NOTES
-
A detailed knowledge of Western books
translated into Chinese and their impact on Chinese society
and literature is available in Chow Tse-tsung's The May
Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China,
Chapter XI.
-
Such a rendering of Chinese verses into
English mars the readability of the original as is evident
from the following sample of poetry, a poem traditionally
attributed to Chü Yüan of the third or second century
B.C., selected from the vast oeuvre of Waley's works:
The Great Summons
Invocation to the soul of a dead or sick man
Green Spring Receiveth
The vacant earth;
The white sun shineth;
Spring wind provoketh
To burst and burgeon
Each sprout and flower.
The dark ice melts and oves;hide not, my soul!
O Soul, come back again! O do not stray!
O Soul, come back again and go not east or west, north
or south!
For to the East a mighty water drowneth Earth's other shore;
Tossed on its waves and heaving with its tides
The hornless Dragon of the Ocean rideth;
Clouds gather low and fogs unfold the sea
And gleaming ice drifts past.
O Soul, go not to the East,
To the silent Valley of Sunrise!
(Morris 1970: 165)
REFERENCES
Bassnett, Susan and Harish Trivedi (1999) Post-colonial Translation:
Theory and Practice. London and New York: Routledge.
Classe, Olive (ed.) (2000) Encyclopedia of Literary Translation
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Chow Tse-tsung. (1960) The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual
Revolution in Modern China Cambridge and Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press.
Franke, Wolfgang. (1967) China and the West R.A.Wilson
(Trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Morris, Ivan. (1970) Madly Singing in the Mountains: An Appreciation
and Anthology: Arthur Waley. London, George Allen and
Un Win Ltd.
Ross, E.D. (1928) Eastern Art and Literature: with special
reference to China, India, Arabia and Persia London:
Benn's Sixpence Library.
Schwab, Raymonds. (1984) The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's
Rediscovery of India and the East, 1680-1880. Gene
Patterson-Black and Victor Reinking. (Trans.). New York:
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Spence, Jonathan D. (1990) The Search for Modern China
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Wilkins, Charles. (1785) The Bhagwat-Geeta or Dialogues in
Eighteen Lectures with Notes (Translated from the original,
In the Sanskrit Language of the Brahmanas). London: C: Nourse
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