The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection

Abstract

ity and aplomb; Zhang Jing, for example, does a fine job of presenting Sessions 5 and 6 in fluid and natural English, and Robert Hegel and Xu Yunjing handle skilfully the poetry in Session 10. Just occasionally, however, the translation falls short of an elegant and fully idiomatic rendering of Aina’s expressive yet economical language. Part of the problem is that the translators tend to favour a rather literal translation, when sometimes a more creative solution is called for. For example, the line 始知小弟之言,不似那蘇東坡姑妄言之、姑妄聽之一類話也 (p. 58: “You’ll know that my story isn’t what Su Shi called ‘speaking with reckless words, listening as if it were reckless words’”) might have been more helpfully rendered as “You’ll know that my story is not the kind of tall tale that Su Shi said can’t be taken too seriously”. And if one wants to make the book truly come alive for the English reader, a description such as 挺著那件海狗腎的東西相似 (p. 167: “thrusting with that thing like the testicles of a seal”) surely invites a translation along the lines of “thrusting with a pecker the size of a seal’s penis”. It is also unfortunate that some lines for which Hanan or Wu provided an excellent translation are here given an inferior treatment. In Session 9, for example, “Hearing this filled me with panic” (p. 134; the original text reads 在下一聞此言,不覺十分驚駭) does not capture what is meant nearly as well as Hanan’s simple “I was astonished”. In Session 1, “Now, in the entire world, there are only two ferry crossings haunted by jealous women. The one you just heard about in Shandong sounds pretty common. Let me tell you about one that was really fierce” (p. 14; the Chinese reads妒婦 津天下卻有兩處,這山東的看來也只平常,如今說的才是利害哩) is wordy and awkward compared with Wu’s rendering: “There are actually two ‘Jealous Wife Fords’. The one in Shandong seems pretty run-of-the-mill, but the one I’m going to tell you about is truly formidable”. Although one may quibble about the translators’ word choice here and there, this is a perfectly serviceable English edition of Aina’s stories that can be profitably read and consulted by all who are interested in Chinese vernacular fiction and early Qing responses to dynastic change. Its publication is much to be welcomed.