“From Words to Shores” | A Learning Journey: Season 4

For Brazilian Sinologist and translator Giorgio Sinedino, understanding a culture does not begin and end at a desk. In Macau, it can happen during a morning run, over an egg tart, in a student’s question, or while spending hours searching for the right way to carry a single Chinese character into Portuguese. From the Analects and the Dao De Jing to Lu Xun, Sinedino has spent years translating Chinese thought and literature for Portuguese-speaking readers. Yet for him, translation is never simply about finding equivalent words. Behind every word lies a world of history, emotion and everyday life. Moving between Chinese and Brazilian literature, between the classroom and the streets of Macau, he keeps approaching what can never be transferred all at once. Understanding, he believes, does not arrive at once. It approaches slowly.