Living for Translation: An Interview with Professor Zhang Zhizhong

Abstract

In his rich career as a translator, Professor Zhang Zhizhong has formed a unique aesthetics on translation based on his own experience: spirit over form, prose enjambment to rewrite Chinese poetry into sterling English poetry. In Professor Zhang’s opinion, the English translation of Chinese poetry, broadly speaking, is divided into two schools: metrical school and liberal school, and there are poems translated in metrical style and liberal style, mixed with both good and bad ones. Being poetic, or poetry itself, is the most important point. In the interview, Professor Zhang expressed his hope to be friends with the students majoring in translation and make joint efforts in the globalization of Chinese culture and literature. It is his belief that the English translation of Chinese poems shall be poems themselves, and excellent poems in the English world, which, ideally, are published by the prestigious publishing houses in Western countries, hopefully, to exert influences on the readers. This is the ultimate goal of the globalization of Chinese culture and literature.