{"id":3527,"date":"2016-07-18T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T01:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2016-07-15T10:32:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T02:32:55","slug":"klein-on-new-premodern-chinese-poetry-translations-in-larb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3527","title":{"rendered":"Klein on New Premodern Chinese Poetry Translations in LARB"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2016-07-15_1030\"<\/a>The Los Angeles Review of Books<\/a> @lareviewofbooks has published “Tribunals of Erudition and Taste: or, Why Translations of Premodern Chinese Poetry Are Having a Moment Right Now,” my take on what looks like something of a resurgence in translation into English.<\/p>\n

I use a nineteenth-century debate between Matthew Arnold and Francis Newman to frame a review of Chloe Garcia Roberts’s translation of Li Shangyin \u674e\u5546\u96b1, David Hinton’s translation of Wang An-shih \u738b\u5b89\u77f3, an anthology \/ travelogue by Red Pine (Bill Porter), and Stephen Owen’s translation of the complete Du Fu \u675c\u752b, alongside Ira Nadel on Ezra Pound and the New Directions re-release of Ezra Pound’s Cathay<\/em> (and mention of Gary Snyder, Bob Perelman, Paul Kroll, Eliot Weinberger, and more). Here’s how it ends:<\/p>\n

The stakes of poetry translation from Chinese are indeed the stakes both of how we understand translation and how we in the English-speaking world understand China. Translation is neither simply a matter for scholars to judge, nor is it something that can be left to the unaccountable imaginings of revelers in poetry \u2014 any more than China should be something only specialists or tourists alone can pronounce upon. Rather, bringing expertise and excitement together, translation can help expand our conceptions of poetry and of China, demanding more from ourselves, and more from it. The contentiousness may remain, but it can motivate us to create new and better representations.<\/p>\n

So will American poetry turn outward again, and in the process help redefine China as more than a strategic competitor, accused of currency manipulation by presidential candidates, or more than a polluted manufacturer to which we outsource abuses of human rights and labor? Will Chinese literature prove an old repository of poetic presentation from which the United States can both learn and create new beauty? Certainly larger historical and socioeconomic forces will determine the directions our poetry turns, but insofar as what we publish has any role, I see reasons for optimism \u2014 and in that optimism, a readiness to engage in the tensions of global and local that inhere in translation.<\/p>\n

The recent poetry collections covered in this essay demonstrate a hunger for new ways of understanding and appreciating China, and more are coming soon … With these additions reaching new audiences, we may see premodern Chinese poetry making it new once again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image for the full article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks has published “Tribunals of Erudition and Taste: or, Why Translations of Premodern Chinese Poetry Are Having a Moment Right Now,” my take on what looks like something of a resurgence in translation into … 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":[3,814,16],"tags":[1355,1730,401,434,180,47,38,435,1729,402,462,1441,375,393,1690,1728],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-UT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4183,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4183","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":0},"title":"Li Shangyin reviewed in the new Asymptote","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Li Shangyin, from New York Review Books, edited by Chloe Garcia Roberts with translations by with translations by Roberts, A. C. Graham, and Lucas Klein, won't be available until July 31, but it's already gotten reviewed in the new issue of Asymptote. Theophilus Kwek writes: Reading sense in tandem with\u2014and\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":4169,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4169","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":1},"title":"The Organization of Distance: Poetry, Translation, Chineseness","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Announcing the publication of The Organization of Distance Poetry, Translation, Chineseness by Lucas Klein What makes a Chinese poem \u201cChinese\u201d? Some call modern Chinese poetry insufficiently Chinese, saying it is so influenced by foreign texts that it has lost the essence of Chinese culture as known in premodern poetry. Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brill.com\/cover\/covers\/9789004375376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4428,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4428","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":2},"title":"Turner on Poets of the Late Tang Dynasty","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Matt Turner reviews The Collected Poems of Li He \u674e\u8cc0, translated by J.D. Frodsham, and Li Shangyin \u674e\u5546\u96b1, edited by Chloe Garcia Roberts with translations by Roberts, Lucas Klein, and A.C. Graham, for Music & Literature. His piece begins: Most American readers of Chinese poetry come to it through classic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/524ad679e4b031f96a6c0653\/t\/5c3a42641ae6cfa74d597dbb\/1547322033147\/Li_He_cover_1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4130,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4130","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":3},"title":"Li Shangyin Book Launch at Greenlight, Brooklyn","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An Evening Celebrating Li Shangyin Fort Greene store: Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 PM An Evening Celebrating Li Shangyin With Chloe Garcia Roberts and Lucas Klein Wine reception to follow Greenlight is thrilled to present an evening celebrating Li Shangyin, foremost poet of the late Tang dynasty, on the occasion of\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":4135,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4135","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":4},"title":"Li Shangyin Book Launch at Greenlight, Brooklyn","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An Evening Celebrating Li Shangyin Fort Greene store: Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 PM An Evening Celebrating Li Shangyin With Chloe Garcia Roberts and Lucas Klein Wine reception to follow Greenlight is thrilled to present an evening celebrating Li Shangyin, foremost poet of the late Tang dynasty, on the occasion of\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":2122,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2122","url_meta":{"origin":3527,"position":5},"title":"PEN Translation Grants for Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The PEN\/Heim Translation Fund has announced its 2013 winners. 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