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“The orchid boat : women poets of China by Kenneth Rexroth : review” (Publication, 1973)

Year

1973

Text

Owen, Stephen. The orchid boat : women poets of China by Kenneth Rexroth : review. In : The journal of Asian studies ; vol. 33, no 1 (1973).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2052890 (Rex10)

Type

Publication

Contributors (1)

Owen, Stephen  (St. Louis 1946-) : James Bryant Conant University Professor, Professor of Comparative Literature, Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

Mentioned People (1)

Rexroth, Kenneth  (South Bend, Ind. 1905-1982 Santa Barbara, Calif.) : Dichter, Literaturkritiker, Essayist
[The books of Rexroth are under copyright by New Directions. In the databse are all thr titles and authors of Chinese poems and online poems]..
[There are no translations from his poems in Chinese until 2014].

Subjects

Literature : Occident : United States of America / References / Sources

Chronology Entries (1)

# Year Text Linked Data
1 1972 The orchid boat : women poets of China. Transl. and ed. by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung [ID D32196].
Ho, Lady = He, Lady. (300 v. Chr.)
A Song of Magpies.

Chuo, Wen-chün = Zhuo, Wenjun (Han)
A Song of White Hair

Pan, Chieh-yü = Ban, Jieyu. (48 v. Chr.)
A Song of Grief

Ts'ai, Yen = Cai, Yan = Cai Wenji. (Qixian, Henan 177-250)
From 18 Verses Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle
I, II, VII, XI, XIII, XVII

I
I was born in a time of peace,
But later the mandate of Heaven
Was withdrawn from the Han Dynasty.
Heaven was pitiless.
It sent down confusion and separation.
Earth was pitiless.
It brought me to birth in such a time.
War was everywhere. Every road was dangerous.
Soldiers and civilians everywhere
Fleeing death and suffering.
Smoke and dust clouds obscured the land
Overrun by the ruthless Tatar bands.
Our people lost their will power and integrity.
I can never learn the ways of the barbarians.
I am daily subject to violence and insult.
I sing one stanza to my lute and a Tatar horn.
But no one knows my agony and grief.
II
A Tatar chief forced me to become his wife,
And took me far away to Heaven’s edge.
Ten thousand clouds and mountains
Bar my road home,
And whirlwinds of dust and sand
Blow for a thousand miles.
Men here are as savage as giant vipers,
And strut about in armor, snapping their bows.
As I sing the second stanza I almost break the lutestrings.
Will broken, heart broken, I sing to myself.
VII
The sun sets. The wind moans.
The noise of the Tatar camp rises all around me.
The sorrow of my heart is beyond expression,
But who could I tell it to anyway?
Far across the desert plains,
The beacon fires of the Tatar garrisons
Gleam for ten thousand miles.
It is the custom here to kill the old and weak
And adore the young and vigorous.
They wander seeking new pasture,
And camp for a while behind earth walls.
Cattle and sheep cover the prairie,
Swarming like bees or ants.
When the grass and water are used up,
They mount their horses and drive on their cattle.
The seventh stanza sings of my wandering.
How I hate to live this way!
XI
I have no desire to live, but I am afraid of death.
I cannot kill my body, for my heart still has hope
That I can live long enough
To obtain my one and only desire —
That someday I can see again
The mulberry and catalpa trees of home.
If I had consented to death,
My bones would have been buried long ago.
Days and months pile up in the Tatar camp.
My Tatar husband loved me. I bore him two sons.
I reared and nurtured them unashamed,
Sorry only that they grew up in a desert outpost.
The eleventh stanza — sorrow for my sons
At the first notes pierces my heart’s core.
XIII
I never believed that in my broken life
The day would come when
Suddenly I could return home.
I embrace and caress my Tatar sons.
Tears wet our clothes.
An envoy from the Han Court
Has come to bring me back,
With four stallions that can run without stopping.
Who can measure the grief of my sons?
They thought I would live and die with them.
Now it is I who must depart.
Sorrow for my boys dims the sun for me.
If we had wings we could fly away together.
I cannot move my feet.
For each step is a step away from them.
My soul is overwhelmed.
As their figures vanish in the distance
Only my love remains.
The thirteenth stanza —
I pick the strings rapidly
But the melody is sad.
No one can know
The sorrow which tears my bowels.
XVII
The seventeenth stanza. My heart aches, my tears fall.
Mountain passes rise before us, the way is hard.
Before I missed my homeland
So much my heart was disordered.
Now I think again and again, over and over,
Of the sons I have lost.
The yellow sagebrush of the border,
The bare branches and dry leaves,
Desert battlefields, white bones
Scarred with swords and arrows,
Wind, frost, piercing cold,
Cold springs and summers
Men and horses hungry and exhausted, worn out —
I will never know them again
Once I have entered Chang An.
I try to strangle my sobs
But my tears stream down my face.

