夏志清譯白先勇的「謫仙記」(1)          1973 3 / 4         文 林
 
 
                                                                                                       夏志清
 
 
前言 -- 林以亮 (宋淇)
 
把中國小說介紹給西方讀者最大的功臣不是別人﹐是夏志清。難得的是他見解高超﹐不為時尚的偏見所影響﹐而能有新發現。更難得的是他持之以恒﹐十餘年如一日。他先出版了﹕
 
「近代中國小說史」(一九六一年耶魯大學)
其中他追溯了近代中國小說的起源和發展﹐自魯迅到茅盾、沈從文、老舍、巴金﹐可是又同時特別提出了﹕
 
張愛玲
錢鐘書
(即蘆焚)
 
 
他推崇張愛玲的藝術成就和錢鍾書的出色作品: 《人、獸、鬼》和《圍城》。當時有許多人不以為然﹐認為夏志清故作與眾不同的論調﹐抬高不見經傳的作家的地位﹐而低估了大家心目中的偶象﹐未免標新立異。到了今天﹐時間證明了夏志清獨到的眼光的正確性﹐台、港很多重要的小說家都欽佩張愛玲而在不知不覺中受她的影響。張愛玲把自己的小說譯成英文﹐陸續在英、美出版。錢鍾書的作品也逐漸受人重視﹐幾乎全部為人所翻印﹐而成為研究的對象。然後夏志清又出版了﹕
 
「中國古典小說」(一九六八年哥倫比亞大學)
詳細評介了三國演義、水滸、西遊記、金瓶梅、儒林外史和紅樓夢﹐成為這方面的權威著作。除了不停地寫論文﹐作序﹐寫書評之外﹐他在最近又編譯了﹕
 
「二十世紀中國短篇小說」—— (一九七一年哥倫比亞大學)
其中包括了郁達夫、沈從文兩篇、張天翼、吳組湘、張愛玲、聶華苓、水晶和白先勇的短篇小說。他的目的在介紹鮮為人知的作品﹐所以凡是已經有人翻譯過的﹐避而不譯。除了候健譯的張天翼的「春風」和張愛玲自譯的「金鎖記」外﹐其餘各篇都經過他句斟字酌﹐譯文讀來既忠實﹐又流暢。
 
                                                                              白先勇
 
白先勇生於一九三七年﹐一九五八年即發表第一篇小說﹐現在加州大學任教中國語文的課程﹐先後一共出了三個集子﹕
 
「現代小說選」(一九六二年台北現代文學) 計八篇
「謫仙記」(一九六七年台北文星) 計十篇
「台北人」(一九七一年台北晨鐘) 計十四篇
 
 
其中有幾篇是犯重的。夏志清在他的《白先勇論》中曾說過﹕「白先勇是當代短篇小說家中少見的奇才。…… 白先勇才二十二歲﹐還沒有寫過長篇﹐憑他的才華和努力﹐將來應該是中國文學史上的一位巨人。」
 
《謫仙記》由白先勇先譯初稿﹐事實上只是草稿﹐後來由夏志清加以補充潤飾﹐夏志清尊重了白先勇的意見﹐將幾個不太敢要的片段加以刪除。至於譯文﹐極見功力﹐例如原作中開始第一段中的﹕「毫不懂得離情別意」﹔「咧著嘴一逕笑嘻嘻的」﹔「都看著她們 …… 點頭微笑」原文讀起來可能一掃而過﹐譯文的尺寸卻捏得恰到好處。現在取得夏志清教授的同意﹐將譯文和原文作對照發表以饗讀者。
 
 
 
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LI T'UNG: A CHINESE GIRL IN NEW YORK —— Pai Hsien - yung
Translated by the author and C. T. Hsia
 
Hui-fen was a Wellesley girl. Even years after our marriage she had not grown out of the habit of reminding me that, when she was a sophomore, each evening she would walk into the dining hail wearing her best Chinese silks. She said her wardrobe at that time, though a trifle smaller than Li T'ung's, was unquestionably superior to those of Chang Chia-hsing and Lei Chih-ling. The four of them had graduated in the same class at McTyiere's, an aristocratic girls' school in Shanghai. They all came from prominent families, but Li T'ung's was the richest since her father was a high-ranking minister in the government. When they had dancing parties, they had invariably gathered at Li's spacious, German-style villa on the fashionable Rainbow Bridge Road. There were two marble fountains in its garden, and when they danced outdoors the fountains illuminated by multicolored lights provided a rich and picturesque background. And since Li T'ung was an only daughter much pampered by her parents since her early childhood, her mother took great, care in providing everything for her parties, including fancy foods laid out buffet-style in the garden.
 
