A recent photo of Gabriel García-Noblejas.

My interests focus on the excellent Chinese literature, which is an infinite, profound, varied and astonishing trove. It is true that there is also good contemporary Chinese literature. But my interests focus more on the classical. Because the classical literature of China transmits an artistic and spiritual message that has great relevance for any reader in any country today. Chinese classics shed light on the present world.

The reason I came to Beijing in 1993 to study the Chinese language and Chinese culture at the Beijing Foreign Studies University was because of the classical literature in general. Thanks to those years of study, I was able to realize my interests, getting to know the vast panorama of Chinese literature, spirituality and philosophy.

The first book that fascinated me, even before I came to China, was Tao Te Ching, of which I read a Spanish translation. That book seemed to me to combine everything that a work of literature can aspire to have: It had linguistic beauty and spiritual depth; it was full of luminous, dazzling and amazing metaphors that transmitted a spirituality we were unaware of in our culture. I read it first in Spanish, then in English while I was studying for a PhD at the Durham University. I never imagined at the time that I would translate it myself, years later, in 2016, into my own mother tongue. It was then I better grasped its beauty both in poetic form and in its spiritual depth.