Lin Shu
Encyclopedia
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
man of letters, most famous for his introducing Western literature to a whole generation of Chinese readers, despite his ignorance of any foreign language. He collaborated with others to translate eventually more than 170 titles, mostly novels, from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
or French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
into Literary Chinese.
Biography
Lin was born in FuzhouFuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
and died in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. In 1897 his wife died and urged by his friends, who wanted to distract him from his bereavement, Lin undertook the translation of Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
's La Dame aux Camélias
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
. Wang Shouchang (王壽昌) (1864–1926), who had studied in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, interpreted the story for his friend and Lin put what he heard into Chinese. The book (known as 巴黎茶花女遺事 in Chinese) was published in 1899 and was an immediate success. Lin went on to translate more.
Lin himself describes, in his translator's preface to Dicken
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London....
(known as 孝女耐兒傳 in Chinese), how he worked on his translations:
Lin's translations were much forgotten until the essay "Lin Shu's Translations" (林紓的翻譯) by Qian Zhongshu
Qian Zhongshu
Qian Zhongshu was a Chinese literary scholar and writer, known for his wit and erudition.He is best known for his satiric novel Fortress Besieged . His works of non-fiction are characterised by their large amount of quotations in both Chinese and Western languages...
appeared in 1963. Since then the interest in Lin's translations has been revived. In 1981, the Commercial Press (商務印書館), the original publisher of many of Lin's translations, reprinted ten of Lin's renditions (in simplified characters, with modern punctuations).
In his essay, Qian Zhongshu quoted Goethe's simile of translators as geschäftige Kuppler, and stated that Lin Shu served well as a matchmaker between Western literature and Chinese readers, as he himself (a most avid reader of western books) was indeed motivated by Lin's translations to learn foreign languages. Qian also pointed out that Lin Shu often made "improvements" to the original as well as abridgments. According to Qian, Lin Shu's career, which lasted almost 30 years, can be divided into two phases. In the first phase (1897–1913), Lin's renditions were mostly vigorous, despite all the mistranslations. After that, Lin's renditions were dull, serving only as a means to eke out a living.
The following is Lin's rendition of the famous opening of David Copperfield
David Copperfield (novel)
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...
:
The sinologist Arthur Waley
Arthur Waley
Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
held a high opinion of Lin's translations, suggesting they are not inferior to Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' originals:
During the New Cultural Movement, Lin Shu was much smeared and ridiculed as a defender of Literary Chinese. He didn't oppose the use of Vernacular Chinese
Vernacular Chinese
Written Vernacular Chinese refers to forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular language, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early twentieth century...
(indeed he wrote a number of poems in the vernacular language), but he could not agree on the total abolition of Literary Chinese as was proposed then.