Translating Chinese literature into Arabic.. Yara Al-Masry complains about the small number of translators and the lack of funding

Egyptian translator Yara Al-Masry has published 13 translation works (Al-Jazeera)

Translators were often the unknown soldiers who had, and still do, the greatest hand in changing the tastes, natures, and even the thoughts and lives of many of their readers. No one can deny the role of literary and cultural translations from world languages ​​to Arabic in making a difference and influencing not only readers, but also Among Arabic-speaking writers and thinkers.

Therefore, Al Jazeera Net tries, through this space, to shed light on many aspects of translations and the work of translators, as an illumination of these efforts.

In this episode, we interview Egyptian translator Yara Al-Masry about translating Chinese literature into Arabic

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which is a literature as old as the Chinese people, and as broad and abundant.

It is true that Chinese literature is considered one of the oldest literatures in the world, but it maintains characteristics different from other world literatures, as the concept of literature in ancient China was parallel, if not equal, to the concept of culture. This meant all graceful and high-level writing, linguistically and intellectually, regardless of About its connection with ethics, philosophy, literature, religion, or even politics.

To the point that employment interviews for government jobs used to test the applicant for poetry and prose, a tradition that continued for several centuries in China, and this meant that the most important writers, throughout those centuries, were government employees.

Stories and novels translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

There are ancient books in the Chinese heritage, such as the Book of Songs, whose roots go back to the 11th century BC, and the Book of Documents, whose roots also go back to the centuries BC, which can be combined with the term “Five Books” or “Five Classics” that formed the pillars of the Confucian religion. And then the religions of Taoism and Buddhism.

The assumption of communist rule - to rule in China in 1949 - closed the country within the concepts of the Internationalist Party, and obscure writers began to occupy the pulpits because they wrote according to the Communist Party’s conditions for literary creativity.

Horizons opened further after the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, and there was a modern Chinese literature writing literary works free from the instructions of the ruling party. Other writers even dared to criticize the government in their works.

Despite this, Chinese literature is considered virgin ground for translations, not only for the Arab world, but also for other global languages.

Perhaps it was delayed for a Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature until 2012, through the writer Mo Yan (1955), who is considered the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, regardless of the writer Gao Xingjian, who was born in China in 1940, and received He obtained French citizenship in 1998 before receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000, which indicates one of the reasons for the delay in translations from Chinese literature into other languages.

A collection of poetry, “I Embrace a White Tiger and Cross the Ocean,” by Khai Ze, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

The Egyptian translator and writer Yara is one of those translators who set out to that virgin land and are trying to transfer its fruits, with great efforts, into the Arabic language.

She studied Chinese at the Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University in Cairo, and at Shandong Normal University in Jinan, China.

She published stories, poetic texts, and studies translated from Chinese into Arabic in magazines and newspapers, including: Al-Arabi magazine, Al-Ahram newspaper, the cultural supplement of Al-Ittihad newspaper, Akhbar Al-Adab, and other Arab cultural periodicals.

She won many awards for her translations, including first place in the Literary Newspaper Youth Translation Competition in 2016 for her translation of the novel “The Gourmet” by the Chinese writer Lu Wenfu.

In 2019, it won the Distinguished Contribution Award to Chinese Books, before taking first place in the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, in the seventh session of 2021, in translation from Chinese into Arabic.

She has published 13 translated works, which she began in 2015 with the translation of the short story collection “Running Bones” by the writer Ashe (1971), and followed it with translations by female writers, the writers Sutong (1963), Ping Yuan, and Lu Wenfu (1928-2005), and the poet Khai Zi (1964-1989). And the writer Shi Quan (1963) and Tsan Shih and other contemporary writers and new writing.

• How do you summarize the importance of Chinese literature, and therefore the importance of translating it into Arabic?

When we say “China,” this means a country that has been very influential in human civilization, ancient and modern, and therefore the importance of its literature stems from this influence. Mandarin Chinese is a living and creative language, and therefore translating it into Arabic is of great importance in enriching the Arabic creative and literary imagination. The same applies to translating from any other language, even if its speakers are a limited number. How can it be with a language spoken by one and a half billion people?

The novel "Maqiao Dictionary" by Han Shaogong, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

Are we late in translating Chinese literature?

