The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
On the afternoon of October 22, the 12th "Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award" announced the ten shortlisted works this year in Beijing, and Dong Qiang, director of the Department of Law Chinese And Literature of Peking University, Fu Lansi, director of the Sino-French Social Science Research Center of Tsinghua University, and writer Li Er, attended the event, and "revealed" the selection criteria of the award and the characteristics of the ten works shortlisted this year.
In 2009, with the cooperation and support of Chinese scholars in the French-speaking community represented by Professor Dong Qiang, the "Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award" was established to promote the translation and dissemination of French literature and academic works in China. Since its inception, the Fu Lei Prize has been supported by many cultural celebrities represented by Nobel Laureates Le Clézio and Mo Yan. In the past 12 years, it has developed into one of the most important awards in China, and every year the Fu Lei Award selects two of the best Chinese translations from French, one in literature and one in social sciences, and since 2013, the "Newcomer Award" has been established to encourage young translators.
This year's Fu Lei Award received a total of 48 entries, including 28 in the social science category and 20 in the literature category. On September 22, the preliminary review was held in Beijing, and the jury selected 10 shortlisted works. The jury will be chaired by Flans. Dong Qiang, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award, introduced at the scene: "The ten works selected this year cover a variety of fields, including Jean Starropinsky's philosophical work "Transparency and Obstacles: On Jean-Jacques Rousseau", the most important critic in France and the study of Rousseau from literary and philosophical criticism, Eric Vial's work "Agenda" selected by the highly popular non-fiction field in recent years, and Bernard-Marie Rousseau' work. Cortés's play Lonely in the Cotton Fields, in addition to "The Couple's Room", which explores the relationship between fathers in the face of illness, is the strength of the French, who are second to none in dealing with delicate emotions and have a lot to do with their unique tradition of humanistic care and sensitivity. The works shortlisted for the final appraisal of the Fu Lei Award this year still reflect the diverse vitality of China's contemporary French translation community. ”
Li Er and Dong Qiang (right) at the event site
When introducing the selection criteria of the Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award, Dong Qiang said: "It is generally believed that a translation award should reward some very famous old gentlemen, and our principle is not to emphasize whether a translator is famous in the industry, but how much effort a translator and a publishing house put into introducing a book, young translators are crucial. There is a bad tendency to think that artificial intelligence will replace translators, and when it comes to ideas and sociology, translators must pay almost the same effort as the authors. ”
In addition to the permanent judges of this year's Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award, two winners of the previous Fu Lei Award, Jin Longge and Zhang Gang, also participated in the final evaluation, and the organizers also invited two Chinese cultural guests, namely Li Er, the winner of the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award, the writer and sociologist Qu Jingdong. Dong Qiang introduced: "Sometimes we don't want the judges to think too much about the status of this work in French literature, I am afraid that they are too knowledgeable, this year we have selected some scholars and writers who do not understand French as judges, that is, we hope that they can simply consider whether the literature is strong or not, whether there is a lack of such a work in the field of social science in China, and whether such a book can convey the author's thoughts and feelings." ”
In the dialogue session of the scene, Li Er and Dong Qiang also expressed their views on Fu Lei's translation, Li Er said: "Balzac's language is very vulgar, and Fu Lei's translation is the best language and the most beautiful language in China, and his Balzac's literary level has reached the level of Camus and Sartre." Why Chinese have admiration for French culture is that we look at the books of writers such as Balzac and feel the beautiful side of the translators after translation. ”
Dong Qiang said: "Fu Lei's understanding is very accurate, the error rate is also very small, the biggest problem in translation is that the error rate is too much, the translation is not good, many translations are at the expense of the characteristics of the original language, for example, many sinologists in the United States do is to change the taste of the original language." Fu Lei's understanding is extremely thorough, and it is almost impossible for Fu Lei to translate the books, especially literary works, again. ”
"Fu Lei Translation and Publication Award" main visual poster
Attached: Introduction to the final evaluation works
The Teacher of Ignorance: Five Lectures on Intellectual Emancipation by Jacques Rancière
Translated by Zhao Zilong
Northwestern University Press
This book is a timeless philosophical work, starting from the accidental harvest of the 19th-century teacher Jacoto, following the educational practices after the French Revolution, and deeply reflecting on the foundations of modern society. The author proposes that man is equal in intellect, not for the sake of rebellion, but for the appeal to the rationality of each individual, revealing his inherent capacity, reflecting on society and promoting its improvement. Therefore, this book not only presents very different points of view, but also prepares a plain exposition, taking the reader into a journey where theory and reality meet. With this characteristic, it is not confined to the boundaries of philosophy, and with its multilingual translations, it continues to give deeper enlightenment to thinkers in contemporary society.
The Queen of Judgment: 14-16 October 1793, Emmanuel de Valequier
Translated by Zeng Zhaokuang
Shanghai People's Publishing House
On October 14-16, 1793, the French Revolution spent three days and two nights trying Marie-Antoinette. She was predetermined to be guilty. The former queen of France confronted her judges in the Revolutionary Court. This is a closed trial, the judge and the defendant are deaf to each other, and it is also a test of the strength of both sides. Of course, this is the trial of a queen, and the trial of a foreign woman, in the final analysis, of a woman, a mother. Varekil recounted the event in historical archives that had never been disclosed before. He in turn showed the defendant and her accusers, their fears, courage and convictions, their fantasies and hatreds.
