The public life of contemporary Chinese poetry in English translation

Cosima Bruno
School of Oriental and African Studies

Abstract

This essay is an exploration of some of the social and cultural factors that have played a role in the production, publication and reception of English translations of contemporary Chinese poetry, from the beginning of the 1980s to today. The aim is to link translations to the broader context, highlighting modalities and expectations of reception that have evolved within the social structures through which the translation of contemporary Chinese poetry has been circulating: the publishing industry, universities, the periodical press, public intellectual debates, and the market. The article does not try to establish if this or that expectation are either real or perceived features of the source texts. Nor does it deal with translators’ individual interpretations, their private readings. Instead, adopting a wider sociocultural approach, the analysis proposes to shed light on the industrial and commercial dimension—the public life—of contemporary Chinese poetry in English translation.

Keywords:
Table of contents

Since the early definition of descriptive translation studies (DTS) as that branch of translation studies with a tripartite concern for translation as product, translation as function, and translation as process (Holmes 1972: 176–177), the study of translation as a complex sociocultural phenomenon has been establishing a conspicuous curriculum, producing a wide corpus of works. While commenting that ‘function-oriented DTS’ shifts attention from text to context, Holmes explains that this area of research pursues “such questions as which texts were (and, often as [ p. 254 ]important, were not) translated at a certain time in a certain place, and what influences were exerted in consequence”. He concludes by saying that focusing attention on these aspects of translating activities “could lead to the development of a field of translation sociology” (1972, 177).

