Bulletin No. 1, 2012

28   Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2012 A Look into the World of Translators at Work H and-written manuscripts can often reveal the progression or the changes in the author’s thoughts. By studying autograph manuscripts, scholars can better understand the works and the writer. However, the drafts and notes, and other working papers of the translator have often not been preserved, or have simply disappeared. This phenomenon is one of the great losses to the worldwide translation community. The Translation Archive of The Chinese University of Hong Kong was created to remedy this deficiency and to preserve and make available rare first- hand materials that would otherwise be in danger of being lost or forgotten. On 1 February 2012, the Translation Archive at CUHK was inaugurated with the launch of ‘The David Hawkes Papers: An Exhibition’, part of the celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of its Department of Translation. A valuable source of primary materials for scholars of translation wishing to study the ‘translator at work’, the archive preserves and makes available rare first-hand materials, such as manuscripts of translations, early drafts and revisions, notebooks, books annotated by translators, and the correspondences between translators and publishers, between collaborating translators, and between translators and authors. The first important collection of materials to be deposited in the archive consists of the papers of the eminent translator of Chinese literature, Prof. David Hawkes , who died in July 2009 and is best known for his masterful rendering of the first 80 chapters of The Story of the Stone . His papers include many unpublished manuscripts, annotated books and letters. The papers, reviewed as a whole, provide fascinating insights into the working life of one of the great scholars and translators of our time. As Prof. John Minford , Professor Hawkes’ literary executor, said, ‘You’ll see from some of the records in the cabinets that David’s friends ranged from Qian Zhongshu, Liu Ts’un-yan and Wu Shichang, all of them formidable scholars of traditional Chinese studies at one end of the spectrum, to creative writers like Vikram Seth and the young Chinese poet Gu Cheng.’ The Hawkes Papers have been donated to the archive by Professor Minford with the kind consent of Mrs. Jean Hawkes , who said at the ceremony, ‘As far as I can remember, David never mentioned what he wanted to be done with his papers. But I am sure, and he would agree with me, this is the best place and the safest place to preserve them.’ From left: Prof. Leung Yuen-sang, dean of the Faculty of Arts; Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung, Vice-Chancellor; Mrs. Jean Hawkes, Prof. John Minford, professor, Department of Translation; Prof. Chan Sin-wai, chairman of the Department of Translation; and Dr. Colin Storey, University Librarian