{"id":4143,"date":"2018-09-24T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T22:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=4143"},"modified":"2022-07-15T16:24:25","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T23:24:25","slug":"adieu-cambridge-%e5%86%8d%e5%88%ab%e5%ba%b7%e6%a1%a5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=4143","title":{"rendered":"Adieu to Cambridge < \u518d\u522b\u5eb7\u6865\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consider this a drill, an exercise, not live fire.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Xu Zhimo<\/a> was a “free-thinking Chinese poet who strove to loosen Chinese poetry from its traditional forms, and to reshape it under the influences of Western poetry and the vernacular Chinese language\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Xu’s <\/i>Adieu to Cambridge<\/em>\u00a0\u518d\u522b\u5eb7\u6865\u00a0Z\u00e0i bi\u00e9 k\u0101ngqi\u00e1n is far and away his most famous and anthologized poem, written after a stint studying literature in Cambridge in the twenties.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

There is an additional\u00a0<\/em>topical element to the title and poem. As Brexit proceeds, it does feel to Europeans and EU-philes like myself that the elegiac tone of <\/em>Adieu to Cambridge has now an inadvertent contemporary overtone.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There is a stone\u00a0Memorial to Xu at King’s College inscribed with the first and last lines of the poem (photo below). There is, fittingly, a crack between the beginning and the end.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Easily I take my leave
\nas easily as I have come
\nand easily now bid adieu
\n<\/span>to clouds in the setting sun.<\/p>\n

The willows along the river
\nglow like rows of brides in golden
\nveils, their shimmer rippling
\n<\/span>like waves in my heart.<\/p>\n

Rooted in soft mud, waterweeds
\nfloat up gracefully in the placid
\ncurrents of the River Cam.
\nGladly would I waft like them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That clear water under the elms
\nis not a pond but a rainbow
\ntangled in floating pads
\nwhich dream of iridescence.<\/p>\n

In search of dreams? Take a pole,
\npunt up to where green is greenest
\nin a skiff whose hull is full of stars
\nsinging out their radiance.<\/p>\n

But me, I can\u2019t sing aloud.
\n<\/span>Even the crickets have fallen silent.
\nThis Cambridge dusk is hushed.
\n<\/span>Peace is thus my parting coda.<\/p>\n

So quietly I take my leave,
\nas quietly as I came.
\nQuietly I shake my sleeves
\nto leave the clouds behind.<\/p>\n

