The most difficult translation to read out of the five poems was the second one called That Parting at Cha’ang Kan by W.J.B. Fletcher. The style of writing was incredibly outdated and impossible to understand. I was only able to make sense of it after reading the rest of the poems. This specific poem was different from the others in the sense that at the very end she states, “Across the sand the wind flies straight to greet.” In all the other poems however the narrator instead is very directly asking to let her know when he will be arriving so that she could come meet him. Ch’ang Kan by Amy Lowell stood out because it spoke in third person rather than from the narrator’s perspective. All the other poems used “I” while this poem used “She.” This poem also referred to the woman as “Your Unworthy One.” In the other poems I didn’t get the sense that she believed herself to be unworthy at all, but that she was just shy and bashful. This poem made the woman sound a little self hating and insecure rather than just timid. All the poems mention a different month when referring to the butterflies showing up. In That Paring at Ch’ang Kan te butterflies appear around September, in The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter they arrive in August, and in Two Letters From Chang-Kan—I they arrive in October.
My favorite poem was A Song of Ch’and Kan. To me, the verses flowed the best and it had a happier vibe than the others. Even though she was missing her husband in this poem the same as the all the other poems, here she sounds more hopeful and excited to someday see him again.
1 response so far ↓
ct154628 // Apr 2nd 2015 at 11:07 am
Haha I wrote almost the same things you pointed out. I thought the 2nd poem was a little ridiculous in the attempt to capture an “asian accent” I feel that it was a failed attempt at writing out the words how a heavy accented person would speak. Even if the translation had perfect phonetics it still wouldn’t sound proper if spoken by someone who didn’t have that asian accent. I think it just added unnecessary confusion. I also agreed that A Song of Ch’and Kan was the best because of how cute and lovey dovey it sounded. If I were to recommend this poem I would definitely choose to share that version.