Meng, Chu = Meng, Zhu (3. Jh.)
Spring Song

Tzu, Yeh = Zi, Ye. (4. Jh.)
Five Tzu Yeh Songs

Anonymous
On the Slope of Hua Mountain

Su Hsiao-hsaio [sic] = Su, Xiaoxiao = Su Xiaojun (geb. Hangzhou, Zhejiang ; gest. 501)
A Song of Hsi-ling Lake

Pao, Ling-hui = Bao Linghui. (Southern dynasties)
After one of the 19 famous Han poems

Wu, Tsê-tien = Wu, Zetian (Empress (ca. 625-705, reg. 690-705)
A Love Song of the Empress Wu

Kuan, P'an-p'an = Guan, Panpan (fl. 805-820, Concubine of Zhang Yin)
Mourning

Li, Yeh = Li, Ye (Taoist priestess, Da Li (766 - 779 A.D.)
A Greeting to Lu Hung-chien Who Came to Visit me by the Lake in my Illness

Yü, Hsüan-chi = Yu Xuanji (842-872, Courtesan)
Advice to a Neighbor Girl
Living in the Summer Mountains
On a Visit to Chung chen Taoist Temple I See in the South Hall the List of Successful Candidates in the Imperial Examinations
Sending Spring Love to Tzu-an


Hsüeh, T'ao = Xue, Tao (770-832)
The Autumn Brook
An Old Poem to Yiian Chen


Hsüeh, Ch'iung = Xue, Qiong (?)
A Song of Cliin Men District

Han, Ts'ui-p'in = Han, Cuipin (9. Jh.)
A Poem Written on a Floating Red Leaf

Chang, Wen-chi = Zhang, Wenji. (Tang)
The Bamboo Shaded Pool

Chao, Luan-luan = Zhao, Luanluan (9. Jh.)
Slender Fingers
Red Sandalwood Mouth
Willow Eyebrows
Cloud Hairdress
Creamy Breasts


Hua, Jui, Lady = Huaruifuren (um 935-964)
The Emperor Asks Why
My Husband Surrendered
Life in the Palace


Ch'ien, T'ao = Qian, Tao (Xunyang = Jiujiang, Jiangxi 365-427)
Written at a Party Where My Lord
Gave Away a Thousand Bolts of Silk


Wei, Lady = Wei, Wan (Xiangfang, Hubei 1040-1103)
To the tune “The Bodhisattva's "Barbaric Headdress"

Li, Ching-chao = Li, Qingzhao (Licheng, Shandong 1084-1151)
To the short tune "The Magnolias"
To the tune "A Hilly Garden"
Happy and Tipsy
To the tune "A Dream Song"
The Sorrow of Departure

