Nobel Committee's Sinologist: Poor Translation of Chinese Lit "should be stopped"
That's why he [Göran Malmqvist] believes sinologists should not only engage in academic research but also in translation; and for himself: "It's to allow people from my country to appreciate the Chinese literature I like."
Unfortunately, he says, there are as many poor translators as there are good writers in China.
"What makes me angry, really angry," he cries, eyes blazing, "is when an excellent piece of Chinese literature is badly translated. It's better not to translate it than have it badly translated. That is an unforgivable offence to any author. It should be stopped.
"Often translations are done by incompetent translators who happen to know English, or German, or French. But a lot of them have no interest and no competence in literature. That is a great pity."
There are notable exceptions such as the late British sinologist David Hawkes' rendition of Cao Xueqin's epic novel The Story of the Stone, which he regards as a rare gem of translated Chinese literature.
Comments
What he says makes good sense. Literature translation is different from those translation works which aim at producing commercial benefits. But when there is no decent interest in Chinese literature without the translation in western world, the efforts made by the poor Chinese translators should be pardoned and made as a lesson or a joke.
Lao Zhang, May 5, 2014, 9:34a.m.