Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Hello, my name is Jean de Miribaire, my Chinese name is Mi Ruizhe, I am from France, and now I am a professor at Anxi Foreign Languages ​​Institute. What is your name and which university are you from?"

Fang Minghua could understand this sentence without a translator, but he still couldn't answer in English.

"Li Li, tell him my situation. I am not a college student, but a member of the security department of a confidential unit."

Li Li nodded and translated immediately.

“He is nNot a college student, but a staff member of a confidential unit”

Intentionally or unintentionally, the word "Security Section" was lost in translation.

Mi Ruizhe didn't pay attention to this and chatted for a long time again.

"I personally like the character of Marcel, the protagonist of "In Search of Lost Time" very much. He is elegant and easy to talk to, has brilliant insights, is adaptable to the situation, and has a good demeanor. He is simply a typical representative of our French literary youth in the 19th century!"

When Li Li translated, Fang Minghua replied with a smile:

"Yes, Marcel's character's temperament is very similar to the style of the ancient Chinese Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the book, a waitress who had a good relationship with him once said this about him:

"If you think you have anything in common with the common folk who roam this humble land of ours, you are sadly mistaken!"

"You are not lying down to sleep. Have you ever seen anyone lying down and sleeping like this? You are just taking a rest here. At this moment, you are wearing this white pajamas and swinging your neck like this. It looks like a white dove."

"The sleeping posture described in the book is very reminiscent of the literati in the Wei and Jin Dynasties in my country." Fang Minghua finally said.

After he finished speaking, he saw Li Li looking at him with dull eyes, so he urged: "Translate."

"What you said was too long, I can't remember it." The girl felt aggrieved.

All right

Fang Minghua had no choice but to repeat it paragraph by paragraph.

When Mi Ruizhe heard this, he realized that the other party had indeed read this book. They met a close friend and immediately started a lively conversation.

The two chatted animatedly.

Li Li was so busy that her mouth went dry.

There are fewer and fewer people around.

There is no way, the lectures are too profound and the English proficiency requirements are too high.

I haven’t read this book and I can’t understand the English spoken by Li Li and the foreigner. Why are I staying here?

In the end, even the boy who knew Li Li glanced at Fang Minghua, and he couldn't tell whether it was envy or jealousy in his eyes, and left in despair.

After chatting for more than forty minutes, Fang Minghua felt his mouth was dry. He couldn't help but said: "I'm sorry, Professor Miruzhe, I have something else to do and I should go."

The other party seemed to still have some unfinished ideas, and strongly requested Fang Minghua to come to the English Corner next time, or come to the outer courtyard to find him, and even left his specific address.

"I hope you can come to the outer courtyard with this beautiful girl, and we can continue chatting. I like stream-of-consciousness literature very much, and it feels so wonderful to meet a soulmate here." Mi Ruizhe said.

The Chinese he spoke this time was not very fluent and his pronunciation was weird.

Stream of consciousness literature?

forget it.

In a few years, China’s literary and art circles will become a stream of consciousness.

In a few years, stream of consciousness will be a thing of the past!

But for the foreigner in front of us, we must maintain the demeanor of a great nation. It doesn't matter whether he goes or not, we must first smile and nod in agreement.

Mi Ruizhe left, leaving Fang Minghua and Li Li behind. He said something to the girl and was about to leave, but he hadn't found his sister yet.

But the girl stopped him: "Fang Minghua, where have you read the book "In Search of Lost Time"? Isn't it very good?"

"It doesn't look good."

"ah?"

"It's really not good-looking. Don't be fooled by this poetic name. It's just that the name sounds nice." Fang Minghua said seriously:

"It doesn't have a complete story or a complete narrative clue. It's very messy. The so-called stream of consciousness is just random writing and random thoughts. In fact, I haven't finished it yet."

"Then you were so happy chatting with Mi Ruizhe just now?" The girl didn't seem to believe it.

"What can I do if he insists on talking about this novel?" Fang Minghua deliberately shrugged like a foreigner and spread his hands:

"I want to talk to him about Tang poetry, Song poetry, and Chu poetry. I guess he won't understand."

