Before I give my opinions about this novel which is so rich in contents about incests, I would like to give my high appreciations to the gentleman who has translated this very lengthy adult story.
In the theory of translation, we demand three major theories: Be loyal to the orginal writer. That is to say, do not change the existing meanings of the original writer.
Be smooth in translation. That is to say, the translated novel should carry very smooth flowing of the ideas of the novel. There should not be any rugged and strange translation that will make the readers to guess what the translated article is saying. Take one example, if a river is running downwards, it suddenly is blocked in front of it a piece of big rock. The river has either to flow only to one side or is divided into two streams and join together after they have passed through the rock. This means there will be a sudden pause before going on its running. This is not taken as a good translation if the translated novel's flow of meanings is blocked and checked in midway. Most of the readers will have to go back to the previous ideas or simply jump over what they do not understand the translated sentences.
Be completely conveying the ideas of the original writer. This is the most difficult technique because this can be done only by a translater who has very high control of both languages - the language in the original novel and the language in the translated novel. If the translator lacks a good foundation of the language used in the original novel, he will simply be unable to translate it. But even if he understands well the original novel but has weak foundation in the language translated, he will fail to express fully the whole meanings of the orginal novel.
Since we are not given the English version of the original novel, we cannot comment whether the translator has been loyal to the original writer or not.
But to be smooth in tanslation and be able to convey completely the original novelist's ideas, the translater has remarkably achieved these two points.
Reading this translated novel is a great enjoyment and enterainment. The movement of the whole novel is so smooth that we simply forget that this is a translated novel. It simply reads like a novel written in the first hand, not a translated one. All the sentence structure and use of words are so close and familiar to us. That is why we are very easily attracted by this novel because of his smooth translation which make us understand the novel without any difficulties.
The translater is also successful in conveying the original writer by using words and sentence structures whiich have made us realise the novel's ideas.
All in all, the popularity of this translated novel relies much on the beautiful translation of a gentleman who has an excellent control of both languages: the Chinese and English.
Now talking about this novel itself. Incest and adulteries are topics very much welcome by readers who are tired of the normal routine and boring sex life. They are just like the "Peeing Toms" who look for something mysterious by spy cameras or hidden holes. Their insterests will immediately attracted once they come across articles talking about abnormal sex relationship simply out of sex curiosity.
This story appears extrordinarily attractive because it starts by describing how an old USA lady (she is 50) seduces a young boy, who is still a male virgin, to have sex with her.
The success of the novel lies in the very minute and detailed descriptions of feelings of the boy who gragually comes into close contact with the old woman. (To be honest, physically speaking, the Westerners become mature at very young age, mostly at the age of 8 and becoming old after 45. Their breasts start to grow at the early stage and become dangling when they have reached the age of 40 - 45. So when the writer described how wonderful the sexy figures and firm breasts of a woman at the age of 50, we certainly won't believe it. But since it is a story, we need not to be so serious, don't we?)
The novellist has very high skill in describing his characters. How the old lady look like, what dresses she put on, what are the particular features on the face of the lady, her eyes, mouth, teeth, body scents, sounds of voices and many others all appeal to our 5 senses: seeing, hearing,smelling, tasting and touching.
The sexual descriptions are so explicit and inducing that the readers will indulge in reading the whole story on and on. The presentation of the steps of the old lady to have sex with her is very well plotted so that every reader likes himself to be as lucky as the boy.
This novel is very long, yet we will not feel boring because of the above reasons.
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