2022 Interview by Lou Kang - Revision history

Root at 09:15, 21 June 2022

2022-06-21T09:15:23Z

Root at 14:25, 20 June 2022

2022-06-20T14:25:43Z

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You Tianwei: /* 1 Do you visit the local area before translating a novel that is particularly localized? */

2022-06-18T16:50:23Z

1 Do you visit the local area before translating a novel that is particularly localized?

Root at 15:58, 18 June 2022

2022-06-18T15:58:40Z

Root: /* Apart from the well-known works of Lu Xun and Yu Qiuyu, do you have any criteria for selecting modern works for translation? */

2022-06-18T15:57:49Z

Apart from the well-known works of Lu Xun and Yu Qiuyu, do you have any criteria for selecting modern works for translation?

You Tianwei: /* 1 Do you visit the local area before translating a novel that is particularly localized? */

2022-06-18T08:04:12Z

1 Do you visit the local area before translating a novel that is particularly localized?

Root at 07:37, 18 June 2022

2022-06-18T07:37:29Z

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Root: /* 3 在翻译中遇到的最麻烦的翻译问题会是哪一类？是由于什么方面的文化差异造成的呢？ */

2022-06-17T06:56:59Z

3 在翻译中遇到的最麻烦的翻译问题会是哪一类？是由于什么方面的文化差异造成的呢？

Root: /* 2 能否拿《红楼梦》举例，在翻译中国古代作品的时候，如何尽可能的避免翻译里面带来的文化空白问题？ */

2022-06-17T06:04:11Z

2 能否拿《红楼梦》举例，在翻译中国古代作品的时候，如何尽可能的避免翻译里面带来的文化空白问题？

Root: /* 3 在翻译中遇到的最麻烦的翻译问题会是哪一类？是由于什么方面的文化差异造成的呢？ */

2022-06-13T09:35:36Z

3 在翻译中遇到的最麻烦的翻译问题会是哪一类？是由于什么方面的文化差异造成的呢？

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 Back to [[JM]] Overview Page
-=Interview: Final Version CN EN=
+=Interview: Final Version CN EN (For English, please see beneath.)=
 =娄康2022年6月20日采访吴漠汀 （英文请见后面）=

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 Although there are also good translations of translators who have not visited the original sites, I think it is very important that the translator deeply immerses into the social-historical situation of the original. I met Jia Pingwa in Xi'an and he showed me his home full of regional artefacts like wooden masks and explained the regional cultural roots of these artefacts to me. I have also heard from a lot of Chinese colleagues, who study foreign authors, that they visit the places of their works and their graves to get an impression of the atmosphere. A lot of actors dive into the life of the historical characters they are acting.
+虽然不可否认，仍然有不少优秀的翻译作品，其译者没有机会走访作品的发生地，但是我自己认为，走访作品发生地是十分重要的，这样译者可以深深的沉浸在原作所处的社会和历史环境中。我在西安与贾平凹见面，
 I personally have spent as much time as I could on the traces of Cao Xueqin since when I was a student at Peking University. Very helpful were the Red Chamber Research Institute (中国艺术研究院红楼梦研究所), where I got the present of the Hongloumeng Dictionary 《红楼梦大辞典》, the Cao Xueqin Remembrance Site (曹雪芹纪念馆) at the foot of the Xiangshan, I have visted the reconstructed Daguanyuan (北京大观园), and the Gugong (故宫), have eaten some of the dishes presented in the novel and spent some time time in Nanking. The most I have learned from the diverse research literature in China and abroad and from attending Redology conferences in China, where the newest research results were presented by colleagues. I have read more about what was life like in the times of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong and about Manchu culture, the Banner system. However, the main task is to take the readers by the hand and abduct to China 250 years back in time and to make the bustling life of that time become alive again. To bring the novel into today's world, I also participated in a project to recreate the novel in the form of a D Book, which is a pocket size book adding songs and video clips to the novel text with QR codes, visible on smart devices and also on Google glasses, one of the most successful items at the Frankfurt book fair. In this way, we could also win younger readers in Germany to read this Chinese classic.
 I have done so similarly with Mian Mian's novel Panda Sex, I visited her in Shanghai and she showed me all the places who appear in the novel. What I found out there was, that the novel was actually a recording of her life. Similarly, I met Wang Meng on December 2, 1992 and several times later in Germany and at Harvard University. On May 25, 2009, I spoke with Han Han on the phone, I read his blogs, watched his films and TV series, when I translated three of his novels. I also introduced Han Han's interview to the German readers in the most important German newspaper. On September 12, 2009, I met Mo Yan in Frankfurt three years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize. I published an interview with him and introduced him more to German readers. All of these  and was a small mosaic part of his promotion to be awarded the prize. I met Yu Hua in Beijing and was impressed, that this great author treated his translators without any airs and graces, but as equals.
 ===1 Besuchen Sie die lokale Umgebung, bevor Sie einen Roman übersetzen, der besonders lokalisiert ist?===

