Lasting translations
The legacy of venerated Chinese translator of French literature and philosophy, Fu Lei, lives on through the winners of a prestigious prize,
The winners of the Prix Fu Lei 2020 ( Fu Lei Prize 2020) were announced on Nov 21 at the French embassy in Beijing.
Ning Chunyan, translator of the play Dans la Solitude des Champs de Coton ( In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields) by Bernard- Marie Koltes; and Wang Wei, translator of the philosophical work by Jean Starobinski, Jean- Jacques Rousseau: La Transparence et L’obstacle ( Transparency and Obstruction), won the prize, beating eight other shortlisted competitors in the two categories of literature and social sciences.
Zeng Zhaokuang won the New Translator Award for translating Juger la Reine ( The Trial of the Queen) by Emmanuel de Waresquiel.
Wang Wei says that he studied Jean- Jacques Rousseau for his PhD dissertation and knew that his book is a very important academic work. When he first met his supervisor during his study in France, he was required to read Rousseau. It was then that he decided to translate the book.
“It’s a rather difficult book to translate. Starobinski’s writing is so good that I tried really hard to faithfully convey his style and meaning in the translation,” Wang says.
“My translation might be able to help domestic scholars to better understand Starobinski, and it also greatly helps my research,” he says.
Similarly, Juger la Reine offers Chinese readers a view of a different facet of the French Revolution through a pivotal moment in the history of France and its judiciary, the trial of Marie Antoinette, says Fan Jing, an editor of the book in Chinese.
Koltes, one of the most important French playwrights in the 20th century, died at 41 years old, left seven plays with unique personal style, but few Chinese people know him, Ning says.
“He was a fan of Bruce Lee, and watched a lot of Hong Kong kung fu movies,” says Ning.
“As a result, in the Solitude of Cotton Fields, the two characters, a merchant and a customer, had no dramatic conflicts. They just talked, debated, just like two martial arts masters speculating while getting closer to each other,” Ning says.
In the end, the two characters did not reach any agreement. They can represent either two separate people or just two sides of one’s own thoughts, reflecting that in modern society, the relationships between people are a negotiation of money, interest and desire, Ning says.
The play has been translated into more than 30 languages and showed in more than 50 countries.
The prize, founded 12 years ago and named after prominent translator Fu Lei, was inaugurated to encourage and recognize the efforts of those who translate French literature and books pertaining to the social sciences.
In 1928, Fu Lei went to France for three years to study the theories of literature and art at the University of Paris. He later translated French works of literature and philosophy — such as those by Honore de Balzac, Roman Rolland and Francois Voltaire — into Chinese, exerting great influence on generations of Chinese readers and writers.
The Prix Fu Lei has established its place in the publishing industry
It is translators who allow us to read the world outside one’s own country. Only after translation can literary works become the carrier of cross- cultural communication.”
Laurent Bili, French ambassador to China
in China, where translators have not been properly recognized, says Dong Qiang, president of the prize’s organizing committee.
“Without translators’ diligent work, it is impossible for us to understand the world to such an extent. Also, it is thanks to the translators who opened the window for us to see what’s going on in the outside world that China’s reform and opening- up has been able to realize its many significant achievements.”
Translators should be well recognized by our society — that’s why this prize was founded and it has filled in a blank in our culture, he says.
Laurent Bili, French ambassador to China, also emphasized the importance of translators in his speech.
He quoted Nobel Prize laureate Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, saying that writers make national literature, while translators make universal literature.
“It is translators who allow us to read the world outside one’s own country,” he said on Nov 21.
“Only after translation can literary works become the carrier of cross- cultural communication.”
After 12 years, translators of the French language have become increasingly younger and more professional, Dong says.
To celebrate the 12th Prix Fu Lei, an exhibition about Fu Lei’s three years in France is running at the Institut Francais in Beijing.
Usually, Chinese people learn about Fu Lei through reading the letters, written by him and his wife, to their son and daughter- in- law ( which have been compiled into bestselling books), and his translation of Honore de Balzac.
“We had little knowledge about his life in France until the discovery of a Chinese couple, Lu Lan and Liu Zhixia, while they were writing a book about the letters exchanged between French writer Roman Rolland and eight Chinese students studying in France, one of whom was Fu Lei,” Dong says.
According to the latest discovery, Fu lived a very rich life in France from 1928- 31, meeting with many French intellectuals, through which he widened his vision and experienced the richness and greatness of French culture, says Dong, curator of the exhibition.
“One particularly interesting story is of a catholic priest who tried to persuade Fu Lei to join the church, but Fu rejected, writing in letters that ‘ I still love my country’s tradition, culture and morality’. He realized that Chinese culture and French culture can actually communicate as equals. That’s why after he returned to China, he became the greatest Chinese translator of French culture,” Dong says.
“Fu’s experience in Paris shaped him.”