Bai Jin Translation Complete Collection, Volume 9

Author: Berkman (USA) and others
Translator: Ba Jin
Publisher:
Publish Date: June 1, 1997
Features: Excerpt: The events of that day when the awakening and its consequences, as well as the summons of Musette, were still vividly etched in my mind. It was July 6, 1892. My friend Figa and I sat quietly in the back room of our small residence, when Emma suddenly entered. Her usual rapid and forceful steps sounded unusually resolute at that moment. I turned to look at her, and the peculiar light in her eyes and the excited hue on her face startled me. "Have you read it?" she shouted, waving a half-opened newspaper. "What happened?" "About Musette. The striking workers were shot. The Pinkertons1 killed a woman and children." She spoke in an anxious and fragmented tone. Her words were like the howl of an injured beast, her musical voice tinged with a serious bitterness, born of despair. I took the newspaper from her hand. I read the fiery account of this fierce struggle (the Musette strike wave, or to be more precise, the dismissal of all workers), and my excitement grew steadily. The newspaper exposed in detail the conspiracy of Carnegie Company to undermine the Steel Workers' Union. To achieve this, the company chose the notoriously anti-labor Welch as its president. On one hand, he deliberately continued friendly negotiations with the union, while secretly preparing for war: for example, repairing the Musette steel plant, building a board wall with barbed wire on top, leaving gunholes for shooting; and hiring a gang of Pinkertons. In the dead of night, he secretly transported this group into Musette. Then the terrible massacre occurred. I handed the newspaper to Figa. Emma looked at me. We sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. We occasionally exchanged a few words or a probing, meaningful glance.
Postscript: The French original of Bread and Freedom was titled La Conquête du Pain, published in 1892. A Japanese translation by Kōtoku Shūji appeared as Bread Snatched in the Minpō Shuppan in 1909. The earliest Chinese abridged translation was published twenty years ago. The full translation was also published thirteen years ago (1927). For this new translation, I based it on my old version but revised it in reference to English, French, and German texts. (When I translated this book in 1925, I referred to Kōtoku Shūji's Japanese translation, but the book was later borrowed and lost. I now have a new translation by the Black Front Society from 1930). I also translated the preface from the German text. The French preface is also newly translated; the old version used Zhen Tianxiang's translation. As for the two prefaces in the Russian text, the old version included Jia Wei's translation. This time, I revised them based on (or rather, referred to) the Japanese translation by Koike Eizo. I haven't seen the original Russian text, so I'm afraid there must be errors in my translation and can only wait for future corrections. The notes in these prefaces are all added by me. The title Bread Snatched is generally considered difficult for Chinese readers to understand. For this revision, I adopted the title from the Russian translation: Bread and Freedom. This title was chosen by the author himself, while the French title was actually chosen by his friend élisée Reclus.
Translator, March 1940