"Red lotus incense fades on
The jeweled curtain. Autumn
Comes again. Gently I open
My silk dress and float alone
On the orchid boat. Who can
Take a letter beyond the clouds?
Only the wild geese come back
And write their ideograms
On the sky under the full
Moon that floods the West Chamber.
Flowers, after their kind, flutter
And scatter. Water after
Its nature, when spilt, at last
Gathers again in one place.
Creatures of the same species
Long for each other. But we
Are far apart and I have
Grown learned in sorrow.
Nothing can make it dissolve
And go away. One moment,
It is on my eyebrows.
The next, it weighs on my heart."
To the tune “Butterflies Love Flowers”
Spring Ends
To the tune "Spring in Wu-ling"
To the tune "The Honor of a Fisherman"
To the tune "Eternal Happiness"


Anonymous (attributed to Li Qingzhao)
To the tune "I Paint My Lips Red"
To the tune "Picking Mulberries"


Chu, Shuchen = Zhu, Shuzhen (1095-1131 od. 1063-1106)
Spring Joy
Spring Night
To the tune "Panning Gold"
Plum Blossoms
Playing All a Summer's Day by the Lake To the tune "Clear Bright Joy"


Nieh, Sheng-ch'iung = Nie, Shengqiong (12. Jh., Courtesan)
Farewell to Li
To the tune "A Partridge Sky"


T'ang, Wan = Tang Wan (um 1144)
To the tune "The Phoenix Hairpin"

Sun, Tao-hsuan = Sun, Daoxuan = Chongxu Jushi (geb. Jian'ou, Fujian um 1100-1150)
To the tune "A Dream Song"

Wang, Ch'ing-hui = Wang Qinghui (um 1264-1288)
To the tune "The River Is Red"

Kuang, Tao-sheng = Guang, Daosheng (Huzhou 1262-1319)
Married Love
"You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share one coffin."

Anonymous
Courtesan's Songs
To the tune "Red Embroidered Shoes"


Chu, Chung-hsien = Zhu, Zhongxian = Zhu, Jing'an = Zhu, Lingwen (Haining, Hangzhou 1422-1506)
To the tune "A Branch of Bamboo"

Anonymous
A Song of the Dice

Huang, O = Huang, E (1498-1569).
To the tune "The Fall of a Little Wild Goose"
"Once upon a time I was
Beautiful and seductive,
Wavering to and fro in
Our orchid scented bedroom.
You and me together tangled
In our incense filled gauze
Bed curtains. I trembled,
Held in your hands. You carried
Me in your heart wherever
You went. Suddenly
A bullet struck down the female
Mandarin duck. The music
Of the jade zither was forgotten.
The phoenixes were driven apart.
I sit alone in a room
Filled with Spring, and you are off,
Making love with someone else,
Happy as two fish in the water.
That insufferable little bitch
With her coy tricks!
She’d better not forget —
This old witch can still
Make a furious scene!"
A Farewell to a Southern Melody
To the tune "A Floating Cloud Crosses Enchanted Mountain"
To the tune "Soaring Clouds"

"You held my lotus blossom
In your lips and played with the
Pistil. We took one piece of
Magic rhinoceros horn
And could not sleep all night long.
All night the cock's gorgeous crest
Stood erect. All night the bee
Clung trembling to the flower
Stamens. Oh my sweet perfumed
Jewel! I will allow only
My lord to possess my sacred
Lotus pond, and every night
You can make blossom in me
Flowers of fire."
To the tune "Red Embroidered Shoes"

Ma Hsiang-lan = Ma, Xianglan = Ma, Shouzhen (1548-1604)
Waterlilies

Shao, Fei-fei = Shao, Feifei (geb. Hangzhou, 17. Jh.)
A Letter

Wang, Wei (Shanxi 701-761)
Seeking a Mooring

Ho, Shuang-ch'ing = He, Shuangqing (1715-?)
To the tune "A Watered Silk Dress"
To the tune "Washing Silk in the Stream"


