Poetry Translation Roundup!
Jan. 2nd, 2023 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drpanda99Okie, so I'm uploading a bunch of my Chinese poetry translations today - these were all from a discord poetry club that I'm in so a lot of these poems are likely familiar lol. I don't consider myself a translator, but I liked having the opportunity to work on my Chinese and it actually has been helping me learn more characters! One day, I will be able to read as much as I understand verbally, but we shall see. I do consider myself a poetry writer, so I tried to make my translations sound like poetry while also keeping as much of the words and meaning as possible. I might do more detailed word by word translation, then add my prettied up translation at the end, but all of my word by word notes are by hand and I didn't feel like transcribing notes for a bunch of poems soooo we got what we got. These were completed with copious applications of Pleco + Baike notes, but there's likely errors in understanding or translation in some parts! I'm happy to discuss because this is all a learning opportunity for me lol. All the poems are in jianti because traditional is hard.
一剪梅·红藕香残玉簟秋
李清照 〔宋代〕
红藕香残玉簟秋。轻解罗裳，独上兰舟。云中谁寄锦书来？雁字回时，月满西楼。
花自飘零水自流。一种相思，两处闲愁。此情无计可消除，才下眉头，却上心头。
A Sprig of Plum Blossom
Song poem by Li Qinghao
Autumnal red lotus root scents the woven grass,
I part my skirts gently,
step alone to the mast.
Who sends gilded words through a sea of cloud?
Once the geese's words return,
the moon fills West tower like a shroud.
As petals wither and fall, the waters still hurry,
one kind of yearning,
two lives of idle worry.
These countless passions take a toll,
gone from furrowed brows,
yet carved onto the soul.
过零丁洋
文天祥 〔宋代〕
辛苦遭逢起一经，干戈寥落四周星。
山河破碎风飘絮，身世浮沉雨打萍。
惶恐滩头说惶恐，零丁洋里叹零丁。
人生自古谁无死？留取丹心照汗青。
Crossing the Lonely Sea
Song poem by Wen Tianxiang
From an arduous encounter I rise like Confucius,
my arms lay scattered for four turns of the Earth.
Mountains and lakes shatter as cottontail blows on the wind,
my worldly life drifts by like the rain beating on duckweed.
From the head of the terrifying shoal one speaks of fear,
within the lonely sea one sighs they are alone.
Whom in all humanity knows not the touch of death?
All my loyal heart leaves are words to light this page.
苏幕遮·怀旧
范仲淹 (宋词)
碧云天，黄叶地，秋色连波，波上寒烟翠。山映斜阳天接水，芳草无情，更在斜阳外。
黯乡魂，追旅思，夜夜除非，好梦留人睡。明月楼高休独倚，酒入愁肠，化作相思泪。
Nostalgia
To the tune of Behind a Curtain of Basil
Song poem by Fan Zhongyan
Jade white clouds,
yellow-leafed earth,
autumn colors join the waves
a luminous cold fog's birth.
Mountains reflect the sunset where
Heavens and water run,
fragrant grasses without love,
far from the setting sun.
The phantoms of my home
shadow my journey's keeping
each night, unless
good dreams leave one sleeping.
The bright moon's rest against the tower nears,
through regret does wine
turn to longing tears.
望江南·梳洗罢
温庭筠 〔唐代〕
梳洗罢，独倚望江楼。过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠。肠断白蘋洲。
Gazing at the South Yangtze
Tang poem by Wen Tingjun
Come, wash and dress,
I lean against a tower alone and watch the river.
Even a thousand sails cannot cross this furthest distance,
The sun sets gently while the waters flow unhurried.
The grief-broken white duckweed is all that's left of us.
减字木兰花
纳兰性德 (清)
烛花摇影，冷透疏衾刚欲醒。
待不思量，不许孤眠不断肠。
茫茫碧落，天上人间情一诺。
银汉难通，稳耐风波愿始从。
A Cut Orchid
Qing poem by Nalan Xingde
A candleflame's shadow sways,
Through sparse blankets, the cold's touch wakes.
Recollections need not be tread,
To sleep alone is to take yearning to bed.
The boundless blue sky winds,
Love's promise stretches beyond heavens and mankind.
The milky way is hard to breach,
Bearing winds and waves, a steady hope near out of reach.
一剪梅·红藕香残玉簟秋
李清照 〔宋代〕
红藕香残玉簟秋。轻解罗裳，独上兰舟。云中谁寄锦书来？雁字回时，月满西楼。
花自飘零水自流。一种相思，两处闲愁。此情无计可消除，才下眉头，却上心头。
A Sprig of Plum Blossom
Song poem by Li Qinghao
Autumnal red lotus root scents the woven grass,
I part my skirts gently,
step alone to the mast.
Who sends gilded words through a sea of cloud?
Once the geese's words return,
the moon fills West tower like a shroud.
As petals wither and fall, the waters still hurry,
one kind of yearning,
two lives of idle worry.
