Ray Brownrigg
CHIN 489: Research Essay
2007
The Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry
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CHIN489
Research Essay
7 September, 2007
The Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry
Ray Brownrigg
Abstract
Classical Chinese poetry and, in particular, Chinese regulated poetry - also
known as Recent Style poetry - from the Tang dynasty offers the greatest
challenge to a translator. Not only must one deal with all the subtleties of
historical and cultural context and literary allusion but there is also the
challenge of the rendering of the strictly regulated form of the poetry into
another language. While most translators forgo this ultimate challenge,
concentrating more on an accurate translation of the intended meaning,
there is a great potential for reward from bringing the visual and aural
aspects of this poetry to the Western reader. This essay attempts to show
that such greater rewards are achievable, and that the inevitable trade-off
is worth it.
1. Introduction
Classical Chinese poetry is generally considered to have flourished most prominently
during the Tang dynasty (618-907AD). The particular genre of classical Chinese
poetry known as regulated or ‘recent style’ poetry came to prominence during this
dynasty. This genre, along with its immediate predecessor, known as ancient or ‘old
style’ poetry, influenced all Chinese poetry until the modern era, that is, for more than
one thousand years. The history of Chinese poetry is well documented (Liu & Lo,
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Mair, Owen, 1996, Minford & Lau). The history of the translation of Classical
Chinese poetry is well documented by Eliot Weinberger.
The translation of poetry in general is fraught with difficulties. In addition to the
usual difficulties of translation, there are the added difficulties of trying to preserve
the various poetic qualities of the original. The famous late-19th century Chinese
translator Yan Fu specified the three translation criteria of Xin, Da and Ya (信达雅),
literally translated as fidelity, comprehensibility (or fluency or expressiveness) and
elegance (or quality) (Yan, Zhong). Here fidelity refers to the original author’s
meaning, comprehensibility, fluency or expressiveness refers to the target language
and elegance or quality refers to the overall product of the translation. These
particular ideals have been discussed at length in the intervening century, and many
other ‘theories of translation’ have been expounded. The existence of various schools
of thought on the theory and practice of translation is manifest in the frequent
existence of a wide range of translations available for any particular item of literature1.
One point that must be emphasised is that the various goals can to some extent be in
conflict with one another, and so there are trade-offs to occur when performing a
translation. The resolution of these trade-offs must take into account the motives of
the translator, as well as such things as the target audience.
In the context of translation of Chinese regulated poetry there is a fourth conflicting
criterion which is not completely contained within Yan Fu’s three. This is the
preservation of the regulated physical form of the original. The physical form of the
original poem has no bearing on the preservation of the poet’s meaning, on the
fluency of the translation, or on the elegance of the resulting poem. If anything, the
adherence to regulations in the original poem is a measure of the language skills of
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The field of technical translation provides somewhat less flexibility in the finished product.
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the original poet. The reproduction of this skill in a translation is of course not a
reflection of the original poet, but of the translator. Nevertheless, there is no reason
not to aim to reproduce this skill in a translation, thereby revealing the full glory of
Tang poetry.
The reader, or more accurately the receiver, of translated poetry may be motivated by
one or more of a wide range of reasons for doing so. The two most disparate of these
are reading for enjoyment and reading for academic analysis. For the purposes of this
essay, the emphasis is on reading, or listening, for enjoyment, for which purpose the
technical quality of a translation is not considered to be as important as the perceived
enjoyment of the receiver2. As a corollary, this author believes that the primary
impact of a poem must occur on the first reading (or hearing, if the poem is being read
aloud by somebody else). Thus for the purposes of this essay, the ‘accessibility’ of a
poem to a wide audience is more important than technical quality. To this end, rhyme
and metre play a large part. That this should be the case is of course a personal
preference.
Now considering in particular the preservation of the form of regulated verse, there
are two aspects which may work in the translator’s favour. Firstly, English is a very
rich language; there often being many words which have the same or a similar
meaning. This should make it easier for the writer to conform to constraints of rhyme
and metre. Secondly, poetry that conforms to constraints will almost certainly contain
some contrivances, either in the choice of word or the choice of message, and thus the
need for accurate translation is reduced. Finally, considering the translation of poetry
in general, poetry is already an interpretation. It is the interpretation of the poet’s
2
Of course part of the process of deriving some enjoyment or entertainment from a poem may involve
some kind of analysis, but this – perhaps unconscious – analysis is to be distinguished from analysis for
its own sake.
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thoughts and feelings in the poet’s language of choice. Reinterpreting accurately
those thoughts and feelings in another language, while challenging, should not be
impossible, as long as it is possible to determine just what the poet’s thoughts and
feelings were. This again serves to reduce the need for concentrating on a strict
accuracy of translation, since the same thoughts and feelings can be expressed in
different ways using different actual words.
Good translated poetry is good poetry first and a good translation second, but it is still
necessary to have both a good translator and a good poet to produce a translated poem.
Nevertheless, the pre-existence of earlier attempts at translation can provide any
translator with the groundwork for a new translation.
Often regarded as the best ever classical Chinese poet, or at least the best proponent of
regulated verse, is Du Fu (712-770) (Owen, 1981 p.183, Hung). For this reason, there
are frequently many translations of Du Fu’s poems. Thus it seems appropriate to
choose Du Fu as the poet of study for this analysis.
The next section will provide some historical background to the flourishing of
classical Chinese poetry and in particular the regulated verse of Du Fu during the
Tang dynasty. Following this a selection of Du Fu's regulated verse poems will be
analyzed in terms of the 'regulations' to which they were expected to conform. Then
the process of discovering multiple translations is described, along with some analysis
of the different translations in terms of the conflicting aspects of accuracy,
faithfulness, quality and form. Finally some new translations are attempted to retain
the physical characteristics of the originals.
