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The Real Work 93). On the other hand, Wang Wei
lived in a well-built country estate.
Snyder often alters or even purposely distorts the
original. He says, “I must take full responsibility,
however, for idiosyncratic aspects of the translation
— cause of both stripped-down literalism, and
occasional free flights” (The Gary Snyder Reader
548). But in fact, his “free flights” are by no means
“occasional,” and there are sufficient reasons, such as
strengthening his imagery, behind most of his “free
flights.” A drastic revision appears in the ninth of the
“Cold Mountain Poems:” “Whip, whip — the wind
slaps my face / whirled and tumbled — snow piles on
my back.” A more faithful rendering of these lines
should read: “The light, cool wind blows my face. /
The snow descends thickly, covering my body.” The
distortion must be due to Snyder’s own experience
full of hardship working as a lookout on an icy peak
of Crater Mountain, California, in 1953; “Snyder has
substituted Han Shan’s tranquil and composed mind
with a mental state of antagonism between man and
nature which he must have derived from his own life
experience in the mountains” (Chung 102). Other
deviations in these T’ang poems are driven by Zen
meditation and Freudian theory. Snyder makes the
changes when he renders “Ch’un hsiao” (Chüan T’ang
Shih 160, chüan 1667) by Mêng Hao-jan (699–740).
For comparison, Witter Bynner’s rather accurate
rendering is cited here:
I awake light-hearted this morning of spring,
Everywhere round me the singing of birds —
But now I remember the night, the storm,
And I wonder how many blossoms were broken.
(108)
Snyder’s rendering reads like a totally different poem:
Spring sleep, not yet awake to dawn,
I am full of birdsongs.
Throughout the night the sounds of wind and rain
Who knows what flowers fell.
(The Gary Snyder Reader 538)
The persona in the Chinese original must have
wakened already, because he could hear “the singing
of birds,” whereas Snyder’s persona is still asleep. In
the original, the birds’ singing is an objective reality,
whereas in Snyder’s, it becomes a subjective one —
the birdsongs are internalized and become part of the
persona’s subconscious. Here, the clause “I am full of
birdsongs” shows evidence that Western practices of
psychology and psychoanalysis have found their way
into the translation of a Chinese poem. Furthermore, it
seems that Zen meditation and the discourse of koan
also affected Snyder’s rendering. The most obvious
evidence is the last line of “Spring Dawn:” “who
knows what flowers fell.” In the Chinese original,
hua-luo-chih-tuo-shao (How many flowers have
fallen), the persona questions the quantity of fallen
flowers; but, in Snyder’s rendering, the persona
wonders about the kinds of flowers that appear in his
dream. Furthermore, the persona does not even know
his own identity. Here is a quest for identity, and the
question is posed in the discourse of Zen koan. The
persona is not yet awake but asks questions of
someone who searches for enlightenment. Since
around 1950, Snyder has studied Zen diligently. By
1993, he had studied and practiced it for more than
forty years; it is no wonder that Zen discourse would
emerge in his rendering.
In his rendering of Po Chü-i’s famous “Long
Bitter Song” — a romance between Emperor Xuanzong
(685–762) and imperial concubine Yang Kueifei
(719–756), Snyder considerably changes the image
of Yang and the emperor’s life story. The distortion
could be due to Snyder’s conviction that it is
necessary to conform to and to compromise with
Western readers’ views of the Oriental. Po Chü-i
portrays Yang Kuei-fei as a captivating beauty —
lively, artistic, as well as sexy, languorous, and
physically buxom. During the last millennium, Yang
Kuei-fei became a stereotype of buxom beauty, and
the imperial consort Chao Fei-yen (circa 1st century
BCE) in the Han Dynasty represented the ideal of slim
beauty. In the “Long Bitter Song,” Snyder
unexpectedly transforms Yang Kuei-fei into the body
type of Chao Fei-yen. He portrays Yang Kuei-fei as a
small, elegant lady by reading her “beauty by birth” (li
chih) as “elegance,” her “jade-like face reveals
loneliness” (yü-jung chi-mo) as “Her jade-like figure
small and alone,” and her “congealed lard-like skin”
(ning-chih) as “her cold, glowing skin.” Thus, Yang
Kuei-fei becomes smaller, more elegant, and cooler in
temperament. Furthermore, Snyder remodels her
personality to be introverted, reticent, and temperate.
According to the legend, Yang, after her death,
becomes a fairy in the Mountain of Immortals; when
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