2/22 reflections

 

Speaker: 

Tracy K. Smith, a two-time American poet laureate and currently a professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University came to talk to us today about her translation of Yi Lei’s poetry selection. Yi Lei’s poetry is extremely powerful and enchanting in Chinese. When I read her poems, it feels like I am standing right in the heart of a downpouring waterfall, and her words would spash right on to me, overflowing with philosophical and artistic pleasure. However, Professor Smith’s translation is not that, it feels more like a meandering stream in the forest who lust for the power of the thunder. As you might have figured from this description, at first, when I read Professor Smith’s translation, I was not very content with it. I have to admit that bland direct translation of her poems into English, like what Yi Lei’s nephew David did for Professor Smith, does not lead to pretty sentences or imagery in English. It confirms the idea that it takes a poet to translate poetry. Her talk provided me furthur insights into how the translation was agreed upon with Yi Lei, and how she struggles to make some decisions of leaving things out or adding in new elements, and the side by side comparison with David’s direct translation definitely proves the importance of Professor Smith’s presence in this translation process. I do still feel the lingering thoughts, though, that there might have been a way to employ the elements and rhymes as well as formatting to carry over Yi Lei’s poetry’s spirit better. 

Reading: 

I thought these couple of short stories in “landscape with dog and other short stories” were undescripbably lovely. Especiually the first story, it might be the favorite short story I have read so far across all languages. I am not sure if it’s because how they mention rain so often that primed me to like the story more since I love rainy day, but the flow of the story being so natural and the content being so down to earth and relatable, as well as the spiritual connection shown through the insignificant interaction between the couple just makes the reading experience a really wholesome experience. In fact, I almost cried at the end, being so touched by it. The selection of poems were extremely lovely as well. The enjambment and choices of punctuation differ quite a bit across translations and I have many questions to ask about that in class. The rhyme as well as frequent mention of Alexandria is also intriguing, and I wonder how significant the rhyme is in Greek and how deep the connection of the Alexandria library has to the literary world in Greece. The novel was also quite a joy to read because of similar reasons I felt for the novel. The author seems to focus on detailed descriptions of the environment and the characters’ inner thoughts, which is clearly well carried-over in the translation. I am curious to hear how it sounds in Greece. Perhaps it’s a more mindblowing and satisfactory experience reading in the original. 

 

Jiayi