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The Art of Ambiguity and Its Effect in Wang Wei's Poem Lu Zhai

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The Art of Ambiguity and Its Effect in Wang Wei's Poem Lu Zhai International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2018 The Art of Ambiguity and Its Effect in Wang Wei’s Poem Lu Zhai Yue Dai Chinese people can notice some well-designed metaphors or Abstract—In this article, I would like to make a brief allusions in his poems at their first glance and sense the summary of the characteristics of the translation and very subtle feeling or state of mind which he unfolds interpretation practices by modern Chinese and Western through the nuances in language use. Compared to Western people, when they deal with Wang Wei’s poem Lu Zhai. By scholars’ emphasis on linguistic analysis, Chinese readers enumerating the key features of their practices, I intend to point out the different approaches to the same poem from the usually take an appreciation approach when studying a perspective of culture, religious interest, and language use. poem. On the one hand, it is easier for them to understand a After making a comparison of understanding and translating hidden meaning beyond a pure beauty of language use. On the poem between the Chinese and Westerns, I make a further the other, they tend to take some cultural patterns for analysis to find out why the poem generates so many different granted without regarding the differences between Chinese ways of understanding, in spite of a cultural difference. In the and Western ways of poem-composing. Lu Zhai is a end, I conclude that it is the ambiguity of the language in a poem that provides a possibility of multiple ways of translation representative of Wang Wei’s poems, which conveys his and interpretation. The ambiguity not only creates a special comprehension of the Buddhism through depictions of beauty and far-reaching influence of Chinese poems, but also beautiful landscapes. leaves much space for readers to recreate them and decide their own ways to deal with it. 鹿柴 The Deer Fence Index Terms—Ambiguity, poem, translation, Wang Wei. [唐] 王维 [Tang Dyn.] Wang Wei 空山不见人， I. INTRODUCTION On the empty mountain, no one is seen. 但闻人语响。 The great Tang poet Wang Wei (ca. 700-761 CE) has But the sound of voices is heard. long enjoyed a high reputation and keen interest not only 返景入深林， among literati in China, both ancient and present, but also among Chinese poetry-lovers, critics, and translators Returning: light enters the deep forest. worldwide. Also, known as a painter and Buddhist 复照青苔上。 practitioner, Wang Wei distinguishes his poems from those Again: it shines on the green moss. [1] composed by other contemporary poets owing to the special features, such as elegance, simplicity, quietude, and profound Chan spirit. To all the readers, his observation and II. CHRACTERISTICS OF TRANSLATIONS rendering of nature is not a direct depiction from an A. Characteristics of Translations by Chinese objective viewer, or a pure appreciation of the desolate For this poem, modern Chinese readers’ translations have world. Although his works often seem in this way, they are the following characteristics: in fact a true harmony with nature, both physically and First, based on the literal meaning of this poem, scholars mentally, in the means of Buddhist contemplation and would like to translate it into modern Chinese word by word. meditation. Due to this particular way of rendering For example, a Chinese scholar Li Zhizhong translated the landscape, Wang has been recognized as a poet who poem as "no man can be seen in the empty mountain, but successfully grasps the essence of nature -- a funding role of sound of voice is being heard; the reflected sunlight enters the Pastoral School -- and meanwhile, one of the into the depth of the forest and shines on the green moss on representatives of “oriental” poets in Western scholar’s eyes. the ground again." [2] (空旷的山上看不见人的踪影，但是 Despite the great differences between the classical 却听到了人说话的声音。折射的阳光照射进树林深处， Chinese and modern Chinese, modern Chinese readers undoubtedly have an inherent advantage in understanding 又照在地上青青的苔鲜上) It is just an expansion of the classic poems. In a certain group of people, their way of original poem from a condensed and regulated form to a thinking is always influenced and shaped by its language to modern, prose-like one, and the scholar reorganizes the a great extent. So, as posterities of Wang Wei, modern sentence elements to suit the contemporary favor without modifying it too much. From the aesthetic perspective, this translation, due to its plain rendering and a selection of Manuscript received March 9, 2018; revised May 31, 2018. common words, loses the beauty and elegance of the Yue Dai is with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States (e-mail: [email protected]). original one to a great extent. doi: 10.18178/ijlll.2018.4.2.157 