翻译家苏菲：用英语教育推动中国诗歌国际化 -《文化月刊》刊发, 作者大藏

《翻译家苏菲：用英语教育推动中国诗歌国际化》

（《文化月刊》2016年6月号上半月刊）

作者：大藏

“Translator Sophy Chen: To Promote Chinese Poetry Internationalization By English Education”

Published by Chinese “Cultural Monthly”
Written by Chinese Poet Dazang

 

摘要：文化部主管刊物、国家级文化类核心期刊——《文化月刊》2016年6月号上半月刊，刊发了诗人大藏的长篇文章《翻译家苏菲：用英语教育推动中国诗歌国际化》。文章首先以一个文化观察者的角度综述了中国诗歌翻译家苏菲（Sophy Chen）的诗歌翻译、国际诗歌传播的阶段性历程，同时重点转引与阐明了苏菲关于中国诗歌翻译与诗歌传播的理念与思路，回顾了苏菲从热爱外语到双语诗人、双语诗歌翻译家的个人成长历程；结合目前中国诗歌集对外翻译和在国际上出版与流通的现状，苏菲从翻译家个人服务于中国诗歌与文艺作品的国际翻译与推广的角度，提出以英语教育产业化来推动中国诗歌国际化的的可行性构想宏图。

大藏的文章，主要从以下五个方面来叙写苏菲的传奇历程与翻译梦想：
一、中国诗歌翻译界飙出的一匹“黑马”
二、诗歌翻译与推广传播一体化的最初尝试
三、中国诗歌“走出去”不能只依赖外国翻译家
四、从热爱外语到双语诗人、双语诗歌翻译家
五、英语教育产业化助推中国诗歌国际化

关键词：苏菲、翻译家、中国诗歌、诗歌翻译、传播推广、国际化、英语教育、产业化

 

 

（苏菲在讲雅思托福英语公开课 Sophy Chen on Open Class of IELTS & TOEFL )

 

 

翻译家苏菲：用英语教育推动中国诗歌国际化

作者：大藏

Translator Sophy Chen: To Promote Chinese Poetry Internationalization by English Education

By Chinese Poet Dazang

 

国内文学界“走出去”的呼声不断，越来越多的中国诗人，已渐渐不满足于出版中文版诗集、在汉语圈内的诗歌交流，他们想要成为国际性诗人，希望能在国外出版自己的诗集，有机会与国外诗人们进行交流。自然，这些汉语诗人诗歌作品的翻译，就成为一个迫切而重要的课题。目前，国内汉语诗歌的翻译工作方兴未艾，而专业从事这个行业的国内翻译家却寥若晨星。——英汉双语诗人苏菲，就是中国诗歌翻译界的一朵“奇葩”。

苏菲：中国诗歌翻译界飙出的一匹“黑马”

中国诗坛，很多女诗人都曾引起人们的高度关注，比如80年代的舒婷，去年飙红的余秀华等。但她们都是用汉语写作，极少听说有中国人用英语写诗且专门从事汉译英诗歌翻译的。女诗人苏菲，就是这样一位与众不同的诗人兼翻译家。

2013年5月，著名诗人东荡子获得广东诗人黄礼孩设立的“诗歌与人·诗人奖”，苏菲对该次颁奖特别印制的册子前言、颁奖词、授奖词等的精准翻译，首先引起了广东诗人、诗评家的关注。苏菲首次引起媒体关注，是在2013年底应邀出席的“独山传奇”首届贵州诗歌节，当时，《贵州民族报》（《民族文学》周刊）高端访谈栏目，以《苏菲：“中国诗歌的对外翻译严重滞后”》为标题整版报道了苏菲的诗歌创作与翻译。2014年苏菲应邀出席“春山凤鸣”广州第五届女诗人朗诵会，她以标准流利的BBC英语和婉转优美的英文朗诵震惊全场，展示了英语诗歌与英语朗诵不同于汉语诗歌的瑰丽色彩，当时的英文诗歌朗诵在网络迅速流传，其中单单两个在酷6网上传的朗诵视频播放量合计就高达60多万次（据百度视频统计）。2014年8月，广东《信息时报》读书栏目，以《苏菲：从朗诵进入诗歌天地》整版篇幅采访了苏菲，大陆及海外超过150家媒体，包括中国社科院网、中国新闻网、新浪网、凤凰新闻网、台湾新闻网等转载。2014年10月，苏菲应邀出席第二届两岸西方翻译理论再思/批判暨“翻译中国”学术研讨会、全国翻译哲学暨首届翻译与诗学研讨会、首届中国（宝安）国际诗歌论坛暨名家诗歌讲座，以及2015年北岛主持的“香港国际诗歌之夜”等，在国内翻译学术界和国际诗歌论坛斩露头角。2015年12月，苏菲受邀担任首届“DCC杯”全球华人诗歌大奖赛评委并参加系列活动，并通过她创办的“苏菲诗歌&翻译网”传播平台，第一时间向国内外发布了大奖赛的颁奖实况，各地华语文化媒体纷至沓来，该新闻页面当天的浏览量就高达2000余次。

