Classical Chinese Poetry Glowing with the Dynamic of Modernism：Source Research and a Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s CathaySylvia S. L. IeongUnion of Macao Scholars
Macao Scholars’ Series Vol. ⅠClassical Chinese Poetry Glowing with the Dynamic of Modernism：Source Research and a Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s CathaySylvia S. L. IeongUnion of Macao ScholarsApril 2007
Editorial Board：Dr. Ieong Wan Chong （楊 允 中 ，Co-ordinator）， Dr. Wu Zhiliang （吳 志 良 ），Mr. Lao Pun Lap （劉 本 立 ），Dr. Lok Wai Kin （路 偉 建 ），Dr. Sylvia S. L. Ieong （楊 秀 玲 ），Dr. Tang Si Peng （鄧 思 平 ），Mr. Cheang Kok Keong （鄭 國 強 ），Dr. Wang Zhishi （王 志 石 ），Dr. Hao Yufan （郝 雨 凡 ）
Sylvia S. L. Ieong （楊 秀 玲 ），educated in China and UKwith BA， MA and PhD in English， is currently Associate Professor & Associate Dean of Faculty of Education， University of Macao. Her recent publications include Children’s Trilingual Picture Dictionary， Macao China （English translation）， “One Country， Two Systems” and the Macao SAR （co-author）， The Courage to Teach （Editor & co-translator） and scores of papers published in Chinese and international journals.
PrefaceEzra Pound， the prolific American poet who led the Anglo- American Imagism of early 20th century， is an eternally fascinating topic among Chinese scholars， especially in the field of compara- tive literature. The reason is simple： we tend to focus on how we Chinese have been influenced by Western literature and culture， and seldom do we study how others are influenced by Chinese literature and culture. Now we have discovered Ezra Pound， a great poet who was indeed influenced by classical Chinese poetry from which a new poetic school sprang up. Therefore most works on relations between Chinese and American literature include discussions on Ezra Pound and his English “translation” of classical Chinese poetry， Cathay.A most profound and comprehensive study on Ezra Pound was made by Zhao Yiheng （趙 毅 衡），with the publication of his Yuanyou de Shishen《遠 游 的 詩 神 》in China in 1983. Zhao had traveled far searching in American university libraries， collected a lot of first-hand data and thoroughly analyzed the translation of Cathay， all impressed me deeply. I myself got a clearer picture of Cathay by reading Zhao’s book given to my as a gift. For many years after that I had not seen any solid， thoroughly researched work similar to Zhao’s， though I have always hoped that there are more Chinese scholars engaged in Pound studies， believing that Pound is not only a literary giant but also invaluable in translation theory and practice.Therefore I felt thrilled when at the dawn of the 21st century Ⅰ
was invited to review a PhD thesis entitled Rediscover Cathay： Source Research and a Comparative Study， which was written in English by Sylvia Ieong. It focused exclusively on Cathay， in great depth and with fresh insight. Again I was deeply impressed and pleasantly surprised.In particular， Ieong， drawing on her knowledge of languages and culture and expertise in translations， started with a meticulous and painstaking search into the source texts of Cathay and clearly delineated its route from classical Chinese poetry by way of analysis and synthesis， comparisons and juxtapositions， and even “back translations”. Her argument that Cathay has “two sources” is convincing. This research， well grounded on rich and solid literature and facts， resulting in a complete inventory of 18 Cathay poems/19 classical Chinese poems， is a significant contribution to the promotion of understanding of Chinese and foreign literature and cultural exchanges. And supported by relevant and interesting examples from Chinese and foreign literature and written in fluent and pleasant English， it makes enjoyable reading.Years have elapsed since I read Ieong’s thesis on Cathay. And I have reviewed some more PhD dissertations on Ezra Pound. One of them was published by Shanghai Translations Publishing Co. soon after its “viva”，which immediately reminded me of Ieong’s thesis. I felt regret that a much earlier work of quality had not yet been published.However， another surprise came last month when Prof. Ieong emailed me from University of Macao， saying that she had an opportunity to have her Rediscover Cathay： Source Research
and a Comparative Study，with further revisions and changes， published by Union of Macao Scholars. She sincerely invited me to write a preface for her book， believing that I am the best person to do it. As I am not used to writing prefaces， I had to decline. She insisted that she had got to know me via my book Yijie Xue 譯介 學 （Medio-Translatology） and we share a special “affinity”，which changed my mind. It is true that my Yijie Xue has been into many reprints and quoted by many PhD dissertations since 1999. Definitely the first citation has come from Ieong and Ieong was the first scholar to have applied my theories in her writings. Though there hasn’t much direct communication between us， our views on Ezra Pound and translation matters are surprisingly similar or the same. We are not led astray by superficial phenomena and we both see the unique literary and cultural values in Pound and his translations. Some may find Pound’s translations not so faithful to the original texts； in some sense， his “translations” even “distorted” the original. However， indisputably， it is Pound’s “unfaithful” and somewhat “distorted” translations that enabled Western readers to access and appreciate the grace and charm of classical Chinese poetry with its juxtaposition of images. At the same time， Pound’s translations have given a new life to ancient Chinese poetry， making it glow miraculously with the dynamic of Western modernism.In recent years there has been increasing interest in Yijie Xue， which has been listed as one of the key themes in the 11th 5-Year Plan 2006/2010 in the field of philosophy and social sciences. I am confident that the publication of Prof. Ieong，s book is another
vivid and convincing example and will contribute to the further study of Yijie Xue. And it is indeed a great pleasure to write this preface.Prof. XIE Tianzhen Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation Shanghai International Studies University16 January 2007
ForewordIs Cathay a translated work ? My answer is definitely “yes” because， according to Dryden， even paraphrase is also a type of translation.Sylvia Sao Leng Ieong is a diligent and conscientious translator well versed in cross-cultural communications. After she was enrolled in the Ph. D. program of English Poetry Studies at Sun Yat-sen University in 1998， I suggested Pound’s Cathay be her topic of research， and she readily accepted it. Three years later， the result proved that it had been a very successful choice.As the old saying goes， “no pains， no gains”. Ms. Ieong， while working at her Ph. D. thesis， made study tours to the UK， France and Hong Kong and other places in China， working painstakingly on any references that she could lay her hands on， and attended and presented her research findings at international conferences on Ezra Pound. She commuted between Macao and Guangzhou while carrying on her teaching and research at University of Macau.Dr. Ieong’s strenuous efforts brought forth this minute study of Cathay.As a matter of fact， “Cathay” was once a bad word. We can find lines in Shakespeare’s plays such as “I will not beleeue such a Cataian， though the Priest o’the’Towne commended him for a true man” （The Merry Wives of Windsor） and “My lady’s a Cat ay an， we are politicians， Maluolios a Peg-a-ramsie， and Three merry men be wee.” （Twelfth Night）However， the meaning of this word changes with the changes of Western images of China. In cultural contacts， the Jesuits and
the Western merchants created quite diverse pictures of China. Whether Ezra Pound uses the word “Cathay” in its positive or negative sense is still open to discussion.In spite of the growing doubt on Pound’s intention to produce Cathay， especially in the perspective of postcolonial theories， the fact that Cathay as a literary work has played an important role in fostering American New Poetry cannot be denied. That is why T. S. Eliot said that Pound had invented Chinese poetry. There also lies the significance of Dr. Ieong’s study.Prof. OU Hong Foreign Languages Institute Sun Yat-sen （Zhongshan） University， Guangzhou， PRC 27 January 2007
AbstractEzra Weston Loomis Pound’s Cathay， one of the most influential works in 20th century poetics， poetry and literary translation， has been a focus of interest in both the East and West， catching the attention of generations of writers and students. Though it had been studied by numerous scholars since its publication in the spring of 1915，not all its original Chinese texts had been clearly identified and located. Indeed， Pound scholars， both Chinese and Western， had been “hampered by ignorance of the originals and of Pound’s exact route to them”.1 This problem still remained posing a formidable obstacle when this research began in the late 1990s， so a refreshed effort was made to rediscover Cathay.This study points to the existence of “two sources” and of a “detour” and “shortcut” as the major stumbling block. The author believes that no discussion of Cathay will be relevant and truly productive without tracing it to its very source： a small corpus culled discriminatingly from some of the best classical Chinese poets. Nor will there be any depth， accuracy and justification of thoughts on which we base our arguments， if no efforts are made to corroborate the various editions that have stemmed， over the centuries or even millenniums， from the “authentic” or the “authoritative” original source.It is well known that Ezra Pound used the notebooks and manuscripts of the American sinologist and art historian， Ernest Fenollosa （1853-1908），to accomplish his work， Cathay. As a result， far more attention has been drawn to this immediate source
than the original and even more important Chinese source. So， in Part One： Singing of the Source， an eclectic combination of approaches has been adopted for the Chinese source research. Methodologically， the search starts with the author’s knowledge of the history of Chinese literature and familiarity with the best known and most popular classical Chinese poems， from which recalls and matches are made by “back-translating” Cathay poems. The author also takes advantage of all possible clues provided by Pound himself and draws on her translation experience， especially the translation of proper names in Chinese， Japanese and English. By searching into the roots and branches， this research has succeeded in tracing all the 18 Cathay poems to their 19 original Chinese source texts and in delineating the route from the sources to Cathay， thus providing a complete inventory and common ground for more accurate， comprehensive and in-depth investigations and criticism among Chinese and Western scholars.Maintaining that， in the final analysis， it is the original source text that should be the point of departure and the yardstick by which Cathay must be studied， discussed and measured， both as a translation and creative poetic work， the author devotes a much longer chapter to discussions on source-and-target-text comparisons in Part Two： Echoing from Cathay， with a critical focus on aesthetic appreciation and cultural implications and significance. Efforts are made to locate and discuss， theoretically and empirically， the matches and mismatches， native ness and foreignness， domestication and foreignization in Cathay. Finally， a review of Ezra Pound’s poetics of translation， as revealed by the source research and the corpus-based comparative study， brings
the thesis to the conclusion that， contrary to what has been believed by many， Cathay is， in fact， a quality translation， most fortunately blessed by cultural affinity， empathy， favorable literary macroclimate and historically opportune coincidences. By studying Cathay’s route， the author finds the process of this translation not only legitimate but also secured at each stage by the expertise of an international team consisting of Japanese sinologists Mori Kaina， Ariga Nagao， Hirai and Shida in addition to Fenollosa and Pound， and by intellectual synergies. Using Eugene Nida’s Model of Translation Process， the thesis describes every stage in the process as that of a long-distance relay， only the last leg of which is run by Pound. The process， the method and the product all demonstrate that Cathay is not just one man’s work， nor the single-handed achievement of Pound alone， but a success story of collective efforts transcending time and space. Cathay is brilliantly rendered poetry accomplished through the meticulous cooperation of an international team consisting of first-rate sinologists， linguists， translators and poets and it has far-reaching significance for the development and prosperity of poetry， poetics and translation studies， in both the English and Chinese literary worlds. In a way， Cathay meets the criteria laid down in the Manifesto of the World Conference on Literary Translation， held in New York in May 1970. The Manifesto calls on literary translators to give full play to their talents and imaginations so as to bring out the rhythm， the resonance， the structure and style of the original in the translated texts.2The book closes by stressing Cathay’s global significance as an invaluable product of cross-cultural dialogues， which have
always been mutually enriching， especially in the context of fast opening and increasingly widening international communication， scholarship and cultural exchanges. Cathay has not only enriched the world of English literature but also brought ancient Chinese classics to life， glowing with new vitality and the dynamic of modernism. Moreover， it is hoped that this research signals the beginning of more meaningful and worthwhile studies and explora- tions in cultural dialogues and understanding.Notes：1 Please refer to Alexander， M .，The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound， London： Faber & Faber， 1979， p. 102. Also see Zhao， Yiheng， Yuanyou de shishen， Chengdu： Sichuan People’s Publishing House， 1985， p. 148.2 Manifesto of World Conference on Literary Translation， New York， May 1970， in Ou Hong， Conceptual Problems， Unt rati si at ability and Complementary Means in Wang Bin et al. Shi zai Huaxia， Guangzhou： Zhongshan University Press， 1993， p. 51.
IntroductionUndoubtedly， Ezra Weston Loomis Pound （1885-1972） is one of the most important literary giants in the world， as a poet， poet-translator， critic， as well as the founder of the Anglo- American Imagism and a pioneer of Western Modernism， New Poetry and New Criticism. Having fought tirelessly a stormy and prolific writing career spanning the major part of the 20th century， he is also one of the most influential and controversial figures whose impact on the world of poetry and translation has yet to be estimated. A case in point is his Cathay， the publication of which in the spring of 1915 stunned the world of poetry and translation， catching attention from almost all corners and giving rise to a vast literature of critical studies and research on poetic recreation， manipulation， rewriting and translation theories. Today， browsing through the Internet discussion lists concerning Cathay and Ezra Pound， and visiting the ever-changing scenes of the various web-sites， one finds that the interest is still growing world wide， and so is the literature. There seem to be more “Pounders”，‘‘Poundians”，‘‘Poundists”，or even “Poundites” than ever before. Thus， presumably， Cathay has been well studied and thoroughly researched by scholars both Chinese and Western， and indeed， I myself have benefited enormously from these studies and discussions. Since the very beginning of this research， I have been pleasantly enlightened， and motivated by reading Orientalism and Modernism： The Legacy of China in Pound and Williams by Qian， Zhaoming； Ezra Pound’s Cathay by Yip， Wai-lim； and Yuan you de shishen （The Muse from Cathay） by Zhao， Yiheng. With their excellent
command of languages and cross-cultural understanding， these well-known experts and frontline researchers are in an admirable position to carry out such interlingual， cross-cultural studies. They have already made quite exhaustive investigations into the immediate source of Cathay， i.e.， Ernest Fenollosa，s English notes， word-for-word translations and cribs to about one hundred and fifty classical Chinese poems.However， there has been little mention of the remote “original”， but nevertheless more crucial source， i.e.， the selected classical Chinese poems themselves. And previous source researches tend to be piecemeal and fragmented， with a few scattered lines singled out sometimes for the sole purpose of proving them wrong or “factually inaccurate”. In fact， one has to agree that no study of this complexity is complete， and the discussions will remain vague and elusive， without a meticulous effort to identify and locate all the original texts and their authors， not just a couple of poems or a few lines as done by some earlier scholars. By its very nature， translation is invariably bound to the source text and to the presuppositions and conditions governing its reception in the target linguistic and cultural system. Moreover， Cathay is not simply a translation in its narrow sense； it is also a brilliant poetic re-creation. So any discussion of Cathay should take this basic fact as a starting point. One cannot help feeling that the study and appreciation is rather superficial and far from scholarly if researchers cannot even agree on the number of poems either in the target language or in the source language and if there are mistaken identities. Besides， to do full justice to Cathay as a translation and poetic re-creation， one must put all the poems in
perspective， ideally， free from any subjective bias stemming from different historical backgrounds or geographical or cultural differences， and give them a broader critical assessment rather than the narrowly contained linguistic approach to and focus on semantic， lexical or syntactic blunders， anachronistic errors or mismatches.Furthermore， up to now， many questions still remain un-answered， or answered unsatisfactorily， and therefore need to be addressed， with more substantial support and evidence emerging from searching and researching into the sources， both the immediate and the remote. Though critics hold diverging views on Pound’s poetry， translations， and his “peculiar” personal traits， Cathay has been widely acclaimed as the best rendered echo to the Chinese classics. What are the factors that contribute to its success? The findings may help us understand more about poetry， poetic creativity and translation. Another example is that it is well known， especially among Chinese scholars that Cathay， as a translation， contains “startling” mistakes， inaccuracies and anachronistic manipulations， most of them being deliberate. This raises two questions： What are the causes and why was Pound deliberately making “mistakes” ? Most studies seem to have focused on his violation of “generally accepted translation principles”，but what are they， after all ? A careful analysis of his motives and poetics will throw more light on translation and poetic “re-creation”. Moreover， how can we best distinguish between a good poetic work and a good translated one ?Therefore， my first effort is devoted to a careful source search， with the aim of finding all the Chinese source texts for Cathay. And I intend to present， on a manageable scope， all the
source texts， their authors， and a general review， in the hope of establishing a solid and graspable basis for criticism and comments. All Pound’s translated poems in Cathay will be given line by line in juxtaposition with the corresponding original Chinese texts. To my knowledge to date such attempts at a corpus-based study have not been made previously by other scholars， but I find it an effort worth making. Each and every source poem for the small but highly selective volume reflects an important philosophical and aesthetic perspective of classical Chinese poetics. This search has so far revealed two paradigms - the presupposed existence of “authentic or authoritative original” texts with ensuing editions and translated versions， and the translation pattern restricted by time and space， against the eternal， i.e.， one unrestricted by time and space， both of which need further exploration. This will be followed by a comparison， in content and form， between the nineteen original source texts and the eighteen poems that make up Cathay. My next effort will be a critical appreciation and evaluation of Cathay as poetry and translation. In my text-based approach， I will follow the three stages insightfully suggested by Kola （1979/1992）：① source text criticism， with a view to transferability into the target language；② translation comparison， taking account of the methods used in the production of a given translation； and ③ translation evaluation on the basis of native speaker judgements based on the text-specific features established in stage 1）. The functional-pragmatic model for translation quality assessment proposed by House （1981，1997 and forthcoming） also provides for the analysis of the linguistic-situational particularities of source and target texts， a comparison of the two texts and the
resultant assessment of their relative match. While others have had their emphasis more or less on the linguistic， semantic， syntactic， aesthetic or thematic aspects， I will pay more attention to cultural concerns in my discussion， drawing on various translation theories developed in China and worldwide， mainly those depending on some notion of equivalence （hence making the identification and line-to-line juxtaposition possible）： Yan Fu，s Xin-da-ya （信 • 達 • 雅）；the same aesthetic experience （Hughes， Richards and Pound）； dynamic equivalence （Nida， Wilss， et al）； corresponding literary function （Lefevere， Jakobson， etc.）， and other similar formal correlation governed by social acceptability in the target culture （Even-Zohar， Toury， etc.）， all of which contribute in one way or another to the theoretical underpinnings of the thesis. After discussions based on these theories， the author is ready to take up the challenge and argues that， contrary to what has been believed by many， Cathay is， in fact， a sincere dialogue transcending time and space initiated by the 20th centrury modernist reaching out earnestly to ancient Chinese poets， a quality translation most fortunately blessed by cultural affinity， favourable literary macroclimate and historically opportune coincidences. Cathay is brilliantly rendered poetry， through the cooperation and team work of truly great masters， and it has far-reaching significance for the development and prosperity of poetry， poetics and translation studies， in both the English and Chinese literary worlds， both becoming more and more influential globally.
C o n t e n t sPreface..................................................................................... ⅶForeword...................................................................................ⅹⅳAbstract.................................................................................... ⅹⅵIntroduction.............................................................................. ⅹⅹPart One Singing of the SourceChapter One The Immediate Source of Cathay：Fenollosa’s Notebooks................................ 2Chapter Two The Original Source of Cathay：Classical Chinese Poems.............................8Chapter Three The History of Chinese Literature：A Review of Classic Chinese Poetry..........19Chapter Four The Author-Poets：Ancient Bards Revisited............................. 33Part Two Echoing from CathayChapter Five The Translator-Poet：Imagism，Vorticism and Modernism.............57Chapter Six Cathay Poems and Source Texts inJuxtaposition： A Comparative Study.............70Chapter Seven Pound’s Poetics of Translation：The Case of Cathay....................................158Chapter Eight Conclusion........................................................ 172
Part OneSinging of the SourceHere we must make separation，And go out through a thousand miles of dead grass. Mind like a floating wide cloud.Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances.LiBai Ezra Pound此 地 一 爲 別 ， 孤 蓬 萬 里 征 。 浮 雲 遊 子 意 ， 落 日 故 人 情 。
Chapter OneThe Immediate Source of Cathay： Fenollosa，s NotebooksIt is well known that Ezra Pound used the Notebooks and manuscripts of the American Orientalist and art historian， Ernest Fenollosa （1853-1908）， to accomplish his work， Cathay. Because of this fact， far more attention is drawn to this immediate source than the original Chinese texts.Some scholars， such as Zhao， Qian and Yip，1 have studied Ernest Fenollosa’s manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University， and made fruitful discoveries. According to Zhao， the collection includes Fenollosa’s twenty- one notebooks with the following headings：①Noh2 Plays；②Notes to Chinese lessons；③Notes to Chinese lessons；④Chinese Thoughts；⑤Intermediate Chinese lessons；⑥Chinese and Japanese Poetry： Abstracts and Lectures；⑦Chinese Poetry： Lectures by Professors Hirai and Shida；⑧Chinese Poetry： Qu Yuan；⑨Chinese Poetry： Lectures by Pro- fessor Mori；⑩Ditto；■Ditto； ■Chinese Poetry： Notes； ■Chinese Poetry： Notes and Translations；■-■Chinese Poetry： Notes and Translation.3In what he calls the “Pound-Fenollosa Venture”，Qian provides more detailed information about this valuable source， so I quote it infull：...The “Fenollosa Papers” kept in the Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University are filed in sixty-two folders （Folders 3370—3431） that are stored in Boxes 89-94 of Ezra Pound Papers YCAL MSS 43，Series V. As these sixty-two folders are also marked by a number starting from 1 through 58 （with split numbers for 42 and 48）， investigators， for convenience’s sake， often choose it over the four-digit number to refer to the notebooks and sheaves of leaves kept in the folders. I follow this practice despite my awareness of its probable confusion. First， a number of the folders - for example， nos. （9），（10），（12），（13）， （15），（18），and （19） - contain sheaves of leaves rather than notebooks. Second， a number of the folders， - nos. （9），（10），（15），（18），and （19） - are composed of material contributed by Pound rather than by Fenollosa. The following provides the listing of the first twenty- one folders that contain “Fenollosa’s Papers”. In the list that follows the box number and the folder number is the reference number I use in parentheses followed by the title. The [other] forty-one folders unlisted here contain notes and manuscripts on the Chinese Written Character （92 3391 — 92 3401）， Landscape Poetry and Painting in Medieval China （92 3402 - 93 3407），and Japanese Noh Play （93 3408 - 94 3431）.89 3370 （1） Certain Noble Plays： [printed] proofs3371 （2） Chinese Course Ⅰ3372 （3） Chinese Course Ⅳ3373 （4） Chinese Ideals
90 3374 （5） Chinese Intercourse， 2 Vols.3375 （6） Chinese and Japanese Poetry： Synopsis ofLectures， 3 Vols.3376 （7） Chinese Poetry， Hirai & Shida3377 （8） Early Chinese Poetry： Kutsugen （Ka-Gi）：tr. by Ariga3378 （9） Chinese Poetry： Mori [E. Pound’s notesfor editions of lectures， ca. 1935] 3379（10） Chinese Poetry： Mori [E. Pound’s notes for editio of lectures， 1958-59， in part reworked from 1935]91 3380（11） Chinese Poetry： Prof. Mori’s Lectures[on the History of Chinese Poetry]， 3 Vols.3381（12） Chinese Poetry： Notes 3382（ 13） Chinese Poetry： Notes and Translations 3383（14） Chinese Poetry： Notes and Translations 3384（15） Chinese Poetry： Notes by Pound， including translations 3385（16） Chinese Poetry： Notes （from outside sources）3386（17） Chinese Poetry： Okakura， Sogioku and others3387（18） Chinese Poetry： Sai-bi： Short Introduc- tion3388（19） Translations from Chinese Poetry [in E. P.’s hand]3389（20） Chinese Poetry： Translations： Rihak （Mori
& Ariga）， Vol.Ⅰ3390（21） Chinese Poetry： Translations： Rihaku （Mori Ezra Pound’s Cathay & Ariga），Vol. Ⅱ4A glance down the list invites curiosity. What do these notes actually look like ? How did Pound make use of them to write Cathay ? What ideas may have passed through his keen literary mind when he was sampling， tasting， swallowing， chewing， digesting， or simply “devouring” them? It is tempting enough for us to speculate on these and other questions while going through these notebooks. However， for the present research， I have to be satisfied with these substantial and quite comprehensive quotes from other researchers whose works already provide copious examples and evidence. A careful study of the above lists makes it very clear to us that， for his Cathay， Pound used mainly Fenollosa’s Note- books 6-21， especially Notebooks 20 and 21. As a matter of fact， on the title page of Cathay， Pound himself made this very acknowledgement： FOR THE MOST PART FROM THE CHINESE OF RIHAKU， FROM THE NOTES OF THE LATE ERNEST FENOLLOSA， AND THE DECIPHERINGS OF THE PROFESSORS MORI AND ARIGA （1915）. Indeed， it is Pound’s own acknowledgement that serves as the best guide for us to delineate his “exact route” to the originals. We can interpret this “detour”，or paradoxically， shortcut， like this：Original classical Chinese poetry— “Decipherings” by Mori and Ariga， Fenollosa’s Japanese sinologist-professors，in Chinese literature and poetry — Fenollosa’s Notebooks （lecture notes， translations， transcripts， transliterations， paraphrases， cribs， etc.）
— Cathay by Ezra Pound.This process can also be illustrated in the following diagram：Figure 1 Cathay、detour or shortcut to the original sourceNow it has dawned on us that Cathay has actually undergone a long， arduous and tortuous process. Rather than a single man’s effort， Cathay is a collective endeavour by an international team consisting of well-accomplished sinologists， linguists， translators and poets working on a cooperative model transcending time and
space.Now it is the task of this thesis to trace Cathay to its original source， the classical Chinese poems.Notes：1 Zhao， Yiheng （趙 毅 衡 ），Yuanyou de s h is h e n 《遠 游 的 詩 神 》，Chengdu： Sichuan People’s Publishing House， 1985， p. 147； Qian， Zhaoming： Orientalism and Modernism， Durham & London： Duke University Press， 1995， pp. 55-71.2 Classical theatre of Japan in which imitation， gestures，dance， mask-work， costume， song and music are fused in a concise stage art. Five schools of Noh exist， and most of the plays they perform were written before 1600. Pound’s translation of Japanese Noh was published in 1916. For details， see Pound’s Translations， 1970，p. 213.3 Zhao， Yiheng， Yuan you de shishen， 1985， p. 147.4 Qian， Zhaoming （錢 鍾 書 ），Orientalism and Modernism： The Legacy of China in Pound and Williams， Durham and London： Duke University Press， 1995， pp. 190-1.
Chapter TwoThe Original Source of Cathay： Classical Chinese PoemsIt is felt that no discussion of Ezra Pound’s Cathay would be relevant and truly productive without tracing it to its very source： a small corpus culled discriminatingly from some of the best classi- cal Chinese poets. Nor would there be any depth and accuracy of thoughts on which we base our arguments， if no efforts are made to corroborate the various editions which have stemmed， through- out a history of two or three thousand years， from the “authentic” or “authoritative” original source.It might sound a bit strange that scholars have so far failed to reach an agreement on the number of English poems that make up Cathay， as well as the number of Chinese source texts. Confusion may have been caused by the couple of changes that Pound made in earlier publications， or， by his rather peculiar way of presentation. Some scholars， such as Zhu Hui， give the number as 15， 1 while quite a few， like my fellow researcher who has recently completed his paper on The Influence of Chinese Classical Poetry on Ezra Pound’s Cathay and the Cantos， claim that “Cathay is a collec- tion of 17 poems paraphrased from the American Orientalist Ernest Fenollosa’s literal translation of Chinese classical poems.” 2 In fact， except for the suppressions and additions by Ezra Pound himself of a few poems due to some thematic considerations，no change has been made to Cathay in ensuing editions since 1916.
“He [Pound] made important adjustments in early 1915，which eventually reinforced the antiwar theme of the volume. Bush [Ronald Bush]， who has examined the issue with the greatest care， informs us that Pound’s Cathay had gone through two rearrange- ments before it was brought out by Elkin Mathews in April 1915. Originally， the sequence was made up of eleven poems， of which only one was about war （Song of the Bowmen of Shu）. The Cathay typescript at the Beinecke Library shows that Pound had added four poems （none of which is about war） to the original eleven when he submitted the sequence to Elkin Mathews.3 However， in the last minute， “perhaps because the war became more oppressive，” Pound “suppressed the four appended poems and added Lament of the Frontier Guard and South-Folk in Cold Country. And in early 1916，when Pound incorporated Cathay into Lustra， he restored the four suppressed poems.” 3 In the text box in Figure 1 given above， I state， matter-of-factly， that “Cathay consists of 18 English poems translated from 19 classical Chinese poems”. Actually， the mere number of poems that constitute Cathay would not be an important issue if the source research were not our major concern. Now it has become obvious that some made their counting to “15” perhaps because they regard Four Poems of Departure as one， while others give the number as “17”， either because they have overlooked， or preferred to ignore， the title poem， or epigram， to Four Poems of Departure. It is a translated version of a very well-known poem by the great master painter-poet， Wang Wei （王維 701-761），Song Yuan er shi Anxi 《渭 城 曲 • 送元 二使安西》，variously rendered as “Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi” by Yu， Pauline （Yu， 1980：
176），and “Seeing Yuan Off on His Official Trip to Anxi” by the Barnstones and Xu， Haixin （Barnstones and Xu， 1991： 65）， though Pound chooses to make do without bothering about Who’s Who， or even， inadvertently attributes the leading piece that he appar- ently likes so much to “Rihaku [Japanese for Li Bai] or Omakitsu [Wang Wei]”. However， when we discuss classical Chinese poetry， Wang Wei is as an unavoidable and prevailing figure as Li Bai. And the theme of profound friendship and separations merging into scenes of nature is so typical of the poetry by traditional Chinese literati that it could not have escaped Pound’s sharp poetic eyes. Indeed， Pound may have been struck by the empathy between the ancient Chinese bards and himself. So he grouped these poems together， which definitely constitute a major component of his Cathay.A study of the first few poems of Cathay seems to indicate that Pound is heading for a chronological order in his translations. And then it turns out that he becomes so impatient or so intoxi- cated that he does not seem to care about any order or system of presentation， which does pose problems in tracing the source texts. Fortunately， thanks to the meticulous， pioneering efforts by scholars， both Chinese and Western， the work has now become much easier. Again， Zhao，s findings offer this illuminating guideline： 最 後 選 入 《神 州 集 》的 共 十 九 首 詩 ，包 括 《詩 經 》一 首 ，古 樂 府 二 首 ，陶 潛 的 一 首 ，盧 照 鄰 的 一 首 ，王維的一 首 ，和李白的十二首。4[Finally， a total of 19 Chinese poems were selected for Cathay，including one from Shi jing （known in English as “The Book of Poetry”，“The Book of Songs” or 'The Book of Odes”），
two from Gu Yue-fu，5 one by Tao Qian， one by Lu Zhaolin， one by Wang Wei， and twelve by Li Bai.]However， by following this guidance， we get the total of （1+2+1 + 1 + 1 + 12=18） 18 poems， instead of 19. Moreover， Zhao later mentions in the same book something like “20 Chinese poems”，6 which a beginning researcher may find rather confusing.Zhu gives a similar profile，7 and Zhang even provides eleven titles of the Chinese texts：李 白的 《江 上 吟 》 ，《天津三月時》 ，《胡關饒風沙》 ， 《憶 舊 遊 寄 譙 郡 元 參 軍 》 ， 《送 友 人 入 蜀 》 ， 《登金陵鳳凰 臺 》 ， 《黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵》 ， 《代馬不思越》 ， 《詩 經 小 雅 》中 的 《采 薇 》 ，漢 樂 府 中 選 的 一 些 詩 ，以及陶淵明 的 《停 雲 》等 。8A more recent research into the source of Cathay done by Yuan Xingpei concludes：《神 州 集 》將費諾羅薩一部分筆記中的日譯漢詩翻譯成英 文 ，一 共 十 九 首 。其 中 包 括 《詩 經 》一 首 ，古 樂 府 二 首 ，陶 潛 詩 一 首 ，盧 照 鄰 詩 一 首 ，王 維 詩 一 首 ，李 白 詩 十 三 首 。9[Cathay is an English translation of 19 classic Chinese poems selected from those translated into Japanese in Fenollosa’s Notebooks， including one from Shi jing， two from Gu Yue-fu， one by Tao Qian， one by Lu Zhaolin， one by Wang Wei and 13 by Li Bai.]Here， while providing cross-references for the findings of other scholars， Yuan has mistakenly ascribed one more poem to Li Bai.