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2. Background
2.1 Poetry
Poetry can mean different things to different people, but the English word has a Greek
root meaning to create (“Poetry”). In this context a reasonable definition of what is
meant by poetry is “art created from language”. This definition makes no
assumptions about the particular language being employed, about the way in which
the art is recorded nor, more importantly, about the way the ‘artistic experience’ is
transmitted to the ‘receiver’.
2.2 Tang Dynasty Poetry
The development of Tang dynasty poetry had it roots in what is now known as gushi
(古詩), which began to be developed in the second century AD (Frankel p.213).
From then until the 5th century gushi was the predominant form of poetry,
characterized only by fixed-length lines and a fixed rhyme scheme. The first signs of
the development of the prosody rules which define regulated verse were evident in the
latter half of the fifth century with the issuing by Shen Yue in 488 of his manifesto on
tonal prosody (Mair & Mei p.378) (Chang “What is Jintishi?”). By the middle of the
sixth century various developmental schools of poets had worked through the
unresolved issues and refined the rules (Mair & Mei p.396) to what became jintishi
(近體詩), the name being used to distinguish it from gushi. The latter was not
replaced, but remained a valid poetic form even during the height of the popularity of
jintishi which occurred during the Tang dynasty.
The two basic forms of jintishi are lüshi (律詩) or "regulated verse", and jueju (絕句)
or "truncated verse" which are distinguished primarily by line length (eight and four
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lines respectively), and the jueju’s somewhat relaxed constraints on parallelism within
its couplets. These two forms are each then subdivided into their respective fivecharacter and seven-character forms, resulting in wulü (五律), qilü (七律), wujue (五
絕), and qijue (七絕).
2.3 Some General Comments on Translation
There are many journal papers, even complete journals, and monographs dedicated to
the theory of translation. However, the theory of translation is not the primary theme
of this essay. Here it is hoped to present an insight into a very narrow field of
translation; the translation of poetry, and not just poetry but Tang dynasty poetry, and
not just Tang dynasty poetry, but Tang dynasty regulated poetry written by Du Fu.
Nevertheless some general comments are still appropriate to the more specific task at
hand. Bente Elsworth writes “A translation is never a transparent pane of glass
allowing a perfect view of the original. It is always another text, a different work.”
(p.3) While this may be true of translation in general, it is particularly true of literary
translation. A corollary of this is that “This [translation] process never ends because
there can be no definitive translation of any one literary text.” (Bortolotti-van Loon
p.105)
2.4 Translation of Poetry
It is not only a ‘school of thought’ as mentioned in the introduction that determines
the balance of emphasis on conflicting ideals of accuracy, fidelity and quality. The
motives of the translator can significantly alter this balance. The context of a
translation includes aspects not only of the original text and author, but also those of
the translator and the intended audience. For example Tony Barnstone reports
“Sometimes I've deviated slightly from a literal translation in order to get an effect
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that I believe is truer to the poet's vision. There are no fast rules …” (p. 72) Richard
Jackson goes even further, quoting Stephen Mitchell “the well known translator of
Rilke” (without reference): “with great poetry, the freest translation is sometimes the
most faithful.”
2.5 Translation of Poetic Form
There are definitely conflicting schools of thought on the issue of translating poetic
form, or poetics in general – including rhyme, rhythm, parallelism and structure (such
as fixed line length). A good discussion of the dichotomy between form and spirit is
provided by Sin-wai Chan, who nevertheless concludes “It is imperative to realize
that as far as poetry translation is concerned, form cannot be reproduced.” (p.109)
Stephen Owen states “There is also no way to echo the forms of Chinese poetry and
still produce translations that are accurate and readable.” (1996 p.xliv), and much
earlier, William Hung had stated “I have found it difficult to cast my translation in
English meter and rhyme. […] I try, therefore to convey only Tu Fu's thought and
spirit, and cease to worry over form.” (p.13) Eliot Weinberger goes further to state
“Chinese prosody is largely concerned the number of characters per line and the
arrangement of tones – both of which are untranslatable. But translators …often may
be seen attempting to nurture Chinese rhyme patterns in the hostile environment of a
Western language.” (1987 p.5)
However there is no lack of contrary views. C. John Holcombe states “Free verse is
hopelessly inappropriate to the regulated, highly compressed and structured nature of
classical Chinese poetry.” (“Pros and Cons of the Draft”), and Arthur Cooper had
earlier commented that “much of our own 'free verse’ of today seems to me closer to
the Chinese fu than to either shih or tz’u. This I think an inherent fault in attempts to
translate Chinese metric verse into ' free verse' or prose.” (p.61). Tony Barnstone,
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referring to the emphasis on accurate translation at the expense of rhyme and meter - a
poem’s “right to sing” - comments “Too often translators have given Chinese poets
the resolution powers of an electron microscope, but have cut off their ears.” (p. 75).
2.6 Translation of Du Fu
The talent of Du Fu is unquestioned; he is frequently compared to Homer or
Shakespeare, yet his poetry is as yet not fully available to non-speakers of chinese.
That he was not particularly popular in his own time, and thus much of his work has
not survived to this day, is even more distressing. Arthur Waley, in the preface to his
1946 publication Chinese Poems, states “I have indeed made many attempts to
translate Li Po, Tu Fu and Su Shih; but the results have not satisfied me” (p.6). If
somebody with the experience and talent of Waley has found himself in this situation,
what hopes have most of us?
