[Epilogue跋]
譯後記：學習，然後工（代跋）
以下文字权且爲譯後記（代跋），與拙作關係不大，也與翻譯曲直得失之類的無多大幹係，針對成人讀者的，年輕的中小學女士們先生們可跳過不看。
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聖人有言：不學詩，無以言。泱泱詩歌超級大國，亘古而今極重詩作詩教，故而國人，無論老幼，尊卑貧富，大抵能出口成誦；從搖籃到墳墓，從學步蹣跚的幼童到步履蹣跚的耄耋，無不以能背上幾句爲榮；日常交通，也不乏詩詞點綴；阡陌巷里，有吟詩作對；廟堂之上，亦頻繁徵用；芸芸衆生，雖良莠不齊，但詩歌的基因已侵入髓血，成爲軀體的一部分；才具俱佳、能吟詩作賦者，則定可博人眼球，收人青眼，甚至平步青雲，位極人臣，此者史上不乏嘉例。爲是之故，古時蒙童私塾開蒙拜師，現代的西式學校教育，均倚重詩歌授習。“鵝，鵝，鵝”，“白日依山盡”，“帝高陽之苗裔兮”......由易而難，由簡而繁，從幼兒園至大學，人人皆浸潤在詩歌的抑揚頓挫裏。如此潜移默化，造就了國人的詩歌品性。沒有了古典詩歌教育的中小學教育，則不可想像，甚至國將不國，實乃古典詩歌是華夏的標志性特徵之一。此非虛言以聳聽，亦非陳辭，而是一種姿態。
更有甚者，隨著國門大開，西風東漸，中西交通日見繁榮；先是器物層面，後爲優秀文化藝術的引入，人文社科領域更是繁花似錦，尽管中外交流过程中單行道現象亦十分普遍。尤其是外語熱，更是蔚成風氣，甚有全民學英語之勢，數十年來未見頽勢。中小學更是視英語爲重中之重，與語文數學幷駕齊驅，成爲課程體系的大三門。針對中小學生的英文出版物如雨後春笋，品類繁多，層出不窮，且方興未艾。出版商則是你方唱罷我登場，一派興榮氣象。坊間中小學生古詩詞英譯讀本亦乘勢而上，實體書店和網上書店裏，類似的品種已不少見。
自負的文化自大主義者或許會說，中國學生學習中國古典詩詞，有何必要讀英文譯本？此舉無异于“運煤至紐卡索”，徒勞而無益。在减負鬆綁的今天，更是逆時代潮流，陡增學生負擔，根本不可取。更有甚者，一些擔心文化殖民的“精英名人”呼籲取消英語的主課地位，甚至將英語課趕出中小學課堂。此言差矣。學生真正需要的，是從題海戰術和無休止的課外補習，即時下所說的“內卷”中解放出來，改革現行考試制度，用以廣泛課外閱讀的知識積累爲基礎的考試制度取代舊制度，解决問題的能力，自主學習習慣，以及興趣的養成。當然最重要的，還是以人爲本的性格養成。此其一矣。
我們身處全球化時代，而且全球化勢頭正盛。隨著异質文化的相互滲透與彼此交融，英語作爲一種事實上的主導性全球通用語言，用英語溝通已遍布社會生活的各個角落，其重要性毋庸置疑。全人類已真正進入了地球村時代，“人類命運共同體”已絕非紙上的宏大術語。中小學英語教學也已大大超越初期語言教學中刻板且不地道的“How are you? I'm fine, thank you”、“Good morning, Teacher”之類的原始階段了。
面對西方文化的蜂擁而入，我們一度失落在缺乏文化自信的迷惘裏，甚至有點文化和身份自卑。這是可以理解的，也需要“理解的同情”。畢竟，在我們的日常生活裏，我們處處都在享受著西方文明帶給我們的物質文明和精神文明財富，真正的中國元素，或者說中國的原初因素，已經少之又少，除了瓷器、筷子和語言，生活中已所見無多，就連現代漢語白話，也是深受西方語言影響。但這幷不是自卑情結的理由，不必擔憂，也無須大驚小怪。中華文化源遠流長，文明成果星漢燦爛，爲人類文明了做出了應有的貢獻，而古典詩詞，從歌、辭、詩、賦、詞到曲一路走來，無疑是中華文化這頂皇冠上的明珠，所缺少的，是有效的傳播，只是墻內開花，墻外的人沒有聞到而已，或者即使聞到了些許，受衆範圍也極小，極不全面，也或許不够準確。