（苏菲与北岛合影 Sophy Chen & Poet Beidao ）

（"DCC杯"全球华文诗歌大奖赛评委合影
The Judges of"DCC Cup"Global Chinese Poetry Contest ）

      出生于秦岭南麓、毕业于西安外国语大学英文学院的苏菲，现在是“苏菲诗歌&翻译网”主编、中国翻译协会会员、国际诗歌翻译研究中心研究员，同时是目前全球唯一一份以多种语言对照出版的国际性诗刊——混语版《世界诗人》季刊的客座总编。苏菲在从事高校英语教学之余，一边为该杂志定期翻译提供英汉或汉英翻译诗稿，一边专注于翻译有意在海外出版的华语诗人诗集。目前，苏菲已经把国内六位诗人的汉语诗歌集翻译成英语，汉英对照出版，为中国和世界100多位知名诗人翻译过代表性诗歌作品，并参与汉英读本《中国新诗300首（1917—2012）》作品的英译及全书英文校对，负责审译纯英文版《世界诗歌年鉴2013》、《世界诗歌年鉴2014》等。

诗歌翻译与推广传播一体化的最初尝试

莫言获得诺贝尔文学奖，为国人打开了一扇世界的窗户。但长期以来，由于中外语言沟通的障碍，中国官方的文坛诗界还没有建立起有力的国际交流机制和有效的国际传播渠道，民间的国际翻译更如零星雨点。

苏菲深切地感受到翻译必须和传播相结合，也深切理解数以百万计的中国作家与诗人在对外推广和传播方面的困惑和焦灼。为了致力于中国优秀诗歌的翻译与国际化推广，同时致力于国际优秀诗歌的翻译与传播交流，苏菲创办了中国首家英汉对照个人诗歌翻译网——“苏菲诗歌&翻译网”（http://www.sophypoetry.com），2014年10月汉语版首先上线，2016年3月网站经改版建立了英文版、英汉对照版，名副其实成为中国首家由翻译家个人主办的国际诗歌翻译网。目前网站在谷歌的搜索抓取量达上万条，百度的搜索几千条，最高日访问量达到3000余次，单篇文章累计阅览量最高达近5000次。网站已推出以梅丹理、张智中、张智等为代表的中外著名翻译家和以杨克、伊沙、潇潇为代表的中国著名诗人。苏菲花了大量时间进行网站内容编辑，陆续将翻译的国内外知名诗人的诗歌作品上传，通过分享到国际诗歌社区进行广泛推广，还通过上传翻译作品和原创英文诗歌到全球各诗歌门户网站进行传播和互动交流，均取得了显著成效。

（女诗人、翻译家苏菲 Poetess & Translator Sophy Chen）

      目前在大陆以外，苏菲诗歌&翻译网和英语诗人苏菲在国际诗歌社区的影响力日渐彰显。印度圣乔治大学MuteMelodist学术艺术网和《澳门月刊》全文刊发了对苏菲诗歌&翻译网和翻译家苏菲的整体介绍，前者的网站首页还做了链接，苏菲陆续收到不少来自国际诗歌团体和著名诗刊、诗人的约稿函，如苏菲的英语诗歌《面对恐怖主义，诗歌是一无是处的是处》就曾入选POETRY AGAINST TERROR《反恐诗歌》2016意大利全球诗歌选本。同时，以苏菲诗歌翻译网和翻译家苏菲为纽带，目前已整合了国外包括韩语、阿拉伯语、孟加拉语、意大利语、法语等多语种诗歌翻译家，准备一起翻译（或转译）、推介更多中国诗人的优秀作品。

苏菲所做的这一切，只是出于对中国诗歌的一份责任感和使命感，而做的翻译与传播一体化的有益尝试。对于海内外数量庞大的华语诗人群体和每天数以百万计的原创诗歌数量来说，只能是沧海之一粟，更集中、更广泛、更有成效的中国诗歌翻译和传播，正等待更多的中国诗歌翻译家和国际化团体参与。

中国诗歌“走出去”：不能只依赖外国翻译家！

对于中国当代诗歌“走出去”，苏菲有自己的认识。长期以来，中国古典文学，一直被看作是中国文化的精髓，甚至连德国的歌德、美国的庞德，都曾将目光转向了中国，那个时候被译介的诗词是古典文学中的精粹。中国经历了“五四”，在大量译介西方先进的思想与文学著作的过程中，新诗才蹒跚学步慢慢地成长起来；而现在经历了百年发展，当代优秀新诗，作为中国文学最成熟的部分，已经积累了蕴涵丰厚的思想内容，文化辐射力无可限量，因此有理由积极推广，让全世界的读者及时欣赏到璀璨的中国现当代诗歌文明。

（苏菲与埃及诗人翻译家赛义德-顾得、香港诗人秀实合影
Sophy Chen,Egyptian Poet & Translator SayedGouda,& HongKong Poet Peter Liang）

