British writer

Chapter 104 Sense of Identity

Dirty——

On the train from Birmingham to London, steam billowed from the chimney at the front of the train, and because of incomplete combustion, black smoke was mixed with it.

The conductor pushed the trolley past, selling goods,

Risotto,

pie,

fish and chips,

...

Most of them are foods that cannot be stored for a long time.

In a box in the second carriage, there were two Chinese people sitting.

One of them is Gu Hongming,

He whispered: "Take the train of the British Empire, the service you enjoy is really good."

The person opposite shook his head,

"Isn't it because they are about to arrive at the station that they will sell the food at a low price? This has nothing to do with the service itself, it is purely a commercial act."

The train they took departed from Birmingham, passed through Coventry, Northampton, Cambridge, and then arrived in London.

Just passed the last transfer station——

Cambridge.

Gu Hongming was helpless, and said: "Director Zheng, can you stop thinking about those commercial things? Seeing that everything is a commercial act, isn't it going to fall into the eyes of money? Living like this is too boring!"

Mr. Zheng's name is Zheng Guanying,

The general director refers to the general director of the Guangdong-Han Railway, which is a position.

It is worth mentioning that Zheng Guanying was also the manager of Hanyang Iron Works and China Shipping Merchants Bureau, and he came to London for "visiting and studying".

Coincidentally, Gu Hongming returned to London from Edinburgh,

The two walked together.

Zheng Guanying frowned,

"Don't call me that. I have a name and a number."

Gu Hongming hurriedly said: "Alright, Zheng Xiang, Tao Zhai, and Qi Yousheng."

Zhengxiang is the character of Zheng Guanying,

Tao Zhai is the name, and Qi Yousheng is another name.

Zheng Guanying was helpless, and complained: "Hongming, what's wrong with you? Why did you come to England and become so cynical? If I had known this, I shouldn't have gone to London with you."

The muscles on Gu Hongming's cheeks twitched, his expression complicated,

"I'm just disappointed."

Zheng Guanying asked: "Disappointed? Disappointed with whom?"

Gu Hongming was silent and did not answer,

The other party is Hanyang Iron Works and Steamship Merchants Bureau, who eat imperial food, of course I can't admit that I am disappointed with the Qing court.

He said: "You still have the nerve to call me cynical? As for the card game Doudi Zhu, don't you pester me to play with your entourage every day? I heard you talking nonsense after drinking yesterday, 'Zheng Zhengxiang, Zheng Zhengxiang! You How can you be so depraved! I have to examine myself three times a day, and I can't go on like this.'”

Zheng Guanying's face was as black as ink,

"You...I...! @* # ¥%..."

Because there was no way to refute it, it turned into gibberish gibberish.

Gu Hongming couldn't help laughing out loud, and said, "You have nothing to say, right?"

Zheng Guanying was helpless,

"That card game is really fun. Of course, it is far less interesting than mahjong, but the card game is more convenient to carry."

Gu Hongming said: "Yes, you still have the courage to admit it."

Zheng Guanying snorted and said, "What dare not admit it? The Master said, 'It's so difficult to eat all day long and have nothing to do! Are there no gamers? For this reason, you are still a virtuous person.' Even sages are not against games." .”

The so-called "gamer" refers to the person who plays Go,

Can Go compare with Doudizhu?

Gu Hongming murmured: "Excessive words!"

Zheng Guanying laughed, and was about to reply a few words, but heard a noise coming from outside.

The two couldn't help frowning,

Just now at Cambridge Station, a group of students came up, and the whole train became a lot noisy.

Gu Hongming said: "I went over and closed the door tightly."

Then he went to the door, pulled the handle,

As a result, he didn't close the door tightly, but pressed his whole body against the door, eavesdropping on the voices outside through the crack of the door.

Zheng Guanying couldn't help being stunned,

"What are you doing!?"

He even made a complaint in his heart: "What does it look like with a pouty butt!?"

At this time, Gu Hongming was indeed pouting his buttocks, pressing his right cheek against the door, and leaning his ears against the crack of the door as much as possible, like a voyeur.

Zheng Guanying raised the volume slightly,

"What are you doing!?"

Gu Hongming came back to his senses,

"cough……"

He coughed in embarrassment, and then opened the door wider.

The noise outside immediately spread into the carriage.

Zheng Guanying was dissatisfied,

"what?"

But Gu Hongming made a silent gesture and said, "Listen. Come here, come closer and listen."

Zheng Guanying was somewhat disgusted by this impolite behavior,

He sighed, moved his buttocks, and moved a little closer to the door of the box, his body was still tense, like a student sitting upright,

Let him disregard his image like Gu Hongming, he can't do it.

At this time, the voice of reciting came from outside,

"

I have a dream.

I dream that one day the valleys will rise, the mountains will descend, the rough and winding roads will become smooth, and the holy light will shine on the world.