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:58, 18 June 2022
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	The most important reason to me is, if a story grabs me, and may also grab the readers of my target culture. Let me explain this with the following examples:		The most important reason to me is, if a story grabs me, and may also grab the readers of my target culture. Let me explain this with the following examples:
−
−	~~===Apart from the well-known works of Lu Xun and Yu Qiuyu, do you have any criteria for selecting modern works for translation?===~~
−
−	~~The most important reason to me is, if a story grabs me, and may also grab the readers of my target culture.~~

	To see Cheng Tiansong grow up in the bank business and finally reading of his heroic and creative symbolic protest against foreign tea traders, when he dumped tea leafs into the Huangpu river is simply a joy to read in Ji Yu's ''Die Clans von Xin'an''.		To see Cheng Tiansong grow up in the bank business and finally reading of his heroic and creative symbolic protest against foreign tea traders, when he dumped tea leafs into the Huangpu river is simply a joy to read in Ji Yu's ''Die Clans von Xin'an''.

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 ===Apart from the well-known works of Lu Xun and Yu Qiuyu, do you have any criteria for selecting modern works for translation?===
-The most important reason to me is, if a story grabs me, and may also grab the readers of my target culture. #Examples
+The most important reason to me is, if a story grabs me, and may also grab the readers of my target culture. Let me explain this with the following examples:
-受众的接受程度
-背景复杂程度
+===Apart from the well-known works of Lu Xun and Yu Qiuyu, do you have any criteria for selecting modern works for translation?===
 ==8 像你提到，一部翻译作品的“异域感”是吸引外国读者阅读的原因之一，除此之外还有别的原因吗？（比如一部小说的历史性背景是否也是原因之一？） ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:04, 18 June 2022
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	I have done so similarly with Mian Mian's novel Panda Sex, I visited her in Shanghai and she showed me all the places who appear in the novel. What I found out there was, that the novel was actually a recording of her life. Similarly, I met Wang Meng on December 2, 1992 and several times later in Germany and at Harvard University. On May 25, 2009, I spoke with Han Han on the phone, I read his blogs, watched his films and TV series, when I translated three of his novels. I also introduced Han Han's interview to the German readers in the most important German newspaper. On September 12, 2009, I met Mo Yan in Frankfurt three years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize. I published an interview with him and introduced him more to German readers. All of these and was a small mosaic part of his promotion to be awarded the prize. I met Yu Hua in Beijing and was impressed, that this great author treated his translators without any airs and graces, but as equals.		I have done so similarly with Mian Mian's novel Panda Sex, I visited her in Shanghai and she showed me all the places who appear in the novel. What I found out there was, that the novel was actually a recording of her life. Similarly, I met Wang Meng on December 2, 1992 and several times later in Germany and at Harvard University. On May 25, 2009, I spoke with Han Han on the phone, I read his blogs, watched his films and TV series, when I translated three of his novels. I also introduced Han Han's interview to the German readers in the most important German newspaper. On September 12, 2009, I met Mo Yan in Frankfurt three years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize. I published an interview with him and introduced him more to German readers. All of these and was a small mosaic part of his promotion to be awarded the prize. I met Yu Hua in Beijing and was impressed, that this great author treated his translators without any airs and graces, but as equals.
		+	<span style="color:red">這一部分就紅色</span>了。