       “现在越来越多的老外也想要及时了解中国文化，而当代诗歌，是继莫言获诺奖‘中国文学热’以来，除小说以外最吸引全球读者的文学体裁。”目前中国诗歌的对外翻译严重滞后。虽说近年来诗歌对外翻译有上升的趋势，可是相对中国目前经济、社会、文化的发展现状和诗歌自身的传播交流趋势来说，是严重滞后的。苏菲说，中国诗歌要走出去，中国翻译家首先要建立诗歌英译的坚定信心。中国翻译家要承担起诗歌翻译的重任，而不应该仅仅把希望寄托在外国翻译家的身上。她认为，中国诗歌，文学乃至文化首先要中国人自己来推广和弘扬。只有中国人才对自己的文字、文化理解的最透彻，翻译的最到位。她说，她曾经看过不少国外著名翻译家的翻译文本，对照中文原文后，照样挑出了很多误译和瑕疵，因此她认为，“外国翻译家也不一定靠得住！”。苏菲的言语如此自信、简单和直截。

不过，苏菲并不是一个自负的人。她知道再好的翻译家，瑕疵和疏漏也在所难免，因此在翻译完一些文稿之后，她都会找一些高校同行、业内翻译家来纠正自己的翻译错漏，而且经常为他们找不出自己的毛病而茶饭不思。

从热爱外语到双语诗人、双语诗歌翻译家

一般我们都认为，诗歌不可译，因为不同的语言之间有不同的文化背景和语言习惯差异。而苏菲却用自己的亲身经历告诉我们，中西方的文化背景、思维和语言习惯不是不可以超越的。

大部分中国人一听说学习外语，马上头脑发懵，而苏菲却不是这样。“英语简直就是上帝的语言，太美了！”她热爱外语，完全出于对异国语言和文化魅力的由衷叹服，使她不能自拔。苏菲透露，她学外语的“秘诀”，就是忘掉自己的母语汉语，而完全把外语当成“母语”来学。上大学的时候，她曾经天天在西安外国语大学国花园背诵优美的英语篇章，从最基础的《新概念英语》到英语小说、再到英语诗歌。平时的话，从早上6点一直读到上课，寒暑假就一直读到12点，从未间断。为了能说一口比准流利的BBC 英语，一条BBC英语新闻，苏菲往往会跟读模仿上千次。

（苏菲在花园背诵莎士比亚英语十四行诗
Sophy Chen is Reciting Shakespeare English Sonnets in the Garden）

      大学期间她通读了大量的英文原著，经常让自己变成原著中的主人公，随之喜也随之哀，让自己完全沉浸到英语的语感中，异域的文化隔阂在她的身上渐渐消弭。她还重点颂读了一批英文诗歌，比如华兹华斯的诗全集、莎士比亚的十四行诗、惠特曼的诗等，她不允许她身边的朋友们说汉语，甚至有意规避中文的书刊杂志。这样坚持了几年，使她成为能直接使用英语来思考和创作的人。情急之下或灵感乍来，她心里冒出来的往往是英语而不是汉语。

热爱是最好的老师，给苏菲带来无尽的生命乐趣。她说，学习外语到一定程度，当她在欣赏英语文学作品，或读到一首优美的诗歌的时候，赞叹和享受语言优美的同时，便会爆发出一种要去转化成汉语的强烈冲动，后来她在读汉语文学作品或诗歌时，也同样有这样的翻译冲动。她走上诗歌翻译道路，纯属对自然、对语言之美和诗歌艺术的内心崇仰。

一般来说，诗歌翻译是所有文学类别中最难的。如果译者是一位诗人，翻译的质量通常会高于非诗人的翻译。如何消除译入语和译出语之间的隔阂，苏菲的体会是，只有你能写诗并且写得不太差，才能将诗歌翻译好，否则很难真正把握诗歌的语言，当然——如果你能同时用两门语言进行创作，最好不过。苏菲就是一位自己既写诗又做翻译的诗人，而且相对于汉语诗歌创作，她更加拿手的还是英语诗歌。

苏菲从初一开始接触到诗歌，就被诗歌纯美的魅力所吸引，无论古诗还是新诗都背得滚瓜烂熟，并懵懂地写下了第一首诗。后来上大学，因为是学英语，经常在朗读诗歌或其它作品的时候，被英语语言优美的音色和婉转的韵律所打动。现在，她写的诗歌中有多半都是英文诗歌。苏菲花了很长时间研究英语十四行诗和三俳句的格律，终于创作出了押韵和谐的英语十四行诗和意蕴无限的英语三俳句。现在她会总结那些经典的欧美英文诗和自己所写的英文诗之间的差别，还会拿不同时代、不同作者的英文诗作比较，“因为现在自己也写了很多风格相似的诗歌作品，体会更深刻”。

（《异调》、《胴体向前》 、《花动摇》 封面
Different Tunes,The Body Forward and The Flower Swaying）

      对比诗歌原创和诗歌翻译，苏菲最看重的还是诗歌原创，她认为，没有诗歌原创就没有诗歌翻译。学习外语以来，苏菲写汉语诗歌相对少些，这几年，她创作了不少汉语诗歌，逐渐找回了汉语诗歌原创的感觉，这使她的汉译更加精准和完美；同时，她还经常尝试把自己的英语原创诗歌翻译成汉语，又把汉语原创诗歌翻译成英语，在两门语言原创和转译过程中，深刻体验到两门语言创作的奥妙和它们之间的细微差别。

