Xu Yuanchong (Chinese: 許淵冲), born in Jiangxi, China in 1921, is a translator of Chinese ancient poets[1] into English and French.[2] Xu took foreign language studies at Tsinghua University after he studied abroad. And after that, he became a professor in English and French.
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His translation style is characterized by favouring domesticating translation.[3] Xu introduced the Creation for Loss[4] and the three beauties-concept to translation theory: the idea that a translation should be as beatiful as the original in three ways:[5][6]
According to Gao, "he advocates that the versions of poems should combine visual and aural beauties together, and they should reproduce the fusion of pictorial composition and musical arrangement."[7]
In April 18, 1921, Xu Yuanchong was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. His mother, who was well educated and good at painting, had great impact on Xu in his pursue of beauty and aesthetic feeling. His uncle Xiong Shiyi[8] is a translator, who translated the play "Wang Baochuan" into English, which put on in the UK and caused a hit, and then Xiong was invited by the British dramatist George Bernard Shaw. Xiong's achievement made Xu have a strong interest in learning English. When he studied in the best local school Provincial Nanchang II, his English had been outstanding. And in 1938 with excellent grades, Xu was admitted to the National Southwest Associated University, Department of Foreign Languages. In 1939, as a freshman, he translated Lin Huiyin's poem "Do not throw away" into English, which was published in the "Literary Translation News": Xu's first translation.
Xu served for the U.S. Air Force as a translator. In 1948, he went to study in the University of Paris, which made him be fluent in French and had accesss to in-depth study of French literature. During that time, a group of students studying in France traveled to Rome,and met by the Pope. As Xu was the only one who could speak Italian,he was chosen to give speech on behalf of students, which also show his remarkable ability in the language. In Paris, Xu Yuanchong participated in a student organizations "Friday Society", where he fervently learned Marxism, looked for the path of saving the country, and recognized that the real way to serve the motherland. In 1951, he returned China, with mathematician Wu Wenjun and artist Wu Guanzhong. Then he was assigned to teach at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Department of French.
His 30 Poetries were selected as teaching materials by foreign universities. After reading his English translation "Selected Poems of Li Bai" (1987), Qian Zhongshu said: If you live in the same age with Li Bai, you'll become good friends. The British Press [9], "Romance of The Western Bower", which is thought as great as "Romeo and Juliet" in terms of artistic and attractiveness. British publishing company Penguin has published Xu Yuanchong's "300 China's immortal poems" (1994), which is launched in Britain, USA, Canada, Australia and other countries. That's the first time that the publishing company publishes a Chinese translation. Apart from translating the classical Chinese poetry into foreign languages, Xu Yuanchong also translated many of the British and French classics into Chinese. In his seventies, he was still involved in translating Proust's masterpiece, "Remembrance of Things Past" (1990) and translated Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" (1992), Stendhal's "Red" (1993). At the age of 78 years old, Xu also published a voluminous long masterpiece, the translation of Romain Rolland's "John Kristof" (1999). Xu was awarded the "Lifetime achievements in translation" from the Translators Association of China (TAC) in 2010.[10]
Television show about Xu, CCTV-10 (in Chinese)