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

[x_los]

This week, we're finishing 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. This week, we'll look at the last ten poems. 

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

17. Clos aux cerfs

[x_los]

Montagne deserte. Personne n'est en vue.
Seuls, les echos des voix resonnent, au loin.
Ombres retoument dans la foret profonde:
Dernier eclat de la mousse, vert.

- Francois Cheng, 1977

[Deer Enclosure. Deserted mountain. No one in sight.! Only, the echoes of voices resound, far off.! Shadows return to the deep forest:/ Last gleaming of the moss, green.]

Re: 17. Clos aux cerfs

[x_los]

Is it quite right for the translator to make so much of Wang Wei’s elision of ‘I’, when I’m given to understand that’s a very common formulation in Chinese?

Re: 17. Clos aux cerfs

[superborb]

Don't literature people closely analyze the choice of POV and such though always?

Re: 17. Clos aux cerfs

[x_los]

More--IS this an active choice THIS poem is making, versus something the entire genre does? Like, are you talking about Shaun of the Dead like it invented zombies, versus just engaging with a pre-existing strong convention?

Re: 17. Clos aux cerfs

[superborb]

Ah, that makes sense.