Thank you for your interest in YYD.
Dialogue between Translators and Writers: The Value of Translators' "Questioning" in the English Translation of Chinese Literature
——Take the translation of "Tuina" as an example
Huang Anqi, Xu Shiyan
Abstract:In the context of international communication capacity building, the translation and introduction of Chinese literature has become an important channel for the mainland to show its national image, disseminate Chinese culture and highlight its national spirit to the world. Translation is an important part of the long road of Chinese literature "going global", and translators certainly play a vital role in the process of "going out". United States In 2013 and 2014, the famous sinologist Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin collaborated on the English translation of the contemporary Chinese novel Tui Na, and used email to communicate closely with the original author, Bi Feiyu. In total, the translator asked the author 131 questions, including the difficulties he encountered as a "first reader" in reading the original work and translating the text; The author answered them one by one in the reply, effectively resolving the confusion and contradictions of the translator in terms of word and sentence understanding, coherent logic, and creative intention. By analyzing Ge Haowen's emails with the writer when translating Tuina(1), it can be found that the translator's "questioning" of the original work fully reflects the differences between the two Chinese language cultures, and also helps the author to construct an external feedback perspective to a certain extent, which has the value of comparative literature research and literary translation research. Examining the dynamic behavior of translators in the translation process can not only provide new ideas for the preservation and communication of translation archives, but also open up a new research paradigm for the translation of Chinese literature abroad, so as to help the translation and overseas dissemination of Chinese literature.
Keywords: English translation of Chinese literature; The translator "asks"; translators and authors; the translation process; Translation archives
0. Introduction
Literature is one of the main carriers for disseminating national culture and showing the image of the country, and the "going out" of Chinese literature is an important strategy for the mainland to "display a true and comprehensive image of China" on the international stage. At present, the attention of all parties is increasing, focusing on the theoretical path, case studies, text strategies, media channels, and reception effects of Chinese literature. So what efforts have translators made in the dynamic process of literary foreign translation and behind the generation of translations? What is the value and significance of the translator's "questioning" of the original work?
United States famous sinologists Ge Haowen and Lin Lijun frequently communicated with the writer Bi Feiyu by email in the process of co-translating the novel "Tuina". The correspondence involves the translator's questions and verification of the novel's words and sentences, logical structure, style and tone, etc., as well as the author's patient answers to these questions. Among them, there are many deviations in the translator's understanding of the meaning of the words and sentences of the work, which has nothing to do with the translator's own translation level, but due to the social and cultural context between the two countries, which leads to confusion and even misunderstanding in the process of reading and translating.
1. Reflect the differences between Chinese and Western languages and cultures
Chinese culture has a long history and constantly changing ideas, and literary works often use words with strong national colors, showing regional culture, and reflecting social changes to enhance the tone and charm of the language of the works. In the process of translating Tuina, Ge Haowen keenly discovered these words full of cultural heterogeneity, and actively asked the author for solutions:
Example (1)
He began to walk. Breath.
(Bi Feiyu 2011:8)
The translator asks: What does it mean to "draw" three circles on the South China Sea of the motherland?
Author's answer: Back then, during the reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping decided to open up Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other places. Later, someone wrote a song called "The Story of Spring". The lyrics say: "There was an old man who drew a circle on the shore of the South China Sea. "This song is sung by Chinese. The comparison of Dr. Wang to Deng Xiaoping here is a playful saying, Dr. Wang has also opened up and made money, so Wang "drew three circles".
Translations:
He started walking and didn’t stop until he’d drawn three circles around the nation's Southern sea.
(Goldblatt & Lin 2014:8)
Example (2)
The most interesting thing is the bicycle wedding. The two wheels are confused, either the man is confused or the woman is confused, married, or married. Although the bride and groom are equal, they are not equal in their bones, always one in front and one in the back.
(Bi Feiyu 2011:178)
Translator asks: How do the wheels of a bicycle be one on the outside and one on the inside?
Author's answer: The subject of this sentence is not "wheel", but "bride and groom", that is, "home". There is a saying in Chinese that men are responsible for the "outside of the house" and women are responsible for the inside of the house, that is, "the male is the outside, the female is inside".
译文：The most interesting wedding is that of a bicycle. Two wheels, one just like the other, thrown together. A man is thrown together with a woman, and vice versa. The bride and groom are equal, but only in appearance. One is always in front of the other, or one on the outside and the other inside.