因此，文化自信和民族復興，首先是建立在被世界人民瞭解進而理解的基礎之上。鶴立于鶏群，才顯得自己高大，但首先他必須立于鶏群。關起門來自嗨，于事無補，百害而無一利。瞭解無非兩途，通漢語，通華夏文化，這個只會是少數；大多數人還是借助自己的語言瞭解异族文化，因而翻譯就是不二之選。
翻譯本是雙行道。優秀文化得請進來，以滋养、豐富和壯大自己；自己的優秀文化也必須走出去，以增進不同人民和文化間的瞭解與包容甚至友誼；二者不可偏廢。中國文化的外譯當然應該倚重目的語譯者的努力，但源語譯者的參與甚至主導也是必要的。這不僅涉及源語的正確理解與精准解釋，更多的是涉及翻譯內容的選擇權與話語權。如果說目的語譯者的行爲帶有個人偏好、文化兼容性與市場選擇，那麽源語譯者的行爲則帶有某種文化傳播的自覺。當然，以英語世界的外譯爲例，一些英美譯家，比如宇文所安，認爲中國人的中譯外在目的語國家是不會有可觀的接受度的，這不僅隱含著他們對中國譯者英文水平的不信任甚至蔑視，也隱含著英語世界對异域文化和經驗的居高臨下、不屑甚至事不關己、漠不關心。但英語早已不是一種英語世界獨享的語言了，非英語國家的英語作品風靡世界的例子不在少數，雖然我們不得不承認，最好的英語作品的確是産生在英美兩國，尤其是英國，就如最好的漢語作品仍然在華夏一樣。不過這一觀點也不無道理。這就得我們中國的譯家們必需更外努力地提高英文修養和能力，能寫出好的英文，譯出好的英文來。如果寫出來的英文連基本的文法事實都照顧不了，連人家的小學生作文都不如，那就“驢子不乖，休怪馱鞍”，别怪人家瞧不起了。
山人堅定地認爲，中國人外譯是可行的，也是有必要的。外譯中，最艱難的當然是中國的古典詩歌了。古典詩歌之難，加上嚴格的格律，就連老于詩歌之道的中國人自己都需要借助大量注釋和一定的解釋才能得其奧義，就如英美人讀莎士比亞一樣，更不消說喬叟了。古典詩歌的英譯就更是難上加難。這方面英美譯家們，尤其是英國的譯家，如理雅各、翟理思、阿瑟·韋利、弗萊徹、霍克思等，文辭優美，接受度也高，爲中國古典詩歌走出國門做出了不可磨滅的貢獻，也是後世譯家們學習的典範。國內的譯家如楊憲益戴乃迭夫婦、現象級的許淵沖，皆一時之選，也是居功至偉，至少是也走出了國門，有了一定程度的海外接受。此外，後來者也駱驛不絕，勇于嘗試創新，手段多樣，譯作迭出，質量效果如何姑且不論，至少是繁榮了古典詩詞的翻譯事業，算是後繼有人了。
詩歌是軟實力的一種載體，是矛盾修飾法所謂的無用之用，譯詩更是無用的藝術，是一種妥協的藝術，也是一種創造的藝術，有時還是一種破壞性創造的藝術。有人認爲詩歌是不可譯的，或者至少抗譯性極強；詩中的美好，換了另一種語言，就會損失殆盡，幷認爲詩歌就是翻譯中丟失的東西。但這種絕對主義的說法是站不住腳的。首先，可譯不可譯是相對的。楊憲益先生就認爲，任何東西都是可譯的，只是再現的程度不同罷了。即使是程度有參差，也可以藉由多種譯本予以互補，在這一點上山人是同意辜正坤先生的觀點的。當然，山人也同意李正栓先生的觀點，他認爲，譯詩先必須忠於原文。只是譯詩的忠也是分層次的，有字面意義的忠，語法結構層面的忠，篇章結構的忠，文化意蘊的忠，等等；但是，最高的忠，還是藝術表達和效果的忠，藝術的忠，也就是說，譯詩必須是詩，而不是抬行的散文，更不能是學步孩童的咿呀。詩，尤其是古典詩詞，用自己的一套專有工具，跟日常語言和散文是保持著距離的，英國詩歌也是一樣。
