Chinese-English Translation of Thousand Poems (Revised Edition)

Author: Guo Zhang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: China is a land of poetry. In the fine literary and artistic traditions of China, the history of poetic art is the longest and its national characteristics are the most prominent. For thousands of years, in the rich treasury of Chinese poetic art in our country, countless excellent selected collections of poems have been published, and A Thousand Poems is one of the most charming and colorful among them, having been widely favored by the Chinese people and playing an active role in popularizing traditional Chinese culture. With the deepening of China's reform and opening-up and the growing expansion of cultural exchanges with the world, traditional Chinese culture, including classical poetry, has been increasingly accepted and loved by people around the world. Especially since the 1980s, China has successively published a series of English translations of ancient Chinese poetry collections, which have been well-received by readers both at home and abroad. However, for a famous collection like A Thousand Poems, there is still no complete English translation available, which is indeed a regrettable omission. To make up for this shortcoming and promote the poetic art tradition of our country, Wuhan University Press organized more than ten domestic experts and scholars to translate and recently published A Thousand Poems: An Anthology of Popular Ancient Chinese Poems in Chinese-English parallel text, catering to the needs of a broad audience of Chinese and foreign poetry enthusiasts, researchers, English lovers, and translators. The original text used for this book is the April 1990 edition of A Thousand Poems published by Yuefu Book Society, which includes 226 poems by 126 ancient poets, comprising 94 seven-character quatrains, 48 seven-character regulated verse, 39 five-character quatrains, and 45 five-character regulated verse. These exquisite ancient poems are simple and clear, depicting scenes and objects, expressing aspirations and emotions, or condemning evil and promoting virtue, leaving readers with endless aftertaste and profound inspiration and aesthetic enjoyment. The English translations, while remaining faithful to the original works, have well-represented the beauty of the original poems in terms of meaning, form, and sound, achieving a high degree of resemblance in spirit, form, and even meaning. For example, the translations of "An Impromptu Poem Composed in Spring" by Cheng Hao, "The Spring Dawn" by Meng Haoran, and "A Tranquil Night" by Li Bai. In cases where it is impossible to balance all three aspects of sound, form, and meaning, the translators prioritize meaning and form over sound; when meaning and form cannot both be preserved, they prioritize meaning over form. As a result, the book largely avoids situations where the translation sacrifices meaning or spirit for the sake of rhyme or word choice, ensuring that most of the translated poems still retain the essence and charm of the original works.