A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems. Various Authors

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      The Method of Translation

       Table of Contents

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      THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION

      It is commonly asserted that poetry, when literally translated, ceases to be poetry. This is often true, and I have for that reason not attempted to translate many poems which in the original have pleased me quite as much as those I have selected. But I present the ones I have chosen in the belief that they still retain the essential characteristics of poetry.

      I have aimed at literal translation, not paraphrase. It may be perfectly legitimate for a poet to borrow foreign themes or material, but this should not be called translation.

      Above all, considering imagery to be the soul of poetry, I have avoided either adding images of my own or suppressing those of the original.

      Any literal translation of Chinese poetry is bound to be to some extent rhythmical, for the rhythm of the original obtrudes itself. Translating literally, without thinking about the metre of the version, one finds that about two lines out of three have a very definite swing similar to that of the Chinese lines. The remaining lines are just too short or too long, a circumstance very irritating to the reader, whose ear expects the rhythm to continue. I have therefore tried to produce regular rhythmic effects similar to those of the original. Each character in the Chinese is represented by a stress in the English; but between the stresses unstressed syllables are of course interposed. In a few instances where the English insisted on being shorter ​than the Chinese, I have preferred to vary the metre of my version, rather than pad out the line with unnecessary verbiage.

      I have not used rhyme because it is impossible to produce in English rhyme-effects at all similar to those of the original, where the same rhyme sometimes run through a whole poem. Also, because the restrictions of rhyme necessarily injure either the vigour of one's language or the literalness of one's version. I do not, at any rate, know of any example to the contrary. What is generally known as "blank verse" is the worst medium for translating Chinese poetry, because the essence of blank verse is that it varies the position of its pauses, whereas in Chinese the stop always comes at the end of the couplet.

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      BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

      1. H. A. Giles, "Chinese Poetry in English Verse." 1896. 212 pp. Combines rhyme and literalness with wonderful dexterity.

      2. Hervey St. Denys, "Poésies des Thang." 1862. 301 pp. The choice of poems would have been very different if the author had selected from the whole range of T'ang poetry, instead of contenting himself, except in the case of Li Po and Tu Fu, with making extracts from two late anthologies. This book, the work of a great scholar, is reliable — except in its information about Chinese prosody.

      3. Judith Gautier, "Le Livre de Jade." 1867 and 1908. It has been difficult to compare these renderings with the original, for proper names are throughout distorted or interchanged. For example, part of a poem by Po Chü-i about Yang T'ai-chēn is here given as a complete poem and ascribed to "Yan-Ta-Tchen" as author. The poet Han Yü figures as Heu-Yu; T'ao Han as Sao Nan, etc. Such mistakes are evidently due to faulty decipherment of someone else's writing. Nevertheless, the book is far more readable than that of St. Denys, and shows a wider acquaintance with Chinese poetry on the part of whoever chose the poems. Most of the credit for this selection must certainly be given to Ting Tun-ling, the literatus whom Théophile Gautier befriended. But the credit for the beauty of these often erroneous renderings must go to Mademoiselle Gautier herself.

      4. Anna von Bemhardi, in "Mitteil d. Seminar f. Orient. Sprachen," 1912, 1915, and 1916. Two articles of Tao Ch'ien and one on Li Po. All valuable, though not free from mistakes.

      5. Zottoli, "Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae." 1886. Chinese text with Latin translation. Vol. V deals with poetry. None of the poems is earlier than T'ang. The Latin is seldom intelligible without reference to the Chinese. Translators have obviously used ​Zottoli as a text. Out of eighteen Sung poems in Giles's book, sixteen will be found in Zottoli.

      6. A. Pfizmaier, two articles [1886 and 1887] on Po Chü-i in "Denkschr. d. Kais. Ak. in Wien." So full of mistakes as to be of very little value, except in so far as they served to call the attention of the European reader to this poet.

      7. L. Woitsch, "Aus den Gedichten Po Chü-i's." 1908. 76 pp. A prose rendering with Chinese text of about forty poems, not very well selected. The translations, though inaccurate, are a great advance on Pfizmaier.

      8. E. von Zachs, "Lexicographische Beiträge." Vols, ii and iv. Re-translation of two poems previously mistranslated by Pfizmaier.

      9. S. Imbault-Huart, "La Poésie Chinoise du 14 au 19 siècle." 1886. 93 pp.

      10. S. Imbault-Huart, "Un Poète Chinois du 18 Siècle." (Yüan Mei.) Journ. of China Branch, Royal As. Soc., N.S., vol. xix, part 2, 42 pp.

      11. S. Imbault-Huart, "Poésies Modernes." 1892. 46 pp.

      12. A. Forke, "Blüthen Chinesischer Dichtung." 1899. Rhymed versions of Li Po and pre-T'ang poems.

      A fuller bibliography will be found in Cordier's "Bibliotheca Sinica."