China and the West

[Byron, George Gordon]. Bailun shi xuan. Su Manshu [ID D23321].
Chu Chih-yu : Su Manshu was the first important Byron translator ; his life was characterized by a mixture of melancholy, nostalgia, delicate sentimentalism, and revolutionary enthusiasm ; his seemingly neurotic behaviour and disarming personality had an aura of fascination about them ; and finally, his poems manifest a unique personal freshness as well as a sort of 'modern flavour' in keeping with admiration and deliberate self-identification with Byron. Su Manshu once described Byron's poems as being "like a stimulating liquor – the more one drinks, the more one feels the sweet fascination". The reason why he enjoyed Byron's work can be explained by the similarities between their peronalities and experiences. In the Turkish conquest of Greece, Su saw a parallel to the subjugation of China by the Manchus against whom he fought bravely in his youth. Being a man with a strong national pride, he was immensely impressed by the relevance of the spirited poem to his time and felt inspired by Byron's heroic militant efforts in Greece. In his translation, he interpreted Byron's poem to utter his own views about his people and the fate of his country. During the time when he did the translation, he was a lonely wanderer in Japan, distressed by his fate and that of his country which was still under the corrupt rule of the Manchus. There was not a single soul upon whom he could rely for comfort and understanding. It was natural that the pathetic exile, Childe Harold, would arouse his nostalgic feelings and The Isles of Greece incite his nationalistic indigation. Essentially, his enjoyment and translation of Byron were compensatory. He turned to Byron as if to a pre-existen pattern of his own suffering which afforded him both self-expression and catharsis.
Su Manshu voiced his personal feelings and sentiment in the translation. He rendered his version in pentasyllabic regulated verse.