紮根中國的美裔翻譯家離世 享年98歲

Young westerners who ventured to China during the 1980s were surprised to hear a thick Brooklyn accent echoing down the corridors of Beijing’s Friendship Hotel. Sidney Shapiro, the mild-mannered translator who had beaten them to the Middle Kingdom by three decades, took many of the newcomers under his wing, for instance counselling patience and hope to one American who had been forbidden to marry his Chinese fiancée.

上世紀80年代，那些敢來中國轉轉的西方年輕人驚訝地聽到，北京友誼賓館(Friendship Hotel)的走廊裏迴盪着一個濃重的布魯克林口音——說話的人是沙博理(Sidney Shapiro)，一位30多年前就來到“中央王國”的溫文爾雅的翻譯家。許多新來者都受過他的照顧。比如，曾有個美國人被禁止迎娶自己的中國籍未婚妻，是沙博理勸他要有耐心、不要放棄希望。

One of the small band of “foreign friends” who elected to stay in China after Communist rule began, he was himself no stranger to patience, hope and love. Shapiro, who has died aged 98, married there and is survived by his daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson.

作爲共產黨開始掌權後一小批決定留在中國的“外國友人”之一，沙博理自己就有着大量與耐心、希望和愛有關的經歷。他在中國結婚成家，並在女兒、外孫女和曾孫的陪伴下走完人生，享年98歲。

For the many foreigners to have settled in the country since market reforms began, the small group who had adopted Maoist China are a controversial curiosity. Many grew disillusioned – some with Maoism, others with the “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” that followed – and ultimately left. Shapiro was one who found a comfortable equilibrium and stayed.

自中國啓動市場改革以來，許多外國人來華定居。在他們看來，沙博理這一小批決定在毛澤東時代中國生活的人是些充滿爭議的怪人。在這些人當中，有不少人幻想破滅——有些人是對毛澤東思想、也有些人是對後來的“有中國特色的資本主義”大失所望——最終離開了中國。還有些人找到了一種適宜的平衡、留了下來，沙博理就是其中之一。

Born on December 23 1915, the New Yorker had qualified as a lawyer and was already disturbed by the inequalities of Depression-era America when the US Army recruited him to study Mandarin during the second world war. Peace arrived before he could use his skills, so he decided to move to Shanghai in 1947 and work there. He found a city rent by war and poverty – and he also found Feng Zi, or Phoenix, a beautiful Chinese actress and Communist sympathiser.

1915年12月23日，沙博理生於美國紐約。二戰期間，美國陸軍徵他入伍，讓他學習現代標準漢語。當時，取得律師資格的他已然對大蕭條時期美國的不平等現象深感不安。沙博理還沒來得及發揮自己所長，戰爭就結束了，於是在1947年他決定去上海工作。在那裏，他看到了一座飽受戰爭和貧窮摧殘的城市，也遇到了鳳子——一位美麗的中國女演員、共產黨的同情者。

The couple settled in Beijing shortly before it fell to Mao’s forces. Shapiro witnessed the jubilant arrival of the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing and the triumphant moment when Mao Zedong declared from Tiananmen Gate: “The Chinese people have stood up!” Living in revolutionary China, he had finally found a sense of purpose, he later wrote.

沙博理與鳳子結婚後定居北平。很快，這座城市就落入毛澤東的部隊手中。沙博理目睹了中國人民解放軍進城的歡騰場面，也見證了毛澤東在天安門城樓上宣佈“中國人民站起來了”的勝利時刻。他後來寫道，生活在革命的中國，他終於找到了一種目標感。

As China became increasingly isolated, Shapiro concentrated on translating the classic saga Outlaws of the Marsh and more recent novels into English. He became a Chinese citizen in 1963. Moreover, he was one of the few foreigners to serve on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory council.

隨着中國變得越來越孤立，沙博理開始專心從事將中國古典名著《水滸傳》和較近代的小說譯爲英文的工作。1963年，他加入了中國籍。此外，他還是中國人民政治協商會議爲數不多的“洋”委員之一。政協是中國高級別的政治顧問機構。

Shapiro is known too for having compiled and translated local scholarship on ancient Jewish communities in China. “Sidney actually had a shelf of books that were worth working on. A lot of the others had only stacks of China Reconstructs [an English-language monthly],” says Ted Plafker, a Beijing-based journalist and longtime friend.