For the sake of convenience， this search still follows the Cathay sequence and numbers the poems from 1 to 18. And then what has emerged from the location， identification and matching between the source texts and Cathay is that the original Chinese poem for no. 15 “Sennin Poem by Kakuhaku” is still missing from the Chinese inventory. Again， this note by Qian seems to cast light on the search：... Kenner [Hugh Kenner] reports that in 1900 “Fenollosa was also working at early and Taoist [Daoist] poems with another teacher”（Kenner， 1971： 198）. This unnamed teacher was Kakuzo， whose sessions covered eight poems， among which no. 30 is the source of the “wind poem” of Canto 4，31 that of A Ballad of the Mulberry Road and 36 that of Sennin Poem by Kakuhaku.10However， here Qian is only repeating Pound’s words “Sennin Poem by Kakuhaku”. There are numerous ancient Chinese poets writing “sennin” poems. At first glance， it seems imperative that another search should be made into Fenollosa’s notebooks. But again， Fenollosa’s notebooks may not be of much help here because， according to Zhao，費 諾 羅 薩 的 筆 記 ，某些部 分 相 當 潦 草 ，很多詩沒有寫下 中 文 原 文 ，只 留 下 日 文 標 音 。因此筆者無法作出整個目錄。[Some of the notes are quite illegible. For many of the poems no original Chinese texts are given and there are only Japanese phonetic transcriptions. Therefore there is no way for me to pro- vide a complete inventory of the source texts.]11And then， who is this ancient Chinese poet by the name of “Kakuhaku” in Japanese ? Perhaps it is not so difficult to turn a
Chinese name into Japanese， but it can be quite a task to back- translate it into Chinese because there are many sets of probabili- ties and options. However， we are not left completely without clues to the identity of the author and his poem. It seems intuitively obvious that the poet should be someone very famous， and his poem well known， since all the other poets picked up by Pound for his Cathay — Li Bai （Rihaku）， TaoYuanming （To Em-Mei）， Lu Zhaolin （Rosoriu）， and Wang Wei （Omakitsu） — are all great names in the history of Chinese literature， and their poems are among the best known masterpieces. Indeed， over the centuries， these poems have been printed in innumerable editions， and the names of their writers are familiar words in the mouths of millions. Interestingly， and unexpectedly， translation experience can also play a part in a source search. My experience as a translator in multilingual Macao has taught me that usually the title throws a cue， and， if there is no title， as sometimes the case with classical Chinese poems， the first line of the poem serves the purpose. Some special ideas or even the transcriptions of foreign proper names can also help. The “Sennin” in the title of Pound’s poem is “仙人”[xian ren]， a close transliteration in Chinese， meaning a celestial being， or an immortal， suggesting a poetic theme on immortality， longevity， hermitism， spiritual peace and emancipation underlying a traditional Chinese attitude towards nature and the life that is lived in the midst of natural surroundings. And these objects in the first line， “red and green kingfishers”， “orchids” and “clover”，are fresh images typical of such a theme. Further reading down the couplet reveals an element of mysticism and a sense of the supernatural， thus confirming the suggested idea
of the title. Now let’s come back to the Japanese Roman transcript of “Kakuhaku”. 12 Based on transcriptions of family names in coun- tries such as Japan， Korea， Vietnam， etc.， where the Chinese writ- ten characters are used， as defined by A Comprehensive Dictio- nary of Names in Roman-Chinese，13 Kaku- inJapanese surnames can be：角 、覺 、郭 、赫 、格 、鶴 、加 九 、加 來 、狀 書 、勝 來 、賀 來 、嘉九，while -haku- in Japanese first names are：伯 、博 、 白 、樸 etc. So， guided by all these clues， I carefully follow the trail of great poets in the history of Chinese literature， from the High Tang Li Bai and his complete collections，14 and Quart Tang shi （A Complete Collection of Tang Poetry），15 through Han dynasty poets and their works， to the Jin dynasty and its rich and copious xicin ren poems， as if searching for the treasure of treasures in a labyrinth. And it is amidst these xian ren poems， in Gu shi yuan 《古詩源 》（Sources of Ancient Poems） edited by Shen Deqian of the Qing dynasty，16 that I find the very poem， （翡 翠戲蘭苕 》，and its author， the well-renowned Jin dynasty poet， Guo Pu （郭璞 276-324）， who has left behind him some four-character or five-character poems， and in particular， 14 sennin poems （or youxian shi “遊仙詩”，synonymous to xian ren poem）.Now the list is complete. To match the number of the source texts with that of the Cathay poems， it is necessary for me to make a mention of the anecdote that has shocked and amused so many readers， and which has struck many an expert as “bizarre”. And， naturally， it has become a topic often discussed in literary and translation circles. No. 3 poem of Cathay， The River Song， is actually a translation of two of Li Bai’s poems： Jiang shang yin
《江 上 吟 》（“The River Song”），and Shi cong Yichun yuan feng zhao fu longchi liu se chu qing ting xin ying bai zhuan g e 《侍 從宜春苑奉詔賦龍池柳色初青聽新鶯百囀歌》. The title of the second poem of Li Bai’s is so long that it takes Pound five lines of English to continue his River Song. Perhaps， it is also necessary to give a note at this stage that， although I am well aware that there are numerous extant editions regarding the Chinese source， （which will be touched on in Part Ⅱ of my thesis）， all my discus- sions throughout the thesis will adhere to this complete list， i.e.，18 English poems in Cathay， translated from 19 Chinese source texts.① Song of the Bowmen of Shu詩 經 • 小 雅 《采 薇 》② The Beautiful Toilet古 詩 十 九 首 （其二）《青 青 河 畔 草 》③ The River Song唐 • 李 白 ：《江 上 吟 》及 《侍從宜春苑奉詔賦龍池柳 色 初 青 聽 新 鶯 百 囀 歌 》④ The River-Merchant’s Wife： A Letter唐 • 李 白 ：《長 干 行 》（其一）⑤ Poem by the Bridge at Ten-shin唐 • 李 白 ：古 風 （其十八）《天 津 三 月 時 》⑥ The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance唐 • 李 白 ：《玉 階 怨 》⑦ Lament of the Frontier Guard唐 • 李 白 ：古 風 （其十四）《胡 關 饒 風 沙 》⑧ Exile’s Letter唐 • 李 白 ：《憶 舊 遊 寄 譙 郡 元 參 軍 》
⑨ （A title poem for “Four Poems of Departure”）唐 • 王 維 ：《渭城曲》（《送 元 二 使 安 西 》）⑩ Separation on the River Kiang唐 • 李 白 ：《黃 鶴 樓 送 孟 浩 然 之 廣 陵 》■ Taking Leave of a Friend唐 • 李 白 ：《送 友 人 》■ Leave-taking Near Shoku唐 • 李 白 ：《送 友 人 入 蜀 》■ The City of Choan唐 • 李 白 ：《登 金 陵 鳳 凰 臺 》■ South-folk in Cold Country唐 • 李 白 ：古 風 （其六）《代 馬 不 思 越 》■ Sennin Poem by Kakuhaku晉 • 郭 璞 ：遊 仙 詩 （其三） 《翡 翠 戲 蘭 苕 》■ Ballad of the Mulberry Road漢 樂 府 無 名 氏 《陌 上 桑 》■ Old Idea of Choan by Rosoriu唐 • 盧 照 鄰 ：《長 安 古 意 》■ To-Em-Mei’s “The Unmoving Cloud”晉 • 陶 淵 明 ：《停 雲 》17 It is also worth pointing out that， though he had no access to and did not depend directly on the original Chinese source for his Cathay， nor did he indicate any time order in the arrangement of his Cathay poems， Ezra Pound， in fact， owes his success to his knowledge of the history of Chinese literature， in addition to Fenollosa’s notebooks， his poetic gifts and sensitivity. Therefore， the history of Chinese literature will be a focus of discussion in the next chapter.
Notes：1 Zhu， Hui， Zhong Ying bijiao shiyi《中英比較詩藝》Comparative Studies on the Art of Chinese and English Poetry， Chengdu： Sichuan University Press， 1996，p. 16.2 M A thesis in M A Program in British and American Literature， Guangdong Foreign Studies University， 2000， p. 1.3 Actually there are twelve poems in the earlier Cathay sequence. Bush， likemany later scholars， has overlooked the title poem to “Four Poems ofDeparture”.4 Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， pp. 60-1.5 Zhao， Yiheng， Yuan you de shishen， 1985， p. 148.6 Gu here means “old” or “ancient”，while Yue-fu literally means “Music Bureau”， the title of a government office set up in the Han dynasty to collect folk songs. From this， the term came to designate the songs themselves. The early Yue-fu songs or ballads are often irregular in form， but later songs and poems in folk song style tend to use regular lines of 5-character or 7-character length.See Note 1 above， p. 188. （A note by the author of this paper： if the works cited are in Chinese， the quoted parts are translated into English by her. This applies throughout this paper.）8 Zhu， Hui， Zhong Ying bijiao shiyi《中英比較詩藝》Comparative Studies on the Art of Chinese and English Poetry， Chengdu： Sichuan University Press， 1996， p. 317.9 Zhang， Ziqing （張子淸），Ershi shiji Meiguo shige shi《二十世紀美國詩歌史》 A History of 20th Century American Poetry， Jilin： Jilin Education Press， 1997， p. 105.10 Yuan， Xingpei （袁行霈），Zhongguo gudian shige de yixiang《中國古典詩歌的 意象》，Imagery in Classic Chinese Poetry， in Zhongguo shige yishu yanjiu 《中國詩歌藝術硏究》，Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997，p. 62.11 Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， 1995，p. 190.12 See Zhao， Yiheng， Yuan you de s his hen， Chengdu， Sichuan People’s Publishing House， 1985，p. 148.
13 Some scholars mistakenly ascribed this poem to Li Bai， perhaps because the last four letters of both Ri-haku and Kaku-haku are the same.14新華通訊社譯名室編（1993）《世界人名翻譯大辭典》，中國對外翻譯出版公司 出版。（“A Comprehensive Dictionary of Names in Roman- Chinese”， compiled by Proper Names and Translation Service， Xinhua News Agency， published by China Translation & Publishing Corporation）.15 Li Bai， Li Bai Quanji《李白全集》Complete Collection of Li Bai， ed. Bao Fang （鮑方校點），Shanghai： Guji （上海古籍出版社出版），1996.16 Quan Tang shi《全唐詩》A Complete Collection of Tang Poetry， Shanghai： Guji，上海古籍出版社出版，1986.17 淸•沈德潛編（The Qing dynasty： Shen， Deqian， ed.）， Gu shi yuan《古詩源》 Source of Ancient Poetry， Changsha： Yuelu （岳麓書社出版），1998 年第一 版 。18 Ieong， S. L.， Source Study and Translation， the Case of Cathay [Shenzhou ji]， Yu Lin《語林》，Macao Daily， 28 May 2000.
Chapter Three The History of Chinese Literature： A Review of Classical Chinese PoetryLike his contemporary and lifelong friend， T. S. Eliot （1888- 1965），Pound values the sense of history. To him， knowledge of tradition is necessary for the poet to create “new” poetry. If he does not understand the past， he will not know what is new. This is what Pound means in his Credo， written in 1911：If a certain thing has been said once and for all in 450 B. C. or in 1290 A. D .，it is not for us moderns to go saying it over， or to go obscuring the memory of the dead by saying the same thing with less skill.1This principle was elaborated by T. S. Eliot， nine years later， in his famous essay， Tradition and the Individual Talent：The historical sense involves a perception， not only of the pastness of the past， but of its present. The his- torical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones， but with a feeling that the whole of the literature，... composes a simultaneous order. ... No poet has his complete meaning alone. ...You cannot value him alone； you must set him， for con- trast and comparison， among the dead.2A clear historical thread runs throughout Pound’s efforts on
his road to Chinese literature and art， especially classical Chinese poetry. Pound’s meetings in the fall of 1913 with Ernest Fenollosa’s widow， Mary McNeil Fenollosa， and his proverbial literary fortune with Fenollosa’s Notebooks， marked the beginning of his ambitious Chinese venture. At 28，the dashing young poet， “a bundle of nervous energy”，3 widely read and solidly grounded in Romance languages and literature， well versed in Latin and Greek classics， as well as a lot of great poetic works born of the Western civilization， had already earned a name for himself in literary circles， indeed， on both sides of the Atlantic. He had travelled in Spain， Italy and Provence. By 1913， he had published a series of his poetry： A Lume ofSpento， his maiden anthology that was printed at his own expense， and which he brought to London as gift for his Mecca in 1908； Personae in 1910； Exultations in 1909； Provenca in 1910； the oft-quoted canon piece， his first haiku-like poem， In a Station of the Metro， and Canzoni in 1911； Portrait du’ne Femme， The Seafarer （From the Anglo-Saxon） and Ripostes in 1912.4 Moreover， by 1913，inspired by T. E. Hulme （1883-1917） with the notion that “Creative effort means new images”，5 influ- enced by the French philosopher， Henri Bergson （1859-1941）， sculptor-artists， Jacob Epstein （1880-1959） and Henri Gaudier- Brzeska （1891-1959），and painter-writer Wyndham Lewis （1884- 1975），and motivated by his own desire to break new grounds， Pound had started the Imagist movement， the avant-garde of the modernist poetry， with his friends， H.D. （Hilda Doolittle， 1886-1961），Richard Aldington （1892-1962）， and F. S. Flint （1885-1960）.6 Though at that time his knowledge of the Chinese literature was limited， Pound was no stranger to Oriental art and
literature when he met Mary Fenellossa in London in late September 1913. He had been introduced to Chinese and Japanese painting by English poet and connoisseur of Far Eastern art Lawrence Binyon （1869-1943） during his “British Museum Era”.7 He had， in his eastward explorations， examined the work of the Bengali poet， Rabindranath Tagore （1861-1941），8 through whose work Pound had discovered the spirit that underlies Eastern expression， and which he defines as “a deeper calm of the mind and the fellowship between man and the gods； between man and nature， and what we need overmuch in a age of steel and mechanics.” 9 He had studied and imitated Japanese haiku and tanka.10 Perhaps， most significantly， Pound had developed an intimate friendship with Allen Upward （1863-1926）， who is an ardent admirer of ancient Chinese thought， in particular， of Confucianism， and had set Pound launching himself into the Confucian universe even before he had a chance to read the Confucian classics in translation. So， driven by his imagistic ideals and aspirations to innovate， Pound was quick to realize that， in his fervent tireless pursuit of the permanent and the most advanced in the Oriental cultural tradition， he must now make his literary journey to China， and， indeed， he was all ready for it. And to do this， he followed Upward’s example， i.e.， getting to know China， her literary treasures， her classical poetry with distinct colours and images， her aesthetic instincts and imagination， the endless variety of theme and motive， techniques and principles， in short， the “new Greece’，11 by reading translated works. And Allen Upward， whose “soul immediately kissed the soul of immemorial China”，12 now became both Pound’s mentor and his Chinese literature tutor. The
first thing Pound did after his first meeting on 29 September 1913 with Mary Fenollosa was to take a ferry to the Isle of Wight to see his tutor， Upward， and the first set of books that the tutor recommended Pound to read are： H. A. Giles’ History of Chinese Literature， published in 1901，and M. G. Pauthier，s Les quatre livres de philosophic morale et politique de la Chine published in 1841.13 As Giles’ History of Chinese Literature has a vital impact on Pound’s Cathay endeavour， and， indeed， we may say， on the whole of his literary career as an important component of his Chinese literature education， a more detailed discussion of the work is essential.3.1 The History of Chinese LiteratureOf the five extant major works written in English on the history of Chinese literature，14 Giles’ is the earliest and only work of this kind available to Pound at that time. The book consists of eight parts running into a total of 448 pages. This is the general profile of the parts covered by Pound：Part I The Earliest Period （600-200 B. C.）① Legends，Ancient Chinese Civilization， the origin of writing② Confucius and the “Five Classics”③ The “Four Books” and Mencius④ Other Well-known Authors⑤ Shi and Buci⑥ Taoism （Daoism） and Dao de jingPart II The Han Dynasty （200 B. C. - A. D. 200）① The burning of books by Qin shi huangdi； Han dynasty writers
② Han dynasty poetry③ Historiography， canonization④ BuddhismPart Ⅲ Six Minor Dynasties （A. D. 200 - 600）① Poetry and other literary genres② Canonized scholarsPart IV The Tang Dynasty （A. D. 600 - 900）① Tang poetry② Canonized and general works15Pound’s poetic zeal goes as far as the High Tang period， when the principal classical poetic form， shi （詩）in use has clearly reached the zenith of its development and inspiration. What Pound has digested， or devoured， from this book， or how much he has misread or where he has erred， or whether he has been misled by Giles， will be left for discussions later. But he could not hide his thrill and excitement when he wrote to his bride-to-be， Dorothy Shakespear， on Thursday， 2 October， just a couple of days after his meeting with Mary Fenollosa and his visit to Upward：I would have writ before but I went to Ryde to visit [Allen] Upward. ...Dined on Monday with Sarojini Niadu [sic] and Mrs. Fenollosa [Mrs. Ernest Fenollosa]， relict of the writer on Chinese art， selector of a lot of Freer’s stuff， etc. I seem to be getting Orient from all quarters. ... I ’m stocked up with K ’ung fu Tsze [Confucius]， and Men Tsze [Mencius]， etc. I suppose
they’ll keep me calm for a week or so.16Pound kept calm “for a week or so” because he was fascinated， or mesmerized， by these great ancient Chinese thinkers and philosophers， and he was reading the very ancient Chinese masters as ferociously as he had read the very modern French ones the previous summer. It would be interesting to know what Pound， as an eager “absorbent” reader， may have absorbed from Giles， History of Chinese Literature. According to Cheng， a small volume of mere 448 pages is simply insufficient to cover the millenniums of history of the vast and profound Chinese literature. Moreover， Giles， on some friends’ suggestion， did his best to squeeze into the book many translated texts of the cited works in order that Western readers could appreciate them. He also included a lot of critical comments made on them by Chinese scholars so that English readers would know how the Chinese themselves perceived and evaluated them. As a result， too much of the already limited space is taken by translated texts， with many an omission and error. Perhaps， even worse is the fact that Giles put in some stuff， such as things on farming and herbal medicine， which is not relevant to the theme but which takes up quite some valuable space. Perhaps the bitterest attack came from Mr. Zheng Zhenduo， who reviewed Giles’ History and pointed out such defects as errors， omissions， illegitimate classifications， unsystematic arrangement， a lack of focus in content， etc.， saying， “His [Giles’] knowledge of Chinese literature is too superficial， having read， perhaps， only the Four Books， the Five Classics， Zhuangzi， Liaozhai，and 300 Tang Poems in translation....”17
It is not the purpose of this paper to make any criticism on Giles’ History. However， there is reason to believe that， whatever merits， or demerits， existing in Giles，History， may have influenced Pound to a considerable degree， in both his poetic work and translations.Giles，profile may stand out in sharp relief against what we would present， nowadays， as an outline of the history of Chinese literature， or to be specific， of the history of Chinese poetry， which traces a long， long course from a distant source.3.2 A Brief Survey of Classical Chinese PoetryThe first anthology of Chinese poetry， Shi j i n g 《詩 經 》 （variously translated into English as The Book of Songs， Book of Poetry or Book of Odes）， consisting of three hundred and five ancient poems， and compiled in the Spring & Autumn Period （770- 476 B. C.） laid the foundation for Chinese poetry. The stream， with her distinct features of remarkable continuity， great antiquity， and easy accessibility to emperors and common folks alike， has kept on running passionately and being enriched all along ever since. Fortunately， and by coincidence， as if to facilitate classification， there emerged， almost in every historical period， a special literary genre or poetic form that represents the time and is typical of the style in fashion. In the Xia （夏 circa 2200- 1700 B. C.） and Shang （商 circa 1066-1100 B. C.） dynasties， similar to the oral and musical tradition of other ancient civilizations， there were myths， legends， and ballads， most of which， if not all， were intended to be sung. Shang was followed by the Zhou dynasty， divided into Western Zhou （西周 circa 1066-771 B. C.） and
Eastern Zhou （東周 770-476 B. C.），which covered the Spring & Autumn Period （春秋）and that of the Warring States （戰國 475- 221 B. C.）. As mentioned above， it was in the Spring & Autumn Period that Shi j i n g 《詩 經 》，containing the oldest extant examples of Chinese poetry， appeared， believed to have been compiled by Confucius or his students； while the poetic form， Chu ci （楚辭），18 represented by Qu Yuan， was developed in the Warring States Period. Then， in the Han （漢）dynasty （206 B. C.- A. D. 220），Yue-fu minge （樂 府 民 歌 ）19 came to prominence. The Han dynasty was followed by a series of short-lived successors， namely， Wei-Jin-Southern-and-Northern dynasties （the Wei dynasty 魏 A. D. 220-264； the Jin dynasty 晉 A. D. 265-420； the Southern and Northern dynasties 南北朝 A. D. 420-589）.20 It was during this period that the five-character-ancient-style-verse （五 言古體詩），which seems to allow more freedom of expression， thrived. Coming down to the Tang dynasty （618-907）， a historical period called the golden age of Chinese poetry， when the shi 詩 poetic form attains its highest and most brilliant achievement.21 In ensuing dynasties and centuries， though poetry in shi form continued to be written， the focus of interest tended to shift to other poetic forms or to other literary genres such as drama and fiction. Thus， in the Song dynasty （960-1279）， ci 詞 poetry 22 was brought to maturity， and so was qu 曲 poetry 23 in the Yuan dynasty （1279-1368）. And in the Ming （明 1368-1644） and Qing （淸 1644-1911） dynasties， in addition to poetry， a variety of literary genres， such as novels， fiction & non-fiction， came into vogue. But Tang poetry assuredly marks the zenith in the history of classical Chinese poetry.
Having traced briefly the development of classical Chinese poetry from the Zhou to the Yuan dynasties， and having noted the principal poetic forms， I find it imperative to go into the contents， the main themes and characteristics of Chinese poetry. However， this would be a task impossible to attempt within a thesis of this scope. Nevertheless， contents and cultural implications will reveal themselves through an analysis of Cathay poems and their source texts， which are quite typical and representative of classical Chinese poems， and which I will cope with in Part II. For my present purpose， and to move on， I find Watson’s perception and interpretation highly relevant：Poetry has been many things to the Chinese over the long centuries of their history - a hymn to ancestral spirits， a celebration of the beauties of nature， an expression of friendship or a pleasant accompaniment to a social gathering， a medium of airing political criticisms， for venting grief， for advancing a courtship.It has been composed by emperors and their ladies-in- waiting， by monks and generals， city dwellers and farm folk， but above all by the scholar-officials， men who had received a thorough education in the classics of the language and who， often after passing the civil service examinations， were assigned to posts in the complex bureaucracy that governed the vast nation. Whatever level of society it may have sprung from， poetry is woven into the life and history of the Chinese people， and perhaps no other facet of their traditional culture possesses such universal appeal.24
However， I would like to add that， for the greatest Chinese poets， almost invariably， poetry was the most convenient， safest， and user-friendly vehicle， available to them in their lifetime， to express their profound love for their country and people， to demonstrate their age-long wisdom， to show their pride in and re- spect for their history and culture， and to voice their aspirations for humanity as well as for themselves. Those poets， whose poems were selected by Ezra Pound for his Cathay， except for the three anonymous ones，25 were all typical scholar-official-poets answer- ing the descriptions given above. They are Li， Bai； Wang， Wei； and Lu， Zhaolin of the Tang dynasty， and Tao， Yuanming and Guo， Pu of the Jin dynasty.
Notes：1 In High， P. B.， An Outline of American Literature，London and New York： Longman， 1987， p. 132.2 Ibid.3 In Kunitz and Haycraft， 20th Century Authors， The H. W. Wilson Company， 1952， p .11214 Kunitze and Haycraft， 20th Century Authors， 1952， p. 1121-2.5 Quoted from Qian’s Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， p. 16.6 Zhang， Ziqing， A History of 20th Century American Poetry， 1997， p. 99.Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， p. 13.8 Renowned poet and philosopher， born in Calcutta， India； best known for his poetic work， Gitanjali （1910），the first Nobel Prize winner for Literature in Asia （1913）； knighted in 1915， but he resigned the title in 1919 as a protest against British policy in the Punjab.9 Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， p. 18.10 Haiku， in Japanese， means “amusement verse” . It is a Japanese lyric form， with exactly 17 syllables in three lines： 5 in line 1； 7 in line 2 and again 5 in line 3. Each haiku is a complete idea or observation： their common method is to describe a natural scene or object as a way of implying feelings. Several twentieth-century English and American poets have experimented with the form， including Pound， whose interest in the form coincided with his theories of Imagism. Many translated haiku do not conform to the exact syllable count. Following is a typical haiku， where a mistaken perception offers an implicit metaphorical comparison：The fallen blossomsseemed to fly up to their branches!They were butterflies， （quoted from Gray， Martin， A Dictionary of Literary Terms， Longman York Press， 6th Print， 1996，p. 132.）Tanka， in Japanese， means “short verse”，a traditional Japanese lyric form， consisting of thirty-one syllables： 5 in lines 1 and 3，and 7 in lines 2， 4，and 5. 11 Pound， Ezra， Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， ed. with an introduction by T. S.
Eliot， London： Faber and Faber， 1960， p. 215.12 Quoted from Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， p. 20.13 Ibid. p. 24.14 The other four works are： Chinese Literature： A Historical Introduction， by Chen， Shou-yi， New York： The Ronald Press Company， 1961； Burton Watson’s Early Chinese Literature， New York： Columbia University Press， 1962； A History of Chinese Literature， by La i， M ing， New York： The John Day Company， 1964； and An Introduction to Chinese Literature， Bloomington and London： Indiana University Press， 1966. See Cheng， Zhangcan’s Five English Works on the History of Chinese Literature in Qian， L. S.， Yue D. Y. and Alain le Pichon ed. Cross-cultural Dialogues， 2， 1999， p. 149-164.15 Cheng， Zhangcan （程 章 燦 《五 種 英 文 本 中 國 文 學 史 著 作 評 述 ：兼談中國文學 史的編撰問題》 （Critical Comments on the Five Major English Works on the History of Chinese Literature： Issues Concerning the Compilation and Writing of the History of Chinese Literature）， in Qian， L. S.， Yue D. Y. and Alain le Pichon ed. Cross-cultural Dialogues， 2， 1999， p. 149-50.16 Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear： Their Letters 1909-1914， ed. Omar Pound and A. Walton Litz， New York： New Directions， 1984， p. 264，in Qian， Zhaoming Orientalism and Modernism， 1995， p. 24.17 Zheng， Zhenduo （鄭 振 鐸 ），Zhongguo wenxue lun j i 《中 國 文 學 論 集 》（On Chinese Literature），開明書店，1934，in Qian， L. S.， Yue D. Y. and Alain le Pichon ed. Cross-cultural Dialogues， 2，1999，p. 151.18 Shi is a form of Chinese poetry first used in Shi jing and continues in use today. The early shi is marked by lines that are mainly 4 characters in length， with end rhyme employed， usually at the end of the even-numbered lines. Poems vary in length but almost always consist of an even number of lines. No. 1 poem of Cathay， Song of Bowmen of Shu， is translated from 《詩 經 · 小 雅 · 采 薇 》，which is a good example of this form of Chinese poetry. Around the first century A. D.， the four-character line was replaced in popularity by a five-character line， often with a slight caesura after the 2nd character， or a seven-character line with a caesura after the fourth character.Chu ci （楚辭），songs of the Chu State of the Warring States Period， as repre
sented by Qu Yuan （屈 原 ）. It customarily uses a line of from four to seven characters， broken in the middle by the insertion of an interjection- breathing particle pronounced xi （兮 ）in modern Chinese. Rhyme occurs at the end of most lines.19 Yue-fu originally means the Music Bureau， and minge ballads or folk songs. The Music Bureau was set up around 120 B. C. by Emperor Wu， and one of its duties was to collect folk songs from various parts of the empire.Two of Cathay poems are selected from the Han dynasty： No. 16，Ballad of Mulberry Road is a translation of a Yue fu b a l la d 《陌 上 桑 》，while the other， No. 2，The Beautiful Toilet， is translated from Nineteen Ancient Poems. 《古 詩 十 九 首 （其 二 ）青青河 畔 草 》，known as among the finest works in the new five-character-line poetic form. The early Yue-fu songs or balads are often irregular in form， using lines of varying lengths. Yue-fu poems frequently deal with the lives and hardships of farmers or soldiers on border duty and express criticisms of the rulers. Romantic love is another important theme， the poet usually adopting the persona of a young woman.20 Two of Cathay poems are selected from this period： one is No. 15， Sennin Poem by Kakuhaku， which is translated from Guo Pu （郭璞）：《翡翠戲蘭苕 》； the other， No. 18，To-Em-Mei，s “The Unmoving Cloud”，from Tao Yuanming （陶 淵 明 ）：《停 雲 》.21 In fact Tang poems predominate Cathay： Lu Zhaolin’s （盧 照 鄰 ）for No. 17， Old Idea of Choan by Rosoriu， Wang Wei’s （王維）for No. 9， the title poem for Four Poems of Departure， and all the rest are Li Bai’s （李白）. Also refer to the complete list on pages 21 -22 of this paper.22 Ci （詞）is metrical verse or lyric meter， a song form characterized by prescribed rhyme and tune patterns and the frequent use of lines of varying length. The different metrical patterns employed were designated by the title of the particular tune that they fitted. Later ci writers， though they did not necessarily intend their works to be sung， continued to use the old tune title to indicate the metrical pattern they were following.23 Qu （曲）：metrical dramatic poetry， or dramatic songs. They admitted freely the use of everyday colloquial speech， the idioms and slang of the ordinary
people， and extra words in addition to what is required by the melody.24 Watson， Burton， trans. and ed. The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry： From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century， New York： Columbia University Press， 1984，p. 1.25 Though Pound ascribed Song of the Bowmen of Shu to “Bunno” and The Beautiful Toilet to “Mei Sheng”，many important works that carry authority have proved otherwise. Pound ascribed Ballad of the Mulberry Road to “Fenollosa MSSS， very early”， which is obviously correct. Also see： Zhongguo li dai zhuming wenxuejia ping zhuan《中國歷代著名文學家評傳》，ed. By Lu， H. J.， Liu B. and Lu， D .， Jinan： Shandong Education Press， 1985， p. 79-85.
Chapter FourThe Author-Poets： Ancient Bards RevisitedPerhaps from most points of view the concept of authorship requires no explanation. However， according to the theories of the New Criticism， 1 it was considered wrong to examine a work in the light of the author’s intentions or biography， because the text was supposed to be autonomous. This concentration on text still allowed writing to be perceived as the creation of an author. But the concept and significance of authorship was put under attack by French critics like Roland Barthes， in his essay， “The Death of the Author” （1968），and Michel Foucault in his “What is an Author ?” （1969）. Barthes argues that the critic’s obsession with authorship is a way of falsely pinning down the meaning of a text and refusing to contemplate it as an infinite “tissue of signs”. Foucault places authorship in historical context to show that the concept is culturally determined， and that different societies at dif- ferent times have not perceived books necessarily as the original creations of gifted individuals. In the view of Deconstructive Criticism，2 to think of the author as a kind of absolute and spe- cially privileged creator of meaning is a falsification of the nature of language： as meaning is constructed by the readers， no final meaning is available for any text. And according to some Marxist critics， to view literary works as the mysterious creations of god- like beings tends to be a way of ignoring the social and political contexts in which writing is produced.3 While remaining aware of
these brilliant theoretical developments about authorship and acknowledging them as exciting openings into new horizons and for future studies， I find it pertinent and absolutely necessary to relate the source texts to their respective authors in my present research.Many literary critics in the West， when discussing translation and poetry， usually refer to Cathay as a translation of Li Bai’s poems. This is， probably， partly because eleven out of a total of eighteen Cathay poems were translated from twelve of Li Bai’s poems， and partly because he was the best-known poet in Chinese history.4.1 Li Bai （Li， Tai Bai）Li Bai （also rendered in English as Li Bo， Li Po， Li T，ai Po， Li Pai， and in Cathay，Rihaku in Japanese）， a very familiar household word in China， is not unfamiliar to Western scholars， either. In fact Li Bai deserves an entry in important encyclopedic and biographi- cal works. However， unfortunately， and surprisingly， Li Bai is often insufficiently presented in the West， with many a sweeping statement， misreading， misinterpretation， or even distortion. A capsule biography of Li Bai in a prestigious international publication， The Cambridge Encyclopedia describes the poet thus Li Po （c. 700-762）， poet， born in Szechwan [Sichuan] Province， China. ATaoist [Daoist] interested in nature， mountains， andAlchemy， he wrote over 1000 imaginative and rhapsodic free-style poems. Many were about drinking， such as “Wine Song”.4
A recent publication on CD ROM， Oxford Talking Dictionary： See， hear，and experience a dictionary from one of the world’s most trusted publishers， presents the poet asLi Po （A. D. 701-62），Chinese poet， and he had a bohe- mian life style at the emperor’s court， alternating with long periods of wandering. Typical themes in his poetry are wine， women and the beauties of nature.5There is no denying that The Cambridge Encyclopedia and The Oxford Dictionary are known throughout the world as au- thoritative reference works and innovative learning materials. How- ever here both fail to give a true picture of this great Chinese poet， and their summary is lopsided， due to their Euro-centric percep- tion and approach. It is true that Li Bai wrote about wine， about women and about the beauty of nature. But when given in such a highly condensed capsule as a reference entry， it may mislead the reader into fantastic associations. Li Bai’s “wine and women” is different from what it may suggest in the West. Now with easier communications and more open and sincere attitudes， we can hope to carry out genuine dialogues by revisiting this ancient Chinese bard through the little window opened by Ezra Pound and his collaborators. Though in comparison with the 1，000-odd poems that have been handed down to us， a corpus of 12 poems in Pound’s Cathay is too small to give a complete picture， we can still see that they are quite diversified and very serious in content and thematic concerns， not just “wine， women and the beauties of nature”. It is true that Li Bai loved nature and took strength from the grandeur of mountains and rivers， which had an extraordinary appeal for him， and of which he wrote with magnificent abandon.
