{"id":3909,"date":"2017-10-30T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T01:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3909"},"modified":"2017-10-30T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T01:09:51","slug":"batys-review-frodshams-li-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3909","title":{"rendered":"Baty’s Review Frodsham’s Li He"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0726\/9203\/products\/Li_He_cover_2048x2048.jpg?resize=338%2C522&ssl=1\"<\/a>Tank Magazine<\/em> has published Jamie Baty’s review of The Collected Poems of Li He<\/em> \u674e \u8cc0 (<\/abbr>c. 790\u2013c. <\/abbr>817), translated by J. D. Frodsham, under the title of “The Sound of Glass<\/a>.” Baty writes:<\/p>\n

Frodsham presents Li as a po\u00e8te maudit<\/em> in the mould of Baudelaire, or Rimbaud. From the first pages of the introduction, Li\u2019s \u201cmodernity\u201d is illustrated with a quote from the 20th-century writer Hugo Friedrich; Baudelaire\u2019s poem \u201cL\u2019Invitation au voyage\u201d is quoted to illustrate Li\u2019s (categorically non-Western) conception of heaven; his approach to composition is likened to the poetic philosophy of Gautier and the Parnassiens. Such examples masquerade as glimpses of an interconnected network of culture entirely free from geography or history, but in reality they assert a profoundly European sense of linear \u201cprogression\u201d, with the ultimate effect of claiming Li as some form of non-Western, proto-modern Western modernist.<\/span><\/p>\n

But on many occasions, when he is trying most concertedly to claim Li for the \u201cmodern\u201d West, Frodsham is defending himself from those who claim the translation of Chinese poetry to be altogether impossible.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite this interesting frame, I should point out some slight errors in the review: the book is credited as being published by “University of Hong Kong Press,” but in fact it’s Chinese University Press, in coordination with New York Review Books; also, the review states that the book is “the second English translation of Li\u2019s work published in the 50 years,” but since it’s a reprint, the referenced earlier translation may be Frodsham’s, as well (I find a 1970 version as well as a 1983 version)<\/span><\/span><\/span>–and of course this does not include the various piecemeal translations that have appeared in anthologies, journals, and scholarly writing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Tank Magazine has published Jamie Baty’s review of The Collected Poems of Li He \u674e \u8cc0 (c. 790\u2013c. 817), translated by J. D. Frodsham, under the title of “The Sound of Glass.” Baty writes: Frodsham presents Li as a po\u00e8te … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[247,317,1920,1919,1917,1922,1918,1921],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-113","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4428,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4428","url_meta":{"origin":3909,"position":0},"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. 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