Hui-fen said that in 1946, on the day when they left Shanghai for the States to study, the four of them had by coincidence all worn red Chinese gowns. Standing together in their flaming silks, they literally lit up the Lung-Hua Airport, and as they looked at one another they bent double with laughter. Li T'ung claimed they were the Big Four of the postwar world-China, America, Great Britain, and Russia. She styled herself China, on the ground that her gown was the brightest. No one wanted to be Russia, however, because Russian women were of coarse skin and large build and a sizable number of them in Shanghai then were prostitutes. But Li T'ung quite arbitrarily appointed Chang Chia-hsing Russia, since she was the chubbiest of the four. Much peeved, Chang Chia-hsing was still bickering with Li T'ung after they had boarded the plane.
 
 
About a hundred relatives and friends came to see the four off. As they waved to the boarding girls, the whole airport was aflutter with handkerchiefs like a swarm of butterflies. The four were then only seventeen or eighteen, too excited to be properly solemn or sentimental at the moment of leave taking. Her mother hugged Li T'ung and cried bitterly at the last minute and even her father was rubbing his eyes; but Li T'ung in her rakish sunglasses with upsweeping frames still had her mouth open in the form of a smile. Once on the plane, the four chatted interminably. Many foreign passengers looked at these four Chinese girls in red and nodded and smiled with approval or amusement. Hui-fen said that they were then truly elated, as if they were really the plenipotentiaries of the Big Four flying to New York to attend an international conference.
 
Right from the beginning they had become most popular at Wellesley. Hui-fen always loved to enumerate the large number of boys she had dated on weekends. Especially when I was not too attentive, she would rehearse how X had courted her and how Y had doted on her, thus reminding me of the power she had over boys in her prime. I didn't particularly care for these stories and was at times slightly jealous, but when I saw her soaking her white and delicate hands in the dishpan until they peeled I couldn't help loving and pitying her all the more. She is after all the daughter of an aristocratic family used to having her way, but ever since we were married, she has been doing all the household chores with a willing diligence which I can't help respecting.
 
Hui-fen said that, although all four had done well socially, Li T'ung far outshone the other three. She eclipsed even American girls from wealthy families. Wellesley was very style-conscious. She had brought over with her a fantastic wardrobe, and she certainly knew how to dress. Every day she walked around in something different, but equally eye-catching. Some American boys, seeing her in her shimmering silks, would teasingly ask her if she were a Chinese princess or something. Soon she had become a campus personality and she was elected May Queen.
 
The boys who dated her were too many to be enumerated. Counting on her beauty, Li T'ung was most haughty to them. Wang Chueh, a Harvard Law School student highly regarded for his scholarship and character, was infatuated with her, but because Li T'ung appeared indifferent, he eventually became disappointed and stopped seeing her. Hui-fen told me that she knew Li T'ung liked him very much, but since she was used to putting on airs, she could not change her ways in time and thus lost her chance to be real friends with him. Hui-fen said that she could have bet that Li T'ung suffered a long time after that, but since she was very proud she would never admit it.
 
During their third year in the States, the civil war was getting worse in China. When Li T'ung's family tried to flee from Shanghai to Taiwan on the S. S. Peace, it was sunk on the way. Her whole family was killed in the accident and gone, too, were the valuables they had brought with them. When Li T'ung first learned the news, she was taken to the hospital and confined there for more than a month. She refused to eat anything and the doctors had to tie her up in bed and give her glucose and saline injections every day. After being released from the hospital she was very quiet and subdued. Her three friends, too, were no longer in the mood to compete for popularity since their families had also suffered reverses on account of the war, and all four of them now worked hard at their studies. When Hui-fen referred to her Wellesley period, she always began her recital with "When I was a sophomore." The junior and senior years she mentioned very seldom.
 
It was not until after her graduation that Li T'ung recovered her former gaiety. She went to New York and became a fashion designer at Originala. making a big salary, but her three friends all agreed, however, that there had been something disconcerting about Li T'ung ever since.
 
