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! It is my hope that my translation will be read by a general audience, which includes many who have little or no knowledge of Chinese culture, history, or
geography. Unlike previous translators, I do not feel the need to keep everything as is and I do not wish to burden readers with footnotes. For the most part, I do not plan on abridging the story or removing anything longer than a sentence. In order to achieve this goal, I looked at Legendary Siblings as a fantasy novel, a genre familiar to an English-speaking audience, instead of a wuxia novel. There are many sub genres of fantasy; I will use a broad definition of fantasy as explained by The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: “A fantasy text is a self-coherent narrative. When set in this world, it tells a story which is impossible in the world as we perceive it; when set in an otherworld, that otherworld will be impossible, though stories set there may be possible in its terms.” 29!
! Considerations for the translation of Legendary Siblings, and most likely for the majority of Gu Long’s other books, mainly boiled down to the setting and names of characters. Other wuxia novels would also need to tackle history, but Gu Long removed that matter himself—this novel is purely fiction. In this chapter I will discuss these two attributes as they pertain to Legendary Siblings along with some other complications, all of which needed to be taken into account when sorting out what I consider the main
! http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/fe.php?nm=fantasy
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factor for the overall success of this translation: how much “Chineseness” should be preserved.!
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Setting!
! Like all wuxia novels, Legendary Siblings takes place in—what feels like—
ancient China. But unlike other novels, Gu Long’s do not clearly announce the exact year or even dynasty during which the story takes place. For example, in the beginning of The Deer and the Cauldron, Minford provides readers with a list of “important dates in the historical background” and even suggests further reading for those interested in the actual historical backdrop of the book. This is impossible for Legendary Siblings.!
! Perhaps what most accurately reveals the date of this story is the rudimentary map Gu Long slowly paints for diligent readers. Spending his early childhood in Hong Kong and the remainder of his life in Taiwan, Gu Long never personally explored western China; his only access was through maps. And the map he reproduces in this story fits the modern province borders set in the mid-1950s by the newly established People’s Republic of China. But he most likely did not mean for his characters to be running around modern China. His descriptions of clothing and settings still paint a picture of China long ago.!
! As Gu Long merely uses “ancient China” as a backdrop for his story, I do not believe it is necessary to leave every reference to cities and borders intact; instead I believe landmarks should be the main instrument in translating this map for foreign
play a role in the plot, I feel adding them in a map for this story would be an
unnecessary strain on the audience. Unfortunately Tai’s translation of The Eleventh Son does not include a map, leaving readers up to their own devices when place names, actual or imaginary, are mentioned. Much like other fantasies, such as The Lord of the Rings and the more recent A Song of Ice and Fire, which include maps, I would like to present one where borders are mostly defined by rivers and mountain ranges. While not eradicating China completely, this strategy will hopefully reduce the overt “Chineseness”
of the book in favor of a more fantastical ancient land.!
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Proper Names!
! The other factor determining the level of foreignness maintained in the translation is the translation of personal names. Being able to visualize the characters of a novel is one mark of its success, and I believe the characters’ names are a major part of this process. For the most part, characters’ names—not including nicknames—have been left as their pinyin transliterations. !
! As others have pointed out before me, the romanization of Chinese names can be confusing and difficult to remember, especially with so many homophones, and even more so if characters are siblings. 30 It is no surprise that people who do not speak Chinese have a hard time remembering Chinese names. In a brief pilot study I conducted on the short-term memory of English and Chinese names written in both
! Of course siblings would share the same surname, but it is also common to share the first character in
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their given names. For example, where each letter stands for a Chinese character in a person’s name, the first child of the A family could be named ABC, the next child ABD, the next ABE, and so on, leaving read-ers with almost identical names in English romanization.
English and Chinese, surprisingly even native Chinese speakers had more difficulty with Chinese names than their English counterparts as they would appear in novels.!
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! What this experiment sought to understand is how translation may affect the ability to recall personal names in novels. I devised two tasks, mirrored in both English and Chinese. The first task was simply a list of ten names. Subjects were given one minute to review the list and then recall as many as possible in no particular order. In the second task, subjects were given two paragraphs, four to five sentences each, relating a short scene involving different characters. After reading the story for one minute, they were asked to freely recall the story including character names. These tasks focused particularly on personal names translated between English and Chinese. !
