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Tale of the ‘last song translator’
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With the melody of “One Day When We Were Young” filling the room, 79-year-old Xue Fan closes his eyes and sees an old man sitting on a bench alone, recalling the beautiful memories of his young love.
“Every song tells a beautiful story, whether happy or sad,” says Xue. “The emotions and feelings conveyed through the lyrics and music are always the most fascinating part of the songs.”
For 60 years, Xue has been translating songs from several languages into Chinese, and the first step in the process is always immersing himself in a story-sketch of the song. It helps him translate as well as evaluate his work.
Xue translates Russian, his first and strongest language, as well as English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. Afflicted by polio when he was only two years old, his disability made it impossible for him to get into college and get a regular job.
After graduating from high school in 1952. He studied Russian by himself after the Shanghai Russian Academy turned him down because of his disability.
He published his first lyrics of a Russian song in 1953 and began to study other languages.
So far he has published the Chinese lyrics to around 2,000 songs, including “The Outskirts of Moscow in the Evenings” (Russian), “La Paloma” (Spanish), “Edelweiss” (English), “Memory” (English) and “Song of the Straw Hat” (Japanese). They are familiar to many middle-aged Chinese people.
Shanghai is a “paradise” for translators because of its openness and exposure to many cultures.
“Most of the best-known translators in the old days are from the region south of the Yangtze River,” he says. “That’s why many early translations of foreign names, such as Washington, Watson and Holmes, sound better in Shanghai dialect than Mandarin.”
Old American songs such as “Old Folks at Home,” “Old Black Joe” and “Nobody Knows My Trouble” were among Xue’s favorites when he was growing up.
When Xue started his career in the 1950s, it was a golden time for translators because of China’s many cultural exchanges, except with the United States because of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53).
Many foreign songs were introduced to China since the country’s first music publisher had big international plans, he says.
Russian songs, of course, were the most popular because of the close ties between China and the former Soviet Union, but Chinese also heard songs from Romania and Bulgaria.
Since very few Chinese people at the time understood a foreign language, there was a huge demand for song translation.
“Translating is not as simple as putting the right number of Chinese words into the line. There’s a lot to consider, including meaning, pauses and possible ambiguity when singing because of Chinese tones,” says Xue.
He enjoys pondering the right words and creating the most beautiful pictures using Chinese characters.
But when relations with Russia worsened in 1960 and stayed frosty for a long time, there were no more Russian songs to translate. The “cultural revolution” (1966-76), with its emphasis on ideological purity, meant that virtually no foreign songs were heard in China.
“I did nothing but count flies at home,” says Xue. He waited patiently until China opened its doors again in the early 1980s. He then was able to organize a series of Russian song concerts in Shanghai and Beijing; all tickets sold out quickly.
“I saw tears when the audience sang ‘The Outskirts of Moscow in the Evenings’ together at the end of the concert,” says Xue. “They weren’t sad about the song, but about the loss for 20 years of their Russian connections.”
That was the first time Xue realized the influence of his work and the first time he recognized that his translation work is only kept alive when ordinary people sing.
His latest well-known works include “My Heart Will Go On,” “You Raise Me Up” and “The Cup of Life.”
As more people speak English today, few pay attention to translated songs, so Xue jokingly calls himself “the last song translator.”
“It is a pity that many young people today only open their hearts to the English-speaking products,” he says.
“They don’t know what they are missing,” Xue concludes.
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