[Mandarin and pinyin follow below. Here<\/a> is an rhymed translation with comments.]<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I have occasionally practiced <\/i>indirect or relay translation<\/i><\/a> of another translation without direct access to the first source language. Most notably, thirty-five years ago in Berkeley a friend took the time to gloss her favorite poems in Russian and then to check my versions against the originals, in search of egregious errors. The most successful is <\/i>The Yard<\/i><\/a>, my translation of a Osip Mandelstam poem. A few other gloss texts are still in the hamper; another by Nikolai Gumilev provided key phrases and images to <\/i>Giraffes at San Gorgonio<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Directness is relative. To some extent every translation I have ever made has been mediated by dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, glossaries and thesauri, even from languages I have some personal control of, starting with English. Degree of indirectness grows inversely per how well we know a language or dialect. For example, the translations of the half dozen or so creoles quoted in <\/i>Entwisted Tongues: Comparative Creole Literatures<\/i><\/a>, required considerable footwork on my part, since my knowledge of them was bookish. I couldn’t rely on an inner ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Having a living interlocutor like my Russian friend is more direct than what I offer here, a translation from twentieth-century Mandarin, a classic known to any literate Chinese reader<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I have smatterings of Mandarin which go back to the summer of 1979, when I suffered a ten-week immersion under the guidance of a Maoist instructor at UC-Berkeley, who memorably informed me that I’d never be able to learn writing let alone proper calligraphy because I am left-handed. Nonetheless, I learned enough Mandarin to avail myself of the wonderous tools the internet provides. My principal interlocutor in this poem has been Google Translate, but I also checked against prior translations, in particular those by Nicole Chiang in her edition of Xu Zhimo\u2019s <\/i>Selected Poems (Oleander Press), by Cyril Birch (<\/i>Anthology of Chinese Literature, Vol 2, Grove Press, 1972, pp. 247-48), by Yao Liang et al (in Wen Lu, \u00a0<\/i>Collection of the Most Beautiful Poems by Xu Zhimo, Cam Rivers Publications, 2019) and on the site cited\u00a0above<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u8f15\u8f15\u7684\u6211\u8d70\u4e86\uff0c
\nQ\u012bng q\u012bng de w\u01d2 z\u01d2ule,<\/em><\/span>
\n\u6b63\u5982\u6211\u8f15\u8f15\u7684\u4f86\uff1b
\nzh\u00e8ngr\u00fa w\u01d2 q\u012bng q\u012bng de l\u00e1i;<\/span><\/em>
\n\u6211\u8f15\u8f15\u7684\u62db\u624b\uff0c
\nW\u01d2 q\u012bng q\u012bng de zh\u0101osh\u01d2u<\/span><\/em>
\n\u4f5c\u5225\u897f\u5929\u7684\u96f2\u5f69\u3002
\nzu\u00f2 bi\u00e9 x\u012bti\u0101n de y\u00fancai.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u90a3\u6cb3\u7554\u7684\u91d1\u67f3\uff0c
\nN\u00e0 h\u00e9p\u00e0n de j\u012bn li\u01d4<\/span>,<\/em>
\n\u662f\u5915\u967d\u4e2d\u7684\u65b0\u5a18\uff1b
\nsh\u00ec x\u012by\u00e1ng zh\u014dng de x\u012bnni\u00e1ng;<\/span><\/em>
\n\u6ce2\u5149\u88e1\u7684\u8277\u5f71\uff0c
\nB\u014dgu\u0101ng l\u01d0 de y\u00e0n y\u01d0ng<\/span><\/em>
\n\u5728\u6211\u7684\u5fc3\u982d\u8569\u6f3e\u3002
\nz\u00e0i w\u01d2 de x\u012bnt\u00f3u d\u00e0ngy\u00e0ng.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u8edf\u6ce5\u4e0a\u7684k\uff0c
\nRu\u01cenn\u00ed sh\u00e0ng de q\u012bng x\u00ecng,<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span>\u6cb9\u6cb9\u5730\u5728\u6c34\u5e95\u62db\u6416\uff1b
\ny\u00f3u y\u00f3u d\u00ec z\u00e0i shu\u01d0d\u01d0 zh\u0101oy\u00e1o;<\/em><\/span>
\n\u5728\u5eb7\u6cb3\u7684\u67d4\u6ce2\u88e1\uff0c
\nZ\u00e0i k\u0101ng h\u00e9 de r\u00f3u b\u014d l\u01d0,<\/em><\/span>
\n\u6211\u7518\u5fc3\u505a\u4e00\u689d\u6c34\u8349\uff01
\nw\u01d2 g\u0101nx\u012bn zu\u00f2 y\u012bti\u00e1o shu\u01d0c\u01ceo.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u90a3\u6986\u852d\u4e0b\u7684\u4e00\u6f6d\uff0c
\nN\u00e0 y\u00fa y\u012bn xi\u00e0 de y\u012b t\u00e1<\/em><\/span>
\n\u4e0d\u662f\u6e05\u6cc9\uff0c\u662f\u5929\u4e0a\u8679\uff1b
\nB\u00f9sh\u00ec q\u012bngqu\u00e1n, sh\u00ec ti\u0101nsh\u00e0ng h\u00f3ng;<\/span><\/em>
\n\u63c9\u788e\u5728\u6d6e\u85fb\u9593\uff0c
\nR\u00f3u su\u00ec z\u00e0i f\u00faz\u01ceo ji\u0101n<\/span>
\n\u6c89\u6fb1\u8457\u5f69\u8679\u4f3c\u7684\u5922\u3002
\nCh\u00e9ndi\u00e0nzhe c\u01ceih\u00f3ng sh\u00ec de m\u00e8ng<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u5c0b\u5922\uff1f\u6490\u4e00\u652f\u9577\u7bd9\uff0c
\nX\u00fan m\u00e8ng? Ch\u0113ng y\u012b zh\u012b zh\u01ceng g\u0101o,<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span>\u5411\u9752\u8349\u66f4\u9752\u8655\u6f2b\u6eaf\uff1b
\nxi\u00e0ng q\u012bngc\u01ceo g\u00e8ng q\u012bng ch\u00f9 m\u00e0n s\u00f9;<\/span><\/em>
\n\u6eff\u8f09\u4e00\u8239\u661f\u8f1d\uff0c
\nM\u01cen z\u01cei y\u012b chu\u00e1n x\u012bng hu\u012b,<\/em><\/span>
\n\u5728\u661f\u8f1d\u6591\u6595\u88e1\u653e\u6b4c\u3002
\nz\u00e0i x\u012bng hu\u012b b\u0101nl\u00e1n l\u01d0 f\u00e0ngg\u0113.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u4f46\u6211\u4e0d\u80fd\u653e\u6b4c
\nD\u00e0n w\u01d2 b\u00f9n\u00e9ng f\u00e0ngg\u0113\uff0c<\/em><\/span>
\n\u6084\u6084\u662f\u5225\u96e2\u7684\u7b19\u7c2b\uff1b
\nQi\u0101oqi\u0101o sh\u00ec bi\u00e9l\u00ed de sh\u0113ng xi\u0101o;<\/span><\/em>
\n\u590f\u87f2\u4e5f\u70ba\u6211\u6c89\u9ed8\uff0c
\nXi\u00e0 ch\u00f3ng y\u011b w\u00e8i w\u01d2 ch\u00e9nm\u00f2<\/span><\/em>
\n\u6c89\u9ed8\u662f\u4eca\u665a\u7684\u5eb7\u6a4b\uff01
\nCh\u00e9nm\u00f2 sh\u00ec j\u012bn w\u01cen de k\u0101ngqi\u00e1o<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u6084\u6084\u7684\u6211\u8d70\u4e86\uff0c
\nQi\u0101oqi\u0101o de w\u01d2 z\u01d2ule<\/span><\/em>
\n\u6b63\u5982\u6211\u6084\u6084\u7684\u4f86;
\nZh\u00e8ngr\u00fa w\u01d2 qi\u0101oqi\u0101o de l\u00e1i\uff1b<\/em><\/span>
\n\u6211\u63ee\u4e00\u63ee\u8863\u8896\uff0c
\nW\u01d2 hu\u012b y\u012bhu\u012b y\u012b xi\u00f9<\/span><\/em>
\n\u4e0d\u5e36\u8d70\u4e00\u7247\u96f2\u5f69\u3002
\nB\u00f9 d\u00e0i z\u01d2u y\u012bpi\u00e0n y\u00fancai.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consider this a drill, an exercise, not live fire. Xu Zhimo was a “free-thinking Chinese poet who strove to loosen Chinese poetry from its traditional forms, and to reshape it under the influences of Western poetry and the vernacular Chinese language\u201d.\u00a0 Xu’s Adieu to Cambridge\u00a0\u518d\u522b\u5eb7\u6865\u00a0Z\u00e0i bi\u00e9 k\u0101ngqi\u00e1n is far and away his most famous and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Adieu to Cambridge < \u518d\u522b\u5eb7\u6865\u00a0\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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