China News Agency, Beijing, August 20th: The father of "Mindless and Unhappy": Who said China has no fairy tales?
"China News Weekly" reporter Li Jing
The "brainless" who gets lost in doing things and the "unhappy" who makes him go east and west are awkward, these two humorous classic children's literature images were born in 1956 and are now 66 years old.
By creating these two images, Ren Rongrong, a children's literature writer who has accompanied them for generations, celebrated his 100th birthday in May this year.
At this age, he still hasn't stopped writing.
Last year, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, where he worked for many years before his retirement, released Ren Rongrong's Translation Collection. It consists of 20 volumes and nearly 10 million words. 50% of all his translations.
In addition to his classic work "Mindless and Unhappy", his translation of "Pinocchio" directly from Italian is still the most widely circulated Chinese version, and his translation of "The Complete Works of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales" in his later years is even more It was honorably authorized by the then Prime Minister of Denmark.
Ren Rongrong signed for the students.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
"A Childhood Self"
The French writer Saint-Exupéry said: "Every adult was once a child, but unfortunately few people remember it." Ren Rongrong undoubtedly remembered, and this "child" never left him in his life.
Ren Rongrong said many times: "I write children's poems, and many of my creations are about my childhood self."
Childhood is an important creative motif for a writer. Ren Rongrong, who was born in 1923, was called Ren Genliu at that time. He was born in a two-story building along the street in Dongxinkangli, Minhang Road, Hongkou, Shanghai. His father opened a paper shop, specializing in selling Imported paper, wealthy family.
When he was 5 years old, he left Shanghai with his parents and returned to his old house in Guangzhou. After 10 years, he spent most of his childhood in Lingnan.
In his "discreet" childhood, he spent most of his time reading "miscellaneous books", including old-fashioned "fighting" martial arts novels and "four famous novels", but he did not like "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" It must also be "to look good after Zhuge Liang comes out". Once Zhuge Liang died, he would not like to watch it.
Compared with these books, the two translations that attracted him the most: The Adventures of the Onion by the Italian writer Rodari and the Pinocchio by Collodi, but at that time, he did not know this very charming His works are called fairy tales, and he never thought that he would translate these classic fairy tales into Chinese by himself after a few decades.
In junior high school, he returned to Shanghai and entered the British-run Rashid School for middle school. Most of the courses were taught in English. Therefore, he laid a solid English foundation in middle school.
Later, Cao Ying, a translator who completed the translation of "The Complete Works of Tolstoy's Novels" by one person, was his middle school classmate. As a tutor, learned Russian.
The fairy tale performance "Pinocchio" was staged in a shopping mall in Beijing, and the wonderful performance of Pinocchio and his friends attracted a large audience.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhao Jun
In 1940, he and two classmates went to northern Jiangsu to join the New Fourth Army.
In order to prevent being found by his family, he changed his name to "Shi Yiqi" according to the date of departure on October 17. The cadre who took him said that the surname should not be changed, so in the following years, Ren Genliu became "Shi Yiqi". Ren Yiqi".
He edited the "Warrior News" in northern Jiangsu, wrote slogans, taught singing, fought some small battles, and often saw Chen Yi, the commander of the New Fourth Army.
Unfortunately, within a year, he became seriously ill and had to return to Shanghai for treatment.
After recovering, he was admitted to the Department of Chinese Literature of Shanghai Daxia University.
In the year of Ren Rongrong's graduation from University, the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the "New Literature" magazine, which was about to launch and publish anti-fascist war reportage, novels and newly translated foreign literary works, stimulated his desire to contribute. He tried to translate a Turkish fairy tale "Clay". "Made of Cutlets" was sent, but it was unexpectedly published in the inaugural issue of January 1, 1946.
It happened that one of his college classmates went to the Children's Bookstore to edit "Children's Stories". Seeing that he could translate fairy tales, he asked him for a manuscript.
In order to find topics and materials, Ren Rongrong went everywhere to find original books in foreign languages that could be translated.
At that time, next to the Huiluo Company on Nanjing Road, there was a "Don't Fax", which sold a dazzling array of children's foreign books, especially the fairy tale books published by the Disney Company, which made him addicted to it.
At this time, Jiang Chunfang, the head of Times Publishing House, learned that Ren Rongrong knew Russian and asked him to translate Soviet children's literature.
Since then, "Bambi", "Dumbo", "Armenian Folk Tales"... One after another, one after another, the more he translated, the more interesting he felt, and he was no longer "unstoppable".
"No brains" and "unhappy"
In 1948, when he translated and published "The Story of Uncle Rimas", his newly born daughter brought him great joy, so he signed his daughter's name "Ren Rongrong" as a pseudonym.
Later, when he came across works that he thought he was proud of, he also signed "Ren Rongrong". Over time, this pseudonym became more and more influential, and he actually became Ren Rongrong himself.