101 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2018 Second, when interpreting this classical poem, Chinese make it easy for people to analyze each element of a scholars tend to focus on the contrast as a device in this sentence and to understand its tense as well as poem. The scholar Wu Chunhui states "The author agent-recipient relations. underscores the overall and long-lasting emptiness and In the study of the translation of Lu Zhai, Western loneliness by noting the partial and temporary existence of scholars have already realized that a lot of problems sound" and "the moss growing under the trees strengthens and misinterpretations were caused by the great the depth and darkness of the forest, which is in total difference between these two languages. First of all, as shadow and silence." [3] what we can see from the seven translations of the title of this poem per se, one aforementioned and six in the B. Characteristics of Translations by Westerns appendix, there is no consensus or authoritative For Western people, it is inspiring to notice that they decision of the English title among the both Chinese are as aware as many Chinese translators of the use of and Western translators. (The) Deer Enclosure or The rhyme in a Tang regulated verse. Regardless of its Deer Fence, which is a direct, word-by-word imperfectness in employing the rhymed foots, Lu Zhai translation, seems the most preferable and acceptable indeed is an outstanding embodiment of Tang one for translators, given its plain expression and regulated verse because of its elegance, profound escape of subjectivity. In contrast, it is obvious that the connotation, and treatment of rhyme. As a general translations “The Deer Park” and “Deep in the feature of almost all kinds of poetry, rhyme is a focal Mountain Wilderness” are imbued with translators’ point as well as a linguistic challenge not only for a own preconceptions and even poetic treatments, which poet who is ambitious to compose an excellent work, romanticize the rendering of the poem while imperiling but also for a translator who wishes to maintain the or at least glossing its basic meaning. Not to mention, phonetic beauty of an original work. Thankfully, a lack of title or the use of abstract word -- “form” – almost all the seven translators take this issue into leads to a sense of confusion and odds when first consideration and accomplished this task to varied encountering this Chinese poem. For the sake of extend. For instance, Fletcher did a great job by directness, I consciously use the phonetic transcription employing the rhymed words in every sentence except of the title, from Chinese to English, which eschews a the third, which perfectly meets the rule of Chinese potential disturbance of personal interpretation or regulated verse and also suits the Western reading confusing feeling created by uncommon use of words. convention. Even though this conduction itself may generate a new However, because of their unfamiliarity with kind of ambiguity, especially for foreign readers, due Chinese, Western translators initially found it difficult to its meaninglessness, I use it only to designate the to understand Wang Wei’s Lu Zhai, and their very poem, as a signifier, instead of a satisfactory or translations or interpretations differ from what Chinese determined translation of the title per se. people usually conduct. For example, this poem was In Chinese, "kong shan" only refers to "empty once cited by the British composer Brian Dennis in his mountain," but an English speaker may quickly come songs. His translation is "On the lonely mountains I up with a question that where is the man to "see" it? In see no one. I hear only the echo of voices." [4] addition to the questionable "I," some translators also Although he tries to create the same mood or tend to add some descriptive phrases, such as "the atmosphere revealed in the original poem, there are mountain wilderness," "the dark forest." But after all, some deviations in his understanding, such as the fact these additional meanings are out of the translators’ that he added the subject "I" who acts as the narrator in own comprehension and even imagination. Some the lyrics. other translators choose more dynamic verb phrases, Likewise, Western scholars or people work in such as "casts motley patterns," "drift on the air," and English also incline to regard the poet himself as the so on.[6] And each translation gives people a different narrator of this poem, when they devote to figuring out impression in their minds. This special language use is the correct syntax for the first couplet. For example, also an undesirable yet inevitable situation when Daniel Hsieh demonstrates that after describing the translating Chinese into English. scene of the empty mountain, Wang Wei begins to Despite the tough issues caused by different uses of focus on the sunlight and so on.
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