People in the capital: "Dubliners"

May 24, 2022

One day in the communication software group, I mentioned "Taipei People" by Mr. Bai Xianyong, and remembered that there are some books in the book that use "people" as their titles, such as Joyce's "Dubliners" and Kawabata Yasunari's "Tokyo People". However, I didn't take it to heart.

Until recently, when I read Teacher Yang Zhao's "The Magnificent Remaining Life: Yang Zhao Talks About Kawabata Yasunari" and read his comments on "Tokyo People", I felt that I could compare it with "Taipei People". So I wanted to read it on a whim. However, this is undoubtedly a digging hole for myself to jump in, because "Tokyo People" is a book with 400,000 words and 700 pages thick.

Once again, I feel that "you can't live by your own sins".

Now that you've made up your mind, let's find "Dubliners" and read it! Just come to a "vast project".

We first went to the farthest country - Dublin, Ireland.

Before she started reading Dubliners, she mentioned the book to a friend, and her response was that she found it difficult to understand and could not feel the central idea that the author wanted to express. She wondered if it had something to do with the translation or if she didn't understand the Irish context.

Fortunately, there was her suggestion. When I was reading Dubliners, I also retrieved the books on the modern history of Ireland from the bookcase and reviewed the history of Ireland from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

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"Dubliners" was created by Joyce at the age of 22 (1904), and until 1905, a total of 12 articles were written. The current edition contains a total of 15 articles, and the date of writing is as follows. Joyce divided the 15 articles into four parts [Note 1]:

Childhood Story:
"The Sister": Part 1 (August 13, 1904)
"An Encounter": Chapter 9 (September 18, 1905)
"Araby": Article 11 (October 1905)
"Eveline": Part II (September 10, 1904)
Youth Stories:
"After the Race": Part 3 (December 17, 1904)
"Two Gallants": Chapter Thirteen (February 1906)
"The Boarding House": Part 5 (July 1, 1905)
"A Little Cloud": Chapter Fourteen (mid 1906)
"The Same" (Counterparts): Part VI (July 1905)
Adult Stage Story:
"Clay": Book Four (January 1905)
"A Painful Case": Book Seven (July 1905)
Stories from public life:
"Ivy Day in the Committee Room": Title VIII (August 1905)
"A Mother": Chapter 10 (August 1905)
"Grace": Chapter Twelve (October-December 1905)
"The Dead": Chapter Thirteen (1907) [Note 2]

Joyce created "Dubliners" because "Dublin has been the capital for thousands of years, and it is also the second largest city in the British Empire, almost three times the size of Venice, but so far no artist has shown it to the world. ".

Since it is to let people know Dublin, it may be like some countries, write some good things. However, Joyce is:

My original intention was to write a chapter in the spiritual history of my country, and I chose Dublin as the background because, in my opinion, this city is the epicenter of paralysis.

Therefore, the theme of "Dubliners" is precisely to describe the spiritual "paralysis" of this person living in this city: Spiritually Dead.

In addition to the word "paralysis" that runs through the 15 stories, there is also "Corruption." This corruption is not only human corruption, but also religious and political corruption. Joyce in "A Massacre", the protagonist James. Duffy has this view:

...a social revolution in Dublin is unlikely to take place for hundreds of years.
(No social revolution, he told her, would be likely to strike Dublin for some centuries.)

This is related to the history of Ireland at that time: Ireland was governed by the British at that time, and Catholicism was the religion of the Irish. These two big systems, like vines entangled in Ireland for hundreds of years, gradually made the Irish people paralyzed and corrupted. A 22-year-old young man, who has seen through the inaction of the Irish, and can't see it, uses words to express his "love" for Ireland: the deep responsibility of love. The first three completed articles were published in newspapers, but because the content was completely directed at the two major systems, people complained, so they were not published again.

In 1905, Joyce sent the first 12 completed books to the publisher Grant Richards. A year later, the publishing house signed Joyce.

If you think that the book will be published safely after signing the contract, you are wrong. Six months after the signing, publisher Grant Richards refused to publish Dubliners. The reason is simple. Dubliners are so full of indictments against the British Empire and Catholicism that publishers have the opportunity to face criminal law. Therefore, the publisher repeatedly asked Joyce to revise the content or take out some chapters. Joyce also made some concessions, but was still rejected. [Note 3]

Nonetheless, Joyce had been looking for a publisher to publish The Dubliners. In 1909, he originally found a publisher and it had already been printed, but in the end it was still unable to be published due to content problems. The thousand copies that had been printed were all sent to destruction. That night, Joyce took his family out of Dublin, on the way to create "Gas from a Burner", a satire of Dublin's publishing world. [Note 4] Until 1914, Grant Richards, the first company to sign with Joyce, finally agreed to publish the 15-part "Dubliners" without facing any legal responsibility after publication. From 1905 to 1914, Joyce sent a total of 18 manuscripts to 15 publishing houses [Note 5]. I can only imagine how sad and angry Joyce was in the process.

