1823 65438+On February 22nd, Jean-Henri casimir Fabres was born in the village of Saint-Rennes in Provence. In the following years, Fables spent time with his grandparents in Malaval, not far from the village. At that time, he was attracted by lovely insects such as butterflies and slugs in the country. At the age of seven, Fables returned to St. Rennes to start school, but that childhood has been deeply engraved in his heart.
1833, fabrice's family came to rodez, and his father made a living by running a coffee shop. Four years later, the family moved to Toulouse Fables entered the seminary in Toulouse, but dropped out of school, went out to make a living, worked on the railway and sold lemons in the market. Later, he passed the selection examination of avignon Normal School, won a scholarship, and obtained a diploma from an institution of higher learning after three years' study.
After graduation, Fables, then 19 years old, began his teaching career in Cabentra. His course was the history of natural science.
1849 was appointed as a physics teacher in ajaccio, Corsica. The beautiful natural scenery and rich species on the island ignited his enthusiasm for studying animals and plants. Le Quinn, a botanist in avignon, taught him knowledge. After that, he followed Mocan-Tang Tong to collect flowers and plants everywhere. This knowledgeable tutor laid a solid foundation for Fabres to become a naturalist and embark on the road of scientific research.
1853, fabrice returned to the French mainland, was hired by a school in avignon, and moved his family into a simple house in the Rue Saint Dominique. 1857, he published "Observation on the Habit of Ophiuchus argus", which corrected the wrong view of Leon dufour, the founder of entomology at that time, thus winning the praise of French research institute and being awarded the experimental physiology prize. During this period, Fabers also devoted himself to the study of natural dye madder or alizarin. At that time, the red color on French soldiers' trousers came from madder powder. In 1860, Fabres obtained three patents for this kind of research.
Later, at the invitation of Victor Durui, Minister of Education, fabrice was in charge of the organization and teaching of an adult night school, but its free teaching method caused some people's dissatisfaction. So he quit his job and settled in Orange with his family for more than ten years.
In this decade, Fabres completed the first volume of ten volumes of Insects. During this period, he and his friends went to Wandu several times to collect plant specimens. In addition, he also met the British philosopher Mill, but Mill died young and their plan of "The Grand View of Vacrus Vegetation" died. At the same time, a great misfortune befell Fabres: he had six children, among whom Jules, the only son, shared the same interests with his father and loved observing nature, and died at the age of sixteen. Since then, Fables has dedicated several plants he discovered to Jules who died young to express his memory.
The study of fungi has always been one of Fables' hobbies. 1878, he wrote many wonderful academic articles on the theme of Vacruzzi's fungi. He also made a detailed study of Kuaizi and described his fragrance in detail. Gourmets claim that they can taste all the flavors described in his works from real chopsticks.
1879, fabrice bought a barren stone garden in Ang, cellini, and lived there until his death. This is a barren land, but it is a land that insects love. In addition to living for their families, there is also his study, studio and testing ground, which allows him to concentrate on quiet thinking and devote himself wholeheartedly to various observations and experiments. It can be said that this is the world he has always dreamed of. It was here that Fabres finished the last nine volumes of Insects while observing and experimenting, while sorting out the observation notes, experimental records and scientific notes of insects in the first half of his life. Today, this former residence has become a museum, quietly located in a botanical garden with strong Provence style.
Fabers insisted on self-study all his life, and successively obtained bachelor's degree, bachelor's degree in mathematics, bachelor's degree in natural science and doctor's degree in natural science. He is proficient in Latin and Greek and loves the works of Horace, an ancient Roman writer, and Virgil, a poet. He almost taught himself painting and watercolor painting, and many of his exquisite illustrations of fungi were praised by the Nobel Prize in Literature winner and French poet Frederic mistral.
Entomology is not deliberately written, but the result of the author's observation and writing. This sets the tone of the work: seemingly dull, it always reflects the author's feelings of cherishing and loving life, just like his simple and poor, but quiet and beautiful rural life. The observation record he left is unchanged, but his thinking to readers is flexible and changeable. He didn't force others to accept his point of view, but only brought readers knowledge, interest, aesthetic feeling and ideological enjoyment.
