{"id":4230,"date":"2018-09-05T20:30:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4230"},"modified":"2018-09-05T10:15:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T02:15:44","slug":"wang-baihua-on-reading-dickinson-in-shanghai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4230","title":{"rendered":"Wang Baihua on “Reading Dickinson in Shanghai”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ASixth Tone<\/em> <\/a>has published a piece by Wang Baihua \u738b\u67cf\u534e of Fudan University (as translated by Katherine Tse) on her project to produce new and authoritative translations of Emily Dickinson into Chinese<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The mission of the translator is to accurately convey the language, aesthetics, poetics, and the social, psychological, political, religious, and philosophical context of the original work to readers who may be wholly unfamiliar with it,” she writes. In this light, it’s interesting how she has gone about managing what she calls the Collaborative Emily Dickinson Translation Project–a project that bears thinking about in light of Eleanor Goodman’s review of The Reciprocal Translation Project<\/em><\/a>–which she describes as “a global undertaking involving close to fifty Chinese and international writers, scholars, and translators”:<\/p>\n

With this in mind, in 2014 I worked with two U.S.-based Dickinson scholars \u2014 Martha Nell Smith and Cristanne Miller \u2014 to bring together nearly 50 experts from China and abroad to collaborate on a Dickinson translation project. We divided ourselves into 21 groups, with each group assigned a set of Dickinson’s poems to research, translate, and analyze. Participants included Chinese poets, translators, and researchers, as well as a group of senior Dickinson scholars from across North America, and the whole program was backed by Fudan University in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

This diversity of backgrounds and perspectives led to lively \u2014 sometimes heated \u2014 discussions about how best to understand and translate Dickinson\u2019s poetry. As the person in charge, it was difficult to get everyone on the same page, but most discussions were ultimately amiable and productive. For instance, the poet Wang Jiaxin [\u738b\u5bb6\u65b0<\/span>]<\/em> incorporated observations he had made during a visit to Dickinson\u2019s home into his interpretation of \u201cThere\u2019s a certain Slant of light\u201d (F320), while others worked to recreate what they saw as the \u201cavant-garde spirit\u201d of Dickinson\u2019s work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, are collaborative poetry translation projects “a messy, fraught endeavor,” as Goodman writes, or the best way to produce “readable, accurate translations of the world\u2019s greatest works,” as Wang states? Or does it come down to the particulars of the relationship between the various participants, and how able they are to listen to and respect each other?<\/p>\n

Click the image above for the full piece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixth Tone has published a piece by Wang Baihua \u738b\u67cf\u534e of Fudan University (as translated by Katherine Tse) on her project to produce new and authoritative translations of Emily Dickinson into Chinese. “The mission of the translator is to accurately … 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":[2027,1976,2025,2026,2024,132],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-16e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4025,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4025","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":0},"title":"Madrid on Chinese “Rhyme Spoilage”","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Anthony Madrid (writing for the Paris Review) doesn't like half-rhymes, slant-rhymes, or eye-rhymes: Everybody who cares anything for old poetry in English knows how it feels\u2014knows how awful it feels\u2014when a poem is rhyming away and then suddenly the rhyme goes off the rails for a second because English pronunciation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/noble-ladies-in-tang-dynasty-1024x300-1024x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/noble-ladies-in-tang-dynasty-1024x300-1024x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/noble-ladies-in-tang-dynasty-1024x300-1024x300.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/noble-ladies-in-tang-dynasty-1024x300-1024x300.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2586,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2586","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":1},"title":"Chinese Literature Dissertation Reviews: Sent-down Youth Literature in Post-Mao China","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Dissertation Reviews has posted Zhu Yanhong's review of Wang Yanjie's dissertation,\u00a0The \u201cSent-Down\u201d Vision: Poetics and Politics of Zhiqing Literature in Post-Mao China. Here\u2019s how it begins: Zhiqing \u77e5\u9752 writers are often considered by literary critics as a generation who express a profound sense of nostalgia in their writing. Yanjie Wang\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dissertation Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Dissertation Reviews","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=623"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1673,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1673","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":2},"title":"Petition to Macalester College in Support of Wang Ping","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Following last week's post on Wang Ping's grievance against Macalester College, here is a petition saying, simply: For more background and to sign the petition, click the image above. The beginning of the explanation reads: Wang Ping is an internationally renowned poet and professor at Macalester College in St. Paul,\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":3134,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3134","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":3},"title":"Goodman’s Wang Xiaoni on the Griffin Shortlist","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The shortlist for the International Griffin Poetry Prize--one of the most prestigious contemporary poetry prizes--has been announced, with Eleanor Goodman's translation of Something Crosses My Mind \u6709\u4ec0\u4e48\u5728\u6211\u5fc3\u91cc\u4e00\u8fc7 by Wang Xiaoni \u738b\u5c0f\u59ae, getting top billing. The judges are Tim Bowling (Canada), Fanny Howe (USA) and Piotr Sommer (Poland). Their citation reads:\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":2917,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2917","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":4},"title":"Wang Ping Reviewed in Rain Taxi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Andreas Weiland in Rain Taxi reviews Wang Ping's Ten Thousand Waves (Wings Press). Here's an excerpt: The last lines of the poem tell us that she realizes the consequences of her formality when she is back in the States, looking at the \u201ctrophy\u201d acquired for nine yuan during her visit\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":2681,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2681","url_meta":{"origin":4230,"position":5},"title":"Eleanor Goodman’s Wang Xiaoni on Circumference","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In advance of Something Crosses My Mind \u6709\u751a\u4e48\u5728\u6211\u5fc3\u91cc\u4e00\u8fc7, Circumference has published two Wang Xiaoni \u738b\u5c0f\u59ae poems as translated by Eleanor Goodman. Goodman writes: Wang Xiaoni is a poet of small gestures. The energy in her work comes not from grand pronouncements or abstractions, but from the details of daily life.\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\/4230"}],"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=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4234,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}