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James Legge's Metrical "Book of Poetry"Author(s): Lauren PfisterSource: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 60,No. 1 (1997), pp. 64-85Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/620770.
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James
Legge's
metrical
Book
of Poetry
LAUREN
PFISTER
Hong Kong BaptistUniversity
I.
An
intellectual black hole
in
sinology
Few non-Asian
sinological
scholars would not
recognize
the name of James
Legge
MIi
(A.D.
1815-97),
partly
because his voluminous
translations
of
the
Confucian canon
still
continue
to be
reprinted
and used
by
Western
sinological
circles 120
years
after their
first
publication.'
In
China
itself,
Legge
has
recently
received new attention with the
republication
of
bilingual
editions of
The Four
Books
and The Book
of
Changes.2 Japanese
readers have
had
rather
more
access to
Legge's
English
translations
of The
Four
Books,
beginning
with the
early Meiji
period
and
continuing
into the twentieth
century.
Unfortunately,
none of these Chinese or
Japanese
editions has included the extensive com-
mentarial
notes
drawn from
Chinese Confucian
and
early
Western
sinological
sources
which earned
Legge
his
reputation
as a world-class
Chinese
scholar
in
the
nineteenth
century.3
In
1875,
after
Legge
had
served for 34
years
as a Christian
missionary
and
educator
in Malacca
(1839-43)
and
Hong
Kong
(1843-73),
French
sinologists
honoured
the retired
missionary
with the first
international
[Stanislas]
Julien
prize
for
Chinese literature.
In
consequence
of
this
prestigious
award,
a
group
of British
friends and
supporters
urged
the
University
of Oxford
to receive
the
Scottish
clergyman
as their
first Professor
of Chinese
Language
and
Literature,
raising enough money duringtheircampaign to provide for his minimal support
in
this
position.
Legge
held the
chair-teaching
courses
in Chinese
language
and
literature,
presenting
public
lectures
on Chinese
themes,
and
continuing
his
work
in
translations-from
1876 until
his death.
Perhaps
it is because of
the sheer
volume of
his
published
works
that no
general
critical
appraisal
of
his numerous
scholarly
contributions
to
sinology
has
yet
been made.
Academic
specialization,
taken
in
many
modern
universities
as a
sign
of
superior
training
and academic
promise,
has also
made
it almost
1
The
most famous
set of
translations and
commentaries
are The Chinese
Classics,
with
a
translation,
critical
and
exegetical notes,prolegomena,
and
copious indexes,
first
published
in
Hong
Kong
between
1861
and 1872. This 8-book set
comprised
five
volumes,
the fourth
being
TheBook
of Poetry.
A
second
edition,
including
a
reprint
of the last
three volumes
attached
to a
complete
revision
of The Four
Books,
was
published
by
the Clarendon
Press,
Oxford
(1893-95) [hereafter
CC].
For details
of the
revision see
my
article,
'Some new
dimensions
in the
study
of the works
of James
Legge
(1815-1897):
part
II',
Sino-Western
Cultural
Relations
Journal,
13,
1991,
33-48.
Less
well
known
are six
volumes
of
Legge's
further
translations,
completed
between
1879 and
1885,
of The Sacred
Books
of
China
in the 'Sacred
Books of
the
East' series
(see below).
The
first
collection
of Confucian
texts
in
this
set included
retranslations
of The
Book
of
Historical
Documents
and The
Book
of
Poetry
and
a new
rendering
of The Classic
of
Filial
Piety
#
(vol.
3
of the
series).
2
See
Hanying
Sishu
4M
0.
(The
Chinese/English
Four
Books),
(ed.)
Liu
Chongde
IA
and
Luo
Zhiyu
f$,T?
(Changsha:
Hunan
People's
Press,
1992)
and Zhou
Yi
J~
(Book
of
Changes),
(ed.)
Tai
Yi
441
and
Tai Shi
44
(Changsha:
Hunan
People's
Press,
1993).
It is
significant
for
the claims
of this
paper
that
these
publishers
did
not
use
Legge's original
translation
of the
Shijing
for
their
bilingual
edition of
that
classic.
3
See the 1885
Japanese
edition of the
English
translation and Chinese text of Legge's 1861
edition
of
The Four
Books
MV
by
N. Imamura:
XM~.-?
t/
Y
HFX,
H,
1F-
f-l~
I*41
flVT
(
T
t
Editions
of
the
Analects
include
Yamano Masaharo's
edition
(Tokyo,
1913),
with the
Chinese
characters,
English
translation,
and selective
Japanese
notes;
a similar edition
with fewer
notes
appeared
c.
1950,
entitled
Confucian
Analects: Dr.
Legge's
version,
(ed.)
Yoshi
Ogaeri
in
Tokyo:
Bunki
Shoten.
A
text held
in
the New
York Public
Library,
(ed.) O.
Shimisu
and
M.
Hirose,
includes the
whole
of The
Four
Books
in Chinese and
English
(Legge's
translation),
along
with
a
Japanese
translation
and selective
notes.
Entitled
in
English,
The
original
Chinese text
of
the
Confucian
Analects,
the
Great
Learning
...,
it
is
unfortunately
undated.
?
School
of
Oriental and
African
Studies,
University
of
London
1997
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JAMES LEGGE'S
METRICAL
BOOK OF POETRY 65
impossible
for most
contemporary
professional
scholars to
develop
the
back-
ground
needed
to evaluate the
interdisciplinary
breadth of
Legge's
efforts.
Legge
not
only
worked
through
the
multidimensional
traditions within
the
Chinese commentarial texts and earlier translations of the texts into various
Western
languages4
but also collaborated
closely
with
a
contemporary
Chinese
scholar,
Wang
Tao
T_
(A.D.
1822-97),5
who came to live in
Hong Kong
in
1863.
As well
as his influence
in
scholarly
circles,
Legge's religious
interpretation
of the
Confucian classical
tradition as
containing
an
original
monotheism
became
a
focus of intense debate
among
missionaries
in
China.6
Although
a
highly
readable
biography
was
published
by
one
of
his
daughters
in
1905,'
it
emphasized
his
missionary
experiences, avoiding
the
complexities
and contro-
versies
surrounding
his
translations
and
interpretive
works. His
major
works,
embodied in The Chinese Classics, have long outlived him, but the details of
his life and
productivity
have
slipped
into
a
perplexing
intellectual black hole:
Legge's
influence
is
generally
recognized
among
sinologists
even
today,
but for
most of
this
century
his life and works have remained a
mystery-so
little of
it has
been
thoroughly
understood.
II. Overlooked ranslations
Essential to a
comprehensive
account
of
James
Legge's sinological
contribu-
tions are
his
three
translations of
Shijing
?4M,
The
Book
of
Poetry.
