April 14, 2021 Update: Writer's Literary Agent Confirms that a China Publisher has Bought the Rights to Translate and Publish <The Perfect Nine> in Chinese Reports the Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has become the first writer to be nominated for the International Booker prize as both author and translator of the same book, and the first nominee writing … Continue reading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and his “The Perfect Nine”: Now Slated for Future Translation into Chinese?
Writing Fiction: “A Degree of Possession”
Whether or how much a book draws from real life isn’t strictly quantifiable . . . Part of this mystery is due to the chaotic consciousness native to the novel-writing process, which requires a degree of possession . . . To dig a book out of the ground can be backbreaking, hand-tearing work; you need to forget what you … Continue reading Writing Fiction: “A Degree of Possession”
At Last, A Native American to Head US Dep’t of the Interior
The New York Times reports: WASHINGTON — Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico made history on Monday when the Senate confirmed her as President Biden’s secretary of the Interior, making her the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency. Ms. Haaland in 2018 became one of the first two Native American women elected to … Continue reading At Last, A Native American to Head US Dep’t of the Interior
“Let a thousand translations bloom”
Mridula Nath Chakraborty on the controversy arising from the resignation of Amanda Gorman’s Dutch translator: Translators ferry across the meaning, materiality, metaphysics and all the magic that may be unknown in the mediums and conventions of their own tongue. The pull of the strange, the foreign, and the alien are necessary for acts of translation. It … Continue reading “Let a thousand translations bloom”
27 Million Reasons Why
The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $27m to settle a civil lawsuit with the family of George Floyd, who died under the knee of a white policeman. The Guardian cites the family’s lawyer, Chris Stewart, about the huge settlement figure: . . . what happens is that trickles down to decisions in the communities across this country. … Continue reading 27 Million Reasons Why
Book Review: An “I-Novel” Translated from the Japanese
In bringing this book to Anglophone readers, she [author Minae Mizumura] and her distinguished translator, Juliet Winters Carpenter, faced an unusual challenge. For editions in any other language, they could have left the English words as they were to preserve their foreignness. For the English translation, though, they came up with another solution: placing that … Continue reading Book Review: An “I-Novel” Translated from the Japanese
Quote of the Week: A Shipwrecked Mother Tongue
For me, linguistic displacement is a mark of origin. When I was five years old, I learned French at the Alliance Française in Santiago; at seven years old, when we moved to California, I learned English and forgot my French. From that moment forward, I have remained sandwiched between Spanish and English, feeling comfortable to a … Continue reading Quote of the Week: A Shipwrecked Mother Tongue
Coming soon to China: African Poetry, Novellas and Parables Translated Direct from Hausa and Swahili
2021 looks set to be a banner year for what I refer to in shorthand as “Afrolit4China,” i.e., African writing in Chinese translation targeting readers in the People’s Republic. According to the latest statistics from the sole online mini-database in this niche, the bilingual African Writing in Chinese Translation (非洲文学: 中文译本), now lists 240 translated works by 101 … Continue reading Coming soon to China: African Poetry, Novellas and Parables Translated Direct from Hausa and Swahili
“Whitewashing” Uproar Fallout: Dutch Translator of America’s National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Resigns
The UK’s Guardian reports: The acclaimed author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has pulled out of translating Amanda Gorman’s poetry into Dutch, after their publisher was criticised for picking a writer for the role who was not also Black. Dutch publisher Meulenhoff had announced Rijneveld, winner of the International Booker prize, as the translator of the Joe Biden inaugural poet’s forthcoming … Continue reading “Whitewashing” Uproar Fallout: Dutch Translator of America’s National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Resigns
Crime & Punishment for Online Speech in the People’s Paradise —— 中国文字狱事件
The New York Times reports: In China, don’t question the heroes. 在中国，不要怀疑英雄。 At least seven people over the past week have been threatened, detained or arrested after casting doubt over the government’s account of the deaths of Chinese soldiers during a clash last year with Indian troops. Three of them are being detained for between seven and … Continue reading Crime & Punishment for Online Speech in the People’s Paradise —— 中国文字狱事件
Quote of the Week: China’s HK in the Era of the New Security Law
“ You cannot say, ‘I’m patriotic but I don’t respect the fact that it is the Chinese Communist Party which leads the country'. ” (Erick Tsang, Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs)
African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2020 Round-up and a Peek at 2021
As Xi Jinping’s maritime Silk Road initiative reaches its tentacles further West into Africa, it’s not just accumulating alarming rates of China-driven debt and sucking up the continent’s mineral exports. Publishers in the People’s Paradise are now showing modest interest in importing what the authorities label “cultural products.” In this case, contemporary African writing. According to … Continue reading African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2020 Round-up and a Peek at 2021
“Multi-ethnic” Literature: Yilin’s 2020 Cache of Fiction by non-Han Writers
As your year-end holiday lockdown fast approaches, it’s worth noting a new series of books by non-Han writers launched this year by one of China’s best-known publishers, Yilin Press — lit., “translation forest” — that is normally associated with marketing popular foreign-language fiction in Mandarin for Chinese readers. The name of the series itself, Library … Continue reading “Multi-ethnic” Literature: Yilin’s 2020 Cache of Fiction by non-Han Writers
Guide to Related Links: Chi Zijian’s “Last Quarter of the Moon” (额尔古纳河右岸)
Chi Zijian's Last Quarter of the Moon 《额尔古纳河右岸》(迟子建著) A Multilingual List of Translations, Book Reviews, Academic Papers & Related Info 《额尔古纳河右岸》: Translations of the Novel Arabic (الربع الأخير من القمر); Dutch (Het laatste kwartier van de maan, translated direct from my English version); English (LastQuarter of the Moon); French (Le dernier quartier delune); Italian (Ultimo … Continue reading Guide to Related Links: Chi Zijian’s “Last Quarter of the Moon” (额尔古纳河右岸)
Xinjiang-based Novel: Excerpt from Patigül’s “Bloodline”
An excerpt from Bloodline , a novel by Uyghur author Patigül set in Xinjiang (《百年血脉》帕蒂古丽 著) Translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce Edited by Bruce Humes Growing Up In Da’nanpo (大南坡上的日子) We lived southeast of Da’nanpo, deep in the desert and on top of a steep slope, which meant all routes away from the … Continue reading Xinjiang-based Novel: Excerpt from Patigül’s “Bloodline”
Altaic Storytelling Quote of the Week: Musa Anter
“If my mother tongue is shaking the foundations of your state, it probably means that you built your state on my land.” (Musa Anter, Kurdish writer, assassinated in 1992)