So is true that he travelled through the length and width of China， coming into contact with all sorts of people. His character had an arrogant side， which was apparent in his dealings with the power- ful courtiers and the like. But among friends and common people， his sincere and deep feelings show through at all times. He loved his friends and cherished friendship； he resented injustice and aspired to serve his country and people， with many lofty ideals. Too much has been said about his love for wine and too little about the real man who wielded so magical a pen. And too often is the poet misunderstood as a drunkard or some being removed from the everyday world， roaming and wondering through space， as “a celestial being banished from Heaven”.6 It is time to restore the true face of this great poet.Born in Sujab in A. D. 701 near Lake Balkash， of a family probably with some Chinese Central Asian minority blood in his veins， Li Bai was brought back to Sichuan Province when five years old and grew up there. There are different versions about his birth- place and early days. But definitely the young Li Bai was widely read and well educated in Chinese classics and ancient Chinese thought， which fired him with literary and political ambitions. When he was twenty-five， he started travelling extensively to various parts of the country， making friends with Daoist and Buddhist monks， other poets， both his junior and senior and his contemporaries， and all kinds of working people， sometimes taking an active part in social and political life. As he became increasingly popular for his literary achievements， he was recommended to the imperial court. And soon Emperor Xuanzong summoned him to the capital， Chang’an，where he was appointed to an official post in the Hanlin
（翰林）Academy， a government office charged with literary activities. But a couple of years later he was exiled from the capital as a result of court jealousy and slanders. Often feeling frustrated or disappointed by his failure to fulfil his ideals， he resolved to leave the world of fawning， power-abuse and corrup- tion and retire to the mountains， the carefree life of the recluse being another theme in his poetry. Li Bai’s later life was one of constant drift and hardships， which is best summed up by the other High Tang poetic giant and his life-long friend， Du Fu，Autumn coming，you’re drifting still like thristledown； Trying to find the way to heaven， but failing.Singing mad and drinking dead your days you drown.For whom will fly the roc? For whom will leap the whale VLeft with no opportunity to fulfil his Confucian ideal to serve his country， Li Bai was seen wondering in destitution. Nor could he find spiritual solace in Daoism， which had taught him to seek the way to heaven. So here he was seen again chanting poetry and drinking to drown hissorrow in Du Fu，s poem：Li Bai could turn sweet nectar into verses fine.Drunk in the capital，he’d lie in shops of wine Even imperial summons proudly he’d decline，Saying immortals could not leave the drink divine.As a penetrating philosopher， he saw through the pretence and artificiality of court life； yet he also knew very well that to realize his ideal to serve his country， he must take an active part in public life and win wide recognition. So， all his life， he tried to integrate these two strategies， thus displaying two conflicting traits，
which is sympathetically elucidated by Watson：In spite of such vicissitudes of fortune， Li Po is little given to expressions of unmitigated despair or bitterness， with his poetry on the whole being unusually calm， even at times sunny in outlook. It appears to have grown not so much out of the actual scenes and experiences of his lifetime as it does out of certain convictions that he held regarding life and art， out of a tireless search for a spiritual freedom and communion with nature， a lively imagination and a deep sensitivity to the beauties of language.9Before he died， Li Bai was said to have entrusted his manuscripts to a Daoist monk， who somehow failed to get them published. After his death， Li Yangbing （李陽冰），one of his relatives， compiled Li Taibai j i 《李太白集》，（A Collection of Li Taibai’s Poems）. According to Li Yangbing， even during Li Bai’s own lifetime， “ninety per cent of his works were already lost.” 10 And according to Zhao Puchu （趙樸初），from the Tang dynasty to the Song dynasty， “many were involved in searching and collecting his poems， and their collections were roughly edited with rather too general classifications. The result was that not only were time periods confused but also even some works that were not Li Pai’s came to be included. This has long been an object of deprecation.... One should not judge a poet entirely by his poems， and one needs to know the period in which the poet wrote as well as the geographical environment and historical events that were at the back of his mind when he wrote. In recent years， work has gradually begun in chronicling and collating Li Pai’s poetry， but
despite the successes achieved， much remains to be done. ...”11 Li Bai，s literary style is a combination of romanticism and realism， though very often the romantic flair of Li Bai is stressed. About one sixth of Li Bai’s extant poems are in Yue-fu style inherited from the past and brought to a new height， and of reworkings of themes drawn from the old folk song tradition. Two of Cathay poems， No. 4，The River Merchant’s Wife and No. 6， The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance， are translated from Li Bai’s Yue-fu songs. Another group of Li Bai’s poems are entitled Gu-feng 《古 風 》 （Ancient Wind）， the majority of which are the poet’s elaborate pieces in which he inherited and developed the fine tradition running from Zhuangzi’s Xin zhai《莊 子 • 心齋 》（My Heart’s Feelings）12 down to Chen Z i’ang’s Gan yu《陳 子 昂 • 感 遇 》（Stirring Up My Feelings）.13 Many of Li Bai’s Gu-feng poems are imbued with robust masculine strength， a poetic beauty that Pound must have found so irresistible that he chosed six for his Cathay， that is， three wu-yan （五言）Gu-feng： No. 5，Poem by the Bridge at Ten-shin， No. 7， Lament of the Frontier Guard， and No. 14，South-folk in Cold Country； and No. 3， The River Song and No. 8，Exile’s Letter are from Li Bai’s three qi-yan Gu-feng （七言古風）.14 In addition to his superb contribution to the perfection of Yue-fu and Gu-feng poetic forms， Li Bai also distinguished himself by bringing an unparalleled grace， eloquence， a flow and grandeur， to Jue-ju （絕句）and Lu-shi （律詩），15 which were also brought to maturity and perfection amidst the immense flowering of poetry， and of literature and art in general in theTang dynasty. Cathay poem No. 10，Separation on the River Kiang is from one of Li Bai’s Jue-ju； No. 11，Taking Leave of a Friend，
and No. 12，Leave-taking near Shoku， are from two of Li B ai，s wu-yan Lu-shi； and No. 13， The City of Choan， is from one of his qi-yan Lu-shi. Here one cannot help marveling at the vision and insight with which Pound selected poems for his Cathay. The fact that his Cathay，though a very small collection， could cover all the major shi-forms of classical Chinese poetry， is really remarkable.Having visited the greatest poet of classical Chinese poetry， Li Bai， who represents the most flourishing period in the history of Chinese literature and art， now we can turn to the other Tang poets picked up by Pound. Some history books on Chinese poetry usually put Li Bai and Du Fu together， as the greatest poets in the Tang dynasty， and refer to or classify other poets as “minor” poets. I use the word “other” rather than “minor” because I feel that no poet selected by Pound for his Cathay is really a “minor” poet. They are all great in their own ways； all are unique， each possessing exceptional mental， artistic and poetic thrust， versatility and dexterity and contributing to the growth， evolution and prosperity of Chinese poetry.4.2 Other Author-Poets of CathayIn addition to Li Bai， whose twelve poems already account for two thirds of the original source texts of Cathay， Pound also included two other Tang poets， Wang Wei and Lu Zhaolin. It is hardly surprising that Pound feasts his eyes on the most spectacular summit of poetic excellence of Chinese poetry. A survey of Tang poetry and of its constellation of poets in general will provide a historical context for a better understanding of the
sources of Cathay.Quan Tang s h i 《全唐詩 》A Complete Collection of Tang Poetry， which， by the imperial edict of Emperor Kangxi （1654-1722），was compiled by ten renowned Qing dynasty official-scholars including Peng Dingqiu and Cao Yin， and which was completed in 1706， contains some 48，900 poems by more than 2，200 poets. After almost three hundred years， in 1982，a supplementary to the collection， compiled by Wang Chongmin and two other experts， was published. The Supplementary to Quan Tang shi consists of 1，800 poems. From these two books alone we can read in our days more than 50，000 poems of the Tang dynasty.16 This number is many times more than the total of poems produced before the Tang dynasty that have been handed down to posterity. And no poetry collection as voluminous as that of Tang was published in the thousand-odd years after the Tang dynasty. An important factor， among others， for the extraordinary flourishing of Tang poetry， was the strong encouragement of the rulers. Tang Taizong （599-649），the second emperor of the Tang dynasty， loved literature and art， and， as a vigorous patron of poetry， treated poets with special favour. He himself was an accomplished poet and calligrapher. Sixty-nine of his poems was included in Quan Tang shi. Later Tang emperors carried on the tradition and gave awards to poetry. Tang Gaozong （628-683） even introduced the system of “electing officials by their poems”，which continued into the last years of the Song dynasty. In fact in the long period of dynastic China， for scholars there was no rosier prospect than winning a stable official post while engaged in literary pursuits. Tang Gaozong added poetry to keju kaoshi （科舉 考試 imperial
examinations for selecting government officials）， as a supplementary subject for J ins hi （進士，a higher academic degree） Department. When it came to the reign of Tang Xuanzong （685-762）， a versatile emperor who loved poetry and music， and to whose efforts and enthusiasm Tang poetry owed a lot for its reform and development， poetry became the obligatory subject for all departments. “Writing poems became henceforth a necessary talent for intellectuals who aimed at an official career， and poetry learning was one of the essential lessons even for children. Enthusiasm for poetry therefore prevailed in the society， and on account of the popularization of poetry there were inevitably large numbers of poets and excellent poems. Most of the Tang poets had passed the imperial examinations and obtained， in general， the Jinshi degree， and the depressed poets were more often than not the results of ‘failure in the imperial examination’ or ‘frustration in the official career’，”17Tang poetry is not only stunning in quantity but also “remark- ably extensive in the range of subjects， ingenious in artistry and various in metrical forms with consummate versification”.18 Thus， amidst relative political stability and social prosperity， poets could afford to strive for perfection， as shown in the following verses：Raking for three years I write these two lines.Whenever I croon tears trickle down my eyes.（Jia Dao） 19I ’ll never let go anything mediocre unless I die.（Du Fu）20
which remind us of Pound’s story about the process of his writing of the famous Imagist canonized poem， In a Station of the Metro.11 These stories， so similar in nature， reveal the meticulous and painstaking efforts made by these sedulous masters， both Chinese and Western， for the perfection of their art. The “alchemic” endeavours of Tang poets competing for excellence in poetry could not escape Pound’s sharp observation， and Li Bai， Wang Wei， Lu Zhaolin， and of course， many others， all represent the best of Tang poetry.Wang Wei （701-761），alias Wang Moji and Omakitsu in Japanese，22 was a scion of an established family， renowned for his talents even in his young days. Like many of the Tang poet-officials， Wang was a product of the imperial examination system， becoming a J ins hi at an early age and entering upon a long and distinguished career as an attendant-remonstrator in the court， interspersed with periods of banishment or voluntary withdrawal to the countryside. A man of many parts， he was a virtuoso in calligraphy， music and painting. In fact， Wang Wei is the most illustrious example of the Chinese tradition in which poetry， calligraphy and painting are all related， and they acquire the same amplitude. Wang was an inven- tor of the monochrome technique and a precursor of the so-called “spiritual painting”. His pictorial experience was foremost in the way he organized the meaning of his poetry， just as the famous Song dynasty poet， Su Dongpo said of him， “…There is painting in his poetry， and poetry in his painting.” And his calligraphy is the bridge and the confluence where poetry and painting share the same fundamental laws of Chinese aesthetics.The merits of Wang’s poems lie in his elegant style， fresh
conceptual world and melodious lilt of the movement. Wang Wei wrote a number of poems related to court functions， but he is best remembered for his portrayal of the life he enjoyed in his country retreats and the scenes surrounding him. “As a celebrator of the quiet joys of rural life， he follows the line of development earlier explored by Tao Yuanming， though he writes with greater calm and detachment than had Tao. . . .” Burton Watson， a well-known contempary scholar of classical Chinese poetry， comments， “Mahayana Buddhism， the kind of Buddhism familiar to Wang Wei and his contemporaries， teaches that all the dharmas or things of existence are absolutely equal. This means that， though each thing may have its distinctive characteristics， all are to be equally acknowledged and accepted by the enlightened person. It is this attitude of calm affirmation that most strikes one in Wang Wei’s poetry. He does not assiduously seek out the picturesque elements in the natural landscape， as nature poets often do， nor does he avert his eyes from the evidences of human habitation or activity. He registers the scenes about him just as they appear to him， the human along with the non-human components， his very impartiality a gauge， one feels， of his level of enlightenment.” 23 Watson’s views are shared and substantiated by Xu Yuanzhong with a contrast between Wang Wei’s and Tao Qian’s poems.Atnidst bamboo grove， quietly alone，I pick up my lute， and sit and croon.With no ear to hear me，save my own；With no eye to see me，save the moon.24From these few lines， which is Wang Wei’s description of the leisurely rural life he thoroughly enjoyed in his little hut among the
bamboos， one senses the “quiet joys” of his solitary life， so utterly different from Tao Yuanming’s：Into my courtyard none should intrude，No rob me of my private room of peace and leisure. After long years of abject servitude，Again in nature I find homely pleasure.25As we have observed from above， traditional Chinese poets usually adopt a nondualist attitude towards Daoism and Buddhism. Wang Wei was a devout Buddhist as well as a Daoist follower. For this he earned the name of “Poet， the Buddha”. He loved humanity and was a great friend to his fellowmen. The poem that Pound selected as the title poem for his Four Poems of Departure in Cathay happens to be an exemplar of poetry on one of the most important themes - friendship and seeing friends off - in classical Chinese poetry.Lu Zhaolin （circa 637-689），alias Shengzhi， self-named You Youzi， and Rosoriu in Japanese， took his place with Luo Binwang （駱賓王），Wang Bo （王勃）and Yang Jiong （楊炯），and together they were recognized as the “Four Most Distinguished Poets of the Early Tang Period” （初唐四杰）. As a minor official and romantic poet， he lived a life full of twists and turns. A massive stroke left him completely paralyzed. His last years were spent in misery， solitude， and horrible sufferings， and finally he drowned himself in the river， leaving behind seven volumes of poems entitled You Youzi j i 《幽憂子集》（A Collection of Poems by You Youzi）. Two volumes of his poems were included in Quan Tang shi.The last but one poem of Pound’s Cathay， The Old Idea of
Choan， is a translation of the first 16 lines of Lu’s Chang’an gu yi 《長安古意》，which consists of 68 lines in four stanzas. While the reason for this peculiar selection and practice remains to be explored in Part Ⅱ，it is necessary to note that this poem has been acclaimed as a successful pace-setter for the reform of the decadent and flowery poetic style of the Northern & Southern dynasties and of the Sui times. It also rescued the Gong-ti-shi （宮 體詩）26 from its almost hopeless degeneration， according to the Chinese modernist critic， Wen Yiduo （聞一多）.27 It prepared the way for poets to adopt a more vigorous and robust manner and to strike a more personal note， turning to the powerful works of the Han and Wei dynasties for invigoration. The beginning decades of the Tang dynasty still saw a continuation of this ornate and pompous style， and it was the four “most distinguished poets of the early Tang” that rose against it. They breathed fresh air and vigour into Gong-ti shi with a refreshingly energetic style of their own， and in Wen Yiduo’s words， they “brought it back to life and health”.28However， even in their own time， they were attacked by their contemporaries， again Du Fu came to defend the four pioneers with the following quatrain：Our Great Four have their own creative style，Your shallow critics make your remarks unfair，You will perish with your daggers tired，And their fame will last like the river forever.29Now， having revisited the three great Tang poets， let’s turn our attention to the two great Jin poets， Guo Pu and Tao Yuanming， from whom Pound also draws immense poetic inspiration and
strength.Guo Pu （276-324）， alias Jing Chun， and Kakuhaku in Japanese， was born of a scholar-official’s family. He made extensive annotations to such important books as Zhou yi 《周 易 》30， Shanhai j i n g 《山海經》，31 Er y a 《爾 雅 》32 and Chu c i 《楚 辭 》，of which the annotated Er ya and Shanhai jing are major references for the study of these works even today. Though Jin shu 《晉 書 》33 described him as the “crown-champion，of Zhongxing Ci-fu，34 Guo Pu was celebrated for his sennin poems， i.e.， poems of the immortals. And it is from the latter corpus that Pound chose the source text for his Cathay. We shall put him in the historical context together with Tao Yuanming， since they both lived in the more troubled times of the Six Dynasties Period， also called the Wei & Jin and Northern & Southern Dynasties， than the relatively peaceful and prosperous Tang era.Tao Qian （365-427）， alias Tao Yuanming， Wu Liu， Jing Jie， or To-Em-Mei in Japanese， also spelt T，ao Ch’ien in some Western publications， is considered one of the “truly great writers in all of Chinese literature”. “Even the shortest and most selective list of famous Chinese poets would have to find a place for T，ao Ch’ien”，35 And so would Cathay. And chronologically， “he would come second， after the rather nebulous patriot-poet Ch，u Yuan [Qu Yuan] of the third century B. C.， and before the eighth century masters Li Po [Li Bai] and Tu Fu [Du Fu].” 36An interesting point about Tao is that there is not so much controversy about his poetic achievements as about the year of his birth. And the problem arises not so much from the secrecy about his age as from his being extremely fond of mentioning his age in
his poetry. Some scholars have argued for a later birth date and they go to considerable lengths to defend the year 376 A. D. One of the arguments they give against his death at the age of 62 is his poem， “Testament to my Sons”，in which he wrote as one on his deathbed and said， “My years are over fifty.” Of course， as Hightower and some others argue that he may have recovered after writing it and gone on to live another decade. But since Tao liked so much writing about his age， it seems queer that he should have let go his 60th birthday without a mention in his poems. But again it is quite possible that he may have composed a poem on his 60th birthday， but that poem was later lost， as was often the case in those days.Anyway， Tao lived through a period of wars， division， turmoil and instability that characterized medieval China between Han and Tang， the two relatively prosperous dynasties. He reflects the conflicts and contradictions of the period and his poetry best expresses the dilemma of the man of good will born unfortunately into bad times. As a poet， he not only gives voice to the meaning of the hard times of Chinese people， but also crystallizes attitudes towards life that are valid in other times and places. He was highly respected by his fellowmen， not just as a poet， but as a man of integrity who gives up government posts， and who preferred a life of poverty and hardship to comfort and so-called respectability that had to be bought at the price of compromising his principles. The collapse of the Han dynasty and the ensuing disorders and anarchy， undermined intellectuals’ confidence in the ethical values associated with Confucianism. Unscrupulous opportunists only paid lip service to the Confucian ideals. After a hundred years of civil
war， China was again reunified. However， the new dynasty， the Jin， maintained a precarious hold on its territories. Tao lived most of his life during the last years of the Jin dynasty. Those were eventful years， marked by court intrigues， palace coups and plots， peasant revolts and uprisings， banditry， civil wars， and regicide. Under such circumstances， most would think that it was better and safer to stay away from politics. But things did not work out so simply. In dynastic China， scholars and intellectuals were under pressure to take public office and serve the court. This was partly a heritage of the Confucian tradition of service， where every intellectual’s education was basically Confucian， and it was his duty to put his learning at the disposal of his sovereign. Besides， holding an official post would bring most honour， prestige and a comfortable life to himself and his family. Therefore， it seems， to keep a clean conscience， the only alternative was to retreat to the remote country and live as a peasant， and this was what Tao Qian finally chose to do. Earlier in life， he had tried official life， like his father and grandfather. However， whenever he recalled his days as an official or his earlier errands and duties as secretary to one or another of the competing generals， they were full of distaste， frustration and disappointment. Clearly， he was also driven by the need to make a living. Following are two of his poems， one representing his philosophical observations and the other his love of nature and plain living.An Elegy for MyselfWherever there’s life，there must be death；Sooner or later we’ll breathe our last breath.Last night we lived as men who fill their posts；
Today my name’s enlisted among the ghosts.Where is my soul that’s fled far， far away ?A shrivelled form in wooden box would stay.My children seek after their father，crying；My friends caress my dead body，sighing.For gain or loss I no longer care，And right or wrong is no more my affair.Thousands of springs and autumns pass away，So will disgrace and glory of today.Perchance I may regret，while living still，I have not drunken good wine to my fill.37 And Tao’s nature poems， as we shall find in the next poem， which is considered one of his most famous pieces， are not purely about nature：Wine Poems： VI built my hut beside a traveled roadYet hear no noise of passing carts and horses.You would like to know how it is done ?With the mind detached，one's place becomes remote. Picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge I catch sight of the distant southern hills：The mountain air is lovely as the sun sets And flocks of flying birds return together.In these things is a fundamental truthI would like to tell， but forget the words.38 Tao wrote this poem probably in the year 417. Then， this ancient Chinese bard got an echo from an alien poet on the other side of the globe in the year of 1990， after a lapse of 1583 years !
In his collection “Jumping out of Bed”，there is a poem entitled “Chrysanthemums”，with a subtitle “planted for Tao Yuan Ming， who likes them”. It is both thrilling and comforting to find that Bly uses the simple present tense in the subtitle， while the poem itself is in the past：Coming back up the pale driveway，How calm the wash looked on the line !And when I entered my study’ beside the door，White chrysanthemums in the moonlight ! 39 None would doubt the sincerity of the poets. Therefore， we also have every reason to believe that Ezra Pound must have witnessed a splendid spectacle of images， themes， patterns and characters - a vast number of archetypal interests， situations and personalities， from Fenollosa’s notebooks， and from the translated masterpieces in Gile’s History of Chinese Literature. And the young American poet responded most enthusiastically and sincerely by sending out instantaneous echoes， flowing with spontaneous emotions.
Notes：1 A major critical movement of the 1930s and 1940s in America， represented by J. C. Ransom， who wrote The New Criticism （1941），Allen Tate， R. P. Blackmur， W. K. Wimsatt， C. Brooks and R. P. Warren. Brooks and Warren published their Understanding Poetry in 1938， which resulted in the New Critics’ methods and views being taught throughout American universities and schools.2 A blanket title for certain radical critical theories that revise and develop the tenets of Structuralist theories. Many of the ideas of deconstruction originate in three books by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida， all of which were published in France in 1967 and have been translated into English： Speech and Phenomena （1973）； Of Grammatology （1976） and Writing and Difference （1978）.3 See Gray， Martin， A Dictionary of Literary Terms， York Press： Longman， 1996， p. 37.4 Crystal， David， ed. The Cambridge Encyclopedia， 2nd edition， Cambridge University Press， 1995， p.503.5 Oxford Talking Dictionary on CD ROM， London： The Learning Company， Inc. 1999.6 Quoted from Xu， Y. Z.，Loh， B. Y. and Wu， J. T. ed. Tang shi sanbai shou xiny i《唐詩三百首新譯》 300 Tong Poems： A New Transltio，Hong Kong： TheCommercial Press， Ltd.， 1993，p. 385.7 Quoted， with minor revisions by the author of this paper， from Xu， Yuanzhong， Zhong shi ying yun tan sheng《中詩英韻探勝》On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997，p. 223.8 Ibid.9 Watson， Burton， trans. and ed.， The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry， New York： Columbia University Press， 1984， p.206.10 Zhao， Puchu （趙樸初），Introduction to Rewi Alley’s Li Pai： 200 Selected Poems， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.， 3rd impression， 1987， p. xi.11 Ibid.
12 Yuan， Xingpei （袁行霈）ed. Li dai mingpian jian shang《歷代名篇鑒賞》， Taiwan： Wunan Tushu台灣：五南圖書出版有限公司出版.（Original Publisher 原出版者：中國文聯出版公司），1993，p. 106. Zhuangzi （369-286 B. C.），also spelt Chuang-tzu， and Laozi （老子），are reputed founders of Daoism， a Chinese philosophical tradition. The Dao is the way governing all human existence， which in Daoist terms lies in the harmony between the individual and the natural world. Appropriate conduct arises from such harmony. Its idealized dream-world readily absorbed primitive mystical and shamanistic beliefs and was favoured as a court religion under the Sui and Tang dynasties.13 Ibid. p. 579. Chen Zi’ang （661-700）， a forerunner in the reform of the early Tang literary writings. He rejected the soft decadent style of the preceding period and upheld the masculine style of the Han and Wei dynasties.14 Wu-yan is a five-character line while qi-yan a seven-character line.15 Jue-ju： a quatrain or a four-line poem that uses a five-character， seven-character， or rarely six-character line and observes the rules of tonal parallelism or verbal coupling. The rhyme appears at the end of the 2nd and 4th line， with an optional rhyme at the end of the 1st line.Lu-shi： regulated verse in eight lines that observes the rules of tonal parallelism and uses either a five-character or seven-character line throughout. A single rhyme is used， the rhyme appearing at the end of the 2nd， 4th， 6th，and 8th line， and optional at the end of the 1st line. In almost all cases， the rhyme word belongs to the level tone. Strict verbal parallelism is required in the 2nd and 3rd couplet.16 Wu， Juntao （吳鈞陶），A Survey of Tang Poetry and 300 Tang Poems， Shanghai，1985， p. 8，in Xu， Y. Z.， Loh， B. Y. and Wu， J. T. ed. Tang shi s an bai shou xin yi《唐詩三百首新譯》 300 Tong Poems：A New Translation，Hong Kong： TheCommercial Press， Ltd.， 1993.17 Ibid. p. 9.18 Ibid.19 Jia Dao （賈島，779-843），a Tang poet， failed in the imperial examination after several attempts. He lived a life of constant frustrations and misfortunes. Once he lived in a temple and became a Buddhist monk. His poems are mainly
responses and presentations to those of Buddhist and Taoist monks， and hermits.20 Du Fu （杜甫，712-770），a Tang poet considered to be one of the greatest on the strength of his contributions to the history of classic Chinese poetry. As Li Bai’s lifelong friend， he was lauded as “Poet， the Sage”，while Lai Bai was called “Poet，the Immortal”.21 Pound writes in Gaudier-Brzeska： A Memoir （1916） of having suddenly seen a succession of beautiful faces one day on the Paris Metro， after which he tried all day to find words “as worthy， or as lovely as that sudden emotion. And that evening ...I was still trying and I found， suddenly， the expression. I do not mean that I found the words， but there came an equation. ... not in speech， but in little splotches of color. ... The one-image poem is a form of super-position， that is to say， it is one idea set on top of another. I found it useful in getting out of the impasse in which I had been left by my metro emotion. I wrote a thirty-line poem， and destroyed it. ... Six months later， I made the following hokku [haiku]-like sentence.” Quoted from Ferguson， M .， et al ed. The Norton Anthology of Poetry， 4th Edition， New York and London： W. W. Norton & Co.， 1996，p. 1190.22 Pound was not sure of the author of the source text for No. 9 poem of Cathay， so he ascribed it to “Rihaku or Omakitsu”. See p. 14 of this thesis.23 Watson， Burton， trans. and ed.， The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry， New York： Columbia University Press， 1984，p. 198.24 Quoted， with minor changes by the writer of this paper， from Xu， Yuanzhong， Zhong shi ying yun tan s h e n g 《中詩英韻探勝》On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997，p. 191.25 Ibid. This is the last stanza of Tao Yuanming's Return to Nature.26 Gong-ti shi： “court or palace poems，in very shallow decorative style， flowery and exaggerating in diction， prevalent in late Six Dynasties and Sui times，often written on instruction from the Emperor to laud his deeds or the luxuries and extravagance of court life.27 Wen， Yiduo （聞一多），Gong-ti shi de z ishu《宮 體 詩 的 自 贖 》（Self-Atonement
of Gong-ti shi）， in Dangdai pinglun《當代評論》（Contemporary Review），1941，Issue 10； republished in Tang shi zalun： Shi yu piping《唐詩雜論•詩與 批評》（Tang Poetry： Poetics and Criticism）， Beijing： Joint Publishing House， 1999， pp. 12-24.28 Ibid. p. 16.29 Quoted， with minor changes by the writer of this paper， from Xu， Yuanzhong， Zhong shi ying yun tan sheng《中詩英韻探勝》On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997，p. 189.30 Ancient Chinese book on divination.31 Ancient Chinese geography.32 Refers to the earliest Chinese dictionary.33 Refers to A History of the Jin Dynasty.34 Zhongxing （中興）refers to the short-lived Eastern Jin dynasty. Ci-fu （辭賦），a rhyme-prose poetic form that uses lines of varying lengths and often includes a prose preface and interludes of prose interspersed with the verse portions. The diction tends to be florid and there is extensive use of parallelism and allusion. Many of the works are descriptive and run to considerable length， others are more subjective and philosophical in tone. Please also refer to notes on page 29 of this paper.35 Hightower， James Robert， The Poetry of T'ao Ch’ien， Oxford： Clarendon Press， 1970， p. 1.36 Ibid.37 Quoted， from Xu， Yuanzhong， Zhong shi ying yun tan sheng《中詩英韻探勝》 On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997， p. 174.38 Quoted， with a minor change by the writer of this paper， from Hightower， James Robert， The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien， Oxford： Clarendon Press， 1970， p. 130.39 Chung， Ling （鍾玲）：《美國詩與中國夢：美國現代詩裏的中國文化模式》， American Poetry and Chinese Dream： Chinese Cultural Modes in ModernAmerican Verse， Taibei： Rye Field Publishing Co.， 1996，p. 11
P a r t T w oE c h o i n g f r o m C a t h a yIn your view， what is a translator?A man who brings it all back home.In short，a madman.（P. Blackburn 1985：616）To you，The unsung， the uncrowned，The poet，the aerial artist Walking on a tightrope Between two words- two worlds， The ventriloquist virtuoso speaking Others，dreams， in your own voice， Or speaking your own dreams In others，voices，The bridge builder，working with Syllables， and commas，and periods， The unrecogn ized academ ic producer whose scholarship Is appreciated only by the Most cultured.Kai-yu Hsu 1
Chapter FiveThe Translator-Poet： Imagism， Vorticism and ModernismIn the previous chapters， I have briefly mentioned Ezra Pound’s literary expedition to classical Chinese poetry up to the High Tang period， which coincided with his pioneering efforts from Imagism through Vorticism towards High Modernism， marked by the publication in 1922 of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Now that we have reviewed the ancient Chinese author-poets in the historical context of classical Chinese poetry， it is time for us to examine how well he fared on the other voyage and how the two converged on Cathay during the period of 1914-1915，to which my discussions are confined.If Pound’s literary voyage to the Orient was blessed with good fortune， his Occidental voyage was equally ensured by solid academic preparations， poetic gift， personal aspirations， dedication and tenacity， and the literary macroclimate of the early 20th century. For Pound， it was an auspicious interaction of circumstances and coincidences all falling into place at the right time.Pound was an exceptionally brilliant student of language and literature. Following is his own critical account of his college education：
Arriving at the University of Pennsylvania in 1901， I acknowledge debts to Professors McDaniel and Child for Latin and English， and to Ames for doing his best when no professor of American history had got down to bedrock. Overholser had not made his admirable compendium of the real causes of the Revolution... . 2Pound spent the first two college years in the University of Pennsylvania， where he made lifelong friends with William Carlos Williams and some others， then transferred to Hamilton College， where he received his Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1905. Returning to Pennsylvania as Fellow in Romanics and instructor （from 1905 to 1907），he took his M， A. in 1906. In the summer of 1906，Pound was awarded a fellowship to do research on the plays of Lope de Vega at the British Museum， the Bibliotheque nationale， and the Royal Library of Madrid. Later， Pound returned from his travels abroad， only to find the provincial niceties of American academic life increasingly intolerable， but felt more assured of his vocation as a poet.So， following in the footsteps of Henry James and Whistler， he left America in 1908 to make his literary fortune in London， where his entree into literary circles proved remarkably smooth. His A Lume Spento received at least one enthusiastic review， and by December 1908 Pound had brought out a second book， A Quinzaine for this Yule， with Elkin Mathews， one of the more prestigious publishers of contemporary verse in London. Mathews also printed， in rapid succession， Pound’s subsequent volumes， all of which， given their rather idiosyncratic blend of archaism， fin de siecle luxuriance， and “Yankee exuberance”，were well received
by conservative British reviewers. Indeed， after the appearance of his Personae， Pound was accorded a mention in Punch 3 as “the new Montana （USA） poet， Mr. Ezekiel Ton， who is the most remarkable thing in poetry since Robert Browning.” 4 This was encouraging enough for the young Pound. And it was in London that the aspiring young poet met the most prominent artists and writers of his day， including W. B. Yeats， whom Pound met through his mother-in-law-to-be， Olivia Shakespear， and for whom he worked as secretary. In 1909 he offered a course of lectures on Medieval Literature at the Polytechnic Institute of London. Revised and expanded， these studies on Arnaut Daniel， Cavalcanti， Dante， Villon， and quite a few others， were published the following year in both England and America as The Spirit of Romance （1910）， which was Pound’s first major attempt to define the canon of his own poetic tradition.Though he wrote home saying that he seemed to “fit better here in London than anywhere else” 5 Pound’s rather precarious financial position often led him to consider the possibility of resuming his academic career in America. So， in 1910， he returned to the States for an eight-month stay， most of which was spent in New York， where he met up with old college friends William Carlos Williams and Hilda Doolittle and made the acquaintance of his would-be patron， lawyer John Quinn. Although Pound’s description of the 7th Avenue crowds and Manhattan skyscrapers at night：Squares after squares of flame，Set and cut into ether.
suggests Apollinaire’s or Marinetti’s6 Futurist enthusiasm for modernity， he was dismayed by the lack of direction， by the provincial taste for ersatz evident in the cultural life of America at that time. He observed：...So far as civilization is concerned， America is the great， rich Western province which has sent one or two notable artists [i.e. James and Whistler] to the Eastern capital. And that capital is ...the double city of London and Paris.7So Pound sailed back to the “double city” in early 1911， just in time to complete his Canzoni and join Yeats on a sightseeing tour of Paris， which was to be the embryo of his Canto LXXXIII， and in a number of literary gatherings. He also met， on his way back to London， Ford Madox Ford， who， as editor of the English Review， had taken an active interest in Pound’s work. On his return to London， he was introduced to A. R. Orage， editor of the New Age. Open to a cosmopolitan range of intellectual and artistic experiment， the New Age was ready to publish Pound’s poetry and prose. Again through the New Age， Pound came into contact with the younger London contemporaries - Rupert Brooke， Wyndham Lewis， Katherine Mansfield， John Middleton Murry - and， given the magazine’s commitment to importing the best of Continental thought and art into England， he began paying closer attention to developments in Paris. Orage had been publishing T. E. Hulme，s reflections on such contemporary French thinkers as Sorel Bergson， who believed that image is the heart of poetry and not mere decoration， and Gourmont， as well as F.S. Flint’s accounts of recent Parisian experiments in haiku and vers libre.
Assimilating this French poetic and linguistic theory to what he had learned from Yeats and the 1890s about image and symbol，Pound began to envisage a poetry that would combine the suggestiveness of Symbolism， the sonorities of the Provencal， the precision of Cavalcanti，8 and the limpidity of the Greek lyric. Towards the end of 1911， Pound started experimenting with such poetry. By mid-1912，he had found a name for it， Imagism， which was the inciting moment in the modernist movement. Pound chose his “-ism” partly with a shrewd eye for publicity and partly to align and contrast his “school” with contemporary vanguard movements on the Continent. The manifesto of this self-conscious Anglo-American poetic school， including Richard Aldington， Hulme and Hilda Doolittle， promised：① Direct treatment of the “thing” whether subjective or objective；② To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation；③ As regarding rhythm： to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase， not in sequence of a metronome.9Pound sought to return and confine poetry to its essential ingredient， the image， which he defined as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” 10 His two-line poem， In a Station of the Metro is often quoted as the quintessence of Imagism. Pound did not propose a complete revolution of all existing verse forms， but rather sought to establish a few basic poetic standards “in accordance with the best tradition”：Use no superfluous word， no adjective which does not reveal something. Don’t use such an expression as “dim lands of peace”. It dulls the image. It mixes an
abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer’s not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstractions. ... Don’t chop your stuff into separate iambs.11These and other “Don，ts by an Imagiste” were originally published in the March 1913 issue of Harriet Monroe’s Chicago-based Poetry， to which Pound had been appointed overseas editor six months previously. He had wasted no time securing manuscripts for the newly founded magazine； for example， he forwarded poems by Aldington and H. D.， “Imagiste” from London， together with contributions by Tagore and Yeats. In his effort to export back home “whatever is most dynamic in artistic thought，” Pound was especially emphatic that Poetry should print the “best foreign stuff”.12 The year of 1913 was indeed a year of good fortunes for Pound： on one of his brief trips to Paris he also succeeded in convincing the New Freewoman to print serially an English translation of Remy de Gourmont’s Les Cheveaux de Diomede.13 And back in London， he threw himself wholeheartedly into his newly discovered role as cultural intermediary among the three cities： Paris， London and Chicago. His communications with Ford Madox Ford also proved to be very productive： their discussions about impressionism， about the “straightforward presentation of the flashed impressions of modern urban life through the putting of one thing in juxtaposition with the other in order to suggest emotions”，about “ideogrammic method”，“the new poetry”，and the “French prose tradition”，were incorporated into a seven-part overview， The Approach to Paris， which was published in the New Age before the close of 1913.