It must be
stressed that
these were three
different acts
of
translation: it was
Legge's general
practice
to translate a text several times without reference to
previous
transla-
tions before
embarking
on a final
version. Revisions
of the final version
were
often
carried out
in a
similar
way-first
an
independent
translation,
then a
comparison
with his earlier
efforts. Sensitive
to the
varying capacities
and
interests of his diverse
audiences,
Legge's renderings
reflect
a
subtle interaction
between
conceptual clarity,
functional
equivalence
and
accessibility.8
The
first
translation
of 'The She
King'
appeared
late
in
1871,
accompanied
by
almost 200
pages
of
prolegomena,
the
Chinese texts with
commentary
and
notes
in
the
body
of
the
work,
followed
by
a
glossary
of Chinese terms
employed
in
The Book
of Poetry,
and
finally,
several
indexes.
Seeking
to
appeal
to an academic audience willing to learn both the ancient Chinese language
and the
cultural
complexities
it
embodied,
Legge
presented
literal
translations
in
stanza
form. The
accuracy
of the
conceptual
presentation
was his
prime
concern;
poetic
features
such
as
the
rhythm
and
rhyme
of the
Chinese text
4
In
each of
the five
volumes of The
Chinese Classics
Legge
provided
an
annotated
bibliography
of
relevant
texts. These run to
nearly
250
entries:
183 titles of
general
works
in
Chinese
(including
some
Japanese
publications
and
editions of
texts);
17
dictionaries and
technical tools
in
Chinese;
22
works in
English;
13 in
French;
7
in
Latin;
and one
in
Russian.
Beyond
the
materials
listed,
Legge's personal library
included other
texts
in
Italian,
German,
and Dutch. For
more
details
of
his
personal
library,
see
my
'Some new
dimensions in
the
study
of the works
of James
Legge
(1815-1897); part
I',
Sino- Western
Cultural Relations
Journal,
12,
1990,
29-50.
5
See Lee Chi-fang, 'Wang T'ao's contribution to James Legge's translation of the Chinese
Classics',
Tamkang
Review,
17/1,
1986,
47-67.
6
The
critical document in
this
debate,
published
by Legge's
friends
after
it
was
denied
publication
in
the
proceedings
of
the General
Missionary
Conference of
1877
in
Shanghai,
was
Confucianism
in
relation
to
Christianity
(London, 1877).
After its
publication,
both critics and
supporters
of
Legge's
missiological position
published
articles
in
the
standard
Chinese
missionary
journal,
The Chinese
Recorder,
the
critics
referring
to
his
understanding
of
Confucian
religious
history
as
'Leggism'.
7
Helen
Edith
Legge,
James
Legge:
missionary
and
scholar
(London:
Religious
Tract
Society,
1905).
8
Legge provided
'modern'
translations
of some texts to
broaden their
appeal.
See James
Legge,
The
Chinese
Classics,
Vol.
II
Life
and works
of
Mencius
(Philadelphia:
J.B.
Lippencott
and
Co.,
1875:
iv).
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66 LAUREN
PFISTER
were
extensively
discussed
in
the
prolegomena
and,
in the case of
the
rhymes,
were itemized at the end of each
poem.
The
presentation
of
the
Shijing
as a
whole
followed the traditional order authorized
by
the
Qing dynasty Imperial
Catalogue. Legge clearly sought to produce a translation representativeof the
original
form
of the authorized text and aimed at an accurate
rendering
of
the
conceptual
content of
the
poetry
rather
than
an aesthetic
equivalent
in
English.
In the
interval
between his
retirement
from the London
Missionary Society
and
taking
up
the
professorship
at
Corpus
Christi
College,
Oxford,
Legge
was
encouraged by
two
of his
nephews
to
attempt
a
rendering
of
this Chinese
classic
in
metrical form. It
quickly
became a
group project,
ultimately involving
at least
four
others besides James
Legge
himself,9
including
an Oxford
graduate
who had
figured largely
in
the
government
of the
young
British
colony
of
Hong Kong, Mr. W. T. Mercer.'1
Published with
an
eye
to a broader
audience,
this
metrical Book
of Poetry
reduced the extensive notes and commentarial
glosses
to
introductory
com-
ments
with no Chinese characters.
Also,
the Chinese
text itself was left out
completely
and
any necessary
mention of Chinese terms
was dealt with
by
a
relatively
clearer transliteration
system."
After
beginning
his
professorial
duties
in
1876,
Legge
arranged
with his
Oxford
colleague,
Friedrich Max
Miiller,
to have a number
of Confucian
Classics included
in the
series,
'The Sacred Books of
the East'. Most
of the
chosen
pieces
were
completely
new
translations,
but
Miller
also
asked
Legge
to present a new translation of the religious portions of the ShujingVT, The
Book
of
Historical
Documents,
and the
Shijing
for his series.
Legge
agreed
and
provided
a full translation of
the
Shujing
in
its
original
form,
but offered
a
very
different selection
of
materials
from the
Shijing.
Returning
to
the
non-poetic,
academic
style
of the
first
translation
of
the
Shijing, Legge
re-edited it and
radically rearranged
the
sequence
of
all the
poems.
Even
the
presentation
of the stanzas
of the first translation
was reduced:
rather than
a
parallel
line-by-line
English-Chinese
text,
this version
rendered
the whole stanza as
a
single paragraph.
Individual
lines were identifiable
by
the
capitalization
of
initial
words
but were embedded
in
prose-like
paragraphs.
Whether this formal readjustmentwas Legge's personal choice or was imposed
by
the
editor,
Max
Miller,
is
not
clear.
Certainly
the
more
radical
revision
came
in
the
sequence
of
presentation.
Based
on a hierarchical
vision of
religious
experiences,
Legge
placed
the
full translation
of the
final section of
the
Shijing,
the
'Sacrificial
Odes of
Shang'
(Shangsong
A.$0)
at
the
beginning,
followed
by
the full
rendering
of the
first
section
(Zhousong
NA
),
and
only
selected
poems
9
The
nephews
were
sons
of
Legge's
brother,
John
Legge;
both
had
graduated
from Aberdeen
University
in 1862 and then
together
entered a Nonconformist
seminary,
Lancashire
Independent
College
in
Manchester.
The
elder
was named
John
Legge,
after his
father,
and the
younger,
James
Legge,
after his
uncle.
A minister
friend,
Alexander
Cran,
joined
them
in the
project.
For further
information,
see
James
Legge,
Memorials
of
John
Legge
... With
memoir
by
James
Legge (London:
J. Clarke & Co., 1880). See also James Legge, The Chinese Classics ... Vol.III. The She King; or,
The
Book
of
Poetry
(London:
Trtibner
and
Co.,
1876:
iii).
This
is the
third volume
of the
'modern'
translations
[hereafter
the
Metrical She
King (1876)].
10
Mercer had
an active and
long
career
in
the
political
administration
of
Hong Kong.
He
published
a book
of rather
pedantic
poetry
in
1869,
Under
the
peak;
or,
Jottings
in
verse,
during
a
lengthened
residence in
the
colony
of
Hong Kong.
See
descriptions
of his
political
activities
in
E.J.