英语教育产业化助推中国诗歌国际化

大家都知道，诗集翻译出来如果不出版、面市，而只是在网站、微信传播，在现在官方体制内的人看来，恐怕是“小搞搞”，难以登大雅之堂，也无法给进一步的国际交流与合作提供可供参照的资源范本。因此，苏菲自翻译出版了六本中国诗人的诗歌集和零星翻译了不少中国和国际代表诗人的代表作之后，就自然萌生了在国际市场上出版、推广中国诗人合集和国际诗人合集的想法。只有走上翻译、出版、发行、传播一体化的“集成”路线，中国的文学诗歌才能在国际舞台上真正找到立足之地。对于这一点，苏菲在多年与国内外诗人们的交流中深有感悟。而目前，国内除了最权威的官方诗歌选集，最著名的诗人如北岛、海子、舒婷及学院派的一批当代诗人和徐志摩、戴望舒等一批现代诗人之外，个人诗集、年度合编集几乎全部都是自费或找赞助才能出版的。面对诗歌不景气、被边缘化的现实生态，对于一个只靠几千元工资生活的翻译家来说，想要自己推出国内诗人的英译合集或国际选本，即使组稿、翻译不成问题，最大的难题莫过于出版经费问题。

而除了诗歌翻译，苏菲的另一重身份是英语教师，每周都会去大学轻轻松松地上课、轻轻松松地下课。 她曾经讲过几百人的雅思、托福课，也曾一对一辅导过雅思、托福、考研及高考学生，让他们重新找回英语学习的信心，在短时期内增进英语学习能力，快速提升英语成绩，甚至将原本高考模拟考试50多分的学生，临近高考30天时间，经过苏菲系统辅导，学生高考轻松突破120分。现在她雅思托福的学生大多都在国外毕业了。学生们对苏菲最大的评价是：跟苏菲学习英语最值得骄傲的是，让自己建立了英语学习的自信心，打开了英语语言神秘的大门，对自己的人生起到深远的影响。

原本，这算得上苏菲美好的英语教学经历，在她从事诗歌翻译后，便戛然而止了。除了上完学校规定的英语课之外，便没有再教授其他同学。因为她觉得，诗歌翻译是高度挑战性的事情，必须要全力以赴才能做好，而不能分心。如果不是因为她谋划的《中国新诗英译年鉴》（暂定名）一直无法筹到赞助出版资金，她可能永远不会往发挥自己英语教育这个天赋上来做文章。

苏菲希望借助她在英语教学方面的优势，打造苏菲英语教育品牌，为中国诗歌的对外翻译、国际化推广和国际交流筹集资金，助力中国诗歌国际化。对于自己恢宏的远景规划，苏菲表示，她希望借助依靠在诗人圈、文艺圈、英语圈、企业家圈层的个人品牌影响力，逐步推出苏菲教育品牌，针对不同的学生需求开设不同的英语课程，进行网络在线或一对一、小班授课。在不久的将来，苏菲将建立自己的网络教学平台，创办自己的教学课室；开发、编撰从零基础开始一直到雅思、托福、研究生英语教育的教材；利用国际交流合作打通中国文学与诗歌在海外各国的出版、发行渠道，让每一个想在国外出版作品的诗人作家都能提高自己的国际影响力；同时创办诗歌翻译与研究中心，培养中国诗歌翻译和专业化国际化传播人才，最终将中国优秀作家和诗人的作品在国际上发扬光大。

苏菲说，她的愿望是将苏菲教育做成像“新东方”那样的上市公司，我们衷心祝愿她的所有梦想能够成真！
2016/5/12 中国广州

 

 

 

 

 “Translator Sophy Chen: To Promote Chinese Poetry Internationalization By English Education”

Published by Chinese “Cultural Monthly”
Written by Chinese Poet Dazang

Abstract: Art & Life Section, (semimonthly, June 2016), “Cultural Monthly”, directed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, published a long article written by Chinese poet Dazang “Translator Sophy Chen: To Promote Chinese Poetry Internationalization by English Education”. Firstly, with the point of view of a culture observer, it reviewed the periodic process of poetry translation, and international poetry spread of Chinese poetry translator Sophy (Sophy Chen), it focused, quoted and expounded her concepts and ideas on Chinese poetry translation and poetry propagation, and it recalled her personal growth process from love foreign languages to a bilingual poetess and a bilingual poetry translator; combined with the current status of Chinese poetry collection’s translation, publication and circulation in the international arena, Sophy Chen, as a translator from her personal services in Chinese poetry, literary and artistic works’ international translation and promotion, made a practical and ambitious idea to promote Chinese poetry internationalization by English education.

The article of Poet Dazang, mainly described Sophy Chen’s legendary history and translation dreams from the following five aspects:
Firstly, Sophy Chen: A “Black Horse” Soaring out of Chinese Poetry Translation Profession
Secondly, the Initial Attempts of Integration of Poetry Translation and Promotion
Thirdly, Chinese Poetry “Going out”: We Can Not Just Rely on Foreign Translators!
Fourthly, From Love Foreign Languages to Be a Bilingual Poetess and Bilingual Poetry Translator
Fifthly, English Education Industrialization Boosting Chinese Poetry Internationalization

Keywords: Sophy, translator, Chinese poetry, poetry translation, dissemination, promotion, internationalization, English education, industrialization

 

By the continuing voice of “going out” in Chinese literary circles, more and more Chinese poets gradually have not been satisfied with publishing their poetry anthologies in Chinese version, to exchange their ideas in Chinese poetry circles, because they want to be the international poets, wish to publish their own poetry anthologies abroad, and have some opportunities to communicate with foreign poets. Naturally, the poetry translation of these Chinese poets has become an urgent and important issue. So far, the translation work of Chinese poetry in main land of China is in the ascendant, however the professional translators in this profession are very few. — the C-E or E-C bilingual poetess, Sophy Chen, is a “wonderful flower” in the Chinese poetry translation field.