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Before recommending my impressive chapter, let's talk about translation. The quality of the translator greatly affects the reader's perception of the work. The best example is Haruki Murakami. Lai Mingzhu's translation is the text representing Murakami. When the recent new work "One Person's Singularity" was translated by another, readers' reactions were mixed. It can be seen that the translator's literary talent will affect the readers' understanding/appreciation of the work.

Dubliners have been published for more than 50 years, and the original text of the novel can be found on Wikisource. I still bought the Chinese version to read, thinking it would make it easier for me to absorb the content, but it didn't. The biggest headache for me should be the translation of the street names of attractions in Dublin. Because I have stayed in Dublin for more than 300 days, I am quite familiar with the streets of District 1 and District 2 of Dublin, so I am confused about those translated names. In "Two Prodigal Sons", the streets where Colley and Lennyhan wandered in Dublin are all famous streets and attractions, but the translation is too difficult to guess, so I finally found the English version to understand where they wandered.

Another one that I consider unprofessional is "girls". I didn't understand what it meant at first, but slowly I remembered that it is the same pronunciation as "sister" in Mandarin. But, why not use girls and women, but use "cute eyebrows"?

I am a little disappointed with this translation. In order to better understand what the author wants to express, after reading the Chinese version, I found the English version and the Chinese version to read together.

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The 15 novels (actually the last one "The Dead" is a novel) have their own characteristics and highlights, so it's really hard to choose. The 15 novels mentioned have a main axis and a main tone running through them. The contents of these 15 novels are also related to each other. For example, "A Little Cloud" is similar to "The Same Thing": the two fathers suffered setbacks in the real world and finally went home and used violence to vent their children; the first one " "The Sisters" and the last "The Dead" contain death; "Apartment" and "Mother" are both about how two mothers "seek happiness" for their daughters; the protagonists of "After the Car Race" and "The Two Prodigal Sons" They are all unprofessional people, but there is a difference between having money and not having money.

If I had to choose, I would choose "The Little Cloud", "Clay", "Ivy Day in the Committee Room", and "The Dead" ).

"A Touch of Clouds" tells the story of two old friends meeting again after eight years: little Chandler is still a little guy in the office, while Gallagher has become a famous figure in the British press. On the way to the meeting, little Chandler fantasized that, through his poetry, he could take him to London, because he was better born and brought up than Gallagher. He is also convinced that when the opportunity arises, he can make great achievements. What keeps him from achieving:

. . . What was holding him back? It was his pathetic cowardice! He is eager to wash away the stigma and prove his manliness. He saw that Gallagher was only doing him favors in the name of friendship, just as he was returning home and condescending to Ireland.

At the end, he returned home, facing the many dissatisfied home, facing his dream farther and farther, only "tears of remorse could not help but come out of his eyes". Dissatisfied with one's own prospects, but unable to make up their minds, is a kind of "paralysis".

"The Dirt" is a hard-to-understand story: Maria, a kind-hearted person who balances all the problems at work, comes home on Halloween with her family. Maria originally wanted to make her family happy and bought a raisin cake, but it disappeared in the end; she touched something in the blind swap game, but she touched it again for some reason; she was invited to sing, and she chose to sing "I "I Dreamt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls" (I Dreamt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls), but when she sang the second stanza, she mistakenly sang the first stanza again.

The reason this is difficult to understand is because the story focuses on those hidden ideas. The first is the "object" that Maria touched for the first time:

... Her hand touched a soft, wet mass, and she wondered why no one spoke, and no one helped her remove the cloth. There was no sound for an instant, and after a few seconds, there was a rustling of footsteps and whispers. Someone was talking about the garden or something, and at the end Mrs Donnelly scolded a girl in the neighborhood and told her to throw things out quickly, saying it wasn't a joke...

The author doesn't say what Maria touched, but the reader can guess, it's dirt. This game is an Irish Halloween custom. If you touch the prayer book, you will go to a monastery; if you touch the water, you will travel across the ocean and emigrate overseas; if you touch the ring, you will get married; and if you touch the soil, it means death. So that's why Mrs. Donnelly scolds the girl next door for not having fun.