No matter who we are, we can work together, pray together, and fight together.

...

"

Zheng Guanying's English is not as good as Gu Hongming's, and it is a bit difficult for him to listen.

Under the circumstances, he could not understand the shock of the speech, only vaguely found it very contagious, but that was all.

On the contrary, Gu Hongming was fascinated, and even muttered:

"I have a dream……"

After two minutes, the speech ended.

Zheng Guanying asked: "What was that just now? In England, someone would give a speech on the train?"

Gu Hongming shook his head,

"I don't know too much. It's just that the content of that speech is really... no, I have to go and see."

He couldn't hold back his curiosity, and pushed the door open.

Zheng Guanying hesitated for a moment, but still followed quickly.

The two walked all the way to the "originating place" of that speech, and almost all the boxes they passed along the way were college students.

These college students also cast curious eyes when they saw the two Chinese.

Whispers arose,

"It's Chinese."

"Ah, come from the same country as Professor Lu? Why do you feel that their temperament is completely different from that of Professor Lu?"

"If you ask me that, who am I to ask..."

"By the way, how do you know that he is Chinese? You can't just guess it?"

"Of course it's not a random guess! Look at their braids!"

...

Zheng Guanying couldn't help being surprised.

He has been to Belgium, England, France,

In the past, although these white people were curious about Asians and occasionally pointed fingers, they never chattered like this.

What's going on today?

Gu Hongming, who was on the side, understood that the "Professor Lu" mentioned by the students was exactly Lu Shi.

Some time ago, he had been paying attention to Lu Shi through the newspapers. It wasn't until Zheng Guanying went to England that he had to act as a translator and playmaker. He didn't have time to read the newspapers, and he lost his understanding of Lu Shi's recent situation.

Zheng Guanying asked in a low voice, "Why do these students look at us like that?"

Gu Hongming smiled lightly,

"Probably because some powerful compatriots have been recognized overseas."

Zheng Guanying resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said, "Hong Ming, isn't it a little too much for you to boast so much?"

Gu Hongming was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing,

"I didn't say anything about myself."

He pointed to the box in front, and said, "I'll talk to you about this topic later, I want to see who that speech came from first."

The two continued on.

Unexpectedly, there were also a few college students sitting in their destination box.

Gu Hongming was surprised,

The aspirations of young people in the UK today are so ambitious that they often say "I have a dream" or "I dream of one day"?

"hiss……"

The more Gu Hongming thought about it, the more frightened he became.

On the other side, the young people in the box were also looking at them curiously.

The two sides looked at each other.

After a long time, a British student asked, "Chinese?"

Gu Hongming and Zheng Guanying nodded.

Seeing the two confess, the expression on the faces of the British students changed from doubt to excitement,

Immediately someone said: "You and Professor Lu are from the same country! It's great!"

The so-called "love the house and the crow\

,"Zheng Guanying could clearly feel the respect these students had for "Professor Lu".

It's just that the Chinese are working as professors in the UK...

What kind of Arabian Nights is this special meow? !

Puzzled.

Zheng Guanying touched Gu Hongming's shoulder, and asked in a low voice: "Hongming, you said that you were born in Nanyang and studied in the West. Recently, you have been traveling in England for more than two months. Have you ever heard of Mr. Lu?" Learned?"

Gu Hongming did not answer him, but asked those students,

"Are you talking about Lu Shi?"

The students nodded.

One of them said, "That's right, the speech just now came from Professor Lu's speech at Cambridge."

Zheng Guanying was a little confused,

"You're saying... speeches come from speeches?"

He thought his English was too bad and he didn't understand.

The student also seemed to feel that what he said was a bit of a mouthful, and then said to his companion: "Keman, please show the notes you have sorted out."

The student named Coman was obviously a bit reluctant,

"This... I..."

Gu Hongming said: "Hello, my name is Gu Hongming, and I am a translator. Seeing that you respect Professor Lu so much, you should be interested in Chinese culture. I would like to exchange the translations of "The Analects" or "The Doctrine of the Mean" with you."

The students are a little confused,

They saw that Gu Hongming was quite complacent when he mentioned his name,

But the problem is...

Who is Gu Hongming?

The students couldn't help but looked at each other.

Finally, someone said: "The title of Professor Lu's speech today is "Faith, Express, Elegance", and the theme is..."

Before he finished speaking, Gu Hongming said: "Isn't that the 'Three Difficulties in Translation' proposed by Mr. Yan Fu? Lu Shi...cough cough...Professor Lu gave a speech on this?"

He said so, and the students believed that he really knew what he was doing.

Coman hesitated for a moment, and said: "The topic of Professor Lu's speech today is related to translation. Fu... Er... Mr. Hu is also a translator, so it is only natural that he is interested. I can give you the notes I made. But you can't let it deface."

