Foreign translators speak of how they understand China
Mustafa Mohamed Ahmed Yahia has lived in Beijing since 1995, witnessing the city’s transformation, which he calls “stunning”.
“When I first moved to Beijing, there was only Terminal One at the airport and only Line 2 on the subway. But within only 22 years, the city has transformed to become international,” Yahia, who works for the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, an affiliate of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, recently told reporters in Beijing.
He was a journalist before entering the world of translation. He worked for 11 years with the Sudan News Agency in his home country and then for some time with China Radio International in Beijing.
Yahia graduated from the University of Khartoum. He joined the CCTB as an Arabiclanguage translator in August 2015.
He was on the team of foreign translators at the CCTB who translated the report presented by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the 19th National Congress of the CPC in October.
The CCTB has dozens of Chinese staff members and 13 foreign translators who study Party documents and translate them into English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Arabic.
Yahia was responsible for the Arabic translation of Xi’s report.
It was the first time since the start of China’s reform and opening-up in 1978 that anyone other than Chinese experts had worked on such material, according to the State Council Information Office.
“I felt proud to be part of this historic event in China,” says Yahia, 60, who won the Chinese Government Friendship Award in 2011.
“It took my Chinese colleagues about a month to translate, and I spent about 10 days working on the translation and polishing.”
Yahia read Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, a book that features the president’s speeches, conversations, instructions and letters in recent years, before translating the October report.
Yahia says the ideas of a new era and “a community with a shared future for mankind” impressed him the most.
“Language is a reflection of culture, so we cannot literally translate word by word. Our Chinese colleagues helped us to understand the report, and it was truly teamwork,” he says.
In a group interview with the media, two of Yahia’s other foreign colleagues — Spaniard Josep-Oriol Fortuny Carreras and Briton Holly Snape — were also present.
Carreras helped translate Xi’s report into Spanish. Snape worked on the English version.
“I agree with Yahia. Teamwork was essential to the translation,” says Carreras.
At times, if he found an expression hard to understand because of different cultural and linguistic contexts, he would consult his Chinese colleagues who would explain the meaning in many ways.
“We had lots of discussions,” the 58-year-old adds.
Carreras, who was born in Barcelona, received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish linguistics and a master’s in teaching Spanish as a foreign language from the University of Barcelona.
He has lived in Beijing since 1996. He first worked as a linguistic consultant for China Today magazine and then with China Radio International.
He started working for the CCTB in November 2009.
Like Yahia, Carreras won the Friendship Award, the highest honor given by the Chinese government to foreigners for their contributions to the country’s development.
Snape, who has a PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Bristol, joined the CCTB in 2014.
She says she felt “a sense of responsibility to translate the report faithfully, fluently and accurately” and bring it to the international stage.
Snape came to China 10 years ago and started to learn the language, which she says is full of idiomatic expressions.
For example, he er bu tong, means “finding harmony in diversity”.
“When Xi talks about respecting the diversity of different civilizations, it is a very strong and powerful line, which reflects traditional Chinese culture,” she says.
The 35-year-old also speaks of theories in Chinese culture.
“For example, the Chinese idiom ju an si wei means ‘when things are going well, you should be mindful about the challenges’. It’s very candid to talk about challenges and there is a sense of mission to address these problems.”
Language is a reflection of culture, so we cannot literally translate word by word. Our Chinese colleagues helped us to understand the report, and it was truly teamwork.” Mustafa Mohamed Ahmed Yahia, Arabic translator, Central Compilation and Translation Bureau