Twenty Years After

As I was leaving the Academy of Fine Arts, feeling bored and aimless, my teacher, Mr. Lin Wenzheng, proposed that I help him translate the book “Twenty Years After.” Although the translation was mostly complete, the language used was too archaic and didn’t align with contemporary writing styles. He hoped I wouldn’t hesitate to lend him a hand. Fortunately, there was never any distinction between “you” and “I” in my relationship with Mr. Lin, so I agreed without hesitation. Due to the lengthy manuscript, spanning over 700,000 words, it took me 2 years, day and night, to finalize the draft. Unfortunately, due to the extended duration, by the time I finished, two versions had already been published. One was a simplified translation by Mr. Wu Guangjian, which was reduced by more than half, losing much of Dumas’ epic vision and merely narrating a story script. The other, published by Huacheng Publishing House, consisted of two thick volumes, but it contained numerous errors, and the rich literary descriptions and poems were omitted. For instance, Chapter 23, originally 22,400 words, was reduced to just 2400 words. What’s more, Chapter 8, titled “Les deux gaspards (Two Mice),” which refers to the Duchess of Longueville’s attempt to avoid public attention by digging a tunnel from the suburbs to Notre Dame for a rendezvous with Aramis, was mistranslated as “Two Gaspards” with a note claiming Gaspard was an ancient prophet, which is ridiculous. However, publishers believed that with two versions already available, releasing another might not sell well, so they weren’t willing to take the risk. Thus, several years of hard work by Mr. Lin and me went to waste. The original manuscript remains at Mr. Lin’s daughter’s home in Belgium, seemingly destined to never see the light of day!