A subtitler's eye view on translating from Chinese
Here is a fascinating podcast on translating and subtitling and working with Chinese directors from That's Beijing. With Brendan O'Kane and Linda Jaivin.
By Nicky Harman, April 23 '13, 5:38a.m.
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Nicky Harman
Literary translator.
London, UK
Nicky Harman is interested in translating any good contemporary Chinese fiction. She lives in the UK and works as a literary translator as well as giving occasional talks and running workshops on translation. In December 2011, she completed a three-month stint as the London Free Word Centre’s Translator-in-Residence (see below). She is a regular contributor to Chutzpah, Pathlight literary magazines and Words Without Borders, where she has translated authors such as Han Dong, Chen Xiwo, Yan Ge, Xu Zechen, Anni Baobei and He Wapi.
Currently translating:
The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver by Chan Koon-chung.
Published Translations:
Deng Yingtao, A New Development Model and China’s Future, forthcoming, July 2013
Sun Yisheng, The Shades who Periscope through Flowers to the Sky, for Words Without Borders, December 2012, and Dad, Your Name is Bao Tian, for The World of Chinese, March 2013.
Xue Mo, ‘Old Man Xinjiang’ in China Stories for the Guardian newspaper, April 2012.
Chen Xiwo, The Man with the Knife for Words Without Borders, November 2012
Anni Baobei, 'Goodbye to Anne', in the novella collection The Road of Others, Makedo Publishing, 2012.
Xu Zechen short story, Throwing out the Baby, in Words Without Border, April 2012.
two short stories for Comma Press "Tales from Ten Cities" series, by Han Dong and Ding Liying, 2012
Novel by Yan Geling, Flowers of Nanjing as filmed by Zhang Yimou, published by Chatto and Windus, January 2012
Anthology of poems by Han Dong, published by Zephyr Press, April 2012
Prize-winning novel Gold Mountain Blues/Jin Shan by Zhang Ling, published by Penguin Canada and Atlantic Books (UK).
Short stories for Ou Ning's Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, 2009, and literary magazine Chutzpah, 2010 and 2011.
Message from Unknown Chinese Mothers (Author: Xinran), Chatto & Windus, 2010.
China Witness (author: Xinran), oral history Co-translator with Esther Tyldesley and Julia Lovell. Chatto & Windus , 2008.
Banished! (author: Han Dong) (《扎根》 韩东), novel. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. Won a PEN Translation Fund Award (2006) for this work. Longlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize, 2008.
‘Long Corridor, Short Song’ (author: Zi Ren, in To Pierce the Material Screen: An Anthology of 20th Century HK Literature, to be pub. Renditions, Hong Kong 2008); (《长廊的短调》 梓人) short story.
China Along the Yellow River (author: Prof. Cao Jinqing, pub. Routledge Curzon, December 2004); (《黄河边的中国》 曹锦清) sociology of rural China.
K – The Art of Love (author: Hong Ying, pub. Marion Boyars, 2002); (《K》 虹影) novel.
BEYOND TRANSLATING – MY OTHER ACTIVITIES
Harvill Secker Young Translator Prize I was a judge for this prize for the year 2012, when the language was Chinese and the author whose work entrants translated was Han Dong.
Translator-in-Residence I have been Translator-in-Residence at London’s Free Word Centre. In the autumn of 2011, I organized a programme of talks and workshops which focused on Chinese and on translation but were intended for a general (non-Chinese-speaking) audience. For example, Isabel Hilton spoke on ‘Translating the Environment’ and her website China Dialogue; Fuschia Dunlop talked about translating Chinese food and brought us samples to taste; Brian Holton ran a workshop on translating Chinese classical poetry; and, with Rosalind Harvey, I ran a Bookclub Fest (sort of ‘speed-dating’ for Bookclub enthusiasts: four translated short stories to discuss in two hours).
Working with young people I use a clip from the Chinese cartoon film, Monkey, to work with young people on translating and creative story-telling/writing. I tell them that by the end of the session (about an hour), they will be able to translate the dialogue. I then tell them that translators have to do a bit of inspired guessing too. As we watch the clip, I also get them to repeat a few of the more entertaining bits of the dialogue. I've done this at various venues, including Nottingham Night of Festivals 2012, the Islington Chinese Association 2012, (part of the Islington Word Festival,) and in secondary schools - in places where the students know some Chinese, and where they know none at all.
Podcasts I have collaborated with Steve Wasserman to provide podcasts for his Short Story Bookclub and Read Me Something You Love. He podcast a Han Dong short story, The Deer Park and I read some of Han Dong’s poems for Read Me Something You Love.
Guardian newspaper I co-edited a series of five short stories translated from Chinese for the Guardian Online book pages, and wrote an accompanying article, in the week leading up to the London Bookfair, April 2012.
Mentoring new translators I have mentored a new translator, Anna Holmwood for the first British Centre for Literary Translation mentorship scheme, 2010, and will continue to mentor translators under the same scheme in 2012.
