QQSRX #9 Gabriel Garcia Marquez 锵锵三人行

[michaelS]

This is the first episode I've been able to sit down and watch, and come away feeling I've understood 95% without needing to pore over the transcript.

 

If you're familiar with the topic, I think this is a very good episode to start your QQSRX watching

 

Episode #9

Date      2014 年04月24日

Title      马尔克斯与魔幻现实主义文学    Gabriel García Márquez and Magical Realism

 

Link to transcript   http://phtv.ifeng.com/program/qqsrx/detail_2014_04/25/36023958_0.shtml

Link to video       http://v.ifeng.com/news/society/2014004/012c4a3e-9f55-4e8e-8075-84bd71cc6cfe.shtml

Youtube link       www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d7rxvhaHOg

Episodes list      http://www.chinese-f...st-of-episodes/

 

 Host:                    窦文涛

Guests:               周孝正     and     许子东

 

Topic: Gabriel García Márquez

 

 

[michaelS]

1. 窦文涛：《锵锵三人行》。周孝正老师。

1. Wentao: QQSRX. Zhou Xiaozheng is with us.

2. 周孝正：你好。

2. Zhou Xiaozheng: Hello.

3. 窦文涛：周老师，特别值得我们学习，人家这么大的教授，每次上咱们这么一个小节目，你瞧，这是专门准备一沓资料，这家伙这个态度超过了许子东几条马路，咱们看看周老师今天准备了什么？马尔克斯，这叫百年之后不孤独，加西亚马尔克斯。

这是许老师，你肯定，不说感同身受，你算是什么，意淫太深了。

3. Wentao: Professor Zhou is an example to the rest of us. Despite being such an important academic, every time he’s on our show, he still prepares a whole stack of notes. A much better attitude than Xu Zidong. So what has he prepared for us today? Marquez, it says. One hundred years of solitude come to an end. Gabriel García Márquez.

Professor Xu, this is a special treat for you, your wildest dreams have come true.

4. 许子东：是我的研究对象。

4. Xu Zidong: I wrote my thesis on him.

 

[1.00]

 

5. 窦文涛：你的研究对象，而且我看你们上海朱大可，说的更极端，说加西亚马尔克斯，他说这个话挺阴的，他说加西亚马尔克斯是一代中国作家的话语导师， 中国作家的，长期以来马尔克斯扮演了中国作家的话语导师，他对中国当代文学的影响超过了包括博尔赫斯在内的所有外国作家，对于许多中国作家而言，马尔克斯不仅是无法逾越的障碍，而且是不可告人的秘密，为什么是不可告人的秘密？

5. Wentao: Your thesis, and as well as that, your fellow Shanghai local Zhu Dake took it even further, he said that García Márquez – he went a little far, in my opinion – was the language tutor for a whole generation of Chinese writers. These writers took García Márquez as a guide, and so his influence on current Chinese literature is greater than all foreign writers, including Borges. For many Chinese writers, Márquez is not only an obstacle that they will never be able to surpass, but also a secret not to be shared. Why does he say that second part?

6a. 周孝正：因为百年孤独这种名著，他是八十年代初他才到中国，那时候正好是改革开放，就是所谓的党的十一届三中全会拨乱反正，确立以经济建设为中心， 一百年不动摇的党的基本路线，原来是阶级斗争，所以原来中国，我们上学时的主流都是苏俄的那些革命现实主义，动不动要解放你，他是那种，到了这个，一下就变了。

6a. Zhou Xiaozheng: Because… [as much as I think he’s great, Zhou Xiaozheng isn’t a big one for answering the right question] Books like One Hundred years of Solitude only arrived in China in the 1980s, in the period of reform and opening, the party’s eleventh Third Plenum, when order was supposedly being restored, when the idea to focus on economic development was brought to the fore. The Party had been on an unswerving course., from the start it had all been about class struggle. When I was at school the mainstream literature was all Soviet-style socialist realism, for example…, that type of thing. But then suddenly, it all changed.

 

[2.00]

 

6b. 我们那个时候就是感觉非常的，因为他确实，他是八十年代初的事，而且是盗版，你注意，那时候没有什么版权意识，觉得能给你出了，能够传播你的著作，你还要钱，你开什么玩笑。

6b. Zhou Xiaozheng: So when it came out we all felt… it was honest… it was an 80s thing. And the other thing was, it was all pirated, there were no intellectual copyright laws back then. The attitude was, we’re getting your name out there, we’re publicising your work, and you want money for that?! Good one!

