April 2008

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If you Liked the Run-up to the Olympics...

China will be “Guest of Honour” at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 (Oct 14-18).

Read all about it.

By Bruce Humes, April 21, 1:43a.m.

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Mind-food for the literary translator

A series of books widely available in China – in English – has opened my eyes to new ways of looking at literary translation.

Published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (上海外语教育出版社), the cover of each of the 30+ tomes carries a 国外翻译研究丛书 etiquette on the cover. I bought some of these volumes at 王府井的外文书店, but I have seen the series in places as diverse as Xi’an, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Authors include scholars known for their role in what many call “translation studies.” They include Susan Bassnet, Andre Lefevere, Eugene Nida, Maria Tymoczko and Lawrence Venuti.

I personally recommend:

“Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame” by Andre Lefevere (翻译、改写以及对文学名声的制控)

“Translation Studies” by Susan Bassnet (翻译研究)

“The Translator’s Invisibility: The History of Translation” by Lawrence Venuti (译者的隐身)

“Translation and Gender: Translating in the Era of Feminism” by Luise von Flotow (翻译与性别：女性主义时代的翻译)

I have read several of the books and have been pleasantly surprised that some—certainly not all—of these authors are bloody good writers whose writing is highly critical, witty and spot on when it comes to identifying and analyzing thorny issues that I have confronted as a translator of Chinese fiction into English.

If you only read one, make sure you read “The Translator’s Invisibility”!

By Bruce Humes, April 16, 2:22p.m.

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