These countless passions take a toll,
gone from furrowed brows,
yet carved onto the soul.
过零丁洋
文天祥 〔宋代〕
辛苦遭逢起一经，干戈寥落四周星。
山河破碎风飘絮，身世浮沉雨打萍。
惶恐滩头说惶恐，零丁洋里叹零丁。
人生自古谁无死？留取丹心照汗青。
Crossing the Lonely Sea
Song poem by Wen Tianxiang
From an arduous encounter I rise like Confucius,
my arms lay scattered for four turns of the Earth.
Mountains and lakes shatter as cottontail blows on the wind,
my worldly life drifts by like the rain beating on duckweed.
From the head of the terrifying shoal one speaks of fear,
within the lonely sea one sighs they are alone.
Whom in all humanity knows not the touch of death?
All my loyal heart leaves are words to light this page.
苏幕遮·怀旧
范仲淹 (宋词)
碧云天，黄叶地，秋色连波，波上寒烟翠。山映斜阳天接水，芳草无情，更在斜阳外。
黯乡魂，追旅思，夜夜除非，好梦留人睡。明月楼高休独倚，酒入愁肠，化作相思泪。
Nostalgia
To the tune of Behind a Curtain of Basil
Song poem by Fan Zhongyan
Jade white clouds,
yellow-leafed earth,
autumn colors join the waves
a luminous cold fog's birth.
Mountains reflect the sunset where
Heavens and water run,
fragrant grasses without love,
far from the setting sun.
The phantoms of my home
shadow my journey's keeping
each night, unless
good dreams leave one sleeping.
The bright moon's rest against the tower nears,
through regret does wine
turn to longing tears.
望江南·梳洗罢
温庭筠 〔唐代〕
梳洗罢，独倚望江楼。过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠。肠断白蘋洲。
Gazing at the South Yangtze
Tang poem by Wen Tingjun
Come, wash and dress,
I lean against a tower alone and watch the river.
Even a thousand sails cannot cross this furthest distance,
The sun sets gently while the waters flow unhurried.
The grief-broken white duckweed is all that's left of us.
减字木兰花
纳兰性德 (清)
烛花摇影，冷透疏衾刚欲醒。
待不思量，不许孤眠不断肠。
茫茫碧落，天上人间情一诺。
银汉难通，稳耐风波愿始从。
A Cut Orchid
Qing poem by Nalan Xingde
A candleflame's shadow sways,
Through sparse blankets, the cold's touch wakes.
Recollections need not be tread,
To sleep alone is to take yearning to bed.
The boundless blue sky winds,
Love's promise stretches beyond heavens and mankind.
The milky way is hard to breach,
Bearing winds and waves, a steady hope near out of reach.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 04:50 pm (UTC)Where are you getting your source texts?
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:44 pm (UTC)I’ve mostly been using ctext.org (which has great historical dictionary lookups) and sou-yun.cn, with glances at Baidu for commentaries. I’m not looking for new poems since I’m still marching through 唐诗三百首 (even if that’s on pause while I revise the ghost poems manuscript) but I still keep stumbling across new interesting things to try (see: the ghost poems).
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 09:20 pm (UTC)(BTW, did you know that Pleco has available a historical dictionary as a paid add-on? One of the modern standards, I'm blanking on the name -- haven't gotten it yet as I don't do much translating on my phone, but it's cool to contemplate having that in one's back pocket, as it were.)
All my 唐诗三百首 and 鬼诗 drafts are here. The former looks like a lot, but I did the shortest poems first, and by # of lines I'm a just over halfway done. (Some of those earliest ones make me wince, though.)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-08 08:53 pm (UTC)You've gone through so many of those poems - you must be super proud! It's a ton of work and some of the ones you've done are so long - I haven't tried to translate anything longer than a few lines thus far haha
no subject
Date: 2023-01-09 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-08 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-06 06:10 pm (UTC)I unfortunately don’t know any Chinese and know that as of now I won’t have the time and nerves to actually try to learn it. :/ But haha, I tried to edit a MTL anyway. XD I took the lyrics of that City of Musicals performance of Wang Zhuocheng in “Mozart”, sent it through MTL and then went through it line by line, checking the actual meaning of words to get a nicer sounding translation. Like this, I noticed that there were two or three wrong characters in the Chinese subtitles on youtube. XD The MTL made absolutely no sense for those lines and listening to the audio also made it clear that they were singing a different word. That was fun, finding the right character from the hardcoded subtitles. XD
It took me a while but I also enjoyed the process. It’s my old student-self coming through who did quite well at translating Latin and Classical Greek. XD
no subject
Date: 2023-01-08 09:28 pm (UTC)Oooh that sounds like fun but it's also sooo tough with MTL! I also did Latin and translation waaaay back in the day and I loved it, but it definitely was hard translating works from languages no one uses! It's nice in a way since it won't evolve and change, but it's impossible to become fluent without the immersion imo (or at least extremely challenging).