Carlos Rojas is one of the most important translator-scholars of modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the US today. I’ve noticed that sometimes his translation is motivated by research interests. His translation of Ng’s works, for example, is critically situated in the larger literary movement to pay attention to minority and minoritized writers of Chinese, the Sinophone studies.
Given the stakes of this translation, nomenclature is important. “Malaysian Chinese Writers” and “Malaysian Chinese Literature” in Carlos’s translation maps exactly to the original 马华作家，马华文学 (this terminology is unique in the Chinese speaking world too; it’s a special term created by Malaysians to refer to the group of Malaysians who are ethnically Chinese). Yet this terminology contradicts with the conventional ordering of race/ethnicity and nationality in the American context. “Chinese Malaysian” would be the American way. Singaporean scholar Chan Cheow Thia created his own term “Mahua Literature” in his book Malaysian Crossings. (And Carlos uses the term too in his article.) I wonder what Carlos’s thought process is behind his decision to choose “Malaysian Chinese”. (I support his decision.)
Given that I am worried I would be too focused on nitty gritty, mostly negative details, I’ll divide my comments into positive and negative ones.
Positive comments:
Carlos captures the satirical tone of the writing quite well. “With this, he called an end to another tedious Malaysian literary history debate.” “Li took him for a stroll around a cemetery near Yangming Mountain, inviting him to savor some of the freshest air in Taiwan.” “whereupon I (uh, it’s not me)... he told Li…” (Such smart play of perspectives, and it makes the story sound like a script of a performance—some kind of storytelling?)
“Like Li Yongping, Zhang was grinning, though for very different reasons.” This was a smart translation of the original which contains an idiom 异曲同工 (literally, “different melodies, yet equally beautiful/intricate”) that describes the two smiles.
Great research into all the Malaysian authors mentioned in the story. Carlos put important effort into introducing all of them and their brief life stories into the English-speaking world. Also the diversity of style among the “Malaysian Chinese” authors.
As Carlos mentioned in his notes, he strikes a balance between fidelity and intelligibility in the context of the original’s heteroglossia. I really appreciated how he kept words like “cempedak” in the original.
The translation reads smooth and very close to the original. The metafictional elements come through very well. (Although I thought the note about Huang - the surname of the author and the surname of the reporter in Mandarin is the same character as Ng, the author's name in Hokkiean should have been in the translation itself, not in the translator’s note?)
Negative comments:
“They are so deeply committed to writing in Chinese that they wouldn’t even dream of writing in English.” (8) I thought the “dream of” here was odd. It makes it sound like they want to write in English. They simply don’t want to write in English at all.
“Li smiled warmly” (9) is an error in translation. The original phrase is 暧昧的微笑, “a mysterious/secret smile” or “a smile with unclear intentions/meaning.”
“Maybe the novel was written by some Chinese writer living abroad who wanted to pull an elaborate stunt” (9) wrong translation. “some Chinese writer living abroad” should have been “some foreign sinologist.” I think they’re quite different.
“Ah Fan, Ah Fan” (15) I’m pretty sure it’s Ah Shen, Ah Shen… I was cautious that maybe there’s a dialectical difference among the varieties of Chinese. I looked it up in simplified and traditional Chinese, I don’t see a second pronunciation but “shen.” This seems like a very elementary mistake to me. I wonder if it could be the case that Carlos is not good at reading traditional Chinese, supposing he learned simplified Chinese first.
“he preferred to write his own works in a kind of ‘untranslatable Chinese’, and didn’t deign to try to ingratiate himself with those immature American critics…” (9-10) This is a very interesting sentence playing with the multiple meanings of “untranslatability.” I wonder why Carlos added “a kind of” to this line. I think that makes the meaning confusing. It’s not there in the original. I think Li’s just referring to the notion that Chinese is untranslatable (and he writes exclusively in Chinese), not a kind of Chinese. I would just say “he preferred to write his own works in ‘untranslatable Chinese’...”
“I could easily recognize that kind of lust, which was like dryness seeking moisture.” (17) This doesn’t make sense in English and does not match the original. How is the concept/state of “dry” seeking moisture? Original roughly says “dry greed, wet lust.”
“Would chain smoke one cigarette after another” What’s the word “chain” doing there?
“The first time, I saw him emerge out of the rubber tree forest I was truly astonished.” The comma makes the sentence ungrammatical.
“According to local custom, I have to tell you a story.” (17) “local custom” makes no sense here. The story here is an overview of the man. This is not a tradition of their place. Just courtesy as an interviewee… Even if it’s a custom it’s not a local one, the girl is commenting on the conventions of journalism.
“If I may, what is your name?” (18) Mistake. The original doesn’t specify whose name the journalist is asking for. It shouldn’t be the girl’s name as is rendered in the translation, because he already knew that her name is Ah Qing.
Neutral comments/questions:
The original for “crazed” (15) 犭肖 is an expression from the countryside dialect that the family spoke. The dialect is not captured. And what do we think about the choice of using “crazed” instead of “crazy” or “mad” or “insane”?
白粉仔 (white-powder-dude) is translated for its meaning as “cocaine addict.” Is there maybe a more colloquial choice that Carlos could have gone with?
I wonder why he only translates one name for meaning, Bird’s Egg.
Quick Note on Peter Constantine:
What a polyglot! Unimaginable. His presentation was very interesting. Although it was funny how most of the examples were not his own translation… Very engaging and thought provoking talk! I can’t imagine how he does the variety of work he does.
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