Writer in hot water over poetry translation
Print Edition
A POPULAR novelist has sparked controversy with his translation of a renowned poetry collection.
Feng Tang, 44, is best known for a series of provocative novels about life in Beijing in the 1990s. His works have been dubbed by some as xiao huang shu (little pornographic books) because of their racy tone and erotic content.
His translation from English into Chinese of “Stray Birds,” a collection of poems by Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), is in a similar vein.
For example, Feng translates the line “The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover” as “The world unzipped his pants in front of his lover.” In translating the word “hospitable” in the line “The great earth makes herself hospitable with the help of the grass,” Feng uses the Chinese word sao, which is closer to the English word “flirtatious.”
His work, published in July, did not attract much attention until earlier this month, when excerpts were highlighted on social media. Comments on microblog Sina Weibo criticized the translations as being “full of the smell of hormones” and “a blasphemy against the great poet.”
‘Playful jingles’
One comment said Feng had turned great poems into playful jingles, and the solemnity and tranquility of the original work had been lost.
Responding to the controversy, Feng told thepaper.cn that there should be no golden standard to decide the merit of a translation.
“I believe in my sincerity of translation and my Chinese and English levels,” he said. “True gold fears no fire.”
He said he intentionally added his personal style instead of mechanically representing the original work.
“Stray Birds” has been translated several times and is very popular in China.
Ma Ainong, who translated the “Harry Potter” series, said a good translation should be faithful to the original in terms of language and style.
Li Zhaozhong, a literature researcher for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: “Besides a good command of language, it is better for the translator to be a poet too and share a similar style with the original work.”
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