Dirty dirty——
The ship's whistle sounded.
Lu Shi was a little embarrassed by Gorky's praise and took the opportunity to say: "Just in time, let's go see the White Cliffs of Dover."
The three of them walked around to the other side of the deck.
The famous White Cliffs of Dover face the European continent and guard the narrowest area of the English Channel.
The White Cliff is 110 meters high and is composed of chalk and black flint.
Gorky praised: "I saw it once when I came to England from France. Looking at it again now, I still feel it is majestic and majestic."
Bernard Shaw on the side nodded,
"It is said that when the weather is clear, you can see the White Cliffs from France. The name of the natural wonder is well-deserved. Unfortunately, part of the White Cliffs is weathered every year, and occasionally large-scale collapses occur."
The three of them couldn't help but feel emotional.
After a while, Bernard Shaw patted Lu Shi on the shoulder and asked, "Would you like to write a poem?"
Lu Shi didn't answer.
Gorky on the side asked curiously: "Professor Lu is actually a poet?"
Bernard Shaw intoned: "'The night gave me black eyes, but I used them to find the light.' How well written."
Gorky chewed this sentence repeatedly,
"I feel like this poem is a bit...um...was it written by Professor Lu? I seem to have heard it more than once in Paris, saying it was the epitaph of the playwright Mr. Wilde. It first appeared at the end of a certain novel. beginning."
Speaking of this, Gorky looked confused.
When he turned to Lu,
"Is that novel also written by Professor Lu?"
George Bernard Shaw laughed loudly and said: "Yes, the title is "No Survivor". But that book is no longer popular. The most popular one is "Roger's Mystery"."
These two works sound like popular works upon first hearing.
Gorky was confused. He could not imagine that a visiting professor who could write academic works, a litterateur, playwright, poet, and at the same time a popularist.
That's outrageous!
He stared closely at Lu Shi,
stare--
His vision was full of enthusiasm.
Lu Shi felt a little awkward being stared at, so he quickly changed the subject and said, "Mr. Gorky, you just criticized "Resurrection", you didn't mean it, did you?"
Gorky nodded,
"certainly!"
If the direction of history does not change, he will publish his memoirs——
"Leo Tolstoy".
The respect for Tolstoy is evident.
Gorky said: "It is a pity that too much content was deleted from "Resurrection". Such an excellent work cannot be disseminated normally, so that when the entire European literary world talks about Mr. Tolstoy, it is still inseparable from "War and Peace". "
Bernard Shaw held his cheek with one hand,
"It seems that I should really find a chance to see the original work."
Gorky nodded,
"Mr. Xiao will never be disappointed."
After speaking, he lowered his voice and said in a mysterious tone of sharing a secret: "Do you know that Mr. Tolstoy has stirred up the European literary world recently?"
Lu Shi and Bernard Shaw shook their heads at the same time,
"I don't know."
Gorky smiled and said: "Then do you know the Nobel Prize for Literature..."
Before the words fell,
"Poof!"×2
Lu Shi and Bernard Shaw both sprayed.
Bernard Shaw grabbed the railing and coughed violently,
Lu Shi stroked his chest with his left hand, and reached behind Bernard Shaw with his right hand to help pat his back.
A gust of wind blew and their hats were blown away.
Both of them looked extremely embarrassed.
Gorky was surprised,
"Professor Lu, Mr. Xiao, what are you doing?"
Bernard Shaw showed a playful smile,
"Mr. Gorky, the real owner of this matter is right in front of you."
He told the whole story about the slight disagreement between Lu Shi and the Swedish Academy.
Gorky:! ! !
When he looked at Lu Shi, his eyes changed.
After a while, he said: "With such an internationalist spirit, no wonder Professor Lu can write a speech like "I Have a Dream."
George Bernard Shaw said: "I wanted to correct you before. Lu was invited to give a lecture in Cambridge. The theme was translation. "I Have a Dream" was improvised to answer tricky questions raised by some students at Cambridge. Therefore, "I Have a Dream" "Have a Dream" didn't have a speech script at the beginning."
impromptu! ?
Gorky's jaw dropped to the ground in shock.
At this moment, a burst of exclamation suddenly came from not far away,
"Look!"
Passengers were all attracted.
With a loud rumbling sound, a huge rock mass on the White Cliffs of Dover fell off and hit the sea, splashing a tall water column.
People around him started talking excitedly.
Someone even set up a camera, ready to wait and take a photo.
Bernard Shaw murmured: "I didn't expect to actually see it."
