英闻天下——461 Lack of Translation: Biggest Obstacle for Chinese Writers' Globalization

 　　For the many voracious¹ foreign readers waiting to read the works of Mo Yan the lack of translation of Mo's work is now their biggest obstacle.

 

　　Professor Joao Martins is the Portuguese² translator of Mo's novel "Big Breasts and Wide Hips³."

 

　　"The lack of direct translation from Chinese to Portuguese hinders the access of Mo Yan's works into Portugal. I translated only one of his books and this one was translated from English to Portuguese. There are indeed difficulties if you want to translate his works directly from Chinese into Portuguese."

 

　　Bi Feiyu, a contemporary Chinese writer, says Chinese writers still remain scarce on international stage despite their good works.

 

　　"I know not much about Chinese poets. But for Chinese novelists, there are only 10 to 20 who are known to foreign readers. And even for those several novelists, the translations of their works are mainly in English and French."

 

　　Insiders say few other languages are involved in these translations. It's a predicament for Chinese writers and a bottleneck⁴ for Chinese literature.

 

　　Yi Sha, a poet and professor at Xi'an International Studies University, says native Chinese speaking translators are usually unable to deliver high quality translations.

 

　　"I believe a translator must work with his own mother tongue. If a translator is Chinese, then he can only translate from the foreign language into Chinese, not vice⁵ versa. Because for him, the foreign language is not what he is really good at. Under this situation, the position of Chinese writers is quite passive because we can only wait for good foreign translators and the opportunities are rare."

 

　　Yi Sha was once editor-in-chief of "Chinese Literature," a magazine with both English and French versions. He points out that a further reason why Chinese writers have to wait passively is that the international world of letters has not turned its eyes to Chinese literature yet.

 

　　"What we can do is to increase publicity⁶ for our works, even through the actions of the government. And we can establish foundations to encourage foreign translators to translate our works."

 

　　Writer Bi Feiyu says that the globalization of Chinese literature will involve a long process.

 

　　"When it comes to the development of our world, we are always faster in material aspects than in intellectual aspects. You never expect Chinese literature and art to enter the international world faster than what we call "made-in-China" products."

 

　　Bi also says promoting the globalization of Chinese literature through government activities would be an effective method.

 

　　For CRI, this is He Fei.

1 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
• Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。

2 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

3 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bottleneck   

n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环

参考例句：

• The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
• China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。