"Ha ha"

Li Li was amused by Fang Minghua's behavior: "Don't tell me, if you really said Guan Guan Pheasant Dove, in River Continent, I still can't translate it."

"This is what's wrong with you learning foreign languages. Learning foreign languages, and not talking about anything else but literature, is not just about translating good foreign works for us, but more importantly, it is about translating our country's excellent literary works into foreign languages ​​for foreigners. People think, five thousand years of Chinese history, isn’t that more than what the French have written?!”

"But now college students like to read foreign works and don't like Chinese classical literature." Li Li said.

"Hey, I don't know how good Sister Yu is, but I mistakenly regard a lolita as a treasure." Fang Minghua suddenly sighed with emotion.

"Fang Minghua, what does this mean? What is Yujie? Loli?" It was the first time Li Li heard this word, and it was very strange.

"Oh, I just said it casually, that's not the point." Fang Minghua hurriedly covered it up: "The point is, now I feel that foreign literature is good, that's because I haven't seen much freshness. Only when you read more will you know that our literature is real. The beauty.”

Li Li nodded after hearing this.

What he said seems to make sense.

But why is it Royal Sister Loli?

While the two were talking, they saw a girl walking over.

"elder brother."

It's Fang Mingli.

"Li Li!" Fang Mingli said hello to Li Li again.

Li Li obviously knew Fang Mingli, so she replied and looked at Fang Minghua again.

"He is your brother?"

"Yes." Fang Mingli came over and hugged Fang Minghua's arm affectionately, "He's my brother!"

"Fang Mingli, your brother's literary level is very high. I just had a very interesting conversation about French literature with Mr. Mi Ruizhe, a foreign professor from the foreign college." Li Li said.

Of course, my brother is a writer.

It’s Teacher Minghua whom you admire so much.

But I won’t tell you! May you continue to worship!

Fang Mingli was thinking in her heart, but she said: "My brother likes reading very much, especially literary classics."

"Little sister, have you practiced speaking with foreigners?" Fang Minghua interrupted.

"No, there are too few foreigners. I mostly talk to college students. I just met a few students from the outer college, and their speaking skills are very high." Fang Mingli replied.

"Oh." Fang Minghua nodded and said to Li Li: "Li Li, I found that your spoken English is very standard. Can you teach my sister to practice speaking?"

"Of course." Li Li agreed happily: "Fang Mingli, you seem to be from the mathematics department, right?"

"Yes, I am in Class 3, Grade 80, Department of Mathematics."

"I am from Class 1, Grade 79, Department of Foreign Languages. My dormitory is in Room 203, Building 3, North District. If you have any questions about English, you can come to me."

"That's great, thank you, Li Li."

"Why are you so polite? We are all from the same literary club."

"Li Li, your poetry recitation is also very nice. Do you have any skills?" Fang Mingli asked again.

"Recitation is a kind of knowledge. It requires certain skills, especially poetry recitation, pauses, coherence, stress, rhythm, and tone. Didn't I teach about recitation in our literary club?"

"I listened, but I didn't understand some parts. For example, I didn't master the accent well."

"The emphasis can be divided into low and medium, high and high, real and imaginary, etc. I will give you an example, such as the sentence "Motherland, My Dear Motherland" by Shu Ting."

The two girls actually had a heated discussion and started reciting poetry. Fang Minghua, who was standing aside, felt bored.

Fortunately, Li Li's voice is very nice, even when she is not reading aloud and speaking.

Not nearly as good as my sister.

There is no way, people from Qin Province, especially those from Guanzhong, have loud voices.

Thanks to readers 1594299374924558336, Canghai Qingkong, Book Friends 2017112506480746, Book Friends 120906010843784, Book Friends Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer, and Book Friends 2023051470_de for their monthly votes.

PS: Jean Demiribaire, whose Chinese name is Mi Ruizhe, is indeed a real person. He has a legendary life. From coming to China in the early 1980s to his death in 2015 (at the age of 96), he has been living in Xi'an. Engaged in Sino-French cultural exchange work. The first foreigner in Shaanxi to obtain a Chinese green card. After his death, he donated his body to China's medical cause. He is a respectable old man.