While Pound’s primary aim was to introduce possible models for new directions in Anglo-American poetry， The Approach to Paris also allowed him to define techniques he had been striving to incorporate in his own work. In his 1913 reviews on the “prose tradition”，Pound helped two unknowns， Robert Frost and D.H. Lawrence， rise to fame， by praising the former for having set New England rural life into “natural spoken speech” and the latter for “his short stories in verse.” 14 Now， as a recognized figure that carried quite some weight and authority， Pound was in a better position to champion the literary careers of such promising writers as T. S. Eliot， and James Joyce， in addition to Robert Frost and D.H. Lawrence. And he also played an active role as editor of little magazines， and mentor to young American expatriate writers and artists.Imagism had meanwhile begun to attract attention in America： Pound’s celebrated poem， In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd；Petals on a wet， black bough. had appeared， amid other “Contemporania” in the April 1913 issue of Poetry， provoking predictable attacks and parodies. Amy Lowell had come over to England to size up the new school. Containing work by Pound， Aldington， H.D.， Flint， Ford， Amy Lowell， William Carlos Williams， Cannell， Allen Upward， and Joyce， the first official Imagist anthology， entitled Des Imagistes， appeared in America and England in early 1914， after many delays. Commenting on the first Imagist anthology in his book Ezra Pound， Charles Norman made the following observation：Two things strike a reader at once - the many poems，
including four of Pound’s six， which are adapted from the Chinese or formed on Chinese models， and many， including Pound’s other two， which are influenced by Greek art， thought and poetry.15It is true that the Greek-Chinese combination reflects how Pound’s mind was working at the time when he edited Des Imagistes. When he was reading the translations of classical Chinese poetry in Giles，History of Chinese Literature， Pound must have been struck by an affinity between the two ancient civilizations. He must have seen that “Hardness of outline， clarity of image， brevity， suggestiveness， freedom from the metrical - these and other imagist ideals could be drawn from Greek as well as from Hebrew or Chinese”.16By this time， however， Pound had already begun to disaffiliate himself from the Imagist label， because， as one source claims， “he was dissatisfied with a slackness he saw creeping into the imagist movement，” 17 while others guessed that he felt that its stringent technical standards had been diluted into the flaccid free verse he later renamed “Amygism”.18 One more reason might be， I guess， that Pound， who chose the whole world as his field of poetic experiment and expertise， was getting more and more preoccupied with the other voyage： he was moving on to Vorticism and Orientalism， though， of course， the two voyages had all along been enriching and complementing each other.In fact， Pound had spent the winter of 1913-1914 with Yeats， working through the manuscript notes of Fenollosa， whose widow， Mary Fenollosa， had sought him out at the right time and appointed him literary executor of her late husband’s legacy accumulated over
many years of hard work on classical Chinese poetry. In a letter to his father， dated 5 December 1913， Pound entered this resume of his activities：The Glebe - 96 Fifth Ave － is publishing Des Imagistes an antholoy in Feb. 1914. － write for prospectus.I think I wrote that I am to have Prof. Fenollosa’s valuable mss. to edit & finish a book on the Japanese drama & an anthology of Chinese poets.It is a very great opportunity， as not only Fenollosa， but two authorities of the Japanese imperial court have prepared the stuff， and been at great expense in gathering the materials.If you get Fenollosa’s “Epochs of Chinese & Japanese Art”，you’ll get some idea of what his work means， and of his unique opportunity.Richard [Aldington] has taken on the N.F. [New Freewoman] so I ’m fairly free to go to work on the Fenollosa’s mss when it arrives.Like everything worth having it has come out of the clear sky without any effort on my part.19Pound could not conceal his joy and ecstasy over his literary windfall. A few days later， when the bulk of the promised gift consisting of Fenollosa’s notes and unpublished manuscripts on Japanese drama and classical Chinese poetry prepared under “two authorities of the Japanese imperial court”，referring most probably to Mori Kainan and Ariga Nagao， arrived， he wrote， on19 December 1913， to his college pal， William Carlos Williams：I am very placid and happy and busy. Dorothy is learning Chinese.
I’ve all old Fenollosa’s treasures in mss.20In the meantime， Pound was also growing more and more involved in the new sculpture and painting through the work of his artist friends， Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Wyndham Lewis － and as chance would have it， Olivia Shakespear’s daughter， Dorothy， whom Pound married in April 1914， was herself a painter. At some time during this same spring of 1914， Pound， Lewis， and Gaudier-Brzeska， irked by the flamboyant presence of Marinetti in London， decided that they had as much right as the Futurists to consider themselves a movement. In June， they made their existence known with the publication of a magazine called Blast， A Review of the Great English Vortex. In this， Pound redefined his idea of the image in more dynamic terms than his former statements as an imagist. For Pound， Vorticism involved a kinetic extension of the “hard light” and “clear edges” of Imagism： where he had previously defined the Image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time，” he now spoke of a more dynamic “VORTEX， from which， and through which， and into which， ideas are constantly rushing” - an anticipation of his juxtapositional techniques of Cathay， and of Cantos. But Vorticism represented far more than the aesthetic to Pound； it embodied， rather， an entire style of revolt - pugnacious， irreverent， militantly intolerant of all the stagnant idees recues of the bourgeois culture. Though Vorticism was cut short by the outbreak of World War I， with its most promising member， Gaudier- Brzeska， killed in action， Pound was busy moving on his well-charted road to the Orient.When the last batch of Fenollosa’s manuscripts arrived in
November 1914， Pound again threw himself wholeheartedly into his Chinese bonanza， and it is here in his Cathay that we witness the convergence of Pound’s Oriental and Occidental voyages， and of his Imagism， Vorticism and Orientalism. He was all ready for his venture into classical Chinese poetry， as he recalls in Date Line： Fenollosa’s work was given to me in manuscript when I was ready for it. It saved me a great deal of time. It saved probably less time to a limited number of writers who noticed it promptly but who didn’t live with it as closely as I did.21So， in the next chapter we shall find out how fruitful his Chinese venture was. We shall study Cathay， the product of his 1914-1915 endeavour， to which I have been directing my research efforts， by placing all Cathay poems and their source texts in line-by-line juxtaposition. Hopefully， this inter-textual and inter-lingual comparison will provide a solid basis for analysis and criticism.
Notes：1 A poem on the flyleaf of Literature of the People's Republic of China， ed. by Hsu， Kai-yu， with the special assistance of Howard Goldblatt， Donald Gibbs and George Chen， Bloomington and London： Indiana University Press， 1980.2 Kunitz & Haycraft， 20th Century Authors， The H. W. Wilson Company， 1952， p. 1121.3 It is a London weekly magazine of humour and satire4 Quoted from American Writers in Paris， 1920-1939， ed. K. L. Rood， in Dictionary of Literary Biography， Vol. Four， Detroit： Gale Research Co.， 1980， pp. 317-318.5 Ibid. p. 3186 Apollinaire， G .， pseudonym of Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzki （1880- 1918）， poet， born in Rome， Italy. He became a leader of the Parisian movement rejecting poetic traditions in outlook， rhythm， and language. His work is expressed chiefly in Les Alcools （1913） and Calligrammes （1918）. Marinetti， F. T. E. （1876-1944）， Italian writer， born in Egypt. He published the manifesto for Futurism in 1909，which influenced painters and sculptors.7 See Note 2 on the previous page.8 Cavalcanti， Guido （circa 1230-1300）， poet， born in Florence， Italy.9 Pound， Ezra， A Retrospect （1918），in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1954， p. 3.10 Pound， Ezra， A Few Don’ ts was first printed in Poetry， March 1913，in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1954，p. 4.11 Ibid. pp. 4-5.12 Quoted from American Writers in Paris， 1920-1939， ed. K. L. Rood， in Dictionary of Literary Biography， Vol. Four， Detroit： Gale Research Co.， 1980， p. 320.13 Remy de Gourmont was a French author whom Pound admired.14 Quoted from American Writers in Paris， 1920-1939， ed. K. L. Rood， in Dictionary of Literary Biography， Vol. Four， Detroit： Gale Research Co.. 1980， p. 321.15 Norman， C .， Ezra Pound， New York： Macmillan， 1960， p. 113，in Qian， Zhaom ing， Orientalism and Modernism， Durham and London： Duke
University Press， 1995， p. 52.16 Hughes， G. Imagism & the Imagists： A Study in Modern Poetry， London： Bowes and Bowes， 1960， p. 4， in Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， Durham and London： Duke University Press， 1995， p. 52.17 Ferguson， M .， Salter， M. J.，and Stalworthy， J.，ed. The Norton Anthology of Poeivy， New York and London： W. W. Norton & Company， 4th Edition， 1996， p. 1924.18 See Note 1 on page 63 of this thesis.19 Quoted from Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， Durham and London： Duke University Press， 1995，p. 56.20 Ibid. p. 57.21 Pound， E .，Date Line in T.S. Eliot， （ed.） Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， London： Faber & Faber， 1954，p. 77.
Chapter Six Cathay Poems and Source Texts in Juxtaposition： A Comparative StudyBefore I proceed， I find it imperative to clarify two points of importance. First， to do justice to Cathay， a comprehensive comparison should cover linguistic， aesthetic， thematic， cultural and appreciative aspects， with discourse and criticism on both content and form. In that case， we would have to devote at least a full chapter to each poem. However， as I mentioned at the very beginning of this thesis， since this kind of study tends to be elaborate and voluminous， I shall have to leave it here as an ambitious project for future endeavours. And for my present purpose， I shall have to find a means to keep the source-and- target text comparison both relevant and manageable in scope. Secondly， when we talk about source texts， we find that there is not just one original source， albeit a pre-supposed one： for each source text， there may be numerous editions， each claiming authority and authenticity. And for each edition， there may be innumerous translations， all of them asserting fidelity， fluency， and perhaps， accuracy and elegance， even though they are variants in style， content and form. In my attempt to trace each Cathay poem to its original source， I find myself again and again encountering the problem of authenticating one edition against several others. This phenomenon can be illustrated as follows：
Figure 2 “Original” Source， Later Editions and Ensuing Translated VersionsA typical example of this phenomenon is Tang poetry. Its earliest anthology， apart from the fragmentary scrolls found in Dunhuang （敦煌）Grottoes， is probably The Gems of the Country， which， containing 200 poems by 90 poets， was published in the mid-Tang dynasty. There are at least ten extant anthologies of Tang poetry compiled by Tang redactors. In the successive dynasties， there were hundreds of anthologies of Tang poetry compiled and
published by famous scholar-officials， writers， or even emperors. New selected and annotated editions have appeared one after another. Moreover， English editions， based on various Chinese editions and annotations and translated by both Chinese and Western scholars working on different models of cooperation， have come out in growing numbers. From what I find in the twenty-odd such collections that I can lay my hands on， the divergence and variety in their translation principles， methods， styles， and in their perception and interpretation of the original are overwhelming， but nevertheless provide a fertile ground for exploration.Then， on which of these countless editions do I base my comparison? For Ezra Pound’s Cathay， it is simpler： though there are also several editions， with Cathay included either as translation or his own poetry， I only noticed a few variants in the spelling of proper names. I will stick to the 1948 edition， with an introduction by T.S. Eliot in 1928. I have used the 18 poems that constitute the whole of Cathay as my guide to trace the Chinese texts in a number of source books.1 The corroborative research that followed the retrieval of the source texts indicates that those meticulous Japanese-sinologist professors， specifically Mori Kainan and Ariga Nagao， actually went for the best textual evidence， based not on counting manuscripts but on weighing their relevance and reliability. Hence， to a considerable extent， Fenollosa’s notes and cribs and translations were used. Hence， in a sense， Ezra Pound’s Cathay poems were created. Of course， “...all comparisons require that there be a common ground against which variation may be noted， a constant that underlies and makes possible the variables that are identified.” 2 However， my interest in this source
and target-text comparison excludes any purposeful contrastive analysis of linguistic or formal similarities or differences， as has been done by many scholars already， because， in addition to the constraint I have given above， I feel translation is far more complicated than that. Moreover， I don’t believe that the so-called formal similarity across languages is really reliable. To begin with， a particular grammatical structure in one language may be a requirement while in another it may be just one choice among several. Secondly， the choice represented by a grammatical structure in one language may have a different significance in that language from the choice represented by an apparently equivalent structure in another language. Besides， similar objections can be leveled against the use of semantic and/or pragmatic equivalence. A pair of sentences might be semantically and/or pragmatically equivalent but have widely varying likelihood of occurrence in the languages from which they are drawn. A simple example taken from my city， Macao， where there is a Portuguese community， can illustrate these points. The most commonly used and heard Portuguese expression， muito obrigado/a， and the English expression， much obliged， are syntactically and semantically comparable. However， muito obrigado/a is an everyday expression as well as the normal way of thanking in Portuguese， whereas much obliged is a rare and more restricted usage than thanks a lot and other related expressions in English.Since this problem exists within the same Indo-European language family， it is not difficult for us to imagine the daunting complexity involved in such contrastive or comparative analyses between two such diverging languages as English and Chinese. As
we shall find in Cathay， the so-called xing si 形 似 - formal equivalence between the source and target texts - is a tantalizing ideal and almost out of the question， for they are bound to be different graphically and visually， orally， aurally and acoustically， phonetically and linguistically. In fact the 19 Chinese source texts are composed in a wide variety of poetic forms covering almost all the major shi-forms， as we have discussed in Chapters 3 and 4， but Pound turned them all into free verse.3Therefore， rather than a focus on form， a more productive analysis of content， that is， a running commentary on cultural concerns， a sort of global thematic and aesthetic appreciation drawing on related theories， will accompany each source- and- target-text comparison， with a few critical remarks on striking features of poetic forms. My perception and understanding of the source texts are shown and based on my versions rendered in modern Chinese， which are given in the Appendix. At the same time， phonetic transcriptions in the Chinese Pinyin system are also provided for shorter texts （for the sake of saving some space）， especially poems in the poetic forms of Jue-ju and Lu-shi， to bring out the musical effects such as resonance， rhymes and rhythms， alliteration and refrain， of the original poems.6.1 Cathay poem No. 1： Song of the Bowmen of SHU詩 經 • 小 雅 • 采 薇 （Cai wei， in Xiao ya，Shi jing， Anonymous）采 薇 采 薇 ，薇 亦 作 止 。Here we are， picking the first fern-shoots. 曰 歸 曰 歸 ，歲 亦 莫 止 。And saying： When shall we go back toour country?
靡 室 靡 家 ，玁狁之 故 。Here we are because we have theKen-nin for our foemen.不 邊 啓 居 ，玁 狁之 故 。We have no comfort because of theMongols.采 薇 采 薇 ，薇亦柔止 。 We grub the soft fern-shoots.曰 歸 曰 歸 ，心 亦 憂 止 。When anyone says， “Return”，the othersare full of sorrow.憂 心 烈 烈 ，載 飢 載 渴 。Sorrowful minds， sorrow is strong， we arehungry and thirsty.我 戍 未 定 ，靡使歸聘 。 Our defence is not yet made sure， no onecan let his friend return.采 薇 采 薇 ，薇 亦 剛 止 。We grub the old fern-stalks.曰 歸 曰 歸 ，歲 亦 陽 止 。We say： Will we be let to go back inOctober?王 事 靡 鹽 ， 不 遑 啓 處 。There is no ease in royal affairs， we haveno comfort.憂 心 孔 疚 ，我行不來 。 Our sorrow is bitter， but we would notreturn to our country.彼 爾 維 何 ？維 常 之 華 。What flower has come into blossom?彼 路 斯 何 ? 君 子 之 車 。Whose chariot? The general’s.戎車既 駕 ，四 牡 業 業 。Horses， his horses even， are tired. Theywere strong.豈 敢 定 居 ，一 月 三 捷 。We have no rest， three battles a month.駕 彼 四 牡 ，四牡騤 騤 。By heaven， his horses are tired.君 子 所 依 ，小人所腓 。 The generals are on them， the soldiers areby them.四 牡 翼 翼 ， The horses are well trained， the generalshave，
象弭魚服 ， ivory arrows and quivers ornamented withfish-skin，豈 不 日 戒 ？玁狁孔 棘 。The enemy is sw ift， we must be careful.昔 我 往 矣 ，楊 柳 依 依 。When we set ou t， the w illow s weredrooping with spring.今 我 來 思 ，雨雪霏霏 。 We come back in the snow.行 道 遲 遲 ，載 渴 載 飢 。We go slowly， we are hungry and thirsty.我 心 傷 悲 ，莫 知 我 哀 ！ Our mind is full of sorrow， who w ill knowof our grief !By Bunno Reputedly 1100 B.C.詩 經 • 小 雅 • 采薇采 薇 采 薇 ，薇 亦 作 止 。 曰 歸 曰 歸 ，歲 亦 莫 止 。 靡 室 靡 家 ，玁狁之 故 。 不 遑 啓 居 ，玁狁之 故 。采 薇 采 薇 ，薇 亦 柔 止 。 曰 歸 曰 歸 ，心 亦 憂 止 。 憂 心 烈 烈 ，載 飢 載 渴 。 我 戍 未 定 ，靡 使 歸 聘 。采 薇 采 薇 ，薇 亦 剛 止 。 曰 歸 曰 歸 ，歲 亦 陽 止 。 王事靡盬 ，不 遑 啓 處 。 憂 心 孔 疚 ，我 行 不 來 。彼 爾 維 何 ？維 常 之 華 。 彼 路 斯 何 ？君 子 之 車 。 戎車既 駕 ，四 牡 業 業 。 豈 敢 定 居 ，一 月 三 捷 。
Pound chose his first poem from Shi jing， the earliest anthology of ancient Chinese poetry， depicting the social and political life of the Zhou dynasty （circa 1100 to 600 B. C.）. In his Analect《論 語 》，Confucius said， “The theme of the three hun- dred pieces in Shi jing can be summed up in one phrase， that is， ‘a pure and unadulterated mind，.” He also told his son， “You will not know how to speak properly unless you study Shi.” 5 A Con- fucian canon and classic textbook consisting of fe n g《風 》， 《雅 》（Da-ya and Xiao-ya）， and song《頌 》，Shi jing has exerted immeasurable influence on shaping the mind and conduct of the people.6 Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that there has been no Chinese poet since the Warring States period that has not been influenced by its vast and profound poetic achievement.With plain and terse simplicity， a tone of reasonableness and an air of restraint and decorum， this Chinese ballad or folk song begins with frontier soldiers picking fern to allay their hunger. This food plant， the key image， runs throughout the poem： the fern changes with the four seasons accompanied by the worsening of their hardships and homesickness， and thus the deepening of their sorrow and grief. Typical of Shi jing poems， the song employs a line of four Chinese characters， or syllables （as these characters駕 彼 四 牡 ，四牡騤 騤 。 君 子 所 依 ，小 人 所 腓 。 四 牡 翼 翼 ，象 弭 魚 服 。 豈 不 日 戒 ？玁狁 孔 棘 。昔 我 往 矣 ，楊 柳 依 依 。 今 我 來 思 ，雨 雪 霏 霏 。 行 道 遲 遲 ，載 渴 載 飢 。 我 心 傷 悲 ，莫 知 我 哀 ！ 4
are monosyllabic）. One line constitutes a single syntactic unit. The lines are arranged in stanzas， each consisting of eight lines. There are neat end-rhymes， coming at the end of the even-numbered lines. There are also alliterations and internal rhymes. As visually observed， the song is highly compressed and elliptical， with repetitions and refrains. By a feat of sheer imaginative empathy， and with admirable poetic dexterity， Pound turned this 48-line poem of six stanzas into a free verse at one go， preserving all the plain simplicity and easy flow of style of the original. And the accuracy to the spirit， if not to the letter， is laudable. Reading Song of the Bowmen of Shu， we cannot but hear the voices of the frontier soldiers， simple， plain， and timeless， speaking to us across the millenniums with disquieting force and clarity.There have been a lot of disputes about the anti-war theme of Cathay， which also has something to do with Pound’s selection criteria and procedure. Basing herself on Pound’s unpublished material - notes， jottings and drafts of translations， Anne S. Chappie， who was perhaps the first critic to give serious attention to this matter， demonstrates that “Pound’s selection methods may be traced to personal tastes which stemmed from his own imagist ‘doctrines’ and earlier， related interests.” 7 But the real thrust of her argument was to challenge the validity of Hugh Kenner’s claim， that three of Cathay poems， placed at the beginning （Song of the Bowmen of Shu）， in the middle （Lament of the Frontier Guard）， and towards the end of Cathay （South-folk in Cold Country）， describe the pains and sufferings of frontier soldiers， and therefore Cathay was an anti-war book.8 Chappie makes her stance very clear from the start stating that “No written
evidence exists to substantiate such claims.” 9 While Zhao Yiheng thinks three out of the whole collection is minimal and the connection between Cathay and the War is incidental，10 Qian Zhaoming maintains that the important rearrangements of the poems that Pound made in early 1915，before it was brought out by Elkin Mathews in April 1915， reinforced the anti-war theme.11 Viewed from a historical perspective， it must be remembered that when Pound was working on these poems in the winter of 1914， the spectre of World War I was looming large in everyone’s mind， and it could not but become a major concern weighing heavily on the heart and soul of a sensitive poet. Indeed， by no stretch of the imagination could one consider him oblivious to the series of war events that were happening around him. As we shall find later in this chapter that Pound was quite eclectic in the selection of themes. If the anti-war theme is not one that runs throughout the whole collection， it is definitely one of the main concerns of Cathay. The original poem is simply titled Cai wei 采 薇 （picking fern）， the first line of the poem， as is customary with Shi jin g poems. However， Pound renamed it Song of Bowmen of Shu （Shu being a Japanese word referring here to the Zhou dynasty）， thus highlighting the subject matter.Of course， the translation is not free from flaws or errors. For example， the author is anonymous， as is the case with the great majority of Shi jing poems， but in Cathay the poem is attributed to Bunno， the Japanese word for Wen Wang 文 王 （King Wen of the early Zhou）. The attribution of Cai wei to King Wen has long proved to be invalid by many sources， a detailed account of which was given by Qian.12 Also， xian yun 玁狁，the aggressors from
northern tribes were translated variously into “Ken-nin” or “Mongols”，which may not be accurate. Moreover， in the Cathay poem， the line “his horses are tired”，which appears twice， seems to be contradictory to the original. However， even if these are proved to be errors， Pound was not alone in taking the blame， nor the glory， as we have discerned this tricky issue in Part I，which will be further explored later in the concluding chapter.6.2 Cathay poem No. 2： The Beautiful Toilet古 詩 十 九 首 （其二） 青 青 河 畔 草 漢 •無 名 氏 （Qing qinghepan cao from 19 Ancient Poems， Han dynasty， Anonymous）青青河 畔 草 ， Blue， blue is the grass about the river，Qing qing hepan cao鬱 鬱 園 中 柳 。 And the willows have overfilled the closeYu yu yuanzhong liu garden.盈 盈 樓 上 女 ，Ying ying loushang nuAnd within， the mistress，皎 皎 當 窗 牖 。 in the midmost of her youth，Jiao jiao dang chuangyouE’ e hong fen zhuang娥 娥 紅 粉 妝 ，C 9 rWhite， white of face， hesitates， passing the door.纖 纖 出 素 手 。 Slender， she puts forth a slender hand；Xian xian chu su shou昔 爲 倡 家 女 ，Xi wei changjia nuAnd she was a courtesan in the old days，
今 爲 蕩 子 婦 。 And she has married a sot，Jin wei dangzi fu蕩子行不歸 ， Who now goes drunkenly outDangzi xing bu gui空 床 難 獨 守 。 And leaves her too much alone.Kong chuang nan dushou（枚乘） Attributed to Mei Sheng 140 B.C.古 詩 十 九 首 （其二） 青青河 畔 草 漢 • 無 名 氏青青河 畔 草 ，鬱 鬱 園 中 柳 。盈 盈 樓 上 女 ，皎 皎 當 窗 牖 。娥 娥 紅 粉 妝 ，纖 纖 出 素 手 。昔 爲 倡 家 女 ，今 爲 蕩 子 婦 。蕩 子 行 不 歸 ，空 床 難 獨 守 。13Thanks to the efforts of the Liang Prince， Xiao Tong （A. D. 501-531）， who compiled Wen xuan《文 選 》，14 which included a collection of anonymous， lost， or scattered poems， we have the opportunity to appreciate The Nineteen Ancient Poems of the Han15 today. In this collection we see the appearance in mid-Han years of a new poetic form that employs a 5-character line rather than the 4-character line typical of Shi jing， as we have witnessed in Cathay’s beginning poem， Cai wei. This is a significant development， following Shi jing and Chu ci， in the history of Chinese poetry. Its freshness and vitality has a lasting influence on the development of later Chinese poetry. Sprouting
from a popular origin， and influenced by the music of the time， this 5-character-line shi form soon became the favourite vehicle for lyric expression. For example， the antithetical style of the 5-character-line couplet，i.e.， lines 7 and 8 of Qing qing hepan cao：昔爲倡家女，A singing-girl in old days，今爲蕩子婦 。 Now a wanderer’s lonely wife.has been adopted by generations of poets， including Mao Zedong， whose brilliant lines：昨天文小姐，A [gentle] literary lady yesterday，今日武將軍。Now a general in battle-array.16 still warm and delight the hearts of readers today.Indeed， The Nineteen Ancient Poems of the Han are among the finest works of this shi form. Though anonymous poems of uncertain date， they closely resemble， in diction， imagery and content， works by known writers of the late second century. Regarding theme and mood， some deal with love and marriage， others with friendship， feasting， or the quest for fame and fortune. For the most part they are somber in tone， reflecting troubled social conditions， and dwelling on the themes of distance， separation， and the dreadful brevity and uncertainty of human life.Reading the first six lines of the Chinese poem in Romanized phonetic transcripts of the Pinyin system in Qing qing hepan cao， no one will fail to see the beautiful rhythm and alliterative effect created by the repetition of the first character and the rhyming. They are so pleasing to the ear that we all would like the
translation to preserve or reproduce this feature. Here Pound did not let us down， and he rendered it beautifully. Let’s compare Pound’s poem with the renderings by two other eminent translators：Green， green，The grass by the river bank.Thick， thick，The willow trees in the garden.Sad， sad，The lady in the tower.White， white，At the casement window.Fair， fair，Her red-powdered face.Small， small，She puts out her pale hand.Once she was dancing-house girl，Now she is a wandering man’ s wife.The wandering man went， but did not return.It ’s hard alone to keep an empty bed.17Here Waley seems to be trying his best to make his version as close to the Chinese original in form as possible and gives a very neat rendering. It looks more exotic， with a lot of efforts at “foreignization” or “defamiliarization”.Now let’s try the flavour of Giles，preparation：Green grows the grass upon the bank，The willow-shoots are long and lank；
A lady in a glistening gown.Upon the casement and looks down.The roses on her cheek blush bright，Her rounded arm is dazzling white；A singing girl in early life，And now a careless roue’s wife......Ah， if he does not mind his own，He’ll find some day the bird has flown!18Here we see Giles working， in exactly the opposite direction， towards “domestication” or “familiarization”. An English speaking reader would perhaps respond by saying that while Waley ’s sounds foreign and a bit funny， Giles’ reads more like an English poem， and Pound’s seems to strike a balance between Waley and Giles， in a freer and more natural style. And it is Pound who has grasped the essence of the original. First， behold the riverbank in the distance， a scene overflowing with spring grass， and then the garden in the foreground， a blaze of colour， so gay and bursting with life. Against this background， our lady， so beautiful in the prime of her life， appears， first her face， then her hand， her figure， and her presence， all being so graceful and charming. Who is she and what is she ? The spring scene that she has witnessed is so irresistible that it stirs her to the very depth of her feelings. How lonely she is! Having been used to a life bustling with singing and dancing， she finds the loneliness particularly unbearable. She is longing for her husband’s return. With amazing perception and ingenuity， Pound blends the setting and emotion in perfect melodious harmony. However， Pound seems to stumble over the
status or character of her husband. If only he had known that， according to traditional Chinese culture， it was customarily the husband who went out， sometimes travelling all the year round， in order to make a living， or on business， or whatever was the trend， leaving the wife “too much alone” ! Thus， literally， as it turns out， Waley’s “a wandering man” seems more accurate than “a sot” or “a drunkard”. And then， usually， the woman would feel sad and lonely， longing desperately and miserably for her husband’s return， rather than “fly away”，as Giles warned. And again， Pound seems to have caught the metaphorical spirit that the lady was lonely rather than the concrete object （the empty bed） or the specified idea of “finding it hard to keep an empty bed”. More noteworthy is the title that Pound gives to this poem. Instead of “Blue，Blue is the Grass about the River”，he created a rather provocative title， “A Beautiful Toilet”. But then， doesn’t it present “an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” ?And the powerful poetic effects of refrain and alliteration in these two classical Chinese poems， Cai wei， Cai wei and Qing qing hepan cao， make one wonder whether they reminded Pound of W. Shakespeare’s famous lines：Tomorrow， and tomorrow， and tomorrow，Creeps in this petty pace from day to day，or， S. T. Coleridge’sWater， water， every where，And all the boards did shrink；Water， water， every where.Nor any drop to drink....
or， W. Wordsworth’sFive years have passed； Five summers，With the length Five long winters!And again I hear These waters.6.3 Cathay poem No. 3： The River Song江上吟 唐 • 李 白 （Jiang shang yin， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）木 蘭 之 泄 沙 棠 舟 ， 玉 簫 金 管 坐 兩 頭 。 美 酒 尊 中 置 千 斛 ， 載 妓 隨 波 任 去 留 。 仙 人 有 待 乘 黃 鶴 ， 海 客 無 心 隨 白 鷗 。 屈 平 詞 賦 懸 日 月 ， 楚 王 臺 榭 空 山 邱 。This boat is of shato-wood，and its gunwales are cut magnolia，Musicians with jewelled flutes and with pipes of gold.Fill full the sides in rows， and our wine is rich for a thousand cups，We carry singing girls， drift with the drifting water.Yet Sennin needs A yellow stork for a charger，And all our seamen would follow the white gulls or ride them.Kutsu，s prose song hangs with the sun and moon，King So’s terraced palace is now but barren hill.
興 酣 落 筆 搖 五 嶽 ， But I draw pen on this barge causing thefive peaks to tremble，詩成笑傲凌滄洲。 And I have joy in these words like the joyof blue islands.功 名 富 貴 若 長 在 ， （If glory could last for ever漢 水 亦 應 西 北 流 。 Then the waters of Han would flownorthward.）侍從宜春苑奉詔賦龍池柳色初青聽新鶯百囀 歌 唐 • 李白（Shi cong Yichun yuan feng zhao fu longchi liu se chu qing ting xin ying bai zhuan ge， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）And I have moped in the Emperor’s garden， awaiting an order to-write!I looked at the dragon-pond， with its willow-coloured water.Just reflecting the sky’s tinge，And heard the five-score nightingales aimlessly singing.東風已綠瀛洲草， The eastern wind brings the green colourinto the island grasses at Yei-shu，紫 殿 紅 樓 覺 春 好 。 The purple house and the crimson are fullof spring softness.池南柳色半青青， South of the pond the willow-tips arehalf-blue and bluer，縈煙嫋娜拂綺城。 Their cords tangle in mist， against thebrocade-like palace.垂絲百尺掛雕楹， Vine-strings a hundred feet long hangdown from carved railings，
上有好鳥相和鳴，間關早得春風情。春風卷入碧雲去，千門萬戶皆春聲，是時君王在鎬京， 五雲垂暉耀紫淸。仗出金宮隨日轉，天回玉輦繞花行。 始向蓬萊看舞鶴， 還過苣若聽新鶯。 新鶯飛繞上林苑， 願入簫韶雜鳳笙。And high over the willows， the fine birds sing to each other，and listen，Crying － “Kwan， Kuan，” for the early wind， and the feel of it.The wind bundles itself into a bluish cloud and wanders off.Over a thousand gates， over a thousand doors are the sounds of spring singing， And the Emperor is at Ko.Five clouds hang aloft， bright on the purple sky，The imperial guards come forth from the golden house with their armour a-gleaming.The Emperor in his jewelled car goes out to inspect his flowers，He goes out to Hori， to look at the wing- flapping storks，He returns by way of Shi rock to hear the nightingales.For the gardens at Jo-run are full of new nightingales，Their sound is mixed in this flute，Their voice is in the twelve pipes here.By Rihaku （Li T，ai Po）， 8th century A.D.