The original Insect Tale has been translated into many languages since its publication, and there was a Chinese translation in the 1920s, which aroused great interest of readers at that time. By the end of 1990s, there was once again a "Fabres fever" in China's reading circle, and various versions, abridged versions and even full versions of Insects appeared.
This translation selects some chapters from the ten volumes of the original. The protagonists are all insects familiar to domestic readers, such as ants, butterflies, crickets and spiders. , pay special attention to the literary and readable fragments in the original work. The original book Insects is ten volumes long, and each volume consists of many chapters. Each insect occupies a different space, and there is no inseparable connection between chapters about different insects, so it is different from novels and is not limited by the plot. This structure determines that the selected version can still retain the style and interest of the original. In addition, extracting the concise length of this book can also make readers enjoy reading with a relaxed mood under limited time and energy.
The translation of this book was done by two translators. Liu Yingying translated chapters such as Locust, Crab Spider, Ribbon Spider, Cricket, Wasp, Green Goose, Scorpion of languedoc and Firefly. Wang Qi translated the Palace Spider, Crodo Spider, Wolf Spider with Black Belly, Cicada, Red Ant, Mantis, Big Peacock Butterfly and Small Striped Butterfly. All the translations have been carefully revised by Mr. Chen Wei, striving to be faithful to the overall style and expressive features of the French original to the greatest extent.
I. Introduction of Fables (Wang Guang) Company
1823 12.22, Fabres was born in a farmer's family in Saint-Leon village, Averon province in southern France. His father, Ann Deus Fables, was eloquent and keen. His mother, Victor Solgus, is gentle and amiable. But they are a poor family.
Fables was about four years old, and his parents sent him to live with his grandmother, which temporarily reduced the burden of food and clothing for the family. Naive children fall in love with grandma's white geese, calves and sheep, and with flowers, grass, insects and birds in the outdoor nature.
When he was seven years old, his parents took him home and sent him to the primary school in the village. The conditions of the school building are extremely simple, with a formal room and an attic on the roof. Formal rooms are used as classrooms, kitchens, dining halls and bedrooms, and outside the doors are chicken coops and pigsty. Although the teacher has a sense of responsibility, he often can't teach normally, because he also works as a barber, a castle keeper, a bell ringer, a choir member and a bell repairman in the village.
When he first entered the school, Fabres was very uncomfortable. These 26 French letters took him several times as long as others, but fabrice Jr. had a strong thirst for knowledge. He often has the opportunity to go to the countryside, and every time he comes back, his pockets are full of snails, shells, mushrooms or other plants and insects.
Adults are keen on city life. When fabrice was ten years old, he had to move to Rhodes with his family before he finished primary school. My parents opened a small coffee shop there and arranged for fabrice, who loves learning, to go to Lodz Middle School, where he only attended classes and had no room and board. During this period, in order to pay the full tuition, fabrice went to church every Sunday to do some service work for mass activities and earned a little reward. During the whole middle school period, the Fables family moved several times because of livelihood problems, and then settled in Toulouse, Upper Garonne Province and Montpellier, Erona Province. As a teenager, Fables had to go out to work to make a living, which made it impossible for middle schools to study normally. He seized all the time to teach himself and asked questions frequently. /Kloc-When he was 0/5 years old, he entered avignon Normal School in Vakruz Province and was officially admitted.
After graduating from avignon Normal School, Fables got the position of junior high school teacher in Carpenter Trass Middle School in the same province, and began his career as a middle school teacher for more than 20 years.
At first, he taught mathematics. Once I took a student to an outdoor geometry class, and suddenly I found bees and beehives built on rocks. The "worm heart" that had been imprisoned by urban life for 89 years suddenly glowed. He spent a month's salary on a book on entomology. After careful reading, an irresistible strong motivation was born. He is determined to be a person who writes history for insects. He was less than 19 that year.
