Journey to the West (Library of Chinese Classics) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

This is the most complete and faithful translation of Journey to the West I have yet found. It is the third version of the story I've read, and unlike those other versions ("Adventures of Monkey King"/ISBN 0962076511 and "Monkey : A Journey to the West [ABRIDGED]"/ISBN 1570625816), it contains the complete and unabridged story, preserving very faitflly both the style and content of the original story.

This extreme faithfulness is both a strength and a weakness. It's a strength in that you get a real feeling for the scope of the original work, and you get to hear all the interesting little back-stories and side-stories that make Journey to the West one of the great works of Chinese literaure. It's a weakness because these stories often seem completely irrelevant, and may be quite confusing to someone who is not familiar with Chinese culture and religion.

For example, every time something happens in Heaven, Hell or in the palace of the Tang Emperor, the book includes a complete list of everyone who attended. In Heaven, at least, many of the names are descriptive (names of stars, constellations, etc.) and are therefore translated. In the Tang Emperor's palace, though, you'll get a list of 10 or 20 names in Chinese, and only some of the names ever get stories attached to them in the book (and I challenge any non-Chinese speaker to remember the names when they do show up again).

There's also a lot of poetry, and though the translations are good, translated poetry can never equal the original. In one sequence, a fisherman and a woodsman argue in verse for 10 or more pages of very small type, frequently singing songs set to tunes few non-Chinese would recognize by name. These characters are important only in that the end of their conversation sets up a conflict, so the only purpose of the sequence is to provide a chance to read the poetry. It's good poetry, to be sure, but it really can drag a bit.

You can't just automatically skip over all the poems, as you might do with Tolkien, either. Elements of the story are often told in verse. You can usually skim if you're not interested in a particular bit of verse, but don't skip it entirely.

The structure of the work is also surprisingly complex at times, especially given its age. It will at times veer far from the main thrust of the story to recount the entire life history of a character, and has many side stories that somehow tie back into the main plot several chapters later. You may at times find yourself wondering just why the author chose to include a particular bit of story, but there's almost always a payoff waiting somewhere down the line.

Another problem is that the style of the storytelling is not very concise. If someone in the story needs to recount what has happened to them, you'll get a second, (fortunately much abridged) version of an earlier portion of the story, written as dialog, this time. You could make similar sorts of complaints about many of the early great works of English fiction, or probably just about any other country's older fiction, so this is not really a strong criticism given the work's great age, but I often found myself wishing the author (or the translator) had just written, "he told them what had happened" and left it at that.

There were also many quirks of the translation that bothered me. The word "memorial" was used throughout instead of "memorandum". It took me quite a while to figure out that was what was going on. I read all of the abridged translation that also made the same mistake throughout, but still didn't figure it out until I was several chapters into this one.

Will all these complaints, you're probably wondering why I gave the book 4 stars. The fact is, for all its faults and quirks, "Journey to the West" is still one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. The Monkey King is without a doubt my favorite character in any work I have ever read or watched. The story of his journey is a brilliant parable on the jouney to enlightenment, while at the same time a story of great humor and exciting action. It also provides fascinating insight into the history and traditional culture of China.

If you want to get the whole story and can't read Chinese, this edition is your absolute best bet. (Indeed, it's pretty much your only bet.) Some of the other translations may be a faster read, but none are as satisfying.

There are, at present, two complete versions of the long Chinese comic novel "Journey to the West". One of them, the more recent, is published by Anthony Yu at Chicago University Press. The other, an older version made by W. J. F. Brenner for the Foreign Language Press, is made over five decades ago, but is as yet still not completely superseded.

Looking through the translations, it's obvious that both are worthy undertakings by two enthusiatic contemporary Sinologists. Anthony Yu, though not a native English speaker, is professor of East Asian studies at the Chicago University, an expert in his field, and an ethnic Chinese. Brenner is a long-time Sino translator who has rendered his fair share of Chinese classics into English. So how did these two translations fare compared with each other?