Du Fu is known to have produced over one thousand3 poems which have survived but
the largest anthologies in English4 that seem to be available are those of Florence
Ayscough with around 400 translations (in two volumes) and William Hung with 374.
This represents by far a minority selection of what is available. Other relatively
prolific translators of Du Fu into English include Burton Watson, Rewi Alley and A.
R. Davis, each with close to 200 translations.
3. The Poems Chosen
The particular selection of poems for this project was chosen during the process of
accumulating translations. Essentially the poems ‘selected themselves’ by being
3
Counts vary between approximately 1150 and 1450, depending on whether individual poems or just
separate titles have been counted – one title may have as many as twenty individual poems associated
with it.
4
Erwin von Zach has produced a translation of the complete works of Du Fu into German.
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poems for which a good selection of different translations was easy to discover. The
actual process is detailed further in Section 4. Table 1 below lists the 11 poems
chosen, with their titles in Chinese, pinyin and typical English translation. This is
followed by an analysis of these poems in terms of the regulations of jintishi.
Poem
Pinyin title
Typical English title
望嶽
wàng yuè
Gazing at Taishan
月夜
yuè yè
Moonlit Night
春望
chūn wàng
Spring Outlook
月夜憶舍弟
yuè yè yì shě dì
Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night
天末櫰李白
tiān mò huái lǐ bái
Thinking of Li Bai at the End of the Sky
客至
ké zhì
A Guest Arrives
春夜喜雨
chūn yè xǐ yǔ
Welcome Rain on a Spring Night
聞官軍收河南
河北
wén guān jūn shōu hé
nán hé běi
News that the Imperial Army has Recaptured
North and South of the River
旅夜書懷
lǚ yè shū huái
Night Thoughts of a Traveller
登高
dēng gāo
Climbing High
江南逢李龜年
jiāng nán féng lǐ guī nián Meeting Li Guinian South of the River
Table 1. List of poems chosen for analysis
3.1 Analysis of Original Poems
The rules governing ‘Recent Style Poetry’ involve the three aspects of tone, rhyme
and parallelism. In general there seems to be reasonable agreement over what the
rhyme and parallelism rules were, but there seems to be less general agreement
amongst researchers on the rules governing tones or, more generally, prosody.
There are available several different descriptions of the prosody rules governing
Regulated Poetry. These mostly differ in minor ways from each other, but
nevertheless this can affect the degree to which individual poems can be considered to
be conforming to the rules. The descriptions, summarised here in publication order,
will be referred to by the authors’ names. In order to highlight the differences
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between the published interpretations, the common aspects will be presented first and
then the different interpretations will be presented as refinements of these basic rules.
3.1.1 Basic Rules of Recent Style Prosody
1) All ‘regulated’ poems (lüshi or jueju) consist of four or eight lines of either five or
seven characters. All lines occur as couplets.
2) The same rhyme is used throughout, occurring at the end of even-numbered lines
and optionally at the end of the first line also.
3) There is a caesura between the second and third characters of each line and an
additional caesura between the fourth and fifth characters of each line in the
seven-character form.
4) When there are eight lines (lüshi), there is parallelism between the third and fourth
lines and the fifth and sixth lines, i.e. the second and third couplets each exhibit
parallelism.
5) All characters are divided into two groups of tones, known as level and deflected
tones. These are defined in terms of the Classical Chinese tones, with Level being
the original level tone, and Deflected being the original rising, falling and entering
tones.
6) Each line follows one of only four different tone patterns. These can be defined in
terms of the seven-character line, with the five-character line omitting the first two
characters (and the first caesura). The four patterns are as follows, where /
denotes a minor caesura, // denotes a major caesura, L denotes a level tone, D
denotes a deflected tone and a subscript R denotes rhyme5.
a) L L / D D // D L LR
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Note that there is an implied rule here that all rhymes occur in the level tone.
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b) D D / L L // D D LR
c) D D / L L // L D D
d) L L / D D // L L D
7) Each set of four lines follows one of four different sets of tone patterns. These are
defined in terms of the line patterns above, namely abca, badb, cadb or dbca. In
lüshi (eight lines), the patterns are abcadbca, badbcadb, cadbcadb and dbcadbca.
3.1.2 Variations Published
The variations that can be identified from the publications of earlier researchers are
almost exclusively related to the ‘liberty’ allowed in choosing the tones in some
positions within lines. The earliest found reference to the prosody of Chinese
Regulated Poetry is from John Fryer in 1901 (p.xcii), who does not specify the tone
rules, but as an example of “regular poetry” gives the pattern cadb above, but with the
fifth and seventh tones swapped. In association with rule 2) above, which he does
state, this pattern implies the use of rhyme on a deflected tone. While currently not
considered to be common, this is not at variance with some of the much more recent
descriptions such as Downer & Graham and Mair & Mei described below.
James J.Y. Liu (Liu, 1962 p.26) relaxes Rule 6 (”some liberty is allowed”) for the first,
third fifth characters of seven-character lines (and by extension the first and third
characters of the five-character form). If we signify an optional tone with a dash “-”
then according to Liu the four basic jintishi forms are:
- L / - D // - L LR - D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR
- L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR
- D / - L // - D LR - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR
- D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR
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- D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR
- D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR
- L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR
- L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR
G. B. Downer and A. C. Graham (p.147) also relax Rule 6 for the first and third
characters of each seven-character line, but do not extend this to the fifth character
(thus only the first character of five-character lines is affected). Further, they relax
the requirement that the rhyme be a level tone, though stating “The tone of the rhyme,
[is] normally but not necessarily level.” If the rhyme is a deflected tone, then this is
achieved by swapping the tones of the fifth and seventh characters (third and fifth
characters in the five-character form). Thus as well as the four basic forms listed
below, there are another four forms where the fifth and seventh tones are swapped.
