At a major event of the 2015 SFLTP, winners of this year’s Special Book Award of China exchange their ideas on literary translation on Aug. 26.

The 2015 Sino-Foreign Literature Translation and Publishing Workshop (2015 SFLTP), which opened in Beijing on Aug. 26, gathered more than 50 renowned literary translators, writers and publishers from over 30 countries, including Argentina, the United States, Britain, Egypt, Brazil, France, Germany and India.

After the opening ceremony, attendees listened to commentary on literary translation and publishing from winners of this year’s Special Book Award of China, the highest award recognizing the contributions of foreign translators, writers and publishers to Chinese culture.
 

The workshop was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture of China and the Chinese Writers Association, and was co-organized by the China Publishing Group and Lu Xun Literature Academy.
 

A range of other activities were held until Aug. 29, including academic lectures, reading salons and folk custom experience trips centered on the theme of literary translation.
 

Craftsmen of porcelain
“I am particularly interested in Chinese poetry,” said Miguel Angel Petrecca, a Sinologist from Argentina, at the workshop’s opening forum. “After I read the English and French versions of Du Fu and Li Bai’s poems, I decided to have a read of the originals. That was how I was motivated to learn Chinese.”

In addressing the opening forum, Ding Wei, Chinese vice-minister of culture, said, “Exceptional savvy and extraordinary conviction is what literary translators have.” Ding compared literary translators to humble craftsmen of porcelain who dedicate their lives to exquisite literary work.
 

“Some Sinologists’ and translators’ understanding of Chinese literature is confined to a mere familiarity with several Chinese writers. In fact, the environment of contemporary Chinese literature is complex and vibrant, characterized by emerging literary talents and forms,” said Li Jingze, vice-president of the China Writers Association.
 

Dancers with shackles
Last year, notable Chinese literary translator Sun Zhongxu ended his own life after years of struggling with clinical depression. The news prompted reflection among cultural intellectuals of China. Commenting on this, Chinese writer Huang Xiaoyang once said: “We always hope that what literature brings is the ability to defend against the dagger of reality with roses and the singing of nightingales. However, being ‘nourished by literature’ does not prevent your inevitable progression toward the darkness of death.”

Attendees agreed that literary translation is a job that tries to “make the impossible possible.”
The young Chinese writer Ji Wenjun likened translators to dancers with shackles on their feet. “With their feet fixed on the stage, their bodies aspire for agility,” Ji said.

John Makeham, a professor of Chinese studies at Australian National University, is working on the translation of the New Doctrine of Consciousness by Chinese philosopher Xiong Shili. Makeham noted that in the early years, Xiong planned to translate the work from the original classical Chinese into English but lacked the funding. “Insufficient financial support has been a major difficulty encountered by literary translators for a long time,” Makeham said.
 

“There is a saying that translators are traitors,” said notable American Sinologist Guy Salvatore Alitto, “To me, some nuances of expression like humor, puns are untranslatable. Some wisecrack, if translated, might not be funny at all.”
 

French Sinologist Joël Bellassen also expressed his concern about contemporary literary translation: “Apart from the quality of works, publishing channels, media publicity and marketing strategy are important factors that may affect whether the works of translation will be popular on the market. Some excellent works, due to an inability to find reliable publishing houses, have sunk into oblivion in the flood of books.”

Bai Le is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.