It’s very interesting that all these poems translated, have different interpretations. If you look closely at them, the poem named The River-Merchant’s Wife A Letter by Ezra Pound was translated in 1915 does not seem to have a lot of context than a poem translated later on such as A Song of Ch’and Kan written by Witter Bynner in 1929. In The River-Merchant’s Wife A letter the author states “Two Small people without dislike or suspicion “, I believe that this can be interpreted in many ways. If you look at A Song of Ch’and Kan the author interprets this as, “Both of us young and happy-hearted”. The lines right after just really stood out to me, the two couples seemed to be happy at first but than once they got married when she was fourteen, she suddenly became unhappy, “I never laughed, being bashful”. My question is what caused her to become downhearted right after the marriage. If you continue on reading, in the poem written by Witter Bynner he states, “At fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed, leaning that no dust can ever seal our love, that even unto death I would await you by my post and would never lose heart in the silent watching”. This leaves me to conclude that they were simply having a rough time in their youthful relationship. Later on as you continue reading, in the poem The River-Merchant’s wife A Letter the author states, “At sixteen you departed, you went into far Ku-t[]-en, the river of swirling eddies”. In the other poem A Song of Ch’and Kan the author states, “Through the Gorges of Ch’u-t’ang, of rock and whirling water”. There’s a difference between the places within the two interpretations. If you look at the interpretation by Shigeyoshi Obata, he also uses a different place “Keu-Tang Gorge”. The version I like the most is A Song of Ch’and Kan interpreted by Witter Bynner. The reason why I like it the most is because it’s written in way that’s really easy to comprehend. The author did a phenomenal job.
Li Bo
March 31, 2015 Written by ht165037 | 2 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
2 responses so far ↓
VALERIA KUBLIY // Apr 1st 2015 at 10:24 am
I don’t think that she was unhappy with her marriage at age fourteen, rather the author is implied to her child – shyness in this formal adult situation by offering a picture of her bent head and averted eyes, a shyness so extreme that she could not respond to her husband, no matter how many efforts he made. They are not necessarily having a rough time in their relationships; rather this is a tactic of the author to show to the audience the growth of love between the young husband and wife, besides, her modesty.
“Two small people” line is implied to the fact that both of them were children when they met, they play and grow together, then married at early age, which was customary for ancient traditions. Furthermore, you could easily see it from Ezra Pound translation, since he uses the line “ my hair cut straight across my forehead”
(themark of an adult woman in the ancient Chinese culture was elaborate arrangements of uncut long hair), “I played , pulling flowers”, you came on bamboo slits, playing horse. “(emphasizes the natural, contented activity of children)
d.lee4 // Apr 1st 2015 at 11:50 am
I feel that the narrator was most likely not unhappy with her marriage but rather uncomfortable with it. With her being so young, its likely that she was not expecting to be married at her age.
When she says that “At fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed, leaning that no dust can ever seal our love, that even unto death I would await you by my post and would never lose heart in the silent watching”, I see that as after a year in the marriage,she has become accustomed to it and accepted her role in the marriage.