Raymond Zhu on the Tagore translation controversy in China There's a fine line between imprinting creative works with unique personality and screamingfor attention. Feng Tang just crossed it, when he translated Tagore's tranquil verse into avulgar selfie of hormone saturated innuendo. Classical literature deserves more than one translation. Rarely does one language have the exact equivalent for every word, phrase or concept inanother language. So even the best translators have to choose what is most important or relevant in the originaland attempt to find the expressions in the target language deemed to overlap the most withthe original. The choices can be subjective. (more…)
Day: December 28, 2015
Do you know the top 10 most well-read cities in China? They are not Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou…
According to a list released recently by Amazon China, the top 10 most bookish cities in China in 2015 are...
Secret Garden sold more copies than any other book in the whole year, according to 2015 listreleased by Amazon China on Dec 10. The book proved to a black horse with no slowdown in sales on Amazon.cn since itspublication on June 1. Shi Jianjun, vice-president of Amazon China, noted that Secret Garden transformed atraditional book into a coloring book, adding that social media also contributed to its success. Shi said the trend showed that TV and films based on books helped to promote reading. Forexample, the sales of The Common World by Chinese writer Lu Yao, and Wolf Totem byanother Chinese writer Jiang Rong were given a boost by the popularity of their TV and filmadaptations. Read More
The Chinese version of Nora Webster and The Testament of Mary by Irish writer Colm Toibin has been recently published in China. On the last stop of his visit to China in mid-December, Toibin had a conversation with Chinese writer Yan Lianke about many subjects, including "grief in literature", at Renmin University in Beijing. The influence of death on writing: Toibin: I lost my father at 12. In the following several years, my family stopped talking about it. They did everything else, and continued life without talking about it anymore. I wrote the novelNora Webster based on my memory at 12. I tried to imagine what my mother thought, howshe felt and what she said. Yan: I think the fine sentiments in Toibin's novel might be due to the young age when he losthis father. I lost my father at 25. What a 25-year-old man feels about death is very differentfrom a 12-year-old boy. My father's life vanished suddenly when I held him in my arms. Onecannot walk out of such a shadow. Now, in my dreams, I often dream of my father lying in myarms, asking me: "Lianke, am I really hopeless?" These words accompany me and mywriting. That's why there is so much about death in my novels. Read More
The Chinese version of Rabindranath Tagore's Stray Birds translated by renowned Chinesewriter Feng Tang was stripped off the shelves today following criticism over its "astrayinterpretations". The translated line that received most criticism was when "The world puts off its mask ofvastness to its lover" was translated to "The world unzipped his pants in front of his lover". Another criticized part lies in the word "hospitable" in the line "The great earth makes herselfhospitable with the help of the grass". Feng translates this using the Chinese word "sao", which is closer to the English word "flirtatious". Read More
“Assalamualaikum, Sufiah.” Instead of the “Hey!” he had called out to her earlier. “Wa’alaikumsalam,” answered Sufiah, now slightly intrigued rather...
By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé Let’s get down to brass tacks. Why do you write? Last year I fell into a...
Three Poems by Leonard Ng Leonard Ng was born and raised in Singapore. His poems are known for their focus...
Four Poems by Aju Mukhopadhyay Aju Mukhopadhyay is a bilingual poet and critic, and writer of fictions and essays. He...
The business of rights, the procurement of titles for translation, the licensing of works for other media are an important aspect of extending the...
You must be logged in to post a comment.