Transliteration in Psy-Ops

                                      

爱责仁德 = 投降?

I PICKED UP an old collection of Cordwainer Smith stories (The Best of Cordwainer Smith) the other day, and ran across the following anecdote in the forward, by J.J. Pierce:

While in Korea, Linebarger masterminded the surrender of thousands of Chinese troops who considered it shameful to give up their arms. He drafted leaflets explaining how the soldiers could surrender by shouting the Chinese words for 'love,' 'duty,' 'humanity,' and 'virtue'--words that happened, when pronounced in that order, to sound like 'I surrender' in English. He considered this act to be the single most worthwhile thing he had done in his life.

Linebarger here is Paul Linebarger, the real name of Cordwainer Smith. The Chinese words mentioned are probably 爱责仁德, pronounced "ài zé rén dé," a fair approximation of the English. I'd like to see a copy of the original pamphlet.

Linebarger spent part of his childhood in China and was godson to Sun Yatsen, who gave him his Chinese name. This is given in most places as Lin Bah Loh, with the gloss "Forest of Incandescent Bliss". He later used this as a pseudonym in the form "Felix C. Forrest". I can't find the characters given anywhere, but I'd assume his name was 林白乐, Lín Báilè. When mentioned in Chinese these days, his name is given exclusively in a phonetic approximation: 考德维那·史密斯 (only an approximation because "Cordwainer" ought to have the pronunciation 考德那).

As far as I am aware, his science fiction has not yet been translated into Chinese.

【作者: neohet】【访问统计:】【2005年04月2日 星期六 18:13】【 加入博采】【打印】