Every Dream Needs a Push

EVERY DREAM NEEDS A PUSH

2nd version

Hardly anyone all over the world would miss a chance to hear about such prominent literary works as "War and Peace" by Lev Tolstoy, "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, or especially "Harry Porter", written by the legendary British writer J.K Rolling. In contrast, how many people globally may know about Vietnamese writers' works like "Chi Pheo" by Nam Cao or Xuan Dieu's love poems. Is that Vietnamese writers are less talented than foreign writers? Actually, the principle reason is that those literary works stand few chances of being translated into other languages. So, should we give it a go? I am driven by the desire of being one of the pioneers to bring these works to the world readers by becoming a literary translator and fulfilling my ambition of translating all Nam Cao's short stories into English.

In the first place, there is no doubt that a translator needs extensive experience and background knowledge, as well as cultural knowledge, so that he will be competent in comprehending the work in order to convey it into the target language precisely and beautifully. My bookshelf is packed with Nam Cao's short stories, which I have dip into dozens of times and been familiar with most of the characters there. Through documentary films and my grandfather's stories about Vietnamese poor people living in destitution and hopelessness before August Revolution, I am deeply sympathized with the penniless tenants and intellectual people in Nam Cao's stories. Fore sure, I will translate all his valuable works with all my heart and affection.

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