Short Story by 郁达夫 (Yu Dafu) - 春风沉醉的晚上 (Spring Night)

Breaking out from an earlier thread:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/13564-book-of-the-month-in-july-2007

Some of us are reading and will be discussing 春风沉醉的晚上 (Spring Night). http://www.oklink.net/99/1222/yudafu/003.htm

You can read an article about the author here:

http://www.cctv.com/lm/176/71/88858.html

Yu Dafu

As I mentioned in the earlier thread, the style and the psychological details are a bit reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald and other writers of the early 20th century. One can guess from Yu's use of English phrases in places, that he probably was very much influenced by English language literature of that era, though his writing is also very Chinese. The grammar and vocabulary, particularly, are not completely vernacular Chinese (白话). One might say that it has 10-20% classical Chinese elements. Some of Lu Xun's stories are similar in this respect.

Very interesting story indeed! I like his writing style. I still need to go through it a second time, but I found his style of writing very colorful and perfectly descriptive and to me influence from other languages was not obvious. I'll be looking into some more of his works...

gato, thanks for starting the new thread!

I'm just checking in. I'm three paragraphs into the first chapter. I'm hope my slow reading speed is not too annoying for the other readers here This Chinese is challenging to me, but should be manageable.

I like the voice the writer's using so far. The language is indeed descriptive and colorful. Some of the words trip me up, though. Out of curiosity, he had to 拖几本破书 in the first paragraph--are 破书 books he'd already read?

同志们加油!

Out of curiosity, he had to 拖几本破书 in the first paragraph--are 破书 books he'd already read?

破书 literally means "dilapidated books," but I think here he's using it self-deprecatingly or self-pityingly to refer to his few possessions. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it so far. I was very impressed by the story myself.

Muyongshi, I see a European/American influence because of psychological details. I believe that Chinese authors of earlier generations tend to be less focused on psychology. Many fiction writers in the 1912-1949 period studied abroad and often were fluent in several foreign languages (e.g. Japanese, English, French, German). Lu Xun was at least fluent in Japanese and I bet borrowed many Japanese writing techniques into his writing. We have remember that vernacular Chinese writing (白话) was still a brand new animal at this time. Everybody was experimenting and naturally borrowing from foreign vernacular literature that they knew. Classical Chinese writing typically is very pithy and informs by allusions. They are like those paintings that create images with absence of brush strokes rather than the presence. You can't just directly translate from classical Chinese to vernacular Chinese.

破书 literally means "dilapidated books," but I think here he's using it self-deprecatingly or self-pityingly to refer to his few possessions.

I agree with you because within the first few paragraphs he goes to great lengths to describe his books as pretty much being his only possession. I also think that it refers to the fact that books are his "life" so to say. He doesn't really have any other possessions but he can't part with his books.

Is there a schedule for reading this over a certain period of time or are we just doing it all at once?

I read it in about 20-25 minutes the first time and am going to do a second time and re-lookup some of the language and that will probably take me about and hour so....

I thought it might be an idea to break it into chunks - has four parts anyway - and do them one by one for the sake of people who will be doing significant amounts of dictionary look up. Not sure if that's worth doing or not.

I'm a little pressed for time as of right now. Would we be willing to put off finishing this story until maybe Tuesday?

Does it matter when who finishes what? We can just talk about it as people feel like talking about it....it's not like a book club, just like any other thread, anybody can jump in anytime right?

There's hypothetically a danger of giving away the plot, but in this case, I don't think that's too much of a problem. Just be discreet.

What I find both appealing and annoying about this story is that it offers us a brief glimpse into the lives of these characters, but then stops without filling in the details. I realise this is quite possibly the author's whole intention, but after reading the story, there's so much more I want to know about the characters, that we can now only guess at through idle speculation - like for instance how does someone who speaks at least 4 languages end up living destitute in a slum.

I also think that going by passages is a good way to go, as it gives slower readers and/or busy people time to read along and participate. Otherwise you'll get people wanting to move onto the next story, or talking about future events, before everyone's finished reading. Remember, it is after all suppossed to be book of the month.

