Do you still remember the time when you need a lot of time to recite the Chinese poems in order to get a high mark in the Chinese exam paper? I think it is a really boring and tough task for us. However, can you observe the beauty in the poems beyond the exams? The harmonious atmosphere, the writers’ inner feelings, the touching environment, the certain characters, can make you go back to the writer’s dynasty and experience the same things.
Several factors contribute to the beauty of poems. They are the sound, the form, the language, as well as meaning. The sound refers to the rhyme. The decent rhyme can make the poems like a song, which is easily to read. The form, which is divided in old and new, are not so important. The modern poets tend to use the free form, which does not have a standard requirement. The language is crucial to the poems. Using the language fabulously can fascinate the readers to a large extent. The language is considered as the most wonderful part in the poem. The meaning is the poets’ feeling such as the admire of a beautiful girl, the endless homesick, the ambition to set up a country, the sadness of failling the exams and so on. Every individual may have his or her own opinion on the contents of the poems.
Knowing the basic concepts of the poems, let us discuss the problems in the international poems. Having learned so many English poems, I can not find out the beauty of the English poems. Even I can not comprehend the meanings to some extent. I think the same phenomena exists in the English-spoken countries, they can not understand the Chinese poems translated into English. There is supposed to be a misunderstanding because of various cultures and language.
I try to translate a Chinese poem into English. Please help me to correct it.
The white sun goes after the mountain,
The yellow river flows toward the sea.
If you want to have a higher view,
Go upstairs and see from there.
That is all. Is it a little ridiculous? I think so… How can we eliminate the barrier in the language to have a international field to creat more poems?
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funny translation! but a good attempt to do it! and you do it quite well!
ReplyDeletei think now we have got rid of those exams and we can have our own choice of which poem to read and recite. we are free men.
O(∩_∩)O
I believe that all the Chinese students will understand your interesting translation, while foreigners may feel confused. Ancient Chinese poems analysis……I think it is not a good way to make students analyze poems in the exam. Different people may have different understand of the poem, so there should not be an accurate answer. It will restrict students' mind. O(∩_∩)O~
ReplyDeleteOh, I was so excited to see your translation! o(∩_∩)o ~~~ However, it is abvious that 80% of the deep beauty of this chainese poem has gone in spite of your briliant translation. Maybe this is one of the reasons that no chinese works has won the Nobel Prize in Literature so far. Once translated, literatures will lose their original beauty. Hence, we should work harder to learn English so that one day we could appreciate English classics~
ReplyDeleteWhat a funny translation, but i believe that every one us cannot feel the artistic conception of this poem after translate it into English,heh.
ReplyDelete