Sophy Chen: A “Black Horse” Soaring out of Chinese Poetry Translation Profession

In Chinese literary circles, many poetesses have aroused a lot of people’s attention, such as Shu Ting in 1980s, and Yu Xiuhua soared popularly last year, and etc. However they’ve written poetry in Chinese language, so we Chinese people rarely heard that a Chinese person has written poetry in English language and specialized in C-E or E-C Poetry Translation. The poetess, Sophy Chen, is such a unique poetess and poetry translator.
In May 2013, the famous Chinese poet Dong Dangzi, got the poetry award “Poetry & People • Poet Award” established by Guangdong poet Huang Lihai, the specially printed booklet of its prize presentation, such as its preface, awards words and prize words translated accurately by Sophy Chen which first aroused Guangdong poets and poetry critic’s attention. Sophy Chen first attracted media’s attention was the “Dushan Legend” of the First Guizhou Poetry Festival in which she was invited to attend as a translator in late 2013, at the same time, the Top Interview Column of the “Guizhou Nation Newspaper” (“National Literature” Weekly), reported of Sophy Chen’s poetry and her poetry translation in the full-page of its first page as the title “Sophy Chen: the Chinese Poetry Translation Into Foreign languages Is Seriously Lagging Behind. In 2014 Sophy Chen was invited to attend the “Phoenix Singing in Spring Hill”, the Fifth Guangzhou Poetess Readings, her standard, fluent BBC English and beautiful, mellow and full English recitation shocked the audience, which showed the different magnificent color of English poetry and its recitation from the Chinese Poetry, and which was quickly spread in the network, and where its amount of video playback was up to 60 million times in total (according to Baidu video statistics), only two video recitation in Cool 6. In August 2014, the Reading Section of Guangdong “Information Times” interviewed with Sophy Chen, in a full-page, by the title: “Sophy Chen: From the Poetry Readings to Going into the Poetry World”, which was reprinted more than 150 media in mainland and overseas, including the website of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the China News, Sina.com, Phoenix News, and Taiwan News, etc. She emerged in the mainland poetry translation academia and international poetry forum. In October 2014, she was invited to attend the Second Taiwan, Mainland, and Western Translation Theory / Criticism & “Translating China” Symposium, the National Translation Philosophy & the First Translation and Poetry Symposium, and the First (Baoan) China International Poetry Forum & Famous Poets’ Lectures, as well as the “Hong Kong International Poetry Night” held by poet Beidao, in 2015, etc. In December 2015, she was invited to serve as the jury of the first “DCC Cup” Global Chinese Poetry Contest and to participate in a series of its activities, and she also was invited to issue the awards live to mainland of China and overseas for the first time, through her founded communication platform “Sophy Poetry & Translation Website”, which the local Chinese culture media reprinted it in flocks and on the first day in this news page views reached more than 2,000 times.

Born at the southern foot of Qinling Mountains, and graduated from the English Department of Xi’an International Studies University, Sophy Chen now is the editor-in-chief of “Sophy Poetry & Translation Website”, the member of Chinese Translation Association, and the Researcher of International Poetry Translation & Research Centre, as well as the guest editor of Multilingual Version “World Poets” Quarterly which is the only one international poetry magazine published in mixed languages. In her free time after her college English teaching, on the one side she provides E-C or C-E translation poems for the magazine regularly, on the other side she focuses on translating poetry of Chinese poets who are willing to publish their poetry collections overseas. At the present, Sophy Chen has translated six Chinese poetry collections of Chinese poets into English, published them in Chinese-English version and has translated more than 100 well-known poets’ master pieces of China and other nations, and also was invited to translate and do the English proofreading of the whole book Chinese-English Reader “Chinese Modern Poetry 300 (1917-2012) and the translation correction of “World Poetry Yearbook 2013”, “World Poetry Yearbook 2014” in English version and so on.

The Initial Attempts of Integration of Poetry Translation and Promotion

Mo Yan won the Nobel Literature Prize, which opened a window to the world for Chinese people. However, for a long time, due to the communication barriers of Chinese and foreign languages, the Chinese official literary and poetry circles have not established the strong international exchange mechanisms and effective international communication channels, so the private international translation is more like the sporadic raindrops.
Sophy Chen has deeply experienced that translation must combine with dissemination and she has also deeply understood the confusion and anxiety of millions of Chinese writers and poets in the process of their works promotion and dissemination. In an effort to translate the excellent Chinese poetry and promote its internationalization, at the same time, commit to the translation, dissemination and exchange of the international outstanding poetry, Sophy Chen founded the first English-Chinese poetry translation website personally in China — “Sophy Poetry & Translation Website” (http://www.sophypoetry.com), and its Chinese version website was first on-line in October, 2014, and in March 2016 it was established a website by the revision in English, and English-Chinese version, which was truly transformed into China’s first personal sponsored international poetry translation website. At the present, its Google’s search has amounted to ten thousands of pieces, Baidu’s search thousands of pieces, its highest daily reading has reached more than 3,000 times, and a single article viewed cumulative amount has been up to nearly 5,000 times. It has been launched as the representative of Chinese and overseas’ well-known translators such as Danis Mair, Zhang Zhizhong and Zhang Zhi, and the representative of Chinese famous poets as Yangke, YISHA and Xiaoxiao. Sophy Chen spent a lot of time for its content editing, successively uploaded the translation works of famous Chinese and overseas’ poets, widely shared them by the international community of poetry, and also uploaded the translated works and her original English poetry to poetry portals around the world for communication and interaction, which have achieved remarkable effects.

