A Night Abroad -- Du Fu

Guest poem sent in by Raj Bandyopadhyay

(Poem #1159) A Night Abroad A light wind is rippling at the grassy shore.... Through the night, to my motionless tall mast, The stars lean down from open space, And the moon comes running up the river. ..If only my art might bring me fame And free my sick old age from office! -- Flitting, flitting, what am I like But a sand-snipe in the wide, wide world! -- Du Fu

    (Translated by Witter Bynner, 1929)

Here's another translation of the same poem, by Vikram Seth

  "Thoughts While Travelling at Night"
  (Translated by Vikram Seth, 1992)

  Light breeze on the fine grass
  I stand alone at the mast.
  Stars lean on the vast wild plain
  Moon bobs in the great river's spate.
  Letters have brought no fame
  Office? Too old to obtain.
  Drifting, what am I like?
  A gull between the earth and sky.

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I finally received a copy of Vikram Seth's 'Three Chinese poets' after a
long wait, and had to send out a nice one!!!

Du Fu (712-770 AD), one of the most well known Tang Dynasty Chinese poets,
along with Li Bai and Wang Wei. This dynasty (618-907 AD) is considered
the golden period of Chinese poetry, probably well-known to westerners
through the collection : 300 Tang Dynasty poems. This collection is a
must-read for every Chinese schoolkid. Both the originals and translations
are online at an excellent archive at
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/chinese/frame.htm

I personally find this kind of poetry appealing, even in translation,
because of the simplicity and universal appeal of the ideas. Chinese
poetry loses most of the lyrical beauty in translation, hence different
translations have really different degrees of impact: a point I want to
make here.

Traditional translations in the 19th and early 20th centuries try to
translate in a way which results in 'English poetry', sometimes taking
undue (IMHO) liberties with language or concepts. Modern translations such
as those of Seth (not many people know of his expertise in Chinese
literature!) keep the English language simple, maintain the sentence
structure and attempt to get the elegance of the ideas across. Some people
consider Seth's style inferior. I will reserve final judgement until I can
understand these poems in the original. Meanwhile, other opinions are
welcome!

So here goes! The poem itself I chose because I sometimes strongly
identify with the feelings of aimlessness and smallness described. I
personally feel the Bynner translation as more descriptive, but the Seth
translation more emotionally appealing and overall, understandable. I
might just be stupid... :-)

References:
1) Witter Bynner: The Jade Mountain (1929), also at the UVA website above
2) Vikram Seth: Three Chinese Poets (1992)