另外，英詩也有其獨特性，比如，英詩的叙述就要比我們的古典詩詞更充分（也因此一般而言篇幅更長），而古典詩詞是以其用詞的經濟性著稱的，善于留白，長于抒情，常常是欲言又止，在該說時打住。古典詩詞和英詩的另外一個重大不同，還在其主題的差异。比如，中國古典詩詞裏，牢騷抱怨的主題是很多的，要麽就是寄情山水，遁世而居（即不出仕，不爲官府所用，也就是不出來“爲人民服務”，這是抱怨的另一種形式），也或許是促使錢先生從“興觀群怨”中單獨把“怨”拎出來加以論述的原因吧。而英詩裏，這種內容的比例就低得多。當然，人類的經驗有其共同之處，否則各民族間就無法交流共處，這也是錢先生打通中西的初衷。所謂“山川异域，風月同天”，“東海西海，道術未裂”，都是在求同，而求同，則是譯詩的邏輯基礎。而錢先生所主張的“化”，則是譯詩在目的語裏必須是對等的詩。“化”的立場，在錢先生鍾愛林紓的譯文和他自己的翻譯實踐中就可見端倪。因此，古典詩詞用英文開口說話，也必須是古典的，而非滿口當代的倫敦腔或者紐約腔。人們也常常會用自己對應的文學作品來看待幷要求翻譯作品。這就是對標。一個中國讀者會不自覺地將最優秀的譯入作品對標自己最優秀的同類作品，比如將莎士比亞對標湯顯祖，反之亦然。
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拙作是譯作，按理說，選材（其實不存在什麽選材）、題旨、基本內容、比較研究、譯文得失、翻譯心得、目標讀者等內容才應該是序言的正文部分，也應該是山人濃墨重彩著力書寫的部分。但除了大而化之的幾句原則性的話，山人是不準備多費筆墨討論的。翻譯之事，得失寸心知。一字之立，旬月踟蹰，或參考前人，或問學于同道；所有篇什，都是經年錙銖積累的結果，幷非急就之章，亦非出版商委托之作。期間艱苦，不足爲外人道。既已付梓，就聊備一格，至于譯文孰優孰劣，留待高明的讀者評判。若有任何意見不滿或摘瑕指謬，作者也虛心領受，高明的方家甚至盡可自己拿起生花妙筆，在山人的基礎上推陳出新。如是一來，即使是一朵烏雲，也有銀邊了。
最後，作者借此機會鳴謝一下昔日的良師和長期的同道友人。他們的尊名我就不一一羅列了。他們知道山人指的是他們。其中，昔日同窗莊雨先生，山人得特別提一下。莊雨先生是雙料博士，大學英文系教授，博士生導師，博士後合作導師，國內頂級莎士比亞專家，一位學問人品俱佳的謙謙君子。山人與莊雨兄神交數十載，學問方面，翻譯方面，尤其是莎士比亞和伊麗莎白朝英國文學方面，都是山人的良師益友。山人樂意稱他爲靈魂伴侶。茶叙筆聊，每每都是山人擔任接收方的角色，進益良多，本書翻譯過程中，也是不吝中肯建議。沒有他一路的鼓勵鞭策，這本小書也可能是不可能完成的任務。另外，山人也在此感謝章怡女士玉成拙作的出版。章怡女士是山人多年前的出版同人，爲人古道熱腸，是難得的好出版人。最後也照例順帶謝謝一下家人李紅梅女士和劉夢麒女士。沒有堅實的後方支援，前方衝鋒陷陣的士兵是不可能取得什麽戰果的。
瀟湘拔陽山人
草于滬上樗櫪齋
時在壬寅虎年辛亥月辛巳日
（2022年11月24日，感恩節）
A Postscript:
Learn and Practise, Before Virtuosity is Reaped (in lieu of an Epilogue)
The following paragraphs purport to serve as sort of an Epilogue to the present book that, aimed at my dear adult readership, bears little relevance to either the book or the author's gains and losses, merits or regrets, or reflections obtained in the process of translation. His dear young ladies and gentlemen at school may, at their discretion, skip over them.