The determination to study insects has been made, but teaching is the occupation for survival, and Fabres still has to struggle for practical problems. He first took the exam organized by the relevant departments and got the bachelor's certificate of high school graduation qualification. Later, I insisted on amateur self-study, passed various examinations, and obtained a bachelor's degree in physical mathematics with a university degree. 24-year-old Fables was transferred to Corsica by the government education department as a teacher in ajaccio Middle School. While teaching hard, he used his spare time to make animal and plant observation records. Four years later, he was transferred back to avignon as a middle school teacher. He has an ideal in his heart: one day he can give lectures in a university.
Two years later, Fables still earned a bachelor's degree in natural science by self-study. Another year, 365,438+0-year-old Fabres obtained a doctorate in natural science with the strength of two excellent academic papers. The titles of these two papers are: studies on root nodules of orchids and anatomical studies on the development of regenerative organs and polypods. In the same year, he published a long-term accumulated achievement-Observation on the Custom of Mud Bees in the Yearbook of Natural Science. Observation has won wide acclaim, and Fabres's excellent observation ability is convincing. It is recognized that he not only corrected the mistakes of the authoritative scholars of the predecessors, but also made up for the omissions of the predecessors and expounded his unique views. Fabres's article on entomology began to attract people's attention. At the age of 34, he published the research results on the supermorphology of Coleoptera insects, and his excellent academic quality and great theoretical significance impressed his peers. The French Institute awarded him the Experimental Physiology Award, affirming that his research on living insects has different value from insect structural anatomy. British biologist Darwin paid special attention to this young Frenchman; When the Origin of Species 1859 was published, people read that Darwin called him "an observer who is hard to emulate".
Fabres is a learned teacher. He found a method to extract red dye from madder, and the local government intends to adopt his technology. Unexpectedly, after several years of twists and turns, the factory owner finally set up a workshop to synthesize madder red dye artificially, which failed to realize his "industrial chemistry dream" of using madder natural resources. During this period, the Imperial Ministry of Education awarded him a medal in the name of an outstanding teacher, mainly in recognition of his ability to engage in natural science research in his post as a teacher; He also gave Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte a few minutes' interview. After giving up the chemical engineering plan, in order to implement the education reform plan of the Minister of Education and increase the content of natural courses, Fabres gave some lectures to female college students from time to time, and more and more people attended the lectures. Out of conservatism, prejudice and jealousy, a group of outstanding politicians and educators accused him of being "subversive and dangerous" for no reason, and religious diehards attacked him for "talking about sexual reproduction of plants in front of girls". Finally, the landlord stepped in and forced the fabrice family to move out. Fabrice decided to leave avignon City, determined never to stand on the platform of the university again. The year is 1870, and Fabres is 46 years old.
Fabrice, his wife and children entered the province of Vaccruz and found a home in Orange. First I lost my job, then I spent my travel expenses, and my life was gone. Fabrice, who has always been shy, began to ask for money for the first time, complaining to the famous British philosopher Mill who lived in avignon for several years. Mr Mill's generosity helped the Fabres family tide over the difficulties. In the following five years, Fabres made a living mainly by writing books on natural science, and his excellent literary works began to emerge. He has published many books, including explanatory works such as Sky, Earth and Plants, and a series of story works such as Uncle Paul's Talk about Pests.
1875 after long-term thinking, Fabres decided to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city and step up the implementation of the entomology work plan of sorting out old data and carrying out new research. He moved to a rural town in Serignan with his family. The conditions in the town are poor in all aspects, and there is not even a decent school. He encouraged his youngest son: You can exercise your strong body and strong mind here, and you can find beauty and truth better than in that pile of old paper. After four years of efforts and more than twenty years of data accumulation, the first volume of entomology was published in 1879.
1880, Fabres's long-cherished wish finally came true: with a small sum of money he saved, he bought an old house in a wasteland near the town, and the plan to further study living insects was about to come true. He was in high spirits and gave this residence a funny nickname-Waste Stone Garden in the local Provencal language. Year after year, the owner of the barren stone garden wears a farmer's woolen coat, eats the vegetarian soup and rice of the people, and digs the earth with a sharp pick and a flat shovel. As a result, flowers and plants compete with each other, and shrubs are overgrown, building a paradise for insects. He guarded his beloved barren stone garden, started his life at full speed, tirelessly engaged in unique entomology research, and wrote his own labor achievements into volumes of entomology works. In this way, he spent the rest of his life in loneliness, happiness, poverty and peace for 35 years.
