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Literary Translation: The Pleasure Principle
Bonnie S. McDougall
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Abstract：Chinese readers of Chinese literature derive many kinds of pleasure from their reading: aesthetic, nostalgic or contemplative pleasures; catharsis or other forms of emotional release; the pleasures of stimulating and satisfying curiosity, or of having their beliefs challenged or confirmed; and so on.
Not all of these pleasures will be experienced by readers of the English translations, especially those related to the recognition of familiar environments, characters or means of expression. This gives literary translators the opportunity to introduce other ways of enhancing the reading pleasure of their audience.
Chinese to English literary translation (CELT) has brought enormous reading pleasure to large numbers of people. These readers are not necessarily committed to China or Chinese literature as a cause or profession: they are disinterested readers. Publishers today, such as the Foreign Languages Press, can significantly increase their publication figures and strengthen their impact by going beyond captive readers to reach this wider audience.
Guidelines that may lead to such a result can be summed up in the phrase: trust the reader. Readers of literary translations already belong to a limited class: they are risk-takers; they are curious and knowledgeable about other cultures; and they are skilled literary readers in their own language.
To gratify the natural expectations of such readers, CELT translators may adopt the following tactics (with apologies for the mixed metaphors):
work on the bones; let the flesh take care of itself
open the toy box as well as the tool box
ignore ready-made solutions; handcraft your own
avoid the snakes; climb the ladders
trust the consumer, not the producer
Above all, remember that few people are obliged to read translations; anyone who voluntarily reads them should be cherished and pampered by translators and their publishers alike.
Bonnie S. McDougall was born and educated in Australia. After three years as a lecturer in Oriental Studies at the University of Sydney, she spent one year at SOAS in London followed by four years at Harvard. She was employed as a full-time editor and translator at the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing from 1980 to 1983 and continued to do free-lance translations for them up until 2000. After two years teaching English and translation at the College of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, she moved to the University of Oslo in 1986 as Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Modern Chinese and thence to the University of Edinburgh in 1990 as Professor of Chinese. She is currently Research Professor in the Department of Translation and Acting Director of the Research Centre for Translation at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Professor Emeritus in Chinese at the University of Edinburgh. Her publications include translations of modern Chinese poetry, fiction, letters, essays and film, as well as books and articles about modern Chinese literature (for details see her home page at http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~b110656/).
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