Eitel,
Europe
in
China
(Hong Kong:
Oxford
University
Press,
1983
[1895]),
esp. pp.
220,
275-6, 297,
408-11. See
also Metrical She
King
(1876:
iv).
11
The
loss
of the
Chinese text
in
all the
renderings
of The
Sacred
Books
of
China was
lamented
by
a
number
of scholars
who knew
The
Chinese
Classics,
but
its absence
helped
to
make the text
more
appealing
to a
public
which
could not
hope
to
read Chinese.
Only
one
text-
Chenfeng
Mumen
RamR
had
an obvious
printing
error in the
1872 Chinese
text
(the
fourth
lines in
the
two
stanzas
are
reversed).
(See
CC, iv,
1872,
210.)
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5/23
JAMES LEGGEIS
METRICAL BOOK
OF
POETRY
67
of the second section
(Lusong
VVI)
of the 'Odes of the
Temple
and
the
Altar'
(Song AY).Legge
then
presented
the 'Minor Odes
of the
Kingdom'
(Xiaoya
/j\I),
'Major
Odes
of the
Kingdom' (Daya
7k~)
and the 'Lessons
from the
States' (Guofeng 9%), including only those poems-or in many cases, only
certain stanzas of
a
few
poems-which
had
some
religious
dimension.
As
regards Legge's
criteria for
constructing
his
'hierarchical vision of
religious
experiences',
he makes it clear that the
Shangsong
were the oldest
and
perhaps
the most
monotheistic
poems
of
this
classic work.
Legge's
hier-
archy, though
never
comprehensively
or
explicitly
expressed,
would thus seem
to rest on
a
complex understanding
of the value of various
religious
experiences.
Primary
to that
understanding
was
the elevation
of
any
text
which
explicitly
or
implicitly suggested
a monotheistic
conceptualization
of
Supreme
Lord
(Shangdi
I*).
Next,
any religious
traditions
portrayed
in
the odes
which
pointed to a belief in the existence of spiritual beings had to be considered
relatively
informed,
even
if
skewed and
unbelievable. This included
prayers
to
ancestral
spirits
and the
addressing
of various
powers
such as
the
spirits
of the
earth, moon, stars,
mountains
and rivers.
Although
there
was
in
Legge's
own
understanding
a
major
distinction between
personal
and
impersonal
spirits,
there is no
discernible
re-ordering
of
the
texts on the basis
of this
qualification.
A third
distinct level involved the
methods of
discerning
spiritual
values
(e.g.
through
divination,
by casting yarrow
sticks
or
scorching
tortoise shells
and
shamanism),
and
the
description
of sacrificial rites.
It also seems clear
that
Legge's
placing
of
the
Xiaoya
and
Daya
sections
before the
Guofeng
is
predic-
ated on the fact that these were included in the religious ceremonies and
sacrificial
rites of the Zhou
king,
all of which
were
in a
class above
any
similar
rites in
the domains
of
the
feudal
princes.
Viewed
from this
standpoint,
Legge
appears
to have
rearranged
the order
of the
Shijing
according
to criteria based
on conscious
metaphysical,
epistemo-
logical,
ritualistic
and
class-oriented data. The
metaphysics
reflected his
Christian
commitment and his
knowledge
of
comparative religious
studies. His
epistemological judgements
were most
likely
made
according
to
the
degree
of
certainty any
religious knowledge
was able to
provide;
these evaluations
them-
selves were
grounded
in
his
studies of
Dissenter
theology
and
Neo-Aristotelian
philosophy of the Scottish Commonsense tradition. For the rituals and class-
orientations
of
the
speakers
and
subjects
of the odes he drew
on his
assessment
of
the
Chinese commentarial
traditions and
their
historical and
religious
significance.
Although
more
could be said
about this third
version of the
Shijing,
I
will
now turn
to
an
analysis
of
the
least
recognized
translation,
that of
the
so-called
'Metrical
Shijing'
of
1876.
III.
The metrical
Book
of
Poetry
of
1876
To establish what is
important
about a 'metrical'
English
version of The Book
of
Poetry
we need
to
ask
whether
its evaluation
requires
different standards of
judgement
that
go beyond
'accuracy'
and an
appeal
to literal
correctness.
If
other
evaluative criteria
need to be
applied
to a
poetic
version of the
text,
the
question
then
is,
how well
do
the
renderings
of
Legge's
metrical
translation
stand
up
to closer
examination? The
very
fact that this
edition was
not the
basis
for the
third version
Legge prepared
in
1879
should
give
us
pause.
Yet
in
retrospect
it is
not difficult to see the
uniqueness
of this
particular
edition
of The
Book
ofPoetry.
No other
major
sinologist
of the
nineteenth
or
twentieth
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6/23
68
LAUREN
PFISTER
centuries has succeeded
in
producing
a
metrical version of this
Confucian
classic
in
any
European
language.'2
The French and
Latin versions
prepared
by Seraphim
Couvreur
in
1896
were
translations
which
sought
to
provide only
conceptual equivalence, relying on Zhu Xi's
*A
interpretations,and presenting
all the
poems
in
paragraph
form,
much like
Legge's
third translation of
1879.13
Karlgren's
version
of The Book
of
Odes
also
presents
the
poetry
in
single
paragraphs
which do
not
even
distinguish
between
separate
stanzas.14
Only
Arthur
Waley's
topically arranged
version of
the
classic,
The Book
of
Songs.
the ancient Chinese classic
of poetry,
presents
the material
in
poetic
form with
individuated
stanzas.15
Nevertheless,
Waley
did not
try
to
represent
the
rhyme
or the
rhythm,
nor
even
necessarily
to follow the
repetition
of
lines in the
Chinese
standard,
although
he did
attempt
subtle re-creations of various
sounds,
moods,
and
word-play.
This
unique aspect
of
Legge's
metrical render-
ing does not, however, in itself establish the work as important. To do that,
we
must also take account of what has
so
far been
overlooked.
When
comparing
some
outstanding
renditions of The Book
of Poetry
on
the basis of their
conceptual
accuracy, philological
awareness and
interpretive
sensitivity,
without
considering
the formal nature of the
presentation,
some
scholars have identified
reasons
for
preferring
later
translations of
the classic
12
This claim needs to be
carefully
qualified. Legge
himself knew of two
German
translations
of the Confucian
classic,
both
of
which had been translated
from a Latin version
by
Father
Lacharme.
In
his first translation of the
Shijing
in
1872,
Legge
reviewed
a
number
of
renderings
in
Lacharme's work and discovered them to be
'very
inaccurate
Latin
translation[s]'. (See
James
Legge,
CC, Iv,
1872,
167.)
Legge
made
other comments
on and
evaluations
of Lacharme's work
throughout
this
text,
almost
all of
which
rejected
Lacharme's
renderings.
Since
the
two German
versions
depended
on
Lacharme,
they
were
already
at a
disadvantage.
