{"id":4915,"date":"2020-11-23T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4915"},"modified":"2020-11-18T21:08:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T13:08:45","slug":"chan-on-smiths-problematic-translation-of-yi-lei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4915","title":{"rendered":"Chan on Smith’s “problematic translation” of Yi Lei"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Writing for 4Columns<\/a>, Andrew Chan has reviewed My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems<\/em> (Graywolf) by Yi Lei \u4f0a\u857e, translated by Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a nice contextualization of Yi Lei and her poetry, Chan gets to the goods of what he calls the “problematic translation”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturated with Smith\u2019s voice and propelled by her unerring ear for catchy bits of diction, these translations often feel more rewarding to read as a fresh batch of Smith\u2019s own poems than as interpretations of pieces written on the other side of the world decades ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He concludes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it\u2019s unfortunate that the always-fraught issue of translation will be distracting for any reader, like myself, who is proficient enough in both languages to recognize the glaring chasms in style, tone, and content. There exists an understandable but faulty assumption that certain languages are so distant from one another that translation requires a high degree of artistic license. But words still mean what they do. In many instances throughout the book, phrases, images, and metaphors that Smith and Bi could have brought into English with relative ease are needlessly contorted or jettisoned altogether, while elements that do not exist in the less flowery originals are allowed to proliferate like weeds … I emerged from My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree<\/em> in a state of confusion, grateful for having been introduced to Yi Lei\u2019s intoxicating voice and for Smith\u2019s undeniably supple musicality, but concerned about the false conclusions that English-only readers will draw from these willfully unfaithful renditions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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

Writing for 4Columns, Andrew Chan has reviewed My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems (Graywolf) by Yi Lei \u4f0a\u857e, translated by Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi. After a nice contextualization of Yi Lei and her poetry, … 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":[3,814,16],"tags":[2252,973,1909],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-1hh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4907,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4907","url_meta":{"origin":4915,"position":0},"title":"Tracy K. Smith on Co-translating Yi Lei","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Tracy K. Smith on Co-translating Yi Lei \u4f0a\u857e LitHub has published an article by former Poet Laureate of the United States (2017-2019) Tracy K. Smith, about her experiences co-translating (with Changtai Bi) Chinese poet Yi Lei \u4f0a\u857e (1951-2018) for her new book My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tracy_K._Smith_9132453-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3897,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3897","url_meta":{"origin":4915,"position":1},"title":"Tracy Smith on Chinese poetry and China","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"At SupChina Anthony Tao interviews US poet laureate Tracy Smith on her recent visit to Beijing, where she traveled to translate Yi Lei \u4f0a\u857e with Changtai Bi. Here are some excerpts from the interview: AT: And what is your relationship with Chinese poetry? TKS: I know a little bit about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/supchina.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Tracy-K-Smith-at-The-Bookworm-1200x900.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1325","url_meta":{"origin":4915,"position":2},"title":"Heather Inwood on Yi Sha","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Heather Inwood of Ohio State University has written an introduction to the work of Yi Sha \u4f0a\u6c99, \"lower-body\" \u4e0b\u534a\u8eab and \"post-colloquial writing\"\u00a0\u540e\u53e3\u8bed\u5199\u4f5c poet. Here's a sample of what she says: Although his profession as a writer and a college professor makes Yi Sha an intellectual in his own right, his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ou.edu\/clt\/02-02\/images\/Yi-Sha_2007TinekeDeLange.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4306,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4306","url_meta":{"origin":4915,"position":3},"title":"Through the Mist: Poetry, Translation, Conversation with Yang Lian and Richard Berengarten","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wNF1IzIu4b8 Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc reading with Richard Berengarten at the Cambridge University Poetry and Prose Society. 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