Outside of main land of China at present, Sophy Poetry & Translation Website and English poetess Sophy Chen have grown their manifest influence in the international poetry community. MuteMelodist academic art website of St. George University of India and Macao Monthly have published the articles on Sophy Chen and Sophy Poetry & Translation Website in the full text, the former one also made links on its homepage, and Sophy Chen have gradually received many poetry contribution letters from some international organizations, well-known poetry magazines, and the poets, such as Sophy’s English poetry, Faced with Terrorism, Poetry Is Nothings’ Nothing had been selected into “POETRY AGAINST TERROR”, 2016 Italian global poetry anthology. Meanwhile, by the link of Sophy Poetry & Translation Website and translator Sophy Chen now have incorporated the mainland and abroad translators, including Korean, Arabic, Bengali, Italian, French and other multilingual poetry translators, which are ready to translate and recommend more outstanding works of Chinese poets.
All of this Sophy Chen did, that is just to have a useful attempt to the integration of translation and dissemination with a sense of responsibility and mission of Chinese poetry. For the huge number of overseas and Chinese poets’ groups and the millions of original poetry every day, this is the only a drop of water in the sea, the more focused, extensive and effective dissemination and translation of Chinese poetry are awaiting more Chinese poetry translators and international groups to involve.

Chinese Poetry “Going out”: We Can Not Just Rely on Foreign Translators!

For the Chinese Modern Poetry “going out”, Sophy Chen has her own understanding. For a long time, Chinese classical literature has been regarded as the essence of Chinese culture, and even Goethe, Germany, Pound, the United States, had turned their eyes to China, and at that time the poetry translation was the essence of classical literature. In the process of translation, a large number of advanced Western thoughts and literature, experienced the “May Fourth Movement” the Chinese Modern Poetry has been growing up slowly as a toddler; now going through a century of development, the outstanding Contemporary Modern Poetry, as the most mature literature part of China, has accumulated the rich implication of ideological content and its cultural radiation is limitless, so it is reasonable to promote it actively, and make the readers around the world timely enjoy the splendid Chinese contemporary poetry civilization.

“Now more and more foreigners also want to keep abreast of the Chinese culture, and the Chinese contemporary poetry, in addition to the fiction, is the most audience attractive global literary genre.” since “Chinese Literature Hot” following by Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize. So far, Chinese Poetry translation is seriously lagging behind. Although in recent years, the translation of
Chinese poetry into foreign languages is on the rise, by contrast of current trends of economic, social, cultural development of China and communication and exchanges of poetry, it is seriously lagging behind. Sophy Chen said that if the Chinese poetry wants to go out, the Chinese translators must establish confidence to translate Chinese poetry into English, and the Chinese translators should assume the task of poetry translation rather than only put hopes on foreign translators. She believes that Chinese poetry, literature and even culture first should be promoted and carried forward by Chinese people themselves. Only Chinese people can understand our own cultural the most thoroughly and translate it the most perfectly. She said that she had read a lot of famous foreign translators’ translation text, after making a comparison with its original Chinese text, she still picked out a lot of mistranslation and blemishes, so she believes that “foreign translators are not necessarily reliable!” Her words are so confident, simple and straightforward.
However, Sophy Chen is not a conceited person. She knows that even the best translator, whose defects and omissions are inevitable in their translation works, so after completing some translation documents, she will find some universities’ peers, and fellow translators to correct their mistakes, and she often can not eat anything for they can not find their defects.

From Love Foreign Languages to Be a Bilingual Poetess and Bilingual Poetry Translator

Generally, we believe that poetry can not be translated, because there are different cultural background and language habits between different languages. But Sophy Chen has told us by her own personal experience that Chinese and Western cultures, thoughts and habits of languages are beyond.
When most Chinese people heard that they need to learn a foreign language, they are immediately muddled in their mind, but Sophy Chen is totally different. “English is God’s language really, so beautiful!” She loves the foreign language that is completely because she has sincerely appreciated the charm of foreign languages and their cultural, which made her not escaped. Sophy Chen revealed that her “secret” to learn foreign languages is to forget her native language, Chinese, and to learn the foreign language completely as her “mother tongue”. In college, she had recited some beautiful English articles every day in the National Garden of Xi’an International Studies University, from the most fundamental English, “New Concept English” to novels, and to English poetry. Usually, from 6 am to class to be ready, in summer or winter vacation she’d been read to 12 am, and she’d never stopped to do so. To be able to speak English nicely and fluently as BBC, a piece of BBC English news, Sophy Chen often would imitate and repeat a thousand times.

