Young translator challenges himself with Greek history books

Ngo Gia Thien An was born in 1999, graduated from the International Studies Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and was an exchange student at Greifswald University, Germany. She is currently working in the field of communication and translation.
Two works on Greek history that she has translated are:Anabasis - Memoirs of the Persian Expedition(released 12/2022) andMemorabilia(forthcoming). Both works are by Xenophon (430 BC - c. 355 BC), a Greek military strategist, philosopher, and historian, a student of Socrates. She also contributed translations to the project.How children learnby Book Hunter and some other skill books

Young people are passionate about Greek history books
Thien An's first and most favorite translation in the Xenophon series isMemorabilia, is still waiting for its release date. Although I joined the translation team, this was still a big challenge, because the work is deeply philosophical, including long dialogues and many tricky arguments. Thien An shared: "I had to put in a lot of effort to understand the way of thinking of the author - who lived thousands of years ago."
StillAnabasis - Memoirs of the Persian Expeditionjust released at the end of 2022 is the first book that Thien An has translated completely, with a completion time of two months. She said that the challenge of this work is Xenophon's writing style, which is also difficult for many other translators. During the translation process, she also consulted many documents of foreign scholars and translators and compared translations to ensure accuracy.
During the translation process, she realized that writing styles differed from period to period, even greatly. Many modern translators and scholars often complained that Xenophon often repeated himself, rewriting the same ideas over and over again. Ancient Roman authors, on the other hand, praised Xenophon for his graceful writing style and rich vocabulary.
The same is true of the thinking of each era. Reading Xenophon, she sometimes finds it very interesting, sometimes finds his reasoning illogical by modern standards. The eloquent speeches favored by Greek and Roman culture sometimes make her feel that he is repeating himself too much. According to Thien An, translators should stand with the author, blend into their era and see through their perspective.
“Fortunately, Xenophon often described in detail what he experienced, such as how he hunted bustards in the grasslands or tried drinking beer through a straw when traveling to a new land, while the ancient Greeks did not use straws. Without his works or those of other Greek writers, we would hardly be able to imagine the way of life and thinking of the ancients,” Thien An added.

Grateful to have read such meticulous and smooth translations early on.
Before starting to translate books, Thien An was just a reader, not often paying attention to translators of foreign books. However, there were still some translators who left a deep impression on her, including translator Nguyen Van Khoa with the bookGreek Mythologyand translator Truong Dac Vi with classic novelsDon Quixoteby Miguel de Cervantes.
She readGreek MythologySince she was a child, this is also the work that made her interested in learning about the culture and history of ancient Greek civilization. Until now, she still regularly reads works written about this civilization. That is also the important premise that helped her become a translator of books about Greek history such asAnabasisgoodMemorabilia.
StillDon Quixoteis her favorite work. Translator Truong Dac Vi not only translated each sentence to be true to the original but also, together with author Cervantes, reconstructed the fantastic world of Don Quixote, with all kinds of people from nobles to commoners to suit Vietnamese readers. Even the speeches, poems and songs in the book were translated very skillfully.
Thien An shared: “I feel grateful that since I was a child, I have been able to read works that were translated carefully, meticulously, and with a smooth writing style. The respect that the translator has for both the work and the author is something I always cherish.”
When asked which is her favorite translation work, Thien An said it is difficult to answer. Because book making is a process that requires the cooperation of many stages and the translator cannot control everything. If asked to choose, she would only dare to say that she likes to annotate translated books, and is satisfied with those annotations.
When translating books, she often reads books more carefully than usual. Therefore, the amount of knowledge she absorbs is also more and richer. Translation reminds Thien An to pay more attention to what she is reading, and helps her approach many new cultures, new knowledge that is normally difficult to learn on her own. Her favorite book genres are novels, popular science books, history and manga (Japanese comics). Currently, she said that she only reads about 5 books a year, including both English and Vietnamese.
She just finished reading the book series.A Song of Ice and Fireby George RR Martin. If possible, she recommends that readers read this work in both English and Vietnamese. She has read the Vietnamese version of the first book in the series.The Snow Wolf of Winterfelland found it interesting to compare the original English with Vietnamese, especially when the translator translated the system of people's names and place names very smoothly.

The Road to Becoming a Young Translator 
Going back in time, Thien An was the youngest poet of the young poetry stage at the event “14th Vietnam Poetry Day” in 2016, performing her own poetry in front of a large audience at the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam. That year, she was in grade 11 specializing in Literature, Nguyen Hue High School for the Gifted, Hanoi.
Showing her talent for poetry at an early age, she was the youngest member of the "Tropical" writing group of Kim Dong Publishing House. First collection of poemsTwinkling Starswas published when she was only 12 years old. She won the A prize for poetry in the "Young Writers' Pen" contest jointly organized by the Central Council of the Young Pioneers, the Young Pioneer Newspaper and the Vietnam Writers' Association in 2012. After those impressions, she continued to write poetry and stories, and won several other awards for young authors.
At university, she started translating articles and poems for newspapers and accumulated some experience. After graduating, she tried her hand at translating a skill book with a group of translators. The writing style of skill books is usually not too complicated, so her work was quite smooth. Continuing her success, she took on translating a number of other works and gradually became a young translator.
For young people who want to become translators, she said that they need to regularly read a variety of genres, or other forms such as watching movies, listening to music, playing games... from many different countries. Because each culture has its own allusions, stories, hidden meanings, idioms, slang, and wordplay. Try to enrich your own experience through these activities, each person will learn many useful things for translation work.