7. 窦文涛：你知道我就是，现在我到处想找霍乱时期的爱情。

7. Wentao: You know, at the moment I’ve been looking everywhere for “Love in the Time of Cholera”.

8. 许子东：爱在瘟疫蔓延时。

8. Xu Zidong: The title was “Love in the Time of Plagues”.

9a. 窦文涛：有这个电影，但是中译本有没有我不知道，但是老找不找，后来我们这个编辑就跟我找来一个资料，就说当年马尔克斯应邀访问中国的时候，当场给了中国人一难看，因为他发现到处都是《百年孤独》的这种，咱们那个时候没有版权意识，都是盗版，并说当时钱钟书就在他身边，他当着钱钟书的面跟人说，你们都是一帮盗版贩子，说是钱钟书听了之后当场沉默不语，很尴尬。

9a. Wentao: Well, that was the film. But whether there is a Chinese edition of the book I’m not sure, I’ve never been able to find it. And then our editor has given me a note, saying that when García Márquez was invited to visit China, he wasn’t very impressed. Because he found that for One Hundred Years of Solitude and so on, there was no intellectual copyright, it was all pirate editions. He met Qian Zhongshu and said to his face, you are all pirates. Qian Zhongshu was lost for words, it was extremely embarrassing.

9b: 当时听说他就说，发誓150年，我也不给中国的版权，中国到后来，听说有一个新经典这么一个图书出版公司的这么一个人，说这个公司就是为了出版《百年孤独》才成立的，所以最后总算把他给弄动了，才拿到了授权，你记得当年，你初次接触《百年孤独》的时候受的那种冲击吗？

 

[3.00]

 

9b. Wentao (cont.): Supposedly he vowed not to give the rights to China for 150 years. But later on he heard that a publishing house called New Classics had been set up specifically to publish One Hundred Years of Solitude, so in the end he relented and gave them the rights. Do you remember this being an issue when you first came into contact with One Hundred Years of Solitude?

10a. 许子东：李欧梵，那个时候很早写了一篇文章，说在大概八十年代初，就他还没有得到诺贝尔，他82年得诺贝尔，他写了一篇文章说有两个作家会对中国很大的影响，一个就是加西亚马尔克斯，另外一个是米兰昆德拉，都被他说中了，为什么说，明报采访我，我说所有诺贝尔得奖者里面，对中国影响最大的是加西亚马 尔克斯，为什么呢？

10a. Xu Zidong: Li Oufan wrote an article a long time back, at the beginning of the eighties, García Márquez still hadn’t won the Nobel, it was 82 when he won. Li Oufan wrote that there were two writers who would have a great influence on Chinese writers. One was García Márquez, and the other was Milan Kundera. He was spot on. The reason I mention this is that the Ming Pao newspaper interviewed me, and I said that García Márquez had had the biggest influence on China.

10b. 是因为其实那个时候中国作家都受卡夫卡的影响，就是开始用现代主义的方法写小说，但是中国人的兴趣，中国人传统的文化根基又是写乡村，写民族国家政治，文革，但是中国当时觉得，现代的这个东西是写城市的，写人的变态心理的，农村土地的主题要用现实主义的方法来处理，加西亚马尔克斯，给中国作家了一个最大的起启发就是说，原来土地这个题目可以用现代主义的手法来说，这就直接导致了1985年的寻根文学，直接影响了莫言，韩少功，张承志，陈忠实，这一代作家到今天还是中国文学的主流，简单的一句话，就是现代主义的技巧跟土地文化，就是民族国家的东西相结合。

10b. Xu Zidong (cont.): Because at that time Chinese writers were most heavily influenced by Kafka, they began to write novels in that modernist vein. But Chinese people’s interest, Chinese traditional culture is based on rural themes, national politics, the Cultural Revolution. But in China it was thought that modernism was necessarily about the city, new forms of experience, to deal with rural themes you had to use realism instead. García Márquez gave Chinese writers a potent new idea: it turned out you could use modernism to write about the countryside. This directly led to the establishment of the Xungen movement in 1985, and it directly influenced authors like Mo Yan, Han Shaogong, Zhang Chengzhi and Chen Zhongshi, these writers who are still very much the key Chinese authors. Put simply, it allowed modernism and rural culture to be combined.

