Nicky Harman writes about translating stories by Chen Xiwo and Sun Yisheng

http://wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/on-the-man-with-the-knife

The translator's experience of translating Chen Xiwo's The Man with the Knife and Sun Yisheng's The shades who periscope through flowers to the sky...
These are two very different stories. One deals with sexual politics and is deeply unsettling; the other is vividly imaginative, combining realistic narrative with rich hints of fantasy. Their authors, too, could hardly be more different: one is a highly politicized , mature writer, the other is just starting his career, and is from the newest “literary generation” in China.

Comments

# 1.   

Nicky makes a great point about the role of physical positioning and suggested movement... In translating love scenes for a sample, I was confronted with the subtlest suggestions of physical ballet, which in reading seemed fine, but when it cam to translating, required some mental diagramming as well as checking and establishing a chronological continuity... For example, she can't slide down him, if she didn't first get out from under and on top.. I'll leave it there.

R. Tyler Cotton, January 5, 2013, 6:44p.m.

*

Your email will not be published
Raw HTML will be removed
Try using Markdown:
*italic*
**bold**
[link text](http://link-address.com/)
End line with two spaces for a single line break.

*
*