Mammoth work on Marx translations grinds to a crawl in China

Mar 14, 2008, 6:28 GMT

Beijing - Work in China on the first direct translation from the German of the complete works of Karl Marx has hit a hurdle as the world marks the 125th anniversary of the death of the 'father of communism.'

The 60 volumes of the second Chinese-language edition of 'The Complete Works of Marx and Engels' won't be completed in the foreseeable future because of shortages of staff and young personnel, said Jiang Renxiang, a department head in the Communist Party's translation office in Beijing.

'Progress is slow,' Jiang said 125 years after Marx died on March 14, 1883, after writing such political and economic works as Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto, which he penned with fellow German Friedrich Engels.

So far, the first 20 volumes have been completed and the work on those alone took 18 years, Jiang said.

The main reason behind the delay is the lack of new qualified translators, he said, adding that it takes eight to 10 years to train competent talent.

In addition, 18 of the department's 35 qualified translators are now working on the compilation of the 10 volumes of Marx's selected works. Those 10 books were to be published last year, but their release has been delayed until winter 2008 or early 2009.

Today, there is no direct translation of Marx's complete works into Chinese. The first edition was based on a translation of his writings into Russian from the 1950s.

Jiang said that initial work is incomplete and does not meet academic muster. The new edition contains additional explanations and material, he said.