Literary Master 1983

Chapter 64 A Yellow Rose
After the speech in the dining hall, Zhao Deming introduced the two to each other.

He first introduced Zhao Zhenjiang. "Yu Qie, this is Professor Zhao Zhenjiang, the director of our Spanish Department. He is an expert in Latin American literature, mainly researching Latin American poetry, but he has dabbled in many areas."

He then introduced Yu Che: "Teacher Zhao, this is Yu Che... I have contact with him because of work. Although Yu Che is young, he has a lot of creative ideas."

Zhao Zhenjiang smiled and said, "I originally knew that you were a novelist, but I didn't expect that you could also do research in Spanish - you are really promising young man."

"When I saw you just now, I thought of the poem I was translating. It was written by an Argentine politician and soldier named José Hernández, who is also a versatile person like you."

Afterwards, Zhao Deming briefly described the Second Latin American Literature Research Conference held in Yenching.

He asked Yu Qie and Zhao Zhenjiang to go and take a look.

The full name of this Latin American Literature Research Conference is the "Marquez and Latin American Magical Realism" Academic Symposium. The first session was held in Chang'an from May 83 to 5, 5. Spanish translators, Portuguese translators, and Latin American Literature Research Associations from all over the country participated.

There were only forty-five people at the time, but they wrote twenty-five papers, all about Marquez - this also shows that initially everyone did equate Marquez with Latin American magical realism.

Moreover, people in this small circle also knew about Marquez’s Nobel Prize speech and had noticed that Marquez himself did not seem to like the word “magic”, so they cautiously added the adjective “Latin America” in front of it, turning it into “Latin American magic” to distinguish it from the common magical meaning.

Regardless of any doubts, the final result was a great success. They enthusiastically introduced this literary form to China with great fanfare.

So in August, Liu Xinwu already knew about this matter and was just about to take advantage of this Latin American trend and go with the flow.

But I didn't expect that I would be stopped by Yu Qie because of an article he wrote. It was very embarrassing.

"Yu Qie, three teachers from Shanghai University of Foreign Languages ​​have translated One Hundred Years of Solitude. Their book is the highlight of this academic seminar. Let's have some exchanges with them."

Yu Qie asked, "Who are these three people?"

"Huang Jinyan, Chen Quan, and Shen Guozheng."

Oh, Yu Qie remembered, Huang Jinyan.

Later, there were many translations of the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Although the most popular one was Fan Ye's translation, at the beginning, a series of writers such as Guan Moye and Wang Anyi were exposed to Huang Jinyan's translation.

There was an earlier translation in Taiwan in 82, titled "One Hundred Years of Solitude", but due to language habits and other reasons, this translation did not spread to the mainland.

Zhao Deming said: "The three of them have already arrived in Yanjing. Now they are crowded with people. Everyone wants to hear their ideas. We will go to meet them too."

"Okay." Yu Qi agreed of course.

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On the other hand, the three people represented by Huang Jinyan were somewhat nervous when they arrived in the capital, because they translated "One Hundred Years of Solitude" on a whim.

At that time, China had special funds and manpower to support the translation of foreign masterpieces, but it was not yet the turn of One Hundred Years of Solitude. In 79, Chen Quan, one of the three, went to Cuba for further studies and brought back the original Spanish version of the novel.

The novel quickly spread among colleagues. Everyone found it interesting and wanted to translate it for others to read, so they translated some of it intermittently.

It just so happened that Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, so they decided to do this completely.

What problem are you facing now?

Huang Jinyan and the other two complained: "There may be some errors in our translation. I think it would be better to make a disclaimer. If there are any problems in the future, don't blame us." Shen Guozheng asked: "What kind of disclaimer do you want to make?"

"That is to say, our level is limited, and we are across the ocean and rely on a Spanish-language dictionary as a reference book. If readers find any mistakes, please forgive us in the future."

After hearing this, Shen Guozheng and Chen Quan both supported it.

Shen Guozheng said: "I came to the capital and read a research article on Latin American Realism, which was published in October. Someone shared it with me... I looked up some information and verified it briefly. I felt that what he said made some sense."

Next, Shen Guozheng began to talk about why it is necessary to write a disclaimer.

The three of them translated the novel separately, splitting it into three parts, with each person responsible for one part. The three people have different writing styles and habits, so even the town of "Macondo" where the plot takes place in the novel has different translations, some translated it as Macondo, and some translated it as macondo.

Not to mention the vast number of names.

If someone who doesn't speak Spanish reads this, they will be completely confused after reading the whole article.

Although Huang Jinyan was ultimately asked to coordinate and proofread the work, with him being the main person in charge, there are definitely still many errors.

That night, the translator of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Yu Qie and his group met. After the greetings, they talked about a deeper topic, which even Yu Qie had never heard of.

Huang Jinyan said: "Why did I say that a disclaimer was necessary? Because I found out that when Marquez gave his Nobel Prize speech, he was wearing a bouquet of yellow roses. I learned this from a foreign newspaper I read."

"In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, there is also the yellow rose. Because the plots all involve death, I thought it was some kind of ominous sign, and I translated it with this imagery... So why did Márquez give his speech with a yellow rose? It's not auspicious."

"I may be completely mistaken. Who knows if there are others?"

Now, everyone was confused.

Shen Guozheng believes that the yellow roses may be "some kind of solemn and sad primitive witchcraft sacrificial ritual." Marquez is a mysterious person, so it is hard to guarantee that he would do such a thing.

Yu Che immediately returned to Yanjing University and asked the international students from Colombia, but found that there were no students from that country. He then went to the Colombian embassy, ​​but the ambassador was an elite who went to study in the United States and did not know the culture of his hometown.

He only knew Márquez.

So Yu Qie had to settle for the next best thing and look for a female student from Brazil studying in Columbia.

The student said: "In South America, yellow roses symbolize love."

Is that what happened?

Wasn't Zhao Zhenjiang translating the Argentine national treasure literature "Martin Fierro"? He contacted the Argentine ambassador to China and asked what the yellow rose was about.

"In Argentina, the yellow rose is a slang term for a giant Argentine spider, which we call the 'Argentine Rose,'" the ambassador said.

Argentine giant spider?

Well, everyone has a different answer. Everyone feels that a disclaimer is needed.

　Pay attention to the timeline. When they first translated, Marquez had not yet won the Nobel Prize, and the support he received was limited. It was purely a personal act.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)