11. 窦文涛：就是当时给人的冲击，我听他们说，就说小说还能这样写，就像人家看了《锵锵三人行》节目说节目还能这样做，开玩笑。

11. Wentao: So people felt its impact deeply, I can imagine them saying, so it’s still possible to write like that. Similarly to how people watch this show and think, so it’s still possible to make TV like that. Just joking.

 

[5.00]

 

12a. 许子东：但是他刚才为什么讲是一个秘密？不仅是讲盗版，另外一个，比方说莫言好几次提名，开始他们也就说，他受加西亚马尔克斯的影响，但是如果说单单他只是受这个影响，诺贝尔奖的委员会不大满意的，后来他们看了他后来的生死疲劳的作品就说，就强调他还是有中国的聊斋，儒林外史，中国西游记，这么一个神话传统的这么一个影响，

12a. Xu Zidong: But to go back to what we were saying about it being a secret, why was that? It wasn’t just about pirate editions. For example, Mo Yan, who is often mentioned in relation to García Márquez. Mo Yan suggested that García Márquez had been a big influence at the beginning. But, if he had only based his writing on that, the Nobel Committee wouldn’t have been impressed. They were looking at his later work, novels like Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, and they made it clear that he was continuing a mythological tradition that stretched back to Pu Songling’s ghost stories, The Scholars, Journey to the West.

12b. 所以，今天很多人也看到，包括我们不用太完全强调，我觉得朱大可这个讲的有点过分了，话语导师，因为中国的这些血液自然而然在里面，就是即使中国作家用加西亚马尔克斯的方法，用魔幻现实主义来写透明的红萝卜、写红高粱，写出来也还是不同的东西。

12. Xu Zidong (cont.):  So, nowadays many people see this, we shouldn’t overexaggerate the influence García Márquez, I think Zhu Dake was a little over-the-top, this thing about him being Chinese writers’ language tutor. Because it comes utterly naturally to Chinese people – even if they are using García Márquez’s style to use magical realism in books like A Transparent Radish or Red Sorghum, they still produce something distinct.

13. 周孝正：他这个影响一直到现在，叫新型城市化，叫做城里的人要看得见山，望得见水，记得住乡愁，你注意这句话，我估计也是这影响下的，就是您说的那个，他有土地，他是根，但是现在这些作家他不太知道，莫言知道，你看莫言人家小时候也是在农村。

13. Zhou Xiaozheng: This is something that still exists today, it’s called new urbanisation, meaning that city dwellers want to see the mountains again, see the rivers again, it’s a kind of homesickness.  I’m sure that this is what’s going on here, what you’ve been saying. Soil and roots – very few writers these days understand these things, but Mo Yan does, he grew up in the countryside.

 

[6.05]

 

14. 许子东：他最大的一个影响是在他小说的第一句，句式，你把这一句读一下。

14. Xu Zidong: García Márquez’s biggest influence was that novel’s first sentence. Read it for us.

15. 窦文涛：我记得，当年我们都是朗朗称颂，小时候的第一句，一句就给砸了人了，就说多年之后，面对行刑队，奥雷良诺布文迪亚上校将会回想起父亲带他去见识冰块的那个遥远的下午，这就是所谓一句话里三个时态过现未来。

15. Wentao: I remember, back then we were all blown away, it was that first sentence that knocked everyone for six. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice”. A sentence with all three tenses in it, past, present and future.

16. 许子东：多年以后，锵锵三人行，五十周年的纪念日的时候，窦文涛会回想到他第一天做节目的时候带着那个小百叶结。

16. Xu Zidong: “Many years later, on the fiftieth anniversary of QQSRX, Dou Wentao was to remember the little bowtie he wore for the first broadcast.”