Brenner is a no-nonsensical and very sensible translator of the Wu Cheng'en's book. While he doesn't take great liberties with the text, when required, he demonstrates lots of felicities in reframing Chinese ideas and philosophies into English. Take the beginning for instance, a difficult passage which involves understanding of Chinese arithmetics and metaphysics. Here is Brenner's version:

"In the arithmetic of the universe, 129,600 years make one cycle. Each cycle can be divided into twelve phases: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. VIII, IX, X, XI and XII, the twelve branches. Each phase lasts 10,800 years.

"Now within a single day, the positive begins at the time I; at II the cock crows; at III it is not quite light; at IV the sun rises; V is after breakfast; and at VI one does business. VII is when the sun reaches noon; at VIII it is slipping towards the west; IX is late afternoon; the sun sets at X; XI is dusk; and at XII people settle down for the night."

This is elegant as is readable and comprehensible to an English audience. Although Brenner forgoes the nitty-gritties of exact transliteration, he did not excise anything of note, and got the gist of the passage right. One could imagine this is how the author would have composed in English.

Brenner's translation is consistently fine and accurate. His language is on the whole simple and easily understood as long you have a high school degree. Where Brenner is more limited, as compared to Arthur Waley's classic abridged "Monkey", is in recreating the full range of tones and satiric emotions of the original. "Journey to the West" is a satirical, high-spirited adventure story; Brenner is idiomatic and readable, but he can occasionally sacrifice some of the original's comic mischievousness. Here Waley is incomparable; though he may sound a little arch, one has no doubt Waley is at one with Wu Cheng'en's spirit. Brenner, on the other hand, can at times sound a little too matter-of-factly. There are moments where you will chuckle in delight reading Waley, but might not do so with Brenner.

Now to Anthony Yu's version. Made in the 1980s, it, too, is a highly commendable piece of work. The first thing one notices about it is its extreme faithfulness to the text - even more so than Brenner's. At times, it even strikes one as being slavish. One must praise his version for being so strictly straightforward, though at times this literalmindedness makes some word choices incomprehensible to English readers. Take his constant rendition of "Wood Mother" for instance, a term which has no meaning whatsoever in English, or "eating rice" for "taking a meal". This is a version especially good if you know your Chinese and would like a crib to read the original with. While maybe not as idiomatic as Brenner, Yu is even more academic and scholarly in that he attempts to translate every character of the language. Faithfulness to the letter of the text takes foremost priority, sometimes over readibility. The success rate is varying, but the translation is on the whole an admirable one.

Comparing the two, both Yu and Brenner can be recommended. Yu would be first choice if fidelity to the text is your priority. If you prefer your English to be more idiomatic and the story to flow better, Brenner should be considered. The two run pretty close and neither is yards ahead of the other. But Waley's translation is still a marvellous read, and even if it is highly abridged, it should under no circumstances be forgotten.

Journey to the West is probably the most well-known tale amongst Chinese folk the world over. It is a story that has been adapted in the form of operas, television series, cartoons and movies many times over. To be able to read a complete and unabridged version of this epic is a joy indeed. My only regret is that as a Western-educated Chinese, I am not able to read this masterpiece in it's original language. Although the translator does a very good job at translating the book, I am sure many nuances and subtleties of the Chinese language have been lost in the translation.

The story is a simple one. Set during the early Tang dynasty (the peak of Chinese civilisation), a holy Buddhist monk has to travel from China to India to collect the true Mahayana Buddhist scriptures from the Lord Buddha himself, in order to bring enlightenment to his fellow country men. The journey is a long and ardous one, not least because numerous demons lie waiting in ambush for a chance to capture and eat the monk, as his holy body will confer immortality on whoever eats it. Thus, the Goddess of Compassion assembles a strange group of bodyguards for the monk: the proud and mischievous Monkey, the lustful and greedy Pig, the loyal and steadfast Friar Sand, and a Dragon Prince transformed into a horse. Their various adventures are so full of humor and wacky hijinks that I cannot help myself from laughing out from time to time. Monkey is the ultimate Chinese version of the universal trickster-hero. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. You will not regret it for a moment.