Of the two-Friedrich
Ruckert's
Schi-King,
Chinesisches
Liederbuch,
gesammelt
von
Confucious (Altona:
1833)
and
Johann Cramer's
Schi-King,
oder
Chinesische
Lieder,
gesammelt
von
Confucious--Legge
considered
the former the far
better
version,
in
spite
of
inherent flaws due to lack
of contact with the
original
Chinese.
13
See
Seraphim
Couvreur, S.J.,
Cheu
King:
Texte chinois avec une
double
traduction
enfrancais
et en latin
(Ho
Kien Fou:
Imprimerie
de
la Mission
Catholique,
1896;
4th
ed.,
Taipei: Kwangchi
Press,
1967,
1992).
One
major
difference between
Couvreur's version and
Legge's
third
1879
translation
is
that
the former
numbers
all the
stanzas,
even
though
they
are
already
distinctly
separated.
In
Legge's
third
version,
there are no numbers
identifying
the
sequence,
although
he
had
included
them
in
both the 1872 and
1876
versions,
at the extreme left
of
each
stanza.
14
Karlgren preferred to start each stanza with a dash and to place
its
sequential
number
at
the
beginning
of
the stanza
in
the midst
of a
running paragraph.
This saves
space
and
helps
to
identify particular
stanzas
fairly clearly
in
the
translation;
his
Chinese
version,
however,
does
not
distinguish
the stanzas at
all.
(It
should be
noted that
Legge's
Chinese version
in
the 1872
translation
provided
both
stanza
and
line
numbers,
making
the
process
of
referring
to
the
original
much
easier.)
See Bernhard
Karlgren,
The Book
of
Odes:
Chinese
text,
transcription
and translation
(Stockholm:
Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities,
1974).
Both Couvreur's
and
Karlgren's
versions
included
the
transliteration
of
the Chinese text into
contemporary
Chinese
sounds,
with
Karlgren
adding
in
parentheses
the
pronunciation
of
rhymes
in the reconstructed
phonetics
of
the older
Chinese. This adds
a
philological
interest,
especially
in
Karlgren's
case,
which
is not as evident
in
Legge's
versions.
Legge
did
carefully
and
thoroughly
discuss
the ancient
'prosody'
in
the 1872
version,
but
only
at the
end
of
his notes
on
each
poem
and
without
transliteration,
using
only
the
Chinese characters themselves.
15
See Arthur
Waley (tr.),
The
Book
of
Songs:
the ancient Chinese
classic
of
poetry
(London:
Allen
and
Unwin, 1937). Waley's rearrangement
of the
poems
into
topical units,
much like
Legge'sthird version of
1879,
according
to their
religious
interest,
also restructured the text in
ways
completely foreign
to the
Chinese classic
itself.
Waley's reorganization
is far more radical than
Legge's,
but
it must be remembered
that
in
Legge's
time
imperial
Chinese
civil service
examinations
were
still
using
the standard
text,
and the
need to 'follow
the authoritative
model' was thus
more
urgently
felt.
Nevertheless,
Legge
was
quick
to
point
out
in his 1872 translation
that both
the Han
dynasty
Mao school
mR?
nd the
Song
T-,
dynasty
school
following
Zhu
Xi's
interpretations
did
consider
the
placement
of
and
interrelationship
between
poems
a
significant
factor
in
understanding
the
larger
meanings
of individual
poems.
One
example
of this
intertextuality
is the
interpretation
Zhu
Xi
gives
of the 'Shan
you
shu'
fiif
poem
in
the
Odes
of
Tang
Al,
of the
Lessons
of
the States
)A1
in which
this
poem's
significance
is
tied
to
the
themes
of
the
previous
odes.
(See
CC,
Iv,
1872,
176.)
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JAMES LEGGE'S METRICAL BOOK OF
POETRY
69
to
Legge's
1872
'prosaic'
rendition.16
But this
comparison
does
not
include
factors
relating
to
the
aesthetics
of
poetic
renditions
such as those
which
inform
Legge's
translation
project
of
1876,
precisely
because the scholars
concerned
were unawareof the existence of a metrical version. In this sense, the uniqueness
of
Legge's
metrical
Shijing
needs to be
re-evaluated,
in
parallel
with
a
re-evaluation
of the
nature of the act of
translation
itself. The
discussion
that
follows will
argue
in favour
of such
a reconsideration of
Legge's
metrical
work
in the
light
of the
standards
applied by Wong
and
Li
as
well
as
specific
theories
of
translation and their
related criteria.
1. Standards
ofjudgement
In
recent decades the
history
of the
development
of
translation
theory
has
been
seen
as an
increasingly important
facet of
study
in
European
and
North
American translation
circles.17
The shift in
emphasis
was
prompted by
changes
in the
basic
understanding
of the
task of
translation,
requiring
modern
theorists
to re-think
earlier
approaches
and to
experiment
with new
definitions
of
the
translation
process.'8
Major eighteenth-
and
nineteenth-century
translation theorists
advocated
the
pursuit
of
a
'perfect'
translation based on
the use of
metaphor; they
believed
an
exact
equivalence
between
languages
could be
achieved if
the
translator
thoroughly
understood the
original
language
(the
'source
language'
or
'SL')
and
was a
competent
and creative
speaker
of the
language
into
which
the
SL
text was
rendered
(the
'target
language'
or
'TL').
Later
nineteenth-
and twentieth-century theorists have debated such claims, some arguing that
they
were not
universally
true,
others,
that the
metaphorical
approach
was
wrong
altogether.
Translators had
sometimes
to
face
phrases
and
ideas which
had
no
perfectly
suitable
rendering
in
the
target
language
and to find
some
other
way
to
present
the
basic
ideas without
losing
too
much of
the
meaning
expressed
in
the
original.
Moving beyond
the
literal
text,
translators were
16
See,
for
example,
the
fine
evaluative
work
by Wong
Siu-kit
RJME
and
Li
Kar-shu
*JW
in
'Three
English
translations
of
the
Shijing',
Renditions,
November
1987,
113-39.
Having
considered the
translations
of The
Book
of Poetry by
Legge,
Waley
and
Karlgren,
they place
Legge's
academic
rendition of 1872
last in
terms
of
precision
and
poetic
style.
The
criteria
they
apply include late Qing philological knowledge, advances in linguistic and etymological understand-
ing,
accuracy
of
word-for-word
and
phrase-for-phrase
translation,
devices
by
which
the
rendering
reflects the
Chinese
standard,
as
well as
the
fluidity
and
clarity
of
the
contemporary English
rendering.
In
their
generally thoughtful assessment,
Karlgren's
version
emerges
as
the
most
systematic
and
precise,
while
Waley's
is
the
most
stylish
and
poetic.
Criticisms
of
Legge
include
excessive
reliance on
Zhu
Xi's
philological
evaluations
and
a
too
limited
awareness of
the
importance
of late
Qing
philological
scholarship.
