Wednesday, March 5, 2008

A Note on Pound's "Liu Ch'e"

  A Note on Pound's "Liu Ch'e"
   庞德译《落叶哀蝉曲》小识

  落叶哀蝉曲
      汉武帝刘彻
罗袂兮无声,玉墀兮尘生。
虚房冷而寂寞。落叶依于扃。
望彼美女兮安得,感余心之未宁。

Word-by-Word Exegesis

  落Falling 叶Leaves哀Whining/ Sad蝉Cicada 曲Song/ Tune
      汉Han (Dynasty) 武帝Wu Emperor刘彻Liu Che
罗袂silk skirt兮ah无no声sound,
玉jade墀step兮ah尘dust生grow。
虚empty房room/house冷cold而and寂silent寞lonely。
落fall叶leaves依press close于to扃door。
望look at彼that美beautiful女lady兮ah安how得attain,
感touch/feel余my心heart之(‘s, possessive)未not宁calm。

Perhaps without the “invention” of modern American poetry of classical Chinese poetry, many Chinese readers would not be impressed by this poem. This poem, supposedly written by an emperor about his deceased concubine-wife, was not in the popular anthology in China. Yet, when Ezra Pound translated it into an influential imagist poem and threw back to contemporary Chinese readers, it somehow initiates a new way of re-reading Chinese poetry even among the native Chinese readers. Pound’s translation is as follows:

  也许我们大部分人在没有接触美国现代诗的时候,并不一定对这首悼亡诗有多么深的印象。但是,这可是美国现代诗歌史上非常著名的一首中国诗!因为大诗人庞德翻译了,因此将中国诗也重新发布了。这首诗在诗歌史上留下了一个非常著名的意象(也就是最后一行),其影响不下于那著名的地铁站口的人面桃花。

   Liu Ch’e
        Ezra Pound
The rustling of the silk is discontinued,
Dust drifts over the court-yard,
There is no sound of foot-fall, and the leaves
Scurry into heaps and lie still,
And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them:

A wet leaf that clings to the threshold.

回译:
   刘彻
丝绸的窸瑟声断了,
灰尘飘落在庭院,
没有落脚之音,而叶子
急急飞落,堆积,悄然倒伏,
她,心之欢愉,居于其下:

一片潮湿的叶子粘在门槛。

  The most conspicuous transformation in Pound’s version is the omission of the subject “I”. Without the possessive “my” in the last line of the original text, the whole poem is rendered as a spectacle for every-man. The “the rejoicer of the heart” becomes the desire of every reader who does not need to read as a parasite to the emperor; instead, the reader can construct an isolated subjecthood by himself. In fact, this imagist rendition may be understood as a violation enacted by Western mimetic representation upon Chinese lyrical expressionism. The aura of an emperor’s private collection is undone so that everyone can take it as a possible object of desire.

  这最后一行单独分开,将所有的哀愁忧伤写成了“一片潮湿的叶子粘在门槛”。这片叶子也就成了艾略特所谓的“客观对应物”了。看到的是在门槛上,实则是贴在心头,难以排解。令人叫绝。
  与其说美国意象派诗人发现中国诗没有议论,只是意象,不如说他们发明了意象,反过来加之于中国诗。我们通常理解的意象派所谓的image意象看似客观的图像,实则被充满了感情。其实这很有中国的所谓“意境”的趣味。剔除了语气词,降低了感叹,而且将一个非常关键的“余”给省略了,于是“望彼美女”的主体留空了,不是“余”,而成为了一个大写的凝视者。因此,那个缺场的美人才成为了我们所有人共享的欲望之spectacle“景儿”。我们读,我们进入了现场,进入了这个空的现场,被这些意象充满,于是我们深处的某种空、某种缺失便被临时替换而充满了。这里有一个唤起过程,也就是我们被一个看似客观的意象占有了。这首诗中“余”的消隐过程,其实是西方式的mimetic representation模仿再现对于东方式的lyrical expression抒情表现的僭越,犹如将一个皇帝的私家收藏注销了皇威,成了普通读者都可以占有的欲望。

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