17. 窦文涛：惊世骇俗。

17. Wentao: That’s a low blow.

 

[7.00]

 

18a. 许子东：后来，很多作家用这个句式，比方说红高粱，红高粱男主角那个土匪他就抢那个女的轿子，手伸进去摸了他的脚，这个时候作家就跳出来了，说这一摸就改变了余占鳌，就是这个土匪头子后半生的命运，这个照说，在写小说里是个大忌，就等于是一场比赛，你看到一边…

18a. Xu Zidong: Since then many writers have used that opening idea, for example Red Sorghum. In Red Sorghum the main character, a bandit, kidnaps a girl, and touches her foot. At that point the author interjects to say that the action of touching her would change the rest of his life. It’s like a football match…

18b. 我就告诉你最后2比0，就是这个球决定胜负，这个是很扫兴的一件事情，但是他把故事改变了，他把我们从接下去会发生什么变成了事情是怎么发生的，因为本来我们看球你有一个实况跟重播，故事都是有一个，你是按现行发展和事后回顾，他就把这两个结合起来，后来刘恒的《福兮福兮》也是，这一男一女在田里发出了那种欢叫，这个欢叫，后来响了几十年，你就知道他们不是一夜情，他们后来是一生死就是这个爱情，就这种跳出来这个句法，多年以后，人们会发现，加西亚马尔克斯，当初进入中国的情况。

18b. Xu Zidong (cont.): It finishes as two-nil, and it’s the ball that has decided who wins and who loses, it can be very disappointing. But Mo Yan changes the story from a question of what will happen to a question of how it will happen. Watching a sports match is live, but with a novel you can also look back and review with the benefit of hindsight. Mo Yan puts these two things together. Or Liu Heng, “Fuxi Fuxi”, there are a man and a woman in a field, and a shout of pleasure, and then the authors says that this shout would ring out for decades, so the reader knows it’s not about a quick roll in the hay, this love is going to last their whole lives. It’s this method of interjecting on the part of the author. Many years later, people were to remember that distant time when García Márquez arrived in China.

 

[8.15]

 

19. 窦文涛：就是创造话语创造语言。

19. Wentao: He was creative with words and creative with language.

20. 周孝正：其实我们小时候听故事都有一种潜移默化的所谓的宿命论，为什么？他都定下来了，比如说《水浒传》108将，36个天罡，72个地煞，包括《红楼梦》，他都有这种，就从小就觉得定下来了，就叫做谋事在人，成事在天，他有一个天。

20. Zhou Xiaozheng: In fact when I was younger, stories all had traces of this fatalism you’re talking about. They all contained fixed points, for example Water Margin, with its one hundred and eight parts, thirty-six heroes, seventy-two villains, Dream of the Red Chamber as well. They all have this idea, that in the end fate comes from the will of the heavens, rather than from men’s plans.

21. 许子东：我们那个时候画门的时候是这样说，你进去了，但是他不会说，当第一次见到贾宝玉，见到林黛玉的时候，他不会马上说，多年以后，贾宝玉进庙的什么什么，他不用这样的手法来写。

21. Xu Zidong: That’s true, but those books couldn’t say “The first time Jin Baoyu saw Lin Daiyu…” and then say “Many years later, Jin Baoyu was to enter a temple and so on and so on.” That style of narrative wasn’t possible.

 

[9.00]

 

22. 窦文涛：所以我觉得你看，他这个文学史上有这样的人，你虽然说每年都评诺贝尔，我就发现诺贝尔文学奖，怎么说？人跟人还是不一样，像加西亚马尔克斯，他几乎是，我觉得属于最高档次的一级了，影响了。

22. Wentao: So I think you’ll find, this type of literary historical figure – although there’s a Nobel Prize every year… how can I put it? Not all winners are equal, not all are like García Márquez, he’s practically… I think he belongs to the highest grade of writers, in terms of influence.

23. 许子东：不，他还有一个原因是因为他开辟新大陆，因为他是哥伦比亚作家，说实在话，诺贝尔奖的得奖一大部分都是欧洲国家，英语系的作家，他以后博尔赫斯、略萨什么什么有，但当初他是第一个，就是南美国家，一个小国家，第三世界国家，这是很少的。

23. Xu Zidong: But there is another reason why he had such an impact in China, namely that he was a Columbian writer. Let’s face it, the Nobel Prize generally goes to European writers, Anglophone writers. After García Márquez came Borges (?) and Mario Vargas Llosa, but he was the first, a South American writer, from a small country, a third-world country. There haven’t been many of those.

