86-year-old translator Wang Jiaxiang:
The chaos in the translation industry cannot be solved at once
February 20, 2022 Chengdu Commercial Daily Electronic Edition
This is an old lady with a story.
"My life has been rough, but I'm not easily beaten," she said.
She retired completely at the age of 86, swimming every day and playing bridge.
"In an impetuous world, being able to calm down and read and translate excellent literary works is the happiness that comes with you. It is my lifelong pursuit to strive to do better."
On the other end of the phone, 86-year-old Wang Jiaxiang spoke in a strong and firm tone.
Wang Jiaxiang, "Senior Translator" of China Translators Association, professor of Beijing Foreign Studies University, studied under Xu Guozhang, Wang Zuoliang and other famous masters.
He has translated more than 30 English literary works including "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "If You Give Me Three Days of Light", "Walden Pond", "Tell Me, Memory", and "They Look at God".
She is a pioneer in the translation of black literature, and won the literary translation award of the 6th Lu Xun Literature Award for her translation of "Colored People - Memoirs".
In the award speech, the jury commented that "the translator is familiar with the cultural background and language style of the original author, has a good grasp of the style of the original work, and faithfully and fluently reproduce the connotation and charm of the original work."
Recently, Wang Jiaxiang published "Their Eyes Look at God: An Anthology of Wang Jiaxiang's Translations", which contains 9 of her most representative translations, including "Youth" and "Colored People" which are "marked by time", "Women" , Women" on the theme of "The Moment" and several representative works of Virginia Woolf.
40 years of continuous pen farming,
Translate more than 4 million words
In 1936, Wang Jiaxiang was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu. In this year, the Xi'an Incident broke out. In this year, Lu Xun died.
Born in troubled times and less than a year old, she followed her parents to flee from Jiangnan to Sichuan.
Wang Jiaxiang's father graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering of Tsinghua University. He worked in the engineering bureau that built the highway. Wherever the engineering team went, his family would follow him.
In addition to Sichuan, she also traveled to Guizhou and Guangxi. She changed places every six months, and changed a dozen primary schools in total.
In order not to be ridiculed by her friends, she kept changing dialects with subtle differences.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, they returned to Jiangnan where Wu Nong whispered.
In 1947, Wang Jiaxiang went to Nanjing with his parents, went to junior high school and began to learn English.
In 1948, the war of liberation entered the stage of strategic counter-offensive, and the organization arranged for her family to be transferred to Shanghai.
She has also experienced the test of different dialects in Nanjing and Shanghai.
In 1949, Wang Jiaxiang went to Beijing with his parents to settle down.
She wanted to be admitted to the High School Affiliated to Normal University Girls, but she was admitted.
Because I learned English in junior high school, I continued to study it in high school.
In 1953, BFSU was the first to openly recruit students to the public. At that time, it was also called Beijing Foreign Studies University, which was affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was recommended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After arriving at BFSU, she learned English systematically and was exposed to British and American literature. She has been engaged in the teaching and research of English and British and American literature for decades.
While studying at BFSU, Xu Guozhang, Wang Zuoliang, and Zhou Jueliang returned to China after their studies, and Zhang Hanxi, Ding Xiangdao, Bo Bing, Liu Chengpei, Li Binghan and others taught BFSU, which can be described as a gathering of masters.
Wang Jiaxiang said that gentlemen's rigorous academic attitude and awe for academic research are precious treasures left to her.
"I have been studying at Beijing Foreign Studies University for 4 years, and it has been smooth sailing. I will show you something. This is the graduation diploma of the Higher Education Institute of the People's Republic of China." Open it and see her photo, the principal's signature and seal, and you can also see, All electives are passing, but all compulsory courses are 5 points.
"It was a 5-point system at that time. Such a graduation certificate shows that I studied hard at Beijing Foreign Studies University and lived a happy life."
In 1957, after graduating from BFSU, at the end of the year, Wang Jiaxiang and Chen Lin got married.
In 1958, she was sent to work in a factory. "In the face of difficulties, people's hearts are tested. We trust each other. He and I are such a simple story of getting to know each other." In the factory, in his spare time, Wang Jiaxiang also gave technicians English lessons .
Wang Jiaxiang returned to BFSU in 1962 and taught at his alma mater.
