LOTS IN TRANSLATION
Zhang Butian has passion for rendering scientific books into Chinese, and he uses this to make knowledge more accessible. Liu Xiangrui reports.
As a translator, Zhang Butian is one of a kind given that most of his translations are related to the history of science, an academic branch that is just finding its feet in China.
For now, extremely few translators are engaged in such work — because it’s typically dull, difficult, and not very remunerative.
Even the most outstanding translators in the field are seldom known to the public.
However, a passion to share knowledge has prompted Zhang to dig deep into these usually thick books.
Zhang says that the study of history of science is critical for understanding it as well as the modern world, and he believes through translating the classics of the subject he can help the Chinese people learn more about the West, and in turn understand their own culture.
Over the past 17 years, Zhang, 39, has produced more than 40 books on history of science, and several more are waiting to be published.
As a student, Zhang, who did his bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2000, was driven by questions like “Why do the world and humans including himself exist?”
So, he decided to move on from science to philosophy, and got his master’s and PhD in the subject from Peking University.
He then worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences before taking up his current job as an associate professor at the department of the history of science in Tsinghua University.
During the winter break at the university, Zhang says he finds more free time to translate.
When he is translating, Zhang sits in front of a laptop with an open book next to it and keeps working except for taking short breaks.
And often, his favorite tunes by the German composer Bach play in the background.
Speaking of his work, he says: “I figured it out a long time ago that translation is the most important thing for me.”
Zhang says his translation career took off accidentally in 2001, when he was auditing the class of Wu Guosheng, a science historian at Peking University.
Then, Wu asked him to translate a part of the book Newtonian Studies by French philosopher Alexander Koyre.
Wu was satisfied with his work and gave Zhang the job to translate the whole book.
Zhang spent the whole summer vacation on it.
Every morning, Zhang, who returned to his hometown in Henan province, took along the book, a dictionary, some paper and his lunch, to his family’s new but empty house to work. And he wouldn’t return home until dinner time.
With no computer, Zhang had to write out the translation, and type and proofread every word on a borrowed computer later, he says.
“The book was boring. But translation was fresh to me,” he says.
His passion for translation didn’t die.
The next year, he came across a very good introductory book on philosophy in the library and was eager to translate it into Chinese.
He then reached out to a contact at a publishing house, and after writing proposals he was allowed to take up the translation project.
The book, The Big Questions, was reprinted several times and got good feedbacks from readers.
Zhang says his eagerness to share good things with others is his biggest motivator.
“When I read about things that stun me with their genius and perfection, I think I shouldn’t enjoy them alone. There must be others who are also interested in and will appreciate them the way I do,” he says.
He also understands that his books may be too technical for most readers. And he jokes that he is picky about his readers.
But he says that it is still good to be able to “enjoy a spiritual connection with a small number”.
While his name is occasionally noticed by readers and few people know who he is, Zhang says that this special existence is “cool”, although he does care about his reputation.
According to Zhang, persistence has played a key role in helping him translate so many books over the years.
“Just like walking, you need to make only a little effort for every step. The hard part is never to stop taking small steps, and then you can walk long distances,” Zhang says.
Yet, there were times when he found it hard to move along.
When translating The Theological Origins of Modernity written by American scholar Michael Mien Gillespie, he says he thought about giving up twice.
“But, when that happens, all I do is to stand up, take a break, calm myself and then go back,” says Zhang.
For Gillespie’s book, Zhang traveled to other cities but carried the work along — just to change the environment he was working in.
After sitting up for two months in an office in Beijing without air conditioning in the hot summer, he finished the book, which was rated 9.3 out of 10 by readers on Douban, a popular review website.
The readers described it as “smooth” and not like many other translations of books.
Years of devotion have earned Zhang a good name in the publishing circle, and he is given the freedom to pick which book should be translated.
Zhang has independently planned and translated two series of books.
While Zhang is prolific, he takes his time and does his work carefully.
As the original languages in which the classic books are written are German, Dutch or even Latin, his knowledge of German, which he learned at university, and Latin, which he learned on his own, are of great help.
For some important books, he checks the content in the original language, and compares it carefully with the English version, and adds footnotes.
Commenting on his work, Li Tingting, one of Zhang’s editors, says: “He honors simplicity. In his translation, you can hardly find any redundant words.”
According to Li, Zhang has a clear idea about what he wants to do and then focuses on it.
While Li says that it takes great determination to devote so many years to translation — which is lowly paid and not regarded as an academic achievement — Zhang says he is lucky to have found a mission he wants to accomplish.
He insists that both academic work and translation are “serious fun” for him.
Zhang says he does not want to publish papers for utilitarian reasons, and he believes that doing translation is more important than writing books at present.
Looking ahead, he says: “There are too many good books waiting to be translated. I have accumulated some experience in translating. It would be a pity not to take advantage of it.”
The hard part is never to stop taking small steps, and then you can walk long distances.”
Zhang Butian, translator