China Inside Out day at English PEN, March 2012. I helped plan this event and was instrumental in bringing over from China writers, a translator and a director for a fascinating day-long programme of debates, readings, film screenings and music.
I also run the **China Fiction Bookclub", an informal group of Chinese speakers who meet every couple of months in London to discuss and practise translating a variety of short stories or novel excerpts. All welcome. Contact me for details.
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Research publications:
What's that got to do with anything? Coherence and the translation of relative clauses from Chinese. In Journal of Specialised Translation (www.jostrans.org) issue 13, January 2010
Foreign Culture, Foreign Style: a Translator’s View of Modern Chinese Fiction. In Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 14(1): 13-31. (2006).
Beyond Paper Dictionaries: Mining the Web for Technical Terminology in Chinese (available from http://isg.urv.es/cttt/cttt/research.html, or on request from NH).
Visiting Fellow at the Research Centre for Translation at Chinese University Hong Kong, April 2006. Visiting Scholar, Fudan University and Beijing University, China, 2008.
Nicky's sample translations:
- Common Sense, translated from Changshi
- Happy, translated from Gaoxing
- Screwed
- Works by Nicky Harman
- So Black, December, 2013
Translated from Hao Hei, by Tse Dorothy (Hiu Hung) - Gold Mountain Blues, December, 2011
Translated from Jin Shan, by Zhang Ling - Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love , January, 2010
Translated from Zhongguo Muqin, by Xinran Xue Xinran - Banished!, January, 2009
Translated from Zha Gen, by Han Dong - China Witness (with Julia Lovell and Esther Tyldesley), January, 2008
- China Along the Yellow River, December, 2004
- K: The Art of Love, June, 2004
Translated from K, by Hong Ying
Thought-provoking: Translator as the maker of originals?
Karen Emmerich on Words Without Borders. This link is to part 2 of her essay, follow WWB link for part 1. http://wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/the-making-of-originals-the-translator-as-editor-part-2
By Nicky Harman, April 6 '13, 6a.m.
Translation thrives on Twitter
Some of you will have noticed that the London–based China Fiction Book Club, has a thriving twitter account, @cfbcuk. Launched, serendipitously, the day of the announcement that Mo Yan had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, it's going strong and has nearly 200 followers…(198 today and counting. Several new followers arrived between yesterday and today as a result of the Dorothy Tse story which appeared in the Guardian). PLUS Helen Wang has launched 3 more Twitter accounts, all worth browsing: Story of the Stone @caoxueqin1760; Lin Yutang @lytwords; and – together with the Emerging Translators Network - Translated World, @translatedworld. These have daily posts - have a look. If you don't yet have a Twitter account, then google the @names and you can reads the tweets...
By Nicky Harman, March 22 '13, 7:17a.m.
Chinese writer features in new Guardian newspaper series of water-themed stories
"Writers have long been fascinated by the wet stuff, and now we're opening the floodgates on a series of aquatic-themed short stories" says Richard Lea in the Guardian today. The Guardian has featured Chinese fiction before - five short stories translated from Chinese marked last year's London Book Fair. The current collection of "water" stories are from all around the world, some written in English, others translated. Dorothy Tse (谢晓红）wrote one in Chinese especially for this series, and it's translated by me.
By Nicky Harman, March 15 '13, 11:25a.m.
Birkbeck (London) Translation Summer School 22-26 July 2013
This year, the Birkbeck (London) Translation Summer School offers Chinese to English as an option again. There will be a mixture of texts to study - from literary to technical via reportage. Dates: 22-26 July 2013. For more details see here. The workshop leader will be Nicky Harman.
By Nicky Harman, February 16 '13, 9:52p.m.
The Times Stephen Spender Prize is open for entries.
Translate a poem from any language, classical or modern, into English. Three categories – Open, 18-and-under and 14-and-under – and cash prizes. Details, entry forms and free booklets of past winning entries available from the Stephen Spender Trust. Closing date Friday 24 May 2013.
By Nicky Harman, February 7 '13, 12:42p.m.
Reindeers rule
Bruce Humes has been too modest to flag this up, so I will: Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian, translated by BH, is out now and Harvill Secker is gearing up with some Twitter promotion
By Nicky Harman, January 15 '13, 7:09a.m.
2012 translations from Chinese - the final list!