- L / - D // D L LR - D / - L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / - L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- D / - L // D D LR - L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / - L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / - L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / - L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / - L // D D LR
- L / - D // L L D - D / - L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / - L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
Hans H. Frankel (pp213-215) uses the same basic structure as Downer and Graham
above.
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Wai-lim Yip (pp226-230) also relaxes Rule 6 for the first and third characters of the
seven-character line, but not for every line. In particular the a) lines in Rule 6) above
do not have any flexibility in the tone of the third character. Thus according to Yip
the four basic forms are:
- L / - D // D L LR - D / L L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- D / L L // D D LR - L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // D D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // D D LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // D D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
Victor H. Mair and Tsu-lin Mei (p.408) relax the tonal constraints of the first, third
and fifth characters of the seven-character form6 in the same way that Liu does but
they impose a stricter requirement on the non-rhyming characters at the line ends,
requiring these to “show maximum tonal differentiation among themselves”. This
phrasing is important because it is also stated (p.407) that the rhyme words may be
either level or deflected (with the non-rhymed line endings belonging to the other tone
category). Thus if the rhyme characters are (presumably all the same) one of the
deflected tones, the non-rhyming characters must all be the same level tone. This
would not violate the rule because there is no tonal differentiation possible with the
level tone. Further, Mair and Mei do not mention rhyme on the first line, but this is
6
Mair and Mei conduct their discussion purely in terms of the five-character form, but the first two
characters of the seven-character form are invariant over all other descriptions presented here.
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relatively easy to accommodate into their analysis consistently with the other analyses
presented here. Thus according to Mair and Mei the four basic forms are:
- L / - D // - L LR - D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D - L / - D // - L LR
- L / - D // - L D1 - D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D2 - L / - D // - L LR
- D / - L // - D LR - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D
- D / - L // - D LR
- D / - L // - D D1 - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D2 - D / - L // - D LR
- D / - L // - D D1 - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L D2 - D / - L // - D LR
- D / - L // - D Da - L / - D // - L LR - L / - D // - L Db - D / - L // - D LR
- L / - D // - L D1 - D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D D2 - L / - D // - L LR
- L / - D // - L Da - D / - L // - D LR - D / - L // - D Db - L / - D // - L LR
The further four forms incorporating non-level rhyme are assumed7 to be as follows,
where D1 represents the any one of the deflected tones, but remaining the same
throughout the poem.
- L / - D // - L D1R - D / - L // - D D1R - D / - L // - D L - L / - D // - L D1R
- L / - D // - L L
- D / - L // - D D1R - D / - L // - D L - L / - D // - L D1R
- D / - L // - D D1R - L / - D // - L D1R - L / - D // - L L - D / - L // - D D1R
- D / - L // - D L
- L / - D // - L D1R - L / - D // - L L - D / - L // - D D1R
- D / - L // - D L
- L / - D // - L D1R - L / - D // - L L - D / - L // - D D1R
- D / - L // - D L
- L / - D // - L D1R - L / - D // - L L - D / - L // - D D1R
- L / - D // - L L
- D / - L // - D D1R - D / - L // - D L - L / - D // - L D1R
- L / - D // - L L
- D / - L // - D D1R - D / - L // - D L - L / - D // - L D1R
7
The assumption here is that all rhyme words have the same tone.
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Edward C. Chang relaxes Rule 6 for the first character, most third characters and
some fifth characters of the seven-character form. This produces something similar to
Yip above where the a) lines of Rule 6 have no flexibility in the third character, but
with some extra flexibility in the fifth character of the b) lines. Thus according to
Chang the four basic forms are:
- L / - D // D L LR - D / L L // - D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // - D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- D / L L // - D LR - L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // - D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // - D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // - D LR
- D / - L // L D D
- L / - D // D L LR - L / - D // L L D - D / L L // - D LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // - D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
- L / - D // L L D
- D / L L // - D LR - D / - L // L D D - L / - D // D L LR
David Hawkes also analyses a selection of Du Fu poems in terms of prosody, but just
presents the results, without detailing the actual rules used as a basis for the analysis.
Nevertheless, those results proved to be very useful for the following analysis, since
they indicated quite clearly that current pronunciation is not sufficient for such
analysis. The first8 of our selected poems is specified by Hawkes as being gushi
rather than jintishi. This is reinforced by the significant lack of conformance to the
rules regarding tones, while still preserving the structure and rhyme exhibited by
gushi. For this reason, the first poem is omitted from the analysis following.
3.1.3 Analysis Results
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The selected poems are listed in generally agreed order of composition.
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Initial analysis of the chosen poems was carried out using current pronunciation as an
indicator of tones, the current first tone being considered equivalent to the earlier level
tone, and the current second through fourth tones being considered as the earlier
deflected tones. This proved somewhat fruitless, with large numbers of apparent tone
violations. Next a similar analysis was carried out using the current first and second
tones as an indicator of the earlier level tone as suggested by Edward C. Chang.
While this showed an improvement in the conformance of the poems to the rules,
there were still too many apparent violations to consider the method appropriate. In
particular, the two poems described by Hawkes as “formally perfect”, namely 春望
(chūn wàng) and 月夜憶舍弟 (yuè yè yì shě dì), still exhibited two and three tone
‘violations’ respectively9. Further, the current pronunciations did not seem to provide
the necessary matching rhymes for those two “formally perfect” poems. It then
became clear that the only way properly to check the tonal and rhyming compliance
of the poems was to find some description of the pronunciation of the time. A brief
foray into searching for “Tang dynasty pronunciation” resulted in the discovery of the
Unihan database (www.unicode.org/charts/unihan.html) which then led to Hugh M.
