Obituary for Yang Xianyi (杨宪益)

[xianhua]

Yang Xianyi obituary in The Guardian

(available in Chinese on The Guardian website too)

I only learnt about Yang Xianyi's existence after reading his obituary today. Other members may know him for his translation of 红楼梦 or Dreams of the Red Chamber, or many of the other works which he translated.

What an incredible talent and natural ability this man possessed. I mean understanding Milton is troublesome enough for most native speakers, let alone understanding Milton in a second language and then translating it into Classical Chinese verse - all whilst still at school.

His late wife's obituary also makes fascinating reading. I can't imagine there would have been too many mixed-race marriages between Chinese and Westerners at that time. Their life story alone would make interesting reading.

[Kenny同志]

I learned his obituary the day he passed away and felt very sad for days. He was a great man, one of the greatest facilitators in the communication between Chinese and Western culture.

We lost David Hawkes and Mr. Yang within months this year, an unfortunate year for Honglou Meng.