24. 窦文涛：我当时感觉，就是给我们插上了幻想的翅膀，其实当然，过去中国作家写小说，也有幻想，但是他那个幻想，我记得，好像那个里边，我都忘了情节了，好像忘了一个，他的姑姑还是什么妇女，晒衣服的时候，晒被单的时候，就飞走了，她是那种。

24. Wentao: For me, he gave wings to our fantasies. Because of course Chinese writers in the past have used fantasy in their novels, but his fantasies… I remember in his book, I forget the exact circumstances, whether it was a grandmother or a which woman, who was hanging out the washing, the blankets, and then flies away!

25. 许子东：就失踪了。

 

[10.00]

 

25. Xu Zidong: And never returns.

26. 窦文涛：就一下就。

26. Wentao: All of a sudden.

27. 许子东：小孩子生出猪尾巴，然后谁谁那个上校，小孩特别多。

27. Xu Zidong: There’s a boy who grows a pig tail, and there’s a colonel who has hundreds of children.

28. 窦文涛：对。

28. Wentao: That’s right.

29a. 许 子东：他那个时候幻想啊，哪个国家都有。我们的西游记一大堆的幻想，但区别在什么地方。我们一旦有幻想的作品以后，就是他长出一个鼻子了，他可以有尾巴了，他可以一跳了，谁都魔幻。但是魔幻现实主义的一个特点，就是它往往只写一点小的东西的魔幻，而其他的周围东西都现实的。

29a. Xu Zidong: What country doesn’t have a tradition of fantastical stories? Journey to the West is full of them. But there’s a difference. In these traditional stories, a character’s nose can grow, a tail can grow, people can fly away, any magical thing can happen. But magical realism’s key feature is that it only has little elements of magic, whereas the surroundings and the setting are all realistic.

29b. 其实要说这个方法，我要说回来还是卡夫卡，最典型的这种写法就是变形记。你想想他变成甲虫以后，他余下来的感觉都是人的感觉，因为人变成虫了以后才想，我怎么上班啊，我衣服怎么穿呐， 我下面的人生怎么样。造说你变成虫，那牛魔王我们这个铁扇公主，你就不想这些问题了。他一定要把一个魔幻的因素，放回到现实的环境，这样现实就更加现实， 这个对中国作家启发很大。

29b. Xu Zidong (cont.): In fact, if I want to explain this, it’s best to go back to Kafka, the classic example of this is in Metamorphosis. Think about the man who turns into a beetle, afterwards he still has human feelings, because after the transformation he still worries about how he’ll go to work, what clothes he’ll wear, how the rest of his life will be. The Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan (in Journey to the West) certainly don’t think about these problems! García Márquez took an element of magic and put it into a real setting, and in this way made reality seem more real. This is what had a huge impact on Chinese writers.

 

[11.15]

 

30. 周孝正：你想我们搞社会学的，我们一般不喜欢看小说、连续剧。

30. Zhou Xiaozheng: You know, we sociologists generally don’t like reading novels or watching TV series.

31. 许子东：瞎编。

31. Xu Zidong: Because they’re not real.

32. 周孝正：对，我们觉得那都是瞎编，因为我们认为最有，我们认为印象比较深的一句话，就是马克吐温那句话，说现实发生的事是最有魅力的，为什么。他不用考虑合不合逻辑，你编一个故事你得考虑合不合逻辑。

32. Zhou Xiaozheng: Exactly, they’re all made up. We think instead… The words that made the deepest impression are those words of Mark Twain: the most wondrous events are those that truly happened. Because you don’t need to consider whether they make sense. Whereas when you write a story you need to think about whether it makes sense.

33. 窦文涛：对。

33. Wentao: Right.

34. 周孝正：最有名的就是911，是吧两架飞机撞在世贸，四百多米一百多层，一条撞上那个分割点，上边大约是40，完了几分钟烧化，用40，40%压垮60%，包括地下室17层。当时那个设计师都是顶级的设计师，他没想到。

34. Zhou Xiaozheng: The most famous case was 9/11, wasn’t it? Two aeroplanes crash into the World Trade Centre, 400m tall, more than a hundred storeys, and at the point where the building broke, the forty storeys above disintegrated in a few seconds, that 40% of the building flattens the 60% below, including the seventeen below ground. The world-class architects who designed it could never have predicted it.

35. 窦文涛：911你要不是真的，而是小说，人家就会说这小说不可信。

35. Wentao: You’re saying that, if 9/11 hadn’t really happened, but rather had been only a novel, nobody would have believed it.