Stimson’s monograph, which provides “Middle Chinese” pronunciation for the
characters used in a large number of Tang poems.
Using the Stimson pronunciations, the formal perfection of the two poems cited as
such by Hawkes is confirmed. Further, it seems that several others of the self-selected
set are also completely compliant in terms of both tones and rhyme. Table 2 lists the
numbers of tonal non-compliances for the 10 chosen jintishi poems, according to the
various rule variations set out above10.
9
using the Downer and Graham rules
Fryer is not included here since his description is incomplete.
10
17
Title
\ Rulelist
Liu
Downer
Yip
Mair
Chang
yuè yè
2
4
4
2
4
chūn wàng
0
0
0
0
0
yuè yè yì shě dì
0
0
0
0
0
tiān mò huái lǐ bái
1
4
4
1
3
ké zhì
0
0
0
0
0
chūn yè xǐ yǔ
0
0
0
0
0
wén guān jūn shōu hé nán hé běi
0
0
0
0
0
lǚ yè shū huái
0
0
0
0
0
dēng gāo
1
3
3
1
1
jiāng nán féng lǐ guī nián
1
2
2
1
2
Table 2. Tone violations for selected poems.
Thus six of the nine11 lüshi poems show perfect tonal conformance according to all
the different tone rules defined above. As far as rhyme is concerned, all the poems
demonstrate perfect or near-perfect rhyme. To illustrate what is meant by “nearperfect” rhyme, the third poem in the table above uses the rhyme words hæng, shiɛng,
miæng, shræng and biæng in lines 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 respectively. Now while these use
two different phonemes for the finals of the characters, Stimson (p. ix) states that the
ɛng group of finals “could be collapsed” into the equivalent æng finals, indicating
that the distinction in sound was a historical one by the time of the Tang dynasty.
The remaining aspect of regulation that needs to be checked is the parallelism of the
two middle pairs of lines. In this regard, just two of the nine lüshi do not readily pass
this test. The first of these two is 月夜 (yuè yè), which seems not to exhibit
parallelism in the second couplet. The couplet, with its literal translation, is
遙
憐
distant pity/love
11
小
兒
女
little
son
daughter
The last of the ten poems in the table is a jueju.
18
未
解
憶
長
安
not
understand
remember
Chang an
where “little” and “remember” do not seem to conform in grammatical function.
However one of the features of Classical Chinese is that in general any word can
acquire any grammatical function if appropriate. Following this path, there are two
possibilities to remedy the lack of conformance. Firstly, 小(xiǎo) could be considered
to be a verb, in which case the meaning might be “belittle” or “reduce”, neither of
which seem to be appropriate. The second is to consider 憶 (yì) as an adjective, with
the meaning “memorable” which is possible, but apparently not previously considered
to be a likely meaning.
The other poem perhaps not conforming to the parallelism requirement is 月夜憶舍
弟 (yuè yè yì shě dì), for which the parallelism of the third couplet is questionable.
Here we have
有
弟
皆
分
散
have brothers
all
divide scatter
無
家
問
死
生
no
family
ask
die
live
where “all” and “ask” do not seem to conform, and it does not seem very easy to
consider 皆 (jie, all) as a verb, or to consider 問 (wen, ask) as a pronoun in this
context.
To summarise the analysis of the eleven chosen poems, one poem turns out to be
gushi, and 10 are jintishi, of which one is a jueju, and of the remaining nine, five are
fully conforming lüshi.
19
4. Existing Translations
One of the goals of this project was to find as many different translations as possible
for a selection of Du Fu poems. It was for this reason that the poems were ‘selfselected’, as mentioned above. The initial candidates were those poems published in
Du Fu Shi Xuan (Feng). Given this list of 167 poems, an initial scan of readily
available English language anthologies was performed in an attempt to find
translations. Two primary sources were considered to be readily available. These
were the VUW library and the internet. The VUW library electronic catalogue was
very readily able to provide lists of monographs containing appropriate keywords
such as “Chinese poetry” or “Tu Fu”. This then led to the discovery of particular call
numbers which were potentially fruitful, providing large numbers of relevant volumes
in a single physical location. The internet was also accessed primarily through a
search process, namely the Google search web site. Various search terms such as “Tu
Fu” or “Du Fu” in combination with “poetry” and/or “translation” provided a good
initial set of anthology web sites which were used to build up the numbers of
translations.
During this preliminary process, no attempt was made to ensure that the translations
were unique. Further, there was a potential for some translations to be overlooked
because of the way the title had been translated. Because this author was, at this very
preliminary stage, somewhat unfamiliar with any of the poems, it was only the
obviously matching titles that were recognised as matches. Apart from the similarity
of title, the one feature that was mostly used to confirm the potential of a match was
the number of lines in that translation, since most of the translations did match the
number of lines in the original poem. There were, however, some false positives
20
from similarity of titles, mainly due to the existence of multiple Du Fu poems on
similar subjects, such as the moon, night-time or rain.
This procedure resulted in an initial list of 16 poems which were found to have been
commonly translated. More accurately, this was a list of poems which occurred most
frequently in the anthologies available, without taking uniqueness into account. This
list was then at one stage extended by another 11 poems which did not appear in Du
Fu Shi Xuan but were nevertheless found to be reasonably commonly translated.
