Yang Xianyi | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Yang in 1941 | |
| Born | (1915-01-10)January 10, 1915 |
| Died | November 23, 2009(2009-11-23) (aged 94) |
| Other names | Yang Hsien-i |
| Occupation | Translator |
| Spouse | Gladys Yang |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Yang Yi (sister) |
Yang Xianyi (simplified Chinese:杨宪益;traditional Chinese:楊憲益;pinyin:Yáng Xiànyì;Wade–Giles:Yang Hsien-i; January 10, 1915 – November 23, 2009)[1] was a Chineseliterary translator, known for rendering many ancient and a few modern Chinese classics into English, includingDream of the Red Mansions.[2]
Born into a wealthy banking family inTianjin, he was sent toMerton College, Oxford to studyClassics in 1936.[3]
There he marriedGladys Tayler. They had two daughters and a son, who committed suicide in 1979.[4]
Yang and his wife returned to China in 1940, and began their decades long co-operation of introducing Chinese classics to the English-speaking world. Working for theForeign Languages Press in Beijing, a government-funded publisher, the husband and wife team produced a number of quality translations. The works translated includeclassical Chinese poetry; such classic works asA Dream of the Red Mansions,The Scholars,Liu E'sMr. Decadent: Notes Taken in an Outing (老殘遊記), also known asThe Travels of Lao Can, and some ofLu Xun's stories.
Yang was also the first one to render theOdyssey into Chinese (prose) from theancient Greek original. He also translatedAristophanes'sOrnithes,Virgil'sGeorgics,La chanson de Roland andBernard Shaw'sPygmalion into Chinese.
He narrowly escaped being labeled a "rightist" in 1957-58 for his frank speaking.[5] However, Yang and his wife Gladys were imprisoned for four years as "class enemies" in 1968 during theCultural Revolution.[6] Gladys died in 1999.
He was also noted for writingdoggerel. His autobiography,White Tiger, was published in 2003.
After Yang Xianyi died in 2009,[6] his youngest sister, translatorYang Yi, compiled and edited a book including poetry translated by her late brother.[7] In 2022, a new edition was released by Chinese Translation Publishing House, calledBrother–Sister Translated Poems (兄妹译诗) orTranslated Poems by Yang Xianyi and Yang Yi, featuring more than 100 of their favorite poems.[7]