江上吟 唐•李白木 蘭 之枻 沙 棠 舟 ，玉 簫 金 管 坐 兩 頭 。 美 酒 尊 中 置 千 斛 ，載 妓 隨 波 任 去 留 。 仙 人 有 待 乘 黃 鶴 ，海 客 無 心 隨 白 鷗 。 屈 平 詞 賦 懸 日 月 ，楚 王 臺 榭 空 山 邱 。 興 酣 落 筆 搖 五 嶽 ，詩 成 笑 傲 凌 滄 洲 。 功 名 富 貴 若 長 在 ，漢 水 亦 應 西 北 流 。侍從宜春苑奉詔賦龍池柳色初青聽 新 鶯 百 囀 歌 唐 • 李 白東 風 已 綠 瀛 洲 草 ，紫 殿 紅 樓 覺 春 好 。池 南 柳 色 半 青 青 ，縈 煙 嫋 娜 拂 綺 城 。垂 絲 百 尺 掛 雕 楹 ，上 有 好 鳥 相 和 鳴 ，間 關 早 得 春 風 情 。春 風 卷 入 碧 雲 去 ，千 門 萬 戶 皆 春 聲 。是 時 君 王 在 鎬 京 ，五 雲 垂 暉 耀 紫 淸 。仗 出 金 宮 隨 日 轉 ，天 回 玉 輦 繞 花 行 。始 向 蓬 萊 看 舞 鶴 ，還 過 苣 若 聽 新 鶯 。新 鶯 飛 繞 上 林 苑 ，願 入 簫 韶 雜 鳳 笙 。19Now that we have the source and target texts placed side by side in matching lines， we can see clearly the legendary blunder that Pound made by unwittingly running two poems into one， incorporating the title of the second as if it were simply another line. But what a line! It takes Pound five English lines to get across the message. However awkward this effort may appear， no one can deny these are beautiful lines. Beautiful because they have the
capacity to merge the two initially unrelated poems into one naturally. Beautiful because they incidentally help Pound to intensify and enhance Li Bai’s subject matter and theme， and ironically， his precarious position torn between conflicting roles， and between ideals and realities， by switching skillfully and cleverly fromKutsu’s [Qu Yuan’s] prose song Hangs with the sun and moon. which is in sharp mocking contrast withKing So’s[Chu Wang’s] terraced palace is now but barren hill， then boldly and proudly moving on with But I draw pen on this barge Causing the five peaks to tremble，And I have joy in these words Like the joy of blue islands.Now conscious of Li Bai’s lines of conclusion on his （of course not Pound’s） “River Song”，Pound， most ingeniously and cannily， put the two lines in brackets，（If glory could last foreverThen the waters of Han would flow northward.） Having thus satisfied himself， Pound is ready to continue his “River Song”：And I have moped in the Emperor’s garden， awaiting an order to write!And now the poet finds himself entering a world of exotic splendours， thoroughly intoxicated. Returning to Li Bai， we find that instead of heaping praises and eulogies on the vain rulers， as
did some typical occasional poems， Li Bai’s lines seem to be depicting the fresh and the beautiful created by a great ancient civilization. When Pound takes over Li’s lines， he seems to be so carried away that he feels free to manipulate them to his poetic intent. And it seems that he succeeds with flying colours. How lively， free and open Pound’s lines are， if compared with the more formal， correct but rather wooden rendering of a similar long title to one of Wang Wei’s occasional poems，《奉和聖制從蓬萊向興慶閣道中留春雨中春望之作應制》：“Answering the Imperial Call to Write in Reply to his Majesty’s Poem： Viewing the Scene in Spring Rain on an Excursion” ! 20Of course， Pound did not know that the two poems， though both in Qi-yan Gu-feng 七言古風 style （seven-character-line Ancient Wind）， were written during different periods of Li Bai，s life， in different situations， and with different focuses of thematic concerns. The most obvious reason for this notorious error is that some source anthologists， such as Shen Deqian， arranged the two poems together， and the latter，s title was really too long by any standards to have been deciphered in one line， given the succinct， self-cohesive and highly information-charged nature of the Chinese written characters. And Pound， unaware of all these intricacies， just followed his poetic bent and instinct， resulting in this interesting error. Interesting because we witness here both loss and gain produced， and it is the gain that gives us a lot of aesthetic pleasure， as well as a better understanding of Li Bai and of classic Chinese poetry.
6.4 Cathay poem No. 4： The River-Merchant’s W ife： A Letter長 干 行 （其一） 唐 • 李白（Chang gan xing Ⅰ，Li Bai， Tang dynasty）妾 髮 初 覆 額 ， 折 花 門 前 劇 。 郎騎 竹 馬 來 ， 繞床弄青梅 。 同 居 長 干 里 ， 兩 小 無 嫌 猜 。While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead，I played about the front gate， pulling flowers.You came by on bamboo stilts， playing horse，You walked about my seat， playing with blue plums.And we went on living in the village of Chokan，Two small people， without dislike or suspicion.十 四 爲 君 婦 ， 羞顏 未 嘗 開 。 低 頭 向 暗 壁 ， 千 喚 不 一 回 。At fourteen I married My Lord you，I never laughed， being bashful.Lowering my head， I looked at the wall， Called to， a thousand times， I never looked back.十 五 始 展 眉 ， 願 同 塵 與 灰 。 常 存 抱 柱 信 ， 豈 上 望 夫 臺 ！At fifteen I stopped scowling，I desired my dust to be mingled with yours. For ever and for ever and for ever，Why should I climb the look out ?
十 六 君 遠 行 ， At sixteen you departed，瞿塘德澦 堆 。 You went into far Ku-to-yen， by the riverof sw irling eddies.五 月 不 可 觸 ， And you have been gone five months，猿聲天上哀。 The monkeys make sorrowful noiseoverhead.門 前 舊 行 跡 ， You dragged your feet when you went out，一 一 生 綠 苔 。 By the gate now， the moss is grown， thedifferent mosses.苔 深 不 能 掃 ， Too deep to clear them away !落 葉 秋 風 早 。 The leaves fall early this autumn， in wind.八 月 蝴 蝶 黃 ， The paired butterflies are already yellowwith A ugust，雙 飛 西 園 草 。 Over the grass in the West garden；感此傷妾心，坐愁紅顏老 。They hurt me. I grow older.早晚 下 三 巴 ， If you are coming down through thenarrows o f the river K iang，預 將 書 報 家 。 Please let me know beforehand.相迎不道遠， And I will come out to meet you，直 至 長 風 沙 。 As far as Cho-fu-Sa.By Rihaku長 干 行 （其一） 唐• 李白妾 髮 初 覆 額 ，折 花 門 前 劇 。郎騎 竹 馬 來 ，繞床弄青梅 。
同 居 長 干 里 ，兩 小 無 嫌 猜 。 十 四 爲 君 婦 ，羞 顏 未 嘗 開 。 低 頭 向 暗 壁 ，千 喚 不 一 回 。 十 五 始 展 眉 ，願 同 塵 與 灰 。 常 存 抱 柱 信 ，豈 上 望 夫 臺 ！ 十 六 君 遠 行 ，瞿塘灩 頒 堆 。 五 月 不 可 觸 ，猿 聲 天 上 哀 。 門 前 舊 行 跡 ，一 一 生 綠 苔 。 苔 深 不 能 掃 ，落 葉 秋 風 早 。 八 月 蝴 蝶 黃 ，雙 飛 西 園 草 。 感 此 傷 妾 心 ，坐 愁 紅 顏 老 。 早 晚 下 三 巴 ，預 將 書 報 家 。 相 迎 不 道 遠 ，直 至 長 風 沙 。21As a Pound canon， The River-Merchant’s Wife： A Letter has been included in many prestigious anthologies of English poetry， including The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Li Bai’s original poem is titled Chang gan xing， Chang gan being the place where our teenaged heroine and her beloved husband played together as children and grew up together， and xing meaning a Yue fu song. Emerging from his River Song， Pound turned the title into The River-Merchant’ s Wife， having by now become aware that the river is as significant to the Chinese as the sea to his own culture.However， though The River-Merchant’s Wife has found its way into canonized English poetry， it has been most severely criticized， particularly， by Chinese scholars. For example， Jin Di （金隄），a well-known translator and critic， singled out a few “howlers” as typical of Pound’s translation. For example， Li Bai’s
lines describing the Three Gorges of the Yangzi River：瞿塘灩澦堆 ，五月不可觸 in Pound ’s rendering， becameYou went into far Ku-to-en} by the river of swirling eddies， And you have been gone five months.Jin， in his On Equivalent-Ejfect Translation， points out， quite rightly， that there are three gross mistakes in these two lines. First， Pound， not knowing that ‘‘瞿塘” refers to one of the gorges and ‘‘灩澦堆” a perilous reef or rock there， simply rounded them up as one place name “Ku-to-en” （瞿塘灩 ）. Secondly， Pound mistook ‘‘五月”，which is actually the fifth lunar month on the Chinese calendar， for “five months” （五個月）. Thirdly， Pound failed to comprehend the original meaning of “不可觸”，which actually stresses the precarious situation on the rocks in that month with the river rising， as shown by a popular Chinese proverb.22Nevertheless， in spite of these gross errors and unlucky accidents growing out of the glosses， the poem that Pound gives us is life-like and moving， with the central appeal residing in the charming image of a lovely and devoted young wife longing desperately for her husband’s home-coming. We hear her youthful voice， earnest， innocent， simple and straightforward； we feel her feelings， lonely， sad， passionate and desperate! Her monologue， so touching with girlish sweetness and naivete， has the power of pulling the readers，heartstrings and of crystallizing their troubled conscience. Indeed， in the words of Ford Madox Ford， the image of the river-merchant’s young wife is able to foster humanity， improve human nature and educate men and women：
The quality of great poetry is that without comment as without effort it presents you with images that stir your emotions； so you are made a better man； you are softened， rendered more supple of mind， more open to the vicissitudes and necessities of your fellow men. When you have read “The River Merchant’s Wife” you are added to. You are a bet- ter man or woman than you were before.23 If Pound’s poem has such powerful and positive educational effects， then we have to applaud it as a resounding success in the field of both translation and poetic creation. For semantic accuracy， literary allusions and background understanding， Rewi Alley， an old friend of China， with a thorough knowledge of her ancient culture and literature， provides an excellent complement to Pound’s poem， with this translation：Changkan [Chang gan] （1） Ballad （One of Two Poems）Fringes just coming down over my forehead， out in front of the house picking flowers fo r fun. While you cantered around with a bamboo stick as a horse； how then we two would play a game with green plums on the bed.Both of us lived in the same Changkan lane，children together with never a care in the world.
Fourteen and I was married to you； too shy even to smile； facing the wall with downcast eyes， and even though spoken to a thousand times， not daring to answer； but how at fifteenI started to bloom； eyebrows opened out； I wanting to be as close to you as one bit of dust is with another unable to be separated； in my heart the same thought as the lad who stayed under the bridge awaiting his loved one （2）； then thinking how I too would stand on Wang Fu Tai （3） looking for you； but when I was sixteen，you went away， travelling up through the Chutang [Qutang] Gorge where in the fifth month，the Yenyu [Yanyu]rocks （4） are so dangerous， and you heard screeching monkeys as you looked up at melancholy skies.In front of our home， footprints you left are covered with green moss， now with roots so deep the broom does not sweep them away Autumn rides in too soon， bringing down the leaves； eighth month and
golden butterflies flit amongst late flowers； I sitting amongst them all， see and am troubled by time，so that I begin to look old myself； I hope that before you return home， you will first write me then no matter from which direction you come， I will not fear the road but at once go off to meet you.Notes：① Changkan is a suburb of Nanking [Nanjing].② Lad under the bridge 一 Wei Sheng of the 6th century BC promised to meet his girl under a bridge. She did not come， but a flood did. He held on to a pillar， but was drowned.③ Wang Fu Tai is a rock by a dangerous gorge where tradition- ally women awaited husbands.④ Yenyu was a pair of locks in the Yangtse River that once existed and were dangerous to pass.24In his preface to the selection， Rewi Alley clearly indicates：In translation maybe only the spirit and meaning of his [Li Bai’s] can be brought into English. The charm of his language is often quite untranslatable.25 Zhao Puchu， a renowned Chinese poet， critic and translator， who has passed away only recently， spoke highly of Rewi Alley’s translation：I was struck by the originality of its [the translation script] style. Mr. Alley has broken away from the rigid conventions many English translators observe
when putting various forms of Chinese poetry into English poetical styles. For instance， a poem of the seven-word-short style [qi yan jue ju] must be set out in four lines， and one of the seven-word-short regular [qi yan lu shi] is always set out in eight. ...By translating directly in his own special style， Rewi Alley has made a clean break with these conventions. Using natural， everyday spoken language， he faith- fully expresses the meaning of the original poem in an implicative and， when， necessary，indirect way.In doing so， not only has he avoided many strained and affectatious translations， but has in fact created another way of bring out Li Bai’s style， which is like “Lotus out of water， so natural without make-up. ”26The same can be said of Pound’s The River Merchant’s Wife： A Letter. Yes， it is like a personal letter， filled with artless outpourings， telling us the depth and utter sincerity， and in particular， the innocence and naivete of the teenaged wife’s feelings she holds for her husband， with deeper and more touching humanist and educational values.6.5 Cathay poem No. 5： By The Bridge at TEN-SHIN古 風 （其十八） 唐 • 李 白 （Gu feng poem， ⅩⅤⅢ，Tianjin sanyue shi， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）天 津 三 月 時 ， March has come to the bridge-head，千 門 桃 與 李 。 Peach boughs and apricot boughs hangover a thousand gates.
朝 爲 斷 腸 花 ，暮 逐 東 流 水 。前 水 復 後 水 ，古 今 相 續 流 。 新 人 非 舊 人 ，年 年 橋 上 遊 。雞 鳴 海 色 動 ， 謁 帝 羅 公 侯 。月 落 西 上 陽 ，餘 輝 半 城 樓 。 衣 冠 照 雲 日 ，朝 下 散 皇 州 。鞍 馬 如 飛 龍 ， 黃 金 絡 馬 頭 。行 人 皆 辟 易 ，志 氣 橫 嵩 丘 。 入 門 上 高 堂 ，At morning there are flowers to cut the heart，And evening drives them on the eastward- flowing waters.Petals are on the gone waters and on the going，And on the back-swirling eddies.But to-day’s men are not the men of the old days，Though they hang in the same way over the bridge-rail.The sea’s colour moves at the dawn，And the princes still stand in rows， about the throne.And the moon falls over the portals of Sei-go-yo，And clings to the walls and the gate-top.With head gear glittering against the cloud and sun，The lords go forth from the court， and into far borders.They ride upon dragon-like horses，Upon horses with head-trappings of yellow metal.And the streets make way for their passage，Haughty their passing.Haughty their steps as they go in to great banquets，
列 鼎 錯 珍 羞 。 香 風 引 趙 舞 ， 淸 管 隨 齊 謳 。 七 十 紫 鴛 鴦 ， 雙 雙 戲 庭 幽 。 行 樂 爭 晝 夜 ， 自 言 度 千 秋 。功 成 身 不 退 ， 自 古 多 愆 尤 。 黃 犬 空 歎 息 ，綠 珠 成 釁 譬 。何 如 鴟 夷 子 ，散 髮 櫂 扁 舟 。To high halls and curious food.To the perfumed air and girls dancing，To clear flutes and clear singing；To the dance of the seventy couples；To the mad chase through the gardens. Night and day are given over to pleasure， And they think it will last a thousand autumns， Unwearying autumns.For them the yellow dogs howl portents in vain，And what are they compared to the lady Riokushu， That was cause of hate !Who among them is a man like Han-rei Who departed alone with his mistress，With her hair unbound， and he his own skiffsman!By Rihaku古 風 （其十八） 唐 • 李 白天 津 三 月 時 ，千 門 桃 與 李 。 朝 爲 斷 腸 花 ，暮 逐 東 流 水 。 前 水 復 後 水 ，古 今 相 續 流 。 新 人 非 舊 人 ，年 年 橋 上 遊 。 雞 鳴 海 色 動 ，謁 帝 羅 公 侯 。
月 落 西 上 陽 ，餘 輝 半 城 樓 。 衣 冠 照 雲 日 ，朝 下 散 皇 州 。 鞍 馬 如 飛 龍 ，黃 金 絡 馬 頭 。 行 人 皆 辟 易 ，志 氣 橫 嵩 丘 。 入 門 上 高 堂 ，列 鼎 錯 珍 羞 。 香 風 引 趙 舞 ，淸 管 隨 齊 謳 。 七 十 紫 鴛 鴦 ，雙 雙 戲 庭 幽 。 行 樂 爭 晝 夜 ，自 言 度 千 秋 。 功 成 身 不 退 ，自 古 多 愆 尤 。 黃 犬 空 歎 息 ，綠 珠 成 釁 讎 。 何如鴟夷 子 ，散 髮 櫂 扁 舟 。27Gu feng 古風 is a loose term for Gu ti shi （old or ancient- style poetry）， so called as opposed to the more strictly regulated Jin ti shi （recent- or modern-style metrical poetry）， which was in vogue at that time. Li Bai’s Gu feng collection consists of 59 miscellaneous poems covering a wide range of themes and written on various occasions. Three of Cathay poems， including this one， were selected from the Wu-yan （five-character） Gufeng collection.Though it would be correct and more proper to entitle the poem The Ten-shin [Tianjin] Bridge in Luoyang， Pound nevertheless succeeds in drawing our attention to a focused spectacle and display of the imperial powers， luxuries， extravagance and uncertainty of destiny in the capital：Haughty their passing，Haughty their steps as they go in to great banquets， To high halls and curious food，To the perfumed air and girls dancing，
To clear flutes and clear singing；To the dance of the seventy couples；To the mad chase through the gardens.Night and day are given over to pleasure And they think it will last a thousand autumns， Unwearying autumns.How vivid and penetrating ! Not believing that “Glory could last forever”，Li Bai always aspired to retire from politics or retreat to a simple free life amidst mountains and rivers after having attained his goals or something great （功成身退，so to speak）. Under the feudalistic rule， your life and death， glory and ignominy， hung in the balance， so much depending on the whims and caprices of the emperor， be you princes， or high scholar-officials who had performed great meritorious deeds and made tremendous contributions. Though the rather didactic moralizing lines 功 成 身 不 退 ，自古多想尤 are left untranslated， no one will fail to sense Li Bai’s mockery of those who， forgetting or ignoring the bitter historical lesson， “think it will last a thousand autumns”，which is further intensified by “unwearying autumns” ! No one will fail to be alerted to the hidden warnings. But， alas， it is here that Pound seems to be carried away again， a bit too far：Who among them is a man like Han-rai Who departed alone with his mistress，With her hair unbound， and he his own skiffsman !While “seventy couples” is a wonderful rendering of “七十紫 鴛鴦”，far better and more accurate than “thirty-seven pairs o f” “yuanyang” or “mandarin ducks”，Pound blunders over some literary allusions and historical references that are another feature
of classical Chinese poetry and which do pose big problems for translators at large. Without some annotations， it would be impossible to accurately bring out the subtle ideas and full connotation of “黃犬空歎息”，28 “綠珠成釁讎” ，29 “何如鴟夷 子”，“散 髮 櫂 扁 舟 30 While the first two archaic allusions to Li Si with his yellow dogs， and Shi Chong with his concubine Lu Zhu （Ryokushu in Japanese）， serve as warnings to tragic deaths， the last two lines tell us the story of how Fan Li （Han-rei in Japanese） of the Spring & Autumn Period gave up his high official post at the most opportune moment and lived the care-free life of an unknown merchant happily with his beloved wife， Xi Shi. Interestingly， in Pound’s poem， Fan Li （Han-rei） was found among the “seventy” pleasure-seeking “couples”，and then “departed alone with his mistress”，and it was not Fan Li’s hair that was “unbound”，which should have signified his easy-going， carefree life and freedom after having retired from political and official life. One is curious to know how the English-speaking readers in the West would have perceived these lines and responded to them if they had realized that actually the ancient Chinese princes and court officials were not waltzing and flirting with their women， as would their Western princes and lords， and few of them would have dared or even imagined to slip away with their court ladies， their hair floating “unbound”.6.6 Cathay poem No. 6： The Jewel Stairs，Grievance玉階怨 唐 · 李 白 Yuan， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）玉 階 生 白 露 ， Yujie sheng bailu，夜 久 侵 羅 襪 。Ye jiu jin luowa.The jewelled steps are already quite white with dew，It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stockings，
卻 下 水 精 簾 ， Quexia shuijing lianAnd I let down the crystal curtain，玲 瓏 望 秋 月 。 Linglong wang qiuyueAnd watch the moon through the clear autumn.By RihakuNote. Jewel stairs， therefore a palace. Grievance， therefore there is something to complain of. Gauze stocking， therefore a court lady， not a servant， who complains. Clear autumn， therefore he has no excuse on account of weather. Also she has come early， for the dew has not merely whitened the stairs， but has soaked her stockings. The poem is especially prized because she utters no direct reproach.Of the Cathay volume， this poem is the only fully annotated， and seems to be the best translated， true to its original text in spirit， content and imagery， and， to a reasonable extent， in form. If back- translation is evidence of some degree of intertextuality， Guo Wei’s back-translation， a literal rendering， of Pound’s poem in modern Chinese looks positive and encouraging：玉階怨 唐 • 李 白玉 階 生 白 露 ，夜 久 侵 羅 襪 。 卻 下 水 精 簾 ，玲 瓏 望 秋 月 。31玉 石 台 階 已 經 被 露 水 染 白 ，夜 已 深 深 ，露 水 浸 透 我 的 羅 襪 。 我 放 下 水 晶 的 窗 簾 ，透過淸澈的 秋 天 望 月 。32
Here is a neat， more concise rendering：寶 玉 台 階 結 滿 白 露 ，深 夜 久 站 露 濕 羅 襪 。我 回 房 放 下 水 晶 簾 ，透 過 淸 秋 凝 望 月 亮 。（Ieong， 2000）Pound’s poem looks especially tempting with his long， elaborate note， which serves like a guide， a key， or a teacher’s note provided in an elementary school textbook on classical Chinese poetry， with no waste of words. We have reason to speculate that the poem may have been annotated meticulously， and to a great extent， quite accurately， by Fenollosa and the Japanese professors， but it was Pound that had brought it all out so brilliantly that the reader feels both enlightened and captivated.This poem of Li Bai’s is most typical of the highly connotative， and self-cohesive nature of the Chinese written character， which will become clearer if compared with the translations of the poem by a Chinese scholar and professor of English， Wan Zhaofeng， and by Rewi Alley：L o n g in g on M a rb le StepsThe marble steps with dew grow white，It soaks her gauze socks late at night.She lowers then the crystal screen And gazes at the moon，pale and bright.（Trans， by Wan Zhaofeng）33
On the Jade Steps On the jade steps in front of her room in the night she stands with the dew wetting her socks， so that she goes back into the house pulling down the bright crystal screen through which she gazes at the autumn moon.（Trans. By Rewi Alley） 34All three English versions， have “bloated” the original text， sometimes more than twofold， adding conjunctions， prepositions， articles， relatives， and in particular， nominative pronouns， which are inherent properties of the English language but which are either absent or left out from the Chinese source text. For example， for the subject-figure， both Wan and Rewi Alley use the nominative pronoun “she”，thus giving the poet the role of a cool observer. However， Pound alone gives a direct treatment by using the nominative of “I”，thus totally involving the poet in the innermost feelings of the court lady discarded and forgotten in the imperial harem. Working himself on the same wavelength， Pound succeeds in creating a complete and coherent whole with a clear and exact focus， whereas Rewi Alley’s poem is too interpretative and explicit and seems to run counter to the subtle implicitness of the poem.A distinct feature of Li Bai’s natural imagery is his frequent appeal to the moon， the fair， clear and bright moon， the personification of truth， sympathy and understanding. According
to Yuan Xingpei’s statistics made from about a thousand of Li Bai’s extant poems， the image of the bright moon appears more than once in every fourteen poems.35 Of course there are numerous poets， his predecessors as well as posterity， singing of the moon， but to Li Bai， the moon is both ethereal and worldly， lofty and humane， transforming into a fresh poetic symbol of exquisite beauty.Of those “colour” words， “white” is Li Bai’s all-time favourite. In this 20-character poem alone， Yujie Yuan， “white”，（or its synonyms， “crystal” or “transparent” ），appears six times， as in Yujie 玉 階 （white jade or marble）， 白露（white dew）， luowa 羅 襪（gauze socks）， shuijing licm 水 精 簾 （crystal curtain）， linglong 玲瓏（through the clear）， and qiuyue 秋月（autumn moon）， all of which are duly and admirably reflected in Pound’s The Jewel Stairs' Grievance.An investigation into the twelve poems of Li Bai’s， from which eleven of Cathay poems have emerged， reveals that Li Bai is consistent in his poetic preference for “white”. And so is Ezra Pound. In Cathay poem No. 3，The River Song， Li Bai opts for “ 白鷗 ” ，and Pound turns it into “white gulls”； in No. 6， The Jewel Stairs' Grievance， there are six such examples， as I have mentioned above； in No. 7，Lament o f the Frontier G uard， Li Bai chooses “白骨” ，and Pound gives “white bones” ； in No. 8， Exile’s Letter， Li Bai uses “白壁” and “白首” twice and Pound， accordingly， with absolute fidelity and faith， turns them into “white jewels” and “white-headed” respectively； in No. 11， Taking Leave of a Friend， Li Bai favours “ 白水” and Pound heads for “white river”； and in No. 13，The City of CHOAN ， Li Bai writes “白鷺洲” and Pound follows up faithfully with “the isle of White Heron”. Pound shows the same bent for “white” in poems other than Li Bai’s. For instance， in Cathay poem No. 2，The Beautiful Toilet， the line “娥娥紅粉妝，is translated into “white， white of face”，and in No. 17， The Old Idea of CHOAN， Pound
turns Lu Zhao lin ’ s sharply contrasted “ 青牛 白 馬 ” into similarly brightly contrasted images of “Dark oxen， white horses”. In short， “white”，as a “colour” image， signifying clarity， purity and brightness， is employed successfully by both Li Bai and Pound， leaving the reader boundless space for poetic imagination and exploration.6.7 Cathay poem No. 7： Lament of the Frontier Guard古 風 （其十四） 唐 · 李 白 （Gu feng poem， ⅩⅣ，Li Bai， Tang dynasty）胡 關 饒 風 沙 ，By the North Gate， the wind blows full of sand， 蕭索竟終古。 Lonely from the beginning of time until now!木 落 秋 草 黃 ，Trees fall， the grass goes yellow with autumn. 登 高 望 戎 虜 。 I climb the towers and towers to watch out the bar barous land：荒 城 空 大 漠 ，Desolate castle， the sky， the wide desert.邊 邑 無 遺 堵 。There is no wall left to this village.白 骨 橫 千 霜 ，Bones white with a thousand frosts，嵯峨蔽榛莽。 High heaps， covered with trees and grass；借 問 誰 凌 虐 ? Who brought this to pass ?天驕毒 威 武 。赫 怒 我 聖 皇 ， Who has brought the flamingimperial anger ?勞 師 事 鼙 鼓 。Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums?Barbarous king.陽 和 變 殺 氣 ，A gracious spring， turned to blood-ravenous autumn， 發卒 騒 中 土 。A turmoil of wars-men， spread over the middle kingdom.三十六萬人， Three hundred and sixty thousand，哀 哀 淚 如 雨 。And sorrow， sorrow like rain.
且 悲 就 行 役 ，Sorrow to go， and sorrow returning.Desolate， desolate fields，安 得 營 農 圃 ? And no children of warfare upon them，不 見 征 戍 兒 ，No longer the men for offence and defence.豈 知 關 山 苦 ？ Ah， how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the North Gate，李 牧 今 不 在 ，With Rihoku’s name forgotten，邊 人 飼 豺 虎 。 And we guardsmen fed to the tigers.by Rihaku古 風 （其 十 四 ） 唐 • 李 白胡 關 饒 風 沙 ，蕭 索 竟 終 古 。 木 落 秋 草 黃 ，登 高 望 戎 虜 。 荒 城 空 大 漠 ，邊 邑 無 遺 堵 。 白 骨 橫 千 霜 ，嵯 峨 蔽 榛 莽 。 借 問 誰 凌 虐 ？天 驕 毒 威 武 。 赫 怒 我 聖 皇 ，勞 師 事 鼙 鼓 。 陽 和 變 殺 氣 ，發 卒 騷 中 土 。 三 十 六 萬 人 ，哀 哀 淚 如 雨 。 且 悲 就 行 役 ，安 得 營 農 圃 ？ 不 見 征 戍 兒 ，豈 知 關 山 苦 ？ 李 牧 今 不 在 ，邊 人 飼 豺 虎 。36Shen Deqian， a Qing dynasty scholar， documented a historical background for this poem：During the reign of Tian Bao in the Tang dynasty， the Emperor sent General Wang Zhongsi to take the Shibao Castle City of Tufan [Tibetan regime in ancient China]. He reported back that it was so fiercely guarded that it was hard for him to capture
it. Then Dong Yanguan volunteered to go， but again was defeated.The Emperor ordered Ge Shuhan to make a sweep- ing attack.He captured the city， taking 400 prisoners， at the same time causing appalling casualties to the Tang troops， killing almost all the soldiers， and turning the descendants of the two sides into sworn enemies.The poem [by Li Bai] tells us a bitter historical lesson for posterity to remember.37Li Bai wrote this poem in 740 A. D.，when he was 42. In another poem of his， Gufeng XXX IV， the poet told of the story of Yang Guozhong， the emperor’s favourite YangGuifei，s brother， who had also suffered defeat but made a false report to the emperor claiming that he had won the battle， resulting in Li Bai’s famous line “掩敗爲功” （covering up his defeat and stealing an honour that he did not deserve）. Frontier battles and border wars ran throughout the history of the Tang dynasty， and naturally this became a major concern of the poet. In the opening lines of Gu feng XIV，Li Bai described the inhospitable climate and forbidding habitat of the frontier. When the poet climbed up the height， he saw， to his dismay and horror， a scene too deplorable to describe. The city was devastated， leveled to the ground， and became an empty waste desert， with hills of white bones， the bones of peace-loving folks and soldiers massacred and slaughtered in wars! So horrifying and ghastly that the poet could not bear the sight of them all! He seemed to hear the heartrending screams of dying soldiers and the cries of despairing children and women! So deeply grieved was the poet that he demanded to know who had brought about this terrible tragedy， and who had committed those monstrous atrocities. He pointed his accusing finger to the heinous
invading chieftain self-styled as “the Prince of Heaven”. The invaders ran on a rampage， robbing and killing wherever they went. The Emperor was angered and sent tens of thousands of men to the frontier， which was immediately turned into a bloody battlefield. The poet here poured out his painfully mixed feelings， with deep sorrow and compassion for the suffering masses of people， and for the conscripts deserting their farmland， their wives and children， and dying on the battlefield far away from home. Worse still， the poet sighed in the last couplet that the corrupt imperial court no longer sent to the frontline good， capable， valiant and resourceful generals like Li Mu （Rihoku in Japanese）， who had long been forgotten. And in consequence， the people and soldiers there suffered more， being “fed to the tigers，”just as Pound concluded.According to Zhao Yiheng， syntactically and semantically， these are the most startling lines he found jumping out of Cathay：Desolate castle， the sky， the wide desert. which is rendered from Li Bai’s “荒城空大漠” andSurprised. Desert turmoil. Sea sun. which is found in Cathay poem No. 14， South-Folk in Cold Country， translated from Li Bai’s “ 驚沙亂海日 ” in Gu feng poem VI.But when he dug out Fenollosa’s manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University， he was even more surprised， or， perhaps， enlightened， to find these word-for- word explanations， the construing and fluent paraphrasing：荒城 空 大 漠desolate castle sky large desert （I see a ruined fortress in a most blank desert.）驚 沙 亂 海 日 Surprise sands mix sea sun
（The sand surprised confused the rising sun out of the sea.） which was later reinterpreted as ‘‘Sands surprised by wind cover in the turmoil”.38Now it has become clear to us that Pound， as a gifted poet， was more concerned with producing good poetry than following accurate details. Moreover， as an enthusiastic innovator and pioneer of the Imagist school， he was experimenting with the art of juxtaposing or superposing sharp images characteristic of classical Chinese poetry. Clearly， he succeeded in this experiment， and by juxtaposing “the sky” with “Desolate castle” and “the wide desert” and ignoring the syntactic precision， he created a solemn and grand atmosphere similar to that of Li Bai’s poem. While Li Bai’s lines are mournful， solemn and stirring， Pound’s poetic rendering is majestic， forceful and sonorous， in spite of some gloss errors. Again Rewi Alley’s translation may be more “faithful”，“accurate” and “correct”：Wind and Dust at the Frontier Pass （Ancient Wind 14）At the pass when the tribesmen enter Wind and dust rise， the dull drumming Of gales never ceases；from ancient times down to our day，winds have cut down the leaves， yellowed grasses，we of Han， climbing high can see the tribesmen’s horde； and there below lies a frontier city， houses with no single wall intact， bones of those who lived there scattered over the grassland， with none to care for them； hills around covered with wild growth， so that we ask，who has changed this world so? Then knowing it has been but those who have driven in， slaying.
