Kafka talks about life and literature in a few words

There is always a sense of dreaminess, nightmares, and a sense of humour, a peculiarly dark humour to reading Kafka. Almost all of Kafka's works are pervaded by despair of the world, of life, and elusive hope in despair. The following passage of Kafka's diary can be regarded as the condensation of Kafka's outlook on life and literature.

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Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) was unknown when he was alive, but became famous after World War II, one of the main reasons is that he had a deep insight into the absurdity and cruelty of life and gave With a nuanced and profound depiction, his work thus matches the despair created by the unprecedented brutality of the war.

Almost all of Kafka's works are pervaded by despair of the world, of life, and elusive hope in despair. His work is full of humor, hopeless humor, dark humor. The following sentences in his diary can be said to be quite adequately representative, or quite adequately expressing his despair and the ethereal hope in despair:

Derjenige, der mit dem Leben nicht lebendig fertig wird, braucht die eine Hand, um die Verzweiflung über sein Schicksal ein wenig abzuwehren …, mit der anderen Hand aber kann er eintragen, was er unter den Trümmern sieht, denn er sieht anderes und mehr als die anderen, er ist doch tot zu Lebzeiten und der eigentlich Überlebende.

The most accurate translation of these sentences is (I don't know German and can only rely on Google Translate, I hope some friends who understand German can point out what is wrong or inappropriate in the following translation):

A man who lives and struggles with life needs one hand to ward off the despair that hangs over his destiny a little,...the other hand takes note of what he sees under the ruins, because what he sees is different from and More than anyone else, he was dead in his own life and therefore actually a survivor.

In my opinion, this literary language is typical of Kafka. These words are simple and profound, straightforward and tortuous, hopeless and humorous, serious and self-deprecating, both macroscopically and finely reflecting his outlook on life and literature, as well as his views on the relationship between literature and life.

When I first read Kafka's so subtly expressed views on cruel life, I couldn't help but think of his contemporary, French poet Paul Valéry (1871-1945) in his famous poem "The Seaside Tomb" The famous verse written by the Garden:

Le vent se lève, il faut tenter de vivre!

The wind is blowing, there is only one way to try to survive! (Translated by Bian Zhilin)

In a sense, what Kafka said resembled this famous line from Valéry, the gist of which is that life must go on, no matter what the hardships may be.

But Kafka's words are more detailed and therefore more intriguing.

For example, "A man who is living a difficult life needs a hand to shield a little from the despair that hangs over his destiny".

It's true and sad - "it takes a hand to get out of the way a little bit", but whether that hand is there when it's needed, and whether it will work is still to be determined; even if it exists, even if it works, It's just "a little out of the way" of despair. "Slightly" here can be understood as scale (desperation can only block a small part, but most of it can't be blocked), and it can also be understood as probability (sometimes can be blocked, but most of the time it can't be blocked).

For another example, "He was dead in his own life, so he was actually a survivor." This sentence forms a comical echo of "a man who lives and struggles to cope with life" at the beginning. It is a tragic, black Humor, and the key element of humor is being truthful enough.

The truth of what Kafka believed and claimed was that people who live in pain are not living people, but dead people, but such dead people can also live more than ordinary living people, and are real survivors, as long as they can put in Literature, in which he finds or establishes his existence, as long as he can "record what he sees under the ruins, because what he sees is different and more than others".

Perhaps what needs to be emphasized here is that Kafka was a very pessimistic writer, he was never promiscuous, he was never overly optimistic; even when he tried to look positively at literary activity and its meaning, he was unusual calm, realistic,

We might as well take his words as his view of life from the perspective of literature, or the perspective of literature from the perspective of life - the function or the greatest use of literature is to help people cope with the absurd and cruel world. ; but don't expect too much from what you write, think of it as something to help you distract yourself, to help you through absurd and even hopeless times.

Looking at Kafka's life, it can be seen that these words he said are obviously self-righteous, because this is how he actually viewed his own literary creation activities - although he continued to write in his spare time for many years, he published it before his death. Not many works came out, and when he was about to die, he also told his good friends to burn his legacy.

The work we see today was published by his friend and executor of the literary estate, author and composer Max Brod, who did not heed his orders.

Brod's defense for not following Kafka's orders was that Kafka had indeed told him to burn his posthumous works, but as an old friend, Kafka knew very well that he (Brod) ) would never do such a thing, but still wants him to be the executor of his literary legacy, so it is not against Kafka's wishes that he published them instead of burning them, He felt ashamed about it.

The translated fragment of this famous quote from Kafka's diary that most Chinese readers read today is:

"You can't cope with life while you're alive. You should use one hand to ward off the despair that hangs over your destiny, and at the same time, use the other hand to write down everything you see in the ruins."

Obviously, the Chinese translation is not very faithful and accurate.

Of course, according to the rubbish standards of today's Chinese literary translations, this translation is still rare to be faithful and accurate, but according to the standards of accurate literary expression, it is still a bit rough.

Compare with a more precise, complete translation:

A man struggling with life needs one hand to ward off a little the despair that hangs over his destiny,...the other hand writes down what he sees under the ruins,...

A clear difference between exact and imprecise translations can be seen from the comparison here. The most obvious of these is that the original text does not directly address the reader "you", the original text says, "a man who has difficulty coping with life", Derjenige, der mit dem Leben nicht lebendig fertig wird, does not say "you cope while you are alive" Can't live". That is, the original text lacks the intimacy that the imprecise translation here suggests.

Furthermore, the original text speaks of "despair that hangs over his fate", die Verzweiflung über sein Schicksal, rather than the general "despair of fate"; the original text speaks of "what he saw under the ruins", was er unter den Trümmern sieht, not "everything seen in the ruins".

We know that the value of literary text lies in its uniqueness and precision. Changing its uniqueness and precision is equivalent to destroying its literary quality, damaging its value, and misleading readers, which is equivalent to putting "two An oriole singing green willow" was changed to "two birds calling on the tree".

Also, in addition to the precise translation of Bian Zhilin, the famous verse of Valéry quoted above has the following translation:

——The wind is blowing, the only way to survive

——Even if there is a gust of wind, never give up in life

——The wind is blowing, and we have to work hard to survive.

These translations have their own merits, but they are obviously not as faithful, accurate, accurate, powerful and powerful as Bian Zhilin's translation.

It can be seen from this that the translation that is most faithful to the original is the most powerful translation, the best translation.