Thoughts on Brothers and dirty words
http://deerawn.blogspot.com/2009/06/yu-hua-lots-of-bad-words-im-reading.html
Dirty words are a huge part of the book and they don't feel quite right, ever. Sometimes it feels like the swear words are being spoken by a kindergarten teacher and sometimes by, you know, not a kindergarten teacher.
I can't agree that Baldy Li was trying to look at Lin Hong's "pubic area." He was a horny little kid peeping in a public toilet, not a gynecologist. And, yo, she wasn't a "wanton hussy" or a "shameless hussy," she was a "slut." You know? To have Chinese villagers calling someone a "cretin" feels kind of weird somehow.
attached to: Brothers
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Apparently the above blog entry has been firewalled by the Chinese authorities.
Can someone copy it here so we can read the whole thing?
Sounds very interesting and quite plausible that the register, if you will, is off. Then it will be interesting to know:
Is the original Chinese true vernacular, or is it "intellectualized" too?
Was the English translated from the published Chinese Brothers, or did Yu Hua give his translators the unedited version?
As noted on this web site in an earlier post, the co-translators of Brothers are professors (Carlos Rojas and Eileen Cheng-yin Chow ). What do they think of this critique?
These are important questions. I find most of the published writing in China to be disappointingly "proper." Partly because the writing is edited by masters of the politically correct, and partly because many authors are utterly divorced from the reality of life in the street.
Now the question might be: When such works are translated, are the translators and/or their editors also toning things down?
Bruce Humes
Chinese Books, English Reviews
www.bruce-humes.com
Bruce Humes, June 6, 2009, 6:46a.m.
The full text can be reached by clicking View Original Post on the comments page.
jdmartinsen, June 6, 2009, 11:22a.m.
"Pubic area" is a pretty direct translation of what Yu Hua uses. I believe it's ”阴毛地方."
Dylan, June 6, 2009, 3:27p.m.
"李光头胆战心惊地交待起了自己如何让身体更往下去一点，如何想去看一看林红的阴毛和长阴毛的地方是什么模样。"
"With his heart in his throat, Baldy Li recounted how he had lowered himself a bit farther, trying to glimpse Lin Hong's pubic area."
Dylan, June 6, 2009, 3:30p.m.
Interesting to note that, however wordy the English seems, the Chinese is wordier still…
But shouldn't this just be "her
publicpubic hair, and the place where it grew"? In other words the tone is coy, not medical.Eric Abrahamsen, June 7, 2009, 2:33a.m.
@Eric
Are you equating pubic and public here? Or is that a typo?
Bruce, June 7, 2009, 6:23a.m.
Hmm, I could try to recover gracefully with an implausible justification… but no, it was a plain old typo.
Eric Abrahamsen, June 7, 2009, 6:28a.m.