The issue is not related to the delay in translating Chinese literature, but rather to focusing on translating Western literature from what we call the Renaissance era until today. In my opinion, we should focus on translating what we can of Chinese literature, and it is more important than asking about the issue of delay itself.

Poetry anthology “A Thing Called Stone” by Ouyang Jiang Khi, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al Jazeera)

When was the first novel, play, or collection of poetry from Chinese literature translated into Arabic?

This is a question related to “lists and archives” and not to the translator, and what I can say here is that as much as I access translations from Chinese into Arabic, I read them, whether translated directly from Chinese or from intermediate languages ​​such as French and English.

The novel “The Gourmet” by Lu Wen Fu, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

How do you view the work of translators who preceded you in this field?

I certainly appreciate the work of the translators who came before me, as they went through the adventure that we are continuing now, in translating from Chinese, and I certainly benefit from their work and experience.

The novel “Wives and Concubines” by Sutong, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

There is an emphasis on the art of the novel, while theater or poetry are rarely translated.

Is this due to the Arabic publishing houses or the translator’s choices?

I think it is due to the popularity of the "novel", whether written or translated, while poetry receives less importance in translation, and there is a severe scarcity in theatre, while no one talks about "translating the short story."

In any case, the matter is a combination of the choices of Arab publishing houses and the choices of translators.

As for myself, I translate novels, poetry, and short stories, and I have never translated theater until now.

A poetry selection by Shi Quan entitled “Dark Temples,” translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

Some Chinese writers have won international awards, including the Nobel Prize, but there is a slowdown in translation into Arabic, and many of the classics have not been translated despite the emphasis on them in every translation into another language. Are new ones being translated because they have won awards or for other reasons?

If there is a slowdown in translation from Chinese to Arabic, this is mainly due to the small number of translators from Chinese, in addition to of course the ongoing problem of adopting and financing translation projects, whether from Chinese or from other languages ​​of the world. Prizes, of course, push the translation process, but they do not The only reason for translation is from Chinese. Before the Chinese writer Moyan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, there was translation from Chinese literature and this has continued until today. I think that I and some of my colleagues focus on translating new literature in China.

The novel "Love in the New Century" by Tsang Shih, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

What are your suggestions for translating Chinese literature into Arabic to warm the hearts of readers?

I believe that translation choices play a major role in readers’ acceptance and satisfaction with the translator from Chinese, or other languages, to Arabic. We do not have any studies on the preferences of Arab readers for us to be guided by them, and the translator only has to do his best of making good choices and faithful, creative translation. .

“Brown Migratory Birds” short story collection translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

Do you find that translating Arabic literature into Chinese is balanced with translating from Chinese into Arabic?

I think it has more to do with the interests of the translators, and what the opportunities for translation from this language to that offer.

In any case, the Chinese are interested in translating Adonis, Mahmoud Darwish, and Naguib Mahfouz, for example, and this means that the map of Arab creativity from those days, until today, may be absent from the interest of translators from Arabic to Chinese.

We may also focus on the famous names in Chinese literature, or on classical Chinese literature, although I personally focus on the new literature in the novel, short story, and poetry. All of this means that it is difficult to measure this balance in translation to and from the two languages, but the context in a way General develops and enters new areas.

The novel “Escape in 1934” by Sutong, translated by Yara Al-Masry (Al-Jazeera)

What about your latest translations from Chinese?

I have recently published two books, one of which is the first edition of the novel “The Maciao Dictionary” by the Chinese writer “Han Shaogong,” and the second is the second edition of the novel “The Gourmet” by the Chinese writer “Lu Wenfu,” which is a short novella, while “The Maciao Dictionary” is a novel. Long, more than 620 pages long.

In "Gourmet" food is the main hero, and in "Maqiao's Dictionary" words are the main hero.

“The Maciao Dictionary” is also a unique novel, as the writer bases its events on the local dictionary of words spoken by the residents of the Maciao village in southern China. It is also a novel that has no counterpart in world literature except the novel “The Khazar Dictionary” by the Serbian writer “Milorad Pavic,” which It was published in 1984, as the Chinese and Serbian writers adopt the dictionary or lexicon as a narrative approach, and since “The Khazar Dictionary” has been translated into many languages, not including Arabic, my translation of the novel “Maqiao’s Dictionary” is the complete and first Arabic translation of the novel from the Chinese language.

Source: Al Jazeera