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Thus saith Confucius the Sage, to the effect: Without learning "poetry" (Book of Songs), we are unable to speak. In a superpower of poetry that bespeaks such an expanse of poetic immensity and vastness, paramount importance has, since time immemorial, been attached to the making of and character building through poetry. As a result, a Chinese national is, more often than not, readily capable of speaking like a book of poems, be he or she young or old, high or low, rich or poor. Everyone, from womb to tomb, from the toddler to the totterer, takes pride in gushing out lines upon lines off pat, or reciting one or two from a strained memory. Even in daily chitchat or table talk, touches of poetry are in no way in want. Deep in alleys, out in the fields, rhymed intoning and couplet making are making their presence felt. High up in the social ladder, government officials are making frequent reference to lines from ancient poems. Among the multitude of living beings, wheat or weed, the poetic gene has made its forays into the blood and marrow, and become part of the body and soul. Those who are endowed with talents or bequeathed with good classical learning, and therefore enabled to create works of art of their own, are poised to catch the eye of others, stand the good graces of admirers, and even, may be favoured so much, so that they are employed in a meteoric rise as top-ranking government officials, such as prime ministers, second to none but emperors. Instances galore in history. To this end, the teaching and learning of poetry have been heavily relied on in private tutoring, where children got their initiated enlightenment in pre-modern China, and the modern Western-style education system. "Goose, goose, goose", "The white sun sets down 'hind hills", "A scion am I of the royal blood of Gaoyang"... From the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the complex, from the kindergarten to the university, every human soul is dipped in the poetic fluid of well-modulated, measured and rhythmical cadences. It's a long process of immersive experience under sustained and imperceptible influences that has fashioned the Chinese people into a poetic mould. A primary and secondary schooling system without classical poetry elements is far beyond our imagination, and China would be a non-China, as canonized classical poetry is one of our distinctive, and defining, features. It's not a hyperbole aimed at a sensation. Nor is it a platitude. It's an attitude.
And more than that, communication between China and the west has been on the rise per diem, or by the day, as a result of the nation's open-door policy and the ensuing western influences making inroads into the east, first in areas of goods and services, then in imports of merits in culture and works of art. The humanities and social sciences, in particular, are seeing a thriving scape of efflorescence, though the exchange is overwhelmingly of one-way street traffic. Of particular importance is the English craze, which has long been the order of the day, and has developed into a nationwide trend of English learning across the entire population, and with no signs of abating for decades at that. The English course is taken as a top priority of priorities, ranking in line with the two courses of Chinese and mathematics, collectively labeled as the "big three" in the curriculum. Publications catering to the English learning needs of primary and secondary schoolers have sprung up in a multitude of varied specifications and categories, in a way as if the business is at its initial stage and still unfolding. Publishers are vying, one after another, for access to the market, trying to grab a share of the big bonanza from the buzzing boom. Leveraging this opportunity, they have turned out bilingual readers on Chinese classical poetry with corresponding English translations, and pushed them onto the market. Similar products in good quantities are available in bookstores, both brick-and-mortar and click-and-order.
Smug but ill-informed cultural chauvinists may be assertive that it is categorically unnecessary that Chinese students read English translations while they are learning Chinese classical poems. It amounts to nothing but "carrying coals to Newcastle", an inadvisable and futile effort that does nobody good, except for extra burthen on students, as it is comparable to rowing against the tide, at a time when "burden reduction" and "unwinding" have gained currency and momentum. Worse still, some "elitist dignitaries" concerned about cultural colonialism let out cries for ousting the English course from its "triumvirate" status, or simply banishing it from primary and secondary classes. That's untruth, and that unfair. What students are in real need of are, for a start, emancipation from the current exams-centered "involute rat race" of repetition-based exercises and drills and exorbitant extra-curricular "cram classes", and an examination system based on an extensive extra-curricular reading-based knowledge base in place of the current one, problem-solving capabilities, self-motivated learning and interest development. Of course, human-centered character building is of paramount importance.
