13 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei

The following translations were written by graduate students at the end of a semester spent in a class practicing the translation of poetry. One of the texts we examined was Octavio Paz and Eliot Weinberger’s excellent study 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, in which the editors provide the original four-line poem, a transliteration, a character-by-character translation, or “trot,” and nineteen translations of the poem by poets and scholars from W. J. B. Fletcher (1919) to Gary Snyder (1978), along with commentary by both editors. The trot, reproduced below, was used by all our translators. The wonderful variety of intelligences applied to the problems inherent in all translation, but particularly in those from cultures far distant in time and place, manifested themselves in these exciting new versions: Tara Tatum is inspired by the freshness of Snyder’s formal response to the original; Walter Smelt winks at our hours of discussion on the lack of an “I” in the original verse; Gentris Jointe pays wonderful heed to a semantic take presented by Paz in his discussion of his own translation; Ashley Keyser reprises the original place name and in so doing brings a touch of Buddhist sensibility to her version. Titles vary; Kristen Herrera and Erin Jones chose to leave their versions untitled.

Literal trot, or character-by-character translation, of the original Wang Wei poem:

Empty	mountain(s)	(negative)	to see	person
	hill(s)		people
But	to hear	person	words	sound
		people	conversation	to echo
To return	bright(ness)	to enter	deep	forest
	shadow(s)
To return	to shine	green	moss	above
Again	to reflect	blue	lichen	on (top of)
		black		top

Deer Enclave

Empty mountain, no one around,yet voices echo.Shadows carve out the trees,leave the mosses in bright relief.

Samantha Grenrock

Where Deer Dwell

No one on this empty mountain,just the echo of distant voices.Late light filters through tree limbs,illuminating the blue-green moss.

Paulette Guerin

empty mountains do not see peoplebut word-sounds echoand light returns to deepest forestto shine again above blue-black mosses

Kristen Herrera

Deer Grove

Empty mountain. No one in sight.And yet, someone’s voice echoes.Returning sunlight enters the deep woods.Again, it illuminates the moss, and rises, green.

Gentris Jointe

The empty mountains fill with conversationBut there is no one in sight.Sun-bright shadows enter the deep woodReturning again to shine blue green on the moss.

Erin Jones

Sarnath

On the empty mountain, there’s no onebut maybe the sound of someone.Bright shadow comes back, cuts the forest deeplyto shine on green-black moss again.

Ashley Keyser

Sunset

Empty mountain, no one to be seenThough far-off voices can be heard.Sunlight returns to the deep woods,Again it shines on moss-hooded trees.

Brian Malatesta

Deer Grove

The empty mountain shows no one,but voices echo through the deep forest.The slanting sun enters with its shadows,shining again on the blue-green moss

Elaina Mercatoris

Deer Clearing

No one’s in sight on the mountain,but something like words echoesin the late light soaking the forestand reflecting on luminous green moss.

Sarah Grigg Rolph

The Translator Enclosure

At first the mountainside seems empty,but then a confusion of voices is heardarguing over line length, over the “I,”while, just the same, the sunlight strikesa patch of moss so wet, the light springs back.

Walter Smelt

Deer Haunt

Empty mountain,    no one in sight—but someone speaks.    Sunlight entersthe dark woods    and shines againon blue moss.

Tara Tatum

Deer Park

No one on these empty mountains,but conversations sound between crests—the late sun enters the deep woodsand returns to shine again on top of green moss.

Ashley Tisdale

Deer Yard

Empty mountain. Not a soul can be seen,but words echo in bright shadowsdeep in the forest. Light reflects againand again off the great green moss.