So now is our Emperor enraged by enemy action， ordering armes to be raised； lives that were fu ll of quiet ease， now come to be fu ll of struggle； from every village soldiers go， leaving unsettled homes behind； three hundred and sixty thousand men， fu ll of bitterness，with tears that fa ll like rain， hearts sad，yet marching with comrades to become soldiers wondering who will tend gardens and fields at home； you who have not talked with those who go to the borders’ how can you know the cost of taking a pass or a h ill? Now Li Mu （1），the general， has been dead fo r long； yet the people along the border are still eaten by tigers and wolves.（1） Li Mu was a border general of Chao [Zhao] in the Warring States Period who distinguished himself by routing the invading tribesmen.Having perused part of Cathay poems， one is prompted to ask this age-old question： what is poetry? This is certainly not the place to review the numerous definitions developed since the beginning of human civilization， by Confucius， Zhong Rong， Si Kongtu， Liu Xie， and many others， in China， or Plato， Aristotle， Horace， and again many others， in the West. However， here I find William Wordsworth’s exposition， the locus classicus，highly relevant and convincing：... Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings：it takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility： the emotion is contemplated till， by a species of reaction， the tranquility gradually disappears， and an emotion， kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation， is gradually produced， and does itself actually exist in the mind.39And it exists in the depth of the poet’s heart. When we read Li B ai’s poem， as well as Pound’s recreation， we feel the lines， the words， and images resonating with spontaneous and powerful flow of emotions.6.8 Cathay poem No. 8： Exile’s Letter憶 舊 遊 寄 譙 郡 元 參 軍 唐 • 李 白 （Yi jiuyou ji Qiao jun yuan canjun， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）憶 昔 洛 陽 董 糟 丘 ， 爲 余 天 津 橋 南 造 酒 樓 。黃 金 白 璧 買 歌 笑 ，一醉累月輕王侯。海內賢豪青雲 客 ，就 中 與 君 心 莫 逆 。迴 山 轉 海 不 作 難 ，To So-Kin of Rakuyo，ancient friend， Chancellor of Gen.Now I remember that you built me a special tavern. By the south side of the bridge at Ten-Shin.With yellow gold and white jewels， we paid for songs and laughter And we were drunk for month on month， forgetting the kings and princes. Intelligent men came drifting in from the sea and from the west border，And with them， and with you especially There was nothing at cross purpose， And they made nothing of sea-crossing or of mountain-crossing， If only they could be of that fellowship，
傾 情 倒 意 無 所 惜 。我 向 淮 南 攀 桂 枝 ，君 留 洛 北 愁 夢 思 。不 忍 別 ，還 相 隨 。相 隨 迢 迢 訪 仙 城 ，三 十 六 曲 水 迴 縈 。一 溪 初 入 千 花 明 ，萬 壑 度 盡 松 風 聲 。銀 鞍 金 絡 倒 平 地 ，漢 東 太 守 來 相 迎 ，紫陽之真人 ，邀 我 吹 玉 笙 。餐 霞 樓 上 動 仙 樂 ，嘈 然 宛 似 鸞 鳳 鳴 。袖長管催欲輕舉 ， 漢中[東]太守醉起舞。手 持 錦 袍 覆 我 身 ，And we all spoke out our hearts and minds， without regret.And then I was sent off to South Wei， smothered in laurel groves，And you to the north of Raku-hoku Till we had nothing but thoughts and memories in common.And then， when separation had come to its worst，We met， and travelled into Sen-Go， Through all the thirty-six folds of the turning and twisting waters，Into a valley of the thousand bright flowers， That was the first valley；And into ten thousand valleys full of voices and pine-winds.And with silver harness and reins of gold， Out came the East of Kan foreman and his company And there came also the ‘True man’ of Shi-yo to meet me Playing on a jewelled，mouth-organ.In the storied houses of San-Ko they gave us more Sennin music，Many instruments， like the sound of young phoenix broods.The foreman of Kan Chu， drunk， danced because his long sleeves wouldn’t keep still With that music playing，
我 醉 橫 眠 枕 其 股 。當 筵 意 氣 凌 九 霄 ，星 離 雨 散 不 終 朝 ，分 飛 楚 關 山 水 遙 。 余既 還 山 尋 故 巢 ，君 亦 歸 家 渡 渭 橋 。 君 家 嚴 君 勇 貔 虎 ，作尹 并州 遏 戎 虜 。五 月 相 呼 度 太 行 ，摧 輪 不 到 羊 腸 苦 。行 來 北 涼 歲 月 深 ， 感 君 貴 義 輕 黃 金 。瓊杯綺食 青 玉 案 ， 使 我 醉 飽 無 歸 心 。 時 時 出 向 城 西 曲 ， 晉 祠 流 水 如 碧 玉 。And I， wrapped in brocade， went to sleep with my head on his lap，And my spirit so high it was all over the heavens，And before the end of the day we were scattered like stars， or rain.I had to be off to So， far away over the waters，You back to your river-bridge.And your father， who was as brave as a leopard，Was governor in Hei Shu， and put down the barbarian rabble.And one May he had you send for me， despite the long distance.And what with broken wheel and so on， I won’t say it wasn’t hard going， Over roads twisted like sheep’s guts.And I was still going， late in the year， in the cutting wind from the North，And thinking how little you cared for the cost， and you caring enough to pay it. And what a reception：Red jade cups， food well set on a blue jewelled table，And I was drunk， and had no thought of returning.And you would walk out with meto the western corner of the castle，To the dynastic temple， with water about it clear as blue jade，
浮 舟 弄 水 簫 鼓 鳴 ，微 波 龍 鱗 莎 草 綠 。興來攜妓 恣 經 過 ，其 若 楊 花 似 雪 何 ！ 紅 粧 欲 醉 宜 斜 日 ，百 尺 淸 潭 寫 翠 娥 。翠 娥 嬋 娟 初 月 輝 ，美 人 更 唱 舞 羅 衣 。淸 風 吹 歌 入 空 去 ，歌 曲 自 繞 行 雲 飛 。 此 時 行 樂 難 再 遇 ，西 遊 因 獻 長 楊 賦 。北闕青雲 不 可 期 ， 東 山 白 首 還 歸 去 。渭 橋 南 頭 一 遇 君 ，酇臺 之 北 又 離 群 。問 余 別 恨 知 多 少 ，With boats floating ， and the sound of mouth-organs and drums，With ripples like dragon-scales，going grass-green on the water，Pleasure lasting， with courtesans， going and coming without hindrance，With the willow flakes falling like snow， And the vermilioned getting drunk about sunset，And the water， a hundred feet deep， reflecting green eyebrows Eyebrows painted green are a fine sight in young moonlight， Gracefully painted And the girls singing back at each other， Dancing in transparent brocade，And the wind lifting the song， and interrupting it，Tossing it up under the clouds.And all this comes to an end.And is not again to be met with.I went up to the court for examination， Tried Yo Yu’s luck， offered the Choyo song，And got no promotion，and went back to the East Mountains White-headed.And once again， later， we met at the South bridge-head.And then the crowd broke up， you went north to San palace，And if you ask how I regret that parting：
落 花 春 暮 爭 紛 紛 。言 亦 不 可 盡 。情 亦 不 可 極 。呼 兒 長 跪 緘 此 辭 ，寄 君 千 里 遙 相 憶 。It is like the flowers falling at Spring’s end Confused， whirled in a tangle.What is the use of talking， and there is no end of talking，There is no end of things in the heart.I call in the boy，Have him sit on his knees here To seal this，And send it a thousand miles， thinking.By Rihaku憶舊遊寄譙郡元參軍 唐 • 李白憶 昔 洛 陽 董 糟 丘 ，爲 余 天 津 橋 南 造 酒 樓 。黃 金 白 璧 買 歌 笑 ，一 醉 累 月 輕 王 侯 。海內賢豪青雲 客 ，就 中 與 君 心 莫 逆 。迴 山 轉 海 不 作 難 ，傾 情 倒 意 無 所 惜 。我 向 淮 南 攀 桂 枝 ，君 留 洛 北 愁 夢 思 。不 忍 別 ，還 相 隨 。相 隨 迢 迢 訪 仙 城 ，三 十 六 曲 水 迴 縈 。一 溪 初 入 千 花 明 ，萬 壑 度 盡 松 風 聲 。銀 鞍 金 絡 倒 平 地 ，漢 東 太 守 來 相 迎 。紫陽之真人 ，邀 我 吹 玉 笙 。餐 霞 樓 上 動 仙 樂 ，嘈 然 宛 似 鸞 鳳 鳴 。袖長管催欲輕舉 ，漢中 [ 東 ] 太 守 醉 起 舞 。手 持 錦 袍 覆 我 身 ，我 醉 橫 眠 枕 其 股 。當 筵 意 氣 凌 九 霄 ，星 離 雨 散 不 終 朝 ，分 飛 楚 關 山 水 遙 。 余既還 山 尋 故 巢 ，君 亦 歸 家 渡 渭 橋 。君 家 嚴 君 勇 貔 虎 ，作 尹并州 遏 戎 虜 。五 月 相 呼 度 太 行 ，摧 輪 不 到 羊 腸 苦 。行 來 北 涼 歲 月 深 ，感 君 貴 義 輕 黃 金 。
Shen Deqian， the Qing dynasty critic， made the most insightful and sympathetic comment on Li Bai’s poem：Reminiscing about the partings and reunions with Canjun， the poet is not just wallowing in nostalgia about those good old pleasure-seeking or merry-making days. It is a pathetic and touching outpouring of humanity， fraternity and profound friendship.41This poem should be considered a rare stroke of luck for students of Li Bai and Pound， because neither poets are profuse talkers about friendship or fraternity in their poems， though it is well known that they both treasured friendship and could be great friends exemplary of their times， or of all times. In fact， as reflected by their poems， they rarely wore their hearts on their sleeves. Indeed so seldom did they write about their families （wives， children， parents， brothers and sisters）， intimate friends or relatives in their poems that we value Exile’s Letter and its original more， for they reveal the personal affinity between the瓊杯綺食青玉 案 ，使 我 醉 飽 無 歸 心 。時 時 出 向 城 西 曲 ，晉 祠 流 水 如 碧 玉 。浮 舟 弄 水 簫 鼓 鳴 ，微 波 龍 鱗 莎 草 綠 。興來攜妓 恣 經 過 ，其 若 楊 花 似 雪 何 ！紅 粧 欲 醉 宜 斜 日 ，百 尺 淸 潭 寫 翠 娥 。翠 娥 嬋 娟 初 月 輝 ，美 人 更 唱 舞 羅 衣 。淸 風 吹 歌 入 空 去 ，歌 曲 自 繞 行 雲 飛 。此 時 行 樂 難 再 遇 ，西 遊 因 獻 長 楊 賦 。北闕青雲 不 可 期 ，東 山 白 首 還 歸 去 。渭 橋 南 頭 一 遇 君 ，酇臺 之 北 又 離 群 。問 余 別 恨 知 多 少 ，落 花 春 暮 爭 紛 紛 。 言 亦 不 可 盡 ，情 亦 不 可 極 。呼兒長跪 緘 此 辭 ，寄君千里遙相憶 。40
author-poet and the translator-poet. Free， easy， and natural， they both had many lifelong friends. Li Bai did write some moving poems in dedication to his friends， showing warm and sincere feelings for them， but he seldom dedicated more than two poems to the same friend， even if he remained a close friend all his life. For example， throughout their lifelong friendship， Du Fu wrote eleven poems dedicated to Li Bai， but Li Bai wrote only one in dedication to Du Fu.42 This seeming lack of reciprocity arose， perhaps partly because Li was eleven years Du’s senior but mainly due to Li’s free， casual and unaffected nature and personality， which was appreciated and shared by Pound.As the poet recounted in detail the four reunions and separations spanning from his youth to well beyond the period when he was “white-headed”，the poem is also a valuable reference for the study of Li Bai’s life， experience， outlook and thinking. In Exile，s Letter， Pound’s beginning line after the salutation， “Now I remember that you built me a special tavern，” vividly and truly reflects the young Li Bai，s bold and refreshingly candid personality and peculiar self-exaggerating style. The hearty and frank young poet and his equally unconventional friends “were drunk for month on month， forgetting the kings and princes.”Pound’s poem is simply titled Exile’s Letter， highlighting the twists and turns of a poet living in constant exile. An a young American exile in London and Europe， he must have felt strongly what it was like for an aspiring poet like himself who lived in constant exile but remained to be American with a strong sense of his native land. Still in his twenties， the young Pound must have been ravished by Li Bai’s brilliant ideas， easy-going manners and stimulating images flying in his poetic lines. An exile’s life， permeated with such great friendship， such thrilling and raving moments， and such lasting and throbbing memories， may have fascinated many a young imaginative mind.
A study of the various editions of the source poem indicates that some lexical errors occurred because these errors had already existed in the edition to which the Japanese Sinologists had access. Obvious examples are “漢中 [東 ]太守” ，which was translated into “The foreman of Kan Chu”，which should have been the same person as “the East of Kan foreman”，and “行來北涼歲月深”. Some source editors replaced 涼 with 京，insisting that it was a place in Taiyuan， the origin of the capital city for many dynasties.43 However， Pound’s line， apparently flowing from his fertile imagination， “in the cutting wind from the North”，fits miraculously and seamlessly here.6.9 Cathay poem No. 9： Title poem to Four Poems of Depar-渭城曲·送元二使安西 唐 ·王 維 （Weicheng qu：Song Yuan er shi Anxi， Wang Wei， Tang dynasty）tureLight rain is on the light dustThe willows of the inn-yard Will be going greener and greener.But you， Sir， had better take wine ere your departure，For you will have no friends about you when you come to the gates of go.（Rihaku or Omakitsu）渭 城 朝 雨 浥 輕 塵 ，Weicheng zhaoyu yi qingchen客舍青青柳 色 新 。Keshe qingqing liu se xin勸 君 更 盡 一 杯 酒 ，Quan jun geng jin yibei jiu西 出 陽 關 無 故 人 。Xi chu Yangguan wu guren
渭 城 曲 • 送元二使安西 唐 • 王維渭 城 朝 雨 浥 輕 塵 ，客舍青青柳 色 新 。勸 君 更 盡 一 杯 酒 ，西 出 陽 關 無 故 人 。44Though Pound was not quite sure of the authorship， for he ascribed it either to Rihaku （Li Bai） or Omakitsu （Wang Wei）， he hit upon and picked up one of the best “farewell and departure” poems all the same as the title poem of his Four Poems of Departure. The well-renowned painter-musician-poet， Wang Wei’s poem is multi-dimensional： the first seven-character-line tells us very clearly three things： the place of departure - Weicheng， the time of departure - early morning， the right time to set out for a long journey， and the weather - drizzling， refreshing and moisturizing. The second line describes the natural surroundings： the inn or tavern and the atmosphere： the willows， washed by the morning rain，looked greener and more lovely， hanging around and clinging to you， reluctant to part from their loved ones. Now， it is time to part. Come， and have another cup of wine ! （This is synonymous to “Bon Voyage ! And all the best !”）And there is something more. There is a touch of sorrow， in contrast with the pleasing scenery， cheerful toast， and good wishes. The last line stands careful reading， leaving a lot for the reader to reflect on.Exemplary of the traditional Chinese farewell poetry， Wang Wei’s poem was put to tune and became one of the most popular Yue fu songs in China. Someone even turned it into Das hi diao Yangguang sandie《大石調陽關三疊》（See Appendix）， and some translators， like Xu Yuanzhong， simply title it “A Farewell Song”：No dust is raised on pathways wet with morning rain， The willows by the tavern look so fresh and green.
I invite you to drink a cup of wine again，West of the Southern Pass no more friends will be seen.45which is quite similar to another rendering：A morning shower in Weicheng has settled the light dust； The willows by the hostel are fresh and green；Come， drink one more cup of wine，West of the pass you will meet no more old friends.46But when we compare them with Pound’s lines， likeLight rain is on the light dust.we find musical rhythm and poetic melody， with fresh images dancing rhythmically around.The place name Yangguan “ 陽關 ” in line 4 seems to be negligible. However， it is treated so differently in these translations. Pound turns it into “the gates of Go”. While “Go” could have been “Yo” in Japanese， meaning “陽” ，the word “Go” sparkles our imagination with its English meanings， both connotative and denotative. And， by mere chance perhaps， it goes perfectly with the whole piece， making one feel that it produces a wonderful “foreignizing” effect well blended with that of “domestication”.6.10 Cathay poem No. 10： Separation on the River Kiang黃 鶴 樓 送 孟 浩 然 之 廣 陵 唐 • 李 白 （Huanghe Lou song Meng Haoran zhi Guangling， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）故 人 西 辭 黃 鶴 樓 ， Ko-jin goes west from Ko-kaku-ro，Guren xi ci Huanghe Lou
煙 花 三 月 下 揚 州 。Yanhua san yue xia Yangzhou孤 帆 遠 影 碧 空 盡 ，Gufan yuanying bikong jin唯 見 長 江 天 際 流 。Weijian Changjiang tianji liuThe smoke-flowers are blurred over the river.His lone sail blots the far sky.And now I see only the river，The long Kiang， reaching heaven.Rihaku黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵 唐 • 李白故 人 西 辭 黃 鶴 樓 ，煙 花 三 月 下 揚 州 。 孤 帆 遠 影 碧 空 盡 ，唯 見 長 江 天 際 流 。47This brilliant Qi-jue quatrain of Li Bai’s，which has enjoyed great popularity over the centuries， is typical of classical departure/landscape poetry， like Wang Wei’s. However， unlike most farewell poems， there is no sorrow or sadness. You see， as both the author and his bosom friend， Meng Haoran， are carefree and romantic poets， they take the separation with ease and in high spirit， being immersed in the blissful spring air of a famous scenic spot， Huang He Lou （the Yellow Crane Tower）. The tower was so named because， as the legend goes， an immortal flew to heaven on the back of a crane from here. Besides， the friend is going to Yangzhou （Guangling）， a rich and prosperous metropolis， where he can enjoy all the pleasure of life. While the first couplet sets the scene and mood， with heaven and earth joined together by the crane， the real beauty lies in the second couplet， with the camera lens switching from image to image and producing a montage effect， an ineffable synthesis. The poet watches his friend’s boat sailing
farther and farther until it vanishes into the sky. And in the end， the poet can only see the rolling river flowing to heaven. This poem has proved to be so popular with the English-speaking readers that I have found myself landing on at least six English versions， which may deserve a brief study. While Pound simply names his poem Separation on the River Kiang （Kiang/Jiang is a transliteration of 江 River）， the others title theirs variously “Farewelling Meng Hao-jan at Yellow Crane Tower” （Rewi Alley）， “Seeing Meng Haoran Off at Yellow Crane Tower” （Xu Yuanzhong）， “Seeing Meng Haoran Off to Kuangling” （Paul Kroll）， and “Farewell： on seeing Meng Hao-jan off from Brown Crane Tower as he took his departure for Kuangling”，all of which seem a bit too explicit and rigid for poetry. Whereas Pound’s focus is on the Kiang， the river， which is repeated in the title and in lines 2，4 and 5，the others feast their eyes on Yellow/Brown Crane Tower， Guangling/Kuangling or the friend， Meng Haoran， demonstrating different angles and focuses of aesthetic appreciation.Again， it seems， Rewi Alley’s translation shows the sharpest contrast to Pound’s：At the Yellow Crane Tower there comes farewell to Meng Hao-jan； it is the sweetest time of spring； he goes east to Yangchow，I watching the sail of his boat going ever further and further， until at last it vanishes in the clear blue sky， yet my heart runs with the Yangtse waters flow ing， ever flowing.which， being more accurate， both factually and semantically， could serve as an excellent complementary and explanatory
reading material for a classical Chinese poetry course. On the other hand， Pound blunders over some glosses. For example， in the beginning line “Ko-jin goes west from Ko-kaku-ro”，he made a mistake of direction， although “Ko-jin” sounds more like the intimate personal name of a close friend in the exotic Far East， thus succeeding in combining “familiarization” with “foreignization”. Moreover， Li Bai is implicit. In his poem， we do not find a single word describing his feeling explicitly， yet we can feel his heart pulsating with the rolling waves. Here we seem to feel the poet’s heart and vision dilate and become infinite as heaven and universe. And Pound preserves the flowing grace that is characteristic of Li Bai’s poetry.6.11 Cathay poem No. 11： Taking Leave of a Friend送友人 李 白 （Song you ren， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）青 山 橫 北 郭 ， Qingshan heng beiguoBlue mountains to the north of the walls，白 水 繞 東 城 。 Baishui rao dongchengWhite river winding about them；此 地 一 爲 別 ， Ci di yi wei bieHere we must make separation，孤 蓬 萬 里 征 。Gu peng wanli zhengAnd go out through a thousand miles of dead grass.浮 雲 遊 子 意 ， Fu yun youzi yiMind like a floating wide cloud，落 日 故 人 情 。 Luori guren qingSunset like the parting of old acquaintances
Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance.Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing.青 山 橫 北 郭 ，白 水 繞 東 城 。 此 地 一 爲 別 ，孤 蓬 萬 里 征 。 浮 雲 遊 子 意 ，落 日 故 人 情 。 揮 手 自 茲 去 ，蕭 蕭 班 馬 鳴 。48Though， the friend that the poet is seeing off is unknown， the ignorance of this detail has not prevented this poem from becoming one of the most popular departure poems， familiar to almost every Chinese that has a reasonable education or has cultivated a taste for poety. A five-character-line Lu shi， consisting of two quatrains， starts with a refreshingly antithetic couplet and sharply contrasted images：thus creating an atmosphere of quiet and solemnity， a combination of the static and the dynamic， with the dark mountains standing majestic and the clear， white waters flowing by merrily. Then in the second couplet， we see the poet and his friend， each on horseback， filled with inextricable feelings， lingering and subdued， for each other， now that they must part. Lines 5 and 6 make another expressive and eloquent antithesis： the floating cloud and the setting sun are personified， with the floating， wandering cloud as a metaphor for his friend， and the lingering， setting sun for himself as his dear old friend. And this brings us to the last couplet， the climax of the poem： the friend turns his horse and is now on青山 橫 北 郭 ，白 水 繞 東 城 。揮 手 自 茲 去 ， Hui shou zi zi qu蕭 蕭 班 馬 鳴 。 Xiaoxiao ban ma ming
his way， waving a goodbye to the poet， while the horses understand their feelings and keep on neighing.As successes and pitfalls in poetry translation are fully reflected in the translation of this poem， either by Pound or by others， it offers an opportunity to study briefly the various versions of the last couplet：Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance，Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing.（Trans. Pound， 1915）We wave hands in parting， and then your horse turns his head back to me and whinnies， voicing too his grief.（Trans. Rewi Alley， 1980）We wave and you start on your wayf Your horse still neighs： “Adieu! Adieu! ”（Trans. Xu Yuanzhong， 1987）To wave a last adieu we sought，Voiced fo r us by each whinnying steed !（Trans. Herbert Giles， 1901）We ride away from each other， waving our hands，While our horses neigh softly， softly.（Trans. Obata Shigeyoshi， 1922）Our hands separate. Now he is going.“Hsiao， hsiao” the horse neighs.He neighs again， “Hsiao， Hsiao. ”（Trans. Amy Lowell， 1921）
Your hand waves us adieu； and lo !You start，And dismally your horse retiring neighs.（Trans. J. G. Fletcher， 1919）We wave our hands to say goodbye，And my horse is neighing again and again.（Trans. Witter Bynner， 1929）What is at issue here is the fact that different translators from different cultural backgrounds， with different motives， and in different historical periods， even if they belong to the same poetic tradition， perceive and interpret the source differently and respond differently. Indeed， if you give the poem to ten or a hundred competent translator-poets or poet-translators， the actual translations will never be identical， a translator’s， and， of course， a poet’s， style and trait being as individual as his/her fingerprints. With this understanding being reached， we can explore and discuss many questions. Again take the last couplet for example. Who， after all，揮 手 自茲去 ? Is it the friend， or either， or both the friend and the poet ? Pound links it up with the preceding couplet， “Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances/ Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance.” Obviously Pound had learned about， and was impressed by， ancient Chinese or Japanese etiquette. So， instead of “waving”，he used， mistakenly， “bow over their clasped hands”. And whose horse or horses are neighing ?And also there is the problem with various source editions from which the English texts have arisen. The Chinese character， “蓬” （a “grass” radical） in line 4，“ 孤蓬萬里征” can be fatal if it is written “篷” （a “bamboo” radical possibly indicating a bamboo shelter on a boat）. A negligible slip-up in the source text may present a pitfall for the translator， which unfortunately happens to
Rewi Alley’s lines， “We here farewelling each other； /You like a lone boat sailing so faraway”，49 while Pound’s rendering is correct， thanks to Fenollosa and his Japanese sinologist professors of classical Chinese poetry.6.12 Cathay poem No. 12： Leave-Taking Near SHOKU“Sanso，King of Shoku， built roads”送友人入蜀 唐 • 李 白（Song youren ru Shu，Lia Bai， Tang dynasty）見 說 蠶 叢 路 ，Jianshuo canconglu崎 嶇 不 易 行 。Qiqu bu yi xing山 從 人 面 起 ，Shan cong renmian qi雲 傍 馬 頭 生 。 yun bang matou sheng芳 樹 籠 秦 棧 ，Fangshu long qinjian春 流 趫 蜀 城 。Chunliu rao shucheng升 沉 應 已 定 ，Sheng chen ying yiding不必問君平。 There is no need of asking diviners.Bubi wen Jun PingRihakuThey say the roads of Sanso are steep，Sheer as the mountains.The walls rise in a man’s face，Clouds grow out of the hill at his horse’s bridle.Sweet trees are on the paved way of the Shin， their trunks burst through the paving，And freshets are bursting their ice in the midst of Shoku， a proud city.Men’s fates are already set，
送友人入蜀 唐 • 李白見 說 蠶 叢 路 ，崎 嶇 不 易 行 。 山 從 人 面 起 ，雲 傍 馬 頭 生 。 芳 樹 籠 秦 棧 ，春 流 趫 蜀 城 。 升 沉 應 已 定 ，不 必 問 君 平 。50This is a beautiful lyric poem describing the exotically precipitous mountain paths， with rhythmical vitality. Pound gives it a somewhat inaccurate but interesting subtitle “Sanso， King of Shoku， built roads”，making it sound more exotic， and prompting one to think that the poet is seeing off a friend leaving “Shoku” for a foreign country. “Sanso” is the Japanese transliteration of ‘‘蠶叢”. In his attempt to explain the “the roads of Sanso”，Pound hit on the idea of turning “Sanso” into the “King of Shoku” who built roads! Sanso 蠶叢，as the first emperor of Shoku 蜀國，was notorious for “having absolutely nothing to do with the aliens” （the so-called “不與秦塞通人煙”），how could you expect him to build roads leading to the alien lands ? However， it is heartening to find an ancient Chinese king who built roads， which again fits perfectly with the general mood of the poem. Li Bai’s last couplet becomes ponderously philosophical， and so are Pound’s lines， though， understandably， he left out the “Jun Ping” allusion6.13 Cathay poem No. 13： The City of CHOAN登金陵鳳凰臺 唐 • 李 白 （Deng Jinling Fenghuang Tai， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）鳳 凰 臺 上 鳳 凰 遊 ， The phoenix are at play on theirFenghuangtai shang fenghuang you terrace.
鳳 去 臺 空 江 自 流 。Feng qu tai kong jiang zi liu吳 宮 花 草 埋 幽 徑 ，Wugong huacao mai youjing晉 代 衣 冠 成 古 丘 。Jindai yiguan cheng guqiu三山半落青天 外 ，Sanshan banluo qingtian wai二 水 中 分 白 鷺 洲 。Ershui zhong fen bailuzhou總 爲 浮 雲 能 蔽 日 ，Zong wei fuyun neng bi ri長 安 不 見 使 人 愁 。 Chang-an bijian shi ren chouThe phoenix are gone， the river flows on alone.Flowers and grass Cover over the dark path，The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin， are now the base of old hills.The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven，The isle of White Heron splits the two streams apart.Now the high clouds cover the sun，And I cannot see Choan afar And I am sad.登金陵鳳凰臺 唐 • 李白鳳 凰 臺 上 鳳 凰 遊 ，鳳 去 臺 空 江 自 流 。 吳 宮 花 草 埋 幽 徑 ，晉 代 衣 冠 成 古 丘 。 三山半落青天 外 ，二 水 中 分 白 鷺 洲 。 總 爲 浮 雲 能 蔽 日 ，長 安 不 見 使 人 愁 。51While Li Bai’s Song youren and Song youren ru Shu are Wu-yan Lu-shi （five-character metrical regulated poems）， each consisting of two quatrains or four couplets， Deng Jinling Fenghuang tai is a Qi-yan.Lu-shi （seven-character metrical regulated verse）. Lu-shi observes， in addition to strict rhyming system and verbal parallelism， rigid tonal patterns and parallelism of “ping” and
“ze”. Though， Li only wrote about ten Qi-yan Lu-shi poems， Deng Jinling Fenghuang tai has been acclaimed by many as the best， except its equal - Cui Hao’s （崔灝）Huang he Lou （黃鶴樓）. They do match well， each distinguishing itself with flowing grace and enchanting features. Though some claim that Li’s Fenghuang Tai （Phoenix Hill） is an imitation of Cui’s Huang he Lou （Yellow Crane Tower）， one tends to believe Li may have been inspired by Cui. Full of admiration for Cui， he wrote this poem echoing， as they were both gifted poets and contemporaries living in a great poetic age. Since an appreciation of Cui Hao’s Yellow Crane Tower may sharpen our appetite for Li Bai’s Phoenix Hill， let’s have some English translations of the poem （the original Chinese source text is given in the Appendix）：Where long ago a yellow crane bore a sage to heaven，Nothing s left now but the Yellow Crane Terrace.The yellow crane never revisited earth，And white clouds are flying without him fo r ever.Every tree in Hanyang becomes clear in the water，And Parrot Island is a nest of sweet grasses；But I look toward home，and twilight grows darkWith a mist of grief on the river waves. （Trans. Bynner）Here a mortal once sailed up to heaven on a crane， And a Yellow-Crane Kiosque will forever remain； But the bird flew away and will come back no more， Though the white clouds are there as the white clouds
of yore.Away to the east lie fa ir forests of trees，From flowers on the west comes a scent-laden breeze. Yet my eyes daily turn to their far-away home， Beyond the broad River， its waves and its foam.（Trans. Giles）Now let’s turn to Li Bai and study the English versions produced by Pound and others.Phoenixes that played here once，so that the place was named for them，Have abandoned it now to this desolate river；The path of Wu Palace are crooked with weed；The garments at Chin are ancient dust.Like the green horizon halving the Three Peaks，Like this Island of White Egrets dividing the river，A cloud has arisen between the Light of Heaven and me，To hide his city from my melancholy heart.（Trans. Bynner）Phoenix H ill must have had a phoenic；but now it has gone， though below the Yangse waters run as
they did before； once herewas a palace， but now wildgrasses have covered evenits paths； during the timesof Tsin，great officials whocame here，have long lainUnder their grave mounds； nowI looking into the distancesee as if outside heaven，three mountain tops，thenI look down at the Great Rivernoting how White Heron Island dividesthe waters； some say thatfloating cloud can cut outthe light of the sun （1）； I grievethat I cannot again see mybeloved Chan gan city.（1） The sun possibly refers to the Emperor while floating cloud a bad courtier.（Trans. Rewi Alley）It seems that all translations， be it Pound’s， or Bynner’s，or Rewi Alley’s， are wonderful， flowing with a natural glow and ease and pregnant with meaning， heart and soul， assuring us of a superb source poem. No wonder Chu Xu marvelled， “When the Phoenix spread its wings， it catches up with the flying Yellow Crane !” 52
6.14 Cathay poem No. 14： South-Folk in Cold Country古 風 （其六） 唐 • 李白（Gu feng Ⅵ： Daima bu si Yue， Li Bai， Tang dynasty）代 馬 不 思 越 ，越 禽 不 戀 燕 。情 性 有 所 習 ，土 風 固 其 然 。 昔 別 雁 門 關 ，今 戍 龍 庭 前 。驚 沙 亂 海 日 ，飛 雪 迷 胡 天 。蠛 蝨 生 虎 鵾 ，心 魂 遂 旌 旃 。苦 戰 功 不 賞 ，忠 誠 難 可 宣 。誰 憐 李 飛 將 ，白首沒三邊？The Dai horse neighs against the bleak wind of Etsu，The birds of Etsu have no love for En， in the North，Emotion is born out of habit. Yesterday we went out of the Wild- Goose gate，Today from the Dragon-Pen. [1] Surprised. Desert turmoil. Sea sun. Flying snow bewilders the barbarian heaven.Lice swarm like ants over our accoutrements.Mind and spirit drive on the feathery banners.Hard fight gets no reward.Loyalty is hard to explain.Who will be sorry for General Rishogu， the swift moving， Whose white head is lost for this province ?[1] i.e.， we have been warring from one end of the empire to the other， now east， now west， on each border.
