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

2. Transliteration

[x_los]

LU ZHAI

Kong shan bu jian ren
Dan wen ren yu xiang
Fan jing (ying)ru shen lin
Fu zhao qing tai shang

Re: 2. Transliteration

[x_los]

I want to listen to this later

Who tf are Rumanians

Huh really?? Re least number of sounds. Surprising

Re: 2. Transliteration

[forestofglory]

I also want to find out more about these Romanians.

Also I currently prefer to use Mandarin over modern Chinese, to avoid the implication that there's only one Chinese language. However "Mandarin" has it's own problems - I did read that article about it's origins. This seems supprisingly fraught

Re: 2. Transliteration

[superborb]

"But translators tend to rush in where wise men never tread, and often may be seen attempting to nurture Chinese rhyme patterns in the hostile environment of a Western language"

lmao