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Turkey: Ahmed Midhat Efendi (Ahmet Mithat; 1844 - 1912), author and journalist, and publisher of the <i>Tercuman-I Hakikat</i> newspaper from 1878. He was a prolific writer, with more than 250 of his works having survived.
José Martí (1853 - 1895) is regarded as the greatest of all Cuban national heroes. He was politically active from an early age and went into exile in the United States where – after some initial exuberance at the relative personal freedom – he learned to recognise 'the entrails of the monster he was living in'. He returned to Cuba in 1895, but was killed without firing a single shot during his first skirmish with the Spanish occupiers. Nevertheless today there is a bust of Marti, ‘the sincere man from the land of the palm tree’, in every town, village and hamlet in Cuba.
José Martí (1853 - 1895) is regarded as the greatest of all Cuban national heroes. He was politically active from an early age and went into exile in the United States where – after some initial exuberance at the relative personal freedom – he learned to recognise 'the entrails of the monster he was living in'. He returned to Cuba in 1895, but was killed without firing a single shot during his first skirmish with the Spanish occupiers. Nevertheless today there is a bust of Marti, ‘the sincere man from the land of the palm tree’, in every town, village and hamlet in Cuba.
José Martí (1853 - 1895) is regarded as the greatest of all Cuban national heroes. He was politically active from an early age and went into exile in the United States where – after some initial exuberance at the relative personal freedom – he learned to recognise 'the entrails of the monster he was living in'. He returned to Cuba in 1895, but was killed without firing a single shot during his first skirmish with the Spanish occupiers. Nevertheless today there is a bust of Marti, ‘the sincere man from the land of the palm tree’, in every town, village and hamlet in Cuba.
Jože Abram (also known as Josip Abram Trentar ), was born in Stanjel on February 2, 1875. He is most famous for his translation of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko's romantic poetry collection <i>Kobzar</i>.
Poland: Engraved portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer and mathematician, c. 1850. Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 - 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance astronomer and mathematician from Royal Prussia, part of the Kingdom of Poland. Copernicus was a polyglot and polymath, and obtained a doctorate in canon law. Throughout his life, he served also as a governor, diplomat, economist, physician, translator and classic scholar.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, also known by his Latinized name Rhazes or Rasis (854 CE – 925 CE), was a Persian polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine.<br/><br/> A comprehensive thinker, Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to various fields, which he recorded in over 200 manuscripts, and is particularly remembered for numerous advances in medicine through his observations and discoveries. An early proponent of experimental medicine, he became a successful doctor, and served as chief physician of Baghdad and Rey hospitals.<br/><br/> Gerard of Cremona (Latin: Gerardus Cremonensis), c. 1114–1187, was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Spain and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of the books had been originally written in Greek and were unavailable in Greek or Latin in Europe at the time.<br/><br/> Gerard of Cremona is the most important translator among the Toledo School of Translators who invigorated medieval Europe in the twelfth century by transmitting the Arabs and ancient Greek knowledge in astronomy, medicine and other sciences, by making the knowledge available in the Latin language.
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era.<br/><br/> He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death.
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges KBE (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986), was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language literature.<br/><br/> His best-known books, <i>Ficciones</i> (Fictions) and <i>El Aleph</i> (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion. Borges' works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre.
José Martí (1853 - 1895) is regarded as the greatest of all Cuban national heroes. He was politically active from an early age and went into exile in the United States where – after some initial exuberance at the relative personal freedom – he learned to recognise 'the entrails of the monster he was living in'. He returned to Cuba in 1895, but was killed without firing a single shot during his first skirmish with the Spanish occupiers. Nevertheless today there is a bust of Marti, ‘the sincere man from the land of the palm tree’, in every town, village and hamlet in Cuba.
(Muhammad) Marmaduke Pickthall (7 April 1875 – 19 May 1936) was a Western Islamic scholar, noted for his English translation of the Qur'an.<br/><br/> A convert from Christianity, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as a journalist, headmaster, and political and religious leader. He declared his conversion to Islam after delivering a talk on ‘Islam and Progress' on November 29, 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.<br/><br/> In 1920 he went to India with his wife to serve as editor of the Bombay Chronicle, returning to England only in 1935, a year before his death at St Ives, Cornwall. It was in India that he completed his celebrated translation, 'The Meaning of the Glorious Koran'.
James Legge (Chinese: 理雅各, Lǐyǎgè; December 20, 1815 – November 29, 1897) was a noted Scottish sinologist, a Scottish Congregationalist, representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong (1840–1873), and first professor of Chinese at Oxford University (1876–1897). In association with Max Müller he prepared the monumental Sacred Books of the East series, published in 50 volumes between 1879 and 1891.
Xuanzang ( Wade–Giles: Hsüan-tsang, c. 602 – 664) was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period. Born in Henan province of China in 602 or 603, from boyhood he took to reading sacred books, including the Chinese Classics and the writings of the ancient sages. While residing in the city of Luoyang, Xuanzang entered Buddhist monkhood at the age of thirteen.<br/><br/> Due to the political and social unrest caused by the fall of the Sui dynasty, he went to Chengdu in Sichuan, where he was ordained at the age of twenty. From Xingdu, he travelled throughout China in search of sacred books of Buddhism. At length, he came to Chang'an, then under the peaceful rule of Emperor Taizong of Tang. Here Xuanzang developed the desire to visit India. He knew about Faxian's visit to India and, like him, was concerned about the incomplete and misinterpreted nature of the Buddhist scriptures that reached China. <br/><br/> He became celebrated for his seventeen year overland journey to India, which is recorded in detail in his autobiography and a biography, and which provided the inspiration for the epic novel Journey to the West.