Sun, Yun-feng = Sun Yunfeng (1764-1814)
On the Road Through Chang-te
" On the last year's trip I enjoyed this place.
I am glad to come back here today.
The fish market is deep in blue shadows.
I can see the smoke for tea rising
From the thatched inn.
The sands of the river beaches
Merge with the white moon.
Along the shore the willows
Wait for their Spring green.
Lines of a poem run through my mind.
I order the carriage to stop for a while."
Travelling in the Mountains
"Traveling homesick with the West wind,
The dust of my cart rises to the evening clouds.
The last cicadas drone in the yellowing leaves.
In the sunset a man’s shadow looms like a mountain.
One by one the birds go to roost.
I wander aimlessly and never go home.
I pause above a stream and envy the fisherman
Who sits there in solitude and leisure,
Thinking his own elegant thoughts."
Starting at Dawn
The Trail Up Wu Gorge


Wu, Tsao = Wu, Zao (geb. ca. 1800)
To the tune "The Pain of Lovesickness"
For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin
To the tune "The Love of the Immortals"
To the tune "The Joy of Peace and Brightness"
To the tune "Flowers Along the Path through the Field"
Returning from Flower Law Mountain On a Winter Day
To the tune "Washing Silk in the Stream"
In the Home of the Scholar Wu Su-chiang From Hsin-an, I Saw Two Psalteries of the Late Sung General Hsieh Fang-te
To the tune "A Dream Song"


Yu, Ch'in-tseng = Yu Qingzeng (spates 19. Jh.)
To the tune "Intoxicated with Shadows of Flowers"

Ch'iu, Chin = Qiu, Jin (Xiamen, Fujian 1875-1907 Shaoxing, Zhejiang)
A Call to Action
A Letter to Lady T'ao Ch'iu

"All alone with my shadow,
I whisper and murmur to it,
And write strange characters
In the air, like Yin Hao.
It is not sickness, nor wine,
Nor sorrow for those who are gone,
Like Li Ch'ing-chao, that causes
A whole city of anxiety
To rise in my heart.
There is no one here I can speak to
Who can understand me.
My hopes and visions are greater
Than those of the men around me,
But the chance of our survival is too narrow.
What good is the heart of a hero
Inside my dress?
My perilous fate moves according to plan.
I ask Heaven
Did the heroines of the past
Encounter envy like this?"
To the tune "Walking through the Sedges"
Two poems to the tune "The Narcissus by the River" I, II
To the tune "The River Is Red"


Ping, Hsin = Bing, Xin = Bingxin = Xie, Bingxin = Xie, Wanying (Fuzhou, Fujian 1900-1999)
Remembering
For the Record (given to my little brother)
From Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters I-IX


Pai, Wei = Bai, Wei = Huang Zhang (Zixing, Hunan 1894-1987)
Madrid

Cheng, Min = Zheng, Min (Minhou, Fuzhou, Fujian 1920-)
Evening Rendezvous
Student


Jung, Tzu = Rong, Zi (1928-)
My Dressing Mirror is a Humpbacked Cat

Lin, Ling (Sichuan 1938-)
Sinking
A Cloud Dissects Itself
Footpaths Cross in the Rice Field
Vague Apprehension, to a gambler
Woman Wall


Tuo, Ssu = Duo, Si = Chou Tsui-ching = Zhou, Zuijing (Chiayi, Taiwan 1939-)
Train
Sprout
Night Street


Hsiung, Hung = Xiong, Hong (1940-)
The Pitcher
Summer Freezes Here
Written in the Sunset

"Time is engraved on the pale green faces
Of the floating lotus leaves.
Our hearts are a sea, a lake,
Finally a little pond, where
Spider webs interlock over the round leaves,
And below them our longing
Is only a single drop of dew.
Sometimes, suddenly the old story overcomes us.
Time triumphs then.
And lets down its hair —
Shadowy black,
Trailing like a willow.
The old melancholy
Comes from the land of longing.
The colors of the sunset thicken.
The shadows grow fast on the water.
You can tear them,
But not tear them away."
To
Who Stops the Dance?
If You Think with Fire
Thinking of Someone


Lan, Ling (Philippinen 1949-, lives in Taiwan) = Chen Wan-fen = Zhen Wanfen
A Melody
https://buoy.antville.org/stories/334370/.
I
Wind
shakes the grass.
Its upright posture
Is torn apart. A voice awakens
The ashes.
The news is written
On vanishing dew.
II
It encircles the reeds and flows
Along the two banks of the stream.
The reflection on the water
Has no light.
Suddenly a splash.
The shadow of a face
Descends like night on stone.
III
Leaning against the wind, he stands.
Grass withers between his brows.
The stars descend into the midnight river,
Emptied by the storm.
He who has never worn shoes
Has gone far away but is still inaudibly near.
The Arrival
Beyond Silence
From The White Color of Nearness

Tan, Ying = Dan, Ying = Liu, Baozhen (Perak, Malaysia 1943-)
Drinking the Wind

Chung, Ling = Zhong, Ling (Chongqing, Sichuan 1945-)
Dusk on the Veranda by Lake Mendota
The Fall of Moon Lady Before the Landing of Apollo X
On the Melting Lake
Song of Rootless People
Visiting


Jen, Jui = Ren, Rui (?)
Midnight

Li, Chü = Li, Ju = Li, Ru (Shanghai 1942-, lives in Taiwan)
Harvesting Wheat for the Public Share

Sekundärliteratur
1973
Stephen Owen : Of the many new books of Chinese poetry in translation, this section is unique : the poems, dating from the third century B.C. to the present, are all by women. The translations are followed by notes and a brief essay on the status of women in traditional Chinese society. Considering that only a handful of such poems has been previously translated, the intent is laudable, though perhaps nobler in the conception than in the execution. As the translators acknowledge, some of the earliest poems are of highly questionable authenticity, though they are the most interesting of the early poems. Mr. Rexroth's delicate style has not left him, but it requires something to work with : a number of the poems, particularly some of the Tang selections, are genuinely insignificant, and throughout the book are places where the translators might have chosen better poems. Most of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing selections are delightful, particularly the Ming erotic poems, and well deserve translation. About a third of the book is devoted to twentieth century women poets, and these poems are uniformly interesting.
When a poem gets difficult, the translators' imaginations will often supply a solution remarkable both for its ingenuity and incorrectness. The worst disaster is Xue Tao's 'An old poem to Yuan Chen', which from the title to the last line bears very little resemblance to the Chinese text.
This book is enjoyable to read and gives the reader the kind of poems he won't get a chance to read elsewhere. It is not scholarship nor does it pretend to be. If one accepts this fact and the fact that it does contain many errors, it is still a pleasurable book and a valuable book in that it introduces many poems which the non-sinologist would never see other wise and which the sinologist might never have thought to look for in the corpus of Chinese poetry.
1988
Shu Yunzhong : In the first place Rexroth chooses many little known women poets for his anthology because their poems, mostly love poems, fit into his literary conceptualization. Out of one hundred and fifteen poems in this collection fifty-one poems deal, in one way or another, with the theme of love. Some of the poets are courtesans or prostitutes and they write about love between man and woman rather openly by Chinese standards. With all their audacity, they still appear to Rexroth too reserved in their treatment of love. To intensify the treatment of human love, Rexroth inserts some words for which we cannot find any equivalent in the original text.

Cited by (1)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 2000- Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich Organisation / AOI
  • Cited by: Huppertz, Josefine ; Köster, Hermann. Kleine China-Beiträge. (St. Augustin : Selbstverlag, 1979). [Hermann Köster zum 75. Geburtstag].

    [Enthält : Ostasieneise von Wilhelm Schmidt 1935 von Josefine Huppertz ; Konfuzianismus von Xunzi von Hermann Köster]. (Huppe1, Published)