I met Li T'ung for the first time at my wedding. I had dated Hui-fen earlier in Boston; at that time I was a graduate student at M. I. T. and she came to Boston quite often to visit her relatives even though she was then working in New York. But Hui-fen insisted that we have our wedding in New York and make our permanent home there. She said that all her old friends were now working there and only in New York could she forget she was in a foreign country. Our reception was held in our new home on Long Island. Only our best friends were invited. After changing from her wedding gown, Hui-fen formally introduced me to Li T'ung, Chang Chia-hsing, and Lei Chih-ling.  Actually I could spot them right away without this introduction since Hui-fen had described them from head to toe Heaven knows how many times. Chang was big, and Lei petite, rather true to Hui-fen's descriptions, both very self-assured and smart. But as for Li T'ung's looks, I must say Hui-fen's estimate was obviously too conservative. No, Li T'ung had not thought too highly of herself. Her beauty was devastating. She literally shone in the gathering and it hurt the eye to look straight at her, as at the blinding sun that has jumped out of the sea. She had finely chiseled features and a tall, graceful figure. Her eyes, dark and flashing, were spellbinding. A riot of shining black hair, two thirds of it combed across her forehead, tumbled down on her left shoulder. On the left temple just above her ear was a hairpin, a big glistening spider made of small diamonds, its claws digging into her hair, its fat, roundish body tilted upward. She wore that day a Chinese white satin gown of silvery sheen, with a red maple leaf design. The maple leaves were each the size of a palm and flamed like balls of fire. No woman is a reliable judge of another's beauty, and I couldn't help suspecting that Hui-fen's reluctance to praise Li T'ung's looks was a form of protest. After all, standing next to Li T'ung, my bride's extreme prettiness was unmercifully overshadowed by her dazzling beauty. That day I was especially happy not only over my own wedding but at meeting Hui-fen's attractive friends.
 
"So you're the one who broke up our mahjong team. Wait until I get even with you." Upon being introduced, Li T'ung looked me all over with a critical eye and said this with a laugh. She laughed in a strange fashion, with her chin tilted, the left corner of her mouth raised high, and her eyelids closing brusquely as if to obliterate everyone from her vision. Hui-fen had told me they used to live in a four-room apartment on West End Avenue. After office hours the four of them often got together to play mahjong and they called their apartment the Big Four Club. When Hui-fen moved out, the others also split up.
 
"Then how about letting me join the Big Four Club and pay my membership fee?" I said appealingly, bowing slightly to Li T'ung and her friends. I had learned to play mahjong and poker in America and had become rather proficient since whenever Chinese friends met it was customary for them to play a game.
 
"Welcome, welcome." the three girls all laughed at my reply. "You should thank your lucky star that you know the game; otherwise we might not let you marry Huang Hui-fen. We originally agreed that no member of our club was permitted to marry a non-gambler."
 
"I have known about that for some time," I said. "I even know which of you represents which power. Li T'ung is China, right?"
 
"Don't you dare mention it." Li T'ung cried. "This China of yours has been beaten at every game, a catastrophic loser. You think I could win playing against those content to win small games? You go and ask Chang Chia-hsing: half of my paycheck each month goes into her purse."
 
"You're a lousy player, don't just blame others," Chang Chia-hsing put in.
 
"Come on. Li T'ung, be a good sport," Lei Chih-ling joined Chang.
 
"Ch'en Yin." Li T'ung drew close to me and said with her finger pointing at the other girls, "you'd better heed my words: never try to win big when playing with these people, including your beautiful bride. They are the queens of the small game and the quick kill. I build toward the best combination of tiles; if I can't make it, I would rather lose."
 
The other girls all protested, attacking Li T'ung in unison. But she held fast and wouldn't back down; her head raised high, smiling defiantly, the diamond spider glittering on her profuse black hair. I was greatly intrigued by these smart-looking girls arguing among themselves.
 
"I too always aim big." I supported Li T'ung, sensing her isolation under the combined attack.
 
"Really? Really?" Li T'ung cried out in excitement and shook hands with me with evident warmth. "Then I have found my match. Let's have a contest real soon."
 
At our reception that day, Li T'ung darted here and there conspicuously, her body aflame with the brilliant red leaves on her gown. My bachelor friends were all visibly restless as if they had been scorched by these leaves. My former college roommate Chou Ta-ch'ing repeatedly asked me about Li T'ung that day.
 
After we returned to New York from our honeymoon, Chou Ta-ch'ing rang me up and asked us to have dinner at the Tavern-on-the-Green in Central Park. He wanted me to bring Li T'ung along. Chou had taken to several girls in college; nothing had worked out, however. He was a nice guy and rather good-looking, too, but somehow he didn't have luck with girls. Each time he fell in love, he was dead serious. I knew he had again lost his head, this time over Li T'ung. When I broke the news to Hui-fen, she said I'd better leave the girl alone since she was so very hard to please, but as I knew Chou Ta-ch'ing to be very honest and reliable, I eventually talked Hui-fen into arranging the meeting.
 
 
 
………… to be continued!