Writing essays in vernacular Chinese for the influential magazine La Jeunesse, Zhou was a key figure in the May Fourth Movement. He was an advocate of literary reform, and called for literary reform. In a 1918 article, he called for a 'humanist literature' in which 'any custom or rule that goes against human instincts and nature should be rejected or rectified'. As examples, he cited children sacrificing themselves for their parents and wives being buried alive to accompany their dead husbands. Zhou's ideal literature was both democratic and individualistic. On the other hand, Zhou made a distinction between 'democratic' and 'popular' literature. Common people may understand the latter, but not the former. This implies a difference between common people and the elite.<br/><br/> His short essays, with their refreshing style, have won him many readers since then up to the present day. An avid reader, he called his studies 'miscellanies', and penned an essay title 'My Miscellaneous Studies'. He was particularly interested in folklore, anthropology and natural history. He was also a prolific translator, producing translations of classical Greek and classical Japanese literature. Most of his translations are pioneering, which include a collection of Greek mimes, Sappho's lyrics, Euripides' tragedies, Kojiki, Shikitei Sanba's Ukiyoburo, Sei Shōnagon's Makura no Sōshi and a collection of Kyogen. He considered his translation of Lucian's Dialogues, which he finished late in his life, as his greatest literary achievement. He was also the first one to translate (from English) the story Ali Baba into Chinese (known as Xianü Nu). He became chancellor of Beijing University in 1939.
Matteo Ricci, SJ (October 6, 1552 – May 11, 1610; simplified Chinese: Lì Mǎdòu; courtesy name: Xītài) was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission.<br/><br/> Xu Guangqi (simplified Chinese: 徐光启; traditional Chinese: 徐光啟; pinyin: Xú Guāngqǐ; April 24, 1562 – November 8, 1633), who later adopted the baptismal name Paul (simplified Chinese: 保禄; traditional Chinese: 保祿), was a Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming Dynasty.
Matteo Ricci, SJ (October 6, 1552 – May 11, 1610; simplified Chinese: Lì Mǎdòu; courtesy name: Xītài) was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission. Painted in 1610 by the Chinese brother Emmanuel Pereira (born Yu Wen-hui), who had learned his art from the Italian Jesuit, Giovanni Nicolao. The age is incorrect: Ricci died during his fifty-eighth year. The portrait was taken to Rome in 1616 and displayed at the Jesuit house together with paintings of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. It still hangs there.
Father Ferdinand Verbiest (9 October 1623 – 28 January 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, later part of the modern state of Belgium. He was known as Nan Huairen (南懷仁) in Chinese.<br/><br/> He was an accomplished mathematician and astronomer and proved to the court of the Kangxi Emperor that European astronomy was more accurate than Chinese astronomy. He then corrected the Chinese calendar and was later asked to rebuild and re-equip the Beijing Ancient Observatory, being given the role of Head of the Mathematical Board and Director of the Observatory.<br/><br/> He became close friends with the Kangxi Emperor, who frequently requested his teaching, in geometry, philosophy and music. Verbiest worked as a diplomat and cartographer, and also as a translator, because he spoke Latin, German, Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, and Italian. He wrote more than thirty books.
Born in Henan province of China in 602 or 603, from boyhood he took to reading sacred books, including the Chinese Classics and the writings of the ancient sages. While residing in the city of Luoyang, Xuanzang entered Buddhist monkhood at the age of thirteen. Due to the political and social unrest caused by the fall of the Sui dynasty, he went to Chengdu in Sichuan (Szechuan), where he was ordained at the age of twenty. From Xingdu, he travelled throughout China in search of sacred books of Buddhism. At length, he came to Chang'an, then under the peaceful rule of Emperor Taizong of Tang. Here Xuanzang developed the desire to visit India. He knew about Faxian's visit to India and, like him, was concerned about the incomplete and misinterpreted nature of the Buddhist scriptures that reached China. He became famous for his seventeen year overland journey to India, which is recorded in detail in his autobiography and a biography, and which provided the inspiration for the epic novel Journey to the West.
Kumarajiva, (Chinese:Jjiumoluoshi; 344 CE – 413 CE) was a Kuchean (Kucha, Kuqa) Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator. He first studied teachings of the Sarvastivada schools, later studied under Buddhasvamin, and finally became a Mahāyāna adherent, studying the Madhyamaka doctrine of Nagarjuna. He settled in Chang'an (modern Xi'an). He is mostly remembered for the prolific translation of Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit to Chinese he carried out during his later life.
Joseph Marie Amiot was born at Toulon. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the Qianlong Emperor and spent the remainder of his life at Beijing. He was a correspondent of the Académie des Sciences, official translator of Western languages for Emperor Qianlong, and the spiritual leader of the French mission in Peking. He died in Peking in 1793, two days after the departure of the British Macartney Embassy. He could not meet Lord Macartney, but exhorted him to patience in two letters, explaining that 'this world is the reverse of our own'. He used the Chinese name Qian Deming while he was in China.