Gu Hongming: "..."

in silence.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Coman asked puzzledly, "Mr. Hu?"

For the first time, "Mr. Hu" may be a mouthful;

The second time "Mr. Hu" could only be that Coman really didn't know Gu Hongming.

Thinking of Gu Hongming's self-confidence when he introduced himself just now, he suddenly felt that life was hopeless, and he wished he could find a crack in the ground and sneak in.

He took the note despondently,

"Thank you."

Koman nodded, and then introduced the whole speech today,

Starting from Lu Shi's "When You Are Old" by Yeats,

Then lead to the dispute between English and Chinese,

And then "I Have a Dream\

,"And finally the poem.

...

Koman told them one by one, trying not to miss anything.

At the beginning, Gu Hongming replied with a few words of "hmm, huh, huh", but his voice gradually disappeared after that.

Because his attention has been fully focused on that speech.

His expression became more and more dignified,

Suddenly, two lines of tears fell from the corners of the eyes and dripped down the manuscript paper along the cheeks.

Koman opened his mouth to speak,

But the classmate next to him stopped him and shook his head.

Coman sighed and said to himself,

Anyway, I just sorted out the first draft, and after I go back, I have to check and sort it out with other classmates who took notes, so it will be dirty if it is dirty.

For a while, no one spoke in the whole box,

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence lay between all,

The hustle and bustle outside didn't seem to have anything to do with the atmosphere in the box.

I do not know how long it has been,

"Huh~"

Gu Hongming let out a sigh.

Zheng Guanying was not that sensitive to English, but he could sense the power of this speech and said, "That's great... Really good..."

Gu Hongming shook his head,

"No, you don't know how good it is."

After finishing speaking, he took a deep breath and read in Chinese:

"

‘I dream that one day, in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the sons of ex-slaves will be able to sit at the table with the sons of ex-slave masters and share brotherhood;’

...

"

Although the British students did not understand, they were greatly shocked.

Professor Lu is right. In terms of prosody, Chinese does have something, and some parts are even stronger than English.

As a Chinese, Zheng Guanying's feelings are deeper,

On the surface, the speech is about Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, Burma, India, not a word about China,

But is that really the case?

Especially those passages of "Voice of Equality", a Chinese speech, don't they say what he thinks?

After a while, Gu Hongming finished reading the Chinese version.

He returned the manuscript to Corman.

Coman said: "Professor Lu's speech should be published in the newspaper tomorrow."

Gu Hongming nodded and asked, "Who are you?"

Everyone answered in different tongues, some said it was from London Political Science and Economics, others said it was from University College London and King's College London University,

They chartered a car together to go to Cambridge to listen to the speech, but when they came back, they scattered.

Gu Hongming thanked again: "Thank you."

Afterwards, he and Zheng Guanying returned to their own box together in a daze.

The two were relatively silent.

The scenery outside the car window passed by in a hurry,

Gradually, the train began to slow down, and some impatient students outside had already walked to the aisle, chatting and looking at the first carriage from time to time on tiptoe to see if there was a flight attendant.

Zheng Guanying suddenly spoke,

"Hongming, it seems that you know this Professor Lu?"

Gu Hongming nodded,

"Didn't you keep asking me who invented Doudizhu?"

Zheng Guanying:? ? ?

(⊙_⊙)?

Others are stupid.

I thought it was a game invented by the Germans or the Dutch, but I didn’t expect the real inventor to be a Chinese.

The most outrageous thing is that this person is still an all-rounder in a sense,

On the one hand, can invent card games;

On the one hand, being able to give that kind of provocative, cohesive-building speech.

Gu Hongming said: "His name is Lu Shi, and he is the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel."

He did not introduce Lu Shi's other works,

Because whether it is a novel or a drama, it is more entertaining, and it is far less shocking than "Guns, Germs and Steel".

Sure enough, Zheng Guanying opened his mouth wide in surprise, as if he could eat a whole peach.

After a while, he couldn't help asking: "Lu Shi said in his speech, 'If the UK is to become a great country, this dream must be realized', you think, is he really doing it for the good of the UK?"

This is a rather embarrassing question.

Gu Hongming shook his head very easily,

"Won't."

He had been in contact with Lu Shi, and he could feel that Lu Shi just looked down on the Qing court, but he had a strong identity,

In other words, in Lu Shi's eyes, the Qing court is just the Qing court, which doesn't represent anything.

Zheng Guanying nodded,

"What I'm talking about is that I heard from the student named Coman just now that Lu Shi expressed some views on Chinese culture in his speech, and I appreciate it very much."

So Lu Shi is very magical,

The British think that Lu Shi is really for the good of Great Britain,

The Chinese believe that Lu Shi has a strong identity.

Gu Hongming said: "When I arrive in London, I want to visit. Zhengxiang, do you want to go with me? Tomorrow."

Zheng Guanying said: "Okay! Let's go together!"

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like