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larryhammerMeme redux! In a possibly ill-advised move, I asked for five more questions from thawrecka:
1. What's your favourite of the poems you've experienced recently?
Ooof. Leading with your most powerful attack, I see.
I assume you mean the ghost poems? (Not a given: I often binge English poetry when I’m translating poetry.) Of the poems themselves, my favorite is by an anonymous woman of central Hunan—the imagery and sustained use of actual metaphors. Of the stories that go with the poems, my fave is the suit of armor throwing his poem at a general. For the best integration of poem + story, that’d be the scholar who died while traveling Mt. Shang.
2. What do you find the most interesting challenge about translation?
It’s two-part: figuring out what the original text is really saying (not to mention how it’s saying it), then figuring out how to say that in English (not to mention what it’s really saying). Both of those are interesting processes.
(This is not unlike what I do in my day-job as a technical writer: figure out what an application or device does, then figure out how to explain that.)
3. What first got you interested in translating the ghost poems?
I was looking up something about the Complete Tang Poems anthology, exactly what I no longer recall, when I noticed in this description a list of the various miscellaneous topics covered in the last hundred-odd chapters. I made a note of a few that caught my interest:
Dude. Poems by ghosts. Writing the sort of stuff that didn’t make it into 300 Tang Poems. And throwing poems at generals.
4. What's great about Yotsuba?
The way she throws herself headlong into life with the full-throttle abandon of a five-year-old, with all the wonder of someone experiencing it all for the first time.
5. Favourite food?
Ramen.
(Mmmm — noodles. Slurpy noooooodles.)
If you want five questions of your own, to answer in your journal, tap me in a comment.
---L.
Subject quote from Umbrella, Rihanna ft. Jay-Z.
thawrecka:1. What's your favourite of the poems you've experienced recently?
Ooof. Leading with your most powerful attack, I see.
I assume you mean the ghost poems? (Not a given: I often binge English poetry when I’m translating poetry.) Of the poems themselves, my favorite is by an anonymous woman of central Hunan—the imagery and sustained use of actual metaphors. Of the stories that go with the poems, my fave is the suit of armor throwing his poem at a general. For the best integration of poem + story, that’d be the scholar who died while traveling Mt. Shang.
2. What do you find the most interesting challenge about translation?
It’s two-part: figuring out what the original text is really saying (not to mention how it’s saying it), then figuring out how to say that in English (not to mention what it’s really saying). Both of those are interesting processes.
(This is not unlike what I do in my day-job as a technical writer: figure out what an application or device does, then figure out how to explain that.)
3. What first got you interested in translating the ghost poems?
I was looking up something about the Complete Tang Poems anthology, exactly what I no longer recall, when I noticed in this description a list of the various miscellaneous topics covered in the last hundred-odd chapters. I made a note of a few that caught my interest:
ch 797-805 of CTP is 名媛 Mingyuan females / also 881 is 蒙求 Mengqiu Primers - or rather, one primer / 877. 諺謎 Yanmi Proverbs and riddles / 878. 謠 Yao Popular rhymes (including 童谣 nursery rhymes!) / 865-866. 鬼 Gui ghosts / 867. 怪 Guai specters / 869-872. 諧謔 Xiexue ComediansI initially was going to follow up on the poems by women (in this case, those who aren’t royals, who are covered in chapters 5-9) but when I came back to the note, it was 鬼 that caught my attention. So I took a peak, and just scanning titles and attributions, my curiosity was really piqued—not just poems about ghosts but by them. I picked out a random sample to translate, and each of the first few made me go “Awesome!” and I was hooked.
Dude. Poems by ghosts. Writing the sort of stuff that didn’t make it into 300 Tang Poems. And throwing poems at generals.
4. What's great about Yotsuba?
The way she throws herself headlong into life with the full-throttle abandon of a five-year-old, with all the wonder of someone experiencing it all for the first time.
5. Favourite food?
Ramen.
(Mmmm — noodles. Slurpy noooooodles.)
If you want five questions of your own, to answer in your journal, tap me in a comment.
---L.
Subject quote from Umbrella, Rihanna ft. Jay-Z.
no subject
Date: 4 December 2022 08:00 pm (UTC)Oooh, I love the one by the woman of central Hunan—I know I always say this, but the last line especially.
no subject
Date: 5 December 2022 03:38 pm (UTC)