Translations of Ba Jin

[Lusankya]

What translations are there of Ba Jin's Torrents trilogy? I've only seen this one on Amazon, but I don't know if the translation is any good, and it seems to be using Wade-Giles romanisation, which is the devil's romanisation system, so I'd prefer to get a different translation if one exists.

And does anybody know if there exist any translations of 春 and 秋? I've looked around and haven't seen any.

It's for a present for my mum (the plan is for her to read the translation and me to read the Chinese, and then we can discuss it together), so I unfortunately I don't really have the option of just getting them in Chinese.

[roddy]

Only 家 has been translated into English. Perhaps she can read that and then decide if she wants to learn Chinese?

[Lusankya]

Curses. My favourite was 秋. I felt that 克明 really developed as a more sympathetic character in that, which was interesting.

Is there only the one translation of 家 hanging around？It's just that I hate Wade-Giles so much, and would rather not have to parse Wade-Giles-inspired mispronunciations back into a real language.

[renzhe]

I think that the only translation around is the Sidney Shapiro one. If there are others, I'm willing to bet that they aren't as good.

Wade-Giles is a bit of a nuissance today, but the far bigger issue with Ba Jin is the trickiness of conveying all the cultural context which is very challenging, especially for somebody who needs a translation in the first place. I haven't read the translation, but I've heard that Shapiro did a good job there.

If your mother will be reading the translation, I'd be more concerned about not getting lost in all the fourth-sister and third-father and fifth-sister-in-laws than about Wade Giles.

I don't know if Foreign Language Press has reprinted the English translation recently, it might even be available with Pinyin transcriptions nowadays.

[Lusankya]

Oh well. If that's the only translation there is, then that's the translation I'll have to get then.

Do you know if the translation of his autobiography is any good? I found a copy of that on the Borders online site.