| Popis |
Jin Ping Me is an extensive 100-chapter novel by an anonymous author from the late Ming Dynasty and is considered one of the jewels of classical Chinese literature. This novel demonstrates the author’s immense erudition, incorporating numerous historical and cultural references, including literary allusions, poetry, and intertextuality. Due to the considerable number of erotic scenes described in exceedingly explicit fashion, it has also earned the unfortunate label of “pornographic” in the eyes of many critics. However, in reality, it offers a detailed portrayal of all aspects of late Ming society, and some even call it, without exaggeration, “an encyclopedia of everyday life in the Ming dynasty.” The translation of the unabridged oldest extant edition of this novel into Czech was initiated by Prof. Oldřich Král in 2012, who completed seven volumes. Following his passing in 2018, Prof. Lucie Olivová and Dr. Ondřej Vicher took over the project to complete the remaining three volumes. A complete Czech translation is therefore currently underway, with the final (tenth) volume scheduled for completion in 2025. This contribution offers a perspective from a translator who is also a scholar, focusing on subtle narrative, cultural, and lexical-grammatical nuances. Since Jin Ping Mei encompasses, to some extent, several margins outlined by the conference organizers – particularly linguistic margins (challenges in translating complex lexical structures and grammatical nuances), sexual margins (translation of erotic and explicit passages), and the margins of the act of translating (elements considered untranslatable due to cultural and stylistic barriers) – this contribution will explore specific translation challenges, with a particular focus on rendering sexual scenes, from crude (vulgar) expressions to poetic euphemisms. Where relevant, this contribution may also briefly refer to other language versions, such as English, Russian, French, or Danish, to illustrate alternative translation approaches to similar challenges. Special emphasis will be placed on the strategies employed by the translators to balance fidelity to the original text with the comprehensibility of its adaptation for the Czech readership.
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