spacestationtrustfund's review
3.0
This review is of the translation by Burton Watson.
There are a handful of different English-language translators who have translated various poems by the Han Shan poet, including but not limited to Gary Snyder, Bill Porter (alias Red Pine), Robert G. Henricks, J.P. Seaton, Paul Rouzer, and this one, by Burton Watson. This review is only of this particular translation.
As is the case with every translation completed prior to the 21st century, this translation suffers from the lack of accessibility of comparison. One of the best things the internet has done for translation studies is to provide translators with the ability to compare their own translation against previous scholarship and more easily access native speakers. I can think of dozens of times where I was stuck on a particular detail of translation, and was able to resolve the problem by talking about it with one of my friends who is a native speaker in that language.
Burton Watson's translation of these 100 poems was first published in 1962. This has its natural consequences, of which the use of Wade-Giles romanisation instead of the more accurate and modernised hanyu pinyin is probably the most immediately obvious. Watson worked on translating these poems (a selection out of around 320 that are attributed to Han Shan) with the guidance of Iriya Yoshitaka, an authority on colloquial Chinese of the Tang and Song dynasties. I've previously been quite impressed by the quality of Watson's translations—particularly when contextualised with the limitation of the time period etc. in which Watson was working. In general Watson's translations are as close to the original text as possible while still remaining grammatically reasonable in the target language, something I specifically respect about his work, and his notes are always excellent. There are fewer footnotes than some of his other works in this particular collection, but the introduction almost makes up for it.
Here's one poem that's one of my favourites, listed as 诗82 in Watson's translation:
Compare Snyder's translation of the same:
Another poem, listed as 诗2 in Watson's translation:
Overall, I'll admit that Watson's translation, while no longer the most comprehensive or up-to-date, still remains one of the best available translations of the Han Shan poet's work in English. Highly recommended.
There are a handful of different English-language translators who have translated various poems by the Han Shan poet, including but not limited to Gary Snyder, Bill Porter (alias Red Pine), Robert G. Henricks, J.P. Seaton, Paul Rouzer, and this one, by Burton Watson. This review is only of this particular translation.
As is the case with every translation completed prior to the 21st century, this translation suffers from the lack of accessibility of comparison. One of the best things the internet has done for translation studies is to provide translators with the ability to compare their own translation against previous scholarship and more easily access native speakers. I can think of dozens of times where I was stuck on a particular detail of translation, and was able to resolve the problem by talking about it with one of my friends who is a native speaker in that language.
Burton Watson's translation of these 100 poems was first published in 1962. This has its natural consequences, of which the use of Wade-Giles romanisation instead of the more accurate and modernised hanyu pinyin is probably the most immediately obvious. Watson worked on translating these poems (a selection out of around 320 that are attributed to Han Shan) with the guidance of Iriya Yoshitaka, an authority on colloquial Chinese of the Tang and Song dynasties. I've previously been quite impressed by the quality of Watson's translations—particularly when contextualised with the limitation of the time period etc. in which Watson was working. In general Watson's translations are as close to the original text as possible while still remaining grammatically reasonable in the target language, something I specifically respect about his work, and his notes are always excellent. There are fewer footnotes than some of his other works in this particular collection, but the introduction almost makes up for it.
Here's one poem that's one of my favourites, listed as 诗82 in Watson's translation:
People ask the way to Cold MountainThe original poem:
Cold Mountain? There is no road that goes through.
Even in summer the ice doesn't melt;
Though the sun comes out, the fog is blinding.
How can you hope to get there by aping me?
Your heart and mine are not alike.
If your heart were the same as mind,
Then you could journey to the very center!
人问寒山道，寒山路不通。
夏天冰未释，日出雾朦胧。
似我何由届，与君心不同。
君心若似我，还得到其中。
person / ask / cold / mountain / dao, / cold / mountain / lu / not- / -open.The word 届 in this sense means something more like "exist at this location," and 君 is an honourific masculine second-person personal pronoun. The "centre" (其中), to quote Henricks, refers to "the centre of the mountains, but more importantly the 'centre' of the self, to the experience of Buddha-nature inside." Basically the roughest translation I could come up with:
summer- / -season / ice / not yet / set free, / sun- / -rise / fog / dim- / -hazy.
seem / I / what / reason / arrive at, / and / your / heart / not- / -same.
your / heart / as / seem / I, / also / achieve- / -to / its- / -centre.
