London, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hao Yuqing: The Swedish girl who introduced "The Legend of the Archery Hero" to the Western world
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Dailei
The Swedish girl Anna Homewood has a nice Chinese name: Hao Yuqing.
Translator Anna Homewood's study at her home in Sweden. (Provided by the translator himself)
This year's Spring Festival is a festival full of expectations and a little nervous for her, because the first volume of the English edition of the classic Chinese martial arts novel "The Legend of the Eagle Hero" translated by her is scheduled to be officially published and distributed to the world during the Spring Festival. This is also the first time the book has been translated into English and published.
Six years into a book
The first volume of the English edition of Hao Yuqing's translation of "The Legend of the Archery Hero" was distributed globally by the British McCleaus Publishing House on the 22nd.
On the 22nd, the English version of "The Legend of the Archery Hero" (right) was sold in a London bookstore. (Photo by Zhang Dailei, Xinhua News Agency)
"It was an important moment in my life." Hao Yuqing told Xinhua News Agency.
It took her nearly 6 years from the idea of translating to the final publication of the book.
In 2012, Hao Yuqing, who worked as a book agent in China, recommended "The Legend of the Archery Hero" to a Western book agency. She believes that translating Jin Yong's book can be a good start and a great way to introduce Chinese martial arts to the British publishing world.
The agent then asked her to excerpt a passage of "The Legend of the Archery Hero" as a sample and began to look for Western publishers who were interested in it. The following year, McCleaus Publishing House took a fancy to Hao Yuqing's translation, bought the copyright, and planned to divide the book into four volumes and translate it and publish it one after another. Hao Yuqing was responsible for translating the first and third volumes.
At the end of last year, when the reporter first contacted Hao Yuqing, she was doing the final polishing and proofreading work for the first volume of the book, while taking care of her young son every day.
However, Hao Yuqing regarded the translation as another child of his own, and in order to "conceive" it, he had to sacrifice some time to accompany his son.
"Parents who raise children are real heroes," she laughs, "but I hope to set a good example for my son with my work, so that he knows that hard work and family life are important and should be able to take care of both." Now that this book is published, it's like a child is independent, and I can't make any more changes, I can only learn to let go, let the child go out alone, and pray for him in my heart. ”
Translated as Jin Yong with "humble heart"
On the 22nd, the English version of "The Legend of the Archery Hero" was sold in the London Bookstore. (Photo by Zhang Dailei, Xinhua News Agency)
Hao Yuqing's father is British and his mother is Swedish. She grew up in England and later studied history at Oxford University. More than a decade ago, in her early 20s, she traveled to China alone to study. "It was a wonderful trip, and I regret that I can't understand Chinese, but I'm curious, so when I return to Europe, I'm determined to learn Chinese."
This study is exactly three years. Hao Yuqing first studied Chinese at Oxford University in the United Kingdom for a year, then went to the Language Center of Taiwan Normal University for further study, and finally returned to the United Kingdom to study Chinese literature and history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Hao Yuqing's preference for classical Chinese literature, Tang poetry, Song Ci, and Wen Yanwen, all fascinated her. She was captivated by the female lyricist Li Qingzhao, and also loved Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci".
"I prefer to wander through works that are unruly, creative and imaginative than orthodox literature." Hao Yuqing said. This is also an important reason why she later became fascinated with Jin Yong's martial arts novels.
During her study in Taiwan, her friend recommended her to study Jin Yong. Faced with a shelf full of martial arts novels in the bookstore, she bought her first Jin Yong work, Lu Ding Ji.
She believes that Jin Yong's martial arts novels are a legacy of classical Chinese literature, "a bit like Journey to the West and Water Margin." In addition, Jin Yong is good at expressing his values in the fictional martial arts world, which also makes Hao Yuqing feel interesting.
While studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Hao Yuqing became exposed to Chinese literary translation. After graduation, she chose to translate as a profession, "doing every day to read, translate, and introduce excellent Chinese literature to the Western market."
Her first contemporary novel was Love of the Hawthorn Tree, along with a number of short stories. Translating The Legend of the Condor Hero was by far the hardest challenge she had ever had.
She told reporters that Jin Yong's novels involve a large number of historical backgrounds, cultural customs, characters, food, traditional Chinese medicine... It is not easy to understand the names of these things and translate them accurately. In addition, how to translate those mythical feats and invincible moves imagined in the original work also gave her a "headache".
However, in her opinion, the biggest difficulties are not these. She is well aware of the place of Jin Yong's original work in the minds of readers, so she must translate it "with a humble heart".
"There will definitely be readers who can't help but compare the original book when they look at my translation, and I get nervous at the thought of it," she admits, "but I really try my best." ”
Look forward to inspiring more cultural dialogue
Hao Yuqing said that her translation does not pursue the accuracy of "word correspondence", but pays more attention to smooth and easy to understand, hoping to achieve the effect of "just like Jin Yong is talking to readers in English".
"The worst part is that you translate every word accurately, but the translation is boring to read, which completely loses the meaning of literary translation," she said, "the novel is an entertaining, creative form of literature, in another language, especially a language completely different from Chinese, and it takes a certain degree of flexibility to reproduce and retain these characteristics." ”
Hao Yuqing believes that Jin Yong's works have chivalrous and righteous courage and jianghu hatred, which is the content that readers around the world like, "Now there are many Westerners practicing martial arts and also like to watch kung fu movies, which shows that martial arts novels in the West will definitely have a group of 'core' readers." She is very optimistic about the prospects of Chinese martial arts novels in the English book market.
For literary translation, Hao Yuqing believes that the responsibility of translators is to "create new dialogues and stimulate new interest and discussion", because the publication of a translation may prompt more relevant works to be translated and introduced to readers in other countries.
"Translation is never the end, every translation is a small step in a (intercultural) conversation. I know that no translation is perfect, and there are always places where people disagree or dislike, but I have always believed that not translating is the biggest lack. ”