Swiss translator wins Leipzig Book Fair Prize for "Monkey King" translation

A Swiss translator has won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize for the first ever complete translation of the Chinese literary masterpiece 'Journey to the West' into German, reports China News Service.

The German version of 'Journey to the West' translated by Swiss translator Eva Luedi Kong [Photo: Chinanews.com]

Receiving the award on Thursday, Eva Luedi Kong was highly praised for her translation by the prize organizer, who said the translation carried the spirit of "world literature."

"She [Kong] not only translated it from one language to another, but built a bridge between the cliffs of different eras and ways of thinking," said the organizer.

This is the first time that the complete text of the "Monkey King epic" has been translated into German. 

Published in October last year by Reclam, the first batch of 2,000 books was sold out almost immediately.

Swiss translator Eva Luedi Kong [Photo: leipziger-buchmesse.com]

The novel was also listed as one of the most suitable book gifts for Christmas by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in December last year. 

Kong says she spent 17 years researching and translating the novel, during which she did a large amount of reading of Chinese classical literature. 

She described it as a unique experience. 

Born in 1968, Kong lived in China for 25 years and holds a master's degree in ancient Chinese literature. 

'Journey to the West' is a Chinese fantasy, and one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, published in the 16th century. 

Swiss translator Eva Luedi Kong speaks at the Leipzig Book Fair, March 23, 2017. [Photo: leipziger-buchmesse.com]

It tells the adventures of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they traveled to the "west" (Central Asia and India) in search of the Buddhist sacred texts. 

The Leipzig Book Fair Prize, hailed as "the second most important German book-prize, after the German Book Prize" is an annual literary prize awarded to promising newly released literature in the categories of "Fiction", "Non-fiction" and "Translation".

The winner in each category is awarded €15,000.