In 1952, Ren Rongrong joined the newly established Children's Publishing House as the director of translation and literature, and later served as the deputy director of the editorial department, responsible for the translation and introduction of foreign children's literature works.
In addition to classic English works, he also translated a large number of Soviet children's literature.
All kinds of classic fairy tales have been translated a lot, and some images and plots came out in his mind.
Once in the Children's Palace with children, he used his own life experiences to make up small stories.
When Ren Rongrong was a child, he was often confused and lost, as if he was "out of his mind". His son was just at the age when he was just beginning to develop himself. When his mother asked him to do something, he always said "unhappy".
When Ren Rongrong was speaking, the children liked it very much. The magazine publisher of "Youth Literature and Art" at that time heard about it and asked him to write it down.
In 1962, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio made it into a cartoon, which became one of the most successful classics of Chinese humorous and exaggerated fairy tales.
"Mindless and Unhappy" stills.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
Sun Jianjiang, a children's literature critic, told China News Weekly that influenced by the special historical background of modern times and the traditional Chinese culture of "literature conveys the truth", Chinese children's literature has shouldered a relatively heavy theme of realism since its birth. functionality is more obvious.
If you read the story of "Mindless and Unhappy" alone, you may only find it interesting, but if you place it in the context of the development of the entire Chinese children's literature, you will find that the humorous quality and the spirit of play in it, not to mention that in the 1950s and 1960s In the 1900s, even in the entire century of development of Chinese children's literature, it was scarce.
Chen Liqiang, editor of Zhejiang Children's Publishing House, believes that this is inseparable from Ren Rongrong's nature and his literary vision of translating many classic foreign fairy tales very early.
Ren Rongrong has talked about the concept of Nonsense on many occasions.
This concept originates from Western fairy tales. Nonsense literature does not try to tell or educate readers. It is often just a game, and it does not follow the common sense of things. It wins with rich imagination, grotesque plots and harmony. A representative work is "Alice in Wonderland".
It can be said that before the appearance of "No Mind and Unhappy", there were no Nonsense-type works in China.
Ren Rongrong once said that for adults, nonsense may be boring, but for children, nonsense is not only interesting, but also a very natural existence in itself.
Ren Rongrong's avant-garde thinking in that era made his original works transcend the times and are still loved by young readers today, and those fairy tale characters who came to China through his translations also opened up the creation of children's literature in China later. vision.
Created giant puppets and parade artworks based on the famous western children's literature "Alice in Wonderland" and appeared at Cityplaza in Hong Kong.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Ren Haixia
"I have only one hope, that it will give you a little happiness"
The broad vision and the wisdom and talent as a children's literature writer have marked Ren Rongrong's translations with a distinct "Ren's" brand.
As a person who received the influence of traditional Chinese culture in a private school since he was a child, and did research on the four major novelists in the late Qing Dynasty in his university graduation thesis, he was fully capable of showing off his literary talent, but he could not see any shadow of pure literary dogma in his translations. Will not "drop the book bag".
In the eyes of Wei Yuqing, a professor at the School of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Fudan University, Ren Rongrong's most remarkable thing is that he not only pays attention to the colloquialization of language in children's literature, but also has a special charm.
Since it is for Chinese children, he has done a lot of things when translating the world children's literature, but he also pays great attention to bringing foreign cultural elements into China, and the two sides are balanced.
In the late 1970s, Shanghai Translation Publishing House was established, and Ren Rongrong worked in the translation agency until he retired.
For decades, he has devoted himself to the translation of children's literature and the creation of children's poems. He has translated hundreds of books, including Pippi Longstocking, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Liarland, Winnie the Pooh, and Charlotte's Web. classic children's literature.
At the age of 80, he also newly translated nearly one million words of "The Complete Works of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales", and at the age of 90, he is still writing and publishing children's poems.
In 2012, Ren Rongrong was awarded the "Translation Culture Lifetime Achievement Award" by the China Translators Association, and in 2019, he was awarded the "Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award Special Contribution Award".
A collection of translations by Ren Rongrong.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
He said to his son Ren Rongkang that he loved fairy tales all his life, because he gained great power from fairy tales, and he chose to regard his life as a fairy tale, so he could be happy when he experienced hardships, because he could believe that the bright.
He never despised children, thinking that children are cute and amazing, and he is even more opposed to despising children's literature, because children's literature contains the philosophy of simplicity and simplicity, which can turn a secular and utilitarian life into an aesthetic life, allowing people to find it from hardships and hardships. Beautiful and fun.
In 2004, when Zhejiang Children's Publishing House published the single volume "Mindless and Unhappy", Ren Rongrong wrote a paragraph for both big and small readers.
He said to the little readers: "Of course this book is dedicated to you. I have been writing books for you all my life. I have only one hope, that it can give you a little happiness." He said to the big readers: "Hello, congratulations. You have grown up! But I also have one hope, that you read my books when you were young, and now you think I didn't lie to you." (End)