Thanks, everyone, for your additions and corrections. Here's what we've got now:
Fiction
An Unusual Princess, by Wu Meizhen, tr. Petula Parris-Huang (Egmont UK)
Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City, by Dung Kai-cheung, tr. Dung Kai-cheung, Bonnie McDougall and Anders Hansson, Columbia University Press
Dream of Ding Village, Yan Lianke, tr. Cindy Carter (Constable)
Flowers of War, by Geling Yan, tr. Nicky Harman (Chatto & Windus)
Hanging Devils, by He Jiahong, tr. Duncan Hewitt (Penguin China/Australia)
Jackal and Wolf, by Shen Shixi, tr. Helen Wang (Egmont UK)
Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke tr. Carlos Rojas (Chatto & Windus)
Northern Girls, by Sheng Keyi, tr. Shelley Bryant (Penguin China/Australia)
Pai Hua Zi and the Clever Girl, by Zhang Xinxin, tr. Helen Wang (https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pai-hua-zi-clever-girl-vol./id553372788)
Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China, various authors and translators (Comma Press)
The Civil Servant’s Notebook, by Wang Xiaofang, tr. Eric Abrahamsen (Penguin China/Australia)
The Road of Others, by Anni Baobei, tr. Nicky Harman (Make Do Publishing)
This Generation: Dispatches from China's Most Popular Literary Star (and Race Car Driver) Han Han tr. Allan Barr (Simon & Schuster)
Trees Without Wind: A Novel, Li Rui, tr. John Balcom, Columbia University Press
Under the Hawthorn Tree, by Ai Mi, tr. Anna Holmwood (Virago Press)
Poetry
A Phone Call From Dalian, Han Dong, tr. Nicky Harman and others, Zephyr Press (Jintian series)
Doubled Shadows, Ouyang Jianghe, tr. Austin Woerner, Zephyr Press (Jintian series)
Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, tr. W.N. Herbert, Yang Lian, Brian Holton and Qin Xiaoyu (Bloodaxe Books)
June 4th Elegies, Liu Xiaobo, tr. Jeffrey Yang, (Graywolf Press)
Notes on the Mosquito, Poems of Xi Chuan, tr. Lucas Klein (New Directions Publishing)
Stone Cell, Lo Fu, tr. John Balcom, Zephyr Press (Jintian series)
The Changing Room, Zhai Yongming, tr. Andrea Lingenfelter, Zephyr Press (Jintian series)
Wind Says, Bai Hua, tr. Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Zephyr Press (Jintian series)
2013 January, fiction
Last quarter of the Moon, Chi Zijian tr. Bruce Humes, Jan 2013 (Harvill Secker)
Sandalwood Death, Mo Yan, tr. Howard Goldblatt, Jan 2013 ( University of Oklahoma Press)
And a Happy New Year to all!
By Nicky Harman, December 31 '12, 7:38a.m.
It’s been a good year for Chinese fiction in English.
I make it a total of nineteen books. OK, I’ve cheated a bit – three of the publications below are poetry, and two others come out in January 2013. Still, it’s a good haul and many times better than the annual total, say, ten years ago. (Please post a comment if I’ve missed anyone out.) I couldn’t begin to add up just how many hours of translation the whole list represents, and that’s without the extra work translators have put in, on some of these books, to get them off the ground. So, lets raise a glass to translation and all pat ourselves on the back!
In alphabetical order, this year’s publications from Chinese are:
By Nicky Harman, December 20 '12, 4:15a.m.
Words Without Borders (December) non-Scandi crime issue...
... has a short story by young writer Sun Yisheng called The Shades who periscope Through Flowers to the Sky. (The title is taken from a poem When Once The Twilight Locks No Longer by Dylan Thomas, translated into Chinese by the poet Bai Hua.)
By Nicky Harman, December 1 '12, 10:35a.m.
Crossing Border festival, Netherlands, invites Chinese author + translator
Check out the goings-on at the Crossing Border festival, in The Hague and Antwerp, till Monday 17th Nov, where Yan Ge and Phil Hand are among the guest writers and translators. Guest authors write daily blogs (Chronicles) which the translators translate. The rest of the fest begins this evening.
By Nicky Harman, November 16 '12, 4:18a.m.
Monocle24 interviews Danny Hahn and Nicky Harman
Danny Hahn and I did a radio interview about the state of the art of translation for Monocle24 Globalist programme on Thursday 4th October. A bit nerve-wracking (for me), but they were lovely people and they gave us a decent amount of time to say what we wanted to say. You can listen here: http://www.monocle.com/monocle24/?openepisode=10600244. It's a nearly 2-hour programme, and we come at 1:29 ie practically the end, but you can download and scoot that progress bar along to the point where they start with a phone interview with David Bellos (Is that a fish in your ear). Should you be so inclined.
By Nicky Harman, October 6 '12, 11:30a.m.
Good article about Ou Ning
here - he's the man behind one of our two favourite lit mags, Chutzpah aka 天南 (the other being Pathlight, of course!)
By Nicky Harman, August 4 '12, 8:12a.m.
Translation of Han Dong novella - And Other Stories Reading Group
The And Other Stories Chinese Reading Group is having a lively online discussion about Han Dong's novellas. I have just translated an excerpt of one, which appears here. It can also be viewed on the And Other Stories website.
By Nicky Harman, June 19 '12, 1:46p.m.
Translators and readers crowd around the table to talk Chinese fiction
Michael Rank asked me to post this piece about a get-together held in London last week. He writes: Translated fiction is notoriously hard to sell in the English-speaking world, but Chinese fiction seems to be a bit of an exception just at the moment. That was the message from a meeting of about 20 translators and readers arranged by Chinese-English translator, Nicky Harman, and Michael Sheringham of Arthur Probsthain, the venerable oriental bookshop on Great Russell Street near the British Museum.
By Nicky Harman, May 25 '12, 6:23a.m.