Eventually though the list was pared down to a final 11 of which only one was not
found in Du Fu Shi Xuan.
The next stage was to start collecting the translations together in electronic form so
that the unique ones could be identified, and so that the complete list could be
electronically published – one of the goals of this project. Interestingly, this task led
to a burgeoning of the numbers of translations found. In an effort to save
transcription from a printed document the procedure used was to take the first phrase
or line of a translation in a monograph, and enter that as an entire phrase into the
Google search engine. In most cases, a match was found, and almost invariably when
a match was found, the whole translation was available in electronic form. Of course
the chances of finding the complete translation were augmented by the fact that there
were no long poems in the final eleven poems chosen. The surprising result of this
process is that frequently the match occurred as part of an on-line anthology, which
provided even more translations of the chosen poems. Further, in several cases, large
selections of other translations of the same poem were discovered, usually by Chinese
translators. This explains why some of the chosen poems have more than twice the
average number of translations found.
21
The process of searching on an opening line was not restricted just to those
translations which were not already available in electronic form. Searching for a
poem which was already available on-line would lead to other web sites which
provided that same translation. Frequently some of those sites provided otherwise
undiscovered translations. These were not only alternate translations of the particular
poem specified for the search, but also included further translations of other poems on
the list.
One of the disadvantages of using the internet, of which every researcher should be
aware, is that the quality of the information available is unknown – and certainly
variable. For this reason one must be careful to verify independently any information
available from the internet, or alternatively to state explicitly that the information has
not been verified. During the process of accumulating translations as described above,
a variety of different sources of error were noticed. These include, but are not
restricted to the following:

Poems attributed to the wrong author

Translations attributed to the wrong translator

Misspellings of poem titles

Missing words or lines from translations

Incorrectly specified pinyin

Incorrectly specified Chinese characters for the original poem
Some of these errors found may genuinely fall into the category of ‘typographical
errors’, but the ease with which such errors can be – and indeed have been –
replicated by others means that extra care should be taken whenever publishing
electronically.
22
As already mentioned, many of the web sited discovered were sites providing
anthologies of Chinese poetry at various levels of categorisation – Chinese poetry,
classical Chinese poetry, Tang poetry, or Du Fu poetry. However there was a wide
variety of types of web site encountered, such as electronic journal web sites (e.g.
www.thedrunkenboat.com), electronically published book sites (e.g. Burton Watson’s
The Selected Poems of Du Fu at www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100345784#), online academic learning sites (e.g. academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall), on-line
general literature web sites (e.g. www.humanistictexts.org), book review sites (e.g.
www.plumrubyreview.com/dec03/nonfiction/nonfiction.htm), on-line poetry sites
(e.g. www.poetseers.org), professional web sites (e.g. www.davidhinton.net/Pages/Tu
Fu Sample.html), personal research web sites (e.g. www.poetry-chinese.com), web
blog (personal ‘diary’) sites (e.g. itudes.blogspot.com) and cultural interest sites (e.g.
www.chinahistoryforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t14104.html and
afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/ wengu.php).
Table 3 below presents the final list of poems chosen and enumerates the form of each
poem (see Section 2.2) and the numbers of translations, including literal translations,
found for each one.
Poem
form
# translations
Gazing at Taishan
gushi
27
Moonlit Night
wulü
43
Spring Outlook
wulü
48
Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night
wulü
19
Thinking of Li Bai at the End of the Sky
wulü
12
A Guest Arrives
qilü
19
Welcome Rain on a Spring Night
wulü
26
News that the Imperial Army has Recaptured
North and South of the River
qilü
24
Night Thoughts of a Traveller
wulü
31
23
Climbing High
qilü
44
Meeting Li Guinian South of the River
qijue
23
Table 3. Number of translations for each of the poems chosen
4.1. Analysis of Existing Translations
The premise of this essay is that the preservation of form during the translation of
Chinese regulated poetry is a rare occurrence which need not be so rare. In order to
determine just how rare this occurrence is, the discovered translations need to be
analysed in some objective way to provide a measure of the conformance to the
various aspects of poetic form. At the same time though there must be a similar
measure of how ‘approachable’ the translations are in terms of other, perhaps
conflicting, measures. Fortunately, since conformance of Chinese poetry to the
regulations of jintishi is easily measured, it is also reasonably easy to measure
translations of jintishi against similar regulations. Of course it is not possible to use
all the prosodic regulations when checking the English translations, since English
does not have the concept of tones12 and the English word is far different from a
Chinese character. Nevertheless there are some of the qualities of Chinese regulated
poetry which can be exhibited by an English translation. In particular, the concepts of
fixed line-length, parallelism and rhyme are all able to be carried over into English.
Further the caesura and couplet structures of jintishi are also available to a translation.
Considering all these possibilities, the translations need to be measured against the
following criteria of poetic form, which correspond to the first four basic rules of
jintishi prosody.
1) Each poem consists of four or eight lines of equal length. All lines occur as
couplets.
12
though it can exhibit stress variations
24
2) The same rhyme is used throughout, occurring at the end of even-numbered
lines and optionally at the end of the first line also.
3) There is a caesura dividing each line approximately in two and an additional
caesura in the longer form which divides the first part in two.
4) When there are eight lines (lüshi), there is parallelism between the third and
fourth lines and the fifth and sixth lines, i.e. the second and third couplets each
exhibit parallelism.
The remaining rules are all related to the very strict order of tones, which are not
appropriate to the English language.