Ours is a time of globalism, and globalism at its fiercest. Along with the mutual infiltration of and fusion between heterogeneous cultures, beyond doubt is the importance of English as a de facto global lingua franca with a dominant sway, communication in which has penetrated into every nook and cranny of social life. The human race is already living in a bona fide global village, and a "community with a shared future for mankind" is no longer a magnitudinous conceptual entity on paper. And English teaching in schools has also gone far beyond the primitive stages of stereotypical and unidiomatic drills like “How are you? I'm fine, thank you”, and “Good morning, Teacher”.
Confronted with a stampede of western cultural bulls into the China shop, we were for a time reduced to and lost in a befuddled maze of dearth in cultural self-confidence, and sometimes even inflicted with pangs of cultural self-abasement and inferiority in identity, which is understandably recognizable, and which requires "understanding-based sympathy", as, after all, we are pampered here and there with an abundance of conveniences, tangible and intangible, brought about by the western civilization, while genuine Chinese elements, or at least primary Chinese elements, are very rare and few in our daily life of affluence, except for, among others, chinaware, chopsticks, and language (if the modern Chinese vernacular is taken into account, it alone is heavily influenced by western languages, particularly the English language). But this is no cause for an inferiority complex, nor concern or alarm. China, boasting a time-honoured culture and a constellation of achievements in civilization, has contributed its due share to human civilizations. China's classical poetry, with a track all the way from songs and ballads, often rhymed ci poetry (辭), regular poetry, narrative odes (賦), ci poetry, or lyrics (詞), down to operatic verse in the Yuan Dynasty (元曲), is no doubt the crown jewel of Chinese culture. What is in want, if any, is effective communication, the fact that it has been blooming in a walled garden, but those without don't get the sweet scent, or if they do get a tiny bit, they are confined to a very small demographic distribution. This reception is very limited, and more often than not, it is one that may be fraught with inaccuracies at that.
Therefore, confidence in our own culture and a national renaissance are premised on making ourselves known and then understood. A crane stands aloof and towering, because he stands among a flock of chickens. But first and foremost, he has to stand among the chickens. Getting high by and to ourselves, or self amusement, self entertainment, behind closed doors, does no good to the grand picture. Instead, this self-touted complacency will only put the picture in jeopardy. The royal road to such understanding is a two-pronged approach: Understanding through adequate proficiency in the Chinese language and culture, which is reserved for a very small bracket of people; and understanding through their own languages, i.e., through translation, which, for the overwhelming majority, is the only option.
Translation is, of itself, a two-way street. Good cultural products need to be ushered in to nourish and enrich ourselves. Good ones from our side, to be transported across the border to enhance understanding, tolerance and fraternity between peoples and cultures. Neither is to be compromised. For sure, outbound translation of Chinese culture hinges on efforts from translators on the target language side, but partaking, sometimes even a dominant role played, by counterparts on the source language side is also a must-have. This is about not only correct comprehension and accurate explication of the source text. It's still more about the selection of material to be translated and the final say in the process. If the behaviour of a translator on the target language side is swayed by his or her personal proclivities, considerations in cultural compatibility and selection by markets, behaviour of the counterpart on the source end is contingent upon a measure of awareness-based conscientiousness for cultural transmission. For sure, when it comes to outbound translation into the Anglophone world, some British and American translators, such as Stephen Owen, would think outbound endeavours by Chinese nationals will be greeted with no such thing as perceivable visibility, a claim that is pregnant with a profound distrust of, even a surreptitious disdain for, the linguistic proficiency and competence of Chinese translators, and more than that, a tinge of condescension, superciliousness and nonchalance of the English-speaking world towards alien cultures and experiences. But as a matter of fact, the English language is no longer exclusively claimed by the English-speaking world, and a large number of literary works written in English from non-English-speaking countries have been gaining currency in the world, though it has to be admitted that the best literature in the English language is readily produced in the UK and the US, particularly in the former, much as the best in the Chinese language has its provenance in China. But to a degree, this stands to reason. This means we, as Chinese translators, will have to exert more efforts in scaling up our level of competence in the English language, so that we are enabled to write in and translate into good English. If the stuff we produce in English is, at its best, ungrammatical, and is in away inferior to a primary schooler's composition, then, blame not others, live with the contempt and disregard. "The fault of the ass must not be laid upon the packsaddle."