That
Legge
followed
Zhu Xi in
some
cases is
clear,
but
this can be
overstated. In
fact,
Legge opposed
Zhu Xi's
philological
and
interpretive
positions
almost
as often as he
supported
them,
preferring
in
those
instances
either
a Han
school
position,
a
Qing option,
or
one of
his
own
preference.
A
knowledge
of
Legge's
Metrical
Shijing,
I
suspect
might
have
modified some
of their
judgements
of
his
style.
17
See,
for
example,
Susan
Bassnett-McGuire,
Translation
tudies
(New
York:
Routledge,
1980;
revised ed.
1991,
esp.
39-75).
In
her
work,
Victorian
translation
theorists
(such
as
Arnold
and
Longfellow)
are
distinguished
from
Romantic
and
post-Romantic
theorists in
that
they
elevated
the importance of the text in the original language to an extreme, emphasizing the accuracy of a
rendering
and
denying
much
liberty
at all
to the
translator;
whereas
Romantics
such
as
Goethe
tended
to
have
a more
liberal
view of
the
creativity
of the
translation
act.
See also
Douglas
Robinson The
translator's
turn
(Baltimore:
John
Hopkins
University
Press,
1991),
65-126.
Robinson
argues
that
the
Romantic
translation
theorists
gave
metaphor paramount
status as
a means
of
characterizing
the act
of
translation.
(See
p. 160).
For an
historical
overview
which
supports
the
Romantic
vision
see
George
Steiner's
After
Babel:
aspects
of
language
and
translation
(New
York:
Oxford
University
Press,
1975).
18
The
development
of
these
theoretical
positions
is
complicated
by
the
fact
that
some
theorists
feel
there is no
need for
any
change,
only
a
more
precise
set
of
descriptive theories,
while
others
propose
a more
radical
shift
towards a less
rationalist and
more
relational
theory
of
translation.
For
one
such
theory
with
many qualifications
in
the
footnotes,
see
Robinson,
The
translator's
turn,
65-9.
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70
LAUREN PFISTER
urged
to
find other locutions
which
might
even
have
only
tenuous literal
associations
with
the
original
idea
but
which
provoked appropriate responses
in
the
audience.19
This
kind of translation has been
described as
'dynamic
equivalence', suggesting that it produces a similar or even the same effect in
the
audience
of the
target
language
that
the
original phrase
has
in its own
context.20 Once the idea of a
dynamic equivalence
is
accepted,
translators have
to become
much
more sensitive
to the differences
expressed
in
various
languages
with
regard
to their
historical, cultural,
sociological,
religious
and aesthetic
backgrounds.
In the
light
of this
need,
consideration
of the
historical
develop-
ments
in
translation theories themselves becomes all the more relevant to both
the
act
of
translating
and the
task
of
rethinking
its
theoretical
explanation.
Taking
the
concept
of
dynamic
equivalence seriously,
theorists
have
gone
on to
debate
whether
or
not
it is
sensible to talk about
evaluating
translations
as ' acceptable/unacceptable', 'good/bad', 'right/wrong', and 'justified/
unjustified'.
The
debate
is
complex,
and
will not be rehearsed
here.21
Its
effect
is to demonstrate
that
a number
of
options, particularly
in
translations
of
poetry,
can
be
equally acceptable
without
one or other
being
branded as
completely wrong.
I
will
argue
that
the
'right/wrong'
and
other distinctions
are still valid
judgements,
but
I
am
also
willing
to
broaden
the
range
of
options
because
I
recognize
that
the
density
of
poetry permits
and
even
legitimizes
it.
Among
other criteria
which can and should be
utilized
in
assessing
trans-
lated
poetry,
the first
must be-is
it
poetic
in form?
Once
one
accepts
the
fundamental
importance
of this
assessment,
other
criteria soon
follow.
- What style of translation is it? Does it seek to imitate the poem in the
source
language
(its
stanzas, meter,
rhythms,
rhymes, images),
or is
it
a
more
liberal
rendering?
-
Why
does the translator
choose
this
particular
way
of
expressing
the
poem?
Is this
form
and
style
of
expression
appropriate
in
reflecting
the
status of
the
poetic
text
in its
original
context?
Does
the
version
reflect the same
tone as
the
original
poem?
Is
the
voice of
the
poetry pitched
at
the
same
or similar
level of
popularity,
eruditeness,
oddness,
simplicity?
-
What
devices must
the
translator
employ
in order to
present
more difficult
passages? Does the translated text present itself as a 'perfect rendition
',22
or
are
there other
techniques
(footnotes, parenthetical
comments,
or other
19
A
general
discussion
of these
questions
in
relation to translations
of
poetry
are
found
in
Bassnett-McGuire,
Translation
studies,
81-109.
Examples
of the
problems
in
aiming
for exact
equivalence,
most often
illustrated
by
poetic
translation,
are
provided
in
Robinson,
The
translator's
turn,
133-93.
20This
is
the
terminology
of
Eugene
Nida.
Peter Newmark
(whom
Donald
Robinson
characterizes
as
a 'commonsense-for-sense'
theorist)
claims
that the
principle
of
dynamic
equivalence
is
becoming 'generally
superordinate,
both
in translation
theory
and
practice,
to
the
principles
of
primacy
of form and
primacy
of content.' See
Peter
Newmark,
Approaches
to
translation
(Hemel Hempstead,
Herts:
Prentice
Hall International
(UK)
Ltd.,
1988),
132,
and
for
Robinson's
comment,
The
translator's
turn,
173.
21
Robinson's work is an attempt to present a radical alternative along 'dialogic' lines,
following
the ideas of
Mikhail Bakhtin
and
Kenneth Burke
in
reinterpreting
locally-based
terminology
according
to what
he calls
an
'
ideosomatic
feel'
for the
appropriateness
of
translations.
His
theoretical
approach
to
language
bears
a
striking
similarity
to that
of the
pre-Qin
Daoist
philosopher,
Zhuangzi A-T
and
is
opposed
to that of
a
number
of current translation
theorists,
including Eugene
Nida
and Peter
Newmark,
who tend
to
over-generalize
their
rationalized
categories
to
the
point
where
they
cannot
fail to
raise certain
theoretical doubts.
Robinson's
position
seeks
to
avoid
such
conflicts
of
principle
by
not
insisting
on
the
universalizability
of
his ideas.
22
Sometimes
a
translation
gives
no
obvious
sign
that
it is in fact
a
translation,
in which
case,
text and
translator create
the
impression
of an
exact translation
(even
if it is
unintended):
this
phenomenon
has been
called
the 'realistic
illusion'
by
Mikhail
Bakhtin,
and
is discussed
in
Robinson,
The
translator's
turn,
170-72.
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JAMES LEGGE'S METRICAL BOOK OF
POETRY
71
means)
to
explain
the
unusual
locutions in the source
language
which
would
seem unnatural
and even senseless
in the
target
language?
In
the
following
discussions
I
will refer
to these five
criteria and their
collateral
issues as:
form;
style; appropriateness;
voice;
and
techniques.