Common Law Toward the World Together: Unity and Pluralism, Mihai Dalmas-Marty
Translated by Liu Wenling and Liu Xiaoyan
Peking University Publishing Company
This book is a comprehensive discussion of the author's research and thinking on the issue of legal internationalization since 1993, which systematically and deeply expounds the challenges existing in the world today and the ways to deal with them. This volume summarizes the first two parts of the author's French book "The Imagination of Law" on "Relativity and Universality" and "Orderly Pluralism", and puts forward the dualistic contradictions faced by globalization, that is, the problems of unity and pluralism.
Another Language in Sound, Yves Bonafuir
Translated by Xu Feiyue and Cao Danhong
Guangxi People's Publishing House Co., Ltd
This book is an important collection of treatises on poetry and poetry translation by the famous French poet, translator and art critic Yves Bonafuva, and is a poetic work of great study value, which can be called the most important translation treatise since Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator". Moreover, it is not only a translation treatise, but also a feast of poetics of life: from Dante, Shakespeare, Ellen Poe, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Maramé to Haiku, the author invites us to the heart of the poem.
Transparency and Obstacles: On Jean-Jacques Rousseau by Jean Starobinsky
Translated by Wang Wei
East China Normal University Press
This book is Jean Starobinsky's doctoral dissertation and famous work, and once published, it has become an authoritative classic in the fields of Rousseau's research, the study of the history of ideas, literary criticism and theory, and has profoundly influenced many outstanding Rousseau readers, including Derrida, Foucault, Shkreli and others. Straobinski always closely linked Rousseau's personal life to his theoretical context, and for the first time perfectly unified Rousseau's philosophy and madness, politics and imagination with his profound exposition and timeless brushstrokes, and his interpretation of Rousseau's extremely original nature has long been renowned as unprecedented.
"Lonely in the Cotton Fields" Bernard-Marie Cortés
Translated by Ning Chunyan
Communication University of China Press
The show is a language competition game in which a vendor and a customer meet unexpectedly in the wilderness, and an indescribable deal connects the two. At the heart of the deal is desire, with the customer refusing to tell the vendor what he desires, and the vendor goes to great lengths to get the customer to admit that he has broken his desires. Who desires whom more? What do you crave more? At night, the hearts of the two people are like the rhythm of music, and the relationship between the two people is complementary and inseparable, sometimes tit-for-tat, sometimes warm and considerate. Layers of tension eventually lead the two sides to a fierce battle, and the whole scene is the fierce drumming before the war. Written in 1986, the play is a masterpiece by Cortés, two of whom– the trader and the customer – have become models of contemporary theatre, the core of which – the trade is a symbol of human relations in modern society. Since its inception, it has been continuously performed on the French and world stages, and the famous French director Xie Hou has directed the play three times, which is undoubtedly the most performed play by Cortés. When it premiered in France in 1987, the theatre industry commented that the play was as important as Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Agenda Eric Vial
Translated by Meng Mei
Kai Hao Culture/CITIC Publishing Group
The book won the 2017 Goncourt Prize for Literature.
Eric Viaer described Europe on the eve of World War II with exquisite brushstrokes, depicting the rise of Nazi Germany with dazzling events. With the eyes of a director, the scrutiny of historians, and the brushwork of a novelist, Vial shows how disaster, absurdity, and fear unfold slowly and relentlessly. The author reads a large number of archival materials and presents historical scenes like movies with condensed brushstrokes: why the German capitalists made peace with Hitler; why the Austrian politician Schuschnigg made the decision to betray his country after meeting Hitler; and how Ribbentrop, the foreign minister of Nazi Germany, gave up his tennis talent. Based on real historical events, the book offers a fresh perspective on Europe in the 1930s, capturing the characteristics of the powerful driving forces behind the Nazis: wishful thinking, clown self-righteousness, and cold calculations.
One Hundred Billion Poems by Raymond Glenor
Translated by Wu Yannan
Lakeshore Publishing/CITIC Publishing Group
One Hundred Billion Poems consists of ten sonnets. In addition to strictly following the rules and norms of the classical sonnets, the same line of each poem also rhymes with the same rhyme. In the form of a book, the ten poems are typeset on one side, cut between the lines, and bound on the left side. Based on this rhyming style and its representation, turn the page, and any line of each poem can be combined with each of the nine other lines of the other nine poems except the main line to form a new poem.
The Couple's Room by Eric Reinhardt
Plain Translation
People's Literature Publishing House
The novel begins with the story of writer Eric and his wife Margot. Margot was diagnosed with severe breast cancer while Eric was working on an important work. She asked him to continue to work and treat creation and the fight against cancer as a common battle. A few months later, Eric's work was completed and a great success, and his wife's cancer was initially cured. The complex emotions left over from this experience inspired Eric to create, but he was unable to write the story. So he rewrote it into an imaginary novel about Nikolai, a middle-aged composer. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer...
The Classroom of Life by Nicholas Vannier
Translated by Wang Meng
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House/Zhongnan Boji Tianjuan Culture Media Co., Ltd
For Paulo, a young boy who has never left the outskirts of Paris, a fascinating journey to the Sologne region and discover the wild nature there. There he met Totosh, the most cunning hunter in the area, and a sincere friendship was forged between the children of the town and the forest hunters. Paul discovered the secrets of nature and tasted freedom. He threw himself into his new life and thought about the beautiful gypsy girl swimming naked in Marnu's pond. Until one day, he met a beautiful buck and he wanted to protect it. And in the process, he will discover the mystery of his own life.
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Ding Xiao