The author is adamant that outbound translation conducted by Chinese nationals is a feasible and necessary endeavour. In this enterprise, the toughest challenge goes undoubtledly to that of Chinese classical poetry, the verbal difficulties of which, compounded by a rigidity of tonal, rhythmic and rhyming schemes, are virtually insurmountable to even a seasoned Chinese reader without the help of ample annotation and a measure of explication, before a full understanding of the inner connotations is attained, much as a British reader who pores over a Shakespeare, let alone a Chaucer. A translator of this is therefore doubly challenged, to say the least. On this less traveled road, British and American practitioners, particularly the British ones, including James Legge, Herbert Allen Giles, Arthur Waley, William John Bainbrigge Fletcher, and David Hawkes, among others, left their indelible marks with their single-minded devotion and huge contribution for their beautiful diction and a high degree of reception on overseas markets in the outgoing voyage of Chinese poetry. They have remained as paragons for later generations to model after. Prestigious translators at home, such as the Yangs (Mr. Yang and Mrs. Gladys Yang), the phenomenal late Xu Yuanchong (the self-labeled Mr. X.Y.Z.), are nonpareil ones who either held huge sway or made a huge splash with their unparalleled feats, and whose influence has gone beyond the border with a measure of overseas exposure. On top of them, followers have been defiling into the arena with a brave heart to blaze new trails and open up new horizons, trying new and varied approaches and churning out new versions, in a sign that has, in addition to an expanded pool of successors, at least beefed up the translation of classical poetry, quality and effect aside.
Poetry is a vehicle for soft power in all its, oxymoronically, useless usefulness. Poetry translation is more of a useless art and craft, an art of compromises, of creativity, and sometimes of disruptive creation. Some might hold that poetry is untranslatable, or at least entails a high degree of resistance to translation, that the poeticity in a poem is lost in another language, and that poetry is what's get lost in translation. But this absolutist stance does not hold water. First, translatability is a relative case. Mr. Yang Xianyi was of the opinion that "anything is translatable", as translatability is a gradable measure on the representation scale. Even if the translatability of a piece of work varies in degree, the variance can be compensated for and complemented by other translated versions. On this the author stands with Mr. Gu Zhengkun. The author also seconds Mr. Li Zhengshuan's view that any translation of poetry must first and foremost loyal, or faithful, to the source text, though the loyalty manifested in translation is a tiered thing. We have verbal loyalty, grammatical and structural loyalty, textual and discoursal loyalty, loyalty to cultural elements, inter alia, but the supreme loyalty is, in the final analysis, loyalty to art as it is represented and its effect, i.e., loyalty to art. In other words, a translated poem must be a poem per se, not prose in enjambment, and much less, toddler-speak, in the target language. Poetry, and classical poetry in particular, has to itself a special and exclusive toolkit, and stands distancing itself from prose and ordinary language use. The same applies to English poetry.
