Seven years and a million Chinese characters later, novelist and essayist Chung Wen-yin was finally able to complete her “Island Trilogy” last year. The first novel in the series, Decayed Lust, was selected by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature to receive a grant for translation of the book into English. The translation, published by Titan Publishing Co, is currently available at foreign-language bookstores throughout Taiwan.
Decayed Lust, consisting of around 300,000 characters, was translated by C.J. Anderson-Wu, who was previously nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize for one of her translations. She and her husband Steven M. Anderson, an English literature expert, have been professionally devoted to translating outstanding Taiwanese novels for quite a while. They are especially fond of Chung’s novels, and during the translation process they were able to preserve the localized sense of being marginalized that can be found in the original Chinese version. Anderson-Wu says that as a translator, “I have an even more profound respect for Chung’s prolific body of work. Doing this translation was like taking a voyage on the author’s ship, and after riding many unexpected stormy waves and returning to land, I am giddy and feel quite blessed to have had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The book also includes an English introduction by Chen Ching-chi, a professor in National Kaohsiung Normal University’s Department of English. She brings up the example of James Joyce’s Dubliners to praise Chung for her ability to depict the bizarrely captivating ambience of Taipei. The Chinese version of the book is charming, tantalizing and extravagant, while a quiet seduction permeates the pithy English edition.
Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者王俊忠
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat
歷經七年百萬字鋪陳,去年作家鍾文音完成了「島嶼三部曲」,今年首部曲《豔歌行》獲選台灣文學館中書外譯補助,英文版《Decayed Lust》已經完成,外文書店都可以看到。
《豔歌行》三十萬字由入圍亞洲曼氏文學獎的譯者吳介禎完成,她與研究英文文學的夫婿Steven M. Anderson長期以翻譯台灣優秀小說為職志,尤其對鍾文音的小說作品十分心儀,翻譯過程中,保有了鍾文音中文小說「在地化」的邊緣特性。吳介禎表示,作為一個譯者,「這本書的翻譯工作就像乘著作者的船出海,結果遇到意想不到風浪,回到岸上後,暈眩中慶幸有此難得且浩大的經驗,對鍾文音龐大的寫作世界也更是敬畏!」
Photo courtesy of Titan Publishing Co
照片由大田文化出版社提供
《Decayed Lust》也收錄高師大英文系教授陳靖奇的英文專文導讀推薦,他以喬哀斯的《都柏林人》來讚譽鍾文音筆下之台北奇情魅惑風月,中文版文采迷人豔麗靡頹,英文版簡潔中滲透著誘惑迷人的風情。
(自由時報記者趙靜瑜)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110