During college she read a lot of English original works, she often regards herself as its original heroine, along with to be happy and to be sad, and she completely immersed herself in the English language sense, which gradually eliminated the exotic cultural barriers in her body. She also focused on reading a number of English poetry, such as poems of William Wordsworth, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Whitman’s poems, etc., she did not allow her friends say Chinese, even deliberately circumvent Chinese books and magazines. Being insisted on it for a few years, it made her a person who could directly think in English and write in English. In a moment of her inspiration or desperation, what came out of her mind often is English rather than Chinese.
Love is the best teacher, which gives Sophy Chen endless fun of life. She said that after she had learned a foreign language to a certain extent, when she was appreciating of an English work, or reading a beautiful poem, praising and enjoying the beautiful language, at the same time, it would erupt into a kind of strong urge to transform them into Chinese, and later when she read Chinese works or poetry, she also had such impulses. She started going on the road of poetry translation, it is purely because she enshrines natural, beauty of language and art of poetry in her heart.
In general, poetry translation is the most difficult style in all literature. If a translator is a poet, his translation quality is generally higher than the non poet translator. How to bridge the gap between the target language and translated language, Sophy Chen’s experience is that only you can write poetry, not so bad, can you translate poetry perfectly, otherwise it would be so difficult to grasp the language of poetry, of course — If you can simultaneously write by two languages, it would be better. Sophy Chen is a poetess who not only can translate poetry but also can write poetry. Relative to her Chinese poetry writing, she is good at English poetry writing.
When Sophy Chen started to contact with poetry at the first year of middle school, she was attracted by the charm of pure poetry, whatever the modern poetry or ancient poetry she would like to recite them by heart, and then she ignorantly wrote her first poem. Later in the university, because it was to learn English, when she often read English poetry or other works, she always was impressed by the beautiful sounds of English language and its indirect rhythm. Now, among her poems, most of them are English poetry. Sophy Chen spent a lot of time to study meter of English sonnets and haiku, and she finally created her own English sonnets with harmonious rhymes and English haiku with unlimited implication. Now she not only can summarize their differences from European and American classic English poetry to her own English poetry, but also she can compare her English poems to English poems of different times and different authors, “because now she wrote many similar style poems himself, with more profound experience.”

To compare with original poetry and poetry translation, what the most important in her mind is her original poetry, Sophy Chen believes that there is no original poetry, there is no poetry translation. Since learning a foreign language, she wrote Chinese poetry relatively less than English poetry, in recent years, she has created a lot of Chinese poetry, and gradually rediscovered her original feeling of Chinese poetry writing, which makes her poetry translation works E-C even more accurate and perfect; at the same time, she often tries to translate her own original English poetry into Chinese, and again to translate her original Chinese poetry into English, in the original creation and translation process of two languages, Sophy Chen has profoundly experienced the creation secrets of two languages and nuances between them.

English Education Industrialization Boosting Chinese Poetry Internationalization

As we all know that if the translated poetry collections had not been published and well sold in the book market, and only spread at websites, WeChat, and etc, they were probably the humble “Personal Action,” in the people’s eyes of official institutions and probably not only the “small trouble to make,” but also unable to give further international exchanges and cooperation to provide resources for reference template. Thus, after translated and published six Chinese poet’s poetry collections and some representatives of Chinese poets and international poets’ masterpieces, Sophy Chen naturally initiated her idea to translate the Chinese poets’ and international poets’ poetry collections to publish and promote them in the international book market. Only embarking on translation, publishing, distribution, and “integrated” line of communication integration, Chinese literary and poetry can really find a foothold in the international stage. For this, Sophy Chen has a deep understanding in the past few years to exchange of ideas with Chinese and foreign poets. At present, in mainland of China, apart from those most authoritative official poetry anthologies, the most famous academic group of contemporary poets, as Bei Dao, Haizi, Shu Ting, and a number of modern poets, as Xu Zhimo, and Dai Wangshu, another poets’ poetry collections and the poetry yearbooks, are almost entirely at their own expense or find sponsorship to publishing. In the face of poetry’s recession, and poetry’s ecological reality of being marginalized, a translator who has only relied on a few thousand Yuan for a living, wants to launch the English translation collections of Chinese poets or international poets’ Chinese anthologies, even the soliciting contributions and translation is not a problem, well the cost of publication is the biggest problem.
In addition to poetry translation, Sophy Chen’s another social character is an English teacher, she will go Universities to have her classes in leisure and finish her classes in leisure every week. She once taught hundreds of people’s IELTS, TOEFL, postgraduate’s English examination courses, and even the college entrance English examination courses, which made her students’ regain their English learning confidence, enhance their English learning ability, and improve their English score rapidly in the very short time and even help the students whose original entrance exams were 50s, near the college entrance English examination only 30 days, by Sophy Chen’s profound taught, those students’ score were easily broken 120 points in the college entrance English examination. Now her students of her IELTS and TOEFL classes have mostly graduated abroad. The largest evaluation of her students is: the most proud of learning English with Sophy Chen is to have established their own self-confidence in English learning, opened the door to the mystery of English language and had a profound impact on their life.
Originally, this could be considered as Sophy Chens’ better English teaching experience, but it had been halted up after her poetry translation. In addition to finish the English classes provided by her school, she no longer teaches other students. Because she felt that poetry translation was a highly challenging thing, she must try her best to do and could not be distracted. If not for her plan of “Chinese Contemporary Poetry Translation Yearbook” (tentative name) has been unable to raise funds to sponsor the publication, she may never think of her talent in English education and develop her teaching talent.
Now Sophy Chen’s dreams are she hopes she can build her English education brand by the advantage of her English teaching, and raise funds for Chinese poetry translation, international promotion and exchange, and give her hands to Chinese poetry internationalization. It is always good to have a dream, but the key is that we need the effective approaches, methods and steps to realize it. In this regard, Sophy Chen has her own grand vision between her joyous words full of longing feelings. Now, she is hoping to rely on her own personal brand influence among poets’ circles, literary circles, English circles, and entrepreneurs’ circles, and gradually build Sophy education brand and give different English courses for different needs of students by online live or one-to-one teaching or small classes. In the near future, Sophy Chen would like to establish her own network teaching platform, and start her own online live classroom; she would like to develop and compile her own education materials from the every beginning, the zero based English foundation to IELTS, TOEFL and graduate English and even poetry translation; she would like to open up Chinese literature and poetry publishing and distribution channels in oversea countries by the international exchange and cooperation, so that make every poet or writer who wants to publish her or his works to improve his international influence; at the same time she would like to create the Poetry Translation and Research Center to cultivate the Chinese poetry translation talents and specialized and international Chinese culture spreading talents, and eventually flourish the works of Chinese outstanding writers and poets internationalized.
Sophy Chen said that her wish is to make Sophy Education a public company as “New Oriental”. Let us sincerely wish all of her dreams can be true!
2016-05-12 Guangzhou, China

