But I don’t read it as a translation, but as a secondary creation, otherwise it will be too easy to create drama.

Gu Hongming said “tsk…” in a low voice,

Thought,

It was Lin Shu’s unlucky fate that he met a genius like Lu Shi who had a photographic memory and was quick to avenge his enemies.

After writing this article, Lin Shu’s pants were completely stripped.

After that, Gu Hongming never bothered Lu Shi again.

I stayed up like this until the second half of the night.

Lu Shi handed over the manuscript.

“I’m writing and you’re reading, so it’s considered a proofread.”

Gu Hongming took it excitedly.

“I’ll go back tonight and study it carefully. If I have any questions, I’ll come back to you tomorrow for advice.”

He didn’t feel tired at all, and he didn’t feel tired at all.

Perhaps, good articles can relieve fatigue.

He went out with the article in hand.

The group of French people outside the door were all awake. They gathered together in twos and threes and talked about “Call of Cthulhu” or the creation of horror literature.

The atmosphere was extremely lively, like a party.

Gu Hongming glanced out the window subconsciously.

The water surface undulates slightly,

Under the moonlight, the waves are like a group of gentle dancers, dancing on the stage of the night.

It was indeed late at night.

Gu Hongming smiled bitterly,

Lu Xiaoyou is really doing a lot of harm to people, keeping so many people awake at night.

He greeted Bernard Shaw and then returned to the cabin.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I entered the door, I saw a person sitting on the chair opposite.

He was startled,

“scare!”

The figure on the chair moved slightly,

“What’s the name?”

Lin Shu’s voice came,

“it’s me.”

He lit several lamps in the room, flooding the cabin with light.

Gu Hongming took a deep breath and said, “Why don’t you sleep?”

Lin Shu raised his eyebrows.

“Go find that boy Lu Shi. I’m afraid you’ll be deceived by his clever words.”

As he spoke, he nodded to the manuscript in Gu Hongming’s hand.

“Sure enough, he tried to confuse you.”

Gu Hongming’s head is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

“Didn’t I tell you before I went to see Lu Xiaoyou? I asked him to help, not him to confuse me.”

Lin Shu was speechless.

In fact, he also knew in his heart that with Lu Shi’s current status, they were indeed the ones asking for help.

Gu Hongming sat down with the manuscript.

On the other side, Lin Shu also came forward and said, “I’m also curious about how he confuses people with his monstrous words.”

Gu Hongming snorted coldly,

“This is the teaching material I asked him to write for the Translation Department. It is indeed ‘confusing the public’.”

Lin Shu was surprised,

“How many words are these? Why, as the… um… Translation Department of the Capital University Hall, isn’t my “Translation Essentials” the textbook now used?”

Gu Hongming said truthfully without giving any face: “Teaching materials are for educating people, and of course they must be selected from the best.”

Lin Shu’s face turned red.

“You… do well! I want to see what he can write!”

After saying that, he leaned over and read the manuscript with squinted eyes.

The title immediately comes into view,

“On the basic skills of translation, taking the first chapter of “La Traviata” as an example.”

He exploded instantly,

“It’s too much to bully others…it’s too much to bully others!”

Gu Hongming was afraid that this old man would be excited, so he tore up the manuscript.

He quickly bent down to protect him, and then said: “I know you are in a hurry, but don’t be anxious yet. At least, read this article before making a conclusion.”

Lin Shu clenched his fists, and the ” # ” on his forehead jumped.

“Okay! Let me see!”

After saying that, he started reading seriously.

After reading “The History of the Discipline of Translation Studies”, he sneered and said: “It’s just a cliché.”

After that, he remained silent until he read the “Disciplinary Framework of Translation Studies”.

After a while, I finally got to the part where I used “La Traviata” as an example.

He read a few lines and muttered: “I don’t understand French, so how do I know the feminine and masculine words? If there is something wrong, it is because Ziren (Wang Shouchang) did not learn French well. He had problems with his interpretation, so I translated Incorrect.”

Gu Hongming rolled his eyes at the other party in his heart.

The old boy is really good at passing the buck.

Finally, Lin Shu finished reading the entire article, and for some reason, he felt exhausted.

But he didn’t want to admit defeat,

He said: “This article is too little to be used as a teaching material.”

Gu Hongming asked: “Then what can you add?”

“Ah this…”

Lin Shu couldn’t utter a word for a long time.

He realized at this moment that Lu Shi’s article was extremely complete.

Of course, this is nothing to accept,

Lu Shi has so many fans in the European literary world, so his strength must be on the line.

What Lin Shu really couldn’t accept was that in addition to being extremely complete, this article was also extremely concise.

And it was written in the vernacular!

Lin Shu estimated in his mind that even if this article was written in classical Chinese, it would not be able to be compressed into 500 words.

Seeing his silence, Gu Hongming said: “It seems that our translator Lin doesn’t think there is anything to add or delete.”

There is something strange about this.

Lin Shu’s old face turned red.

“But after all, this article only has a few thousand words. It is used as a teaching material…”

Before he finished speaking, Gu Hongming interrupted: “A few thousand words is enough.”