Balzac once said：“a thinking person， only is a power of endless.” The rapids of times surge forward, submerging numerous people. Some choose to climb on the bandwagon, spinning like a top at full speed, while some choose to take a path that nobody cares about. Those people have an independent mind. No matter how noisy the outside voice is, they can still maintain a state of mind like Tao Yuanming’s, which is "the heart is far away from itself". Currently, the society is developing rapidly. It is beneficial to me to own an independent personality.
巴尔扎克曾说：“一个能思想的人，才真是一个力量无边的人。”时代洪流浩浩荡荡，无数人被卷入其中。有些人选择随波逐流，像陀螺一样高速旋转，但有些人选择独自走一条无人问津的道路。他们是有独立思想的人，不管外界声音如何嘈杂，他们都能保持像陶渊明一样“心远地自偏”的心境。当今社会飞速发展，对我而言，能够拥有独立的人格实属一大美事。
Why do I think that maintaining an independent personality is very precious in the current society? Camus said: “All maverick personalities mean strength.” The reason why those people who won our esteem such as Qi Faren, who stuck to aerospace education in his 80s, Nan Rendong, who devoted his whole life to China's Tianyan, Qin Yuefei, who chose to return to his motherland to help the poor after giving up his high salary abroad, can attain recognition and praise is that they regard the loneliness in people’s eyes as a kind of practice. Their dreams will be achieved when they stick to their hearts and ignore outside voice. Their loneliness not only provides them with a pure land of mind, but also makes them to make extraordinary contributions to society and the country.
我为什么认为能够保持独立的人格在当今社会显得十分珍贵？加缪说，一切特立独行的人格都意味着强大。那些我们敬仰的人们，像耄耋之年坚守航天教育的戚发轫，为中国天眼奉献一生心血的南仁东，放弃国外高薪选择回国扶贫的秦玥飞等等，能够得到社会认可和赞扬的原因是：他们把大众眼里的孤独看成是一种修行，坚守自己的内心并忽略外界声音时方修成正果。而他们的孤独不仅为他们自己提供心灵的一方净土，更是让他们为社会为国家做出卓越的贡献。
It reminds me of a famous translator, Zhou Kexi. He is one of the few independent translators of Proust's works in China. There are quite a few long and difficult sentences in Proust’s works, as a consequece of which, Mr. Zhou translated an average of 400 words a day at the beginning. It is not too much to say that completing the translation of one of Proust’s works is like exploring in a dark tunnel alone. However, just as Mr. Zhou said, in that dark tunnel, he could not see the dim light at the end, and he was still slowly crawling. Although he could not see the light, he was still walking slowly. A translator is lonely to a degree. To translate an artist’s work perfectly, he or she must cherish their longlines. Loneliness makes them run in opposite directions most people, but at the end of the tunnel, it turns into a dim light to warm their hearts. I claim that this is the charm of loneliness.
这让我想到一位翻译家，周克希先生。他是国内极少数独立翻译普鲁斯特作品的译者。普鲁斯特作品的长难句众多, 这导致周先生刚开始的时候每天平均的翻译量为四百字。可以说，译完普鲁斯特的一本作品就像是孤独地行走于一条黑黢黢的隧道，但正如周先生自己描述的那样，在黑黢黢的隧道里，看不到尽头的微光，他还在缓慢地爬行，尽管看不到尽头的微光，他还在慢慢地走。从某种程度上，翻译家是寂寞的，但要想翻译出好的作品，就必须热爱自己的寂寞。孤独令他们与大多数人背道而驰，却又在隧道尽头化成微光来温暖他们的内心，我想，这便是孤独的魅力。
Author: Li Huige
Date: August 31, 2022
