Lines and Planes (Last Act)

Lines and Planes (No.7)

You Need to Cheat to Be An Artist

Countercultural as Robert Crumb, when talking about drawing, is no different from any other more orthodox great masters. The 1994 documentary Crumb recorded an interesting and instructive conversation between Robert Crumb and his son Jesse Crumb.

Robert Crumb (R): One thing you’ve learned is the importance of black. That’s good.

Jesse Crumb (J): Thanks, Pop.

R wanted to see more of Jesse Crumb’s drawings in his sketch book, but J stopped him. They started talking about a photo of a lunatic woman and their drawings based on the photo.

J: Okay, enough. So why did you choose this figure in particular?

R: I like these photos. They are powerful for some reason.

J: This one was easy to draw.

R: Finally picked attractive ones. Some of them are ugly, you know. In my drawing of her, I made her cuter than she really is … because I acquired the cuteness curse when I worked at American Greetings … which I can’t shake.

J: You got the tilt of the head right. That’s hard to do.

R: You have to really … the proportion of this to this … is it the same or shorter? I did a lot of erasing at first.

R pointed to J’s drawing and said: You haven’t learned how to cheat yet to get the desired effect you want.

J apparently didn’t get the meaning of “cheat”: Like what? Draw over the top of a Xerox?

R: You want to capture a certain thing about this woman’s face. A certain defiance you see in there.

J: Yeah, I didn’t get it.

R: Exaggerate those little things that give her that look, you know. Like the way her teeth slightly show. She’s got a slight sneer.

J: I try to do that, but it’s hard with pencil.

R: Just exaggerate, cheat a little. Like the tilt of the head … and the sneer, you would emphasize that. You have to consciously make a decision … of what you want to bring out in the face.

J: I did that here, but it still didn’t work out.

R: It’s very subtle in that photo. It’s very subtle. My drawing doesn’t capture the hate.

J: It does in a way. You’ve got that open mouth. That’s the key to the thing.

R: That sneer, you know?

J: Baring the teeth.

R: Yeah, that’s key.

R: They obviously ordered her to sit down and don’t move. They’re going to take her picture, and just sit there. You can see she doesn’t like it. It’d be good if you could take life drawing.

J: You didn’t go to art school, and look, you’re rich and famous.

R laughed and said: We’re not talking about rich and famous. We’re talking about learning to draw.

Somehow I was amused too.

对《悲惨世界》中译者的访问 - 刘祖武

当98岁的云南艺术学院教授方于见到记者时，挣扎着从病床上坐到了椅子上，谈了翻译《悲惨世界》的前前后后。

18 岁时，方于在上海考取了中国首批公派留学生，来到法国里昂大学攻读法国文学，同时师从里昂音乐学院玛黛依斯夫人学习声乐。在听周末文学讲座时，她与另一名 中国留学生、里昂音乐学院学生李丹相识。伟大作家雨果的诗歌、小说及其名著《悲惨世界》强烈地震撼着他们的心。把这人类智慧的结晶，变成方块字昭示国人成 了两人翻译《悲惨世界》最早的动机。

方于、李丹分别于1927年、1928年学成回国，当时国内战乱、灾变、失业频仍，他们盼望着能为这 块多难的土地做点什么。将那一直震撼着他们心灵的《悲惨世界》，奉献给无数还在悲惨世界中生活的中国同胞的愿望又一次拉近了两人的距离，1929年他们结 婚了。同年，由李丹译、方于校译的《悲惨世界》第一部问世，书名为《可怜的人》，收录在商务印书馆《万有文库》的第一集，分九册出版。

然而，在1932年“一·二八”事变中，商务印书馆被日机炸毁，他们只好将其它译稿陆续寄往该馆驻香港办事处。他们天天等待着书稿出版，可倾注着两人心血的几十万字的译稿自寄出后就石沉大海。

1954年，文化部组织翻译出版一批外国文学名著，决定请李丹夫妇重译《悲惨世界》。1958年5月、1959年6月，《悲惨世界》新译本第一、二部由人民文学出版社出版。正当第三部译毕付梓时，文化大革命爆发，《悲惨世界》译本被扔到大火中，夫妇俩被关进“牛棚”。

1971 年，夫妇俩刚被释放出“牛棚”，还未平反、摘帽，就从箱底翻出了被老鼠咬成碎片的第三部《悲惨世界》译稿。李丹拄着拐杖到图书馆找资料，一夜一夜地翻查字 典。这一年，李丹老得很快，71岁的他，牙齿掉光了，人干瘪了，背弓下去了，并开始咯血，然而第四部竟在这样的境况下译出来了。他又带着第五部的原著住进 了医院，这一住，李丹就再也没回家，1977年5月李丹去世了……翻开他的枕头，留下的只有写在香烟壳上关于第五部的几张凌乱的断想。

李丹逝世后，方于扑到了书桌前，这一埋头就是9个月。9个月，这位74岁的老人身体虚弱到每天只靠一碗稀饭维持度日；9个月里，没有谁知道她是怎样刻意使自 己笔下的用词、造句与前四卷的语气风格统一起来；9个月，谁也不知道她心里翻腾着什么，她苍白、沉静得就像一块大理石的浮雕。1979年，《悲惨世界》第 五部由方于译出。1984年6月，人民文学出版社出版了《悲惨世界》的最后一部。

两位老人用半个世纪心血翻译完成的《悲惨世界》中文本， 终于在1984年由人民文学出版社完整出版，从此风靡全国。然而，不久对此书的“盗版”十分猖獗，仅1995年至2001年就发现了8种不同版本，都是盗 版的或剽窃李、于之作。李丹、方于之子李方明退休以后一直在为保护《悲惨世界》译作、打击盗版而奔波。

（《文汇报》2001.7.10）

Lines and Planes (No.6)

Lines and Planes (No.5)

Lines and Planes (No.4)

Lines and Planes (No.3)

Lines and Planes (No.2)