What I find both appealing and annoying about this story is that it offers us a brief glimpse into the lives of these characters, but then stops without filling in the details.

I agree with you. I personally don't like the idea of a story missing the whole conclusion of the matter. (oh wait have we spoiled the ending (sh)) but in terms of the way he writes I enjoy the style.

I guess though his intention wasn't, as you said, to give us a biography but to simply illustrate a certain time of his life...

I don't like it from a story perspective, but I like it for the effect it has - that it makes you think about the characters and the lifes they lead. After all, if he went on to fill in all the backstory, and then what happens next, there would be nothing left for you to think about. That would make for a more complete story, but wouldn't stimulate the mind so much.

but wouldn't stimulate the mind so much.

Exactly...I hate stories that stimulate my mind

Alright, it's Tuesday and I'm just sitting down to start 第二回 :( My apologies. I've got an idea as to where this is going to go, though I'm not positive, but I don't mind if people give spoilers, frankly. The biggest two things I want to get out of my first few ventures into contempo Chinese lit is vocabulary and getting accustomed the the writing voice, or style. So please, feel free I didn't know if people wanted to read these pieces, then discuss together at the same time....while I acknowledge that everyone being on the same piece at once makes things easier, this is the internet, and what each one of us says isn't going to disappear if we're not around to listen like it would in a face-to-face discussion group

So, first thoughts. First, I'm not convinced that 破书 means dilapidated books. The story starts pretty abruptly with him unemployed and kicking around the slums of shanghai, and by the end of the chapter, I feel like I've got a pretty good idea of what kind of character this is. I know beatniks like this, and they keep books forever. I think 破书 are books he's read, and he's trying to establish himself as a beatnik or something to that effect.

I don't really feel confident on judging the writing style. I think I find the Chinese light-hearted and kind of fun, though.

Also, Imron

Remember, it is after all suppossed to be book of the month

While I am busy and would love to drag this out for a month, I'll acknowledge that I'm the straggler here....it's book of the month, but it's book of the month, and this ain't no book

As for where this story's going (第二回正短了), I was way off. I actually think I'm going to like this story a lot, though I'll see where it goes from here. From here, I'm interested in seeing how the author develops or what he learns in the rest of this story. My guess is that this is going to be a guilt trip about him worrying so much about theoretical questions as to what type of person he is while people right next to him are happy to just make it through the day before breaking even. My sense is, though, that the author's more clever than this.

Also, does anyone know what 煙 are in this context? They're cigarettes, right? The girl packages cigarettes? does 吃煙 mean to smoke?

also, this story's dated to be from 1923. can we forget i called him beatnik?

吃煙

吃香烟 is Shanghainese for 抽烟. The story was written when Mandarin still wasn't standardized, and the author uses some Shanghainese phrases in the story. In Shanghainese, you'd even 吃汤 instead of 喝汤 (I think).

I realise this is quite possibly the author's whole intention, but after reading the story, there's so much more I want to know about the characters, that we can now only guess at through idle speculation - like for instance how does someone who speaks at least 4 languages end up living destitute in a slum.

“你家在什么地方？何以不回家去？”

她问到了这里，我忽而感觉到我自己的现状了。因为自去年以来，我只是一日一日的萎靡下去，差不多把“我是什么人？”“我现在所处的是怎么一种境遇？”“我的心里还是悲还是喜？”这些观念都忘掉了。经她这一问，我重新把半年来困苦的情形一层一层的想了出来。所以听她的问话以后，我只是呆呆的看她，半晌说不出话来。她看了我这个样子，以为我也是一个无家可归的流浪人。脸上就立时起了一种孤寂的表情，微微的叹着说：

“唉！你也是同我一样的么？”

I think it might be the author’s intention, too. Maybe 郁达夫tried to express the meaning of the famous verse by 白居易，”同是天涯沦落人，相逢何必曾相识Fellow sufferers sympathize with each other, why bother to know who you are.”

Cheers!