195 | Yan Jiyu: I am the translator of the Chinese version of "The Devil's Psalm"
Text/Yan Jiyu (Master of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, has long been engaged in interdisciplinary translation and international news reporting and commentary work, and is currently the executive deputy editor-in-chief of "Wind Media".) (Original post published on August 21, 2022)
In the middle of the night on August 12, 2022, the Indian-born British and American novelist Salman. Salman Rushdie was assassinated in New York State. According to Reuters, the suspect in the attack was Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey, a second-generation Lebanese immigrant who is a Shiite Muslim; Li Nan's parents' hometown, which is also the home of the radical/terrorist organization Hezbollah, may have been radicalized there.
When news of Rushdie’s assassination broke, I was busy wrapping up a collective translation, a collection of speeches by an international figure. At this point, it has been 20 years since I translated Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.
The year after 9/11, I translated The Devil's Psalm
I remember one fine afternoon in the spring of 2002, when my then-wife and I went shopping in town. Suddenly, I got a call from a publisher asking if I would like to translate a magical realism novel, very classic, but also very controversial and very taboo.
When I heard the author's name and the title of the book, I was startled, and a fierce tug-of-war began immediately in my heart.
Rushdie's classic book, The Devil's Psalm, was published in September 1988. In the book, two characters allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the angel Gibreel (Gabriel), and contain "Devil temptation". The plot of the Prophet and the theme of questioning the "oracle" of the Koran are considered blasphemous by many Muslims and have sparked waves of demonstrations and riots. On February 16, 1989, Rushdie was even ordered to kill by the then supreme leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini.
At that time, I, as a translator, had already published two translations: Edward W. Said's Shaded Islam and Gordon G. Chang's China Is About to Collapse; the former is still Classic, the latter seems like a prophecy that will never be fulfilled. I have rough translation experience, and I have received some affirmations, but I have never dealt with novels, which is a scruple.
The second scruple is that I have never been a "professional translator". At that time, not only did I have another full-time job, but I also had many candles burning: during the day I was a lecturer in Chinese at a technical college in Taipei and the teaching team leader of the General Education Center; at night, I was a translator at the International News Center of China Times. So, where is the time?
In addition, from 1991 to 1993, the Italian translator, Japanese translator, Turkish publisher, and Norwegian publisher were attacked successively, and the Japanese translator Igarashi Igarashi was killed. The unsolved case remains unsolved. At the time, I was married, my parents were still alive, and I had three children. It seemed unfit to be a "martyr" to witness freedom of speech, expression, and the press. This was the third scruple.
Thinking of this, it seems like it's time to back off. However, for a person who loves translation work, Rushdie's "The Devil's Psalm" is a temptation of high magic.
At the time, less than a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the global war on terror, the "clash of civilizations" advocated by the conservative political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, whom Said had harshly criticized Jumping to the top of the school and working in international journalism made me sit in the first row of the auditorium in this drastic change of the century. At this moment, the translation of the Devil's Psalm is very meaningful.
So, I picked up this novel and plunged into a few worlds I was not very familiar with, but I was very interested in: the history and legends of the beginning of Islam, the prophets, angels and devils in the Koran, Society, History and Culture of the South Asian Subcontinent (India, Pakistan) ….
The translation process is not easy. The background of this book is vast, and there is too much knowledge to make up for it. The books and online materials that can be found in a short period of time are limited, but the publisher must control the schedule. I can only fight and walk, learn now and sell now. I have benefited a lot from the annotations by Professor Paul Brians of Washington State University and the index of Professor Joel Kuortti of the University of Turku in Finland.
After a few months of hard work, the translation was released and I entered the publishing process. I also had to face a key question: under what name should I publish it?
Since Rushdie was ordered to kill him, he has been under threat to his personal safety for a long time, and received round-the-clock protection from the British police. It was not until after 1998 that the news of the killing order died down and he slowly resumed public activities. Thinking about the unfortunate events that happened in Japan and other places before, the publisher and I finally decided to publish it as "anonymous". Although the author's remuneration is received according to, after all, can not help but regret.
On October 16, 2002, the Chinese version of "The Devil's Psalm" was launched in Taiwan. Interestingly, the next day, a central-level political figure came forward to help "hit the book" ─ Kuomintang legislators He Zhihui, Jiang Qiwen, and Guo Tiancai held a press conference with great fanfare and asked the Executive Yuan Information Bureau to list this book as a "banned book" to prevent it. Taiwan was attacked by terrorists in retaliation. Although well-intentioned, in fact, ghosts are fascinated.
Rushdie once said: "Its [The Devil's Psalm] is not really about Islam, but immigration, metamorphosis, self-splitting, love, death, London and Mumbai (where Rushdie was born)."
"The Devil's Psalm" has a huge structure, and the characters, plot, time and space, and themes are quite complex. However, many Muslims (I am afraid most of them have not actually read this book) are still obsessed with certain characters and plots in the book. Violence, on the one hand, tramples on the universal values of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press, and on the other hand harms the international image of Islam again, which is truly regrettable.
[This article is not finished, see "Walk the World" for the full text: Yan Jiyu: I am the translator of the Chinese version of "The Devil's Psalm" ]
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