Centenarian鈥檚 pursuit of beauty of language
Print Edition
Late every night, light shines from the window of an old apartment off the Peking University campus. Inside, centenarian translator Xu Yuanchong works diligently on his computer completing his daily assignment 鈥 translating 1,000 words.
Xu, who celebrated his 100th birthday on April 18, began teaching at the university in 1983 and is now retired. Throughout a lengthy and prolific academic career, Xu has pursued the beauty of language and is dedicated to creating literary ties between Chinese, English and French speakers.
鈥淚 am the only translator capable of rendering Chinese poems in English and French,鈥 Xu has written confidently on his business card. Xu is emboldened by the mind-boggling quantity of translations he has made in his life, including more than 180 novels, anthologies and plays that have reached millions of readers around the world.
Non-conformist
Xu鈥檚 literary translation career began in 1938 when he enrolled in a foreign language program at the former National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, southwest China鈥檚 Yunnan Province.
At the very beginning, he adopted an unorthodox approach to literary translation and has been fighting for it ever since. His work is more than literally translating words from one language to another. He adapts the original wording when necessary to make it readable and relatable to its target readers.
A translation should be as beautiful as or even more beautiful than the original, said Xu. Regarding translation as an art, he encourages innovation and creation, which stands in stark contrast to many other academics who advocate translation as a science and produce a strict equivalent of the original.
Controversy aside, his translation works are esthetically pleasing. Examples are easily found in his extensive achievements ranging from the 鈥淏ook of Poetry,鈥 the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, to the Confucian masterpiece 鈥淭hus Spoke the Master.鈥
A mission impossible Xu accomplished was translating a verse of Chinese poetry into 鈥淭he boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower; the endless river rolls its waves hour after hour.鈥
Jon Eugene von Kowallis from the University of New South Wales said that 鈥淓legies of the South,鈥 translated by Xu, is a high peak even in English and American literature. The London-based Minerva Press said that Xu鈥檚 translation of 鈥淩omance of the Western Bower鈥 by Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) author Wang Shifu 鈥渕ight vie with Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥楻omeo and Juliet鈥 in appeal and artistry.鈥
In 2014, the International Federation of Translators (FIT) granted Xu the Aurora Borealis Prize for Outstanding Translation of Fiction Literature, the highest award in the profession. Xu is the first Asian translator to win the honor since the establishment of the FIT in 1999.
Linguistic bridge
Through his pursuit of excellence, Xu has enabled English and French-speaking audiences to better understand the beauty of Chinese literature and the Chinese wisdom beneath. Chinese readers are also offered the opportunity to appreciate foreign works in the same way they would read novels and poems written in their mother tongue.
Xu believes a translation should help readers understand, like and enjoy the original. A faithful translation enables readers to understand the work鈥檚 intended meaning, reproducing the beauty will help them develop a love for the literary work, and reading a translated version that combines accuracy and beauty will be a great delight, said Xu.
The FIT fairly described Xu鈥檚 contributions when announcing the prize: 鈥淚n an international environment in need of effective communication, Professor Xu Yuanchong has devoted his career to building bridges among Chinese, English and French-speaking peoples.鈥
Xu has long been practicing his original aspiration 鈥 transforming the beauty created by people in one language into a beauty shared by the entire world.
Though he is now at an advanced age, Xu has never stopped contributing to the pursuit of cross-cultural communication. Before his 100th birthday, the Beijing-based Commercial Press published a collection of Xu鈥檚 translations of English literary classics, which includes 14 of William Shakespeare鈥檚 plays.
He is now writing an autobiography under the working title 鈥淎 Hundred-Year-Old Dream.鈥 He often quotes a verse from English poet Thomas Moore鈥檚 鈥淭he Young May Moon,鈥 which reads: 鈥淎nd the best of all ways to lengthen our days is to steal some hours from the night.鈥
It is safe to say that the centenarian will spend many more nights to come before his computer.
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