(Goldblatt & Lin 2014:180)
The metaphorical rhetoric used in the above two cases is based on China's social and historical background and traditional family values, respectively. Metaphor is a typical rhetorical cognition, a "poetic, antilogical, and aesthetic way of knowing" (Feng Quangong 2013:26). In literary works, rhetorical cognition has more aesthetic value and room for interpretation, but due to the differences in the cultural background of the target readers, the aesthetic value and literary effect of the original rhetoric may be lost. As the writer Su Tong (2013:11) put it, "cultural differences are inevitably reflected in the transformation of texts from text to text, which cannot be avoided". When Chinese readers read "Draw Three Circles", they will naturally be able to associate the story of China's reform and opening up at the end of the 20th century and Shenzhen's transformation into a special economic zone, and understand the ingenuity of the author's description. However, the translator lacked the corresponding cultural background knowledge, so he asked the author for a solution to make up for the gap in his cognitive background when reading this sentence, and to obtain information and similar feelings that were close to those of the original readers when they read the original text. Similarly, due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultural concepts, the translator did not know much about the traditional Chinese family concept of "male protagonist outside, female protagonist inside", and confused the logical subject of the sentence when reading, and the author's answer corrected the translator's misreading in time. Although in the final translation, the translator's dynamic thinking and translation process are close to "traceless", and the translator's identity is close to "invisible", we cannot ignore his good intentions in bridging the differences between Chinese and Western languages and cultures.
The translator's "follow-up" questions about the author also involve the idiomatic use of spoken Chinese expressions and the understanding of the local vocabulary of Nanjing. Because these words are used in a particular way and do not have a full equivalent in English, the translator needs to make certain trade-offs when translating the words after asking the author for the exact meaning of the words.
Example (3)
Dr. Wang once heard Xiao Kong say privately that her "impression" of Jin Yan was not good - "this woman" has shares on her body.
(Bi Feiyu 2011:218)
The translator asks, "Not so good 'taste'" – isn't that the taste, is that?
Author's answer: This not-so-good "taste" is a unique expression of the Chinese colloquial language, for women, Chinese do not like to say "temperament", but "taste". "Taste" here means "temperament".
Translations:
Wand Daifu had heard privately from Xiao Kong that Jin Yan gave her a negative impression—there was something not quite right about that woman.
(Goldblatt & Lin 2014:218)
Example (4)
Nanjing people never say "making money", because it is very difficult to make money, Nanjing people say that making money. However, the young lady generally does not say so. They call their work more vividly and vividly.
(Bi Feiyu 2011:259)
The translator asks: Is "bitter money" hard money? "Rushing money" means that the money is very tough and not easy to deal with (such as rushing with a very strong tone)?
Author's answer: Nanjing dialect. "Bitter money" is hard work to earn money. "Flushing" refers to prostitutes earning money, and when prostitutes engage in prostitution, their bodies are "flushed" by men, so they call earning money "flushing money".
Translations:
People in Nanjing never say “make money”, for to them this profession requires tough, bitter effort; hence, earning bitter money. But not working girls, who have a more graphic, more vivid description for their kind of work: “screw money”.
(Goldblatt & Lin 2014:257)
From the various "questions" of the above authors, we can see the differences between Chinese and Western languages and cultures. When the author uses polysemous words or dialects, he adds double quotation marks to emphasize and remind the reader that "taste", "bitter money" and "rushing money" convey non-conventional or literal meanings in the sentence. However, the translator's native language is not Chinese, and he can only realize that the usage here is extraordinary, but he still does not know the true meaning of the words. In this case, direct communication between the translator and the author becomes more necessary and efficient. After receiving the author's patient answers, the translator takes corresponding measures to fill the gap in language and culture, such as using colloquial paraphrasing expressions of the same register "be not right about" and "screw money" in the translated text, and strives to "maintain just the right tension" between text transformations (Xu Jun and Xie Tianzhen 2018:9).
The linguistic and cultural differences between China and the West inevitably lead to misunderstandings and misjudgments in the process of translation and dissemination, because "some characteristics of the translator's cultural identity, such as national complexes, are already present and difficult to change before the translator reads the work" (Zhou Xiaomei 2016:66). Regardless of the degree of this identity, it can "influence an individual's social cognition, emotional orientation, behavioral tendencies, and the moral choices he or she makes in a particular adaptive situation" (Ting-Toomey 2017). Another part of cultural identity is embodied in "the process of translation, which is constructed through negotiation when encountering cultural conflicts" (Zhou 2016:66). The communication between the translator and the author is a "way of negotiation" to reshape their cultural identity. On the one hand, it helps to eliminate translators' misunderstandings and improve the language quality of the translated work. More importantly, it jumps away from the text itself, reflects the differences in language and culture, highlights the characteristics of the translated Chinese language and culture, and enriches the aesthetic feelings of the translated Chinese readers. As Wu Yun (2013:98) puts it, "the translator's linguistic and literary literacy, cultural awareness, and translation ability, as well as the interaction between the translator and the writer and the publishing house, determine the translator's translation strategy to a large extent, and affect whether the appearance of the translated text can reflect the writer's literary temperament and whether it can establish a true and complete literary image in the country where the translation is spoken."
