Translation of the book by Liu Cysin, “The Problem of Three Bodies”
I greet the lovers of modern science fiction and present you the book of the Chinese writer Liu Cixin (劉慈欣): “The Problem of Three Bodies (三 体)”, in the translation of which I participated.
Until recently, Liu Cysin was practically unknown in the west, but extremely popular in China. He is 52 years old, he is the author of several short stories and novels. The trilogy “Memory of the Earth’s Past” brought him the greatest fame, which includes: “The three-body task” (2007), “The Dark Forest (2008)” and “The End of Death” (2010). In 2014, he was noticed by the American publisher Tor Books and released the first book of the trilogy entitled “The Three-Body Problem”, which was translated by Chinese science fiction writer and translator Ken Liu, who lives in the United States. The novel immediately attracted the attention of critics and in 2015 received the prestigious book award "Hugo", as the best science fiction novel of the year. In the same year, his second book translated into English and the third part this year. The title of the book is taken from the well-known problem of celestial mechanics, according to the calculation of the three-body gravitational interaction: ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Tryosh_Tel , which is directly related to its plot.
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For many, it is no secret that the publishing industry in Russia is experiencing a decline and readers cannot wait for a long time for the translation of many bright new foreign fiction novelties, and sometimes they do not receive them at all. Then amateur translators, enthusiasts who do not expect material reward (although they do not refuse it), who translate exclusively for the love of art, take the matter, no matter how pathetic it may sound. It is worth noting that they are “amateurs” only because they do not earn this money, but the quality of the translation itself is not inferior to the professional. And when (if) the book comes out officially, the comparison is very often not in favor of publishing.
The same happened with the “Task of the three bodies”. According to insiders, publishers did not have any plans to translate and release this book, and it deserves to be. The experienced translator amateur sonate10 decided to take on the matter, and there are already more than two dozen books on her account. And although this was her first experience of translating solid science fiction, she did a wonderful job with this task, despite all the difficulties, and there were a lot of them. First, sonate10 does not know Chinese and the translation is double - from English to Russian; secondly, the novel contains a lot of scientific and computer terminology; and thirdly, there are many features of Chinese life that are incomprehensible to the ordinary Russian person. Therefore, the whole team worked on the book: the actual translation and final editing is sonate10, the last word is always hers - this is her style of work; literary editor and computer terminology specialist - vconst, your humble servant; scientific editor - Dmitriy Flibusta, his help was invaluable in describing the characteristics of the radio telescope and other scientific subtleties; Chinese consultant Albert Kriskoy from the Eastern Hemisphere forum helped a lot in resolving controversial issues by comparing the English and Russian texts with the Chinese original, did a great job of translating as little as possible from the Chinese text. The result of this work - submit to your court.
The novel, for the modern reader, spoiled by the luminaries of Western science fiction, is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is somewhat naive, on the other - in it you can find moments that may seem secondary and borrowed. All this can be explained by the fact that Chinese and European cultures have long been mutually isolated from each other for various reasons, not least because of the language barrier, because of this, Chinese readers and writers did not have such a rich choice of translated Western fiction like ours. Because the novel is somewhat similar to the fiction of the 70-80s, although it contains modern computer technology, MMORPG, virtual reality and string theory. To another feature of the novel, I would attribute the fact that in it the plot is too dominant. The idea is primary, and the characters are secondary, in the “Three-Body Problem” even the main characters are spelled out somewhat rusticly, the characters are outlined in broad strokes, without detailed elaboration. There are almost no vivid characters and that is why, most of all, I remember the rude but very insightful policeman, not the scientists. And there are many characters that I would like to know better, but the writer deprived us of this opportunity. Also in the novel there are some tensions, from the point of view of the scientific nature of what is happening, but this does not spoil it, in the end - this is fantasy, not scientific work. On the other hand, the merits of the novel should be attributed to the vividly and in detail described in it “The Cultural Revolution”, a topic that is close and painful for many Chinese, but not very well known outside of it. And this is not just an episode, “The Cultural Revolution” plays a very important role in the book.
