The Poem Behind the Poem: Translating Asian Poetry

by Frank Stewart (Editor)

"The translator must keep faith with the deeper need that poetry fulfills in our lives, [to] discover not what the poem says but what it does." —Tony Barnstone, in his essay "Poem Behind the Poem" The translation of Asian poetry into Western languages has been one of the most important literary events over the past one hundred years. Readers have fallen in love with Asian poetry and writers have been greatly influenced by it. What neither reader nor writer ever witness is the intense engagement behind the poem, how the translator must serve as both artist and alchemist, urging a poem to work and sing in a foreign language. Success is rare, and the practice of translation, as W.S. Merwin has written, is "plainly impossible and nevertheless indispensable." This endlessly fascinating anthology—the first of its kind—gathers essays, poems-in-translation, and worksheets from twenty-one noted translators who discuss their aspirations, methods, and the forces of imagination necessary to bring a poem from one language into another. Languages discussed include Chinese (both ancient and modern), Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, and Sanskrit. "A truly apt translation of a poem may require an effort of imagination almost as great as the making of the original. The translator who wishes to enter the creative territory must make an intellectual and imaginative jump into the mind and world of the poet, and no dictionary will make this easier."—Gary Snyder on translating the Chinese poet Han-shan Contributors Gary Snyder, Willis Barnstone, Jane Hirshfield, J.P. Seaton, John Balaban, Michelle Yeh, Arthur Sze, W.S. Merwin, and Sam Hamill.

Genres: Poetry, Asia, Language, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

Reviews

[Al Maki]

As a fan of Chinese and Japanese poetry I found it very helpful. There's essays by people I'm familiar with that help clarify their work and there's people I've never encountered before who were worth discovering.
Because it's a book about finding the right words it has a lot to say about reading and writing poetry, beyond translation from one language to another, for example, from the essay by Shogo Oketani:
"The poet's work of finding the first word or phrase can be compared to the work of a miner who digs for a lode he may or may not find. The reader's task can be like trying to arrive at the center of that lode through the holes bored by the poet's pen. The reader must rely on the faint light of a lantern. In other words, the reader has to regenerate, reconstruct, and accept the voice, images, and ideas the poet has uttered and acquired in the process of digging."

[Wendy]

This book is a treasure of deep thought about the art and craft of translating poetry. Made me glad that my task is the relatively simple one of translating Spanish to English. A lovely collection of essays.

[Charlie]

I read this for a contract about the art of translation specifically between English and Japanese. Couldn't have found a better book. A very interesting read even for those not interested in translation.

[Will Buckingham]

An excellent collection of varied and thoughtful essays about translating poetry from various Asian languages into English. My only complaint is that, given that the book is about translation, it would have been illuminating to have had the originals alongside all of the translations.