36. 周孝正：对，没人编。

36. Zhou Xiaozheng:  Yes, exactly.

37. 窦文涛：魔幻现实主义，但是真的里边他就真的这么魔幻。

37. Dou Wentao: There’s magical realism, but real things can often be fantastical too.

[michaelS]

Queries

 

5他说这个话挺阴的

Could that be 淫 rather than 阴? In which case, could the meaning be, he went a little too far, his words were excessive?

 

6a就是所谓的党的十一届三中全会拨乱反正

What does 所谓的  apply to here? My assumption was that it was a case of所谓的…拨乱反正, and Zhou Xiaozheng is being a little sceptical about the reforms of the 80s.

 

6a动不动要解放你

Is this an example of revolutionary socialist realism? A title?

 

10a他写了一篇文章说有两个作家会对中国很大的影响

A kind of ‘future in the past’? When Li Oufan was writing, these authors were not well-known, but he predicted that they would have a great influence (?)

 

18a 轿子

I haven’t read Red Sorghum. This doesn’t seem to be a character’s name, as far as I can tell. Does the girl get kidnapped in a sedan chair or something like that?

 

18a-b

I get a bit lost when he throws in the analogy of the sports match, I mean, I think I get the general idea (novels aren’t ‘live’), but I’m sure someone can tighten up the language.

 

20. 比如说《水浒传》108将，36个天罡，72个地煞

I don’t know anything about this book other than what I’ve read on a thread on this forum. Don’t exactly understand what these numbers refer to.

 

21. A good chunk of a sentence is missing from the transcript here, does anyone have sharp enough ears to make it out?

[michaelS]

Vocabulary

 

3 感同身受   gǎn​tóng​shēn​shòu    --- to feel as if it had happened to oneself / to sympathize / [here] take it as a personal favor

3 意淫   yì​yín      ---  (sexual) fantasy

6a 拨乱反正   bō​luàn​fǎn​zhèng     ---   bring order out of chaos

7 霍乱      huò​luàn      ---   cholera

8 瘟疫     wēn​yì           ---  plague

12b 自然而然       zì​rán​'ér​rán     ---  involuntarily, automatically

13 乡愁            xiāng​chóu       --- nostalgia

17 惊世骇俗    jīng​shì​hài​sú     --- to offend the whole of society (“you’ve gone too far!”)

18b 扫兴    sǎo​xìng      ---  to feel deflated

20 潜移默化   qián​yí​mò​huà    --- imperceptibly influence

20 宿命论     sù​mìng​lùn      --- fatalism/ fatalistic

20 谋事在人，成事在天    móu​shì​zài​rén​, chéng​shì​zài​tiān 

31 瞎编     xiā​biān     ---  to fabricate (a story)

34 顶级     dǐng​jí       ---  top-notch

[michaelS]

Here is a list of the authors and books mentioned. Please let us all know if you have read any of these books, especially the Chinese ones.

 

I’ve read a couple of books by Mo Yan, but not those mentioned. Han Shaogong and Zhang Chengzhi sound very interesting from their Wikipedia pages! Links below.

 

Chinese authors and books (authors in bold)

 

莫言     Mò​ Yán

生死疲劳    Shēng​sǐ​ Pí​láo     --- Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

红高粱       Hóng​ Gāo​liáng    ---  Red Sorghum

透明的红萝卜Tòumíng de Hóngluóbo   ---  A Transparent Radish

蛙     Wā    ---  Frogs

 

钱钟书     Qián​ Zhōng​shū, author of the 1947 novel Fortress Besieged  围城

 

韩少功   Han Shaogong

 

张承志   Zhang Chengzhi

 

陈忠实   Chen Zhongshi

白鹿原  Báilùyuán      White Deer Plain

 

刘恒       Liu Heng

福兮福兮   Fuxi Fuxi

 

王朔    Wáng Shuò

 

聊斋   Liáozhāi         ---  Pu Songling’s ghost stories

儒林外史  Rúlín Wàishǐ   --- The Scholars

西游记   Xīyóujì     --- Journey to the West

水浒传   Shuǐhǔzhuàn     --- Water Margin

红楼梦   Hónglóumèng    ---  Dream of the Red Chamber

 

Non-Chinese books and authors

 

