英譯現(xiàn)代散文●斯諾精神——紀(jì)念斯諾逝世二十周年 ◎ 蕭乾

斯諾精神

Spirit of Edgar Snow

——紀(jì)念斯諾逝世二十周年

— Marking the 20th Anniversary of Snow's Death

◎　蕭乾

◎　Xiao Qian

我一生有過幾次幸運(yùn)和巧遇，其中之一是三十年代當(dāng)上了斯諾的學(xué)生。當(dāng)時(shí)他的本職是任英美兩家報(bào)紙駐北平的記者。一九三三至一九三五年間，他應(yīng)聘在燕京大學(xué)新聞系兼了課。斯諾僅僅在燕大教了這兩年書，而我恰好就在那兩年由輔仁大學(xué)的英文系轉(zhuǎn)到了燕京大學(xué)的新聞系。我畢業(yè)后，他也辭去這個(gè)兼差，去了延安并寫出他的杰作《紅星照耀中國(guó)》——即《西行漫記》。

I owe several happy events in my life to a lucky chance. One of them was when I became a student of Edgar Snow's in the 1930s. He was then a reporter for two foreign newspapers in Peiping, owned respectively by Britons and Americans. From 1933 to 1935, he was concurrently a teacher at the Journalism Department of Yenching University. During the two years when he was with this University, I happened to be a student there, having been previously transferred from the English Department of Catholic University in Peiping. Upon my graduation, he resigned the concurrent job and went to Yan'an where he wrote his masterpiece Red Star Over China.

當(dāng)時(shí)燕大教授多屬學(xué)院派，不管教什么，都先引經(jīng)據(jù)典，在定義上下功夫。而且，大都是先生講，學(xué)生聽。課堂上輕易聽不見什么討論。斯諾則不然。他著重講實(shí)踐，鼓勵(lì)討論。更重要的是，他是通過和同學(xué)們交朋友的方式來進(jìn)行教學(xué)。除了課堂，對(duì)我們更具吸引力的，是他在海淀住宅的那座客廳。他和海倫都極好客，他們時(shí)常舉行茶會(huì)或便餐，平時(shí)大門也總是敞著的。一九三五年春天，正是在他那客廳里，我第一次見到了史沫特萊。當(dāng)時(shí)，由于怕國(guó)民黨特務(wù)找她的麻煩，她故意隱瞞了自己的真實(shí)姓名。斯諾約我去吃晚飯時(shí)，就介紹她作“布朗太太”。那陣子我正在讀她的《大地的女兒》。因此，席間我不斷談到那本書給予我的感受。其實(shí)我并不知道坐在我旁邊的就是那本書的作者。及至史沫特萊離平返滬后，斯諾才告訴我，那晚我可把史沫特萊窘壞了。她以為我把她認(rèn)了出來。

In those days, professors at Yenching University were mostly an academic type. Whatever they taught, they would, first of all, give copious references to the classics and spend very much time on definitions. More often than not, they did all the talking while the students did nothing but listen. There was practically no classroom discussion at all. Snow, however, did otherwise. He gave priority to practice and encouraged discussion. And more importantly, he did teaching by way of making friends with his students. We found the reception room in his Haidian residence more appealing than the classroom. He and his wife Helen were very hospitable and often entertained us with tea or potluck. They would usually keep open house for us. In the spring of 1935, it was in that reception room that I met Agnes Smedley for the first time. At that time, in order to steer clear of harassment by KMT agents, she had changed her name to conceal her true identity. So, the evening when I had dinner at Snow's residence, he introduced her to me as“Mrs. Brown.”As it happened that I was then reading her novel Daughter of Earth, I kept talking at table about my impressions of it, not knowing that the very lady sitting next to me was its author. It was not until Smedley had left Peiping for Shanghai that Snow told me how apprehensive she had been that evening when I chatted about the novel, suspecting that I already knew her true identity.

在讀新聞系時(shí)，我有個(gè)思想問題：我并不喜歡新聞系，特別是廣告學(xué)那樣的課，簡(jiǎn)直聽不進(jìn)去。我只是為了取得個(gè)記者資格才轉(zhuǎn)系的。我的心仍在文學(xué)系——因此，常曠了新聞系的課去英文系旁聽。斯諾幫我解決了這個(gè)矛盾。他說，文學(xué)同新聞并不相悖，而是相輔相成的。他認(rèn)為一個(gè)新聞?dòng)浾邔懙氖乾F(xiàn)實(shí)生活，但他必須有文學(xué)修養(yǎng)——包括古典文學(xué)修養(yǎng)。我畢業(yè)那天，他和海倫送了我滿滿一皮箱的世界文學(xué)名著，由亞里士多德至狄更斯。他去世后，我從露易絲·斯諾的書中知道，他臨終時(shí)，枕邊還放著蕭伯納的著作。斯諾教導(dǎo)我，當(dāng)?shù)氖怯浾?，但寫通訊特寫時(shí)，一定要盡量有點(diǎn)文學(xué)味道。

