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In São Paulo, it was possible to be a Sunday anthropologist(W, 109).To Lévi-Strauss: Is Sunday ethnography to be consideredless significant than during the six remainingweekdays? Aren’t field notes field notes per se, notwithstandingthe day of the week?John Russell: Sunday anthropologizing is a bittongue in cheek. If the term is legitimate, he might aswell use the British spelling, whereby zing becomes sing.Wenn schon, Denn schon (might as well), as the Germansaying goes.Weightmans: Their rendition is faithful to the originalFrench.Lévi-Strauss, GeologistJ’avais traversé un continent. Mais le terme, toutproche de mon voyage, m’était d’abord rendu sensiblepar cette remontée du fond des temps (LS, 430).I had crossed a whole continent. But the now-imminentend of my travels was first made manifest inthis return-journey from the depths of time (R, 369).BibliographyLévi-Strauss, Claude. Tristes Tropiques. Paris, LibrairiePlon, 1955.Lévi-Strauss, Claude. A World on the Wane. Translatedfrom the French by John Russell. Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.London 1962.Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Tristes Tropiques. Translated fromthe French by John and Doreen Weightman, New York,Penguin Books, Ltd: 1974.Footnotes1Susanne Stark. “Behind Inverted Commas”:Translation and Anglo-German Cultural Relations inthe Nineteenth Century. Multilingual Matters Ltd.,Cleveland, England, 1999:48.2George Steiner, Errata. An Examined Life. YaleUniversity Press, 1998: 111.I had crossed a continent. But the rapidly approachingend of my journey was being brought home tome in the first place by this ascent through layers oftime (W, 372).Eh voilà! The Weightmans, translators, have outdoneauthor Lévi-Strauss, whose keen interest in geology predatedhis vocation in anthropology. The Weightmansused “layers,” a crucial term in geology, whereas French“fond” means depth.P.S. For some reason, John Russell omitted fourchapters in his translation, while the Weightmans translatedthe unabridged French original.The Weightmans emerge as poetic translators virtuallyin the author’s shoes, while preserving their Anglo linguisticheritage. John Russell emerges as just anothertranslator, lackluster, at times bound by diehard views.J’y suis, j’y reste. Here I am, and here I stay.Translation Review 29
RENDITIONS: 30 YEARS OF BRINGING CHINESE LITERATURE TOENGLISH READERSBy Audrey HeijnsRenditions, published by the Research Centre ofTranslation at the Chinese University of Hong Kongand commonly recognized as the leading journal ofChinese literature in English translation, celebrates its30th anniversary in 2003. Its sixty issues cover morethan 2000 years of Chinese literature, from classicalworks of poetry, prose, and fiction to their contemporarycounterparts, as well as articles on art, Chinese studies,and translation studies.In the commemorative booklet The RenditionsExperience 1973-2003 (June 2003), editor Eva Hungsays: “The long view tells us that to publish a journal iseasy — particularly in these days of desktop publishing— but to sustain one of recognized quality requires a lotmore than technology and funding. It calls for a dedicatedstaff as well as the long-term support of translators,writers, readers, teachers, well-wishers and critics.” Theessays in this booklet are written by authors, scholars,translators, and readers of Renditions, who express indifferent ways their relationship with the journal andwhat they perceive to be its value and contribution. Theyand many others have been part of the success ofRenditions over the past thirty years. To understand thebackground of this journal, we have to go back to theearly 1970s.The Hong Kong of the 1970s witnessed an emergingcultural consciousness that demanded recognition forthe population’s Chinese roots. Hitherto, English was theonly official language in Hong Kong. It was not until1973 that the Chinese language was finally given an officialstatus comparable to English. It is therefore understandablethat many in Hong Kong felt the need tostrengthen the position of Chinese language and culture.At the same time, Chinese people outside of the People’sRepublic of China were concerned about the destructionof Chinese culture resulting from the Cultural Revolution(1966–1976). Many writers in Mainland China were persecutedfor what they wrote, accused of being “antirevolutionary”and sent away to live in harsh circumstancesin the countryside. Because hardly any literary writingwas published during this period and classical literaturewas part of the “four olds” that had to be swept away,one could say that there was a literary void.Hence, in bicultural and bilingual Hong Kong, ahaven from the frenzy of the Chinese mainland, a keensense of mission developed: on the one hand, to preserveChina’s cultural heritage, and on the other, to introduce itto the world. In this climate, Renditions was created.George Kao, who joined the newly establishedTranslation Centre of the Chinese University of HongKong in 1972, came up with the idea to publish a periodicaldevoted to English translations of Chinese literarywritings. Kao and Stephen Soong, the person behind thefounding of the Centre, commenced editorial work for30 Translation Review
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