{"id":144,"date":"2011-10-20T11:25:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T03:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=144"},"modified":"2011-10-30T15:01:43","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T07:01:43","slug":"translation-cultural-distinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Translation & Cultural Distinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his introduction <\/a>to Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan from their 92nd St. Y reading on October 10th, Forrest Gander referred to something his Brown University colleague John Cayley <\/a>had said about classical Chinese poetry in English translation. Sylvia Lin and Howard Goldblatt, the translation editors of the NEA anthology Push Open the Window<\/em><\/a>, also picked up on the same statement, writing in their “Translation Co-Editors’ Preface”:<\/p>\n

When we agreed to take on this exciting project as translation editors, we were reminded of a comment that has long resonated with us, as readers and translators of Chinese literature and as “shameless” promoters of the best of it, in the original when possible and in translation otherwise. John Cayley, himself a translator and a publisher of Chinese poetry in translation, has written: “Incontestably, the translation of classical Chinese poetry into English has given us a body of work which is culturally distinct from the poetry of its host language but which has immediate appeal, and is often read with intense pleasure and a deep awareness of its moral and artistic significance.” The challenge, for us, was to assist in bringing over contemporary<\/em> poetry from China such that Cayley’s assertion could be modified by replacing a single word and remain true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is interesting to consider. Certainly what Cayley says is true, that English translations of classical Chinese poetry have been loved by readers and influential to poets who have little or no knowledge of Chinese as a language or a culture otherwise; Eliot Weinberger<\/a>‘s early Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei<\/em> <\/a>and more recent New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry<\/em><\/a> are testaments to this fact. And yet, when it comes to contemporary<\/em> Chinese poetry, I’m not so ready to agree (I’ve been critical<\/a>, for instance, of anthologies of contemporary Chinese poetry that seem to exploit the creativity of the translator and suppress what makes the original original).<\/p>\n

Certainly translating a poem from a thousand years ago and a poem from this decade are somewhat different activities. Certainly the cultural distinction of contemporary Chinese vis-\u00e0-vis the contemporary anglophone world is much less than the cultural distinction of China in the Tang <\/a>or Song<\/a>. Do facts of proximity–from globalization to immigration to travel to…–mean that we translators have less cultural leeway when dealing with contemporary Chinese writing than with writing from ancient China? In other words, do we have to make our translations less culturally distinct from their originals because contemporary Chinese originals are already closer to us than ancient Chinese originals? I find this question especially relevant to translating Xi Chuan, who often incorporates a view of classical China from (for instance, his series “Thirty Historical Reflections<\/a>” \u9274\u53f2\u4e09\u5341\u7ae0).<\/p>\n

This deserves more thought, of course, and I certainly don’t want to prescribe anything all translators everywhere have to follow. I will say this, though: my goal in translation is to satisfy three kinds of readers, those who read Chinese poetry, those who read poetry in English, and those who read translations. If I don’t think what I’ve written satisfies those three very different sets of demands, I don’t think I’ve written a good translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his introduction to Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan from their 92nd St. Y reading on October 10th, Forrest Gander referred to something his Brown University colleague John Cayley had said about classical Chinese poetry in English translation. Sylvia Lin … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,16,7],"tags":[17,19,18,20,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-2k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=105","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":0},"title":"Push Open the Window","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My copy of Push Open the Window: Contemporary Poetry from China (edited by Wang Qingping, with Howard Goldblatt & Sylvia Li-chun Lin as translation editors) arrived today, & I can't wait to read through it. One thing I didn't realize was that the title comes from my translation of \"A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/POTW-image-Notes-on-the-Mosquito.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/POTW-image-Notes-on-the-Mosquito.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/POTW-image-Notes-on-the-Mosquito.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/POTW-image-Notes-on-the-Mosquito.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/POTW-image-Notes-on-the-Mosquito.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":372,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=372","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":1},"title":"Chinese Names in Push Open the Window","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first wrote about the Copper Canyon anthology Push Open the Window, I said, \"My only quibble with the book so far is that, while everything is printed with Chinese and English en face, for some reason the Chinese characters of none of the poets\u2019 names made it into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=115","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":2},"title":"Forrest Gander’s Introduction of Xi Chuan & Zhou Zan","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The night of October 10 (the hundred-year anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution \u8f9b\u4ea5\u9769\u547d that ended the Qing Dynasty \u6e05\u671d), Forrest Gander introduced Xi Chuan, Zhou Zan, Marilyn Chin, and Li-young Lee at Manhattan's 92nd St. Y. Here's the text of his introduction: This occasion is as much a celebration of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Publications"","block_context":{"text":"Publications","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1477,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1477","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":3},"title":"Mo Yan\u2019s Jewish Interpreter","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tablet: A Read on Jewish Life, has a feature on Howard Goldblatt, translator of Nobel Prize-winner Mo Yan \u83ab\u8a00 and many other modern & contemporary fiction writers in Chinese. Here's how it begins: \u201cThey say translators are frustrated writers,\u201d Howard Goldblatt explained as he waited impatiently in his blue stick-shift\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":847,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=847","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":4},"title":"Xi Chuan at the London Book Fair","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The London Book Fair opens today, with China as the Guest of Honor. My friend the translator Bruce Humes compiled a list of China-related events, but his blog is down, so I'm re-posting here: April 16 Modern Chinese Masters: The launch of two new books in translation by Annie Baobei\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Jade Ladder"","block_context":{"text":"Jade Ladder","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=342"},"img":{"alt_text":"Digital Conference catch up","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.londonbookfair.co.uk\/RXUK\/RXUK_LondonBookFair\/images\/hero_full_registration_now_open.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.londonbookfair.co.uk\/RXUK\/RXUK_LondonBookFair\/images\/hero_full_registration_now_open.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.londonbookfair.co.uk\/RXUK\/RXUK_LondonBookFair\/images\/hero_full_registration_now_open.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1052,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1052","url_meta":{"origin":144,"position":5},"title":"Asymptote July 2012","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of Asymptote is out, featuring work by Rosmarie Waldrop, plus A Sinophone \"20 under 40,\" as well as: \"The Pocketwatch,\" a new translation of a Huang Chunming story (by Howard Goldblatt) Translations of Yang Mu's poetry (by Arthur Sze and Michelle Yeh) Translations of Ye Mimi's poetry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}