Some of the above four rules consist of multiple elements, each of which may be
determined independently. Taking this into account, each poem was scored out of a
maximum of seven points, being:
1) matching the number of lines of the original
2) all lines being of equal length13
3) all lines occurring as couplets
4) rhyme being used
5) a constant rhyme being used on even lines, plus optionally the first line
6) each line exhibiting a caesura, or two in the case of qilü
7) the lüshi exhibiting parallelism in the second and third couplets
Only the ‘true poems’ were analysed here, so in particular the literal translations
(from various people) and the pure prose translations (from David Hawkes) were not
considered. Further, some of the poems found were not really translations, but were
more just “based upon” a Du Fu poem. These were not considered either. Most
translations scored at least two points for matching the number of lines and being
13
In this context, length is measured in terms of stressed syllables, which is not quite objective, since
the location of spoken stress is not necessarily unambiguous. For the purposes of this analysis a point
was awarded for “even length lines” if all lines were approximately of even length.
25
composed of couplets. However the average translation scored fewer than three
points in total, which very much supports the contention that the preservation of form
during translation is a rare occurrence. The one ‘most conforming’ translation is
Stephen Owen’s “The View in Spring”, reproduced here:
A kingdom smashed, its hills and rivers still here,
spring in the city, plants and trees grow deep.
Moved by the moment, flowers splash with tears,
alarmed at parting, birds startle the heart.
War’s beacon fires have gone on three months,
letters from home are worth thousands in gold.
Fingers run through white hair until it thins,
cap-pins will almost no longer hold.
This scored six out of the possible seven, the one lack being the constant rhyme on
even lines. This particular example serves to illustrate some of the details of how the
translations were scored and in particular how ‘generous’ the scoring was, which
reinforces the rarity of conformance. This translation qualified for the caesura point
because although the last couplet does not have as well-defined a caesura as the others,
it is possible to ‘force’ a caesura after the third word of each of these lines. Secondly,
the parallelism is not strictly word-for-word, but there is a grammatical structural
equivalence exhibited by both middle couplets. For example in the second couplet
“the moment” can be considered to be grammatically equivalent to “parting”.
Finally, the rhyme point is awarded, even though rhyme is only exhibited in the
second half of the translation, because the even-lines rhyme structure does match the
original.
Another issue to be addressed is whether or not those translations that do show some
of the qualities of conforming to the regulations of jintishi do so at the expense of
other non-formal qualities. To check this, all the translations were scored, rather
subjectively, against the three ‘Yan Fu criteria’ of fidelity, comprehensibility and
elegance, as mentioned in the introduction. Each translation was assigned a score
26
from 0 to 3. The translations were then gathered into two groups, according to
whether their jintishi score was above or below the overall average, which was 2.9.
Interestingly, the group with the low jintishi scores also on average scored lower ‘Yan
Fu scores’. The difference was not great, with the ‘less conforming’ group satisfying
an average of 1.5 Yan Fu criteria, and the ‘more conforming’ group averaging 1.7.
The important point is that the more conforming group of translations did not on
average score lower against the Yan Fu criteria, and thus in general, the conformance
to jintishi regulations is not at the expense of other criteria.
5. Some New Translations
The following translations are an attempt to provide an insight into what might be
possible if more emphasis is given to preserving form than to preserving the literal
meaning of the poem. There is no claim that any of these translations is any ‘better’,
however that is defined, than any other translation, but it is hoped that some merit
may be found in this approach. In each case some comments are provided.
5.1. wàng yuè
Gazing Upon the Sacred Mount
So what about
From all round
Creation of
It splits the day
Clouds ease
Far birds
Each must
Look down on all,
Taishan?
ever blue.
the Lord,
in two.
a troubled mind,
a strain to view.
one day ascend,
to do!
This translation preserves the even-length lines (six syllables each), and provides a
caesura, although this is not at a constant position. It also provides the standard evenline fixed rhyme. It does not preserve the parallelism in the third couplet, but
27
parallelism is not necessary for gushi. In the scoring system described above it would
score five points out of a possible six (the seventh point not being applied to gushi).
In the second line, blue is used instead of the more common green, since from a
distance a mountain does look blue. Either word is a valid translation of the original
qīng, which can mean green, blue or black. In the fourth line, hūn xiǎo is commonly
translated as “dusk and dawn”, which doesn’t quite fit, since dusk and dawn are
different times of day, rather than different amounts of light. The character hūn can
also mean “dark”, thus a more appropriate literal translation is “dark and dawn” (or
“night and day”) which is what is used here.
5.2. yuè yè
Night Moon (literal)
This night Fu zhou moon
Chamber in only alone watch
Distant pity/love little son daughter
Not understand remember Chang an
Fragrant mist cloudy hair-bun damp
Bright splendour jade arm cold/needy
What time lean/rely empty curtain
Two shine tear mark dry
This literal translation matches most other literal translations encountered with one
exception. In the seventh line the third character (yǐ) is generally rendered as “lean
on”, whereas an alternative valid meaning is “rely on”, which changes the meaning of
the line from one of a hoped for physical activity, to a reinforcement of that
expression of hope, which is in keeping with the romantic nature of the poem.
Tonight’s Moon
This moon
at home tonight
My wife
must watch alone.
I grieve for
my young ones
Who know not
where I’ve gone.
Damp mist, hair fragrance lifts;
Cool moon, jade arm falls on.
28
When will
Shine on
that bright-lit pane
us both as one?
This translation would score a ‘perfect seven’ in the jintishi scoring system described
above. Note that although the second couplet does not exhibit the required
parallelism for jintishi, the original poem does not exhibit parallelism in this couplet
either, and so this ‘lack’ in the translation provides a closer match to the original.
