Translating Classical Chinese Poetry and Prose

1
Translating Classical Chinese Poetry and Prose

• David Deterding
• National Institute of Education

2
Focus on

• Du Fu
• Lao-zi's Dao-de-jing

3
Loss in Translation

• Translation inevitably involves loss.
• For poetry, full explanatory notes help offer a
  full appreciation of the original.
• Maybe also for prose translation of the
  Dao-de-jing benefits from substantial background
  notes.

4
The Poems of Du Fu
5
Areas of Loss

• rhyme
• metre
• parallelism
• compact style
• ambiguity
• imagery (symbolism)
• allusions

6
Rhyme

• The syllable at the end of each couplet rhymes.
• Rhyme is rarely retained in the translation.

7
Rhyme Poem 1

• Line 2 ?
• Line 4 ?
• Line 6 ?
• Line 8 ?

8
Metre

• These poems all have 8 lines
• 5 (or 7) characters per line
• Each line is broken into two parts 2 3 (or 2
  2 3)
• The translation has no fixed metre.

9
Parallelsm

• The second and third couplets have a parallel
  structure.
• Each character has a related (or antithetical)
  matching character.
• There is no parallelism in the translation.

10
Parallelism Poem 1

• ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ?

11
Parallelism Poem 1

• ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ?

12
Compact Style

• Poem 1 has 40 characters
• The translation has 90 words.
• Compact text can suggest multiple meanings.

13
Ambiguity

• ? ? ? ? ?
• "The layered clouds begin at the climbers
  heaving chest"
• Problem look at last line the writer appears
  not to be climbing the mountain.

14
Alternative Translation

• ? ? ? ? ?
• "Layered clouds appear from a bulge in the side
  of the mountain."

15
Which is Correct?

• Maybe the poem carries both meanings.
• The compactness of poetry is open to multiple
  interpretations.
• It is hard to retain these in a translation.

16
Translation as Poetry?

• It would be possible to translate it as poetry.
• This could also suggest multiple interpretations.
• However, inevitably the interpretations suggested
  would be different from the original.

17
Imagery (Symbolism)

• All words carry lots of symbolism.
• What is the symbolism behind 'rose'?
• This symbolism differs between languages.
• What is the symbolism behind
• 'bat'?
• 'red'?
• This symbolism is generally lost in translation.

18
Imagery in Poem 1

• ? "greenness"
• ? ? "Ch'i and Lu"
• ? ? "northern and southern slopes"

19
Allusion

• There is (probably) no allusion to external
  stories or events in Poem 1.
• We need to look at other poems to see allusion

20
Let us consider these issues once more, referring
to the other poems.
21
Rhyme

• Sometimes the rhyme is no longer perfect because
  of sound changes in Chinese.

22
Poem 6

• ? shen
• ? xin
• ? jin
• ? zan

23
Detour

• Rhyme can sometimes carry meaning.
• Consider the following poem written by someone
  leaving a company after a few years working there.

24

• So, farewell my friends,
• Everything good one day ends.
• I've been here five years,
• And together, we've shed many tears.
• But a few things I won't miss,
• Such as coffee tasting like it was brewed some
  time ago,
• Some theories I never quite mastered,
• And a boss who's a real nice guy.

25
Meaning from Rhyme in Du Fu?

• It seems unlikely that there is any added meaning
  from rhyme like this in Du Fu's poems.
• However, the potential for indicating meaning
  through rhyme exists.

26
Metre

• As with all good poets, Du Fu sometimes breaks
  the fixed metre.
• This creates a fresh effect.

27
Poem 11

• ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ?

28
Parallelism Poem 29

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• (Su Tung-p'o thought this the best seven-syllable
  couplet in the language.)

29
Detour

• Does parallelism extend into modern prose?

30

• ?????????,???????,??????????,?????????????????????
  ??????????,?????,??????,?????,????,??????
• (from ? ? ? ? ? by ??,
• ? ? ? ? 1997?11?22?)

31

• ?????????,???????,??????????,?????????????????????
  ??????????,?????,??????,?????,????,??????
• (from ? ? ? ? ? by ??,
• ? ? ? ? 1997?11?22?)

