MTI Translation Practicum
We will read and translate together extracts from the 康熙幾暇格物編, a collection of notes by the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722) on subjects as varied as literature, the sources of the Yellow River, regional accents, and the shape of the earth. We will discuss the choices that face the translator when they render classical Chinese into a European language, and the criteria selected to make these choices.
In order to prepare for the Practicum, I suggest you look at the first chapter, which contains 25 notes, select one or two notes and draft a translation. This will enable us to work together starting from what you propose and from the questions you have.
Professor Catherine Jami 詹嘉玲, Director of Research, CNRS
Professor Catherine Jami is a director of research at the French CNRS. A former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, she has a dual background in mathematics and Chinese studies. Her PhD dissertation (1985, Université Paris-Nord) focused on an eighteenth-century Chinese mathematical work. Working at CNRS since 1991, she has studied the reception of European sciences introduced into China by the Jesuits from the early 17th century onwards. Starting with the mathematical sciences, she has extended her work in several directions: imperial science at the beginning of the Qing dynasty, with the publication in 2012 of The Emperor's New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority in China during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) (Oxford University Press); the role of elite mobility in the circulation of knowledge, with the edited volume Individual Itineraries and the Spatial Dynamics of Knowledge: Science, Technology and Medicine in China, 17th-20th centuries (Paris, Collège de France); the circulation of science between Europe and East Asia, with a series of books co-edited with Luis Saraiva.