The works of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature winner are set
to appear in Chinese next June, after China's prestigious
Shanghai
Translation Publishing House won the exclusive rights for
translation and publication.
The Hungarian writer Kertesz Imre is expected to be as widely known
as his compatriot, 19th-century national poet Sandor Petofi, whose
celebrated verse "Life is a treasure, Love even dearer; But to win
freedom I would throw both away!" became the motto of many young
Chinese intellectuals, and inspired them to dedicate themselves to
the cause of revolution.
The Swedish Nobel Academy said in its citation that Kertesz won the
prize "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the
individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history,"
referring to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and other minority
groups.
The Shanghai Translation Publishing House won the authorization
from Kertesz and his publishing house, Rowohlt Verlag, in Hamburg,
Germany, amid tense competition with six other Chinese publishing
houses.
Xu
Yanyi and Li Zhen, both professors with the Beijing Foreign
Studies University, have been invited to translate all three of
Kertesz's winning novels -- Sorstalansag (Fateless),
Kaddis a meg nem szuletetett gyermekert (Kaddish for a
Child Not Born), and A kudarc (Fiasco).
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2002)