Portrait like a wheat straw: Essays Volume: Essays Volume

Author: Editorial Department of World Literature
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-01-01
Features: In July 1953, fifty years ago, World Literature was founded, initially named Translated Works. It was established to commemorate the cultural pioneers like Lu Xun who had founded Translated Works magazine in the 1930s in Shanghai. As Mao Dun stated in the Founding Manifesto, "To commemorate the arduous efforts of Lu Xun in founding Translated Works and to inherit its spirit, this new journal was named Translated Works." This was the first specialized journal after the founding of the People's Republic of China, established by the All-China Writers' Association, dedicated to introducing foreign literary works and theories. When I wrote this title, the young face of my primary school teacher from over forty years ago came to mind, for this was precisely his statement, his style, and his conclusion at the time. Now, as I caress this collection, Essays from World Literature Half a Century Ago, which, I unexpectedly find myself strongly resonating with his statement. Yes. Rich and splendid, it should be essays. Because "the greatest sound is silent, and the greatest form is formless." Essays are not bound by any form, purely the free flow of thought. Thus, they possess the greatest possibility of achieving richness and splendor. They can be paintings—D.H. Lawrence, facing Mount Etna, with his majestic brush, depicting a giant painting hanging from the sky in The Sea and Sardinia, leaving his footprints behind. They can be poems—Kawabata Yasunari's heartfelt memories of his youth, the touch of melancholy and warmth he left behind in Impressions of Izu. They can be letters—Tagore's soaring missives during his travels in Europe and America in the 1920s and 1930s, conveying his aspirations for the future of his homeland, India, in Letters from Afar. They can be reflections on life—Nadine Gordimer's speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, the sincere heart she laid bare in Writing and Existence. They can be real stories—Mstislav Rostropovich, the music maestro, recalling his childhood interactions with the writer Vera Khlébnikova, delivering a literary improvisation with the fingers of a conductor in Historically Significant Houses.