Snow Lotus: Translation

A CI Lyric on Bamboo Stalk (by LIU Yuxi)

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:15:12 GMT

The Festival of Cervantes, the annual big event of SISU held by the Faculty of Western Languages and Literature, is now underway. All the second and third year students should take part in the competition of translating a classical Chinese poem into their major languages. This seems to be a little burden for some of them, so I translated the appointed poem into English, for the use of my former classmates. Unfortunately, Zélia whose Portuguese translation is based on my English version didn't win the first prize and I'm not sure if it's my fault. Just put it here. It's my work anyway...

A CI Lyric on Bamboo Stalk

Green are the poplar and willow
plain are the river and water.
There comes the songs of my love,
from the river where he is fishing.

In the east rises the sun
from the west pours the rain.
Looks raining but still fine
seems no feeling but still courting.

- Composed by LIU Yuxi in Tang Dynasty

- Translated by Abel Chen

Original Language (Chinese) Version

竹枝词

[唐]刘禹锡

杨柳青青江水平，

闻郎江上唱歌声。
东边日出西边雨，

道是无晴却有晴。

A Blossomy Tree (by Hsi Muren)

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:30:06 GMT

Poetry translation seems much more difficult than that of prose.
This version is anything but a success. Anyway, it is my work.. .

A Blossomy Tree

How to appear in front of you,
in the noontide of my beauty.

For this,
I’ve been entreating the Buddha for five hundred years
to predestine us to a chance of encounter.
Thus, the Buddha turned me into a tree
beside the road you would take.

I am in the sun,
blossoming all over.
Every flower shows my yearning since the previous reincarnation.

When you pass by,
listen carefully.
The trembling leaves
convey my zeal while waiting.

When you pass by neglectfully,
something fall all over the ground.
Oh dear,
it’s not a blossom fall
but the languishment of my heart.

- Written by Hsi Muren (XI Murong) in Chinese
- Translated by Abel Chen

Original Language (Chinese) Version

一棵开花的树

如何让你遇见我
在我最美丽的时刻

为这
我已在佛前求了五百年
求佛让我们结一段尘缘
佛于是把我化做一棵树
长在你必经的路旁

阳光下
慎重地开满了花
朵朵都是我前世的盼望

当你走近
请你细听
那颤抖的叶
是我等待的热情

而当你终于无视地走过
在你身后落了一地的
朋友啊
那不是花瓣
那是我凋零的心

- 作者：席慕蓉

Love (by Eileen Chang)

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:06:54 GMT

Love

This is a true story.

There was a girl from a well-off family in a small village. She was so pretty that many families wanted to make a match between her and their sons, but all in vain. On a spring evening when she was only about fifteen or sixteen, she stood at the back door, resting her hand on a peach tree. She was wearing a gown in the colour of moon, according to her memory. The young man living in the opposite house, who had met her before but never greeted, came along. He stopped at a modest distance and said gently, “Oh, you are here too?” She remained silent and he said nothing further. They stood there for a while, and then each went a way separately.

That was all.

Later, the woman was sold by her evil relatives as a concubine to some remote place. After that, she was resold again and again and went through all kinds of hardships. When she got old, however, she still remembered and always talked about that spring evening and that young man under a peach tree at the back door.

Meeting the one that you meet among the millions, upon the second of endless time, without earliness or lateness, you meet coincidently. And yet you don't have other words, except that gentle greeting: “Oh, you are here too?”

Written by Eileen Chang in Chinese
(Originally published in the Zazhi Monthly of April 1944, Volume 13, No.1)
Translated by Abel Chen

Original Language (Chinese) Version

爱

　　这是真的。

　　有个村庄的小康之家的女孩子，生得美，有许多人来做媒，但都没有说成。那年她不过十五六岁吧，是春天的晚上，她立在后门口，手扶着桃树。她记得她穿的是一件月白的衫子。对门住的年轻人同她见过面，可是从来没有打过招呼的，他走了过来。离得不远，站定了，轻轻的说了一声：“噢，你也在这里吗？”她没有说什么，他也没有再说什么，站了一会，各自走开了。

　　就这样就完了。

　　后来这女人被亲眷拐子卖到他乡外县去作妾，又几次三番地被转卖，经过无数的惊险的风波，老了的时候她还记得从前那一回事，常常说起，在那春天的晚上，在后门口的桃树下，那年轻人。

　　于千万人之中遇见你所遇见的人，于千万年之中，时间的无涯的荒野里，没有早一步，也没有晚一步，刚巧赶上了，那也没有别的话可说，惟有轻轻地问一声：“噢，你也在这里吗？”

作者：张爱玲
（原刊1944年4月《杂志》月刊第13卷第1期）

For reference:
Some background about the author and the translation by Hanlin Reading Society (Singapore)
-- Different from mine, this is a very accurate tanslation.