"I'd thought that what I'd like to do is to a translation where I don't have to think about academic considerations. Scholarly considerations. I'll just think about how to present – this is Penguins, after all – how to present this book in such a way that I do the whole of it but at the same time it's enjoyable for the English reader, if possible, and they can get some of the pleasure out of it that I got myself."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Translators from EnglandPeople from LondonUniversity of Oxford facultyUniversity of Oxford alumniSinologists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 148
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hawkes_(sinologist)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
David Hawkes (sinologist)
David Hawkes (6 July 1923 – 31 July 2009) was a British sinologist and translator.
11 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by David Hawkes (sinologist) →
Related Quotes
"A translator has divided loyalties. He has a duty to his author, a duty to his reader and a duty to the text. The thr…"
"We must make [the Honour School of Chinese] sufficiently broad and humane to satisfy those whose interests are not na…"
"Our task is not the training of interpreters, nor the indulgence of exotic tastes, nor the revelation of some arcane …"
"The idea that the worldling's 'reality' is illusion and that life itself is a dream from which we shall eventually aw…"
"Many of the symbols, word-plays and secret patterns with which the novel abounds seem to be used out of sheer ebullie…"
"My one abiding principle has been to translate everything – even puns. For although this is...an 'unfinished' novel, …"
"It seems to me ridiculous to try to believe that Gao E sat down and wrote the last 40 chapters [of Dream of the Red C…"
"Hawkes brought to bear such a wide range of rhetorical skills, such penetrating insight into character, such finely h…"
"You take well-warranted and judicious liberties to make things clear to your readers, & this is excellent, but not so…"
"Hawkes's English version [of the Hong lou meng] is not a perfect translation, to be sure, but in terms of accuracy, o…"