Isherwood's Semi-Autobiographical Novels--Berlin Trilogy

Because of Fitzgerald's [Ye Weiyang], I found Liu Ji as a good translator, so I was rude to find other translations by Liu Ji. The second one I read was Christopher Ishawwood's [Goodbye, Berlin].

Christopher's novels also remind me of Fitzgerald, equally decadent and innocent, and there's something strangely fascinating about seeing things in that way. You might not agree with the characters in it, but you can't help but be fascinated by them.

[Goodbye, Berlin] is about Germany before World War II. It is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Christopher based on his actual experience. Reading this story is like stepping into the world of pre-war Europe, uneasy, chaotic, restless and full of vitality. It was the best of times and the worst of times.

Putting down the book, as long as you close your eyes, the characters inside will come to life, the neurotic Peter, the primitive intuition Otto, from the Randall family's upper-class Jewish family to the Novak family in the damp and cramped ghetto. Shack, you'll feel like you really know them, not just characters you read about in books.

The translation of this book, as I expected, is amazing everywhere. Take a passage describing the cold as an example: [Berlin is a skeleton, aching in the cold-----like my own bones ache. I felt a sharp pain frozen to the bone marrow, from the beams of the elevated railway, from the iron railings of the balcony, from the bridge, the tramway, the lamppost, the public toilet. The steel vibrated and contracted, the stones and bricks were dull and painful, and the plaster was numb. ] Even though I have never experienced such a chilling cold, I still feel the chill coming through the clear and lively imagery of the words.

This translation clearly conveys the excellence of Christopher's original work. [Goodbye Berlin] and another [Berlin's Last Train] were selected by the National Library of America and Time Magazine as one of the top 100 English novels of the twentieth century. But the level of translation is even more impressive, because a good translator may be harder to find than a good creator.

The traditional Chinese translation of [Berlin Tales], and the last time I read Fitzgerald's Ye Weiyang translation, are published by independent presses. This publishing house has a romantic name called [One Person Publishing House]. And it is actually as romantic as the name. The creator, editor, and publication are all done by one person. This romantic person is Liu Ji. I still remember reading the translator's profile on Fitzgerald's book page: [Studying Chinese at the university, studying literature and film in the UK at graduate school, and founding a one-person publishing house, always confusing creation, translation and publishing. The translations include <Film Fan>, <Goodbye Berlin>, <Winter Dream - Fitzgerald's Short Masterpiece Selection>….] This text alone arouses many imaginations. I wonder how much a person should love words, That would drive him to set up a publishing house. And being able to say that my life is based on [reading novels and watching movies], there is a clear awareness of self-understanding that I yearn for. I think this is a very worthwhile way of living. It is not that reading novels and watching movies has absolute value in itself, but the willingness to dedicate oneself to what one loves without reservation is a desirable way to live life.

After painstakingly translating, it was someone else's work that got applause; the establishment of a publishing house, writing books, and printing books may not be unknown or have no sales. Even so, it is like a miracle that some people are willing to devote their lives to creating beautiful words.

So I cherish every word in the book, because this is a creator who takes his life experience and writes as his career, gets up every morning and goes to sleep at night, all he thinks is [writing] this matter. The work thus born has another same fool willing to devote precious hours of his life to translating it into another language, so that readers in another language (like me) can do so effortlessly like this enjoy it. So I cherish the words I read, and always feel that every word in them is precious and shining.

Christopher Isherwood is British. The book does not introduce much about the author's background. According to the information that can be found on the Internet, he was born in 1904. His father is a British Army Lieutenant Colonel, Christopher Isherwood. His father was killed in World War I when he was very young. The Berlin Tales is about Berlin in the 1930s, when the author was in his twenties. [Goodbye Berlin] was adapted into a less-than-heralded film in 1955, as well as a Broadway musical.

The charm of Christopher's stories is his clear-eyed power of observation, which can make a unique character come alive on paper with simple words. It's not that when Christopher lived in Berlin, he encountered such peculiar characters worthy of writing in a novel, but you can't help but guess that if you also have the author's ability to observe, then in life, even if It is a seemingly ordinary life, full of people, things, and things worth writing about. It turns out that novel nature originally exists in human nature. Everything that is illogical, because it is this person, conforms to the logic that belongs to this person alone.

In the story I most often think of Peter and Otto, whom the author met on the island of Rügen.

"(Rügen) There are two other people in this room besides me. One is an Englishman named Peter Wilkinson, about my age. The other is a German working-class boy from Berlin named Otto Novak, sixteen or seventeen."

"Peter would sit at the table, hunched into a ball, with childhood fears hanging from the corners of his drooping mouth—a perfect example of a twisted and expensive upbringing. Then Otto came in, dimpled and grinning. , knocked down the chair, slapped Peter on the back, rubbed his hands together, and said stupidly: [Yo, yo...what's the matter!]"

Another figure is the Jewish youth Bernhard Randall.

"His overly civilized, restrained, meticulous, beak-like silhouette makes him look like a bird on Chinese embroidery. I feel that he is gentle and passive, yet strangely persuasive, like an ivory statue in a divine kitchen. The power of serenity."

Bernhard in the lakeside cabin reveals his childhood past. For a short time, he seems to reveal his true heart, but soon returns to a distanced attitude, polite but mysterious and elusive. Such a person is likable, but not completely in love with. Because their true selves, like Bernhard's dwelling, first pass through a heavy door that has to be pushed open with both hands and [with a low bang] when closed, and then leads to the courtyard The opposite door, climbed five steps of stairs, to reach the door of his house. Most people get lost in this, or are turned away from a certain door. The door of understanding that opened in an instant quickly closed. What is hidden and protected here? Is it such a mystery that makes him charismatic? But the author is ultimately unable to get to know this charismatic young Jewish man better before his death. Bernhard died of Nazi persecution.

[Goodbye Berlin] Although it was written based on the author's four-year living experience in Berlin, Germany, it does not have the clutter of autobiographical novels, with a clear structure and clear narrative. Although there is no deliberately fabricated narrative climax, it is full of unique suspense. , because you are so intrigued by the author to be curious about these characters, that you can't help but want to read on, not to know what happened next, but to know more about this person. These stories are structured around [characters]:

Berlin Diary (Fall 1930)

Sally Powers

Rügen (Summer 1931)

Novak

Randall

Berlin Diary (Winter 1932-3)

The structure of the book shows that the story was written for these characters. It's not that the characters exist for the sake of the story. It seems that the author's writing philosophy reveals that the story exists for the sake of the characters. This shows the author's strong interest in people.

The characters in the story are of different classes, races, genders, backgrounds, and none of these affect the author's interest in them or their value in his eyes, all of which are [worthy of a book]. The author's vision is not objective and cold, but the vision of a friend, in friendship, love, and even close family relationships, to describe these people who once occupied a place in his life. The author put them in the story because these people were originally part of his life story. The author creates an immortal space in the book so that they can live in it forever.