2. A
descriptive
assessment
of
the
metirical
Shijing
In
assessing Legge's
contribution in the
metrical
Shijing,
we
should mention
at least one influence
from
his
background
which
predisposed
him
to
certain
kinds of
translations. As
a
student,
Legge's
sense of
Scottish
history
led him
to
read the Latin
history
of
Scotland
by
the famous
Scots
Latinist,
George
Buchanan.23
Legge
was also
aware that
Buchanan
had
written a Latin
metrical
paraphrase
of the
Psalms and found
he
preferred
Buchanan's
version
above
any other.24Years later, between 1874 and 1876, when the translation of the
metrical
ShiFing
was
being
completed, Legge
also
prepared
a
manuscript
of the
Psalms in
English,
metrically paraphrased
in
a fashion
very
similar
to
Buchanan's
style.25
Though
other
influences could
be
mentioned,
Buchanan
appears
to
have
shaped
a
major part
of
Legge's poetic
sensitivities.
i.
Form
It is
important
to note
that,
when he
began
the first
translation
of
The
Book
of
Poetry, Legge
had
consciously
considered
the
possibility
of
providing
some
kind of
metrical version
and decided not
to do so even
though
he
believed this
was an important factor in the translation. His reasoning is worth considering:
It
may
be
granted
that
verse is the
proper form
in which
to
translate
verse;
but the
versifier must
have a sufficient
understanding
of the
original
before
he
can
do
justice
to
it,
and avoid
imposing upon
his
reader
....
My object
has
been
to
give
a version of the
text which
should
represent
the
meaning
of
the
original,
without
addition
or
paraphrase,
as
nearly
as
I
could
attain
to
it. The
collection
as
a whole is
not worth
versifying.
But
with
my
labours
before
him,
any
one
who is
willing
to
undertake
the
labour
may
present
the
pieces
in
'a faithful
metrical
version.'
My
own
opinion
inclines
in
favour of
such a
version
being
as
nearly
as literal
as
possible.26
Although
he
recognized
in
principle
the
appropriateness
of
rendering
the
Chinese
poems
in
some
poetic
form,
Legge
had
already
judged
a
number of
the
poems
unimportant.
In
the
1872
translation,
he
repeated
and
elaborated
these
evaluations
in
his
footnotes
to
individual
poems
as well
as
in
the
summary
evaluations
at
the
end
of
the
different
sections.27
Yet,
in
spite
of
Legge's
initial
23
George
Buchanan,
Rerum
Scoticorum
Historia
(Edinburgh,
1582).
Details
of
the
text
and
its
influence on
Legge's
later
translations are
provided
in
my
'Some new
dimensions
...
part
1
',
42-3.
24
George
Buchanan,
Paraphrasis
Psalmorum Davidis Poetica
(n.p.,
1566).
An
English
version
of the
text was
prepared
in
1754 under the
title,
A
poetical
translation
of
the
Psalms.
25
The manuscript, for reasons which are not obvious, was never published; it is now held in
the
New
College Library
of the
University
of
Edinburgh.
26
From
CC,
Iv,
1872,
prolegomena,
115-16
et
passim,
emphasis
added.
27
This
he
did
only
for
the
Guofeng
RK
division
in
the
1872
edition.
(See
the
1872
translation,
19, 37,
72, 90,
108-9,
123, 149, 162,
173, 189,
204,
214,
219, 225,
242-3.
Sometimes no
explicit
evaluation is
given,
but
in a
number of
cases
Legge
listed those
worthy
of
attention
for their
information,
moral
stance,
poetic
interest,
or aesthetic
value. He
speaks
of
two
poems
among
those in
the
Wei
*
section
which are
'most
interesting
and
ambitious'.
From the host
of
Zheng
OP
poetry
he
mentions
two,
the
eighth
and
nineteenth
which
'stood
out
conspicuously'
because
of their
positive
values.
Yet a
stern
voice
could
also be
heard: 'To
none of the
odes of
Ts'aou
f
does
there
belong
any
great
merit.'
Legge
quotes
the
praise
of
Zhu Xi
and one
of
the
Cheng
W
brothers,
but
in
the
Zhounan
Ai
and Shaonan
B~A
he
comments
tersely
that
they
'do not
approve
themselves so
much to a western
reader'.
As
at
the
beginning,
so
at the
end:
the
last
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72
LAUREN PFISTER
claim that 'as a whole'
it
was
not
worth
versifying,
as we have
seen,
he
later
changed
his mind
and laboured
with others to
complete
the
task.28
In
the metrical
version,
all 305
of
the
existing poems
of
the Confucian
classic were transformed into English poetry, using lines varying from four to
twelve
syllables,
in
many
cases
including
multiple
lengths
in
combination.29
Yet even this
summary
is
too
simple:
three
poems
were rendered
in
Broad
Scots,
a
very
different form
of
English
(Wangfeng
Junzi
yu yi
TI
FR-
TJi,
Wangfeng
Yang
zhi
shui
r)
FM2:7J
and
Zhengfeng
Gaoqiu
1Vi
Vi]);30
four
others included Latin versions
prepared by
William Mercer
in
addition
to the
English
renditions
(Wangfeng Yang
zhi shui
_M
F
i7Ai,
J,
Chenfeng
Fang
you
que
chao
%
f
iXJ,
Xiaoya Luming
Huanghuang
zhe hua
'J
A
/
and
Zhousong
Qingmiao
Wei
Tian zhi
ming
J'PJ
k
Z
pi);31
and three
poems
were
presented
in
two different transla-
tions, one after the other (Tangfeng Gesheng*L~t rJt, Qinfeng Huangniu
R
%F*ji,
and
Zhousong
Min
yu
xiaozi Xiaobi
M
4r-f,
l'T]).32
The
poems
were
numbered
according
to
their
sequence
in the
section
in
which
they
appeared;
their titles were not translated but
given only
in
transliterated
form
before
the
introductory
statement which
preceded
each
poem.
This is in
contrast to the 1872
version which
attempted
no
patterned
rhythm,
often with
very irregular
line
lengths.
Stanzas
were numbered
in the
margins
of
both
the
English
and the Chinese for
easy
reference,
while in the
1876 rendition
whole
poems
were
presented
in
English
only
and
so
did not
require
these indicators.
Another factor in the formal presentation of the poetry was that the layout
varied
considerably
in the
metrical
version,
while
in
the
first version the
poems
appeared consistently
the same.
In
the
1872
work
there was no variation
in
the
margins; every
line,
no
matter
how
long
or
short,
began
at
exactly
the
same
point
on the
page.
In
the 1876
edition,
only
about a
quarter
of the
poems
were
printed
in this fashion. In another
quarter,
whether
in
four-
or six-line
stanzas,
the second and fourth
lines were
indented.33
In
28 of the
poems,
the
even lines were
invariably
indented. The
variety
is
astonishing,
with over
59
different
ways
of
indenting and/or extending
the
lines within
the
large variety
of stanza
lengths.