Entomology is a masterpiece written with a lot of scientific report materials and literary temperament. Its style is basically prose, and its main content is entomology. At the same time, it includes some biographical articles about experiences and memories, some expositions about solving theoretical problems, and a small amount of words with popular science knowledge. The advantages of an entomological explorer who has gone through many vicissitudes and pursued many things have been fully exerted in this masterpiece. There are more than 220 articles in ten volumes, which are rich in content and have their own opinions; But I'm afraid only the author knows the difficulty of the project best. Fabres put it this way: "Prose writing" is more "cruel" than solving the roots of equations.
When the tenth volume was released, he didn't plan to compile two books, Cabbage Butterfly and Firefly, because they were written for the planned eleventh volume. At this time, he realized that his 85-year-old body could no longer support himself, and he was deaf and dizzy, and his fingers were stiff, so it was difficult to write normally. Finally, he buried the idea of "Volume 11" in his heart and decided to make two articles as a supplement to Volume 10. 19 10 years, he is over 86 years old, and the tenth volume is out. Holding a book, leaning on a crutch and holding a magnifying glass, he wandered around the "Wild Stone Garden" step by step, still trying to write down the "insect story" again ... but the old man's wish was difficult to realize.
This year, in the name of "50th Anniversary of Entomology Writing", the family invited Fabres's close friends and academic friends to "Wild Stone Garden" and held a small celebration for him. Fabrice felt comforted and tears welled up in her eyes. When the news came out, the media made a fuss: the French forgot this proud compatriot who lived in seclusion in the "barren stone garden" so easily! Fabrice doesn't care about this "negligence". He is planning to publish a ten-volume hardcover edition of Insects, and personally wrote a brief preface for this edition. At the end of the preface, it is like this: "I am very sorry that I am forced to interrupt these studies now." You know, doing these studies is the only comfort I get in my life. Looking at the whole world, self-conscious insects are one of its most colorful groups. Even if I can gain a little more strength and even live a few times, I can't fully understand the interests of insects. "
The press created a propaganda momentum, and the name of "Fables" spread everywhere; Praises such as "greatness", "the most outstanding" and "greatness" come one after another, and the laurels of honor fly to the elderly one after another; "Wild Stone Garden" is very lively, and there are endless crowds competing to visit, mourn and congratulate, including ordinary readers, academic dignitaries and government officials by car. There is only one news that can move Fabres: in that year, the number of albums sold by his works was the sum of the previous 20 years. Later, small plaster statues of Fabres appeared everywhere; Later, large statues of Fabres were cut and unveiled. Old people don't know what glory is all their lives. At this time, he subconsciously shook his head, which was quite puzzling. The 90-year-old man said to his old friend in a humorous tone: "These practices are too' evil'. They can do whatever they like. Anyway, I feel that I am getting haggard every day and getting closer to the end every day. "
A month before her 92nd birthday, Fables lay in bed, waiting for the milestone in her life. It was a day in June191511.He was as calm as a soldier who despised death. At this time, people found that he had quietly fallen asleep. A giant who played the vibrato of human destiny with insects as the piano disappeared.
Less than 10 years after Fabres's death, the ten-volume hardcover book Insects was published. His son-in-law, Dr. Legro, will publish a collection of articles introducing his life and continue to write the eleventh volume of Insects.
The French literary circle once recommended Virgil in the Insect World as a candidate for Nobel Prize in Literature. Unfortunately, before the members of the Nobel Committee made a final decision, the news of Fables' death came. However, this glorious title has been spread by people.
Fables was once called an "insect observer", but he was recognized as an "entomologist" in his later years. After his death, people called him "entomologist and writer" for a period of time, and later called him "writer and entomologist". These titles are well-deserved for Fabres.
