The Late Poems of Meng Chiao (review)

438 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 Finally, the ROC governs only Taiping Island in the Nansha Island Group, not "several islets" (p. 16). Peter Kien-hong Yu East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore Ii David Hinton, translator. The Late Poems ofMeng Chiao. Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. xv, 87 pp. Hardcover $27.50, isbn 0-691-01237-7. Paperback $9.95, isbn 0691 -01236-9. David Hinton's work as a translator has been widely acclaimed. He has, for example , been called by J. P. Seaton "simply the best translator of Chinese poetry presentiy working in English." The volume under review has won the Academy of American Poets 1997 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, and Hinton's earlier work on T'ao Ch'ien, Li Po, Tu Fu, and Bei Dao has been well received as well. The book under review here is, considered as a contribution to poetry in English , entirely worthy of its predecessors. Hinton displays admirable energy, resourcefulness , and daring in his handling of the English language, and his work is warmly recommended to any reader of China Review International who enjoys reading poetry in English. Many readers ofthis journal are, however, scholars and teachers of Chinese poetry, and in what follows I shall have their professional, as opposed to recreational , interest chiefly in view. Considered from this admittedly narrow standpoint , Hinton's book is quite dioroughly beyond the pale. It cannot, for example, be recommended for use in courses that teach Chinese literature in translation or introduce Chinese civilization to Western students. The simplest and most effective way of supporting such a judgment is by close examination of an example. The following poem is the second in the series Hsia ai fykM, "Laments ofthe Gorges." I give first the Chinese text, from pages 488-489 ofthe Meng Chiao shih chi chiao-chu lËÇft&ïMfâiÎÎ., compiled by Hua Ch'en-chih i¡ltt¡¿. and Yu Hsiieh-ts'ai PJj^pIj" (Peking: Jen-min Wen-hsiieh,© 1998 by University lg95; note that this is not me Hua ch'en-chih edition cited by Hinton), then ofHawai'iPressHinton's translation (p. 31). Reviews 439 Water all heaven-above heaven-below, a boat leaves earth entering earth here. Swordblades of rock slice at each other, rock-broken waves all angry dragons, and though blossoms rekindle spring, freezing winds make autumn timeless. Unearthly voices rise from hidden dens. Flies thicken, buzzing currents in flight. The sun sunk deep, drowning lament, how could we set out pleading for help? The following is a more literal version: Water that ascends to the heavens and descends from the heavens; A boat that emerges from the earth and enters the earth. Swords ofstone slice and hack; Waves ofstone anger dragons. Annuals and trees layer bygone springs; Winds and tempests congeal ancient autumns. Shadowy specters converse in grottoes and caverns; Flying into hearing—the flow of thunderous echoes. Sinking laments grown deeper by the day, Resentful complaints—what are they about to seek? Hinton's rendering is surely a gorgeous piece ofwork (no pun intended), but it amounts to something very remote indeed from the poem by Meng Chiao. It is, to begin with, hard to find a source in Meng Chiao for some ofHinton's images. "Blossoms" and "rekindle" in the fifth line are rather far from what Meng gives us—'blossoms' because it is too specific, and 'rekindle' because it is specific in the wrong direction. The winds in Meng's next line are not "freezing," but rather tempestuous. 'Freezing' perhaps crept into the translation from ning'M, but the essence ofthis word is not temperature but consistency, and in any case syntax rules out its use as a modifier ofthe winds. A similar tendency for words to 'creep', and in the form ofEnglish tags rather than as Chinese words, is presumably responsible for the only real howler in the translation (one not typical of Hinton's work in general, I should add). It appears that the working procedure was to write down a series ofEnglish words corresponding to each ofthe characters in the original, and then to work with these cribs rather...