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Does this translation conform to the current English poetics?
Thread poster: crossbabel --
crossbabel --
crossbabel --
Local time: 00:55
English to Chinese
Jan 20, 2008

Day and night see me engrossed in composing poems,
One day, grey hair drops down onto my eyebows.
startled, i haste to fetch a glass for a sure answer,
only to find my life's lease is never expectedly afar.
with no official hat placed around my head,
In plain clothes my skinny body is clad.
But don't you see a swarm of fish in the clear stream?
They are allowed to full joy without worldly dream.


well, this is a translation of a poem c... See more
Day and night see me engrossed in composing poems,
One day, grey hair drops down onto my eyebows.
startled, i haste to fetch a glass for a sure answer,
only to find my life's lease is never expectedly afar.
with no official hat placed around my head,
In plain clothes my skinny body is clad.
But don't you see a swarm of fish in the clear stream?
They are allowed to full joy without worldly dream.


well, this is a translation of a poem composed during Tang Dyansty in China. I wonder whether it makes sense or not. If it is a poor one, please be kind enought to put forth your improvement.
Thanks in advance! ▲ Collapse
 
ivo abdman
ivo abdman
Indonesia
Local time: 23:55
English to Indonesian
+ ...
There is no limitation on modern way Jan 21, 2008

It depent on context

In modern poetics just strange image, peculiar or no is no problem, sometime experience of specific sound of vowel has different meaning between others of writers or arrangers even both are natives of sourge language (IMHO)

the target is only one what the intended meaning of writer (sometime only him/his know what the meaning).
 
crossbabel --
crossbabel --
Local time: 00:55
English to Chinese
TOPIC STARTER
thank you Jan 21, 2008

it is so hard to predict the expectation of target language readership. A lot of books that collect translations of the ancient Chinese poems are actually designed for the Chinese-speaking readers, as evidenced in the hard fact that most prefaces and postscripts are unfortunately written in Chinese. Quite apparently, translators are oriented towards the readers at home. It is really funny. At least in our eyes, these translations are not bad lingustically and rhetorically, because they seem to f... See more
it is so hard to predict the expectation of target language readership. A lot of books that collect translations of the ancient Chinese poems are actually designed for the Chinese-speaking readers, as evidenced in the hard fact that most prefaces and postscripts are unfortunately written in Chinese. Quite apparently, translators are oriented towards the readers at home. It is really funny. At least in our eyes, these translations are not bad lingustically and rhetorically, because they seem to follow the poetical tradition in China. But we are often found at a loss: whether the English-speaking readers can feel the same way as we do.

on the other hand, Many translations rendered by foreigners are highly respected but sometimes they fail to agree with our literary taste.

Wide gulf between two forms of poetics indeed! ▲ Collapse
 
Jarosław Zawadzki
Jarosław Zawadzki  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 18:55
Chinese to Polish
+ ...
chinese poetics Jan 21, 2008

translating from classical Chinese into my mother tongue (Polish) means writing the poems from scratch using the Chinese poets ideas. That's the olny way to get poerty in the outcome.
Sorry guys but all the transaltions of poetry into English or Esperanto done by Chinese that I have seen just don't sound like poetry (I haven't seen any in Polish). Our views on that matter are worlds apart.
 


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Does this translation conform to the current English poetics?







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