The four-volume version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is all published in English

Translator Zhang Jing: Translation of "Sculpture" and "Sculpture of God"

　　The last English translation of Jin Yong's martial arts novel "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" "A Heart Divided" was released on March 25.

So far, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has all been translated into English.

As a novel with nearly one million characters, it took nearly ten years for "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" to be translated from the copyright to the complete book translation and publication. The English translation was also published in four volumes. The previous three were "A Hero Born". (2018), "A Bone Undone" (2019) and "A Snake Lies Waiting" (2020), and the final volume "A Heart Divided" tells about Guo Jing having to face the "spiritual dilemma" of bringing troops to attack his homeland s story.

　　In this huge translation project, the Swedish translator Anna Homewood (Hao Yuqing in Chinese) is mainly responsible for the translation of the first and third volumes, and the Chinese translator Zhang Jing is Anna’s main collaborator, responsible for the translation of the second and fourth volumes. volume.

In an interview with the Beijing Youth Daily reporter recently, Zhang Jing revealed that the other two parts of Jin Yong's "Trilogy of Condor Shooting" ("The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Dragon Slayer") have also been bought by the British McLehose Publishing House. Under the translation copyright, she has now started the translation work of "The Legend of Condor Heroes". "The English translation of "The Legend of Condor Heroes" will also be divided into four volumes like "The Legend of Condor Heroes", and one volume will be released a year." .

Diligent communication

Contact with another translator Anna every day

　　Zhang Jing grew up in Hong Kong, China, and her desire to be a translator originated from her love of drama.

"In the six years I lived in the UK, I can be said to be a fan of drama, but I watched hundreds of dramas in the UK, and there is not a single Chinese story." Zhang Jing said that the theater has Japanese, Indian and even Spanish languages. The repertoire was translated into English and performed in the theater, but there were no works translated from Chinese.

At that time, she sprouted the idea of ​​translating Chinese literature and art to the world.

　　When Anna invited her to translate Jin Yong's work, Zhang Jing readily accepted.

During the translation process, they communicate every day.

"For readers, they read the same novel, so the fluency and continuity of the writing style are very important. To cooperate in translation, we must trust each other and get along with each other frankly," Zhang Jing said, "We have known each other for more than ten years. I have also co-translated some short stories of novels before. The original manuscripts are all read by the other party, many of which have not even been read by the editor." They also "catch bugs" with each other's manuscripts, find problems and discuss them together.

Find the rhythm

Use "lens sense" to express China's "taste of martial arts"

　　Zhang Jing uses cooking to compare the translation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "It's like a Chinese-style fried noodle. Now we need to use Western food to restore its flavor as much as possible." Some "food ingredients" are universal, such as love and fighting. But some of the content is completely different. How to let English readers taste the same martial arts "taste" is what Zhang Jing thinks most.

　　As a martial arts novel, if the fighting scene is not exciting and smooth, it will naturally lose a lot of charm and reading experience.

Zhang Jing chose to use film and television culture as the starting point for translation.

"Although many Westerners are very unfamiliar with martial arts novels, they have seen some martial arts movies," Zhang Jing told reporters, "such as Bruce Lee's movies, Lee Ang's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and so on. We also hope to use The rhythm of English itself expresses the style of text to the sense of film and television." Zhang Jing believes that Mr. Jin Yong uses a lens-like description when writing. Therefore, when translating, they will also use the fast words and slow words in English. The words create the fast and slow rhythm of the fight.

For example, the description of launching hidden weapons can be translated as "sail through the air" for slower ones, and "drift through the air" for floating ones.

Grasp the details

Learn Tai Chi and understand Jin Yong's martial arts moves

　　In order to be able to translate the wonderful and hearty fighting scenes described by Mr. Jin Yong, Zhang Jing specially studied Tai Chi and has been practicing for several years now.

Zhang Jing said that after learning Tai Chi, she has a more specific understanding of the description of martial arts moves. It is to fight upward." With the foundation of Tai Chi, Zhang Jing's cognition and imagination of fighting scenes are also more specific.

In order to make English readers imaginable, Zhang Jing will also add some details when translating.

"It is necessary to describe the scene completely and stimulatingly, but not to be muddled and to write too much," she said with a smile, "after all, the characters in the book are flying around in the sky with light utilitarianism, and our translator's words cannot be on the ground Crawl around."

　　For Chinese readers, the world of martial arts described by Jin Yong is very familiar, but for English readers with completely different cultural backgrounds, many plots are unfamiliar and difficult to understand.

For example, Yang Kang defeated Mu Nianci in the martial arts contest and held her in public and took off her embroidered shoes.

Mu Nianci therefore secretly promised Yang Kangfang that he wanted to marry him.

The traditional concepts of "whether men and women give or receive" and "don't see evil" familiar to Chinese readers are difficult for Western readers to understand. This was something Zhang Jing didn't think of when she started translating.

In order to facilitate readers' understanding, the English translation explains the wars and entanglements between Song, Liao, and Jin in the introduction, and also makes text annotations on historical events and concepts specific to Chinese culture.

　　Text/Reporter Zhang Enjie, Intern/Wang Runqi Coordinator/Liu Jianghua

repercussions

English readers look forward to "The Legend of Condor Heroes"

　　For the English translation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", the British "Guardian" compares it to China's "Lord of the Rings" and "Game of Thrones."

Since the publication of the first volume in 2018, the English translation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has been well received by many English readers, and many people said that they "read it all in one go".

In this regard, Zhang Jing said that allowing English readers to experience the joy of Chinese readers reading Jin Yong's novels is the greatest affirmation to translators.

On the British Amazon, 73% of readers gave the first volume "A Hero Born" a five-star praise, and the last volume "A Heart Divided", which was newly launched on March 25 this year, has also received a five-star praise from readers, and said , "I finished reading in a few days, looking forward to "The Legend of Condor Heroes"!"