This is called a prophecy.
Lu Shi stretched and said, "Mr. School Superintendent, you have seen what you need to see. Let's go back to the cabin?"
Bernard Shaw said "Yeah".
The two were preparing to leave.
Gorky on the side took a step forward and said, "Professor Lu is academically advanced and good at writing. I have a short article that I hope you can help me read."
As he spoke, he took out a hard-covered notebook.
"Actually, this essay was supposed to be published in "Knowledge" two weeks ago, but I feel that compared with Professor Lu's "I Have a Dream", this short essay is still insufficient, so I went to Cambridge in the hope that Get authorization.”
Gorky turned the notebook all the way back.
Crash--
The paper made a soft sound.
George Bernard Shaw smiled and said, "Let Professor Lu work as an editor for your publishing house? His fees are very high."
Gorky paused.
"Ah this..."
He didn't expect the other party to say that.
Bernard Shaw added: "Besides, for unfamiliar languages, reading and writing are completely different things. Lu can read "Resurrection" and "War and Peace", which shows that he understands Russian, but writing in Russian is completely different. He may not necessarily have guidance. Ability."
Gorky said: "Sorry, I didn't think carefully enough."
He met Lu Shi and Bernard Shaw by chance on the boat. He was a little too excited, so he made the request without thinking.
Lu Shi waved his hand indifferently,
"By the way, you take "I Have a Dream" and plan to publish it in "Knowledge". Are you going to use it in English? Or translate it into Russian?"
Gorky replied: "It is true that it can be expressed more accurately in the original text, but let's use Russian. The only problem is that I don't know if I can translate it well with my own level."
Bernard Shaw chuckled,
"Then you should listen to Lu's speech on "Faithfulness, Expression, and Elegance", which gave a profound analysis of translation."
Gorky said: "I have been wanting to ask just now, if Professor Lu is good at translation, is he sure about Russian?"
Lu Shi touched his nose.
"this……"
In fact, it is somewhat uncertain.
In his impression, the Russian language has been simplified many times. The Russian language at the beginning of the 20th century is slightly different from the modern Russian language, so comparison is needed.
Lu Shi glanced at Gorky's notebook and said, "Can you lend it to me? I don't know much about Russian and I'd like to find a sample essay."
Gorky was stunned and handed it over with joy on his face.
"Professor Lu, please take a look."
Lu Shi flipped through it, and then found that what he thought was indeed correct.
For example, some words used by Gorky contain the letter "", but this letter has been replaced by "ф" in modern Russian.
Similarly, there are:
"" is replaced by "e";
"" and "i" are replaced by "и".
With Lu Shi's level of Russian, it would be no problem to understand.
But if he is asked to translate from English to Russian, there may be minor mistakes.
Lu Shi handed the notebook back,
As a result, before he could speak, Gorky asked first, "Professor Lu, how is my prose writing?"
Lu Shi's head was full of black lines,
￣□￣｜｜
Just now I was just studying the reform of Russian orthography. I focused all my attention on individual words and did not pay attention to the content of the article written by Gorky.
He opened the notebook again and read every line.
The prose is called "The Melody of Spring" and it is a short story with less than 6,000 words in total.
In his prose, Gorky "personified" the birds and added official titles and titles to some of them, expressing satire and sarcasm.
Lu Shi nodded,
"Interesting, it cleverly combines bird calls and satire, and vividly depicts the group portrait of conservatives."
Hit the nail on the head!
Gorky seemed to have found a soulmate.
"I knew Professor Lu would understand," he said.
Lu Shi returned the notebook and said at the same time: "Mr. Gorky, the purpose of this essay is quite high, and the writing level is also online. I have nothing to give you any advice."
George Bernard Shaw asked: "How?"
He knew almost no Russian, so he needed a translator.
Lu Shi spoke briefly.
After hearing the general idea, Bernard Shaw couldn't help but frown and said, "Is this the end?"
Lu Shi asked back: "From a structural point of view, this prose is already very complete. What else can it do if it doesn't end? It's not a long-form serialization that charges a fee of 1,000 words. There is no need to limit the number of words. It must be completed when it needs to be completed."
Bernard Shaw shook his head,
"I'm not talking about structure, but style."
He has read "Collection of Essays and Short Stories". Although it is a translation, the short stories in it are far more exciting than "Melody of Spring".
Gorky on the other side said: "Mr. Xiao knows me! Yes, this article does have some content, but I think it is not perfect enough, so I am a little hesitant."
