My first Chinese teacher, Mats, used to say that he fell in love with the Chinese language when he realized that there was his own article for cutting heads. Thus, if you are talking about severed heads, you can not just say "a" severed head. In Chinese, there is an article for each noun. And the article often has a meaning. For example, a dog has a leash or a fly as an article.

A poem is headlined as an article. A newspaper surface. I do not remember the article for severed heads, but it is certainly bowl, globe, globe, stump, stud or something similar. It sounds a bit macabre by Mats, but if you read Stories from the Swamp Ground, or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you will surely encounter the article for severed heads. And it is not hard to understand that one falls in love with Chinese through the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Stories of the Swamp Land. They are fantasy epics from the 1300s, and everything the Legend of the Rings or Game of Thrones can do can do better. For those who like it.

For me, it was about the Apkungen instead. The story of the King is, among other things, called Färden til Västern in Swedish. And it is translated by Göran Malmqvist.

The books Journey to the West, Stories from the Swamplands, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dreams of Red Ease are "The Four Great" in Chinese Literary History. They are constantly reborn in new movies and TV shows, and inspire everything from fashion and advertising to art and politics. And especially the Apkungen and Journey to the West. The monkey king is a superhero who mixes nihilism, independence, self-loathing and disrespect. And he is deeply loved in China.

I read The Journey to the West in the 16th century Chinese, with a punctually literal English parallel text. After a while, the parallel text is not needed, because the same things happen. The monkey tries to protect the depleted Tang monk so that he can retrieve the Buddhist sutras in India, but the Tang monk is too stupid, does not listen to him and is deceived by a bull demon or spider demon who catches him to eat him. And then the King and the other disciples rescue him. It ends with the Monk King spitting hair and blood and peeing on something expensive. And then they move on.

Göran Malmqvist's translation of Färden to the West is so good that it is a little difficult to explain. When I started reading it I thought that Swedish and 16th century Chinese might just fit very well together. For the text is so fun and fun. Just like the original. Of course it is not. There are plenty of bad translations from Chinese as well. And I have tried to translate myself. The worst is usually the texts that try to be the "faithful original". A literal translation can only be broken and wrong.

That is why it is so amazing that the Swede is one of the selected languages ​​where you can read the journey to the West in ancient Chinese. Though in Swedish. Göran Malmqvist must have almost internalized the King and then speak freely of his heart about him. And I am so very grateful and happy for that.