2. Help writers revisit their work
Lin Lijun (Ge Haowen, Lin Lijun, Jiang Zhiqin 2019:39) once said in an interview: "Whether it is a rookie or a veteran in the literary world, writers have their own internal logic and language expression habits when writing, but they may not be clear to readers at a glance. The average reader can skip unclear words or passages, but translators do not have such an expectation, because every word or phrase in the original text needs to be considered when translating, otherwise the unclear places may not be translated perfectly. The translator's "questioning" of the author, the feedback and questions about the work, actually provides a perspective of external feedback for the writer of the novel, which helps the writer to examine his own work in a more three-dimensional way. A group of contemporary Chinese novelists, such as Bi Feiyu, Mo Yan, and Yan Lianke, do not understand foreign languages and pay more attention to their own writing habits, but with the help of translators' long-term feedback on their works, they have established a dialogue relationship of mutual trust with translators, and their creative perspectives have been broadened.
After the completion of the translation of the fourth draft of Tuina, Ge Haowen asked the author again before starting the translation of the fifth draft, and although he had asked one of the questions before, he still did not understand, so he continued to ask:
Example (5)
Ritual is not the way of knowing, but the degree of knowing.
(Bi Feiyu 2011:296)
The translator asked, "Can you please explain this sentence again?" ”
The author replied: "I thought about it, if there is trouble with English, this sentence should not be used at all." If you don't, it doesn't affect the logic of reading at all. ”
The author's answer not only reflects his respect and trust in translators, but also reflects his gradual opening of perspective, trying to examine the logic of the work from external perspectives such as readers and translators. Bi Feiyu (2012) pointed out when talking about the foreign translation of his works, "I am only responsible for the things that I can control. I will never be able to control it." Therefore, he chose to give more "initiative" to translators who can "control well", and give translators enough recognition and trust. Ge Haowen and Lin Lijun also helped him discover errors in typography, structure, and content logic when translating "Tuina", and Bi Feiyu replied after seeing it: "I am very happy in the face of your questions, on the one hand, I feel the difference between different cultures, and on the other hand, I feel your seriousness." This seriousness is your attitude towards translation. In my opinion, it is the greatest kindness to me. ”②
Similarly, other writers, speaking about their relationships with translators, say that building a good connection with translators paves the way for good translations. Su Tong had a close relationship with the translator Du Maike, and he once pointed out in an interview that "the translation process is a process of joint presentation between the original author and the translator, and in addition to the author's world, the translator will inevitably reveal the natural opportunities of the mother tongue in the translation" (Su Tong 2013:2). Therefore, the communication between the translator and the author is a boon for both parties.
The translator's unremitting questioning of the work and the ultimate pursuit of translation quality help the author to understand himself and examine his own work from other perspectives, which plays a vital role in the creative development of a writer, and even has a more or less impact on the writer's subsequent creative thinking and mentality. Translators and writers usually come from different countries, and the communication and exchange between the two actually represents the dialogue and collision of different civilizations. Under the prism of foreign cultures, Chinese literary works translated from abroad may take on connotations that have been ignored by the local people, which provides us with more perspectives for reading and understanding literary works, and allows us to better understand ourselves through the lens of others (Cao Danhong and Xu Jun 2016:57), which may be another value generated by the relationship between translators and writers. Guo Guoliang (2015:150) believes that translators and writers are like "pen pals thousands of miles apart, although it is difficult to overcome the distance of time and space to meet each other, but with the help of the exchange of words, there is a collision of ideas, and the heart and spirit can be synchronized". From this point of view, the cooperation of good translators and writers can promote and grow together.
Of course, whether it is feedback from translators or reading evaluations from Western readers, it can only be an external reference perspective for Chinese writers' writing. We welcome differences, understand differences, and enrich ourselves with differences; At the same time, they should also cherish a sense of nostalgia and pride in their own culture, believing that the translation and dissemination of excellent Chinese literary works can "provide an important reference for other peoples to reflect on their own existence" (Cao Danhong and Xu Jun 2016:59). Rational Chinese writers will not give up their unique literary values and lose their cultural self-confidence in order to cater to the external market and accommodate the reading preferences of Western readers.
3. To open up a new paradigm in the study of literary translation
However, when scholars study the translation activities of foreign translation of Chinese literature, most scholars focus on comparing the translated text with the original text, and examine and evaluate the translator's translation concept, translation strategy and translation style in the translation results, ignoring the dynamic investigation of the translation process. This research model based on static translation results has certain value and significance for beginners to understand translation behavior and translation methods, but its vision is too limited, and its research results are difficult to play a substantial role in promoting the "going out" of Chinese literature.
