responsibilty

Follow-up to translators in china from XIULU

This article is from XinHua News, 23rd, Dec. 1998. It is written in memory of the establishment of Central Editorial and Translation Bureau of China 45 years ago. The purpose is to eulogize the translators? virtues and achievements and to sing praise for their lofty lives.
In the news report, all the translators working for the bureau are aloof from worldly interests and material pursuits. The only thing they care about is translation. There is one deputy bureau director, who translates the whole collection of Lenin, died in his office because he overworked himself for too long; there is also a director of English section, who entrusted her child totally to her mother?s care because she has no time at all but for translation; and there is a new graduate who gave up all the other better paid and more promising job offers and joined the bureau to translate.
One might wonder: why are they doing these? The ending of the news report gave a very peculiar answer: they chose the career that will benefit the human beings, and therefore they are prepared to accept all the hardships and sacrifices.
An indeed stylized answer, I would say. I actually believe if I search for more governmental organizations, I will find all of the staffs there are working for the interests of mankind.
?The interests of mankind?, ?the benefit of human beings?, ?the glory of our country? and ?the prosperity of socialist society?. I am not sure how abounded the official discourse is in phrases like these. The more I encounter them, the more I feel chilled.
The sense of responsibility has always been key elements in ethics. Many people may proudly assert that it is the most precious heritage we got from traditional Chinese culture. In my opinion, however, this collective responsibility means no more than a slave ideology.
People claim to work for the future of a country or human beings, however, they never consider if that is something they should / can responsible for. When everyone in a society is claiming to be responsible for its propensity, most often what we will see is the society ends up in a disaster. Cultural Revolution is one example that comes to mind. After such occasions, those who previously declared to be responsible for their country naturally retreated from their grand and heroic promises.
I sincerely believe that only when an individual claims for something that he indeed wishes to do, and at the same time is able to do, can we regard it as a responsible act. Responsibility, after all, belongs first to oneself rather than to the far away goals. It is an internal RIGHT, rather than an external OBLIGATION. Individuality defines a truly responsible person.

Xiu Wang : 20 Oct 2005 02:15 |  Tags: Related Translation |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem