I am starting to read about Gu Cheng, in order to prepare myself to translate a few of his poems. I am doing it in the company of another member of CHF who likes his poetry.
I have just found an internet page where there is a study of him. It is:
http://www.cipherjou...n_gu_cheng.html
There are four of his poems in characters and English at:
http://www.archipela...7-1/gucheng.htm
Studying Gu Cheng (1956-1993)
Started by
Tang Scholar
, Jan 23 2011 07:48 PM
4 replies to this topic
#1
Tang Scholar
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- Entry Scholar (Xiucai)
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- 474 posts
Grand Mentor (Taishi 太师)
- Gender:Male
- Location:Cali, Colombia, a city of 2 million people, 4ºN, on a large mountain valley at 1000 m altitude, 120 km of the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific. Spanish is spoken here.
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Interests:I am interested mainly in poetry and literature. I am not literate in Chinese, though I understand a few characters.
Though I like poetry from everywhere and from every epoch, I like especially to learn about Tang poetry. Lately I have been studying two poets, one Tang (Bai Juyi) and the other Song (Li Qingzhao). - Languages spoken:Spanish, English, French, a bit German, a bit Japanese, a bit Chinese.
- Ethnic Groups or Race:Latin American - that is, a mixture of everything.
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Main Interest in CHF:
Chinese Literature
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Specialisation / Expertise:
Tang, Song and contemporary poetry
Posted 23 January 2011 - 07:48 PM
#2
Tang Scholar
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- Entry Scholar (Xiucai)
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- 474 posts
Grand Mentor (Taishi 太师)
- Gender:Male
- Location:Cali, Colombia, a city of 2 million people, 4ºN, on a large mountain valley at 1000 m altitude, 120 km of the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific. Spanish is spoken here.
-
Interests:I am interested mainly in poetry and literature. I am not literate in Chinese, though I understand a few characters.
Though I like poetry from everywhere and from every epoch, I like especially to learn about Tang poetry. Lately I have been studying two poets, one Tang (Bai Juyi) and the other Song (Li Qingzhao). - Languages spoken:Spanish, English, French, a bit German, a bit Japanese, a bit Chinese.
- Ethnic Groups or Race:Latin American - that is, a mixture of everything.
-
Main Interest in CHF:
Chinese Literature
-
Specialisation / Expertise:
Tang, Song and contemporary poetry
Posted 23 January 2011 - 11:00 PM
This is another important page. Less literary than Allen's, it is more centered on the people involved in the last times of Gu Cheng's life.
http://nunia.freeshe.../brady_qiu1.pdf
http://nunia.freeshe.../brady_qiu1.pdf
#3
fcharton
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- CHF Grand Historian Award
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- 3,016 posts
Emperor (Huangdi 皇帝)
- Gender:Male
- Location:Nemours and Paris
- Interests:Contemporary poetry, these days...
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Main Interest in CHF:
Chinese History
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Specialisation / Expertise:
PreQin, Classical chinese
Posted 02 February 2011 - 05:53 PM
Hi Tang Scholar
There is a (chinese) website with a lot of information about him, and a very large selection (if not all) of his poems. I think it is maintained by his sister.
http://gucheng.net
There has been a relatively recent complete edition of his works. I think it can be found (or ordered) in chinese bookstores (at worst, ask some singaporean members, I'm pretty sure you'd find it in the chinese bookshops in Bras Basah (sp?)). You can probably also download it from the Chinese internet. It is a big book, I think he wrote more than 2000 poems.
Translating his poems is a very good idea. The difficult part, in my opinion, is not the language, images or cultural references, but giving him "a voice". It has to sound childish, but not too much, it has to sound sad, but not to much, it has to sound a bit mad, but just a bit... It is also important to read other authors of his generation (he more or less is associated with the "misty poets"). Shi Zhi and Bei Dao come to mind, but also Yu Jian (born in 54 I think)
I hope you'll post some of your translations here
Francois
There is a (chinese) website with a lot of information about him, and a very large selection (if not all) of his poems. I think it is maintained by his sister.
http://gucheng.net
There has been a relatively recent complete edition of his works. I think it can be found (or ordered) in chinese bookstores (at worst, ask some singaporean members, I'm pretty sure you'd find it in the chinese bookshops in Bras Basah (sp?)). You can probably also download it from the Chinese internet. It is a big book, I think he wrote more than 2000 poems.
