Eminent Chinese translator of Tolstoy dies at 93

Chinese translator Sheng Junfeng [Photo/Gmw.cn]

Chinese translator Sheng Junfeng, known by his pen name Cao Ying, died in a Shanghai hospital Saturday night at the age of 93.

Born in 1923 in east China's Zhejiang province, Cao Ying translated many Russian literary works into Chinese. He began to translate the complete works of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy in 1960. In addition to Tolstoy, he also translated other Russian authors including Mikhail Sholokhov.

Cao Ying was honored with the Maxim Gorky Literature Prize, a top honor in the Russian literary world, in 1987, the only Chinese translator to have won that award.

He will be mourned by a generation who grew up reading his translations. Zhou Limin, deputy curator of Bajin Memorial Hall, recalled his excitement when he bought Cao's "Anna Karenina" when he was in senior high school. "Holding the book, I felt I was the luckiest person in the world."

"Cao Ying and his translations have led countless readers to the hall of Russian literature. May he rest in peace," web user "Ninanjie" wrote on his Sina Weibo account.