古 風 （其六） 唐 • 李 白代 馬 不 思 越 ，越 禽 不 戀 燕 。 情 性 有 所 習 ，土 風 固 其 然 。 昔 別 雁 門 關 ，今 戍 龍 庭 前 。 驚 沙 亂 海 日 ，飛 雪 迷 胡 天 。 蠛蝨生虎鶡 ，心 魂 遂 旌 旃 。 苦 戰 功 不 賞 ，忠 誠 難 可 宣 。 誰 憐 李 飛 將 ，白首沒三邊？53Together with Song of the Bowmen of Shu and Lament of the Frontier Guard， South-Folk in Cold Country is themed on war and the tragic sufferings it has brought about. Pound supplies a note to line 5： “i.e.，we have been warring from one end of the empire to the other， now east， now west， on each border.” Instead of translating from the metaphorical “Daima bu si Yue”，he gives it a plain and unambiguous title， “South-Folk in Cold Country”，thus further enforcing the anti-war theme. Unlike the other poems selected for Cathay， this is not a very popular poem for anthologists or translators， so we have reason to believe that Pound chooses his poem purposefully to build up the anti-war element of Cathay.Li Bai seems to narrate the tragic death of the Han dynasty general， Li Guang， but actually he is alluding to and criticizing the corrupt politics of the Tang dynasty. The over-ambitious and unrealistic emperor enjoyed doing grandiose things， craving for more power and territories. He launched one war after another， bringing untold sufferings to people. The muddle-headed emperor could not even distinguish between those meriting rewards and those deserving punishments. Slandering out of jealousy ruled the Tang dynasty court and many honest and brave generals were wronged， persecuted， and died uncleared of false charges. All these
are successfully brought out in Pound’s lines：Flying snow bewilders the barbarian heaven.Lice swarm like ants over our accoutrements.Hard fights gets no reward.Loyalty is hard to explain.Who will be sorry for General Rishogu，The swift-moving ，Whose white head is lost for this province?And here we also feel genuine sympathy pouring from the conscience of Li Bai and Pound.6.15 Cathay poem No. 15： Sennin Poem by KAKUHAKU遊仙詩（其二） 晉 • 郭璞（Youxian shi Ⅲ ，Feicui xi lan tiao， Guo Pu， Jin dynasty）翡 翠 戲 蘭 苕 ，容 色 更 相 鮮 。 綠 蘿 結 局 林 ， 蒙 蘢 蓋 一 山 。 中 有 冥 寂 士 ， 靜 嘯 撫 淸 弦 。 放 情 凌 霄 外 ， 嚼 蕊 挹 飛 泉 。赤 松 臨 上 游 ，駕 鴻 乘 紫 煙 。The red and green kingfishersflash between the orchids and clover， One bird casts its gleam on another. Green vines hang through the high forest， They weave a whole roof to the mountain， The lone man sits with shut speech，He purrs and pats the clear strings.He throws his heart up through the sky， He bites through the flower pistil and brings up a fine fountain.The red-pine-tree god looks at him and wonders.He rides through the purple smoke to visit the sennin
[2] Name of a sennin.遊仙詩（其三） 晉 · 郭璞Though a bit remote， obscure and absent from most source anthologies， Guo Pu，s Youxian shi Ⅲ， Feicui xi lan tiao must have caught Pound’s attention with those dazzling images： green kingfishers， orchids and clover， green vines climbing up the high forest and covering up the mountain， an immortal， a hermit， etc.， etc. In fact， Pound succeeds in ushering us into a strange， mysterious world swarming with interesting creatures and beings， and glowing with refreshing and stunning animation：The red and green kingfishersFlash between the orchids and clover，One bird casts its gleam on another.Green vines hang through the high forest，They weave a whole roof to the mountain.左 挹 浮 邱 袖 ， He takes “Floating Hill”[2] by the sleeve，右 拍 洪 崖 肩 。 He claps his hand on the backof the great water sennin.借問蜉 蝣 輩 ， But you，you darn’d crowd of gnats，寧 知 龜 鶴 年 ！ Can you even tell the age of a turtle ?翡 翠 戲 蘭 苕 ，容 色 更 相 鮮 。 綠 蘿 結 高 林 ，蒙 蘢 蓋 一 山 。 中 有 冥 寂 士 ，靜 嘯 撫 淸 弦 。 放 情 凌 霄 外 ，嚼 蕊 挹 飛 泉 。 赤 松 臨 上 游 ，駕 鴻 乘 紫 煙 。 左 挹 浮 邱 袖 ，右 拍 洪 崖 肩 。 借問蜉蝣 輩 ，寧 知 龜 鶴 年 ！ 54
Just imagine green vines “weaving a whole roof” over the mountain， the “lone man throwing his heart up through the sky”， “biting through the flower pistil and bringing up a fine fountain”， and the “red-pine-tree god looking at him and wondering” ! Pound begins five lines in rapid succession with the nominative “He”： “He rides through the purple smoke to visit the sennin，” “He takes the ‘Floating Hill，by the sleeve”，and “He claps his hand on the back of the great water sennin”，with such boldness of vision and daring strokes that we have to admit that the work is accomplished by a poetic genius. The last two lines， which are even more powerful and daunting， conclude the poem admirably：But you， you dam ’d crowd of gnats，Can you even tell the age of a turtle ?As I have mentioned in the source search， ancient Chinese poets tend to be closely associated with popular Daoism， and many of their poems “abound in descriptions and depictions of immortals， cavorting in the mountain fastness that are their habitat or winging to the sky on the back of a white crane”.55 Here the poet Guo Pu projects his thoughts and feelings into the “lone man” living secluded， sublimating and scorning the worldly wealth and emolument.6.16 Cathay poem No. 16： Ballad of The Mulberry Road陌 上 桑 漢 樂 府 民 歌 無名氏（Mo Shang Song，Yue fu Song of Han dynasty， Anonymous）日 出 東 南 隅 ， The sun rises in the south-east corner ofthings照 我 秦 氏 樓 。 To look on the tall house of the Shin
秦 氏 有 好 女 ， 自 名 爲 羅 敷 。羅 敷 喜 蠶 桑 ，采 桑 城 南 隅 。青 絲 爲 籠 系 ，桂 枝 爲 籠 鉤 。頭 上 倭 墮 髻 ，耳 中 明 月 珠 。 緗綺 爲 下 裙 ， 紫綺爲上襦 。行 者 見 羅 敷 ， 下擔捋 髭 鬚 。For they have a daughter named Rafu （pretty girl）She made the name for herself： “Gauze Veil”，For she feeds mulberries to silkworms. She gets them by the south wall of the town.With green strings she makes the warp of her basket，She makes the shoulder-straps of her basket from the boughs of Katsura， And she piles her hair up on the left side of her head-piece.Her earrings are made of pearl，Her underskirt is of green pattern-silk， Her overskirt is the same silk dyed in purple，And when men going by look on Rafu They set down their burdens，They stand and twirl their moustaches.陌 上 桑 漢 樂 府 民 歌 無 名 氏（Fenollosa MSS， very early）日出 東 南 隅 ，照 我 秦 氏 樓 。 秦 氏 有 好 女 ，自 名 爲 羅 敷 。 羅 敷 喜 蠶 桑 ，采 桑 城 南 隅 。 青絲 爲 籠 系 ，桂 枝 爲 籠 鉤 。 頭 上 倭 墮 髻 ，耳 中 明 月 珠 。 緗綺 爲 下 裙 ，紫綺爲上襦 。 行 者 見 羅 敷 ，下擔捋髭 鬚 。56 [...]
This is one of the longest and best-known narrative poems collected by Han Yue-fu， i.e.， the Music Bureau of the Han dynasty. The original Chinese text， tuning to the three refrains of the musical pattern， also consists of three parts totalling 53 lines， of which Pound only translated the first 14 lines， discarding the rest， perhaps because he was only interested in these opening lines. Why ? A discussion of the original text may provide an answer.Luo Fu （Rafu， in Japanese）， traditionally， is the picture of beauty and the personification of an ideal Chinese woman and wife， whose “perfect” qualities are not directly described， but revealed or suggested through a dramatic dialogue between Luo Fu， the beautiful， faithful and hardworking wife and a frivolous governor. The first part of the folk song portrays her beauty， giving elaborate details about her basket for gathering mulberry leaves to feed her silkworms， her hairstyle， her earrings， apron， dress and cloak. The second part， lines 13-20，describes， from various facial expressions and reactions， the stunning effects and impression that Luo Fu has left on the on-lookers： travellers dropping their loads and stroking their beards in wonder； young men， free or married， doffing their hats in salute to win a glance； farmers forgetting their work， leaving their hoes in the field and finding fault with their wives. But Pound doesn’t wait long and stops at line 14，right after the first example is given. He leaves out the third part， lines 21-53， completely， the very part that most readers in traditional Chinese culture would applaud heartily， for it shows how the faithful Luo Fu rebuffs the faithless governor by dauntingly telling him that her own husband is a thousand times better than him， and of course， far superior ! It will be interesting if we compare the portraits of Luo Fu and of her husband. Indeed， not a single word is said of her face， her skin and her history of glory， but five full lines are used to depict his. Nevertheless， her physical beauty is unquestionable， judging by the spell she has on
the passers-by. But the poet gives more focus on her wit and inner beauty， especially her faithfulness to her husband.Here we see that Pound’s selection criterion was influenced， consciously or unconsciously， by his personal tastes， literary inclinations and cultural background. Perhaps he may have found the rebuff too much or unnecessarily daunting. He is more fascinated with the concrete details and objects that Luo Fu was wearing or carrying. And the naturalization of the heroine’s name from Rafu （Luo Fu） through “pretty girl” to “ Gauze Veil” vividly demonstrates the process of sticking to the foreign words to bring an exotic touch to the target text and then of domesticating them to make them more familiar and acceptable to the targeted audience.6.17 Cathay poem No. 17： Old Idea of CHOAN by ROSORIUThe narrow streets cut into the wide highway at Choan，Dark oxen， white horses， drag on the seven coaches with outriders The coaches are perfumed wood，The jewelled chair is held up at the crossway， Before the royal lodge：A glitter of golden saddles， awaiting the princess；They eddy before the gate of the barons. The canopy embroidered with dragons drinks in and casts back the sun.長 安 古 意 唐 · 盧照鄰（Changan guyi， Lu Zhaolin， Tang dynasty）Ⅰ長 安 大 道 連 狹 斜 ， 青牛 白 馬 七 香 車 。玉 輦 縱 橫 過 主 第 ， 金 鞭 絡 繹 向 侯 家 。龍 銜 寶 蓋 承 朝 日 ，
鳳吐流蘇帶晚霞 。 百 丈 游 絲 爭 繞 樹 ， 一 群 嬌 鳥 共 啼 花 。啼 花 戲 蝶 千 門 側 ，碧 樹 銀 臺 萬 種 色 。複 道 交 窗 作 合 歡 ， 雙 闕 連 甍 垂 鳳 翼 。梁 家 畫 閣 天 中 起 ， 漢 帝 金 莖 雲 外 直 。 樓 前 相 望 不 相 知 ， 陌上相逢詎 相 識 ？Evening comes.The trappings are bordered with mist. The hundred cords of mist are spread through and double the trees，Night birds， and night women，Spread out their sounds through the gardens.ⅡBirds with flowery wing， hoveringbutterflies crowd over the thousand gates，Trees that glitter like jade， terraces tinged with silver，The seed of a myriad hues，A network of arbours and passages and covered ways，Double towers， winged roofs， border the network of ways：A place of felicitous meeting.Riu，s house stands out on the sky， with glitter of colour As Butei of Kan had made the high golden lotus to gather his dews，Before it another house which I do not know：How shall we know all the friendswhom we meet on strange roadways?
長安古意 唐 • 盧照鄰長 安 大 道 連 狹 斜 ，青牛 白 馬 七 香 車 。 玉 輦 縱 橫 過 主 第 ，金 鞭 絡 繹 向 侯 家 。 龍 銜 寶 蓋 承 朝 日 ，鳳吐流蘇帶晚霞 。 百 丈 游 絲 爭 繞 樹 ，一 群 嬌 鳥 共 啼 花 。 啼 花 戲 蝶 千 門 側 ，碧 樹 銀 臺 萬 種 色 。 複 道 交 窗 作 合 歡 ，雙 闕 連 甍 垂 鳳 翼 。 梁 家 畫 閣 天 中 起 ，漢 帝 金 莖 雲 外 直 。 樓 前 相 望 不 相 知 ，陌上相逢詎相 識 ？57 [...]Perhaps， to Pound’s great delight and surprise， here he witnesses a spectacular display of a prosperous ancient Chinese capital， a cosmopolitan city， with its fabulous wealth， extremely colourful urban life and frank celebrations of sensual pleasures. Indeed， the greatest and richest capital of the most glamorous era in ancient China is simply overwhelming to the outsider， who is bitterly disappointed and fed up with modern urban life. Unfortunately， Pound opted only for the first 16 line. Was he in too much a hurry? Was he so easily satisfied with this impressive array of concrete urban images that he deemed it sufficient to represent the whole? His radical imagist principles may have cost him dear here because the 16 lines， accounting for less than a quarter of the original， fail to present the scope， depth and dimension of the original， though we know that Pound seemed to favour shorter poems for a small volume. Had Pound been a little more patient， he would have been more impressed by the vigour， strength， prosperity and wealth created by a great ancient civilization.
6.18 Cathay poem 18： TO-EM-MEI’S “The Unmoving Cloud”停雲 晉 • 陶淵明（Tingyun，Tao Yuanming， Jin dynasty）“Wet springtime，” says To-Em-Mei， “Wet spring in the garden.”靄 靄 停 雲 ， 濛 濛 時 雨 。 八 表 同 昏 ，平 路 伊 阻 。 靜 寄 東 軒 ，春 醪 獨 撫 。 良 朋 悠 邈 ， 搔 首 延 佇 。ⅠThe clouds have gathered，and gathered， And the rain falls and falls，The eight ply of the heavens are all folded into one darkness，And the wide， flat road stretches out.I stop in my room toward the East， quiet， quiet，I pad my new cask of wine.My friends are estranged， or far distant，I bow my head and stand still.停 雲 靄 靄 ，時 雨 濛 濛 。Rain，rain， and the clouds have gathered， 八表同昏 ， The eight ply of the heavens are darkness，平陸成江 。 The flat land is turned into river.有 酒 有 酒 ， “Wine，wine， here is wine !”閑 飮 東 窗 。 I drink by my eastern window.願 言 懷 人 ， I think of talking and man，舟 車 靡 從 。 And no boat， no carriage， approaches.東 園 之 樹 ， 枝 條 再 榮 。ⅢThe trees in my east-looking garden Are bursting out with new twigs，Ⅱ
Tao Yuanming A.D. 365-427 END OF CATHAY （3266 words，528 lines）停 雲 晉 • 陶淵明靄 靄 停 雲 ，濛 濛 時 雨 。 八 表 同 昏 ，平 路 伊 阻 。 靜 寄 東 軒 ，春 醪 獨 撫 。 良 朋 悠 邈 ，搔 首 延 佇 。停 雲 靄 靄 ，時 雨 濛 濛 。 八 表 同 昏 ，平 陸 成 江 。 有 酒 有 酒 ，閑 飮 東 窗 。 願 言 懷 人 ，舟 車 靡 從 。東 園 之 樹 ，枝 條 再 榮 。 競 用 新 好 ，以 招 余 情 。 人 亦 有 言 ，日 月 於 征 。 安 得 促 席 ，說 彼 平 生 。競 用 新 好 ，以 招 余 情 。 人 亦 有 言 ，日月 於 征 。安 得 促 席 ，說 彼 平 生 。翩 翩 飛 鳥 ，息 我 庭 柯 。 斂 翮 閑 止 ，好 聲 相 和 。 豈 無 他 人 ，念 子 實 多 。願 言 不 獲 ，抱 恨 如 何 ！They try to stir new affection，And men say the sun and moon keep on moving.Because they can’t find a soft seat.The birds flutter to rest in my tree， And I think I have heard them saying， “It is not that there are no other men， But we like this fellow the best，But however we long to speak，He cannot know of our sorrow.”
翩 翩 飛 鳥 ，息 我 庭 柯 。 斂 翮 閑 止 ，好 聲 相 和 。 豈 無 他 人 ，念 子 實 多 。 願 言 不 獲 ，抱 恨 如 何 ！ 58Again， Pound’s manipulative courage， resourcefulness and skills inspire awe and admiration. Tao Yuanming is well known for his habit of prefacing his poems with a short essay， and some of these prefaces rank among the best of prose writings in Chinese literature. His preface， in many cases， is vital， as a key either to open his ideas or to hide them. For his Tingyun， he wrote something like：Tingyun is written expressing my thoughts of a close friend. The cask is brimming with newly-filled rice-wine， and the garden is bursting with spring flowers. But I cannot be with the one I wish. I can’t help feeling sad.However， Pound took over the pen， or brush， from Tao Yuanming， and scribbled “Wet springtime， says To-Em- Mei， / Wet spring in the garden.” which may upset Tao， but which fits miraculously into his own poem， “The Unmoving Cloud”，with a harmonizing effect.Pound opens Cathay with a poem translated from Cai wei， a Shi jing song in the four-character form， and he closes Cathay， with Tingyun， again in the four-character form. Rather than a coincidence， it is a deliberate effort on Pound’s part. Tao left us 126 poems， and only nine of them are Si-yan shi， i.e.， written in four-character form. Obviously Pound likes these neat and brisk lines， looking so visually alive. And the opening poem and closing poem do give Cathay a look of completeness.
1 Details about these source books will be given when we come to the individual poem and its source text.2 Hoey， M. and Houghton， D.， Contrastive Analysis and Translation， in Mona Baker， ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies， London： Routledge， 1998， p. 47.3 Sometimes called by the French term vers lib re， free verse is a verse released from the convention of metre， with its regular pattern of stresses and line lengths. It is printed in broken-up lined like verse， and it is often very rhythmical， even containing patches of metrical regularity. But overall a poem in free verse cannot be resolved into the regular lines of repeated feet that characterize traditional versification. Free verse was developed and used extensively by modernist poets， like T. S. Eliot， Pound and W. C. Williams. Eliot's The Waste Land is one of the masterpieces of free verse. In free verse the variation between run-on and end-stopped lines is just as significant as in metrical poetry. Variation of line length and lines that break up sentences and even words， are also common features.4 Yuan，Xingpei （袁 行 霈 ）ed， ： Lidai mingpian jia n shang《歷 代 名 篇 鑑 賞 》， originally published by Zhongguo Wenlian （原 出 版 者 ：中國文聯出版公司）： Taiwan： Wunan Tushu （台 灣 版 印 行 者 ：五 南 圖 書 出 版 有 限 公 司 ），1993 ， pp. 44-47. Also see Shi jing y izhu《詩 經 譯 註 》Annotations to Shi Jing，Jilin： Wenshi Press， 1955， pp. 206-208； Shi jing quany i《詩 經 詮譯 》Annotated Shijing， Hong Kong： Elephant Press， 1997， pp. 283-287； and Wenyi jianshang dacheng《文 藝 鑑賞大成》 Encyclopedia of Literary Appreciation， Shanghai： Shanghai wenyi Press， 1998，pp. 247-248.5 孔 子 說 ：“《詩 》三 百 ，一 言 以 蔽 之 ，曰 ：‘思無邪’ 。” “不 學 詩 ，無 以 言 。” See On Governing， and On Teaching in Analect.6 The didactic nature of Shi jing is vividly demonstrated by this story in Analect： Chen Kang asked Bo Yu， the son of Confucius， “Since you are with the Master all day long， do you get any special instruction ?” “No，” answered Bo Yu. “One day my father was standing in the courtyard and I quickened my steps to
cross __________ over. He stopped me and asked， “Have you studied Shijing ?’ I replied，‘Not yet.’ He said， ‘you will not know how to speak prop erly unless you study it.’ After that， I began to study Shi jing. Another day， again I came across my father in the courtyard. He asked， 'Have you studied Li j i （The Book of Rites） ?’ I answered， ‘Not yet.’ He said， ‘You will not know how to conduct yourself unless you study it.’ After that I began to study the book. These two things may be said to be the special instruction I have received from my father.” Chen Kang went away feeling delighted， saying， “I asked only one question， but I learned three things： I learned about Shi jing； I learned about Li j i ； and I also learned that a gentleman never gives any special favour to his son.”Chappie， A .S.， Ezra Pound’s Cathay： Compilation from the Fenollosa ’s Notebooks， Paideuma 17.2 and 3， 1988，pp. 9-42，in Qian Zhaom ing， Orientalism and Modernism， pp. 59-60.8 Kenner， H.， The Pound Era， Berkeley： University of California Press，1971， p. 356.9 See Note 1 above， p. 10.10 Zhao， Yiheng， Yuanyou de Shishen， p. 188.11 Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， p. 60.12 For details， see Qian Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， pp. 74-76.13 Gu Tang shi he j i e 《古 唐 詩 合 解 》Annotations to Tang Poetry， Vol.I， p. 1. Shen， Deqian， Gu shi y u a n 《古 詩 源 》，Sources of Ancient Poems： Yue Lu， 1998， P 59. Lin， Geng （林 庚 ）《古 詩 十 九 首 • 青青河 畔 草 》，in Yuan Xingpei， ed.（ 歷 代 名 篇 鑑 賞 集 成 》Best Known Poems Over Past Dynassties， Taiwan： Wunan Tushu （台 灣 版 印 行 者 ：五 南 圖 書 出 版 有 限 公 司 ），1993，pp. 303-304.《朱自 淸 馬 茂 元 說 古 詩 十 九 首 》Zhu Ziqing and Ma Maoyuan： On 19 Ancient Poems， Shanghai： Guji， 1999.14 Wen xuan 《文選 》，Selected Literary Works， is the earliest selection of works compiled by Xiao Tong， Prince Zhao Ming of Liang， so it is also called Zhao Ming Wen xuan， culled from shi and ci-fu works ranging from the early Qin to Liang dynasties. Wen xuan， consisting of more than seven hundred poems， is classified into thirty-seven categories. It is owing to this selection that many
important works of ancient times have survived.15 The Nineteen Ancient Poems of the H a n 《古 詩 十 九 首 • 漢 》 consists of 19 anonymous untitled poems， the first line of each poem serving as the title.16 Mao Zedong： To Comrade Ding Ling - to the tune of Lin jiang xian， in Poems of Mao Zedong， translated and annotated by Gu Zhengkun， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1993， p.245.17 Waley， Arthur， trans. A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems， New York： Alfred A. Knopf， 1919.18 Giles， H .A.， trans. Gems of Chinese Literature. 1884. New York： Paragon Book Reprint Corp. and Dover Publications， 1965.19 Quan Tang s h i《全唐詩》， Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 391.Tang shi biecai j i 《唐 詩 別 裁 集 》，Shen， Deqian ed. （Qing dynasty）（淸代沈德 潛編），Changsha： Yue Lu （岳麓書社出版），1998， p. 136.Quan Tang shi jingxuan y izh u《全 唐 詩 精 選 譯 註 》，Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000，pp. 305-306.Tang shi he j i e 《唐 詩 合 解 》，annotated by Wang， Yiyun， Shanghai： Hong Bao Bookshop， 1921， p. 8.Li Bai q u an ji《李 白 全 集 》， annotated by Bao Fang， Shanghai： Guji， 1996， p. 60.Li Bai shixuan 《李 白 詩 選 》，B eijing： Renmin Wenxue Press， 1983， pp. 27-29.20 Xu Yuanzhong， et al. Tang shi san bai shou xin y i 《唐 詩 三 百 首 新 譯 》300 TangPoems： A New Translation， Hong Kong： The Commercial Press， 1st Edition 1987，3rd Edition 1993，p.83 and p. 401.21 Quan Tang s h i《全唐詩》，Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 386.Quan Tang shi jingxuan yizhu《全唐詩精選譯註》，ed. Yang Zuoyi， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000，pp. 290-292.Li Bai q u an ji《李 白 全 集 》，annotated by Bao Fang， Shanghai： Guji， 1996， p. 38.Li Bai shixuan 《李 白 詩 選 》，B eijing： Renmin Wenxue Press， 1983， pp. 14-16. Tang shi san bai shou jin y i 《唐 詩 三 百 首 今 譯 》，X i’an： San Qin Press， 1992，pp. 65-68.
Yuan， Xingpei （袁 行 霈 ），ed. Li dai mingpian jian s h a n g 《歷 代 名篇鑑 賞 》， Taiwan： Wunan Tushu （台 灣 ：五 南 圖 書 出 版 有 限 公 司 出 版 ），1993， pp. 698-701.Jin， Di （金 隄），Lun deng xiao f a n y i《論 等 效 翻 譯 》On Equivalent Effect Translation， in Yin nan jian qiao、《因 難 見 巧 》ed. Jin， Serena & Huang， Guobin， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co. 1996， p. 46.Homberger， Eric， ed. Ezra Pound： The Critical Heritage. London and New York： Routledge， first published in 1972， reprinted in 1997，p. 221.Rewi Alley， trans. Li Pai： 200 Selected Poems， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.， first published in 1980，third impression 1987， pp. 11-12.Rewi Alley， trans. Li Pai： 200 Selected Poems， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.，first published in 1980， third impression 1987，p. xv.Ibid. p.x.Quart Tang s h i《全 唐 詩 》Vol. I，Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 381.Quan Tang shi jingxuan yizhu《全 唐 詩 精 選 譯 註 》，ed. Yang Zuoyi， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000， pp. 256-251.Li Bai q u a n j i《李 白 全 集 》， annotated by Bao Fang， Shanghai： Guji， 1996， p. 16.Li Bai shixuan《李 白 詩 選 》，Beijing： Renmin Wenxue Press， 1983，pp. 223- 224. Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000， pp. 256-257.（Qing） Shen， Deqian， Tang shi bie caiji，《唐 詩 別 裁 集 》»annotated by L i， Kehe， Changsha： Yuelu， 1998， p. 32.Li Bai alluded to Li S i’s （李 斯 ）tragic end. Li Si， a famous historical figure （a Qin dynasty prime minister） who did not retire from political life after winning tremendous success for the emperor and was later put to death. Before the execution， in tears and with deep regret， he told his son， “How I wish we could go hunting again together with our yellow dogs !”Li Bai believed that if you did not retire or retreat into a secluded life after attaining fame and success， sooner or later you would come to a tragic end， like Li Si or Shi Chong （石 崇 ）. Shi Chong， one of the wealthiest men of the Jin dynasty， had a beautiful concubine by the name of Lu Zhu （綠珠 Riokushu or Ryokushu in Japanese）. Her beauty and musical gift aroused the jealousy and
hatred of the powerful Sun Xiu. Consequently， Lu Zhu jumped to her death and Shi Chong was killed.30 Whereas Li Si and Shi Chong were alluded to as warnings， Fan Li （范 蠡 ， Han-rei in Japanese） was given as an example to learn from， i.e.， he retired from public life and lived the free life of a recluse with his loved ones after fulfilling his ambitions.31 Quan Tang s h i《全唐詩》，Shanghai， Guji， 1986， p. 388.Li Bai Quanji， Shanghai： Guji， 1996，p. 45.Tang shi biecaiji， ed. Shcn， Deqian， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， p. 426.Li Bai shixuan，Beijing： Renmin wenxue， 1983，pp. 246-247.Quan Tang shi jingxuan yizhu， ed. Yang Zuoyi， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000， pp. 295-296.Mingjia j i an shang Tang shi daguang，《名家鑑賞唐詩大觀》，Shanghai： Ci shu Press， 1984， pp. 244-245.32 Guo， Wei （郭爲），《埃 玆 拉 • 龐德的中國湯》The Chinese Soup of Ezra Pound， in D ushu《讀 書 》，（Reading）， Issue 6，1988， 104-110.33 In Xu Yuanzhong， et al. Tang shi san bai shou xin y i 《唐 詩 三 百 首 新 譯 》300 Tang Poems： A New Translation， Hong Kong： The Commercial Press， 1st Edition 1987，3rd Edition 1993，p. 124.34 Rewi Alley， trans. Li Pai： 200 Selected Poems， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.， first published in 1980，third impression 1987，p. 186.35 Yuan， Xingpei， Zhongguo shige yishu yanjiu， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1996，pp. 259-260.36 Quan Tang shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986， p. 381.Li Bai quanji， Shanghai， Guji， 1996，p. 15.Rewi Alley， trans. Li Pai： 200 Selected Poems， Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.， first published in 1980，third impression 1987，p. 115.Tang shi jianshang c id ia n《唐 詩 鑑 賞 辭 典 》A Dictionary of Tang Poetry Appreciation， ed. Sun， Yuhua （孫玉華），Beijing： Yan Shan， 1996，pp. 207-209.37 Translated into English from Tang shi biecaiji《唐 詩 別 裁 集 》ed. Shen Deqian， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998，pp. 32-33.38 Zhao， Yiheng， Yuanyou de shi sheng， Chengdu： Sichuan People ’s Publishing
House， 1985， pp. 229-230.39 Wordsworth， W. （1770-1850） Preface to the Lyrical Ballads， in Collins Gem Dictionary of Quotations， London and Glasgow： Collins， p. 452.40 Quart Tang shi Vol. Ⅰ，Shanghai： Guji， 1986，1st print， p. 404.M ingjia jianshang Tang shi d a g u a n 《名 家 鑑 賞 唐 詩 大 觀 》Hong Kong： Commercial Press， 1984，pp. 287-290.Shen， Deqian， ed. Tang shi bie cai j i ，Changsha：Yue Lu， 1998，pp. 138-139. Yang， Zuoyi， ed. Quart Tang shi jing xuan yizhu， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000，pp. 344-348.Li Bai quart j i ， Shanghai： Guji， 1996，pp. 114-115.Li Bai shi xuan， Beijing： Renmin Wenxue， 1983， pp. 123-126.41 Translated from Shen， Deqian， Tang shi bie cai j i ， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， p. 138.42 Yuan， Xingpei， Zhongguo shige yishu yanjiu， Beijing， Beijing University Press， 1997，p. 255.43 See Tang shi biecaiji， ed. Shen Deqian， with comments by Li Kehe， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998，pp. 138-139， and some other collections of Tang poems.44 Quart Tang shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 300.Mingja jianshang Tang shi daguan， contributed by Liu Xuexie， Hong Kong： Shanghai Cishu，1984，pp. 195-196.Lidai mingpian jianshang， ed. Yuan Xingpei， contributed by Zhang Yanjin， Taiwan：Wunan Tushu，1993， pp. 612-614.Zhongguo wenxue. Gudai shige ju a n 《中 國 文 學 • 古 代 詩 歌 卷 》：Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research， 1998，pp. 120-121.45 Xu Yuanzhong， et al. Tangshi san bai shou xin yi 300 Tang Poems： A New Translation， Hong Kong： The Commercial Press， 1st Edition 1987， 3rd Edition 1993，p. 88.46 Zhongguo wenxue： gudai shige juan， ed. Zhongguo wenxue chubanshe， Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Learning， 1998，pp. 120-121.47 Quan Tang shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986， p. 408.Shen， Deqian， Tang shi biecaiji， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， p. 450.
Yuan， Xingpei， Lidai mingpian jianshang， Taiwan：Wunan，1993， pp. 722-723. Mingjia jianshang Tang shi daguan， Hong Kong： Shanghai cishu， contributed by Yu， Shucheng， 1984， pp. 300-302.48 Quan Tang shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 412.Shen， Deqian， Tang shi biecaiji，Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， p. 234.Mingjia jianshang Tang shi daguan， contributed by He， Guozhi， 1984， Hong Kong： Shanghai cishu， pp. 311-312.Tang shi jianshang cidian’ contributed by Hao， Rijing， Beijing： Yanshan， 1996， pp. 282-283，49 Rewi Alley， Li Bai： 200 Selected Poems、Hong Kong： Joint Publishing Co.， 1987，p. 216.50 Quan Tang Shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 412.Tang shi biecaiji， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， p. 234.Quan Tang shi jing xuan yizhu， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000， pp. 371-372.Li Bai Quanji， Shanghai： Guji， 1996，p. 149.Mingjia jianshang Tang shi daguan， contributed by He， Guozhi， Shanghai： Cishu， 1984，pp. 312-316.51 Quan Tang shi' Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 420.Li Bai Quanji， Shanghai： Guji， 1996， p. 13Li Bai shixuan， annotated by Ma， Q ian li， et al. of Fudang University， Beijing：Renmin Wenxue Press， 1983， pp. 7-9.Mingjia jianshang Tang shi daguan， contributed by Yuan Xingpei， Hong Kong： Shanghai Cishu， pp. 328-329.Sha Feng， Zhong shi yingyi xutan， Hong Kong： Da Guang， 1974，pp. 52-56.52 Translated from Yuan Xingpei， ed. Lidai mingpian jaingshang， Taibei： Wunan Tushu， 1993， P. 621.53 Quan Tang shi’ Shanghai： Guji， 1986，p. 381.Li Bai Quanji， Shanghai： Guji， 1996，p. 13.54 Chen， Qingyuan（陳慶元）， et al. ed.， Xinbian gushi san bai shou《新 編 古 詩三百首》Nanjing： Jiangsu Guji， 1995， pp. 313-315.Gu shi yuan 《古 詩 源 》，ed. Shen， Deqian （Qing dynasty）， Beijing： Huaxia，
1998， p. 341.Lu， Huijuan （呂 慧 鵑 ）， et al. ed.， Zhongguo lida i zhuming wenxuejia pingzhuan， Jinan： Shandong Jiaoyu， 1983，pp. 379-391.Han-Wei Liu-Chao shi jianshang c id ian， contributed by Wu X iaoru， Shanghai： Shanghai Cishu， 1992，pp. 443-445.55 Watson， Burton， The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry： From Early times tothe 13th Century， New York： Columbia University Press， 1984，p. 7.56 Gu shi y u an 《古 詩 源 》， ed. Shen， Deqian （Qing dynasty）， annotated by MiaoHong， Beijing： Huaxia， 1998， pp. 119-121.Gu shi y u an《古 詩 源 》，ed. Shen， Deqian （Qing dynasty）， annotated by Sima， Han， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998，pp. 50-51.Qian Jia shi， ed. J in， Yuanpu， Taiyuan： Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe， 1998， pp. 17-20. Hans hi jinghua er bai shou， ed. N i， Qixin， X i’an： Shaanxi Remin Chubanshe， 1998， pp. 118-122.Han-Wei Liu-Chao shi jianshang c id ian， contributed by Wu X iaoru， Shanghai： Shanghai Cishu， 1992，pp. 82-87.57 Quan Tang shi， Shanghai： Guji， 1986，pp. 133-135.Lidai mingpian jianshang， ed. Yuan Xingpei， Taibei： Wunan Tushu， 1993， pp. 555-559.Quan Tang shi jingxuan yizhu， ed. Yang Zuoyi， Changchun： Changchun Publishing House， 2000，pp. 45-50.Ming jia jianshang Tang shi daguan， contributed by Zhou， Xiaotian， Hong Kong： Shanghai Cishu， 1984，pp. 8-13.Tang shi biecaiji， ed. Shen， Deqian， Changsha： Yue Lu， 1998， pp. 104-105.58 Xinbian gushi san bai shou， ed. Chen， qingyuan， et a l.， Nanjing： Jiangsu Guji， 1995， pp. 326-329.Tao Qian shijian zhujiao zheng-lun-ping， ed. Fang， zushen， Taibei： Lantai shuju 1971，pp. 96-99.L i， Jinquan， Tao Qian pingzhuan， Nanjing： Nanjing University Press， 1998.