Thus the 1876 metrical version was
immensely
more
inviting
to
eyes
used
to
English poetry
than the
earlier translation.
three
odes
of
Bin
i
he
considered to
be 'of a
trifling
character',
but
he
immediately
pointed
to
the first and third
poems
of that
section
as not
only being
longer
but also
'
of
a
superior
character'.
28
Elsewhere
I
have assessed
the
importance
of
Legge's
presentation
of the translations included
in
both
The Chinese Classic and
The
Sacred
Books
of
the
East,
using aspects
of the communicative
action
theory
of
Jirgen
Habermas
to
identify
the advances
Legge
had
made over
earlier
attempts
at
translating
some of these
materials. See 'James
Legge'
in
the
Encyclopedia
of
translation:
Chinese-English,
English-Chinese,
(ed.)
Chan Sin-wai
and David
E.
Pollard
(Hong Kong:
Chinese
University
Press,
1995:
401-22).
29
In the metrical
Shijing,
I recorded at
least 41 different
syllabic patterns
among
the
poems.
The
4-syllable
lines
always
occur
in
connection with
6- or
8-syllable
lines
(see
Metrical
She
King,
1876,
80:
'Peifeng
Zhongfeng'
4l~
r J;
236,
'Xiaoya
Xiaomin
Qiaoyan'
',J,
5-7J;
and
351, 'Zhousong Wei Tian zhi ming' ZF*,F~)KZiJ). Examples exist of complete poems from 5-
to
12-syllables
per
line.
A
greater
number
of these
kinds of
poems
is
in
either
8- or
10-syllable
lines.
Among
the
many
variations which
include two or
more
lengths
of line
in a
stanza,
there
are
14
poems
in
the
8,
6,
8,
6
rhythm (pp.
89,
96, 187,
194,
278, 308, 351,
355, 356, 362,
364
[2
poems],
271,
372);
seven
poems appear
in the
rhythm
8, 8,
6,
8, 8,
6
(pp.
91, 176,
239, 248, 275,
315);
seven other
poems
have
been transformed
into
the
rhythm
8, 6,
8,
6,
8,
8
(pp.
71, 233,
274,
281,
293,
298,
358)
and five are
reformulated
in a
10, 10, 8, 10, 10,
8
rhythm (pp.
178,
203, 219,
262,
291).
More than
half the
rhythm patterns
occur
only
once
in
the
whole of
the translation.
30 Metrical
She
King
(1876),
112-13,
124.
31
ibid., 113,
170,
201,
351.
32
ibid., 154, 161,
366.
33
By my
count
79
poems
were
printed
without
any
line variation and the
same
number with
the
second and fourth lines indented.
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JAMES LEGGE'S METRICAL BOOK OF POETRY
73
ii.
Style
Among
the conclusions drawn
by
translation
theorists
regarding poetry
is
that
the more one seeks to imitate specific aspects of an original poem in its
translated
version,
the less successful is
the
result.
...
the closer the
translation
came to
trying
to recreate
linguistic
and
formal
structures of the
original,
the further removed it
became
in terms of
func-
tion.
Meanwhile,
huge
deviations
of
form and
language
[in
a
translated
poem]
managed
to come closer to
the
original
intention.34
It
may
come as a
surprise
therefore,
that
Legge's project actually
includes over
60
poems
which reflect a
conscious
attempt
to mirror
particular
aspects
of
the
structure of the
Chinese
poetry.
Most
often,
this is limited
simply
to the
number of lines
in
each
stanza.35
In
some
cases,
the
variation which occurs
in
the Chinese line
lengths
is
reflected also
in
the
English;36
n
a
few,
the
predomin-
ance of a
particular rhyme
scheme is
also mirrored
in
either a
repeated rhyme
in
English37
or in free
verse
in which
no
rhyme
occurs
in
either Chinese or
English.38
In some
cases,
both
rhyme
and
rhythm
are
very
close
to
the Chinese
original.39Although
there was no
attempt
at an artificial likeness to the
original
rhyme's
actual
sound,
Legge's editing (if
not his
own
creative
effort)40
attempts
to
cloak
a
significant minority
of
the
poems
in
this kind of
formal
similarity
to
their
Chinese
original.
In
the
majority
of
cases
it is
undeniable that
Legge
took
a
more
liberal
attitude
to the task of translation.
The
concise lines of the
original poems,
often (but not always) of four or five characters, defied any effort to convey
such
density
of
meaning
in
so few
English words.41
In
over
30 of the Chinese
poems
there are
internal
rhymes
occurring
on the
penultimate
character of the
line;
these are never
represented by any
equivalent English
locution,
and would
be
nearly
impossible
to
recreate.
Yet there are two other
aspects
of
the
style
of these
English
versions which
provoke
reflection: the search
for
acceptable conceptual parallels
and the
rendering
of
the
allusive element
of
Chinese
poetry.
It was
Legge's
stated
purpose
to include in
the translations
everything
which was
conceptually
and
34
Bassnett-McGuire,
Translation
tudies,
91. This
conclusion
summarizes a
discussion
of
three
different
renderings
of
Catullus Poem
13,
and
is
followed
by
the
statement,
'But this
is
not the
only
criterion for the
translation
of
poetry
...'
3
To
put
this claim
in
another
perspective,
only
one
out of
every
five
poems
in
Legge's
1876
Shijing
attempts
to imitate
the number of lines in
each stanza of
the
original.
There are also a
few
renderings,
all in
the
Xiaoya
/IN,
in
which the
English
lines
per
stanza are fewer
than those
in
the
Chinese text: see Metrical
She
King (1876),
214,
'Tonggong
Jiri'
)I$
F~]
1; 229,
'Qifu
Shiyue
zhijiao'
Z
[Ft-8+~1ZJ;
nd
263,
'Sanghu
Kuibian'
A
2
-Fi#.
6
It
should
be
noted
that,
in
some
cases,
the line
lengths
are more
irregular
in
Chinese than
in
English.
See Metrical
She
King (1876),
143,
'Weifeng
Fatan'
R
r1ft
,
and
247,
'Xiaoya
Beishan Beishan'
/J1,\t
LL
FtLLU]J.
37
See,
for
example
Metrical She
King (1876),
65,
69, 114, 174,
221, 226, 264,
308.
38
Some
representative
pieces
are
found
in
Metrical She
King (1876),
165,
167,
208.
39
e.g., Metrical She King (1876), 109, 152, 153, 170, 175, 260, 281.
40
There are
very
few clues as to who
were the
original
authors
of the translations in the
vast
majority
of cases.
When double
versions
occur,
there is
usually
some
explicit
statement
explaining
that
the versions were
prepared by
two
different authors.
Otherwise,
it is
difficult to tell. In
the
prolegomena
to his 1872
version of the
Shijing,
Legge provided
a
prodigious
amount
of
information
about the
line
lengths,
rhyme
structures,
and
their
variants.
