Translator's task to make reader believe in characters
John Minford grins when asked how he feels to be regarded as 'just' the translator of Louis Cha's last set of martial arts-cum-fantasy novels. 'Well, let's not go into that,' he says.
It is not that this friendly professor of Chinese at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University expects equal treatment with one of Chinese writing's most famous fiction writers. But he knows that people have little idea what 'just' translating entails.
'Unlike The Story of the Stone, if you take the language away there may be nothing there. It's like, dissecting P G Wodehouse is much harder than Thackeray; every sentence of P G Wodehouse is exquisite. It's all in the style.' This is what readers may not appreciate - that the translator has to develop a style and choose the right way to tell the story in the reader's language, without letting the reader forget that this is a Chinese book, with all the superstition and Chinese cultural background that implies.
Professor Minford uses as an example a scene from another translation of his, the classic Chinese text The Story of the Stone. The reluctant young hero is being lectured on writing a formal, classical Chinese essay for the civil-service examinations. For a Western reader, what is the closest parallel? Professor Minford thought about having the boy write in old English, like Chaucer, but finally chose Latin.
The translator ends up making the reader believe in a young Chinese lad being taught in English to write in Latin, while also keeping the reader aware this is a Chinese work - not an easy balance to achieve.
'You need to be a writer,' he says. 'About 99 per cent of the decisions relate to getting a nice writing style.
'Take even the name, Trinket [for Cha's rascally hero who worms his way through the imperial court and is called in Chinese Wei Xiaobao, or 'Little Treasures']. Some people are affronted, they say, that he has a perfectly good Chinese name. I have to take a deep breath and explain that I'm trying to create a readership among Westerners.' Cha believes his novels' popularity in Southeast Asia owes much to their Chineseness but wonders with modesty how they will travel beyond the region.