He pointed to the notebook,
"Professor Lu, please turn it from back to front."
Lu Shi directly turned to the last page, and the scrawled handwriting came into view:
"
In a corner of the garden, on the branches of the old lime tree, sat a group of goldfinches, one of which was singing encouragingly to his companions a song about a petrel that he had heard somewhere.
"
Lu Shi was speechless.
No wonder it felt familiar before. It turns out that "Petrel" is excerpted from "Melody of Spring".
He turned another page forward,
"On the vast sea, strong winds gather dark clouds..."
It is indeed "Haiyan".
Gorky smiled bitterly,
"There is another reason why "Melody of Spring" was not published. Originally, I was going to send this essay to the Courier, but the Courier was afraid of getting burned and did not dare to do anything. So now I can only consider "Knowledge" , but I'm worried..."
The following words were not stated clearly, but both Lu Shi and Bernard Shaw understood it.
The article has a lot of revolutionary elements, and it is about carrying out the boycott of the Tsar to the end. If one operation is not done well, big problems can easily occur.
that's the truth,
Historically, after Gorky encountered a wall in the Courier, he sent "Melody of Spring" to "Life" magazine in St. Petersburg. "Life" did not publish the full text, but published the ending "Petrel" separately in April of that year. On board,
As a result, Life magazine was seized.
Now, Gorky is considering publishing "Melody of Spring" in "Knowledge", which he edited, and he is inevitably hesitant.
Bernard Shaw poked Lu Shi in the waist,
"Read it to me."
Lu Shi nodded and said, "Okay, I'll read it in English."
He recited in a relatively steady voice: "Between the dark clouds and the sea, petrels are flying proudly like black lightning..."
With the recitation, the poem gradually gets better,
Lu Shi's tone also became urgent, and until the climax, his voice increased uncontrollably,
"-'A storm! A storm is coming!'"
That's the thing about contagious poetry, which makes people take it in unconsciously.
Bernard Shaw applauded,
"Wonderful!"
He asked Gorky: "You are still dissatisfied with such an excellent work?"
Gorky said: "Mr. Tolstoy revised the draft of "Anna Karenina" 12 times, and when it was completed, he still said it was not in the most satisfactory state. When a writer looks at his own work, he always hopes that it will be better, even better. most."
Bernard Shaw was also a writer and felt the same way.
Gorky added: "Didn't Mr. Xiao like my "Eagle Song"? The version you saw is also different from the first edition."
"Eagle Song" was published in 1895. When it was republished in 1899, due to Gorky's continuous progress in worldview and his increased awareness of changes in the objective world, important changes were made to the content of the work.
The two had in-depth exchanges about prose and poetry.
But Lu Shi remained silent,
He stared at "Haiyan" and had something in his mind but didn't know whether to say it or not.
Finally, Gorky and Bernard Shaw noticed Lu Shi's silence, stopped talking, and looked at him together.
Gorky asked: "Professor Lu, do you have any questions?"
Lu Shi pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "That's it for this chapter of "Haiyan". Isn't there any more to come? '—The storm! The storm is coming!', and it's over. ?”
Gorky chuckled,
"It seems that Professor Lu was not modest just now. Although you understand Russian, you really don't understand it deeply. 'Haiyan' means the prophet of storm in Russian. Isn't it appropriate to end it with this sentence?"
Lu Shi shook his head,
"I know what it means, I just think... look, is it necessary to add a paragraph at the end?"
As he spoke, he took a deep breath,
"
This is the brave petrel, flying proudly over the roaring sea and in the midst of lightning; this is the prophet of victory shouting:
——Let the storm come more violently!
"
Absolute silence swept over,
Bernard Shaw: "..."
Gorky: "..."
Both of them looked at the landing like a monster.
After a while, Bernard Shaw came back to his senses and whispered: "'-Let the storm come more violently!' Fxxk! I said, Lu, you are a terrible bastard! No one can write this kind of thing better than you An incendiary article.”
Lu Shi was speechless on the spot.
He just recited Gorky's original text.
Gorky still had a dull expression on his face, and after a long time he said: "It is so passionate and exciting... Professor Lu, I have to apologize for being rude to you just now."
After saying that, he bowed deeply.
Lu Shi quickly avoided Gorky's front and said, "No, you have already apologized."
Gorky was very determined,
"Just now, looking at some of your comments about the Tsar, I said you were a supporter of dictatorship. Looking back now, that was the stupidest comment in the world. You are a true idealist!"
(End of chapter)