Translating his poems is a very good idea. The difficult part, in my opinion, is not the language, images or cultural references, but giving him "a voice". It has to sound childish, but not too much, it has to sound sad, but not to much, it has to sound a bit mad, but just a bit... It is also important to read other authors of his generation (he more or less is associated with the "misty poets"). Shi Zhi and Bei Dao come to mind, but also Yu Jian (born in 54 I think)
I hope you'll post some of your translations here
Francois
#4
Tang Scholar
-
- Entry Scholar (Xiucai)
-
- 474 posts
Grand Mentor (Taishi 太师)
- Gender:Male
- Location:Cali, Colombia, a city of 2 million people, 4ºN, on a large mountain valley at 1000 m altitude, 120 km of the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific. Spanish is spoken here.
-
Interests:I am interested mainly in poetry and literature. I am not literate in Chinese, though I understand a few characters.
Though I like poetry from everywhere and from every epoch, I like especially to learn about Tang poetry. Lately I have been studying two poets, one Tang (Bai Juyi) and the other Song (Li Qingzhao). - Languages spoken:Spanish, English, French, a bit German, a bit Japanese, a bit Chinese.
- Ethnic Groups or Race:Latin American - that is, a mixture of everything.
-
Main Interest in CHF:
Chinese Literature
-
Specialisation / Expertise:
Tang, Song and contemporary poetry
Posted 07 February 2011 - 11:34 PM
Thank you very much for your suggestions and information. My purpose is to produce some translations of Gu Cheng in Spanish. I will let you know about them.
I have been discussing with GZ the convenience of translating Chinese poetry into the native language of the translator, as something that would be a better contribution than translating into a language foreign to the translator.
He thinks it is a good suggestion, and proposes doing it at first in the Non-English forum while enough volume gathers, and then it would be possible to think of a special place to post them. So I might post a few more of my Spanish versions of Bai Juyi in that forum to see what happens. I have already the Song of Unending Sorrow there.
Very well, the Misty Poets are worth some exploration as a context to Gu Cheng.
Yours,
Tang Scholar
I have been discussing with GZ the convenience of translating Chinese poetry into the native language of the translator, as something that would be a better contribution than translating into a language foreign to the translator.
He thinks it is a good suggestion, and proposes doing it at first in the Non-English forum while enough volume gathers, and then it would be possible to think of a special place to post them. So I might post a few more of my Spanish versions of Bai Juyi in that forum to see what happens. I have already the Song of Unending Sorrow there.
Very well, the Misty Poets are worth some exploration as a context to Gu Cheng.
Yours,
Tang Scholar
#5
redilion
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- CHF Beginner
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- 2 posts
Citizen (Shumin 庶民)
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- Location:Brisbane, Australia
- Interests:Chinese poetry. A complete beginner, have read some Song, Tang and some modern, a long way to go.
- Languages spoken:English, French, Chinese.
- Ethnic Groups or Race:New Zealand
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Main Interest in CHF:
Chinese Literature
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Specialisation / Expertise:
None
Posted 09 November 2012 - 09:45 PM
Hi Tang Scholar,
There is an interesting essay on Gu Cheng written by Eliot Weinberger, a writer and translator. It's a good background piece: he met Gu Cheng in Berlin in 1992 and is interested in Chinese poetry (19 ways of Looking at Wang Wei etc.) . The book I have is called 'Oranges & Peanuts for Sale' (New Directions 2009). I was very surprised to learn about the Waiheke, New Zealand connection (I'm a kiwi), and have started to read some of his works.
There is an interesting essay on Gu Cheng written by Eliot Weinberger, a writer and translator. It's a good background piece: he met Gu Cheng in Berlin in 1992 and is interested in Chinese poetry (19 ways of Looking at Wang Wei etc.) . The book I have is called 'Oranges & Peanuts for Sale' (New Directions 2009). I was very surprised to learn about the Waiheke, New Zealand connection (I'm a kiwi), and have started to read some of his works.
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