! The tasks were separated by language, each with three subject groups. Test subjects who completed the two tasks in Chinese included native Chinese speakers with little English ability (abbreviated in the graphs below as C), native Chinese
speakers who are proficient in English (C/E), and native English speakers proficient in Chinese (E/C). Subjects for the English tasks included native speakers with little Chinese ability (E), native speakers proficient in Chinese (E/C), and native Chinese speakers proficient in English (C/E). Below is a table detailing the members of each group. !
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! The result data recorded in the tables below solely reflect names recalled in full.
In the case of Chinese names in Chinese, subjects were more likely to recall only parts of names (only the surname, only the given name, etc.) or recall the order of the
syllables incorrectly (e.g. Fan Minshu 范敏淑 for Fan Shumin 范淑敏). Surprisingly, this did not occur for Chinese names transliterated into English. In the case of English
names transcribed into Chinese, subjects were more likely to “mispronounce” one of the syllables (e.g. Ke’erte 柯爾特 for Ke’erdun 柯爾頓). For English names in English,
subjects would sometimes recall a similar name rather than the one provided (e.g.
Natalie for Natalya). These were all considered unsuccessful recall and are not reflected in the results.!
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Chinese Tasks English Tasks
C C/E E/C E E/C C/E
Male:Female 3:4 3:6 4:1 Male:Female 6:1 5:2 3:4
Average age (years)
26 25.44 38.4 Average age (years)
27.14 37.14 27.29 Average length of
study of second language (in years)
3 12.5 13.2 Average length of study of second language (in years)
0.73 12.57 16.14
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! The data suggests that in all circumstances, English names are easier to remember than Chinese names as they appear mostly commonly in novels (surname and given name combinations in Chinese and only given name in English). There were still many issues not taken into account in this experiment and it deserves further research. For the translation of novels between Chinese and English, these initial findings may advocate parting from writing Chinese names in pinyin.!
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! Changing the Chinese names to anything other than pinyin could very well paint a different picture of the characters in the novel. A name familiar to a foreign audience—
for example “Jeffery”—might make characters easier to imagine and remember, but may end up raising the question, “Why would someone in ancient China be named Jeffery?”
While this would make proper names easier to remember, I believe there is too much conflict with the rest of the novel to be a plausible solution.!
! Minford left the majority of names in The Deer and the Cauldron in pinyin (of course with the exception of Russian names which are written in English) and only occasionally created new names for certain characters; for example Shuang’er 雙兒 is given the name Doublet, Wei Tongchui 韋銅錘 is Mallet, and Lanxiang 蘭香 is Orchid Scent. Tai adopted the same strategy of leaving all names in pinyin with the exception of two characters: Xiao Gongzi 小公子, Little Mister, and Tian Gongzi 天公子, Count
Carefree. Mok, on the other hand, chose to literally translate the meaning of the
Chinese names, resulting in names such as Valour Ruan, Radiant Zhou, Sign Tian, and Century Tao. Providing a name that is partly in English may help with remembering characters, but I believe this strategy is still unsuccessful as these are still not commonly recognized as names. !
! As Legendary Siblings more closely resembles a fantasy than a historical romance, I think following the example of existing fantasy novels is a viable answer.
Again using The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire as examples, their
instead of choosing from existing English or foreign names. In my case, I have also tried to create new names when I deemed the pinyin too difficult to pronounce.!
! Another problem with names particular to Legendary Siblings is the band of thieves “the Twelve Zodiac” (十二星相). The group is comprised of members who
represent each of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. As the Chinese Zodiac is not unfamiliar in the West, I believe that maintaining this iconic and integral part of the novel intact is necessary; however, the convention behind the names of these villains is difficult to portray.!
! The names and forms of address for these characters are shown in the table below, with the exception of the dragon, who does not appear in any of the five books of the Legendary Siblings series.!