Another metaphor is the song Maria sang. Maria sang the first stanza twice, and the second stanza, which she didn't sing, was a sign that her life would not come:

I dreamt that suitors sought my hand,
That knights upon bended knee,
And with vows no maiden heart could withstand,
They pledg'd their faith to me.
And I dreamt that one of that noble host
Came forth my hand to claim;
But I also dreamt, which charm'd me most,
That you lov'd me still the same.［Note 6］

Therefore, her future, there is no marriage, only death.

The author subtly expresses Maria's future in a subtle way, and some scholars believe that Maria alludes to Ireland. In any case, I'm thinking that if I don't understand these backgrounds, I can still understand the meaning of the story, but when I understand it, I will admire the author's thinking behind it and have a deeper understanding of the work.

"Ivy Day in the Committee's Office" is a short political indictment. A group of people working for municipal elections discuss politics in the office. This article is all about two systems, English and Catholic, and the subject is paralysis and corruption. The protagonists show no respect for the British royal family:

"But then, John," said Mr. O'Connor, "why should we welcome the King of England? Isn't Parnell--"
"Parnell," said Mr. Henchy, "is dead. Well, here's how I see it: the guy was blocked by his old lady and didn't take the throne until his hair was grey. . . .
("But look here, John," said Mr. O'Connor. "Why should we welcome the King of England? Didn't Parnell himself . . ."
"Parnell," said Mr. Henchy, "is dead. Now, here's the way I look at it. Here's this chap come to the throne after his old mother keeping him out of it till the man was grey.)

"That guy" "this chap" refers to Edward VII, and "old mother" refers to the then Queen Victoria. Joyce did not save face at all for the British royal family. So why did the publishing house ask him to correct it or even refuse to publish it.

Charles Stewart Parnell in the article is a figure that Joyce respects very much, because Parnell, through political power, allowed the British Empire to make greater concessions in the autonomy of Ireland, and can be called the "uncrowned king". It is a pity that his extramarital affairs were not tolerated by the Catholic Church, and his comrades-in-arms kept attacking him for this decision, and finally left the political arena sadly.

Joyce wrote a poem "Et Tu, Healy" at age 9, the year Parnell died, accusing Parnell of being a follower The betrayal of Parnell by Tim Healy. The novel also has a poem, titled "Parnell's Death," which also ruthlessly criticizes those who indirectly killed Parnell:

He passed away. Our uncrowned king has passed away.
Ah, Erin (or "Erin" in Ireland), mourn with grief that he lay in the ground, and that a gang of wicked modern-day hypocrites has buried him.
He pulled the coward out of the quagmire and gave glory to the dogs, but they bit back and slaughtered their benefactors;
From then on, Erin's hope and Erin's dream have been reduced to dust with the funeral of the Uncrowned King.
...[Note 8]

Indeed, many historians believe that if Parnell remained in politics, the goal of Irish self-government could have been achieved 10 years earlier. [Note 9]

Through this article, the author complains that people's attitude towards the politics of the time is a state of "paralysis". On Easter two years after the publication of The Dubliners, the Irish proved they were not politically "paralyzed": in 1916 the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) launched the Easter Rising[10] , trying to gain independence from Great Britain. Although the uprising was suppressed by the British army 6 days later, and the leaders were executed, the uprising started the open and dark struggle with Britain in the future.

"The Dead" is the last of "Dubliners" to be completed, and its length is already a medium (15-16,000 words). It happened on Christmas night. As always, the two elder sisters of the Moken family held a dance party and invited friends from all over the world to come to the party. The male protagonist is Gabriel, the nephew of the two old people, and his wife Greta attends the party as usual and helps in the party. Gabriel is a more pro-British man, visible from his words to his clothes, although he denies it. At the party, as in the past, Gabriel was in charge of the speech. This year's content was not only to express the hospitality of the two aunts, but also to express not to dwell on the past, but to seize the happy time and embrace the present. When the dinner was over and the couple was about to leave the mansion, Greta suddenly heard the invited singer sing "Girls of Aughrim".

After returning to the hotel, Greta was suddenly moved, because the song "Augrim's Girl" brought back memories of her and a man who often sang this song. Gabriel was angry when he heard this, and at the same time thought he was ridiculous:

Gabriel felt embarrassed, and the sarcasm was empty, and he pulled such a person from the dead, a boy who worked in a gas match factory. Just as he recalled the intimate moments of their lives with tenderness, joy and desire, she mentally compared him to another. Feeling ashamed came to my heart. He finds himself comical, a child running errands for two aunts, a neurotic and self-conscious sentimentalist, a man who speaks to a crowd of vulgars and idealizes his clown-like lusts, a man who was in the mirror just now A glimpse of the poor and stupid guy.

After Greta finished telling her story, she fell into a deep sleep because she was too sad, leaving only Gabriel to think quietly.