Living under the same roof, Wang Jiaxiang and Chen Lin devote their energy to their respective areas of interest and achieve their own achievements.
"He does linguistics, and I do translation. We each have our own errands and our own scientific research." Wang Jiaxiang translated "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "If You Give Me Three Days of Light", "Walden", "Speak Up" , Memory" and "Their Eyes Look at God" and other more than 30 English literary works. She has been writing for 40 years and has translated more than 4 million words. Chen Lin has become a famous foreign language education expert and a professor at BFSU. She has been committed to English teaching, from From elementary school to university, one-stop preparation of English series textbooks.
Last year, BFSU held a collective commemorative wedding for its 80th anniversary alumni, and the couple were invited to attend.
The two have walked a long life together, and in a few months, Chen Lin will be 100 years old.
Wang Jiaxiang said that now they live in an elderly care institution, and the conditions are quite good. Chen Lin's brain is very clear. He has been working until the end of September 2021, when his body began to have problems and his ability to take care of himself declined.
Chen Lin has been responsible for the compilation of textbooks for a long time. On September 26 last year, she was awarded the title of Advanced Individual in National Textbook Construction, which is considered a successful conclusion of her work.
And because she couldn't translate in front of the computer for a long time, she basically ended her previous work last year, and this was officially retired.
Every day, she insists on swimming and playing bridge. "I have been swimming since I was a child. If I like it, I will persevere."
Follow the translation concept of teacher Wang Zuoliang: everything is the same as the original
Wang Jiaxiang calculated that he had traveled to more than 30 countries in total.
Since the 1980s, she has visited Australia, the United States, Canada and other countries to study, and has been exposed to a large number of modern and contemporary English literary works that are different from the traditional realism she has learned and taught. Ideas for domestic readers.
In 1981, during her visit to Griffith University in Australia, she began to pay attention to a group of modernist writers in 20th century Britain, such as Virginia Woolf, Joyce, DH Lawrence, EM Foster, etc. Teaching and research, began to publish related papers.
In the summer of 1986, she went to Cornell University as a Ruth Scholar to study African-American literature and women's literature.
At that time, domestic research in this area was just starting. In a year and a half, she went from researching female writers to focusing on black American female writers, and wrote a number of papers.
In 1997, she was funded by the National Social Science Program "History of African American Literature in the 20th Century" and began to study while teaching.
Later, in 2000, he went to Harvard University's Center for Negro Studies to collect further materials, but due to his busy teaching work, he did not write a book until he retired. In 2006, "A History of African American Novels in the 20th Century" was published.
Now, she still remembers the first novel she translated was "Sand Castle" by British author Alice Murdoch; remember the shock she felt when she read Joan Reese's humble little book "The Great Sea" ; remember translating Nabokov's works, both enjoyment and torture... Each translation has its own special features, which remain in her memory.
Wang Jiaxiang is also a judge of the Lu Xun Literature Award for Literary Translation. How does she judge whether a work is well translated?
She believes that if you open a work, you can know which translator the work is, which is not a good translation.
The styles of Hemingway and Woolf are different, and the styles of Shakespeare and American Indian detective novels are different, not only the sentence length is different, the language description is different, the style of the translation should be the style of the original author, not the translator himself style of.
Wang Jiaxiang insisted that a good translation should reflect the language style, writing style and style of the original work as much as possible. Some foreign writers just like to write long sentences.
Some people say that Chinese people like to read short sentences, so is the translator right?
This is contrary to the original author. All in all, she feels that the translated works cannot blindly emphasize the reading habits of Chinese people. "We are willing to see different scenes. I don't agree that translations should cater to one habit."
Wang Jiaxiang also said that the first principle of her translation is to only translate works that she has researched, or at least some research on; or has done research on the author; or is familiar with the subject matter of the work or the era reflected.
Another principle is to follow the translation concept of Mr. Wang Zuoliang, his mentor, "Everything should be as original, elegant and common, as deep and shallow, tone as it is, and style as it is", and strive to practice this concept in the translation process.
Before starting the translation, Wang Jiaxiang always asked himself to read the whole book repeatedly, trying to have a comprehensive understanding of the work, including the age of the author's life, the author's ideological situation when the work was created, what time the work was written about, and the author's writing style, language characteristics, etc.