The translator is always present and invisible, and the "present" and "hidden" of the translator do not simply exist in the text. After seeing the overwhelming number of articles studying his translation, Ge Haowen said: "I am happy to see a broader analysis, and I hope that critics can judge the success of the translation from a broader perspective such as intonation, register, clarity, and charm" (Ge Haowen and Shi Guoqiang 2014:41). If the translation is only examined and evaluated from a simple comparison of texts, then the efforts of the translator to achieve various trade-offs in the translation process, such as the one highlighted in the above case—the consideration of the implicit meaning and logic of the original text, the absorption and presentation of Chinese and Chinese cultures, and the speculation and adjustment of the reader's acceptance of the text—cannot be fully displayed, which is unfair to both the translator and the original author.
Some scholars have suggested that "when evaluating translation, it is necessary to go deep into the translation process, including the communication and interaction between the translator and the author during the translation process, and explore the many factors that affect the production of the translated text in the translation process" (Xu Shiyan, many 2018:444). Liu Yunhong (2019:110) believes that "through the excavation of first-hand sources, scholars can truly go deep into the translation process, and then fully understand the active role of translators in the process of literary translation and reveal the interaction between various elements in the translation field".
The correspondence between the translator Ge Haowen and the writer Bi Feiyu during the translation of Tuina is a valuable archive that helps us to study the relationship between translator and author activities, so as to comprehensively investigate the dynamic process of translation. In addition, the information exchanged between translators, editors, publishers, scholars, etc., should also be properly preserved, because "sometimes the analysis of the translation itself may not truly reflect the translator's translation concept or translation strategy, and many discourse deletions or structural adjustments are due to external pressures" (Feng Quangong 2017:71). The study of foreign translation of Chinese literature is inseparable from the investigation of the dynamic translation process, and even more inseparable from the collation and research of translation archives. In 2015, the Chinese Literary Translation Archive was officially inaugurated at the University of Oklahoma, and the library initially collected the translation materials of three translators, Howard Goldblatt, Wolfgang Kubin, and Wai-lim Yip, including valuable first-hand materials such as letters, manuscripts, and contracts (Xu Shiyan 2016:95), and is now in a rich collection·. The documents and materials left by translators in the process of translation are also collected in the library. The author hopes that in the future, the archives will include more communication materials between translators, sinologists, writers, editors, and publishers, and that more scholars will consciously make use of these valuable translation archives to focus on the diversified investigation of the translation process, and to deeply analyze the internal and external factors affecting the production of translations in historical materials, so as to provide new research perspectives for the translation of Chinese literature to foreign countries.
4. Conclusion
Combined with the content of the above-mentioned exchanges between translators Ge Haowen, Lin Lijun and writer Bi Feiyu, we can not only see that the translator always adheres to a respectful and responsible attitude towards the original work and readers, but also finds that the translator constantly "asks" in the process of reading, understanding and translating literary works, reflecting the differences between the translated country and the translated Chinese language and culture, promoting the exchange and integration of different cultures, and improving the faithfulness and readability of the translated work. At the same time, this kind of "questioning" helps writers re-examine their own works and broaden their creative horizons with a novel and open external perspective. Through the study of the interaction between translators and writers in the translation process, the author believes that the following points are worthy of attention: (1) For the study of the "going out" of Chinese literature, scholars from all walks of life need to conduct an in-depth investigation of the dynamics of the translation process, and the object of investigation should not only stop at the comparison between the translated work and the original text, but also investigate the factors that affect the evolution of translators' thoughts, trade-offs, and choices during the generation of translations; (2) With regard to the consideration of the success of translators and translations, translation critics and literary critics should integrate multiple factors and carry out multiple evaluations from a more macro, open and long-term perspective; (3) Chinese and foreign literary translation archives have important preservation and communication value. How to use modern science and technology to summarize and integrate precious translation materials, and how to use translation archives to carry out academic research effectively and effectively, so as to bring more research materials and research space for literary foreign translation, are topics that need to be further explored in the field of translation studies.
annotations
(1) The e-mails exchanged between Ge Haowen, Lin Lijun and Bi Feiyu were provided by the translator himself, and the printed version of the e-mails is in the Chinese Literature Translation Archive of the University of Oklahoma in United States. Professor Xu Shiyan from the School of Foreign Chinese Languages of Nanjing Normal University, as the first visiting scholar of the museum, summarized and sorted out this archival material and gave support to the research materials of this paper.
(2) Quoted from the emails exchanged between Ge Haowen, Lin Lijun and Bi Feiyu when they were translating Tuina.
(References omitted)
(This article was first published in Contemporary Foreign Language Research, Issue 3, 2024)