One
of the best things about the UEA's MA in Literary Translation course, and there
are many good things about it, is actually what's not on the course. What I
mean is that the lecturers on the course and the staff at the university work
very hard, and are very helpful, when it comes to getting students involved in
translation related activities outside of class. Internships at the BCLT, the
BCLT Summer School, a publishing internship, translation editing workshops in a
coffee shop, public lectures with award winning translators, attending
conferences, attending the London Book Fair, an award ceremony, talks on
comic-book translation in a pub and going to professional networking events are
just some of the activites and schemes that have been on offer. It was at the
last one – a networking event encouraging UEA students to think about using
their language skills in their futures – that I met representatives of a Norwich
based data capture company. I then ended up working for them on an interesting
translation project for a supermarket in China. I want to say a few things
about it here because it's made me think a bit about what do you do as a
'Literary Translator', and what's the difference between translating
Literature, and something like a brand of toothbrushes?
So,
first of all, what do you as a 'Literary Translator'? Well, I don't feel that I
can answer this with any great authority as I'm not published, but it's still
an interesting question for me, as it's something I want to pursue. I get the
impression that, from a fascinating talk from the Translators in Residence at
the Free Word Centre during the LBF, literary translators do a lot. A
surprising amount, actually. They teach, write articles, organise games, take
part in 'Translation Slams', edit, travel, translate words and, of course,
translate literature. In this past year it's been wonderful to see so many
literary translators, including teachers at the UEA and translators in London,
being involved in different projects linked to their communities. It seems like
a major part of literary translation is actually using language skills,
critical thinking and decision making skills to work in other areas and fields
of study. My experience of working outside of literary translation has been
with this company in Norwich. The job involved translating and writing product
descriptions for 'everyday' items. In fact, it was more like everyday items in
China; some of the names for such items had never been translated into English,
and many of the items are rarely seen in the UK. I was challenged by having to
translate such words casually appearing on packaging as 阿胶, 牛皮糖, 蛇胆 and 灌肠,
(a quick google translate will let you know why these words might be
problematic, and give you a few giggles too!) Being faced with such oddities
made me realise that decision making and arguing your case are important parts
of being a translator – arguments of whether 牛皮糖 should be 'Chewy Sweets'
or 'Leather Sugar' went on for a while – and I think that literary translators
develop such skills and apply them to many parts of their working life. I also
feel that studying translation has better equipped me with such skills (although
I do have room to improve and will keep trying to do so).
Having
looked back at a few of my translation problems outside of literary translation
has made me think about the difference between literary and non-literary
translation. In terms of translating Chinese to English, and this may be true
of many other languages including translating from French and Spanish, I don't
think there's much difference in the actual process, but there is a difference
in the product. Chinese works so differently to English that translating it
involves changing almost everything; adding articles, reorganizing sentences,
deleting measure words, deciding on tenses and so on. These processes were
pretty much the same between my prose translations and the translations for the
supermarket. With the supermarket translations, however, the translations had
to fit the company's strict guidelines; limited character numbers, information
order, use of particular measure words and so on. I've found that with literary
translation there is a stronger emphasis on the feel and the style of a text. A
lot of the work of other Chinese to English translators, such as Howard
Goldblatt, have a distinctive literary feel, and I would also argue, the style
of the translator. For example, some Chinese to English translators like to use pinyin to translate the story's
characters' names, whilst others prefer to translate the meanings of the names.
Goldblatt's translation of Su Tong's Rice(米) included
characters like Old Six and Five Dragons, and I think that the decision to do
this give the text a particular style, which allowed the translator to put
themselves into the text. The freedom to make such decisions about influencing
the style of a translated text is at least sometimes the difference between
literary and non-literary translation. At least it was in my experience,
although this might not be the case in other types of non-literary translation,
as there are a lot of types of text out there that need translating. The main thing
is that the process of making decisions about changing the text is in many ways
the same, even if the product of the translation is not.
Now
I'm wondering why I'm talking about non-literary translation on a literary
translation blog. Well, I want to say literary and non-literary translation are
both very close; literary translators often work on non-literary translation,
and they do lots of things to engage people with literature outside of their
own work. The UEA's Literary Translation course is well integrated with other
areas of translation, and it's given me the opportunity to experience
professional non-literary translation. The experience has given me an awareness
of some of the skills I have gained on the course, and has taught me a bit
about the relationship between literary and non-literary translation. I think
both areas work well together, and I'm glad to have had the chance to take part
in both (even if just a little). I also think that one of the possible benefits
of translators doing so much outside of their 'work', is that this might not
only raise awareness of translators and what they do, but also an awareness of
foreign literature.
I
just want to say something (and feel it important as someone interested in
Chinese to English translation) about contemporary Chinese literature. Brendan
O'Kane, a great translator of Chinese and blogger, said in a recent interview
that 'The more we can do to demystify it [China], through journalism or writing
or documentaries, or through Pathlight to
introduce people to the idea that there are young Chinese writers working
through the same issues that they are – to get people used to the idea that
China’s just a place like any other, and not that special. I think that’s a
very worthwhile thing to work towards' (theanthill.org 2013:np). I agree with
pursuing a
'demystified' view of China and its literature. I think that the brilliant work
of translators to intergrate their work with other projects and fields of study
can all help with this pursuit. China and Chinese are, for many people I know,
still both a far off place and a mysterious language. The problem with such a
distance in people's minds is that it can lead to misunderstandings. Working
towards clarity can often be, in my opinion, for the best. I hope that
brilliant work coming from Chinese to English translators, through routes such
as Pathlight, keep
up, and that the English language readership will become more and more familiar
with great writers such as Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书),
Bing Xin (冰心), Bei Dao (北岛),
Can Xue, (残雪), Jin Yong (金庸),
Yu Hua (余华), Zhang Yueran (张悦然),
Liu Cixin (刘慈欣), Ling Chen (凌晨),
and many, many, many, more.
Now,
unlike Brendan O'Kane who is leaving China, I'm soon going to be off to China
to keep reading up on (and perhaps even try my hand at translating) some of the
new talent emerging from China.
Thomas
Newell translates from Chinese into English, and is currently studying for an
MA in Literary Translation at the UEA as well as interning for Arc
Publications. Contact him at thomashenrynewell@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment