cathay literary response
cathay is a book of poems translated by notorious poet and facist, ezra pound.
it was praised by T.S. Eliot, who noted that Pound essentially "invented" Chinese poetry as it appeared to his readers at the time.
it is notable in that it was translated much like a game of telephone--according to Eric Hayot, Pound did not start studying Chinese until 1936, 20 years after Cathay was published. Pound instead drew from "the American scholar Ernest Fenollo
who, while living and working in Japan, had transcribed a number of Chinese poems with the help of a Professor Mori and a Mr. Ariga."
this mismatch is immediately noticeable to anyone who knows chinese: "rihaku" is clearly a japanese name rather than a chinese one, and further research reveals that it is the japanese name for li bo (李白, or li bai). similar japanisms appear throughout the translation. here is an example of one of the poems from cathay:
The City of Choan
The phoenix are at play on their terrace.
The phoenix are gone, the river Hows on alone.
Flowers and grass
Cover over the dark path
where lay the dynastic house of the Go.
The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin
Are now the base of old hills.
The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven,
The isle of White Heron
splits the two streams apart.
Now the high clouds cover the sun
And I can not see Choan afar
And I am sad.
登金陵鳳凰台
鳳凰台上鳳凰游，鳳去台空江自流。
吳宮花草埋幽徑，晉代衣冠成古丘。
三山半落青天外，二水中分白鷺洲。
總為浮雲能蔽日，長安不見使人愁。
This is my rough translation:
Climbing up to Phoenix Terrace in Jinling
On Phoenix Terrace long ago phoenixes would swim back and forth,
In the empty air of the terrace, only the river still flows
The Wu Palace flowers hide by a secluded path,
Jin finery lies tattered in burial mounds
Third Mountain pours out of the blue sky,
In Second River, the island of white egrets splits the water.
Fleeting clouds always might obscure the sun,
Looking towards obscured Chang'an, one can only worry.
(i wasn't sure whether to have The great kings of Jin or "Jin finery" because it does explicitly talk about clothes)
Baidu (which is basically Chinese wikipedia) talks about how part of this poem talks pretty directly about the politics of the time--how various ministers (I think from North China?) were slandering others in front of the emperor, and warning about the fates of previous dynasties. I think this is somewhat conveyed by Pound's translation, but I think a key element missed by Pound is that he writes the clouds as *definitely* covering the sun, whereas 能 basically shows us that it is only a possibility/likelihood. Also, "sad" and "worry" are completely different--one makes it seem like Chang'an has already fallen, versus the other is contemplating its future. The ending almost seems to make the poem fall on its face at the end with a *clunk.*
However, I did like "The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven, /The isle of White Heron /splits the two streams apart." I think that imagery is really nice and Ezra Pound has a good sense of wording and meter, which is why I think his decision to end the poem in this way felt so surprising, even disquieting. maybe it's supposed to mimic the unease that the speaker also feels? I also appreciated pound's willingness towards further enjambment, whch i am still not bold enough to attempt on a regular basis. pound sort of seems to barrel shamelessly forward into translation in a way i can only envy.
in the note at the end, pound calls his translations "unquestionable." does this refer to the quality of his translations, their verity, or the quality of his works as poems themselves? he does say that any other poems translated from this collection would require "a tedium of notes," and declines to add many (or any) notations on the majority of poems in cathay.
i think it's pretty easy to say that these poems are thoroughly orientalist and contribute(d) to the mystification of china. like, poetry from the year 800 isn't that easy to translate especially since us-china diplomacy at the time was pretty nonexistent, but i feel like at least trying to get someone who spoke chinese could have been helpful? poetry, and poems by li bo in particular, have been and continue to be an enduring part of formal chinese education, although most chinese american immigrants probably (?) wouldn't have received that level of education.
overall, i do not really like this book, but i think it raises a lot of interesting questions that one can dig into. how come i don't like this book, but i *do* like jack spicer's book? (who "didnt know spanish really well" when creating after lorca).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/441950
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%99%BB%E9%87%91%E9%99%B5%E5%87%A4%E5%87%B0%E5%8F%B0/2806436