Further the caesuras are not quite regularly positioned, but they are regular within
each couplet. In the fifth line a common translation has a “fragrant mist” making the
“hair-bun damp” which reflects the word order of the literal translation. Another
interpretation is that the mist has become fragrant by lifting its fragrance from the hair
bun which it has dampened. This latter interpretation is reflected in the above
translation.
5.3. chūn wàng
Spring Outlook
Nation fallen, yet nature’s alive,
The city; spring trees and grasses thrive.
For these sad times the flowers they weep,
Being apart, birds stir me deep.
The war flames they’ll span three months soon;
Home news is worth a small fortune.
My white hair it’s torn out in vain,
Soon not to hold even a pin.
This first translation was an early attempt to provide a translation with rhyme in order
to be ‘more accessible’ to a non-critical audience. This would score four out of a
possible seven points, since the rhyme is not fixed on even lines, there is no regularly
located caesura in each line and couplets two and three do not adequately reflect the
parallelism of the original. The evenness of the length of the lines is debateable,
depending very much on just how the stresses are voiced, but in terms of the scoring
scheme applied to all other translations considered, this point would be awarded.
29
Spring Outlook
Nation fallen,
City in spring;
For these sad times,
Being apart,
These war flames ere
Home news is worth
My white hair is
’Twill hold not e’en
yet nature’s alive,
grass and trees bloom.
the flowers they weep,
birds deepen my gloom.
will span three months;
a small fortune.
torn out in vain,
a hairpin soon.
This translation satisfies the rhyme and caesura requirements missing from the
previous translation, but still fails on the parallelism requirement, so would score six
out of seven points. Note that in line five the word “soon” is replaced by the
(somewhat obscure) “ere”. This is to avoid the use of a ‘rhyme word’ anywhere
except in a rhyme position, thereby taking note of the long list of “things to be
avoided” in jintishi (see Mair & Mei p.???).
5.4. yuè yè yì shě dì
Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night
Watchtower drums interrupt travel,
Frontier in autumn - a lone goose call.
From tonight on
the frosts will settle,
This moon’s as bright as it is back home.
My brothers, they
are scattered all over;
No family to ask
their fate at all.
Letters are slow
to arrive wherever,
Besides, the war
is not yet done.
This translation does not satisfy the constant rhyme or parallelism requirement but
does satisfy the other requirements, and so would score five out of seven points.
5.5. tiān mò huái lǐ bái
Thinking of Li Bai at the Tip of the Sky
Cool winds freshen
Good friend just what
Wild goose, when will
Lakes and rivers,
at the tip of the sky,
are you now thinking?
it bring your news;
by autumn rains swelling.
30
Literature shuns
Demons rejoice
You ought to speak
Toss poems in the Miluo
achievement of fame
to see men passing.
with the wronged soul,
for his keeping.
This translation satisfies the length, couplet, caesura and rhyme requirements for lushi,
and would score six out of seven points, failing only on the parallelism requirement.
Although the rhyme is not ‘perfect rhyme’ it does provide some aural ‘satisfaction’.
5.6. ké zhì
An Unexpected Guest
All around my house
Nothing do I see
My blossomed path has ne’er
My wicker gate opens
Our food that’s far from market
The wine in this poor household
But if you’d like to sit down
I’ll call him through the fence and
do the spring waters flow;
but a flock of gulls daily.
for guests needed sweeping;
for you the first time only.
offers very little flavour;
is quite old really.
and drink some with my neighbour,
we can finish it completely.
This translation is an early attempt that still needs polishing, but comes close to
satisfying all the requirements of jintishi, to the extent that the English language
allows.
5.7. chūn yè xǐ yǔ
Spring Nights Welcome Rain
Good rain
Come spring
On breeze
Soaks all
Walkways
Bark light
Morn sees
Blooms fill
knows its best time;
and it is there.
with night-time stealth;
with quiet care.
are dark with cloud;
shines all the more.
all red and wet;
the city fair.
This is another first attempt that can probably be improved upon, but comes close to
all requirements except the parallelism requirement.
31
6. Conclusions
Translation is a difficult process requiring many varied skills. The translation of
poetry requires even more skills to produce an acceptable product. Taking this
progression to the limit, the translation of Chinese Regulated Poetry (jintishi) offers
the greatest challenge.
While most past translators of jintishi have concentrated on providing the most
accurate representation of the source language poem, with all its subtleties of
contextual meaning and frequent allusions, this emphasis has generally resulted in a
prose or blank verse product, often also accompanied by explanatory notes.
Now while the full understanding of a poem can be curtailed by a lack of knowledge
of all the context and allusion, in the case of jintishi this would be a relatively small
loss because of the intrinsic physical beauty of the poem in both sight and sound. For
this reason it is appropriate to at least attempt to preserve some of these physical
features of such poetry.
The results of analyzing several hundred existing translations have shown that on
average a translation which does exhibit some of the characteristics of the form of the
original poem can do this without loss of other qualities. This implies that if it is
acceptable for a translation to compromise some of the non-formal characteristics in
order to preserve more of the physical beauty of regulated poetry then there is the
potential for this to be developed much further. Perhaps such a compromise is not
required for more of the physical structure to be incorporated into a translation.
The process of translating literature is never complete and we can hope that in our
lifetimes we can see the full glory of Tang dynasty poetry revealed to the West.
32
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35
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38
Appendix A: Translation Sources
See www.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/~ray/ChineseEssays/Translations.htm for a list of the
sources of the translations gathered for this project.
Appendix B: The Translations
See www.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/~ray/ChineseEssays/#poetry for the complete sets of
accumulated translations of the poems discussed above.
39