Besides Xiao Hong, the largest number of books of one author that Goldblatt has translated is Mo Yan. Mo gained international recognition with Red Sorghum, which enabled director Zhang Yimou to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988.

Goldblatt's translation of Mo's Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (Shengsi Pilao) is published this year. Mo is "one of those gracious individuals who sings the praises of his translator as often as his translator sings his as a novelist", Goldblatt says.

Through translation, Goldblatt says he has made a few friends among Chinese novelists.

"In part that is a result of the trust the authors - few of whom read English - have placed in me, and in part it is due to their willingness to deal with inevitable queries regarding difficulties, even errors, in their texts."

However, "translated literature from China plays a modest role in affecting views and understanding of China these days", Goldblatt says. In the US, translators who are devoted to Chinese literature are few and readers interested in this genre are limited to academic circles. These difficulties have not stopped him from turning out significant works year after year.

"The satisfaction of knowing I've faithfully served two constituencies keeps me happily turning Chinese prose into readable, accessible, and - yes - even marketable English books," Goldblatt was quoted as saying in the Washington Post, 2002.

In January, another of Goldblatt's translations won international recognition. The Moon Opera (Qingyi) written by Bi Feiyu appeared on the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize list, inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honor fiction in translation.

"I'm delighted, as much for the affirmation of my choices of what to work on, as for the translations themselves," Goldblatt says, adding that he is working with Sylvia Li-chun Lin on Bi Feiyu's Three Sisters (Yumi), another book that features women as major protagonists.

"This is a bit of a departure from most male authors. Bi is a very creative writer for whom the use of language is a major concern," Goldblatt says.

Faced with sharp linguistic differences, Goldblatt is happy to take on the challenges of dealing with the intricacies of cross-cultural communication.