Pathlight/People's Literature (paper-republic.org)
posted by zjv5002 on November 30, 2011 | 4 comments
For those interested in Chinese lit. Brendan, care to drop a line about this project? And, most importantly, where can we buy a copy?
Hey hey!
So this is the result of about a year and a half of back-and-forth between Paper Republic and People's Literature. Right now we're under contract for three pilot issues, of which the first has just come out. My involvement with the first issue basically extended to doing a couple of rushed translations, snarking about the project in general, and offering a bit of feedback about a couple of the other translations: the real heavy lifting was done by Eric Abrahamsen (beforehand, in negotiations with People's Literature), Canaan Morse (who met with the PL people and edited the poetry for this issue), and especially Alice Xin Liu, our fearless managing editor, who really knocked herself out on this issue.
We're really excited about Pathlight. This first issue was kind of a trial balloon for us and People's Literature, and now that we've more or less figured out a workflow and all of that good stuff, I think we're going to be well-positioned to kick ass and take names. The next issue will be timed to coincide with the London Book Fair, and will feature excerpts and short stories from the Chinese authors who'll be in attendance -- so basically the cream of contemporary Chinese literature.
Distribution for the first issue is a matter of which I am blissfully ignorant, but I suspect the Amazon.cn link Alice posted on Paper Republic is likely to be the way to go for now. The Beijing Bookworm has got copies of the magazine for sale, for those who are in town. I remember hearing something about copies going to other stores around China, but that may have just been an unusually lucid dream -- I'll try to get Alice over here to post any updates.
Kudos all around, and excited for future (literary) name taking. The news prompted me to take another good look around the Paper Republic site, something done when I'd only been studying Chinese for 6 months and wisely left for further investigation. Today's scan prompts a question: Brendan, what are your favorite books on translation? PR points to a nice long list here: [http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/324] but are there a handful that really stand out for you?
I recently read "Is That A Fish In Your Ear?" by David Bellos and have been considering using it for the next semester of the literary translation class I teach at IES Beijing. It's a very enjoyable read, and offers a good introduction to some of the issues involved in translation without getting bogged down in theory. "The Translation Studies Reader," edited by Lawrence Venuti, is worth a look if you're interested in something more serious, as is "In Other Words," edited by Mona Baker. I have dim memories of reading and greatly enjoying "The Craft and Context of Translation," edited by William Arrowsmith and Roger Shattuck, but that was years ago. "If This Be Treason" by Gregory Rabassa is well worth a read -- but after the short autobiographical introduction, a lot of it is just short notes about the different works he translated. "Le Ton Beau de Marot" by Douglas Hofstadter is something I find myself dipping into every now and then. I don't necessarily share his tastes, and I certainly don't agree with everything he has to say about translation, but like "Is That A Fish," the book offers a nice overview of the general and specific complexities of [some kinds of[ translation. I'm embarrassingly poorly versed in translation theory -- largely because of my (reflexive, ill-advised) bias against academic prose. What I have read (much of it covered by Venuti in his books) has not necessarily agreed with me, but it has occasionally made me think a little harder about whether and how I can justify certain choices. In general, I think it's worth checking out -- once you're a practicing translator. Is there a specific aspect or area of translation that you're interested in?
The recommendations all look well worth a read, I'll check them out, especially Bellos. I've been studying Chinese (here, in Dalian) for about a year and a half, so I've only a layman's understanding of translation gleaned mostly from watching movies and reading stuff from David Moser. I try to read as much fiction as I can in English, and my interest in translation started when I read Ulysses and then a few months later saw this article about its translation into Chinese: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95sep/ulyss.htm Not that I'm aspiring to tackle Joyce as the first big project...Are there any books specifically geared towards translation into and out of Chinese? Though I've only got a shaky bit of Spanish and Russian under my belt, it would seem that Chinese presents a lot more freedom/opportunity for mistakes than other languages. Which, I imagine, is exciting and terrifying, especially when your handling someone else's creative blood and sweat. Do translator's working in Chinese scoff at their Portuguese to Spanish counterparts?Parting shot: The series of short stories on the site have been a huge help for me, though it'd be great if I could get a hold of English translations to see how my own measure up. Any good sites online featuring translated fiction or anthologies featuring some of the selections so far?