为纪念一个真正的共产党员——方志敏烈士遗著《清贫》英译

The English Translation of Fang Zhimin's Posthumous Work Honest Poverty

闲中重读方志敏烈士1935年5月26日写于狱中的《清贫》一文,浮想联翩,欣然把它译成英文,一是为缅怀革命先烈,抚今追昔;二是试图对外介绍烈士遗著,加深海外人士对中国革命的理解.方志敏(1900-1935),江西省弋阳县人,是中国无产阶级革命家,赣东北革命根据地和中国工农红军第十军的创始人之一.1935年1月,他在江西德兴县陇首村与国民党军队作战时,因叛徒告密,不幸被俘,在狱中威武不屈,坚贞不移,同年8月在南昌英勇就义.在囚禁期间,他利用国民党军法处要他写反共材料的笔墨纸砚,写下了若干脍炙人口的不朽散文,《清贫》就是其中之一.方志敏的散文虽为数不多。

Fang Zhimin (1900-1935) was a member of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1934 he led the vanguard detachment of the Red Army in marching north from Jiangxi Province to resist the Japanese invaders. In January 1935 he was captured in battle against the Kuomintang troops and in July he died a martyr's death. Honest Poverty, which he wrote in prison less than two months before his death, reveals through an 'amusing episode' at the time of his capture by two Kuomintang soldiers, expecting to secure a fortune from the 'Communist big shot' as they called the writer, thoroughly bodysearched him only to find nothing on him at all, not even a single copper. Frustrated, the two men scrambled for the writer's watch and fountain pen instead.