Second, Fabres and Insects (Zou Hua)
Huacheng Publishing House has published the French version of The Complete Translation of Insect Stories in ten volumes, which has drawn a satisfactory conclusion for this story. Nearly 80 years have passed since Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun were first introduced.
In Fabres's time, the study of animals was to dissect and classify animals in the laboratory. The entomologist's research is to nail insects in wooden boxes, soak them in soju, and observe their tentacles, jaws, wings and feet with wide eyes, but rarely think about what role these organs play in the process of insect childbirth. They named insects worker ants, but they didn't know what worker ants produced. Important characteristics of insect life-instinct and habit, etc. Can't be elegant in entomology. Fabres challenged tradition, turned himself into an insect man, went deep into the life of insects, and studied their instincts and habits through field experiments. His research method was criticized by orthodox forces. He retorted, "You are cutting open the internal organs of insects, and I am doing research while they are alive and kicking;" You turn insects into a bunch of horrible and poor things, and I make people like me; You work in torture room and the morgue, and I observe the cicada singing under the blue sky; You test the hive and protoplasm with reagents, while I study the highest expression of instinct; You explore death and I explore life. " (Insects, Volume II)
In the ruthless natural environment, insects struggle for the survival of individuals and races with perseverance. Fables, like his beloved insect, insisted on his research method. The world was shocked when Fabres presented the complicated insect world to people with a large number of detailed first-hand materials, and held out that the fruits of his lifelong research on insects came from his "barren stone garden".
Entomology is a rigorous scientific work, but its face is very kind, not pretentious and profound, not dry and pedantic, not obscure and boring serious academic works. "There is no formula full of words and half-baked nonsense, but an accurate description of the observed facts, not much at all, not much at all." (Insects, Volume II)
This was also criticized by the orthodox school, saying that his words were not solemn. Fabres said, "If one day I write for scholars and philosophers who try to understand instinctive problems a little, I will write for them, especially for young people. I hope they like this natural history that you make them sick. " That's why I don't use your scientific writing while trying to provide information, because it seems to borrow the language of Huron (17th century North American Indians-editor's note). "(Entomology Volume II) What's more, it was an era of" style is people ". After Buffon shouted "Style is man", naturalists were keen to write research results into literary works throughout the 18 and 19 centuries. Fabres is no exception. He has made great efforts in the style of his articles, but Insects are not as flashy as ordinary literary works. Fables' style is just like his personality: simple and true.
Please look at Fabres's description of the generous cicada drilling a well in an afternoon in July, but it was captured by the invaders:
Sure enough, a large group of thirsty guys wandered around in all directions. They found the well, and the juice oozing from it exposed it. These guys swarmed, and at first they were a little cautious, just licking the oozing juice. I saw wasps, flies, globes, mud bees, spider bees, goldsmiths and scarabs all rushing to the sweet wellhead, and most of them were ants.
In order to get close to the clear spring, those little people got under the cicada's stomach, and the cicada generously raised its claws to let these uninvited guests pass freely; The bigger insects stamped their feet impatiently, took a quick breath, then retreated, went for a spin on the nearby branches, and then came back more boldly. They became more greedy, and they just restrained themselves. Now they have become a group of noisy intruders, bent on driving the open-source drowning people away from the spring.
Among these robbers, ants are the most persistent. I've seen them bite the tips of cicadas' claws bit by bit, grab the tips of their wings, climb the back of cicadas and scratch their tentacles. A brave ant was right under my nose, clutching the cicada's straw and desperately trying to pull it out.
The giant was impatient with the dwarf and finally gave up the well. It spilled a bubble of urine on these robbers and ran away. (Entomology, Volume V)
Fabres's Tale of Insects is not limited to truly recording the life of insects, but uses human nature to observe the nature of insects. Insect instinct, habit, labor, marriage, reproduction and death are all permeated with humanistic care, and social life is reflected by insect nature, and wise philosophy is vividly on paper. Most importantly, the whole work is full of love for life and praise for all things in nature. It is this reverence for respect and love for life that infuses the soul into this ordinary scientific work, making this book about tiny insects a masterpiece for human beings to acquire knowledge, interest, beauty and thoughts.