While at Yenching University, I had a problem weighing on my mind: I found the study of journalism not to my liking and the advertising course particularly boring. Frankly, I had transferred myself to the journalism department of Yenching for the sole purpose of obtaining qualifications for a reporter. Now, with my heart in literature, I often cut journalism classes so as to sit in on English literature classes. Snow helped me solve this problem. He told me that instead of being contradictory to each other, literature and journalism were mutually complementary and that in order to write stories of real life, a newsman must be cultured in literature, including classical literature. On my commencement day, he and Helen gave me a suitcaseful of world literary classics, ranging from Aristotle to Dickens. Later I learned that when he was on his deathbed, a copy of Bernard Shaw's work had been found lying by his pillow. I am greatly indebted to Snow for his teachings that literary taste is a must for a reporter's news dispatches and feature articles.

一九三六年當(dāng)他曉得我給《大公報(bào)》所寫的馮玉祥訪問記被國(guó)民黨檢查官砍得面目皆非——馮將軍的抗日主張全部被砍掉了，他立即要我介紹他去訪問這位將軍——不出幾天，我就在報(bào)上看到日本政府向南京抗議說，身居軍事委員會(huì)副委員長(zhǎng)的馮玉祥，竟然向美國(guó)記者斯諾發(fā)表了不友好的談話。

In 1936, when Snow found in The Dagong Bao that the KMT had heavily censored my article Interview with Feng Yu-xiang, with Feng's anti-Japanese views completely cut out, he wanted me immediately to introduce him to Feng for a visit. A few days later, I found in the newspapers that the Japanese government had protested to the KMT government about the unfriendly remarks from Military Commission Vice-Chairman Feng Yu-xiang in an interview with the American reporter Snow.

一九四四年，我們又在剛剛解放的巴黎見了面。當(dāng)時(shí)他是蘇聯(lián)特許的六名采訪東線的記者之一。在酒吧間里他對(duì)我說，他在中國(guó)的歲月是他一生最難忘，也是最重要的一段日子。他自幸能在上海結(jié)識(shí)了魯迅先生和宋慶齡女士。他是在他們的指引下認(rèn)識(shí)中國(guó)的。

In 1944, Snow and I met again, this time in Paris shortly after its liberation. He was then one of the six reporters specially permitted by the Soviet Union to cover the east front. He told me in a barroom that the days he had spent in China were his most unforgettable experience and also the most important part of his life. He thought that he was most fortunate in having got acquainted with Lu Xun and Madame Soong Ching Ling in Shanghai and that it was through their guidance that he had come to understand China.

三十年代上半葉，在西方人中間，斯諾最早判斷抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)遲早必然爆發(fā)，而且勝利最后必然屬于中國(guó)。一九四八年，他又在《星期六評(píng)論》上接連寫了三篇文章，斷言中國(guó)戰(zhàn)后絕不會(huì)當(dāng)蘇聯(lián)的仆從，必然會(huì)走自己的路。他這種膽識(shí)，這種預(yù)見性，是難能可貴的。

In the early 1930s, Snow was the first Westerner to predict that the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression would break out sooner or later and that the final victory would certainly belong to China. In 1948, he wrote three articles at a stretch for The Saturday Review, in which he stated with certainty that the post-war China would follow its own course and never become a Soviet flunkey. His courageous foresight was highly commendable.

斯諾認(rèn)為一個(gè)記者絕不可光追逐熱門新聞，他還必須把人類的正義事業(yè)記在心頭。不能人云亦云，隨波逐流，必須有自己獨(dú)立的見解觀點(diǎn)，必須有良知和正義感。

He believed that a journalist should bear in mind the just cause of humanity instead of going after sensational reporting and that he should have independent views, good conscience and sense of justice instead of parroting other people's opinions and following them blindly.

斯諾的骨灰一部分已留在中國(guó)了。我希望他的這種抱負(fù)和精神，也能在中國(guó)生根。

Part of Snow's ashes now rest in China. I hope his aspirations and spirit will also take root in this country.

蕭乾所著《斯諾精神》一文原載1992年7月3日《人民日?qǐng)?bào)》。