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Pedra Antióquia Se você quiser ser meu amado/Pergunte primeiro à sua cabeça/Se você quer casamento/Pergunte primeiro à sua cabeça/Se você quiser ter dinheiro/Pergunte primeiro à sua cabeça/Se você quer construir uma casa/Pergunte primeiro à sua cabeça/Se você quiser ser feliz/Pergunte primeiro à sua cabeça/Oh! cabeça! Cabeça faça coisas boas chegarem a mim!] Pedra speaks to João about their potential life together in keeping with the liturgical language of Afro-Brazilian religions. One must consult the Ori, because it is in the head that a particular god exercises control over traits, desires, and words that are both human and divine. These are the convergences that I sought to understand and preserve through translation when João da Cruz e Sousa became the owner of my head. Cross-Cultural Communications Winner of the 1996 Poor Richards Award – announces a new – KOREAN POETRY ANTHOLOGY Jewish Writers Series VOICES IN DIVERSITY POETS FROM POSTWAR KOREA Selected and Translated with a Preface by Ko Won Cover art by Kang Sin Suk Book design by Bebe Barkan “This anthology contains 92 poems by 37 poets who were born in or after 1945. The end of World War II, August 15, 1945, is an epoch-making date in the history of contemporary Korea in that it brought about Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule.” – from the Preface 127 p. Nov. 2001 $30.00 (ISBN 0-89304-885-2); pap. $15.00 (886-0) Shipping: $4.00 Contact for Catalogue Cross-Cultural Communications 239 Wynsum Avenue • Merrick, NY 11566-4725 Tel: (5l6) 868-5635 • Fax: (5l6) 379-1901 E-mail: cccpoetry@aol.com 34 Translation Review
BIG RAT, BIG RAT: MULTIPLE TRANSLATIONS OF A CHINESE POEM By John Balcom It is a commonplace notion that each generation must produce its own translation of an important poetic text. One reason for this is that the problems of verse translation are, at any given period, one facet of the larger general problem of verse composition. Taste, and the notion of what constitutes a poem, can and do change over time. With this in mind, I would like to examine six different translations of a single poem from the Book of Songs, _____ China’s earliest anthology of poetry. The translations cover a period of approximately 100 years, beginning with those of James Legge and William Jennings in the 19th century, followed by those of Arthur Waley, Bernard Karlgren, Ezra Pound, and Burton Watson in the 20th century. For the Chinese, the Book of Songs holds the equivalent position of importance and primacy that Homer holds for the West. It is both poetry and, as one of the Confucian classics, scripture. The Book of Songs is an anthology of 305 poems of varying lengths, drawn from various levels of Zhou dynasty (1122–249 B.C.) society. It is divided into four sections: the airs of the states, or folk songs collected from among the common people of the 15 states; the minor odes, which focus more on the life of the nobility; the major odes, which interweave historical and legendary materials of the Zhou state into the concerns of the aristocratic society; and the hymns, which are somber, liturgical texts associated with the royal houses of the Zhou and Shang and the state of Lu (the home of Confucius). The hymns are among the oldest texts in the anthology and may date back to as early as 1000 B.C. 1 According to tradition as recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian, _____ the Book of Songs was compiled by Confucius himself. It is said that the Sage began with more than 3000 compositions, editing and selecting the best until he arrived at what is today known as the Book of Songs. Today, the history of the text, its origins and formulation, is considerably more complex. In terms of form, the songs employ a line made up of four characters, though other line lengths do occur. One line is generally a complete syntactic unit. The lines are arranged in stanzas of four, six, or eight lines. Rhyme is common and usually used at the end of even-numbered lines, but internal rhyme and alliteration also are used. The airs tend to be highly compressed and elliptical; they also employ a great deal of repetition. In general, the anthology is quite economical in expression. I have chosen the 113th poem from the Book of Songs, the seventh in the “Airs of the State of Wei,” known as shishu, _____(big rat[s]). The poem is a complaint about the oppression and heavy taxes extorted from the people by the government of Wei. The Chinese text of the poem: ∫”π´∫”π´! µL≠πß⁄∂¡; §T∑≥≥e§k, ≤ˆß⁄÷∂±. ≥u±N•h§k, æA©ºº÷§g; º÷§gº÷§g, ¨∏±oß⁄© ∫”π´∫”π´! µL≠πß⁄≥¡; §T∑≥≥e§k, ≤ˆß⁄÷ºw. ≥u±N•h§k, æA©ºº÷∞Í; º÷∞Íº÷∞Í, ¨∏±oß⁄Ω! ∫”π´∫”π´! µL≠πß⁄≠]; §T∑≥≥e§k, ≤ˆß⁄÷≥“. Translation Review 35
Page 1 and 2: Translation Review Number Sixty-Two
Page 3 and 4: TRANSLATION REVIEW No. 62, 2001 TAB
Page 5 and 6: EDITORIAL: A NATIONAL CENTER AND TH
Page 7 and 8: INTERVIEW WITH MABEL LEE: TRANSLATI
Page 9 and 10: novel with him when he left China i
Page 11 and 12: Q. Could you have translated the ti
Page 13 and 14: Q. Gao is the first Chinese writer
Page 15 and 16: know not a syllable. Yet in collabo
Page 17 and 18: happy gods, who laugh Olympianly to
Page 19 and 20: I’ve brought along the Big Guy, b
Page 21 and 22: INTERVIEW WITH YANG XIANYI By Qian
Page 23 and 24: Q: Have you had any difficulties in
Page 25 and 26: later, an English translator named
Page 27 and 28: that close, we had to consult with
Page 29 and 30: that they have me as their adviser.
Page 31 and 32: SOME PITFALLS OF TRANSLATING DRAMA
Page 33 and 34: German theatergoers: the uncrowded
Page 35 and 36: The crazed seizures that make you i
Page 37: ic, symbol- and reverie-filled exhi
Page 41 and 42: Songs: A line consists regularly of
Page 43 and 44: mean “grain,” for example. Wale
Page 45 and 46: and go to those happy fields, happy
Page 47 and 48: MODERN ARABIC POETRY IN ENGLISH TRA
Page 49 and 50: 1957-1967; the June (i.e., June War
Page 51 and 52: 2001. O’Grady, Desmond. Ten Moder
Page 53 and 54: Naimy, Nadeem, see Hawi, Khalil. Qa
Page 55 and 56: The translations I will be looking
Page 57 and 58: time highlighting the profundity:
Page 59 and 60: cannot replace the auditory recepti
Page 61 and 62: life but rather as the continuation
Page 63 and 64: global literature in an English-lan
Page 65 and 66: understanding of Turkish literature
Page 67 and 68: poet, in a very inclusionary experi
Page 69 and 70: WRITING AND THE POWER OF WORDS: TRA
Page 71 and 72: Africa to win more than souls. Thus
Page 73 and 74: Chinese fountain, hesitated once mo
Page 75 and 76: a rotten and ungrateful bunch!” S
Page 77 and 78: Book Reviews Umberto Eco. Experienc
Page 79 and 80: were entitled, not only to make rad
Page 81 and 82: making system based on Mexican Indi
Page 83 and 84: The Station Hill Blanchot Reader.Ly
Page 85 and 86: challenges she encountered while tr
Page 87 and 88: current story lines, or a story lin
Page 89 and 90:
language is not considered primaril
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