Notable works
The Paper Menagerie (2012)
The Grace of Kings (2015)
English translation of The Three Body Problem (2015)
Notable works
The Man Who Ended History : A Documentary
TRANSLATOR’S POSTSCRIPT By KEN LIU
Thank You.
Ken Liu
TRANSLATOR’S POSTSCRIPT By KEN LIU
Standards of translating
Ken Liu
The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture’s patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language’s rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people’s gestures and movements.
《汉书·叙传上》：‚宽明而仁恕‛。
‚我想象中这个日本公司应该喜欢引用古文，来表达他们尽管 对历史有悔意，也希望中国能以‘仁’的心态来宽恕。‛
Labels that fit with various degrees of accuracy
American, Chinese; Christian, Daoist, Confucian; populist, contrarian, skeptic, libertarian (small “l”); bridge-builder; a liminal provincial in America, the New Rome.
”
Ken Liu
Standards of translating
Ken Liu
In translating, my goal is to act as a faithful interpreter, preserving as much of the original’s nuances of meaning as possible without embellishment or omission. Yet a translator must also balance fidelity to the source, aptness of expression, and beauty of style.
/about/
The Three-Body Problem
Three Body Series
她陶醉在这鲜红灿烂的梦幻中，直到被一 颗步枪子弹洞穿了胸膛。十五岁少女的胸膛是 那么柔嫩，那颗子弹穿过后基本上没有减速， 在她身后的空中发出一声啾鸣。年轻的红 卫兵 同她的旗帜一起从楼顶落下，她那轻盈的身体 落得甚至比旗帜还慢，仿佛小鸟眷恋着天空。
“ I’ve found linguistic
differences to be easy, but cultural differences to be hard. Science fiction, especially “hard SF,” tends to be easy to translate, as the scientific concepts and references to science culture are generally shared with Western readers.
American
Occupation
Author, Translator, Lawyer, Programmer
2012 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie“
2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie"
”
Ken Liu
“ Literary Chinese, however, can be replete
with fixed expressions and allusions to classical texts and Chinese history whose full meanings are impossible to convey to a non-Chinese reader without footnotes. Works that play meta-fictionally with the Chinese literary tradition are even harder, as the very meaning of the text depends on extensive knowledge of other Chinese texts.
Ken Liu
KEN LIU (translator) a writer, lawyer, and computer programmer.
By 徐时金
Ken Liu
Born
1976 Lanzhou, China Awards and honors
2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, winner, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
Three body Movie
Poster
Q&A
In your many translations from Chinese into English, which concepts have you found to be the most difficult to translate? Have you found any that were impossible?
2013 Hugo Award for best Short story, winner, "Mono no aware" 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary"
Nationality