	===1 Besuchen Sie die lokale Umgebung, bevor Sie einen Roman übersetzen, der besonders lokalisiert ist?===		===1 Besuchen Sie die lokale Umgebung, bevor Sie einen Roman übersetzen, der besonders lokalisiert ist?===

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 中西文化各方面的差异
-Like escimos, who have several terms to describe "snow", there are some terms in Chinese who have more terms in Western languages so that the translator needs to decide. One of the more difficult tasks was that the term "#" needs to be translated into two different sorts of plants depending on the place in the novel, where it is mentioned. Sometimes one term in Chinese describes two different things in Western languages, so you have to decide as translators.
+Like escimos, who have several terms to describe "snow", there are some terms in Chinese who have more terms in Western languages so that the translator needs to decide. One of the more difficult tasks was that the term "姑娘", which is used not only by masters addressing their offspring, but also addressing their servants and even by the servants addressing female masters, like Lin Daiyu (e.g. chapter 82). So it needs to be translated into "Master", "daughter", "Miss" depending on who is using it to address whom. Sometimes one term in Chinese describes several different things in Western languages, so you have to decide as translators.
-Most troublesome is background knowledge of Chinese readers, especially with parts of Chinese characters referred to, motifs in poems, which refer back to a whole cosmos of earlier poems and stories they evoke in the Chinese readers minds. When Lin Daiyu quotes verses from the "West Chamber", Jia Baoyu immediately knows that she is in love with him. These subtle things need to be expressed between the lines, without that the Western readers know the "West Chamber".
+Most troublesome is background knowledge of Chinese readers, especially with parts of Chinese characters referred to, motifs in poems, which refer back to a whole cosmos of earlier poems and stories they evoke in the Chinese readers minds. When Lin Daiyu quotes verses from the "West Chamber", Jia Baoyu immediately knows that she is in love with him. These subtle things need to be expressed between the lines, without that the Western readers know the "Romance of the Western Chamber".
-Here are some examples, where annotations are helpful: #
+Here are some examples, where further explanations in the text or annotations are helpful: In chapter 92, Baoyu mentions several historical female figures familiar to the Chinese reader, but not to the Western: "[...]班婕妤、蔡文姬、谢道韫诸人。" This became a very long translation in German: "die belesene Konkubine des Herrschers Tscheng-di von Han Ban Djie-yü und die zwei Dichterinnen Tsai Wën-dji und Hsie Dau-yün".
 Troublesome are also culture-loaded words, like when names for Chinese clothing, Chinese dishes and customs are mentioned. Some of these terms are not totally clear even for Chinese readers. In these cases, the translation needs to give more explanations in order to keep the focus of the reader on the story and not to distract them with things, which were not intended to distract the original readers. Also superstitious beliefs (迷信) are mentioned at several places in the novel. Sometimes we have "false friends", e.g. when a witch is sticking needles into puppets. This is familiar to us with the witches tradition and the Woodoo cult. However, we can not simply use the familiar Western terms for it, because these cultural parallels have their local genuine traditions and may have developed independently from another or there have been some kind of cultural exchanges. In any case it is important to make differences clear and not to make the reader mix up things. Also that Jia Zheng in chapter 120 is not recognizing his son Jia Baoyu, who is somehow leaving the earthly world, is parallel to stories familiar to Western readers from the bible. However, even these paralells earn an appropriate translation in their local tradition and context to raise awareness for cultural traditions.
-At one time, the clothes of the Prince of Beijing are referred to as wearing the # Five Claw Dragon pattern. A lot of clothes are described and many of them mix Manchu and Han culture, even Western materials and influences can be found. Many of the cultural items described in the novel are not genuinely Chinese, but found their present appearance through mixing and mingling. Cao Xueqin plays with the different cultures and even reduces hints to set his novel in Qing Dynasty. This is not only a way to create a timeless novel of eternal value, it shows the intercultural attitude and tolerancce of Cao Xueqin. Also within the Chinese culture, he was engaged to help the poor and the weak. This is a Chinese value, but it is also a common international value of human civilization throughout cultures.
+At one time, the clothes of the Prince of Beijing are referred to as wearing the 江牙海水五爪龙 pattern. Without explanations, Western readers may not know that the expression is colloquial for the pattern 海水江崖纹, which displays five claw dragons above troubled river water, and that this pattern was reserved for the emperor or the imperial family. Therefore mentioning this pattern detail of his clothes supports the high position and authority of the Prince of Beijing. A lot of clothes are described and many of them mix Manchu and Han culture, even Western materials and influences can be found. Many of the cultural items described in the novel are not genuinely Chinese, but found their present appearance through mixing and mingling. Cao Xueqin plays with the different cultures and even reduces hints to set his novel in Qing Dynasty. This is not only a way to create a timeless novel of eternal value, it shows the intercultural attitude and tolerancce of Cao Xueqin. Also within the Chinese culture, he was engaged to help the poor and the weak. This is a Chinese value, but it is also a common international value of human civilization throughout cultures.
 ==4 为什么会关注中国的近现代文学？ ==

