Poem of the week: The One Hundred Years of Solitude of Chinese Poetry by Zeng Di
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/may/18/poem-of-the-week-zeng-di
In fact, of course, I came across it in PN Review, not Tesco's. The poet is the leading Beijing writer and scholar, Zeng Di; the translators, Ao Wang and Eleanor Goodman. Outlining their approach to translation, Goodman writes: "We are looking to keep as close as possible to the original poem in voice, tone, meaning, structure and emotional import, while simultaneously producing something readable in English. In fact, our ultimate goal is much more ambitious: an accurate translation that reads like an original poem."
[Note: the poet's name 臧棣 should properly be romanized Zang Di]
Comments
"…an accurate translation that reads like an original…"
Hmm, doesn't that sound like the goal of all translation?
Eric Abrahamsen, May 20, 2009, 2:14a.m.
The original poem is the last one on the bottom of this page:
http://www.zgyspp.com/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=2667
Interesting how "xin shi" becomes "Chinese Poetry". "The One Hundred Years of Solitude" of Chinese poetry. Hm. Works alright. The X of China. Appropriation. A world-famous, universally respected novel, a contemporary epic, of a mythical village. Picked out at the local global supermarket of metaphors, at least in the review. No, there's nothing from the novel in the poem. The original title shows the poem is part of an open discussion on form. There are many appropriations in the poem, the poem is about appropriation, and the English version is another successful appropriation. One observation: "就好像戒指是在别的地方拣到的" - as if the ring was picked up at another place. Picked up from the ground. This doesn't come out in the English version. Over all, the poem works very well in translation. It remains baffling - who is the "I", who is the "you", who or what is "it"? "It" is the poetry of the title. But still ...
Martin Winter, May 20, 2009, 8:39p.m.