Translated by Sophy Chen 2016-06-25 Guangzhou, China

 

 

～～～～～～～～～～～转载请注明出处、作者、链接，并携带以下信息！～～～～～～～～～～

 

 

苏菲英语讲坛在线直播

翻译家 苏菲 广州大学城开坛讲授英语，7月上课！

Sophy English Forum

苏 菲 英 语 讲 坛

 

 

主讲人：苏菲(Sophy Chen) 简介：

苏菲(Sophy Chen)，本名陈丽华，中国当代女诗人、翻译家。“苏菲诗歌&翻译网”创办人。1975年生于陕西汉中略阳。毕业于西安外国语大学英文学院，在外语类院校任教至今。

现为“苏菲诗歌&翻译网”总编、混语版《世界诗人》季刊客座总编、中国翻译协会会员、国际诗歌翻译研究中心研究员。1989年开始汉语诗歌写作，2004年开始英文诗歌写作，并在各大报刊发表英汉双语诗歌和英汉双语诗歌翻译作品。曾参与汉英读本《中国新诗300首(1917—2012)》部分作品的英译及全书的英文校对。审译纯英文版《世界诗歌年鉴2013》、《世界诗歌年鉴2014》。

2012年，获国际知名英语诗歌专业网站 POETRY.COM 授予的“传奇诗人称号”，同年获国际诗歌翻译研究中心(IPTRC)颁发的2012年度“国际最佳翻译家奖”。2014年荣获“中国当代诗歌奖”(2013—2014)翻译奖。

出版英译诗歌集六部：《花动摇》(赵兴中原著)、《藏香》(女诗人紫影原著)、《生之瞭望》(杨若鹏原著)、《异调》(女诗人 绿袖子原著)、《胴体向前》(画家谭钧原著)、《白娘子诗传》(女诗人廖诗蝶原著)。

 

Sophy English Forum Live Teaching
Translator Sophy Chen will Give English Classes in early July
In Sophy English Forum

Sophy Chen’s Courses Plan:

1, English Poetry Creative Writing
2, Chinese or English Poetry Translation
3, IELTS, TOEFL, PGE English
4, English Speaking
5, Long-term Basic English Classes
6, English Pronunciation and English Broadcasting

Teaching Features:

1 Mellower BBC English, with strong affinity in classroom
2 Interactive, many students oral practice with interactive video
3 There is no tricks, but the solid basic skills
4 To eliminate all English long difficult sentences and complex chapters
5 To educate the talented translators actively

Teaching Methods: Webcast / Face to Face in GZ

Lecturer: Sophy Chen
The Chinese contemporary poetess, translator, and American English “Legendary Poet”,
“International Best Translator”, the Chinese Contemporary Poetry (2013-2014) Translation Award, and translated and published six Chinese poetry collections into English

Connect with Sophy Chen
Tell/Wechart: 18201007874
Q Q / Wechart: 2139528010

Sophy English Forum Live Teaching Platform
Sophy Poetry & International Translation Website

Connect with Sophy Chen
http://www.sophypotry.com
E-mail：xisusophy@qq.com
Q Q：478674384
Tell：18201007874
Blog：blog.sina.com.cn/sophy51
Weibo：@sophy_苏菲（sina）
http://facebook.com/sophy.chen.969
http://twitter.com/SophyChen2
http://cosmofunnel.com/user/31542
http://poetry.com/users/133915