someone asks (about the) Cold Mountain path, (I respond that the) Cold Mountain road is not accessible.There are two noticeable "puns" in this poem. The first is, obviously, in the very first line, where the poet says that people ask about the Cold Mountain 道 [dào], and he apparently responds that the 路 [lù] is impassible; the former refers to the Dao as well as a road, and the latter means a literal road. The second is the repetition of 似我 (like me): the first time is when the poet is presumably referencing something said by the other speaker ("how did someone like me make it there?"), and the second is in the final line ("well, maybe if you were like me, you'd know how to get there"). Same energy as dunking on primary school bullies, basically. Watson's translation is fine except for his strange use of the verb "to ape [s/o]."
(in) summer, ice (has) not [yet?] (been) set free, sun rises (but) fog obscures.
[for what reason, in what way have] I <...> arrived (here)[?], and your heart (is) different.
(if) your heart resembled mine, (you would) also arrive at the centre.
Compare Snyder's translation of the same:
Men ask the way to Cold Mountainand Henricks's:
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn't melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart's not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You'd get it and be right here.
People ask the way to Han-shan,both of which more appropriately translate the line.
But there are no roads that get through.
In the summer, the ice not yet melted,
And though the sun comes up, the fog is still thick and dense.
How has someone like me arrived?
My mind and yours are not the same.
If your mind, sir, were like mine,
You too could come right to the centre.
Another poem, listed as 诗2 in Watson's translation:
A thatched hut is home for a country man;The original:
Horse or carriage seldom pass my gate:
Forests so still all the birds come to roost,
Broad valley streams always full of fish.
I pick wild fruit in hand with my child,
Till the hillside fields with my wife.
And in my house what do I have?
Only a bed piled high with books.
茅棟野人居，門前車馬疏。
林幽偏聚鳥，溪闊本藏魚。
山果攜兒摘，皋田共婦鋤。
家中何所有，唯有一床書。
thatch / roofbeam / ordinary- / -person / reside in, / gate- / -front / vehicle / horse / sparse.Every translation of this poem I've read adds extra "padding" to it. That's not necessarily a negative attribute, merely an interesting one. The word 野人 means "savage" or "barbarian," but the likely meaning, now-archaic, refers to a common person (i.e., not a politician, scholar, or royalty); 門前 refers to something at the front of the gate or outside the gate; 家中 refers to one's home and/or family. The character 偏 is a tricky one, literally meaning "tilted" and often used to mean "prejudiced," and in this sense probably meaning something along the lines of "likely to" (a translation that preserved the double meaning would be "inclined to"). The character 床 usually refers to a bed, but can also be read as "table" or "desk," which would make more sense if you're reading the last line as saying "only one [noun] of books" (as opposed to "only one [noun] and one book").
forest / secluded / likely / assemble / birds, / stream / broad / source / hidden / fish
mountain / fruit / hand in hand with / child / pick, / land / field / together / wife / hoe.
home- / -in / what / poss- / -ess, / only / have / one / table / book.
[the] thatched roof [is where] ordinary people reside, past the gate vehicles (and) horses [are] rare.(Compare Henricks's translation of the same, listed as 诗27:
[the] forest is secluded [and] inclined to gather birds, [the] stream is broad [and] intended to hide fish.
mountain fruits are hand-in-hand with [my] children picked, highlands are with [my] wife hoed.
[in our] home what is owned? [we] only have one desk (of) books.
A thatched hut, the place where a rustic lives;Henricks notes that he's "reminded here of T'ao Ch'ien's ... 'Drinking Wine' poems. No. 5 in that series of 20 opens with the lines, 'I built my hut beside a traveled road, yet hear no noise of passing carts and horses,'" citing James Robert Hightower as the translator. I actually prefer Watson's translation in this case, particularly in regard to his choice to translate 野人 as "country man" instead of Henricks's "rustic" and 兒 as "my child" instead of Henricks's "my son.")
In front of his gate, horses and carts are few.
The woods are secluded and dark—'specially suited for birds to collect;
The valley streams, wide and broad—from the beginning meant to hold fish.
Mountain fruits, hand in hand my son and I pick;
Marshy fields, together with my wife I plough.
And in our house what do you find?
Nothing more than a bed full of books.
Overall, I'll admit that Watson's translation, while no longer the most comprehensive or up-to-date, still remains one of the best available translations of the Han Shan poet's work in English. Highly recommended.
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