京华烟云 Moment in Peking
Thursday, 19. November 2009, 06:40:00
林语堂出生于基督教家庭，接受西方教育，但通晓国学，他翻译的老子，孔子，庄子已成为经典。他对中西方文化的差异有着深刻而细致的观察，能以恬淡的笔调，不太复杂的英语讲述中国的故事和哲理。他的《京华烟云》原作是英文，叫MOMENT in PEKING, 最近我终于找到了此书的英文原版。 林语堂在75年曾因此书获诺贝尔文学奖提名。
Thinking of autumn in Beijing when writing my last post, I remembered Lin Yutang's historical novel Moment in Peking. Although I have read the book in Chinese I couldn't find its English version until now. Lin wrote Moment in Peking in English originally for American readers in 1938 (it was translated into Chinese later by others), and he was nominated for Nobel Literature Prize for this book in 1975. Lin Yutang was not only a writer but also a sinologist, his translations of Laozi, Confucius and Zhuangzi have become classical in the west. There are many interesting things about his life and his works, but this is how he started Moment in Peking:What is a novel but "a little talk," as the name hsiaoshu (i.e. 小说, xiaoshuo) implies? So, reader, listen to this little talk awhile when you have nothing better to do. This novel is neither an apology for contemporary Chinese life nor an exposé of it, as so many recent Chinese "dark curtain" novels purport to be. It is neither a glorification of the old way of life nor a defense of the new. It is merely a story of how men and women in the contemporary era grow up and learn to live with one another, how they love and hate and quarrel and forgive and suffer and enjoy, how certain habits of living and ways of thinking are formed, and how, above all, they adjust themselves to the circumstances in this earthly life where men strive but the gods rule. - L. Y. T.
That's the preface Lin Yutang wrote for Moment in Peking, following it Time magazine had an introduction article about the book in 1939, titled Big "Little Talk" -- An Introduction of Lin Yutang's Book MOMENT IN PEKING. Here I copied the article and added a few pictures from a Chinese TV series based on the book, plus links to the book.
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