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Animal of the Zodiac
Name in the Original Chinese
Literal Meaning My translation
Rat ⿏鼠 wei wu ya 魏無牙 toothless Wei Murin the Rat
Ox ⽜牛 huang niu 黃牛 yellow ox Bovin the Ox
Tiger ⻁虎 bai yang 白山君 king of the white mountains
Tigris the Tiger
Rabbit 兔 hu yaoshi 胡藥師 pharmacist Hu Lepo the Rabbit
Dragon ⻯⿓龍 N/A N/A N/A
Snake 蛇 bishe shenjun 碧蛇
神君
green snake sir Ophid the Snake
Horse ⾺馬 ma yi yun 馬亦雲 horse [runs] like the clouds
Equina the Horse
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For the most part it is impractical to translate these names literally, leaving them in pinyin will lose all meaning to a foreign audience, and I feel simply naming these characters after the animals they represent will lose some of the imagery behind the Chinese names. For these I have referenced the genus or subfamily of the animal’s scientific classification to pick names derived from their Latin roots. This was my attempt at creating something that could pose as a name, have a meaning behind it relating to these animals, and yet not be too overt in that meaning.!
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General Problems!
! Aside from deciding how I wanted to handle names and the setting for the entire novel (and perhaps a future setting for all wuxia novels in English) to strike a balance
Goat ⽺羊 bai yang 白羊 white goat Capra the Goat
Monkey 猴 xianguo shenjun 獻
果神君
sir who offers fruit Guenon the Monkey Rooster 雞 sichen ke 司晨客 one who controls
the morning
Gallus the Rooster
Dog 狗 yingke jun 迎客君 sir who greets
guests
Canid the Dog
Pig 豬 heimian jun 黑面君 black face sir Sus the Pig
Animal of the Zodiac
Name in the Original Chinese
Literal Meaning My translation
! Some forms of address, such as directly calling someone unrelated by blood
“brother,” “sister,” “aunt,” “uncle,” etc, are perhaps not as common in English as in Chinese, but, I believe, are acceptable. 31 However Chinese has a number of pronouns English lacks. Some examples include: !
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1. qianbei 前輩: literally “earlier generation;” can be used in direct-address of someone older or in self-address when talking to someone younger!
2. houbei 後輩: “latter generation;” can be used in direct-address of someone younger or in self-address when talking to someone older!
3. pindao 貧道: “poor Taoist;” a humble form of self-address used by Taoist monks!
4. xiaoren 小人: “small person;” used to refer humbly to oneself as a person of a lower social status !
5. mou 某: “certain;” can be used in combination with other characters such as 某人 or 某家 (literally meaning “a certain person”) to refer to someone who has been
mentioned; could be a first, second, or third person pronoun!
6. zaixia 在下: “under;” a humble form of “I”!
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! Used in conversation, they basically mean nothing more than “I” or “you” (in most cases “I”), but they have different nuances, such as expressing status, which English cannot as easily display. There I merely simplified them to common English pronouns.
! The terms “brother” and “sister” are also used in religious orders which may cause undesired connota
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-tions.
Similar to Mok, 32 I also fell into repeating “master” for multiple titles, such as gongzhu 宮 主 (the owner of a palace) and daxia 大俠 (a skilled swordsman or warrior).!
!
! Wordplay in Chinese was also sometimes difficult to match in English. In Gu Long’s The Eleventh Son, a woman throws needles into the eyes of some men who are watching her bathe. She then asks them, “ 看女人洗澡，會長『針眼』的。這句話你們 難道沒聽見過？” 33 “Have you ever heard the saying that whoever peeps at bathing women will get needle-eyes?” (Tai 6). The Chinese is saying is that peeping Toms will get styes, the wordplay being the word for “stye” in Chinese, zhenyan 針眼, zhen 針 meaning needle and yan 眼 meaning eye. However Tai’s translation as “needle-eyes”
fails to convey the wordplay and leaves the reader curious as to what exactly a needle-eye might be.!
! In each case I encountered in my translation, I attempted to mirror the effect in the original.!
一把抱住小魚兒，喘著氣道：「阿拉，真主，感謝你……他還在這裡。」!
小魚兒道：「阿拉？是什麼事將你又『拉』來了？」 (219)
! Lai lists seven different titles in Chinese which Mok translated all as “master.” 1. “Grand Master” for
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zhangmen 掌門 (head of a martial arts school) 2. “Great Master” for dashi 大師 (respectful term of ad-dress for a Buddhist monk) 3. “kind master” for enshi 恩師 (teacher, so called by his or her disciples) 4.
