High Life

44 品 Poet Zhan Changzheng notes that, “Yao’s attitude and philosophy of life leads his irony to just make you laugh, neither too mean nor too pungent but with the minor force winning energetically it can always touch your soul.” Besides creative writing, Yao naturally acts as a bridge linking Chinese and Portuguese literature. In addition to encouraging his students to produce literary translations, in 2017 he coordinated a publication project jointly sponsored by the University of Macau and the Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. The project will not only translate and introduce a number of classic Portuguese books for Chinese readers but also introduce some of the best Chinese contemporary writers to the Portuguese. It will be the first time classic Chinese books have been translated directly into Portuguese on such a large scale. “The study of Portuguese literature is still relatively minor at present. Research on Portuguese writers in China is basically very weak, even blank,” Yao says with a look of concern on his face. “Our responsibility now is to cultivate people who are interested in either translation or doing research on Portuguese literature. Only by forming a team like that will it be possible in the future to help Portuguese literature in China through better promotion.” Yao says that should he no longer need to work at some stage in the future, he would love to find a quiet place filled with trees, running water and birds singing where he could spend all day reading, translating and writing. “I never set a goal in my life,” he explains. “I do not deny that fame sometimes is quite a temptation for people, but if you spend your whole life chasing it I think that is boring. Doing what you like and having fun at the same time, that’s just enough.” 除了鼓励学生进行葡语文学翻译 之外，2017年，姚京明担任了《中 国——葡萄牙图书互译出版项目》 的统筹。这个项目由澳门大学和北 京外语教学研究出版社共同签署， 除了计划将葡萄牙知名作家译成中 文引入之外，还会将中国的现当代 作家包括鲁迅、冯友兰、钱钟书、 阎连科、贾平凹等的作品译成葡 文。这将是中国作家的作品第一次 被大规模地从中文直接译成葡语。 “葡语文学研究目前依旧比较小 众。除了翻译，中文世界基本上对 于葡语作家的研究是非常薄弱甚至 可以说是空白的。”一提及此，姚 京明显得有些忧心忡忡。 “我们现在的责任就是培养一 些对文学翻译和研究有兴趣的人。 光是翻译其实很难令大家认识到他 们的价值，小国家的文学一定要有 特别之处，比如说获得了诺贝尔文 学奖，人们才会产生兴趣。而这种 兴趣如果没有后续评论界的支持的 话，可能过个几年就消退了。只有 形成一个翻译研究梯队，这样才可 能在未来帮助葡语文学在国内得到 更好的推广。” 姚京明自言如果将来有一天不 需要工作了，他希望可以找到一个 有树的地方，能听到鸟鸣，最好是 有水，每天就是看看书，翻译点东 西，自己写写诗。 “我没有给自己划定过人生目 标。我不否认功名对人是有很大诱 惑力的，但如果整个人都被功名所 牵制，我觉得也很无聊。我觉得做 喜欢做的事，从中汲取乐趣，就够 了。”