I love the poetry of Tang Dynasty China: characters such as Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Du Fu, Du Mu & others craft incredibly sparse poems that sometimes read more like a film director's instructions to a camera crew, images flashing before our eyes, rather than a Western linear narative.
There are many translations out there already, but they're variations on the same theme, that of translations of the source: they put the Chinese words into English but leave idioms untouched. When Li Bai writes "Don't point an empty glass at the moon", for instance, he's writing in a culture where drinking was done with friends outside by moonlight, & therefore not an everyday thing: to translate that phrase into the receptor, having him say "Don't waste valuable drinking time!", changes the words used but puts the point of the phrase across in a way 21st-century folk can understand.
Let's look at a few.
There are many translations out there already, but they're variations on the same theme, that of translations of the source: they put the Chinese words into English but leave idioms untouched. When Li Bai writes "Don't point an empty glass at the moon", for instance, he's writing in a culture where drinking was done with friends outside by moonlight, & therefore not an everyday thing: to translate that phrase into the receptor, having him say "Don't waste valuable drinking time!", changes the words used but puts the point of the phrase across in a way 21st-century folk can understand.
Let's look at a few.
Li Bai (701-762): known for his love of poetry & alcohol, not necessarily in that order...
Off His Face In The Flower Border
Sitting in the flowers with a bottle of wine,
alone, I pour another glass
and raise it to salute the moon,
who, with my shadow, makes three of us.
The moon’s not drinking;
my shadow’s a copycat;
let’s have fun anyway,
enjoy Spring while we can.
I sing: the moon dances.
I dance: my shadow staggers.
While I drink, they’re my best friends:
when I fall over, they scatter.
Promise me we’ll be friends for ever,
do this again with the stars in heaven.
(Li Bai, 701-762)
The Moon in the Stream
I lift my face from my wine.
Oh look, it's gone dark!
Clothes covered in fallen blossom,
I stand and stagger to the stream -
hello, moon!
Birds and people few and far away.
(Li Bai 701-762)
silent shadow
mountain;
monks playing chess;
on the board
bamboo shadow,
silent strip of shade,
unnoticed;
the sound of pieces being moved,
Bai Juyi (772-846)
Sitting in the flowers with a bottle of wine,
alone, I pour another glass
and raise it to salute the moon,
who, with my shadow, makes three of us.
The moon’s not drinking;
my shadow’s a copycat;
let’s have fun anyway,
enjoy Spring while we can.
I sing: the moon dances.
I dance: my shadow staggers.
While I drink, they’re my best friends:
when I fall over, they scatter.
Promise me we’ll be friends for ever,
do this again with the stars in heaven.
(Li Bai, 701-762)
The Moon in the Stream
I lift my face from my wine.
Oh look, it's gone dark!
Clothes covered in fallen blossom,
I stand and stagger to the stream -
hello, moon!
Birds and people few and far away.
(Li Bai 701-762)
silent shadow
mountain;
monks playing chess;
on the board
bamboo shadow,
silent strip of shade,
unnoticed;
the sound of pieces being moved,
Bai Juyi (772-846)