Tibetannet

“For every 1,000 readers there will be 1,000 Hamlets.” The 83 year old Zhailin - Wangduo could not make himself clear that he had already introduced how many readers to the Tibetan version of Hamlet.

In 2002, Wangduo for the first time took the classic Shakespeare work Hamlet and translated it from English directly into Tibetan, and it officially was published in September of that year, yet there was not more than 1,000 copies printed. However, at the end of 2011 the last act of Hamlet (the 5th act) after being adapted, was officially included into 5 provincial (district) Tibetan high school textbooks. These 5 districts include Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu Tibetan inhibited areas. During the first print of this book there was 22,323 copies printed.

On April 23rd, on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the journalist spoke once again with Mr. Wangduo at his residence about his Shakespearean feeling and legendary life.

Feeling the hole in Shakespearean Translation

Wangduo recalled the feeling at the time that Shakespearean work entered Tibet in 1981. At that time, a Shanghai Drama Academy director organized a Tibetan drama group to rehearse a Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet, and a performance of it was given in Lhasa.

“The performance was outstanding, but most Tibetans in the audience could not understand, and at that time no one knew about Shakespeare” said Wangduo. At the time, he intentionally brought his daughter to see, allowing her to see and understand the experience of the stage performance.

Wangduo’s second translation work was Romeo and Juliet and officially published in November of 2003.

Zhailin - Wangduo and his effort to translate Romeo and Juliet

“In my early years I studied abroad at India’s Saint Joseph University and at that time for the first was exposed to Shakespeare, later on I saw the movie Hamlet which was adapted from the Shakespeare drama work that won an Oscar, and after this I was really into it.”

So the question is why did Wangduo select these two works as his translation targets? “Most major languages in the world have all translated Shakespeare’s works, our country started translating his work early on more than one hundred years before in regards of Chinese translation work, and naturally Tibetan should not be absent of his masterpieces, and furthermore what Shakespeare is most famous for is his dramas” he explained.

In Wangduo’s point of view, Shakespeare’s work fulfilled humor and contention and often it can get people’s attention from the get go of each work: “One of the characteristics of Shakespeare’s works is that they victoriously draw you in right away, and right away mobilize people, and furthermore the stories are diverse, and many aspects are worth studying.”

“Good productions should make people laugh. I really like clowns, clowns inside of dramas, for example Juliet’s mother and the maid in Romeo and Juliet, there is also the gravedigger in Hamlet, these kinds of clowns can also be found in Tibetan plays.” When saying this, he was studying intensively the accent of the performer in the play and with a large voice he imitated the voice of the Juliet’s mother ordering around Peter.

What Wangduo regrets is he could not translate Macbeth as planned. His cataracts and poor health are worsening by the day and have forced him to finally give up this plan.

“If you were to ask me which works I would like to see translated into Tibetan I would say Macbeth and Julius Caesar” he said.

The beauty of translating into Tibetan

Although Wangduo has regrets about Shakespearean translations from English into Tibetan, in the past two years he is still translating two works from Tibetan into English and to publish them this year.

“ Remembering Lhasa and The Old and Young Dialogue Collection are classics from my infancy, and I have search for them all my life” said Wangduo. “When I got them into my hands at last both were shaking, and I was in tears. In 2014, at 81 years of age he finally discovered the Tibetan language versions of these old works.

Wangduo said “I hesitated whether I should do it being practically blind, but then I made a decision and decided to go for it!”

Remembering Lhasa is a Tibetan classic from 100 years ago and The Old and Young Dialogue Collection has more than 70 years of history. In the process of translation Wangduo put his heart into it: “I will to the best of my ability take the connotation and rhyme of the Tibetan original and translate it. In this way, it can be chanted and recited in Tibetan as well as English.” He explained that, translation does not always take a lot of time, a lot of work is put outside of translation, due to the frequency of reprints of old age texts, much confirmation and correction is necessary otherwise it will not be possible to understand. Other than this, it is also necessary to have deep understanding of the teachings of Buddhism. Wangduo asks for guidance from related experts.



Zhailin - Wangduo explained to the reporter the details of translation for bringing Shakespeare into Tibetan.

Wangduo said that he had two purposes in translation: the first is in order to express his admiration and respect for the author and the second is to encourage young people in the near future to continue doing more excellent translation work.

 “In the several thousand years of human civilization, all ethnic groups have created unique cultures, and produces numerous excellent works, and they are the shared wealth of humanity all worth the study of other ethnic groups. Cultural exchange is very important, and the development of Tibetan ethnic cultural mainly depends on translation.” Wangduo said that translation as a medium between different languages occupies an irreplaceable important position in the sharing and reading of different ethnic works, and translators should have a sense of responsibility in which they regard themselves as the emissary of cultural exchange , doing a good translation allows readers to read a great piece, and it promotes cultural exchange between each ethnic group.

Wangduo said that, the first principle that must be abided by is faithfulness, and so the meaning itself should be translated and it should not be directly translated, furthermore you must “excavate” your own ethnic group’s language and vocabulary. His translation of the 6th Reincarnation of the Dali Lama Gyatso’s 74 love songs into English has been widely circulated and allows more foreigners to understand the wisdom and culture of ancient Tibet.

Other than this, according to one’s own experience, Wangduo published the Tibetan Novel Zhaisufumiwen in 1993, and described the life of serfs and aristocrats of the old Tibet in the 30s and 40s of the last century. In 1995, Wangduo personally wrote and published this book’s English version and it was then later translated into Chinese and German.

 “English and the experience of my life are my strengths, so I will take advantage of them during the remainder of my life” said Wangduo.