Chapter SevenPound’s Poetics of Translation：The Case of CathayThe research into the “two sources” and the source authors culminating in a complete inventory of Cathay poems and their corresponding source texts in Chapters 1-4，the delineation of Ezra Pound’s Oriental and Occidental literary voyages in Chapter Five， and the comparative study of all the target and source texts in Chapter Six can now provide us with copious information and examples to move on to a discussion of Pound’s poetics of translation.By definition， the “poetics of translation”，derived from Aristotle’s Poetics， refers to the inventory of genres， themes and literary devices that comprise any literary system. In translation studies， it is concerned with the role that a literary system plays within the larger social system and how it interacts with foreign literary or semiotic sign systems. And in the field of comparative literary studies， the term “the poetics of translation” refers to the relationship between the poetics of a source text in its own literary system and that of the target text in the target system.The traditional school of translation scholars adopts a prescriptive approach， i.e.， these scholars tend to imagine and define what literary translation should be. They resort to a concept of “faithfulness”，paying more attention to fidelity to the sense or spirit of the original than linguistic accuracy. They
maintain that “if a particular poetic form can only exist within the boundaries of its own language， then the goal of translation must be to capture the sense of the original in an analogous rather than identical form， one that functions in a similar fashion within the target culture.” 1The more recent school of translation scholars adopts a descriptive， the so-called discovery approach， that is， they attempt to discover and describe what translations are rather than what they should be. Observing poetic devices in translations synchronically and diachronically， they by and large go beyond one-to-one comparisons to uncover poetic connections to， and deviations from， the literary traditions of both source and target texts， resulting in “fam iliarization”，“defamiliarization”， “domestication”，or “foreignization” effects. Such empirical studies have proved that faithfulness， whether linguistic or functional， is rare. As translators want their translated works to be understood and accepted in the target language and culture， of course they try their best to conform to the poetic constraints of the receiving culture rather than literally transferring the literary devices of the source texts.However， it would be a futile attempt if we tried to identify Ezra Pound with either of the two major camps. It seems that he belongs to neither， and yet he seems to straddle both. Translation studies， like translation practice itself， are so complicated that they simply defy narrow definitions and water-tight compartments. There are hundreds of prescriptive models describing the poetics of translation. In the British tradition， there are John Dryden’s “Preface to Ovid’s Epistles” （1680），Alexander Pope’s “Preface
to the Iliad of Homer” （1687），A. F. Tytler’ s Essay on the Principles of Translation （1791），Matthew Arnold’s “On Translating Homer” （1861）， Paul Selver’s The Art of Translating Poetry （1966）， C. Day Lewis’ On Translating Poetry （1970）， etc.， etc. Outlines of the poetics of translation in French， German and English traditions can be found in Horguelin （1981）， Lefevere（1977），and T. Steiner （1975）， respectively. James Holmes， “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies” （1971/1975） is generally accepted as the founding document for the discipline of translation studies practised in Prague， Belgium， Holland and Israel.2In China， there has been a parallel line of translation thought. Many important observations have been made on the subject of translation even in ancient times. But the most influential and epoch-making proposition of translation principles came with the most frequently quoted Yan Fu （1853-1912）， in his most succinct translation theory： the three- character formula-Xin-Da-Ya 信 · 達 · 雅 （faithfulness， expressiveness and elegance）. Since Yan Fu， there have been other maxims such as Zhiyi-Yiyi 直 譯 · 意譯 （literal and free translation）； Xing-Si. Yi-Si.Shen-Si 形 似 · 意 似 · 神 似 （formal equivalence， semantic equivalence， and equivalence of spirit）； Qian Zhongshu"s Xin-Da-Hua 信 · 達 · 化 （faithfulness， expressiveness and naturalization） or Xin-Da-Qie 信 · 達 · 切 （faithfulness， expressiveness and appropriateness）； and more recently， Jin D i，s Xin-Da-Shenyun 信 · 達 · 神韻 （faithfulness， expressiveness and spiritual resonance）； Xu Yuanzhong’s Yimei-Yinmei-Xingmei 意美 · 音 美 ·形 美 （beautiful rendering in meaning， resonance and form） in the translation of
poetry； Luo Xinzhang’s Anben-Qiuxin-Shensi-Huajing 案 本 • 求 信 • 神 似 • 化 境 （original text study， faithfulness， equivalence of spirit， naturalization） in his Fanyi lunji （Luo： 1984）； and Xiao Liming’s Anben-Qiuxin-Shensi-Huajing-Duideng 按 本 • 求 信 • 神似 • 化 境 • 對 等 （original text study， faithfulness， equivalence of spirit， naturalization and functional/dynamic equivalence） in his Fanyi xin tan （Xiao： 1992）. Younger contemporary Chinese scholars in the field of translation studies， such as Ou Hong as shown in one of his papers entitled Conceptual Problems， Untranslatability，and Complementary Means （1993），Xie Tianzhen in his latest publication entitled Medio-Translatoloty （1999），and Luo Xuanmin， in his plenary presentation in Macao in May 1999 on A Textual Model for the Analysis of Translation， have all adopted or incorporated various Western theories into their researches， understandably， with diverging interpretations and varying degrees of innovations.However， there seems to be this consensus： more and more researches have revealed that few translators actually follow prescriptive models of any kind. Such findings alert us to the fact that the distinction between the original and translation is not as clear-cut as prescriptive models tend to assume， and that manipulations and infidelity on the part of the translator is not uncommon. Even our founding “prescriber” of the Xin-Da-Ya principles， Yan Fu， is no exception. Several researches into his famous translation in 1898 of Thomas H. Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics have shown that， though the key to his three-character credence is faithfulness， he manipulated the source with his own vision and mission to such an extent that he left out blocks of the
source text， but at the same time， brought whole paragraphs of his own ideas and convictions into the Chinese text. According to Sinn （1992）， Yan Fu left out the whole paragraph containing an important concept stressed by Huxley， i.e.， the process of evolution may not always be progressive； it may be retrogressive：The word “evolution”，now generally applied to the cosmic process， has had a singular history， and is used in various senses. Taken in its popular signification it means progressive development， that is， gradual change from a condition of relative uniformity to one of relative complexity； but its connotation has been widened to include the phenomena of retrogressive metamorphosis， that is， of progress from a condition of relative complexity to one of relative uniformity.3But， on the other hand， Yan Fu added his own ideas and propositions through the voice of Herbert Spencer by concluding in his translation：意 在 告 誡 人 們 ，物 競 天 擇 、適者生存的現律也適 用 於 人 類 社 會 ，中 國 若 不 奮 起 ，便有亡國滅種之 危 。4[This is to warn us that the Jungle Law， the survival of the fittest， also applies to human society. If China doesn’t brace herself well enough， our nation will be subjugated and our people will perish.]As a patriotic intellectual of China at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries， Yan Fu，s paramount concern and objective was to rescue China， to wake up his people and invigorate the country by bringing in new and advanced ideas and by learning from the West.
His translation was targeted at the Chinese audience at that time. Compelled by his own vision and mission of revitalizing his country for survival （救國圖存），he was so eager to get across the message to his Chinese compatriots that he took over the pen from the author and forgot or simply ignored his own prescription. His deliberate manipulation is nowhere so obvious than his handling of the title of the book， Evolution and Ethics： he only translated “Evolution” （天演論），while omitting “and Ethics”，probably because he believed that for a poor， weak and backward country like the then China， the theory of evolution was more relevant and urgently needed than that of ethics.The development of empirical approaches to the poetics of translation has gained momentum in recent decades： Even-Zohar（1978） looks at how texts are selected for translation and how literary norms are adopted in the target culture； Toury （1980） tries to find the literary， linguistic and ideological factors governing translation； Hermans （1985） brings together a series of descriptive studies； and Lefevere （1992） embeds the discussion of the poetics of translation in the realm of discourse theory. However， these painstaking endeavours have only revealed that the poetics of translation is far more complicated than it has been supposed to be， and linguistics seems to have left the task of investigating the poetics of translation for literary translators.And the task of investigating Ezra Pound’s poetics of translation is made even more complex and eclectic by the fact that his literary ambition aims at a “world poetry”. In 1935，he returned once more to the Fenollosa notebooks， wishing to bring out an edition of Mori Kainan’s lectures.
As a fund or fountain of wisdom applicable to the criticism of any poetry， that is to say， world poetry or the poetry of any nation， they [Fenollosa notebooks] have a value that no one but an ass can deny. They contain considerably more wisdom than I noticed when I first read through them 20 or so years ago .5Here we not only feel his missionary zeal for but also persevering devotion to poetry， “world poetry” or “ANY poetry”. As a matter of fact， years back， in 1928 or 1927， he already talked about “international poetry” in his well-known essay on a wide range of topics， including the poetics of translation， How to Read： ... English literature lives on translation， it is fed by translation； every new exuberance， every new heave is stimulated by translation， every allegedly great age is an age of translations， beginning with Geoffrey Chaucer， Le Grand Translateur， translator of the Romanunt of the Rose， paraphraser of Virgil and Ovid，condenser of old stories he had found in Latin， French， and Italian. ...... Apart from these early translations， a man may enlarge his view of international poetry by looking at Swinburne’s Greek adaptations. The Greeks stimulated Swinburne. ... Our contact with Oriental poetry be- gins with FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. Fenollosa’s essay on the Chinese written character opens a door that the earlier students， had， if not “howled without” at least been unable to open.6Fervently pursuing his dream of a “world poetry”，Pound was
ready to embrace the whole universe， and to him， the boundaries between different traditions and schools become flimsy， and poetry and translation almost always go together：A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations； or follows it. The Victorians in lesser degree had FitzGerald， and Swinburne’s Villon， and Rossetti. One is at first a little surprised at the importance which historians of Spanish poetry give to Boscan， but our histories give our own translators too little. And worse， we have long since fallen under the blight of the Miltonic or noise tradition， to a stilted dialect in translating the classics， a dialect which imitates the idiom of the ancients rather than seeking their meaning， whatever it may be， but has long since ceased to cater for the beauty of the original； or which perhaps thinks “appreciation” obligatory， and the meaning and content mere accessories.7It [British literature] was kept alive during the last century by a series exotic injections. Swinburne read Greek and took English metric in hand； Rossetti brought in the Italian primitives； FitzGerald made the only good poem of the time that has gone to the people； it is called， and is to a great extent， a trans- or mistrans- lation.8Here we see that， whatever happened in the process of Pound’s working on Cathay， there is no indication that Pound in any way ignored translation principles and good translation practice. Indeed， with a global insight and perspective， he is more
concerned， more serious about translation. However， Pound clearly indicated that he would not conform to convention， nor be tied up with any tradition. “The tradition is a beauty which we preserve and not a set of fetters to bind，” was his outright statement.9 And returning to translation， he was always on the alert and remained forever critical：It seems to me that English translators have gone wide in two ways， first in trying to keep every adjective， when obviously many adjectives in the original have only melodic value， secondly they have been deaved with syntax； have wasted time， involved their English， trying first to evolve a definite logical structure for the Greek and secondly to preserve it， and all its grammatical relations， in English.10And again we see that Pound hated monotony and things “exactly alike” ； he couldn’ t stand cliches； he wanted no “adjectives” that are not absolutely necessary； he didn’t fancy being tied up by “syntax” or “grammatical” rules or the counting of syllables； he had an aversion to “vague and general terms”； and he aspired to “to make it new， day by day”. All these principles are consistent with his Imagist ideals and tenets and have distinguished his Cathay from many other translated works.And naturally， his global vision and insight led him to one of the greatest civilizations of the world and the best classical Chinese poetry. A poet of genius， Pound was quick to notice： Undoubtedly pure color is to be found in Chinese poetry， when we begin to know enough about it； indeed，a shadow of this perfection is already at hand
in translations. Liu Ch’e，Chu Yuan [Qu Yuan]， Chia I [Jia Yi]， and the great vers libre writers before the Petrarchan age of Li Po [Li Bai]， are a treasury to which the next century may look for as great a stimulus as the renaissance had from the Greeks.1Of course， in 1913 or 1914，Pound was still quite ignorant of the poetic forms of classical Chinese poetry， though they were never his chief concern. What he was concerned with was the ‘‘pure colour” ，the “beauty and feel”，and his “vers libre”. Inspired and stimulated by what he discovered in Fenollosa’s manuscripts and Giles’ book on Chinese literature， Pound found an immediate poetic affinity with them. They fit in with his Imagist ambitions， and with his role as the leader of the Imagist movement and campaigner of Modernism. Indeed， he was thrilled with the beauty of his new discovery， a new source for criticism and comparison： Now Lionel Johnson cannot be shown to be in accord with our present doctrines and ambitions.His language is a bookish dialect， ...and our aim is natural speech， the language as spoken. We desire the words of poetry to follow the natural order. We would write nothing that we might not say actually in life - under emotion. Johnson’s verse is full of inversions， but no one has written purer Imagism than he has in the line：Clearly lie the fields，and fade into blue air.It has a beauty like the Chinese.12
Images charged with “emotion” and flowing with beauty were what Pound was looking for. Through them， he seems to feel what the source authors feel. And in his ecstasy he grasped these images for his poetic creations rather than “faithful translation” or linguistic accuracy. He deliberately experimented with the Chinese way of juxtaposing seemingly unrelated images and with the interesting elements of Chinese syntax. In about 1928， 13 years after the publication of Cathay， Pound wrote with touching sincerity：Before I die I hope to see at least a few of the best Chinese works printed bilingual， in the form that Mori and Ariga prepared certain texts for Fenollosa， a “crib”，the picture of each letter accompanied by a full explanation.13Clearly， Pound appreciated Fenollosa’s notes and wished very much to have more access to some of the best Chinese literary works. And， of course， before and after he set to work and during the whole process， he honestly needed “a full explanation” accompanying each character； he needed “ bilingually printed” lines and texts to get the “crib” and ‘‘picture”，but he would not rely completely on them for his poetic creation. With his poetic instinct and flair， he opted for， and was quick to pick up， the “images” which “presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time”，thus fulfilling his ideal of “direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective”，“to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation”，and “to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase， not in sequence of a metronome”.Thanks to all these efforts， Ezra Pound’s Cathay poems，
“unlike other translations， are vivid and beautiful； they read like poems； they move the reader.” 14In summary， the elements involved in a comprehensive critical approach to Pound’s poetics of translation may be illustrated in this diagram：which is borrowed from contemporary American critic， M. H. Abrams’ model of literary criticism：Abrams explains that critical theories can be defined accord- ing to the way in which they tend to concentrate on any of the three variables： the universe， the artist or the audience， in relation to the work. In my application to Pound’s poetics of translation，
I ’ve used “source language text” （SLT） and accordingly target language text （TLT） for “W ork”，L ife （history， culture， etc.） for “Universe”，“Poet” and “Poet-translator” for “Artist”，and SL Readers and TL Readers for “Audience”.A critical approach is adopted here because Pound took to translation， both in practice and theory， as a form of literary criticism.16 And it is in this area that Pound is the most creative and has made the greatest contribution to the world of literary translation.Notes：1 Gentzler， Edw in， Poetics of Translation， in Mona Baker ed RoutledgeEncyclopedia of Translation Studies， London and New York： Routledge， 1998，p. 167.2 Gentzler， Edw in， Poetics o f Translation， in Mona Baker ed RoutledgeEncyclopedia of Translation Studies， London and New York： Routledge， 1998，p. 167.3 Hu， Gongze， Fanyi lilun zhi yanbian yu fazhan （Translation Theories and Development）， Taibei： Shulin， 1994， pp. 117-121.4 Hu， Gongze， Fanyi lilun zhi yanbian yu fazhan （Translation Theories and Development）， Taibei： Shulin， 1994， p. 119.5 Fenollosa’s Notebook 9，in Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism， Durham and London： Duke University Press， 1995， p. 64.6 Pound， Ezra， How to Read， in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， ed. with an
introduction by T. S. Eliot， London： Faber and Faber， 1954，pp. 35-36. Originally appeared as Elizabethan Classicists， in the Egoist： Ⅳ-8， September 1917，also in Notes on Elizabethan Classicists， in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， p. 232.8 Ibid. p.91.9 Ibid， p.91.10 In Pound’s Early Translators of Homer， taken from Instigations （1920），in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， p. 273.11 The Renaissance， first appeared in Poetry， Chicago in 1914.，in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound，p. 218.12 Originally published as the Preface to Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson， London： Elkin Mathews， in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， p. 362.13 Originally published as the Preface to Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson， London： Elkin Mathews， in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， p. 39.14 Alexander， Michael， The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1979，p. 99.15 Abrams： M. H .，Orientation of Critical Theories， in The Mirror and the Lamp （1953）， in M. Gray，A Dictionary of Literary Terms， Singapore： Longman， 1996， pp. 76-77.16 Aper， Ronnie， Digging for Treasure： Translation After Pound， New York： Peter Lang Publishing， in Guo Jianzhong， Meiguo fanyi yantao ban he Pang De fanyi sixiang （American Translation Workshops and Pound’s Translation Theory）， Foreign Languages and Their Teaching， Dalian： Dalian Foreign Languages University， 2000. No 2，Serial No 130， p. 48.
Chapter Eight ConclusionHaving emerged from a forest o f roots， trunks and branches， gone through the source-target-text comparisons， and having studied the poetics o f translation o f Ezra Pound， one feels convinced that， as far as Cathay is concerned， Pound，thriving on the achievement o f the source culture and o f previous researches， succeeds brilliantly， by a feat o f imaginative empathy， creative and inspirational a ffin ity， in producing a series o f translations accurate to the spirit and soul o f the originals， i f not to the exact script. And he has attained a remarkable degree o f equivalence， especially dynamically cultural and aesthetic equivalence. A t this stage o f the research， we can draw the fo llow ing conclusions：1. Pound’ s journey from classical Chinese poetry to Cathay is long and to rtuous， but w ith Feno llosa ’ s notebooks and word-for-word English transcriptions & cribs stemming from the Japanese sinologists’ years o f meticulous and painstaking w ork， Ezra Pound took a shortcut， bringing out a most attractive volume in only a few months.2. A fter studying the detour， shortcut and contour o f Cathay， we find the process o f its translation not only legitimate， but also secured at each stage by an international team w ith the right expertise and by intellectual synergies. Eugene N ida’ s Model o f the Translation Process1 is highly relevant and very useful for a close study o f the process. To begin w ith， the Japanese professors， M ori and Ariga were among the best sinologists w ith genuine
expertise in classical Chinese poetry and their choice of the best readings in Chinese texts and source editions guaranteed textual reliability. The next step in the process was “analysis”，which means that they took the source text， analyzed the various aspects of meaning of its lexicon， grammar and style， and which again was done thoroughly and professionally by these meticulous Japanese- sinologists. Now we come to the vital stage of “transfer” in the following diagram：Figure 3： N ida’s Model of the Translation ProcessThis time， like what happens in a long-distance relay， the American Orientalist， Ernest Fenollosa， took over， having attended a great deal of didactic lectures on classical Chinese poetry. He had spent many years on researches and interactive discussions and， no doubt， had developed a profound rapport with the Japanese professors， resulting in those proverbial notebooks， rich and copious notes， paraphrases， cribs and translations， word-for- word transcriptions， all in English， to about 150 classical Chinese
poems that had been selected from thousands. Then， came the crucial stage， “restructuring”. Here a gifted poet is indispensable and more urgently needed than a faithful translator in the production of good poetry for the English-speaking audience of the early 20th century. Miraculously， Pound was sought out at the right moment to run the last leg of the race. And he ran it well， so well indeed， as if he did a 60-metre or a 100-metre dash. Thrilled by the literary windfall， the young Pound seized the opportunity to manipulate it to his heart’s content. Guided by his poetic instinct， he opted for only those that he liked best and those that were “indisputably the best” . He also put each of his poems to test immediately： in great excitement he dashed into his friends’ rooms several times a day to read them the poem he had just composed and received unanimous applause. The process， the method and the product show that Cathay is not just one man’s work but a success story of collective efforts transcending time and space.3. Many Pound critics， perhaps falling under the influence of T. S. Eliot’s influential remark that “Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time”，2 tend to praise Cathay as an invention rather than a translation. There have been innumerable explanations as to what translation is， on top of which we have paraphrases， im itations， adaptation， rewritings or even “tradaptations”，most being open to connotative， denotative as well as referential interpretations. In actual fact， no literary translation demands a 100% identical matching between target and source texts under all circumstances， not to speak of poetry. Many of the books written on translation through the ages deal largely withliterary translation theories， and some models regard the
translation of poetry as a form of literary re-creation. They emphasize the creative function of language and require that the translator possess an inborn gift for the art and that the target text produce the same kind of literary effect as the source text. But how could we measure the precise effect of Li Bai’s poem on his readers over a thousand years ago and Pound’s recreation on his early 20th century English-speaking audience ? Nevertheless， the line-for-line， text-for-text comparisons provide abundant evidence that Cathay poems， on the whole， meet most of the requirements of literary translation， including those rigid standards set by A. F. Tytler in his “Essay on the Principles of Translation” （1790）：a. A translation should give a complete transcript of the idea of the original；b.The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as those of the original； andc.The translation should have all the ease of the original composition.And judging by numerous translation principles and theories developed in China， such as Yan Fu’s most succinct three- character formula - Xin-da-ya （faithfulness， expressiveness and elegance）， Qian Zhongshu’s Xin-da-hua （faithfulness， expressiveness and naturalization）， and more recently， JinD i’s Xm- da-shenyun （faithfulness， expressiveness and spiritual resonance）， Pound seems to have manipulated a lot in order to achieve “expressiveness”，“elegance”， “naturalization” or “domestication”， and “spiritual resonance”， at the expense of “faithfulness”. But this has happened to even the best translators and the best translations
in the history of translation， in China and in the West. And if we confine our discussion to Cathay， and Cathay only， we have to admit that the translations are， on the whole， “faithful”.4. Just as Professor Ou Hong pointed out in a key-note speech that literature teaching overseas， mainly referring to the teaching of English literature to students of an alien cultural background and in a different social context， is a culture-loaded process， translation， or more precisely， translating， is also culture-loaded and culture-bound，constrained by personal tastes， social and cultural values， different geographical and historical backgrounds， etc. In the case of Cathay， we have witnessed numerous “cultural filters” along its long and tortuous road. Instead of dismissing them as nuisances， we should take them all in our stride and study them carefully as necessary factors contributing to genuine cross- cultural exchanges.5. Naturally， translators， during the process of translating and being exposed to the foreign culture， are unavoidably influenced by the work that they are translating. And because of their mission， they are reading it over once and again， perhaps more carefully than other readers， some may even put themselves in the position of the poet that they are studying， analyzing and translating. However， this is only one side of the picture. No matter how deeply involved they may become，they seldom lose their sense of “nativeness”，and in the case of Ezra Pound， he remains an American， with a strong sense of being American all his life. And his efforts at both “foreignization” and “domestication” or “familiarization” should be regarded as positive contributions to introducing Chinese poetry， culture and civilization to the West. It
is through Cathay that Pound successfully initiated a dialogue with ancient Chinese poets and introduced Chinese literary achievements to the Englsih-speaking world.6. Admittedly， and specifically， we find concrete additions， deletions， omissions， alterations， reversions， substitutions， transplantation， transposition， separation， combination， cutting and joining. But these are legitimate methods necessitated by the translation of poetry， and of some other genres. Indeed， Cathay has preserved the full original texts with the exception of the The River Song， where Pound unknowingly combined two of Li Bai’s poems into one， Ballad of the Mulberry Road， where he picked up only the first 14 lines for purposes that I discuss in Chapter Six， Old Idea of Choan by Rosoriu， where he hurried over only the first 16 lines and To-Em-Mei’s Unmoving Cloud， where he turned a four-stanza poem into three stanzas. However， with his poetic flair and dexterity， he rendered them cleverly and tastefully， and succeeded in bringing out Cathay， with the vigour， simplicity and charm of the source texts.7. Many critics have compared Pound to his Chinese counterpart， Lin Shu， who translated over 180 novels from European languages into Chinese without knowing the source languages， or with Witter Bynner and Jiang Kanghu， who cooperated successfully in their publication of the English translation， The Jade Mountains. To me， the cooperative working model for Cathay is unique， different from all the others， as I have delineated above. Lin Shu worked face to face with his oral narrators who knew the source languages， on a koushu biyi （口述筆譯）model （one uses his pen to “translate” the story while
listening to his assistants retelling it from the source）. The Jade Mountains was the achievement of an agreeable working model between Jiang and Bynner. Jiang， who was a native speaker of the source language， Chinese， obviously more familiar with the source， and who had a good knowledge of the target language， ran the first round and translated the book into the target language. Then， Bynner took time to run the second cycle - a process of polishing up and of domestication and naturalization for the target language audience of their time， and finally， Jiang went over it again to bring it to “perfection”. All these models， including the unique one for Cathay， are successful models for us to study and and explore， though Cathay is a rare product， a brain-child most fortunately blessed by rare historical and literary opportunities.8. Stimulated and fascinated by classical Chinese poems， Pound found an immediate and instinctive affinity with them. Indeed， as many other scholars have pointed out， the “modernity” in them fits in with his Imagist ideals， ambitions， and principles， and with his role as the leader of the Imagist movement and campaigner of Modernism in the West. In his ecstasy， and with his poetic sensitivity and vision， he grasped the most vivid images for his own poetic creation， rather than “faithful” or “accurate” translation of the source or idiomatic fluency in the target language. And he had a whale of a time experimenting with the Chinese way of justaposing images and the fresh syntactic elements. Yuan Xingpei’s statistic study of Li Bai’s use of natural images3 is especially worth noting， as the images such as the blue mountains， the sky， the river， the sea and sun， the cloud， etc.， were all truthfully brought over into Cathay poems， to the delight of the 20th century English-speaking
audience.9. The source poems unfold a variety of Chinese poetic forms. However， Pound rendered them all in free verse. There have been both supporters and opponents from both the Eastern and Western literary worlds. I tend to agree with Wen Yiduo， Zhao Yiheng， Zhao Puchu， Burton Watson， David Lattimore， and many others， who believe that classical Chinese poetry， especially the Yue-fu songs and ballads， was only successfully translated into English when translators were willing to set aside the rhymes and meters of the traditional English verse， as well as Western concepts of what constitutes poetic diction and subject matter， and to create a freer form that would allow the power and expressiveness of the originals to shine through. Pound was an innovative translator eager to break new grounds. Cathay enables us to see that there are more possibilities in the successful treatment of poetic forms. As a result of his and others，pioneering efforts， the classical Chinese poems， though perhaps not always fully and correctly interpreted or perceived， have come to be admired in the English-speaking world. Quite a few scholars， such as Xu Yuanzhong， still seem to press in the direction of introducing rhyme and other formal elements into the translations. I believe that we should encourage the freedom of experimenting with all types of innovations， for from them will develop more effective methods for bringing the distinctive features and beauties of Chinese poetry over into English， to enrich， invigorate， enliven， and innovate the vast and profound wealth of English literature.10. Cathay has far-reaching significance to the development and prosperity of poetry， poetics and translation studies， in both
the Englsih and Chinese literary worlds. It has opened a little window through which we witness a beckoning glimpse of the manifold cultural space created by translation. With an ardent and loyal devotion to poetry and a sincere desire to reach out to the other side of humanity， the young poet initiated earnest and stirring dialogues with ancient Chinese poets at the beginning of the 20th century.At the dawn of the 21st century and of the New Millennium， rediscovering Cathay in terms of poetics， translation process and its collaborative models， criteria， methods and various problems， bears significantly on today’s world of fast opening and increasingly widening international communication， scholastic and cultural exchanges. Therefore， rather than an end， this research points to many openings for broader， more constructive and more illuminating studies and explorations in the future.Notes：1 Eugene Nida and Charles Taber， The Theory and Practice of Translation，Leiden： E. J. Brill， 1969，p. 484.2 Eliot， T. S.， “Introduction”，in Selected Poems， by Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1928，p. ⅹⅵ.3 Yuan， Xingpei， Zhongguo Shige yishu yanjiu， Beijing： Beijing University Press， 1997，pp. 256-260.
Bibliography（Books， Dictionaries， Periodicals & Journals，and online sources & hypertexts）General reading on Ezra PoundAlexander， Michael， The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound， London & Boston： Faber and Faber， 1979.Brooke-Rose， Christine， A ZBC of Ezra Pound，London： Faber and Faber， 1971.Cai， Xiqin （蔡希勤），trans， Lan Bo & Xia Yuhe， Analects of Confucius， Beijing： Chinese Language Education Press， 1994.Davie， Donald， Ezra Pound： Poet as Sculptor， London： Faber and Faber， 1964.Dekker， George， Sailing After Knowledge： The Cantos of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1963.Dembo， L. S.， The Confucian Odes of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1963.Eliot， T. S.， Ezra Pound： His Metric and Poetry， Chicago： Faber and Faber， 1917.Eliot， T.S” “Introduction”，in Selected Poems，by Ezra Pound， London： Faber & Faber， 1928.Eliot， T.S.， The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism，London： Faber and Faber， 1933.Fenollosa， Ernest， The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry， in Ezra Pound’s Instigations， New York， 1920.Flory， W. S.， Ezra Pound and the Cantos： A Record of Struggle， New Heaven and London： Yale University Press， 1980.
Fraser， G. S.， Ezra Pound， Edinburgh： Faber and Faber， 1960.Gallup， Donald， A Bibliography of Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1963； 2nd edition， 1969.Hesse， Eva ed， New Approaches to Ezra Pound，London： Faber and Faber， 1969.Homberger， Eric ed， Ezra Pound： The Critical Heritage， London： Faber， 1972.Jackson， T. H .，The Early Poetry of Ezra Pound， Cambridge： Mass.， 1969.Kenner， Hugh， The Poetry of Ezra Pound， London， 1951.Kenner， Hugh， The Pound Era， London： Faber and Faber， 1971.Leary， Lewis ed， Motive and Method in “The Cantos” of Ezra Pound， New York， 1964.Leavis， F. R.， New Bearings in English Poetry， London： Penguin， 1932； 2nd Edition， 1950.Leavis， F. R .，Paideuma： A Journal devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship， ed， Carroll F. Terrell， Orono： Maine， 1972.Norman， Charles， Ezra Pound， London： Faber and Faber， 1960； 2nd Edition， 1969.Pound， Ezra， - ABC of Reading， London： Faber and Faber，1934.- Certain Noble Plays of Japan， Dundrum， 1916.- Confucius to Cummings： An Anthology of Poetry，ed， Ezra Pound and Marcella Spann， New York， 1964.- Confucius： The Great Digest and the Unwobbling Pivot， London， 1952.- Des Imagistes： An Anthology， New York： Albert and Charles Boni， 1914.
- Instigations， New York， 1920.- Introduction to The Oxford Book of Modern Verse， Oxford， 1936.- Literary Essays of Ezra Pound， ed and with an Introduction by T.S. Eliot， London： Faber， 1954.- Make it New， New Haven： Yale University Press，1935.- Personae： The Shorter Poems，ed L. Baechler and A.W. Litz， New York： New Directions， 1990.- Preface to the Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry， 1936.- Selected Poems 1908-1969，London： Faber and Faber， 1975.- Ta Hio： The Great Learning， Seattle： Wash.， 1928.- The Cantos，3rd printing， including Canto 120，1972 （1st printing o f -----Cantos 1-117 in onevolume， 1970，11th Printing， New York： New Directions， 1989.- The Confucian Odes： The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius，London， 1955； Cambridge： Mass.， 1954.- The Letters of Ezra Pound 1907-1941， ed D. D. Paige， New York： Haskell， 1974.- The Spirit of Romance， New York： New Directions， 1968.- The Translations of Ezra Pound， with an Intro duction by Hugh Kenner， London： Faber and Faber， 1953.
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the Chinese Written Character， in Comparative Literature Studies， Vol. 30，No.2， 1993，ppl70-187.Cao， Yin （曹寅），et al ed， Quan Tang S h i《全 唐 詩 》，first published by Kangxi Yangzhou Shiju （康熙揚州詩局）in Emperor Kangxi’s reign year 46 （1707）， reprinted， Shanghai： Guji （上海古籍出版社），1986.Chen， Qingyuan （陳慶元），et al. ed， Xinbian gushi san bai shou 《新編古詩三百首》（New Edition of 300 Ancient Poems）， Jiangsu： Guji （江蘇古籍出版社），1995.Cooper， Arthur， Li Po and Tu Fu， Harmondsworth， 1973.Giles， H. A .， A History of Chinese Literature， London， 1901.Graham， A. C.， Poems of the Late Tang， Harmondsworth， 1965.Guo， Wei （郭爲），Ezra Pound’s Zhongguo Tang《中國湯》 （Chinese Soup） in “Dushu” 《讀 書 》（Reading）， Issue 10， 1988.Harrison， Jane， Ancient Art and Ritual， London， 1927.H ighet， G ilbert， Poets in a Landscape， London， 1957； Harmondsworth， 1959.L i， Bai （李白），Li Bai Q uan ji《李白 全 集 》，with Bao Fang’s annotations， Shanghai： Guji （上海古籍出版社），1996.Pound， Ezra， Selected Poems 1908-1969，London： Faber and Faber， 1975.Pound， Ezra， Selected Poems， with an Introduction by T. S. Eliot， London： Faber and Faber， 1948.Pound， Ezra， Translations，with an Introduction by Hugh Kenner， London： Faber enlarged edition， 1970.Qian， Zhaoming， Orientalism and Modernism： the Legacy of China in Pound and Williams .Durham and London： Duke University Press， 1995.
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Appendix：In order to help more readers appreciate the 18 Cathay poems and its original source - the classical Chinese poems， the author of this book has rendered the classical Chinese poems in modern Chinese in the following Appendix.爲 了 使 更 多 讀 者 欣 賞 龐 德 譯 自 中 國 古 典 詩 歌 的 《神州 集 》 ，本 文 作 者 將 古 典 漢 詩 按 英 詩 《神 州 集 》的順序翻譯成 現 代 漢 語 如 下 。Source Texts Rendered in Modern Chinese① Song of the Bowmen of Shu采薇 （詩 經 • 小雅）去 采 薇 呀 去 采 薇 ，薇 菜 冒 出 嫩 芽 尖 。說 回 歸 呀 說 回 歸 ，眼 看 一 年 又 過 去 。沒 有 室 來 沒 有 家 ，只因玁狁犯 邊 疆 。閑 不 得 也 居 不 安 ，只因玁狁犯 邊 疆 。去 采 薇 呀 去 采 薇 ，薇 菜 鮮 嫩 又 柔 美 。說 回 歸 呀 說 回 歸 ，心 中 愁 悶 不 能 止 。憂 心 忡 忡 似 火 燎 ，
Title： Classical Chinese Poetry Glowing with the Dynamic of Modernism： Source Research and a Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s Cathay Author： Sylvia S. L. Ieong Editors： Angel O.K. Tang， Alice H.S. long Publisher： Union of Macao Scholars Date of Publication： April 2007 Printer： Tipografia KAVA Format： 155X230mm Copy Run： 1000 Price： MOP 120 ISBN978-99937-897-1-0
The publication of this book is sponsored by Macao Foundation and Dr. Chui Sai On， Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture， MSAR，PRC.澳門幣：120元