The translation process has been extremely entertaining for everyone. I left detailed comments on the work of computer technology in the text of the editor or an explanation as to why this word or sentence was edited in this way, and not otherwise, in the correspondence they discussed Chinese life, "walked" along the streets where some of the chapters took action, in Chinese the analogue of “Google Street”, argued a lot about the characters and plot moves, broke many copies over the translations of this or that expression or paragraph. There were some funny moments, for example, a discussion of how to call a woman engaged in science: * There is such a joke, no joke - I don’t know what to call it. Those who call a woman doctor a doctor are told: “A woman doctor is also a doctor, and a doctor is the doctor’s wife”. The poetess is the wife of the poet, the cook is the wife of the cook. A scientist is a dog, and a woman is a scientist. *
Sometimes sonat10 gave perfect hilarious pearls, due to the fact that she was tired and her eyes became very dirty, for example:
* Two boys, dressed very lightly, froze more than others - they took off the dohi to wrap up their burden. In the room they turned the dohi. Below them was a large pot, from which steam was rising, full of sauerkraut and dumplings with pork. *
Or when I blunted, confusing the time of action and decided that the description of modern computer equipment actually belongs to the sixties. It was an extremely exciting and very difficult job, I am pleased with this experience and meeting interesting people.
I will say in secret that work is currently underway on the Russian amateur translation of the second part of the trilogy, but I am no longer participating in this project. Follow the news!
Book Page on Fantlab: fantlab.ru/work602234
And on Flibusta: flibusta.is/b/441861
For lovers of warm and lamp paper, the short-run publisher plans to release a couple of dozen printed copies: fantlab.ru/edition172822
Translator group Vkontakte: [Translations sonate10 / rosekinn] (https://vk.com/club83926979)
After that, the MagisterLudi article, which pushed me to finally write this note: [SDK for the introduction of e-book support in FB2 format
] (https://habrahabr.ru/company/edison/blog/282804/)
A quick note about the anonymity of the team working on the book. Under modern law, no matter how ridiculous it may sound - such transfers are illegal. The translator's nickname is easily googled and finding her contacts is easy, but I ask you not to raise this topic in the comments, just so as not to tease the geese once again, especially since she already had complaints in the plan: “Well, now after the translation was distributed over the network, the publishers definitely would not publish a book ... ".
Those who have already read the book - please refrain from spoilers, please write about errors and typos in a personal.
Enjoy your reading!
The second book is translated: The translation of the second book from the series “Memory about the past of the earth”, “The Dark Forest” - is completed. Enjoy reading
Update
This morning we posted the finished translation of the third part of the Chinese author Liu Zixin: "Eternal Life of Death," Liu Cysin is the last volume of the trilogy "In memory of the past of the Earth", the translation is completed .
Until recently, Liu Cysin was practically unknown in the west, but extremely popular in China. He is 52 years old, he is the author of several short stories and novels. The trilogy “Memory of the Earth’s Past” brought him the greatest fame, which includes: “The three-body task” (2007), “The Dark Forest (2008)” and “The End of Death” (2010). In 2014, he was noticed by the American publisher Tor Books and released the first book of the trilogy entitled “The Three-Body Problem”, which was translated by Chinese science fiction writer and translator Ken Liu, who lives in the United States. The novel immediately attracted the attention of critics and in 2015 received the prestigious book award "Hugo", as the best science fiction novel of the year. In the same year, his second book translated into English and the third part this year. The title of the book is taken from the well-known problem of celestial mechanics, according to the calculation of the three-body gravitational interaction: ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Tryosh_Tel , which is directly related to its plot.
')
For many, it is no secret that the publishing industry in Russia is experiencing a decline and readers cannot wait for a long time for the translation of many bright new foreign fiction novelties, and sometimes they do not receive them at all. Then amateur translators, enthusiasts who do not expect material reward (although they do not refuse it), who translate exclusively for the love of art, take the matter, no matter how pathetic it may sound. It is worth noting that they are “amateurs” only because they do not earn this money, but the quality of the translation itself is not inferior to the professional. And when (if) the book comes out officially, the comparison is very often not in favor of publishing.
The same happened with the “Task of the three bodies”. According to insiders, publishers did not have any plans to translate and release this book, and it deserves to be. The experienced translator amateur sonate10 decided to take on the matter, and there are already more than two dozen books on her account. And although this was her first experience of translating solid science fiction, she did a wonderful job with this task, despite all the difficulties, and there were a lot of them. First, sonate10 does not know Chinese and the translation is double - from English to Russian; secondly, the novel contains a lot of scientific and computer terminology; and thirdly, there are many features of Chinese life that are incomprehensible to the ordinary Russian person. Therefore, the whole team worked on the book: the actual translation and final editing is sonate10, the last word is always hers - this is her style of work; literary editor and computer terminology specialist - vconst, your humble servant; scientific editor - Dmitriy Flibusta, his help was invaluable in describing the characteristics of the radio telescope and other scientific subtleties; Chinese consultant Albert Kriskoy from the Eastern Hemisphere forum helped a lot in resolving controversial issues by comparing the English and Russian texts with the Chinese original, did a great job of translating as little as possible from the Chinese text. The result of this work - submit to your court.