加西亚马尔克斯    Jiāxīyǎ Mǎ'ěrkèsī     --- Gabriel García Márquez

百年孤独    Bǎinián Gūdú     ---  One Hundred Years of Solitude

霍乱时期的爱情/ 爱在瘟疫蔓延时   Huòluàn Shíqí de Àiqíng/ Ài zài Wēnyì Mànyán Shí        ---   Love in the Time of Cholera

 

米兰昆德拉   Mǐlán Kūndélā     --- Milan Kundera

 

略萨        Lüèsà       --- Mario Vargas Llosa

 

博尔赫斯  Bó’ěrhèsī     ---   Jose Luis Borges

 

卡夫卡  Kǎfukǎ    ---  Franz Kafka

变形记  Biànxíngjì    --- Metamorphosis

 

马克吐温  Mǎkètǔwēn    ---  Mark Twain

 

Literary Movements

 

现实主义Xiànshízhǔyì    --- Realism
现代主义Xiàndàizhǔyì    --- Modernism
魔幻现实主义  Móhuàn xiànshízhǔyì    --- Magical Realism
革命现实主义  Gémìng xiànshízhǔyì    ---  Revolutionary/ Socialist realism
寻根文学    Xúngēn wénxué          ---    Xungen movement

[michaelS]

Translation Challenges!

Some interesting parts from later in the show. With the hope of getting others involved in these threads, post up your translations here

 

16.55

许子东：今天的读书人他已经把这两个放弃了，就是说你要么写小时代这种，那我就不写我就清高，政治的东西我惹不起，我没有话语权。

窦文涛：我惹不起我躲得起。

 

18.30

周孝正：人家这个名字是谦虚谨慎，我没大啊，我们就说我们那小圈子怎么了，差异是宝贵财富，你不是也说我们吗，人家还是有自知之明的，但是他一切的 一切就是骗钱，有了钱了我就是大爷，你们爱怎么说怎么说，你们是吃不到葡萄讲葡萄酸的。他们的心态就是这意思，叫闷声发大财。发了大财了奢侈啊，腐败啊， 高档消费啊对不对，你像北京的汽车一台得几千万，在原来的老一代里头，有钱都不能那么花为什么那叫烧包。现在人家我就是烧包，怎么的啊。

[imron]

This is the first episode I've been able to sit down and watch, and come away feeling I've understood 95% without needing to pore over the transcript.

Congratulations.  How much of that would you attribute to having been analysing the episodes in such detail for the last few months?

[michaelS]

How much of that would you attribute to having been analysing the episodes in such detail for the last few months?

 

Admittedly at least 1/3 of the credit needs to go to the fact that I know the subject matter of this episode very well

 

Maybe another 1/3 to the fact that I've got very familiar with the format, the style, the characters and viewpoints of the host and guests.

 

But at least another 1/3 goes directly to the huge boost in my listening skills that I've received from listening to this regularly (but not obsessively*) since January. The fact that there are no subtitles, and the sheer weight of input - compared to a sitcom or anything with a storyline, anything that relies on visuals or action - has really pushed me.

*In the last few months, I've been "using" three things to improve my Chinese - 锵锵三人行， 爱情公寓， and 鬼吹灯. I've spent the least time on the former, but it's probably had the biggest impact.

(The word "using" is in scare quotes because not one of those things has been anything other than a pleasure, it's not felt like work at all)

[michaelS]

And, I should add, that all three of things I have discovered through these forums, and not only that, I would never have been able to get a foothold in them if it hadn't been for the hard work and enthusiasm of individual posters.

 

I would never have got started on this show without Realmayo's translations and commentary on the first few, and likewise for laurenth's posts on 鬼吹灯, and renzhe's vocab lists and general endorsement of 爱情公寓

[renzhe]

I like magical realism and Garcia Marquez, so I'll watch this one for sure!

A shame they did not mention the late and great José Saramago, though. Deserves to be listed with the others, IMHO.

