{"id":699,"date":"2012-02-07T15:22:25","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T07:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=699"},"modified":"2012-02-07T15:22:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T07:22:25","slug":"on-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=699","title":{"rendered":"On Translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I teach translation, so I have no shortage of offered-up speculations and analyses, from my students and from myself, about why<\/em> a given translator might choose to translate a term or phrase one way over another. We all know about Ezra Pound’s formulation, for instance, of dichten = condensare<\/em><\/a>, and how that influenced a tighter economy of language in poetry, which translation has had to follow.<\/p>\n

And yet sometimes it comes down to some simple external influences. Working on the layout for Notes on the Mosquito<\/em><\/a>, for instance, we have to struggle at times to make a line, or even a whole poem, fit on the page. When Xi Chuan wrote \u73ab\u7470, should that be “roses,” or “the rose”? Sometimes it just comes down to which one’s shorter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I teach translation, so I have no shortage of offered-up speculations and analyses, from my students and from myself, about why a given translator might choose to translate a term or phrase one way over another. We all know about … 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":[3,16,7],"tags":[38,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-bh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=38","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":0},"title":"Xi Chuan on Tagore and Modern Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just came across the following video, a lecture by Xi Chuan in English from Spring, 2009, to the Columbia University Alumni Association in Beijing. He discusses the relationship between Xu Zhimo \u5f90\u5fd7\u6469 and Rabindranath Tagore in the context of China, India, and the West and their impact on modern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EXzoF_StHIU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2257,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2257","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":1},"title":"Lucien Stryk Prize Acceptance Speech","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Someone was impressed enough by my acceptance speech for the Lucien Stryk prize to suggest I share it here. So I am! It\u2019s a wonderful honor, both for me and for Xi Chuan, to be awarded the Lucien Stryk Prize for Asian poetry in translation. Any prize awarded by ALTA\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":109,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=109","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":2},"title":"Xi Chuan Interview","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The inimitable Paul Nelson met Xi Chuan when they both attended the Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival \u9752\u6d77\u6e56\u56fd\u9645\u8bd7\u6b4c\u8282 last August. After Xi Chuan's Copper Canyon reading in Seattle, Paul met with Xi Chuan for an interview, part one of which has just been posted on splab.org. In English, the interview\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":580,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=580","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":3},"title":"Xi Chuan on Tagore and Modern Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of the recently-concluded India-China Writers Dialogues, here's a re-post from October 7, in the earliest days of the Notes on the Mosquito blog: I just came across the following video, a lecture by Xi Chuan in English from Spring, 2009, to the Columbia University Alumni Association in Beijing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "India-China Writers Dialogues"","block_context":{"text":"India-China Writers Dialogues","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=282"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EXzoF_StHIU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":4},"title":"Chinese Poetry Posters in Germany","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing with the theme of Xi Chuan reports in German, here's an article summarizing some of the concerns and history of contemporary Chinese poetry, springboarding from the Chinese Poetry Poster campaign Xi Chuan organized for German cities a couple years ago. Again, if you don't read German, you can find\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":1398,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1398","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":5},"title":"Announcing Chinese Literature Dissertation Reviews","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We are delighted to welcome a new member to the Dissertation Reviews family. Lucas Klein will be the editor of our Chinese Literature series, set to launch fully in early 2013. If you are interested in reviewing for the new series, or having your dissertation reviewed, please contact chineselit@dissertationreviews.org. Introducing\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699"}],"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=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}