English poetry is also endowed with its idiosyncrasies. It is, for example, more narratively proportioned than our classical poetry (and is therefore generally lengthier). The Chinese classical poetry is, on the contrary, well known for its economy in the use of words, its aptitude for blank in diction and structuring, and its inclination to lyricism. A Chinese poet may, more often than not, hatch a desire to be explicit, but stops short where he is expected to unfold. Another major difference between the two is that of poetic themes. In Chinese classical poetry, for example, complaints and lamentations take a good share, where poets would otherwise take the form of consignment and resignation to mountains and waters in reclusion as hermits, in denial of any possibility of them being scouted and employed as government officials, i.e., in a refusal to "serve the people", which is another form of complaint. Which might have been the cause behind Mr. Ch'ien Chung-shu's decision to pick the "yuan" (complaint) out of the four poetical tenets of "xing, guan, qing and yuan" (meaning to the effect that poetry can be employed as a vehicle for inspiring people, observing a society, making people sociable, and lodging complaints and satire at injustices). While in English poetry, these thematic occurrences take a much lower numerical profile. Certainly, human experiences share a lot in common across the globe, otherwise communication and coexistence between peoples would be impossible. This might be the intention of Mr. Ch'ien's grand enterprise to bridge the east and the west and fuse them into a whole. "Mountains and rivers may have their loci in different territories, but winds, and the Moon, are shared under the same sky." "Be they in the eastern or western seas, the Way of Nature, or the Grand Logos, and the method, are not severed." We are seeking the common ground, and the common ground to be sought is the logical base for poetry translation. In alignment with the translation principle of "hua", or chemistry, "transmigration", propounded by Mr. Ch'ien, a translated poem must be its equivalent in the target language. This principle has made itself felt in his preference for Lin Shu's translations and his own translation practice. Therefore, when a classical poem speaks in English, it must speak, against all odds, in classical English rather than in contemporary cockneyism or a strong New York accent. Readers may from time to time compare inbound translated literary works with their own corresponding works. This is benchmarking. A Chinese reader would subconsciously benchmark the greatest import with his or her greatest local produce, like a Shakespeare in Chinese with Tang Xianzu, and vice versa.
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This is a book of translated poems, and a preface thereto is supposed to entail in the body text, as common sense stands, matters of interest including selection of material to be translated (as a matter of fact, this is dispensed with), tenor, basic content, comparative studies, gains and losses in the translated text, reflections on how and why a translated copy is done that way, targeted readership, among others, on which the author is expected to splash out the lion's share of his writing space. But except for platitude of some generalized stuff, I don't intend to say much. The pains and gains of translating, that throbbing human heart knows only too well. It takes tens of days' pacing over pondering for a word to stack up. The author had to make references to predecessors, or make recourse to advice or suggestions from his peers. These pieces of work are a result of piecemeal accumulation over the years, rather than a lump of rushed work or a publisher-commissioned project. The arduous journey is not worth a mention to an outsider. Now it is in print and on paper, the author won't expect it to be more than a makeshift or a possibility among the many possibilities. As for the quality, the jury is out, and my enlightened readers sit on the judging panel. If the author is reciprocated with divergent views, suggestions, or misgivings, or mistakes or flaws found by his reader in the text, he is poised to receive and accept with alacrity, aplomb and a thankful smile. Brilliant master hands may even, at their disposal, come up, based on the present copy, with their own versions of enhanced craftsmanship and ingenuity. In this case, even this dark cloud is blessed with a silver lining.
Last but not least, the author would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge his credit and gratitude to his mentors and friends, whose esteemed names he decides not to take liberty to enumerate here. They know he means them. But among them, a special mention of Mr. Luo Yimin, my former classmate, is worth the while. Mr. Luo, aka Zhuang Yu, so named, I reckon, after Zhuang Tsu and Wu Mi the Professor (Yusheng, or Rain Monk, literally, by alias), in a combination of the two, is a dual Ph.D. degree holder, professor of the English language and literature with a prestigious university, supervisor for Ph.D. candidates, collaborative supervisor for post-doctoral fellows, top-notch expert in Shakespeare studies, and a gentleman with all the humility that becomes a gentleman. The author has been on friendly terms with this gentleman for decades, and has always been a bosom friend and mentor in learning and translation, particularly in Shakespeare studies and Elizabethan literature, and therefore the author takes delight in taking him as my soul mate. The author is always on the receiving end in congenial chats over tea, or WeChat communication, from whom he has benefited a lot. In the translating process, Mr. Luo stinted no advice and suggestions of high pertinence. Without his encouragement and endorsement all along, this little book might be mission impossible. The author would like to thank Ms Zhang Yi, a considerate and warmhearted former colleague of mine while he was serving a local press decades ago, for facilitating the publication of this book. It is her great interpersonal skills that have made it a reality. En passant, and of necessity, as a rule, my thanks also go to Ms Li Hongmei and Miss Liu Mengqi, my family members, without whose solid support from behind, a soldier charging on the frontline would have achieved nothing.
Botao Liu
The Awkwood Studio, Shanghai
Nov. 24, 2022 (Thanksgiving Day)