Found in Translation
Parker Palmer and I talk about The Courage Way in China and more about books as diplomacy
Late Friday afternoon, I was so excited to go to the post office and pick up a package from China. Inside was my long-awaited copy of the Chinese edition of The Courage Way: Leading and Living with Integrity, which I wrote for the Center for Courage & Renewal in 2018. Over the past year, I’ve had many emails with the book’s translator that have grown from a quick reply to a pen-pal friendship (more about that below).
But first, this great video (best viewed on mobile devices), recorded back in June, when I had the honor to talk with author/educator Parker J. Palmer to mark the occasion. The publisher asked us to introduce the book’s release at a special conference for teachers in China, “The 2nd Teachers’ Courage & Renewal - U Evolution Forum,” a free public welfare forum.
We were told that Parker’s book The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life is famous among the Chinese top teachers and has more than 200,000 fans in China. His book sparked a worldwide movement of teachers rejoining “soul and role,” affirming their calling as educators, that spread to other serving professionals such as physicians and health care professionals, nonprofit and business leaders, public servants, and a global network of facilitators. The Courage Way shows how such leaders are living into the concepts first described in The Courage to Teach.
A Friendship Found in Translation
I also had the honor of connecting with the book’s translator, Laurence Luo, who first reached out via LinkedIn to clarify a phrase in a Rumi poem that a leader I interviewed spoke aloud (page 119). “Be afraid but don’t move the way fear makes you move.” To have someone else besides me and my editor care so deeply about every word in the book was a joy.
It’s actually rare for an author to get to know her translator, from what I’ve been told. Laurence said “But this is always important to me for personal connection, so that my translated words (even in Chinese) could sound like that from the original author – it can only happen when I know the author as a person.”
Laurence let me see his inner translator at work, such as describing a day he was in his kitchen cooking while listening to a radio program when he heard a phrase about an ancient Chinese hero. A light bulb went off and he suddenly knew how to translate a passage in the book.
Or another day when he was facilitating a leadership workshop for a “Teal” organization (a phrase from Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organizations), and how there was a conversation where he could bring in his understanding of courage having just finished translating my poem, “It Takes Courage.” What an honor!
To continue connecting as regular people has made the world seem a much smaller and friendlier place.
I wish that more people in the US could know of the good work he describes happening in China, about the heartfelt, earnest efforts to lead organizations according to principles of integrity, courage and trust.
The photos below show the book launch at the educators’ conference in China, Laurence Luo making an introduction; photos from a retreat he led where he used The Courage Way book with leaders hiking during the day and discussing the book in the evening; and me happily on the day I received my copy.
Below is an email exchange where Laurence answered my question about how the word “fortify” translated into Chinese. The graphic above is how I picture these concepts I wrote about in the Introduction chapter (here’s a free PDF of that chapter). During stress, we tend to go to our default corners of fight, flight, freeze and flock, but we always have a choice (and a practice) to get centered and fortify ourselves to respond under pressure. Fortify comes from the word fortitude, which comes from the 13th century word fortitudo. The word courage comes from the Latin cor and French coeur, for heart. I love the combination, “strength of heart” to describe what it takes for people to connect with their true self and step into their courage.
Seeing the Chinese characters and understanding his process of translation was a true highlight in my author journey. It’s awe-inspiring to see how these words are formed in another language. There is so much beauty and complexity in our world!
In a way—a courage way, perhaps—this getting to know each other feels like a mutual diplomatic mission.
In a way—a courage way, perhaps—this getting to know each other feels like a mutual diplomatic mission. One of the practices I wrote about is called “holding tension in life-giving ways.” What if more leaders were able to build trust and hold tension in ways that crossed lines of difference and led to new ways of knowing, teaching, healing, leading, and living? What if we each knew that more leaders on all sides of this world were honestly concerned and committed to growing personally and professionally for the greater good?
Book Club Handouts, a Highlight
Over the weekend, Laurence sent me these handouts from an ongoing Courage Way book club for teachers in China. A visual illustrator tracked the key concepts being studied.
The picture below summarizes the content and structure of The Courage Way, mainly based on “A Reading Guide from the Translator” that he composed, placed before the original content in the Chinese version.
This one below shows the Courage & Renewal Touchstones, such as “Speak your truth in ways that respect other people’s truth.”
The following summarizes the chapter 7 on “the courage to answer one’s calling,” which happens to be the chapter that Laurence first reached out to me about.
Many Thanks!
Special thanks to the book’s translator, Laurence Luo, for transcribing not only the book but this video conversation with Parker Palmer and adding Chinese subtitles. Thanks to Beijing Jie Ten Culture Media Co, Ltd. for the invitation to make this video, and to the Center for Courage & Renewal for supporting people in renewing our courageous spirits, amplifying our inner teacher, and cultivating the stamina to keep showing up for ourselves, others, and the causes we care about. See more about the book at www.courageway.org and learn about the Circle of Trust approach.