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 咨询这方面的专家
-The language in the Red Chamber Dreams is more indirect, sexuality is mostly described with "the play of wind and rain"#. Minford has solved that problem by describing two scenes in more detail than they are described in the original.
+The language in the Red Chamber Dreams is more indirect, sexuality is mostly described with "the play of clouds and rain". Minford has solved that problem by describing two scenes in more detail than they are described in the original.
-Even the plants described in the novel are not so common in Europe. In Europe, the trees who keep their (small) green leaves even during the winter, are "Nadelwald", with the "Kiefer" as the most common sort. In China, the "Lebensbaum"#, is seen most often. Both trees belong to the "Kiefer"-like trees, the most obvious difference is that the leaves are thin almost like needles in Europe. However, when translating the Lebensbaum with "Lebensbaum", European readers will always think of an exotic environment. This translation strategy is called "foreignization". In the original, mentioning the "Lebensbaum" was mainly to create an impression of ever green trees common in Qing China. Therefore, it is considerable to translate the "Lebensbaum" with "Kiefer", a strategy called "localization". This makes sure that the European reader is not mislead and does not pay attention to unwanted details, but can follow the story line.
 However, the "localization" of the law enforcement troops in the novel, who confiscate the Jia's families fortune and capture family members, fulfill functions like todays police in the West. However, to translate the law enforcement troops with "police" may astonish the readers at that place in the story, because it sounds modern. Therefore, the more foreignizing, even exoticizing term "gold jackets" may appear more appropriate. These kinds of choices have constantly to be made in the translation process and everybody may have a different opinion, what choices are the most appropriate, however, nobody frees the translator from the burden to make the choices. Important is, that a translator should never stick to his first choice for all of the different revised editions during his or her lifetime. A translator should always be open to suggestions from colleagues, Redology experts and readers. Therefore, to translate a word in one way may be a good choice in the 2000's and to translate it differently may be a good choice in the 2020's. It also depends on the targeted readers and what impression one wants to leave on them. If the targeted readers are Redologists, one can stick more to the original and give less explanations (foreignization), if the targeted readers are the masses, one may be freer and bring the text closer to the readers (localization).