Some works are elegant and lyrical, some are full of dialect slang, some sentences are long and complicated, some are short and brisk, all of which need to be expressed in corresponding Chinese, so that readers can appreciate the artistic features of the works to some extent.
For example, although Heston and Woolf are both female writers, the former lived in the original black community in the United States and grew up listening to black folk stories, while the latter was born in the upper class of the UK, with a deep family background, extensive knowledge of books and ideas. Excellent knowledge.
Different growth experiences and literary qualities are reflected in the different writing styles of the two.
Criticizing the impetuousness of the translation industry: to be in awe of language
If the first translator can't translate the original well, and it will be difficult for someone to retranslate it in the future, then Chinese readers will lose the opportunity to appreciate a good work.
Why did Wang Jiaxiang translate "Walden"?
Before the publishing house found her, she refused. Later, the publishing house showed her a version, and she felt that there were many mistranslations.
So she began to translate "Walden", preserving the author's writing and language style as much as possible.
She said that the original text was difficult to read, and the translation did not change the chapters and paragraphs of the original text for "readability". She insisted that readers read "Walden" in the hope of understanding Thoreau's thought and language. Style, the original text is simple or gorgeous, straightforward or obscure, smooth or obscure, the translation should reflect as much as possible.
"As a translator, you must have a sense of reverence for the language. You must carefully figure out the context, and don't rely on the literal meaning." Wang Jiaxiang said that the more "simple" the word, the less it should be taken lightly.
After the South African female writer Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature, many media published short articles about her, listed the titles of her works, and said that she wrote "July's People" and "Free People". Burger's Daughter and more.
"I'm really stunned! Anyone, just open the book and read a few pages. They should know that July is a person's name 'Julie', and then they will know that People means 'people', and the title of the book should be translated as "Julie" Burger is the protagonist's surname, and the title of the book should be "Berger's Daughter". It is completely irresponsible to oneself and the reader to take the literal meaning so unscrupulously. Some translators are sometimes overconfident , even when the context is completely unreasonable, do not stop and think for a while." Therefore, Wang Jiaxiang wrote in the postscript of the translation of "Walden": literary translation must reproduce the "authentic" The language style of the original is almost impossible, but one should constantly strive to get closer and closer.
Wang Jiaxiang remembered the words of a translator who, as a teacher, had to stay up late at night to translate, he complained: "The manuscript fee can't make up for the extra electricity I spend on translation, and the cigarettes I smoke, only a thousand words. 40 yuan." She believes that too low remuneration in an industry is to belittle the industry, so many people don't do translations.
After she won the Lu Prize, an editor once said, "Mr. Wang, I will give you 80 yuan per thousand words. If you hadn't won the Lu Prize, you would not have been able to get such a high manuscript fee.
Her answer was also blunt: "I don't care how much you give. I don't translate to earn royalties. I do it because I like it, it doesn't matter how much I give, because I have a salary and can live. But young people still have to support their families, and the fees are low. , of course it has to be calculated.”
"Now, platforms are chasing traffic. Some children just want to be actors, Internet celebrities, and make a lot of money. They only want to make easy money. How can they become the pillars of the country? A national belief, the reconstruction of national quality, talents are the foundation. Once the values are distorted After that, it's hard to rebuild."
Wang Jiaxiang hopes that people can stop and read real good books. She has met many young people who are very hardworking and understanding, but their voices cannot compare to the voices of earning traffic on mobile phones, "I think we have to work together, including our translators. boundary."
Publishing methods and mentality will also affect a good translated work. For example, the publisher paid a lot of money to buy the copyright, found her, and gave her a translation for 8 months, but she did not agree. A good translator, even a full-time job for 8 months is very difficult, and the publishers also have difficulties, and the result is that several people translate a work.”
Wang Jiaxiang mentioned that many of the translation industry now is a group cooperation. Several people translate together and finally spell it together. "In such an impetuous translation industry, no good works can be produced." Wang Jiaxiang said that some people do not pay attention to quality, and they are very interested in translation. Quick, make some money.
The various problems left by the translation industry cannot be solved at once, and many reasons have led to the chaos in the translation industry.
Therefore, Wang Jiaxiang has repeatedly emphasized that in the impetuous world, being able to calm down and read and translate excellent literary works is the happiness that comes with her, and it is her lifelong pursuit to strive to do better.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Chen Mou