The novel, for the modern reader, spoiled by the luminaries of Western science fiction, is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is somewhat naive, on the other - in it you can find moments that may seem secondary and borrowed. All this can be explained by the fact that Chinese and European cultures have long been mutually isolated from each other for various reasons, not least because of the language barrier, because of this, Chinese readers and writers did not have such a rich choice of translated Western fiction like ours. Because the novel is somewhat similar to the fiction of the 70-80s, although it contains modern computer technology, MMORPG, virtual reality and string theory. To another feature of the novel, I would attribute the fact that in it the plot is too dominant. The idea is primary, and the characters are secondary, in the “Three-Body Problem” even the main characters are spelled out somewhat rusticly, the characters are outlined in broad strokes, without detailed elaboration. There are almost no vivid characters and that is why, most of all, I remember the rude but very insightful policeman, not the scientists. And there are many characters that I would like to know better, but the writer deprived us of this opportunity. Also in the novel there are some tensions, from the point of view of the scientific nature of what is happening, but this does not spoil it, in the end - this is fantasy, not scientific work. On the other hand, the merits of the novel should be attributed to the vividly and in detail described in it “The Cultural Revolution”, a topic that is close and painful for many Chinese, but not very well known outside of it. And this is not just an episode, “The Cultural Revolution” plays a very important role in the book.
The translation process has been extremely entertaining for everyone. I left detailed comments on the work of computer technology in the text of the editor or an explanation as to why this word or sentence was edited in this way, and not otherwise, in the correspondence they discussed Chinese life, "walked" along the streets where some of the chapters took action, in Chinese the analogue of “Google Street”, argued a lot about the characters and plot moves, broke many copies over the translations of this or that expression or paragraph. There were some funny moments, for example, a discussion of how to call a woman engaged in science: * There is such a joke, no joke - I don’t know what to call it. Those who call a woman doctor a doctor are told: “A woman doctor is also a doctor, and a doctor is the doctor’s wife”. The poetess is the wife of the poet, the cook is the wife of the cook. A scientist is a dog, and a woman is a scientist. *
Sometimes sonat10 gave perfect hilarious pearls, due to the fact that she was tired and her eyes became very dirty, for example:
* Two boys, dressed very lightly, froze more than others - they took off the dohi to wrap up their burden. In the room they turned the dohi. Below them was a large pot, from which steam was rising, full of sauerkraut and dumplings with pork. *
Or when I blunted, confusing the time of action and decided that the description of modern computer equipment actually belongs to the sixties. It was an extremely exciting and very difficult job, I am pleased with this experience and meeting interesting people.
I will say in secret that work is currently underway on the Russian amateur translation of the second part of the trilogy, but I am no longer participating in this project. Follow the news!
Book Page on Fantlab: fantlab.ru/work602234
And on Flibusta: flibusta.is/b/441861
For lovers of warm and lamp paper, the short-run publisher plans to release a couple of dozen printed copies: fantlab.ru/edition172822
Translator group Vkontakte: [Translations sonate10 / rosekinn] (https://vk.com/club83926979)
After that, the MagisterLudi article, which pushed me to finally write this note: [SDK for the introduction of e-book support in FB2 format
] (https://habrahabr.ru/company/edison/blog/282804/)
A quick note about the anonymity of the team working on the book. Under modern law, no matter how ridiculous it may sound - such transfers are illegal. The translator's nickname is easily googled and finding her contacts is easy, but I ask you not to raise this topic in the comments, just so as not to tease the geese once again, especially since she already had complaints in the plan: “Well, now after the translation was distributed over the network, the publishers definitely would not publish a book ... ".
Those who have already read the book - please refrain from spoilers, please write about errors and typos in a personal.
Enjoy your reading!
UPDATE
A translation of the second book will be released soon: Liu Cixin, “The Dark Forest”, the second book from the “Three-body Problem” series. AnnouncementThe second book is translated: The translation of the second book from the series “Memory about the past of the earth”, “The Dark Forest” - is completed. Enjoy reading
Update
This morning we posted the finished translation of the third part of the Chinese author Liu Zixin: "Eternal Life of Death," Liu Cysin is the last volume of the trilogy "In memory of the past of the Earth", the translation is completed .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/394009/
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