NEW CHINESE POETRY
Translated and Edited
by Yu Kwang-chung
The Heritage Press, Taipei, 1960. 94 pp. NT$25
Reviewed by Nancy Chang Ing
At long last we are privileged to have an excellent English translation of modern Chinese poetry. The translator, Mr. Yu Kwang-chung, is a professor of English poetry at the Provincial Normal University and a Chinese poet himself, so that he not only has a complete command of the English language, but what is more important, he has a deep understanding and appreciation of poetry in both languages. "Understanding of poetry" does not mean merely the techniques of form and matter, but what is more essential, the feeling and moods of poetry. A good prose translation from one language into another is a laborious job but one that does not involve too much imagination. But poetry! How delicately it must be handled s6 as not to lose any of the original color, the innuendos in feeling, the author's initial emotion that created the poem in the first place.
The cover design of the pocket-sized New Chinese Poetry is attractively simple and modern. The presentation of the material is interesting and easily readable. Mr. Yu's introduction deals capably with the background and trends of modern Chinese poetry. Even a lay reader who is not familiar with this phase of Chinese culture can obtain some insight and comprehension from this introduction in preparation for enjoyment of the book. The short biographical sketch preceding each collection serves to give the reader some knowledge of the author as a person, thus paving the way for a better understanding of his poetry.
To really appreciate these translations one should read the originals at the same time. Only then can the depth of Mr. Yu's sympathetic perception of the poetry be comprehended to the fullest extent.
The Dragon-Fountain Sword by Ruan Nang is like an abstract painting that has lost nothing of its original strength and appeal. Ya Hsuen's Afternoon in a Bar becomes even more lucid, more vivid in the translation:
"And here we conspire to murder
The paleness of a whole afternoon,
Trampling the Persian garden
On patterned porcelain bricks.
My friend spits the chestnut husks
On the face of a nameless princess.
.................................
And we swallow our chrysanthemum tea
(Never mind who gathered the leaves)
And puff at the faintness of cheap tobacco,
And exchange scandals of ladies we know,
Murdering all the paleness of this afternoon
And part of the paleness of tomorrow."
The vividness of the imagery and the atmosphere created here remind one of T. S. Eliot, one of the great moderns.
Then those lines:
"Stars fall on the grounds as I am falling Toward the east. Down on my hair, down on the grassland,
Like faded misunderstandings fall the stars to earth."
from Yeh Shan's A Posthumous Letter. Mr. Yu has translated literally without losing any of the original touch and yet he manages to achieve a distinctive charm of his own. This is indeed an achievement to be proud of.
In Hsia Ching's short poem, Noon, some rhyme is attempted, not stilted or affected but easy and natural:
"The sun has picked up all his shadows
The air its breath does hold.
A slumber seals the green cat's pupils
With nocturnal gold.
All are profound in dream: the world
Is in virgin repose.
At last a busy, buzzing bee
Retires into a rose."
I could go on quoting from many other poems in this collection but that might detract from the pleasure of reading the selections in their entirety.
New Chinese Poetry is indeed the first collection of its kind and the fact that it has been done by a Chinese scholar who is himself a recognized poet served to enhance its value and insure its prestige in the world of letters. Let us hope that his will truly serve to introduce the promising young writers of modern China to the western world and make them aware of the fact that our culture and literature did not end with the great poets of old China. In this respect, Mr. Yu has indeed performed a great service, to his fellow poets, but also to the literary world at large. May we have the pleasure of hearing more from him.