Lithuanian translation of Wu Ming-yi’s novel published — Taipei Times
A Lithuanian translation of Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi’s novel “The Man with the Compound Eyes” has been published in Lithuania. The book was translated into Lithuanian by Vaidotas Bačianskas, who currently studies and lives in Taiwan, Taipei Times reports.
The novel centers on two very different protagonists: an exile from a mythical island and a woman on the verge of suicide. Their fates intersect after a tsunami washes a gigantic island of garbage onto Taiwan’s coast.
Work on the translation
In an interview with the Central News Agency, Bačianskas said that the greatest difficulty in working on his first full-length novel translated from Chinese was not understanding the text, but conveying the style and linguistic nuances of the original in Lithuanian.
According to the translator, he spent a great deal of time selecting the tone and wording so that the text would sound natural in Lithuanian while preserving the literary texture of the Chinese original. He also added the scientific names of endemic Taiwanese animals and plants mentioned in the novel to the edition so that readers could find additional information about them.
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Bačianskas deliberately translated some chapters in the present tense, seeking to convey the feeling that the events described are taking place right before the reader.
Meeting the author
Bačianskas became acquainted with Wu Ming-yi and his work in 2023, when he worked as the writer’s interpreter during his visit to Vilnius. He later came to Taiwan to study translation and finished reading “The Man with the Compound Eyes” just as the Lithuanian publishing house Phi knygos approached him with an offer to translate the book.
Initially, the translator planned to work with works about Taiwan’s history in order to help Lithuanians better understand the country. He later concluded that fiction can also convey an idea of Taiwan through an imagined world and the themes raised by its characters. Bačianskas has now also begun translating Yang Shuang-zi’s work “Taiwan Travelogue.”
