Tu An: Portrait of a poet and translator

By Li Xiao, Chen Boyuan: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, May 31, 2017

On April 19, 2017, the 94-year-old Mr. Tu An talks with a journalist from China.org.cn in his apartment. [Photo by Chen Boyuan/China.org.cn]

On translating poetry, Tu says it differs from that of novels and essays, which are big on plotline, characters, personalities and story. Poems, however, are about spirit, rhyme, rhythm, and love. The most difficult thing in translating a poem is to convey its soul. Yet, there is something in common -- the Chinese principle for translation first introduced by Yan Fu: Xin, Da, Ya, which means to stay true to the original text, be expressive towards the target audience, and ensure a refined wording. Tu thinks that Ya in modern days means that the translation should follow the style of the original text -- the translated phrases should read like the original writing, though not necessarily a hundred percent. Thus, if the original text sounds like something the common people would say and is not that refined, don't change it when you translate; by not refining it you are able to be that "refined" translator you ought to be.

American poet Robert Frost once said that "poetry is what gets lost in translation." Tu thinks that is too extreme. He says: "If Frost were right, then King James I, who organized the translation of the Bible was wasting his time on the Song of Songs! And the Fitzgerald translation of the Rubaiyat by the Persian poet Omar Khayyam might be just as well as thrown into the trashcan! I think that you CAN translate poems. Of course, something will be lost in translation -- the fewer there are, the better your translation; the more there are, the poorer your job. But, if you work hard enough, those things lost will be even fewer, until they are so very few."