沙博理還以編譯《中國古代的猶太人-中國學者研究文集點評》一書而聞名。他的老朋友、駐京記者泰德•普拉夫克(Ted Plafker)說：“沙博理其實有一櫃子著作值得我們研讀，其他許多人只有幾摞《中國建設》（China Reconstructs，一份英文月刊）。”

When the Cultural Revolution arrived in 1965, no one could avoid politics. Phoenix was sent to a forced labour camp outside Beijing in 1969 and allowed only occasional visits home before her release in 1975. Shapiro managed to avoid imprisonment even as rival factions at the Foreign Languages Press murdered six of his co-workers.

1965年文革爆發，無人能避開政治。鳳子在1969年被下放到北京以外的一個強制勞改營，偶爾獲准回來探家，1975年才被釋放。儘管沙博理有6位同事命喪外文出版社(Foreign Languages Press)的派系鬥爭，但他卻成功地免受牢獄之災。

In 1971 Shapiro visited his family in the US for the first time in 25 years, in what scholar Anne-Marie Brady sees as part of a wider effort to project a positive impression of China as Mao sought an alliance with his former enemy. He had to dodge the awkward question of why his wife had not come too.

1971年，沙博理25年來首次回美國探親。在學者安妮-瑪麗•布雷迪(Anne-Marie Brady)看來，他的探親之旅是旨在突出中國正面形象的更廣泛努力的一部分，因爲毛澤東當時正尋求與美國這一曾經的敵人結盟。但沙博理不得不躲避一個尷尬的問題：爲什麼他的妻子沒有隨行？

“The old friends of China (people like Sid Shapiro, New Zealand’s Rewi Alley, and the USA’s Edgar Snow) are part of the idealised revolutionary past, the myth that established the legitimacy of the regime and links it with the present day,” writes Ms Brady, who interviewed Shapiro for her book Making the Foreign Serve China .

“中國的老朋友（比如沙博理、新西蘭的路易•艾黎(Rewi Alley)和美國的埃德加•斯諾(Edgar Snow)）是理想化革命歷史的一部分，這個神話確立了這個政權的合法性，並將之與當今的時代聯繫在一起，”布雷迪寫道。爲完成《洋爲中用》(Making the Foreign Serve China)一書，她曾採訪過沙博理。

Visiting reporters were disappointed to find Shapiro unwilling to offer much critical insight into the turbulent times he had witnessed; his autobiography, I Chose China , was curiously bland. Friends say, however, that he was privately upset by the 1989 crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

前來採訪沙博理的記者失望地發現，他不願對他所見證的動盪歲月給出多少批判性見解；他的自傳《我的中國》(I Chose China)平淡得出奇。但他的朋友們表示，他私底下對1989年天安門廣場發生的鎮壓感到難過。

What was clear was that he was no fan of the new, money-driven China under Deng Xiaoping. “When China started going the other way, it bothered him. He was always very opposed to US capitalism, hypocrisy and inequality and he got disillusioned as China got more that way,” says Mr Plafker.

可以肯定的是，他並不喜歡鄧小平領導下的一切向錢看的新中國。普拉夫克說：“當中國開始走上另一條道路時，他很困惑。他一貫非常反對美國資本主義、虛僞和不平等，當中國在這條路上越走越遠時，他感到無比失望。”

Phoenix died in 1996. Shapiro griped as his quiet alley by the capital’s Qianhai Lake was steadily over-run with rickshaw tours and night clubs opened around the corner. But he embraced modern technologies with enthusiasm. About two years ago, Shapiro sent an email to friends in Beijing and beyond to say that failing eyesight meant his days at the computer were over.

鳳子於1996年逝世。沙博理住在北京前海附近一條安靜的衚衕裏，可惜衚衕裏日益擠滿了坐人力車觀光的遊客，夜店也開得到處都是，讓他抱怨不已。但他對現代科技卻頗感興趣。大約兩年前，沙博理給北京以及其他地方的朋友發了封電子郵件，說自己視力越來越差，看來要告別電腦了。

But, he added, they could always come to visit.

但他補充道，他們隨時都可以來看他。