Chinese version of Tagore’s ‘Stray Birds’ off shelves

Beijing, December 28

A Chinese translation of "Stray Birds", a collection of poems by Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, has been withdrawn after it spawned huge controversy, the media reported on Monday. 

Tagore's "Stray Birds" has long been deemed as a work of elegance and wisdom by its Chinese fans. But the new translation by Chinese writer Feng Tang has shocked readers with racy translations and sexual innuendos that are often misinterpreted, Xinhua news agency reported. 

Feng Tang, 44, is an author most known for a series of provocative novels about life in Beijing in the 1990s. In one sharply criticised case, Feng translated Tagore's original line "The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover" into Chinese that read "The world unzipped his pants in front of his lover." 

Considering the huge controversy sparked by Feng's translation, Zhejiang Wenyi Publishing House, the publisher of the translation, announced on Monday that it would pull the books off shelves and websites, and recall the sold ones. Users on Chinese microblog Sina Weibo chastised the translation as "a blasphemy against a classic". In a widely circulated article, children's author Zhang Hong called Feng's translation a cultural terrorist attack against young readers. — IANS