Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, Week 1 of 2

[x_los]

This week and next, we're looking at Eliot Weinberger's "Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei". This short book discusses many ways to translate a single, brief Tang dynasty poem and the choices involved therein. We'll look at the first nine poems (or versions thereof) this week, and the remainder the following. 

I'll reproduce the translations under discussion here, but c/ping from the pdf is not very reliable and frequently introduces errors. I'm including the text here primarily as a reference point for our discussions: I advise you to look at the book file itself for your reading.

Comments

[forestofglory]

I'm waiting for a physical copy of the book to show up in the mail. (I read much better on paper than on screens)

In the meantime I thought I would try translating it myself to see how much I can understand on my own. I don't know what I'm doing, I just have a small amount of knowledge of classical grammar, and a classical Chinese dictionary.

Anyways here's my attempt:

On the empty mountain I don't see any people
Merely hear the echo of people talking
Sunlight goes back and arrives deep in the forest
it returns to the shining green moss above