“master” for zhuangzhu 莊主 (lord of an estate) 5. “master” for zhaizhu 寨主 (lord of a robbers’ den) 6.
She flung her arms around Minnow and gasped, “Allah, thank you. He’s still here.”!
“Allah? What’s so alarming to bring you back here?” chuckled Minnow.!
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! Here Minnow uses the second syllable in “Allah,” transliterated with the character la 拉 “to pull,” to jokingly ask what brought—or pulled—a girl who had just left the scene
back so soon. I tried to use the same unfamiliar word 34 in a similar sense with the hope of creating a not-so-successful pun.!
! Another important and troublesome play on words also involves one of the main character’s names. When Tie Xinlan 鐵心蘭 is introduced, she is disguised as a boy who goes by the name Tie Xinnan 鐵心男.!
! 小魚兒笑道：「這樣才乖，對了，你得先告訴我，叫什麼名字？」!
白衣少年道：「鐵……鐵心男！」!
小魚兒 眼笑道：「蘭花的『蘭』？」!
白衣少年大聲道：「自然是男兒的『男』。」!
小魚兒大笑道：「鐵心的男兒，好，好名字，男兒的心，本該像鐵一樣硬，不想你模樣雖 生得有些像女孩子，名字卻取得似乎剛強。」 (218).
! “That’s a good boy,” Minnow laughed. “Oh, right, you haven’t told me your name.”!
! “T’ye. Cinran T’ye!”!
! Minnow blinked and laughed. “Doesn’t Cinlan mean orchid in the common tongue?”!
! “It’s Cinran and it means masculine!”!
! “That’s a good name; boy’s should be masculine with a heart hard as iron. I wouldn’t have guessed someone like you who looks a bit like a girl would have such a tough name.”!
!
! She changed her name from tie 鐵 “iron” xin 心 “heart” lan 蘭 “orchid” to tie 鐵
“iron” xin 心 “heart” nan 男 “boy.” The slight alteration changes it from a feminine name
! Gu Long had just explained that Minnow did not know “Allah” was the Muslim word for God.
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to a masculine one, and Minnow explains to the readers what the name means.
Obviously the pinyin name carries no meaning for an audience who does not speak Chinese, making the translation for this brief section significantly more complex. Aside from changing the pinyin to a more stylized fantasy name and the consonant switch (from lan to nan in the original Chinese to lan to ran in my translation), I circumvent having to explain the meaning of the words from their original Chinese meaning by using a fantastical mystery language (presumably that the audience does not know is Chinese). Similar to other fantasy novels, there may be multiple languages among differing groups of people, but they all speak the same language.!
! I also made stylistic changes in revision of my translation, most notably in the dialogue. I attempted to retain all the content, but I rearranged much of the syntax to make it sound more natural to English-speaking ears. The majority of dialogue also begins with the name of the speaker and a mode of transmittance (saying, yelling, laughing, etc.). I also shifted these to the middle or end of the sentence, or deleted the name of the speaker entirely.!
!
Conclusion!
As Shuang Shen in Translating Jin Yong: The Context, the Translator, and the Texts points out:!
...it is implied by some responses to the English version of Jin Yong's novel that those who know enough Chinese to read Jin Yong's novels will not touch their English versions, and readers equipped with bilingual capability will only read the Chinese originals for pleasure and study the English translations for the sake of
In my opinion, Shen’s sentiment is support for translating the works of an author like Gu Long, removing heavy cultural particularities, and possibly even for fantasizing the setting in wuxia novels. It is more unlikely that a culturally-specific novel will be read in leisure outside of that culture.!
! Overall I had to strike a balance between certain aspects within the book to portray a more or less Chinese atmosphere. I would like to state that I do not wish to remove everything that makes my translation of Legendary Siblings Chinese. I would
! Overall I had to strike a balance between certain aspects within the book to portray a more or less Chinese atmosphere. I would like to state that I do not wish to remove everything that makes my translation of Legendary Siblings Chinese. I would