| Translator enjoys cracking 'Da Vinci Code' |
| Last Updated(Beijing Time):2006-05-13 12:10 |
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| When translating the mystery novel "The Da Vinci Code" into Chinese, Zhu Zhenwu had a feeling it would be popular. But he never expected it to be such a hit. |
Zhu, professor of Shanghai University's foreign language college, is the major Chinese translator for American author Dan Brown's work that has tantalized readers around the world.
Zhu has translated all of Brown's four novels, which also include "Angels and Demons," "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point," as well as a Dan Brown biography in the past three years.
Zhu's first brush with Brown's writing came while he was surfing the Internet. He read a plot review of "The Da Vinci Code" on Amazon.com in 2003.
"It was very brief, only a few pages, but it caught my attention immediately," said Zhu.
He recommended the book to a Chinese publishing house and got a copy of the page-turner from the United States.
From the morning he started reading, the professor was hooked. He said he was unable to put it down, as though a child immersed in an imaginary world.
"All I wanted to do that day was finish the book as soon as possible. I didn't stop even if when having dinner," Zhu said.
Zhu spent four months translating the novel. The professor said it was complicated as Brown incorporated numerous religious, medical and astronomical terms into the story that is heavily based on symbolism.
"Sometimes I was left dumb in front of those words," Zhu said. "Most translation work can be done successfully with my dictionaries and computer. But this time, my 100 dictionaries seemed helpless."
Besides looking up material in libraries, Zhu turned to professionals to make the translation as accurate as possible and ensure readers could understand the depth of the story.
Few translations sell well. Ten-thousand copies is considered a bestseller and 100,000 copies is almost unheard of, according to Zhu.
But the Chinese version of "The Da Vinci Code" broke a record, selling more than one million copies thus far.
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