[gato]

Just listened to this episode on the http://wenku.baidu.c...zoO6P2IK6JrkWfa

汉​语​中​的​“​动​不​动​1​”​和​“​动​不​动​2​

 

http://zhidao.baidu....8DW0atH0Uyoa6pq

一般指贬义，阴险的意思！

 

这得从你跟那个人的关系来判断的，如果你们关系很好，那么他是给你开玩笑的，不要放在心上否则会让别人感觉自己有点小家子气的；如果你们关系一般，甚至是出于竞争对立的关系，那么这话就是说城府深，阴险狡猾，会设陷阱来让别人如自己的愿受到自己预期的结果，是贬义。如果你们是朋友，但是因为某种事闹了别扭，他说你真阴，那是或许是因为他因为某种事误解了你，认为你是故意伤害他的，这种情况如果你感觉你们的友谊有挽留的必要，那就应该等他不生气了的时候好好给他解释解释下！

6a就是所谓的党的十一届三中全会拨乱反正

 

 

 

What does 所谓的  apply to here? My assumption was that it was a case of所谓的…拨乱反正, and Zhou Xiaozheng is being a little sceptical about the reforms of the 80s.

It is used to signal sarcasm.  It applies to the whole phrase of 党的十一届三中全会拨乱反正.

 

 

[by the way, I had a lot of trouble with the quote formatting here.  Seems that backslash quote doesn't work any more, and one has to use the quote icon in the edit box. ]

[imron]

Seems that backslash quote

Backslash quote or forward slash quote?  I always manually type tags because it's faster that way than having my hands leave the keyboard to move the mouse the click the quote button.

[gato]

Forward actually. Sorry to get off topic.

[michaelS]

A great show, and 周孝正 is an amazing talker

 

Thanks for the corrections Gato.

 

周孝正 is indeed great whenever he appears. He gets a bit outshone in the first part of this ep by 许子东, but the part I quoted above is him back on top form

 

18.30

周孝正：人家这个名字是谦虚谨慎，我没大啊，我们就说我们那小圈子怎么了，差异是宝贵财富，你不是也说我们吗，人家还是有自知之明的，但是他一切的 一切就是骗钱，有了钱了我就是大爷，你们爱怎么说怎么说，你们是吃不到葡萄讲葡萄酸的。他们的心态就是这意思，叫闷声发大财。发了大财了奢侈啊，腐败啊， 高档消费啊对不对，你像北京的汽车一台得几千万，在原来的老一代里头，有钱都不能那么花为什么那叫烧包。现在人家我就是烧包，怎么的啊。

 

Anyone care to have a stab translating it? Not easy

 

What's a good way to say 大爷? "Big shot"?

[roddy]

On the queries which Gato hasn't covered...

 

10a and 18a I think you're right. 

 

18a-b the idea is that in these novels they tell you right at the start what's going to happen - the colonel will face the firing squad - and compare this to being told the result of a football match. But the story becomes not about what's going to happen, but how it's going to happen. 

 

21. Something about 合该有此? 还本？ Beyond me, I'm afraid. 

 

Huge amount of work you're putting in here!

[michaelS]

Belated thanks for the feedback Roddy.

 

As I said in another thread - is anyone else having trouble with the Overseas Kids downloads that realmayo has linked to elsewhere? It's been seriously cutting down on my QQSRX viewing!

 

(I've got the password but it doesn't seem to work)

[yedafu]

Thanks for the recommendation:) i just finish watching and i was wondering about something: your all praising 周孝正 and im not saying something wrong about the comments and ideas his presenting,  but for me personally its really hard to understand what his saying im not talking about the idioms and stuff but for the actual sounds that coming out of his mouth...and  i was wonder if it just my listening ability or anyone else also feels the same? 

i know this post is quite old but maybe you guys still following,

thanks

[realmayo]

Definitely difficult But the more you listen to him the easier it gets. One reason I like this TV show is because the same guests turn up fairly often. So a good balance between variety and repetition. Eventually you'll get used to him!

[realmayo]

yedafu, let us know what you make of 王蒙's pronunciation in http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/46389-qqsrx-14-deng-on-tv-also-meng-%E9%94%B5%E9%94%B5%E4%B8%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%A1%8C/

[mandel1luke]

Very Interesting episode. Didn't know Garcia Marquez influenced Chinese writers (especially Mo Yan) this much. Just finished reading Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude yesterday (in English translation) and I seriously think magic realism isn't everyone's cup of tea. While the beginning sentence is a classic and the ending very very clever, the middle sections with all the permutations of same names/events was just too mind boggling for me. The novel polarized readers on Goodreads too. I think some people really go overboard in calling (Bill Clinton anyway) Garcia Marquez "the most important writer of fiction in any language." 周孝正 and 许子东 appear to be in Garcia Marquez's fan club.