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

[ p. 277 ]References

Anderson, Benedict
1983 Imagined Communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Barmé, Geremie, and John Minford (eds)
1989 Seeds of Fire: Voices of Chinese Conscience. New York: Hill & Wang.Google Scholar
Barnstone, Tony
1993 “Translation as Forgery. Comments from the Editor.” In Out of the Howling Storm: New Chinese Poetry, ed. by Tony Barnstone, xv–xviii. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
1993 “A Collection of Experimental and Political Poetry from China.” Accessed August 25, 2010. http://​www​.amazon​.co​.uk​/Out​-Howling​-Storm​-Chinese​-Wesleyan​/dp​/0819512109.
Bassnett, Susan and André Lefevere (eds.)
1990 Translation, History and Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berman, Antoine
1992 The Experience of the Foreign: Culture and Translation in Romantic Germany. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Megan H.
1994 The Reception of Spanish American Fiction in West Germany 1981–91. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Bruno, Cosima
2012 Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry through Translation. Leiden and Boston: Brill.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buruma, Ian
1999 “Dissident Language. Ian Buruma on a Chinese Poet Waging His Own Cultural Revolution.” The Sunday Telegraph 12 September. Google Scholar
Bush, Peter
1998 “Literary Translation, Practices.” In In Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 128. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Casanova, Pascale
2004 The World Republic of Letters. English Translation by M.B. DeBevoise. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cayley, John, and Henry Y. H. Zhao (eds)
1994 Under Sky under Ground. Chinese Writing Today. London: Wellsweep.Google Scholar
Chen, Yanbing, and John Rosenwald
1994 “Books in Brief.” Beloit Poetry Journal 45 (2): 38–39.Google Scholar
Chin, Frank
1991 “Come all ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake.” In The big aiiieeeee!, ed. by Paul Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong, 1–92. New York: Meridian Books.Google Scholar
Clark, Polly
2005 Take Me with You. London: Bloodaxe Books. Accessed July 14, 2010. http://​ www​.pollyclark​.co​.uk​/index​.php​?f​=data​_translations​&a​=0
Crespi, John A.
2009 Voices in Revolution: poetry and the auditory imagination in modern China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Swaan, Abram
2001 Words of the World: The Global Language System. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dian Li
2003 “The Floating Body and the Disappearing Border.” In Studies on Transnational Societies, Multicultural Contacts and Imaging Homes, ed. by Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Michael W. Charney, and Chee Kiong Tong, 187–202. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Dunn, Anthony
Translation.” Accessed July 14, 2010. http://​www​.antonydunn​.org​/poems​/ translation​.php.
[ p. 278 ]
Even-Zohar, Itamar
1978/1990 “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary System.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawerence Venuti, 192–197. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Feather, John
2003 Communicating Knowledge. Publishing in the 21st Century. München: Saur.Google Scholar
Finkel, Donald (ed)
1991 A Splintered Mirror: Chinese Poetry from the Democracy Movement. San Francisco: North Point Press.Google Scholar
Fish, Stanley
1980 Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretative Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Flood, Alison
2009 “ACE in a Hole?” Bookseller 8/21 (5396): 22–24.Google Scholar
Gerard Genette
1987/1997 Paratexts. Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glissant, Édouard
1990 Poétique de la relation. Paris: Gallimard.English Translation by Betsy Wing 1997 Poetics of Relation. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Raymond (ed)
2005 Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. http://​www​.ethnologue​.com.
Hale, Terry
1998 “Publishing Strategies.” In Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 190–194. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heilbron, Johan
1999 “Towards a Sociology of Translation. Book Translations as a Cultural Word-System.” European Journal of Social Theory 2 (4): 429–444.Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo (ed.)
1985 The Manipulation of Literature. London and Sydney: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo
1997 “Translation as Institution.” Translation as Intercultural Communication. Selected Papers from the EST Congress, Prague 1995, ed. by Mary Snell-Hornby, Zuzana Jettmarová, and Klaus Kaindl, 3–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 Translation in Systems. Descriptive and Systemic Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
Holmes, James S.
1972/1988 “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawerence Venuti, 172–185. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huang, Yunte
2002 Transpacific Displacement. Ethnography, Translation, and Intertextual Travel in Twentieth-century American Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hung, Eva
1995 “Periodicals as Anthologies: A Study of Three English-Language Journals of Chinese Literature.” In International Anthologies of Literature in Translation, ed. by Harald Kittel, 239–250. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.Google Scholar
Index Translationum
Accessed April 30, 2010. http://​databases​.unesco​.org​/xtrans​/a​/openisis.
Jauss, Hans Robert
1982 Toward an Aesthetic of Reception. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Jin, Guantao
2001 “Interpreting Modern Chinese History through the Theory of Ultrastable Systems.” In Voicing Concern: Contemporary Chinese Critical Inquiry, Trans. byGloria Davis. ed. Gloria Davies, 157–83. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lambert, José, and Hendrik van Gorp
1985/2006 “On Describing Translation.” Functional Approaches to Culture and Translation, Ed. by Dirk Delabastita, Lieven D’Hulst and Reine Meylaerts, 37–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Laviosa, Sara
1997 “How Comparable can ‘Comparable Corpora’ Be?” Target 9 (2): 304–308.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lefevere, Andre
1992 Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Magee, Max
2007 “The Race to China.” Poets & Writers. Accessed March 15, 2012. http://​www​. pw​.org​/content​/race​_china​?cmnt​_all​=1.
[ p. 279 ]
Monro, Alexander
2008 “The Yellow Mountain Poetry Festival unites Chinese Poets with the English Language.” The Times 6 June.Google Scholar
Morin, Edward (ed)
1990 The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry since the Cultural Revolution. Honolulu: University of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy
2001 Introducing Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Niranjana, Tejaswini
1992 Siting Translation. Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ong, Aihwa
1999 Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Owen, Stephen
1990 “What is World Poetry?” The New Republic November 19: 29.Google Scholar
Peng, Jinshan 彭金山, Guo Guochang 郭国昌, Li Chengjia 李成家, and Zhang Mingkang 张明 康.
2008 1949–2000 年 Zhongguo shige yanjiu nian. 中国诗歌研究 (1949–2000. Research on Chinese poetry), 3 vols. Lanzhou: Dunhuang wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Petit Pascale
Poet to Poet translation. China.” Accessed 21 December 2012. http://​www​..pas​- calepetit​.co​.uk​/index​.php?
Phillipson, R.
1992 Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony
2006 “On the social and the cultural in Translation Studies.” In Sociocultural Aspects of Translating and Interpreting, ed. by Anthony Pym, Miriam Schlesinger, and Zuzana Jettmarovà, 1–26. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Paul
2006 “Reducing the Cultural Deficit: China Assays the World Book Market.” Logos 17 (4): 182–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Paul, and Graham Taylor
2008 A Guide to the UK Publishing Industry. London: The Publishers Association.Google Scholar
Tang, Jun
2005 “Ideology and Translation Studies in Present-day China.” Meta: Translators’ Journal, Recherches Théoriques (CD-ROM) 4 (50): 1–12.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
1980 In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria
2007 Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Van Crevel, Maghiel
1996 Language Shattered. Contemporary Chinese Poetry and Duoduo. Leiden: CNWS Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vanderauwera, Ria
1985 Dutch Novels Translated into English: The Transformation of a “Minority” Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence (ed)
1995 The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
1998 “Strategies of Translation.” In Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 240–244. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vermeer, Hans J.
1989 “Skopos and Commission in Translation Action.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawerence Venuti, 221–232. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wang, Ping
1998 “New Poetry from China.” Manoa 10(1): 63–64.Google Scholar
Watts, Daniel
2007 “Lost in Translation?.” Bookseller 3/23 (5273): 20.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Natasha
2001 “The U.S. Translation Blues”. Publishers Weekly 21 May: 71–74.Google Scholar
Wischenbart, Rüdiger, Jennifer Jursitzky, and Sabina Muriale
2008 “Diversity Report 2008. An Overview and Analysis of Translation Statistics across Europe: Facts, Trends, Patterns.” Accessed April 30, 2010. http://​portal​.unesco​.org​/culture​/en​/ev​.php​-URL​_ID​=22194​&URL​_DO​=DO​_TOPIC​&URL​_SECTION​=201​.html.
Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari
(eds) 2007 Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.[ p. 280 ]   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
[ p. 280 ]
Yang, Lian 扬炼
1984 “Tradition and Us.” In Trees on the Mountain, ed. by Tr. Ginger Li., Stephen C. Soong, and John Minford, 69–73. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
1997 “Poet without a Nation.” Tr. Brian Holton. Index on Censorship 3: 152–153.Google Scholar
1998a 大海停止之处 。杨炼作品 1982–1997 (Dahai tingzhi zhi chu. Yang Lian zuopin 1982–1997) (Where the sea stands still. Works by Yang Lian 1982–1997). Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
1998b 鬼话。智力的空间。杨炼作品 1982–1997 (Guihua. Zhili de kongji- an. Yang Lian zuopin 1982–1997) (Ghost words. The intellectual space. Works by Yang Lian 1982–1997). Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
1998c “The Writer and the Party.” Tr. Brian Holton. Times Literary Supplement 6 November: 18–19.Google Scholar
Yeh, Michelle
2000 “International Theory and the Transnational Critic.” In Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of Theory: Reimagining a Field, ed. by Rey Chow, 266. Durham and London: Duke University Press.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yu, Hui 郁辉
2007 Shu xiang piaopiao 书香飘飘 (The flavour of books). Beijing: Wuzhou zhuanbo chuban she.Google Scholar