Era of great translators draws to a sad close
- Source: Global Times
- [21:21 December 01 2009]
- Comments
GT: Is this also related to China's current English teaching methods?
Liu: Yes. Currently, kids start to learn English from the third grade in elementary school, or even in kindergarden. But the English education actually turns out to be a failure. Many college students' English is still terrible, and that's not the students' fault.
Our English education is essentially test-oriented from the very beginning. A language deserves polishing and refining; it's not for crammed teaching or learning.
Existing education methods actually peel off the fun of learning a language. A language is a beautiful being with a life of its own. Today, some of our students are probably able to speak excellent English, but their linguistic refinement is still missing.
Translation calls for a grasp of both languages. Today, even our understanding of Chinese is problematic. The great translators of the past had deeply studied Chinese since a young age.
Today, many college students even have trouble in writing a simple article in Chinese. Under such circumstances, how can we expect the appearance of great translators?
GT: This has something to do with the flippant atmosphere of the present Chinese society.
Liu: I assume that, too. I like US translator and poet Sam Hamill. I came across with his Tao Te Ching: A New Translation in Paris. That's the best version I'd ever read. I bought a copy, and wrote to him later on.
I found in his replies that he had resigned from his job as a teacher in a college, and lived in a remote forested mountain.
He had no fridge, no TV set, and translated China's poems in Tang Dynasty (618-907) one word by another in front of an oil lamp. He said he wanted to recapture the artistic conception of ancient Chinese literature by living in the way the ancient Chinese masters did.
His translation language is quite simple. For example, two of Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's verses were translated as "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." Some Chinese scholars consider the translation not accurate enough.
However, in my perspective, the spirit delivered in this translation is in exact accordance with China's ancient philosophy concerning the relationship between human and the nature. There's not one single esoteric word in his translation, but the artistic level is unparalleled.
In contrast, the atmosphere in China is flippant, not only the literary translation, but also literary creation. Reform and opening-up has been practiced for just three decades, and the Chinese nation is still obsessed with material enjoyment, whereas people in the West have a strong demand for high level cultural creation and consumption.
I noticed later that many US poets quoted Hamill when they mentioned Li Bai.
China has too many missed lessons to make up. That's why huge volumes of Western theoretical and academic books were suddenly introduced into China in the early 1980s.
China needs nourishment and fresh air from the external world. Along with economic growth and enhancing living standards, people need cultural life, too. However, the emerging Internet seems to have dragged the Chinese back to materialism.
It's problematic when a population is chasing after material enjoyment. Many Westerners enjoy high living standards, and have returned to plain mental life. They need high-level culture in their spare time. Therefore, the translation of imported literature has to be good.
In the contrary, anxiety can be smelled everywhere in China. Online, there's a batch of translators. They may translate the transcript of a US show that has just been broadcast, or translate a new foreign bestseller through collaborative efforts before the real version comes out. However, that's just a product of entertainment consumption.
