A relaxed take on translation
October 14, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BI'S works have been translated into many languages. "Moon Opera" is one of the earliest, a novella about a former famous Chinese opera actress, who tries to make a comeback after 20 years and struggles with anxiety, fear of failure and pressure from the commercial world of entertainment.
The English-language translator of "The Moon Opera" is American Howard Goldblatt, considered by some to be the best translator of Chinese contemporary literature. Goldblatt, with his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin, also translated Bi's "Three Sisters." Bi speaks some conversational English but said it's difficult for him to evaluate an English translation of Chinese literature.
In an interview with Chinese media in 2008, Goldblatt said Bi's works are the most difficult to translate. He said Bi's language is even more difficult for a translator than that of writers like Mo Yan who uses a lot of dialects. Bi's works are challenging because of his careful choice of words, subtlety and precision, the translator said.
Bi expressed his appreciation of Goldblatt and Lin.
"We had exchanged hundreds of e-mails during the translation process. They are very dedicated and professional, and the couple even argued over certain words and sentences in my novel, asking me to judge who was correct," Bi said.
Sometimes, there were questions about a single word, the tone of a sentence, the general atmosphere of a chapter, anything that Goldblatt needed clarified. Bi called Goldblatt meticulous and said he tried hard to capture Bi's writing style.
Bi's own attitude toward literary translation is more relaxed.
"My only requirement for all my translators, in whatever language, is that they feel satisfied during the translation process, because it is also a creative process for them," Bi explained.
He said it doesn't matter much to him whether the translation is word for word, or whether his style is perfectly retained.
He cited the example of famous translator and critic Fu Lei (1908-66), known especially for his translations of Voltaire, Balzac and Romain Rolland.
"Any French and Chinese bilingual speakers will tell you the style of Romain Rolland was completely different from Fu's translation style, but it doesn't matter to me, and I got to know Rolland's works through Fu," he said.
"To me, if Rolland wrote as well as Fu translated, he must have been a great writer, and to me, an ordinary reader who doesn't read French, it matters little what his real style was."
Bi is also grateful to Goldblatt for fighting on behalf of the author against editors, who often get confused due to pre-occupations and lack of knowledge about Chinese society.
He cited the example of "The Moon Opera," in which the actress's husband expresses his love to her by saying, "We don't have a daughter and you are my daughter."
The editor was shocked by what he considered implications of incest.
Similarly, in "Three Sisters," Yu Mi calls her boyfriend "brother" many times, and the editor again held back, thinking it was incest.
Bi has sometimes encountered angry readers when he gives talks abroad. They raise similar questions and ask why he was more interested in incest than normal relationships.
"I was not upset because I understood. I made the same mistakes and had certain pre-occupations when I was young and reading Western literature in Chinese. I was shocked from time to time, but gradually I learned to try to understand different cultures before making instant judgments," said Bi.
"I learned to seek common ground while suspending judgment about differences, which is very important in understanding another culture."
The English-language translator of "The Moon Opera" is American Howard Goldblatt, considered by some to be the best translator of Chinese contemporary literature. Goldblatt, with his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin, also translated Bi's "Three Sisters." Bi speaks some conversational English but said it's difficult for him to evaluate an English translation of Chinese literature.
In an interview with Chinese media in 2008, Goldblatt said Bi's works are the most difficult to translate. He said Bi's language is even more difficult for a translator than that of writers like Mo Yan who uses a lot of dialects. Bi's works are challenging because of his careful choice of words, subtlety and precision, the translator said.
Bi expressed his appreciation of Goldblatt and Lin.
"We had exchanged hundreds of e-mails during the translation process. They are very dedicated and professional, and the couple even argued over certain words and sentences in my novel, asking me to judge who was correct," Bi said.
Sometimes, there were questions about a single word, the tone of a sentence, the general atmosphere of a chapter, anything that Goldblatt needed clarified. Bi called Goldblatt meticulous and said he tried hard to capture Bi's writing style.
Bi's own attitude toward literary translation is more relaxed.
"My only requirement for all my translators, in whatever language, is that they feel satisfied during the translation process, because it is also a creative process for them," Bi explained.
He said it doesn't matter much to him whether the translation is word for word, or whether his style is perfectly retained.
He cited the example of famous translator and critic Fu Lei (1908-66), known especially for his translations of Voltaire, Balzac and Romain Rolland.
"Any French and Chinese bilingual speakers will tell you the style of Romain Rolland was completely different from Fu's translation style, but it doesn't matter to me, and I got to know Rolland's works through Fu," he said.
"To me, if Rolland wrote as well as Fu translated, he must have been a great writer, and to me, an ordinary reader who doesn't read French, it matters little what his real style was."
Bi is also grateful to Goldblatt for fighting on behalf of the author against editors, who often get confused due to pre-occupations and lack of knowledge about Chinese society.
He cited the example of "The Moon Opera," in which the actress's husband expresses his love to her by saying, "We don't have a daughter and you are my daughter."
The editor was shocked by what he considered implications of incest.
Similarly, in "Three Sisters," Yu Mi calls her boyfriend "brother" many times, and the editor again held back, thinking it was incest.
Bi has sometimes encountered angry readers when he gives talks abroad. They raise similar questions and ask why he was more interested in incest than normal relationships.
"I was not upset because I understood. I made the same mistakes and had certain pre-occupations when I was young and reading Western literature in Chinese. I was shocked from time to time, but gradually I learned to try to understand different cultures before making instant judgments," said Bi.
"I learned to seek common ground while suspending judgment about differences, which is very important in understanding another culture."
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