This is also the chapter that I find difficult to understand. I can still understand the fragment of the opening ball, but when Greta hears "The Maiden of Aughrim" and tells her story, I don't quite understand the author's intention.

Searching for information on the Internet, it turns out that the story of the song "Girls of Augrim" is about a love story between a jazz and a peasant woman, but unfortunately, jazz was abandoned in the end. The peasant woman, with the Sir's child, went outside the Sir's castle in the rain, but was deceived by his mother, and finally committed suicide by throwing herself into the sea. After the Jazz learned the truth, he hurried to catch up, only to see the tragic drown of the woman and child. The lyrics written by the author are from the traditional Irish folk song "The Lass of Aughirm" [Note 11], in which a woman seeks jazz in the rain.

After reading the material, read the two paragraphs again: when she heard that Greta was leaving, the man who was sick came out to meet her in the heavy rain and said that he did not want to live; and Greta said: "I think he died for me", I understand better why she was so moved to tears after listening to "The Maiden of Aughrim"; I understand Gabriel's anger more: he is full of Greta I love him very much because he loves Greta very much; now I know that Greta had this relationship. What's more, he said in a speech in front of people not long ago, "Our life journey is always filled with such sad memories: but if we keep on forgetting and unable to extricate ourselves, we will not have the heart to bravely continue to undertake our work in this world." Greta's memory, isn't it what he just said, needs to be forgotten?

I like the ending text:

There were a few taps on the glass from the window, and he followed the sound. It started snowing again. He watched sleepily as the silvery-white and gray snowflakes fell slantingly under the light. It was time for him to set off westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: Snow is falling all over Ireland. Snow fell on every tract of the gloomy central plains, on the bare hills, softly on the Allen Moor, and further west, softly in the raging black waves of the Shannon. Snow also fell on Michael. In every corner of the graveyard of that lonely mountain church where Fury rests. The snow fell and piled thickly on crooked crosses and tombstones, on the picket fences of the cemetery gates, among the barren thorns. Hearing the rustling of snowflakes falling between heaven and earth, his soul fell into a deep sleep, and the snowflakes rustled, falling on every living and dead as if the last moment had come.

That kind of calm can be seen in the text.

Gabriel silently pondered everything that had happened that night, overturning his beliefs. The author uses snow as a background to take the reader into Gabriel's thoughts, into life and death: snow falls everywhere, whether it is where Gabriel is, hills, rivers, cemeteries, and eventually snow will disappear: "the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling."

What Gabriel can do is:

Instead of withering and dwindling with age, it is better to bravely step into another world while the passion is still full of youth.

The difference between the living and the dead is that the living can still be freed from rigid routines and the constraints of the past, which is the central idea of Dubliners: "paralysis."

The novel has been adapted into a stage play and a movie. If you don't want to read the text, you can watch it on YouTube. [Note 12] Of course, I hope you read the novel first and then appreciate it, it will be more profound.

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After reading "Dubliners", I was surprised that Joyce was so young and had such a mind, 15 short stories, containing so many details, but also linked to each other. Joyce used paralysis (or paralysis) and corruption as the main axis, with yellowish and brown tones.

The protagonists of Joyce's "Dubliners" have no joy at all, only anger, annoyance, remorse, and even rage. Whenever I finish reading a story, my mood is always heavy, there is no trace of joy, and it is always covered with a layer of gray and depressed.

This book took ten years of "catastrophe" to publish, and although it was not a big hit when it was published, it eventually became one of the classics. It also allows readers in this generation to get to know the Dubliners at that time through these 15 stories, and to see the "landscape" of Dublin from their perspective.

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[Note 1] Zhuang Kunliang, "Paralysis: The Cultural Pathology of "Dubliners"
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010873186

[Note 2] Publishing History of Dubliners
https://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/maddendw/publishing history of dubliners.pdf

[Note 3] Clare Hutton, Chapters of Moral History: Failing to Publish "Dubliners"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24295682?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A40840a466045ea050924627bcbce7af7&seq=6

[Note 4] James Joyce, Gas From a Burner (1912)
http://www.ricorso.net/rx/library/authors/classic/Joyce_J/Poetry/Gas_Burn.htm

[Note 5] Dubliners (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubliners

[Note 6] Dubliners (Wikisource)
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Dubliners

[Note 7] "I Dreamt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls" lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/enya/marblehalls.html

[Note 8] "The Death of Parnell" poem
http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/961/

[Note 9] A History of Ireland: The Land of Poets and Singers, p. 168

[Note 10] Easter Rising (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising

[Note 11] The Lass of Aughirm
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/irishscottishceltic-folk-lass-aughrim-lyrics.html