In
the
notes under each
poem
he
always
included,
for the
reader
willing
to
compare
the
notes,
all the
specific rhymes
identified
by
Duan
Yucai
&?A
and
occasionally
some other
Chinese
philologist.
With
these
details at their
disposal, any
of
Legge's
collaborators
would have had
enough
information to
enable them
to
try
to
achieve a
rendering
imitating
the
original poem
in
a
number of
ways.
41
Only
one
poem
was
completely
reformulated
into terse
5-syllable
lines;
the rest
all had
some
lines of 6 or
more
syllables
in
their
stanzas.
See
CC,
iv,
1872, 282,
'Xiaoya
Dou ren
shi
Tiao zhi
hua'
'
F1
Z*?F#].
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74
LAUREN PFISTER
historically
appropriate
to
the
original. Support
for
this claim
is
given
not
only
in his
introductory
statements
but
also
in
comments
where
double versions
in
English
were
published
for
a
single
Chinese
poem.42
Conceptual acceptability is in many cases quite possible, but capturing the
nuances of
metaphorical
and allusive
poetry, especially
when
the various
commentators
disagree
about
their
meanings,
is in
principle
an
almost
hopeless
task.
Examples
of these translation
dilemmas are
much more
numerous
than
can
be
explained
here,
but
two
poems
illustrate the
complex problems presented
by
almost
untranslatable ideas.
Consider
this
prose rendering
in
1872 from
Xiaoya Tonggong
Heming
/1,,
if?
FOOC:43
1.
The crane cries
in
the ninth
pool
of
the
marsh,
And her voice is heard in the [distant] wilds.
The fish lies
in
the
deep,
And
is
by
the islet.
Pleasant
is
that
garden,
In
which are the sandal
trees;
But beneath
them are
only
withered
leaves.
The stones of those
hills,
May
be
made
into
grind-stones.
2. The
crane cries
in the
ninth
pool
of
the
marsh,
And
her
voice
is
heard
in the
sky.
The fish is by the islet,
And
now
it lies
hid in
the
deep.
Pleasant
is that
garden,
In
which
are the sandal
trees;
But beneath
them is the
paper-mulberry
tree.
The stones of those
hills
May
be used to
polish gems.
The Chinese text uses
a subtle
technique,
changing
the last character
of
lines,
transposing
lines,
and then
ending
on two
unexpected
characters,
the whole
bound together by a subtle interplay of rhyme.44The Minor Preface (Xiao Xu
b,1j),
often
referred
to
by
Confucian
scholars
of
Legge's
day
and earlier
to
justify
an
interpretation,
is
in
the end no
help
here.
Legge
comments
briefly
on
the hermeneutic
problem
before
providing
details of Zhu Xi's
interpretation:
42
Before
such
a
second
English
version
of'Zhousong
Min
yu
xiaozi
Xiaobi'
PA.f.V4-YF
fJ
(CC,
iv, 1872,
367), Legge
clarified
the
point
precisely:
'I received from Staffordshire
[that
is,
from his
nephew,
the
Revd James
Legge]
another
version
of this
piece,
which
gives
it a
more
general
character.
It is not so
historically
accurate
as the
above
version,
but
I think the
reader
will be
pleased
to see it.'
From this and similar statements we can surmise that Legge consciously styled the poems
within
the
concepts
and contexts
which
he felt most suited
the
rendering.
Still,
the
very
fact
that
he
did
publish
two versions
rather than one
suggests
that
he
was aware
of
the
possibility
of
diverse
renderings
and was
willing
to
present
a number
of them
if others
would
be
'pleased
to
see
them',
a liberal
attitude
to translation
not
always
recognized
in his own
day.
43
CC,
Iv,
1872,
296-7.
44
The skilful
transposition
of
phrases
and
rhymes
is
captured quite
well
by Legge
in this 1872
rendition,
but this
is a
literal
English
translation
which
leaves one
completely
at
a loss
as to the
covert
meanings
intended
by
the
various
symbols
from
the non-human
natural
world. The
rhyme
scheme of
this
particular
poem,
representing
each final character
with
a
letter,
is
A B C
B
D D
EEE
A C
B C
D D F E
F
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13/23
JAMES
LEGGE'S
METRICAL
BOOK OF
POETRY
75
The Preface
says
this
piece
was
intended
to
instruct
King
Seuen,
but it does
not
say
in what.
Nor
is there
any
agreement
among
the
critics about
the
lessons
hid
in
its
aphorisms.45
However,
because the
first
two
lines
of
the
poem
are
quoted
in
The Doctrine
of
the
Mean,
they
were
specifically
marked out
by
Confucian
literati
for
further
reflection. Confucius
himself had
urged
students
to
gain inspiration
from
the
study
of these classical
poems (xing
yu
shi
1-,)46
as
the initial
stage
in
striving
for
self-cultivation,
the
term,
xing,
being
the same term
employed
in
Shijing
scholarship
to
refer
to
the
allusive element. For a translator not to
understand
or
render these
metaphors
was to fail
to
convey
the nature
of one
of the basic tasks
facing
those
who
set out to
follow
Confucius.
Satisfied
by
Zhu
Xi's
account,
Legge
made
the
poem
in his
1876
version
far more
explicit
in
its
rendering
of
the
metaphorical
elements,
making
them
clear references to
specific
issues of
self-cultivation,
and in so
doing eliminating
the
metaphorical
level of
the
poem.47
1. All true
words
fly,
as from
yon
reedy
marsh
The
crane
rings
o'er the wild its
screaming
harsh.
Vainly you try
reason
in
chains
to
keep;
Freely
it
moves as
fish
sweeps through
the
deep.
Hate follows
love,
as 'neath
those
sandal trees
the
withered
leaves the
eager
searcher
sees.
The hurtful ne'er
without some
good
was
born;
The stones that mar the hill will grind the corn.
2. All
true
words
spread,
as from the marsh's
eye
The crane's
sonorous note ascends
the
sky.
Goodness
throughout
the widest
sphere
abides,
As fish
round
isle
and
through
the ocean
glides.
And lesser
good
near
greater you
shall
see,
As
grows
the
paper
shrub 'neath sandal tree.
And
good emerges
from what man
condemns;-
Those stones that mar
the hill
will
polish gems.
A
comparison
of the two
renderings
raises
a
number of issues. The
verbal
interplay
and the
repetition
has
gone
in
the
second version as has
any
hint
of
the
relationship
of
end
rhymes
between the
stanzas.
Although
the
earlier
45
CC,
IV,
1872,
297.
46
This
is from
Lun
Yu,
'Taibo'
Vf
Vi
J
[8:8],
which
Legge
translates
(CC,
I,
1872,
211):
1.
The
Master
said,
'It is
by
the
Odes that
the mind
is
aroused
2. It is
by
the
Rules
of
Propriety
that the character is
established.
3.
It is from
Music that the
finish
is
received.'