Escape from Blood Pond Hell: The Tales of Mulian and Woman Huang

Note on the Translations

ix O ur primary aim has been to provide translations that are both faithful to the original and easy to read, which is why we have kept our annotations to the minimum. More detailed and more expert discussions of many of the issues and figures mentioned in the texts may be found in selected items in the bibliography. When translating verse, we have made no attempt to reproduce the rhymes of the original, and we also have not imposed any metrical pattern on the lines. In general, one line of verse in the original is reproduced as one line of verse in the translation. Seven-syllable lines are translated as a single line; ten-syllable lines have been rendered as long lines made up of three short lines, reproducing the tripartite structure of the original lines. In extended passages of either seven-syllable verse or ten-syllable verse in the original, we have tried to give each line roughly the same length in our translations. To achieve that aim, we have admittedly on occasion made use of some minor padding. Even then, we have been far more successful in our aim in some passages than in others. When the text includes a number of songs each set to the same allometric tune, we have tried to make the songs display roughly the same pattern of long and short lines. NOTE ON THE TRANSLATIONS x | Note on the Translations In Chinese names, the surname comes first and is followed by the personal name. A married woman does not take her husband’s surname but is designated by her maiden family name. The months of the year are the months of the traditional lunar calendar, which starts roughly one month later than the solar calendar. Chinese seasons begin earlier, however, as the first three months of the year constitute spring, the next three months summer, and so on. A baby is said to be one year of age when he or she is born and turns two on the first New Year—in this way, a “three-yearold ” child may be just over one year old according to the Western way of counting age. ESCAPE FROM BLOOD POND HELL ...