Interview with yang

People Weekly: Looking back on life, what is your attitude towards fate?

Yang: I don't care. I don't believe in fate. However, everyone says that fortune tellers have some truth: I lost my father when I was a child, and then my son died. For a long time, I was the only male in my family, so in Hong Kong, they called one of my autobiographies "White Tiger Stars Take a Look at Life".

People Weekly: In your autobiography, fortune tellers appear more than once. When you ride an Arabian horse in the Egyptian desert at night, a fortune-telling guide shows you the future with the mark you made on his palm. He said, "There is a beautiful blonde in the Atlantic Ocean who is crazy about you. You haven't met yet, but you will meet soon. " This is very similar to your later experience.

Yang: Yes, it happened one or two years before I met my lover. Wonderful, but I still don't believe in life.

People Weekly: Nidie is a beautiful name. How did this Chinese name come from? Is there any special meaning?

Yang: I translated it. It's a simple transliteration. Her name is gladys. Translated into Chinese, it becomes Nadie, which has no special meaning. I was lonely since I was a child, and I was the only boy in my family. Naidie, I just hope my family will be more lively and prosperous.

People Weekly: Let's talk about a dream of red mansions. Like Li Sao, it may be difficult to translate into another language. Those homophonic foreshadowing, hints and metaphors are in it. ...

Yang: Some of them can be solved. If you find the corresponding English, you can translate it. If it can't be solved, you can add a note. Of course, only a few can be solved. What Chairman Mao meant at that time was that Li Sao should not be translated. I think everything can be translated.

People Weekly: Your sister said, "The happiest thing for my brother is that others say that he can't translate as well as Dai Naidie." Is that so? Nidie is very helpful to your translation career, isn't it?

Yang: I say this because her English should be better than mine. After all, she is English. She was also a good student in middle school when she was a child, and she learned a lot of Shakespeare's works since she was a child. When I first started translating Chinese into English, her Chinese was not good at that time. I translated the first draft first, and she helped me revise and process it. This is the cooperation between us in translation, and it has been this mode ever since. In the future, her Chinese is ok, and sometimes she translates herself. I'll just see if there is anything wrong.

People Weekly: What is Dai Naidie's personality? You two have known each other since you were kids?

Yang: We have never been red-faced because of any problems. However, after our son died, we were all very sad. Her body and mood suddenly deteriorated. People Weekly: Intellectuals in China had some similar experiences after liberation, especially during the Cultural Revolution, such as going to jail, cleaning toilets and wandering the streets ... Your friends Liang, Qian Zhongshu all had similar experiences.

Yang: I am lucky. I was imprisoned for four years, but I lived relatively comfortably in those four years. There are more than 30 people in my cell, all of whom have a good relationship with me. The people in charge of us are very polite and don't beat and scold at ordinary times. Fortunately, I was locked up, and I may be more affected outside. Someone was beaten and someone died. Many of my colleagues are like this-if I am not in prison, I may die.

People Weekly: So you were under a lot of stress before you went to prison. During that time, there seemed to be some premonitory reactions to division, such as auditory hallucinations and hallucinations, but not when you went to prison.

Yang: I was not in a good state before I went to prison, and I was more emotional (about the Cultural Revolution). For example, I used to admire Zhou Enlai, met him several times and always admired him. But before I was locked up, someone invited me to dinner and watch a program. I took Nadi and my children, and the place where we sat was behind Zhou Enlai. He wanted to say hello to me at that time. As a result, I turned my head away, ignored him and didn't say hello to him, pretending not to know him. I regretted it when I thought about it later. In fact, Zhou Enlai is very friendly to us.

People Weekly: Actually, I especially want to know Dai Naidie's attitude towards this country, this land and this ruling party, as a foreigner who has personally experienced so many things after the liberation of China.

Yang: Nai Dad basically supports * * *, so do I. In the past, Chairman Mao invited me to meet for a drink three or four times, but Nai Dad agreed. Actually, as a foreigner, Naidie and her parents are very kind to China.

People Weekly: What's your life like? what do you do every day？

Yang: There is nothing in life. Get up in the morning and watch TV. After watching TV, sometimes, friends come and we say a few words. Most of my former friends were about my age. Later, I met someone younger than me, and we also met Huang Yongyu. We have a good relationship. He drew me some messy things. I don't collect either. I lost my things badly. This couplet, "Sages have been lonely since ancient times, but true celebrities are romantic", was written by Wang, a classmate of my elder sister Yang Minru.

(Silence for a moment) I don't have many friends either. They're all gone. Friends my age are either dead or sicker than me, and we seldom meet each other.