“Li Sao, A poem on relieving sorrows, by Ch'ü Yüan” (Publication, 1961)
Year
1961
Text
Snyder, Gary. Li Sao, A poem on relieving sorrows, by Ch'ü Yüan. Transl. by Jerah Johnson. In : Olivant quarterly ; no 4 (1959). In : Journal of American folklore ; vol. 74 (1961). [Qu, Yuan. Li sao]. [Review]. (Sny14)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Snyder, Gary
(San Francisco, Calif. 1930-) : Schriftsteller, Dichter, Professor of English, University of California Davis
[Reproduction of the texts with the permission by Gary Snyder, January 2013].
[Reproduction of the texts with the permission by Gary Snyder, January 2013].
Mentioned People (1)
Qu, Yuan
(ca. 343-277 v. Chr.) : Dichter
Subjects
Literature : China : Poetry
/
Literature : Occident : United States of America
/
Periods : China : Pre-Han Times (-206 v.Chr.)
Chronology Entries (1)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1961 |
Snyder, Gary. Li Sao, A poem on relieving sorrows, by Ch'ü Yüan [Qu Yuan]. [ID D29204]. There are only three readable translations of the Li Sao in English, and Mr. Johnson's is one of them. Although it is over a hundred years since August Pfizmaier's German translation, none of the half-dozen or so later versions into French, English, and German have done the poem justice. This is quite understandable: the Ch'u Kingdom collection (Ch'u-tz'u) which contains the Li Sao is the most difficult and exotic group of poems in the Chinese language. They are difficult, in part, because the Ch'u Kingdom, which existed in southern and eastern China from the eighth century B.C. until it was conquered in 221 B.C. by Ch'in, was quite different culturally from the central and northern states, home of the "Poetry Classic" and Confucian philosophy. It is this difference that makes the Li Sao of interest to the folklorist and anthropologist. In brief, it seems the Ch'u culture was shamanism-oriented; and the language, imagery, and mythological references of the Li Sao suggest the god-intoxication, spirit-journeying, supernatural flying, and hypersensitive states of awareness of shaman trance-dancers and singers. It is a far cry from the sober tranquillity of T'ang dynasty poetry. Ch'ü Yuan (332-296 B.C.), the putative author of the Li Sao, survives in a biography by Ssu-ma Ch'ien. He was a minister in the service of King Huai of Ch'u, and was banished from court through some intrigue. Wang I, the Confucian commentor on the Li Sao, saw the poem as an elaborate allegorical complaint about the difficulties of an honest man in government, and certainly this is a valid level of the poem. In fact, the juxtaposition of the poet’s intense concern for virtue and honesty in a corrupt society, with a long, free-swinging, and imaginative style of poetry, makes it into a sort of ancient Chinese counterpart of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". The Chinese Communists have made Ch'ü Yuan into a culture hero. The difficulty for the translator lies particularly in the wild imagery, historical allusions, and multiple obscure references to plants and flowers. The poet is seeking a kind of supernatural lover; he would arrange a marriage with her; he journeys to mythological realms in search of her, flying through the air; consults fortunetellers; recalls the trials of ancient honest worthies; but ultimately fails in his quest and resolves on suicide. The tradition is that Ch'ü Yuan did indeeid commit suicide, in the Mi-lo river. The Dragon-boat festival (5:V) is supposed to be in honor—and in search, on the waters—of the spirit of Ch'ü Yuan. To say that Mr. Johnson's translation is readable leaves a lot unsaid. It is readable because it tries to be direct and simple, and in doing so it avoids some of the problems a more scholarly translator would feel compelled to confront. Furthermore, by a curious kind of double-talk, he tries to save himself from any criticism of the translation as poetry by saying that "Although the present translation of the Li Sao poem is intended as prose, it is printed in a typographic form suggestive of its original poetic arrangement." In other words, it looks like poetry on the page, and reads like poetry—for any irregular line arrangement creates a manner of reading and a rhythm, which is poetical—but Mr. Johnson doesn't want to call it that. It follows the Li Sao translation in Robert Payne's White Pony anthology rather closely, and at some points the English is more felicitous. David Hawkes' Ch'u Tz'u, the Songs of the South (Oxford, 1959) is a real sinologist's job. His scrupulous and considered translation shows up Johnson's work as that of an amateur—but being scrupulous, Hawkes' translation is rougher reading. None of the three above-mentioned translations show the hand of a poet, but at least one can be sure that Hawkes knows what the Chinese means. The most unique thing about Mr. Johnson's translation is the vehicle he rides in interpreting die meaning of the Li Sao. Largely ignoring the historical and anthropological questions regarding the Ch'u poems (which are splendidly handled in Arthur Waley's book The Nine Songs, a Study of Shamanism in Ancient China) Mr. Johnson sees the Li Sao as most significantly "an account of the poet's personal struggle for individuation or self-completion (author's italics)." He offers the Li Sao as a poem in which the author is going through a kind of Jungian self- analysis, and suggests that poets and prophets "In terms of their own personal lives... tell the story of a universal experience of man that we, as a society, are just beginning to feel in this century." This may be, but to say: "Such a man was Ch'ü Yuan in third century B.C. China, and such was his problem. He had come to realize that his life was a false, fruitless and wrong thing, and he began to look for a new truth and meaning that would satisfy his needs."—is reading more of modem psychological concerns into the Li Sao than the text, and the fragility of our knowledge about Ch'ü Yuan and his times, will bear. Mr. Johnson's translation is neither first-rate literature nor good scholarship. For two shillings more, you can buy David Hawkes' scholarly translation of the whole Ch'u collection. |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
|