32

• ????,?????,
• ????,?????

33
questions

• Is such parallelism more common in writing by
  people from Taiwan?
• Should we try to maintain any parallelism in
  translation?

34
Ambiguity Poem 6

• ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ?
• The flowers shed tears of grief for the troubled
  times, and the birds seem startled, as if with
  the anguish of separation.

35
Null Subjects

• Chinese is a null-subject language.
• Maybe the first line has a null first-person
  subject. (Can flowers shed tears?)
• Maybe the flowers are an adverb of place.
• If this is right, then the next line should have
  a similar structure.

36
Alternative translation

• ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ?
• Troubled by the times, I shed tears on the
  flowers, and hating separation, I am startled by
  the birds.

37
Symbolism Poem 11

• ? ? ?
• symbolises an exile's letter home

38
Symbolism Poem 21

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• "The Court of the Northern Star remains
  unchanged."

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
41
Northern Star ?
42
Symbolism Poem 21

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• "The Court of the Northern Star remains
  unchanged."
• The Northern Star symbolises the Emperor, because
  everything revolves around him.

43
Symbolism Poem 16

• ? "cypresses"
• ? ? "yellow oriole"
• ? "brocade"
• what symbolism do these words carry?

44
Allusion Poem 16

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• "The importunate humility of those three visits
  resulted in the grand strategy which shaped the
  world for a generation."

45
Allusion Poem 21

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• "As evening falls I shall sing a song of
  Liang-fu."

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Allusion Poem 29

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• "Sleeping Dragon and Horse Leaper ended in the
  yellow dust. "

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Symbolism / Allusion

• Sometimes the distinction between symbolism and
  allusion is fuzzy.
• However, both cause problems for translation.
• Maybe detailed notes are the answer however,
  detailed notes are an admission of failure.

48
The Dao-de-jing
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Parallelism

• Is the Dao-de-jing verse or prose?
• Maybe there was no clear distinction in Classical
  Chinese.

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Parellism Verse 1

• ? ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? ? ? ?

51
Translation of Verse 1

• The Tao (Way) that can be told is not the eternal
  Tao
• The name that can be named is not the eternal
  name,
• (Wing Chit Tsan, A Source Book in Chinese
  Philosophy, Princeton Princeton University
  Press, 1963)

52
Alternative 1

• The Dao that can be expressed is not the eternal
  Dao .
• The name that can be named is not the eternal
  name.
• (http//www.imperialtours.net/daoism.htm)

53
Alternative 2

• The Way that can be experienced is not true
• The world that can be constructed is not true.
• (Peter A Merel http//www.chinapage.com/gnl.html)

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Alternative 3

• Dao may be accepted as "Dao", but that would
  conflict with the constant motion of Dao.
• A name may be accepted as a "Name", but that
  would conflict with the constant motion of what's
  been given a name.
• (by Nina http//www.daoisopen.com/Chapter1.html)

55
Ambiguity Verse 1

• ? ? , ? ? ? ?
• ? ? , ? ? ? ?
• "The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth
• The Named is the mother of all things."

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Alternative 1

• ? , ? ? ? ? ?
• ? , ? ? ? ? ?
• "Non-existence" I call the beginning of Heaven
  and Earth.
• "Existence" I call the mother of individual
  beings.
• (http//www.imperialtours.net/daoism.htm)

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Alternative 2

• The Way manifests all that happens and may
  happen
• The world represents all that exists and may
  exist.
• (Peter A Merel http//www.chinapage.com/gnl.html)

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Alternative 3

• Everything started out without needing to be
  named or categorized.
• When they were seen as things that needed to be
  nurtured, they were then given names.
• (by Nina http//www.daoisopen.com/Chapter1.html)

59
Symbolism Verse 5

• ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ?
• Heaven and Earth are not humane,
• They treat all things as straw dogs.
• "straw dogs" ???

60
Symbolism Verse 5

• ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ?
• How Heaven and Earth are like a bellows!
• "bellows" ??

61
Finally

• ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ?