Style, Wit and Word-Play Style, Wit and Word-Play: Essays in Translation Studies in Memory of David Hawkes Edited by Tao Tao Liu, Laurence K. P. Wong and Chan Sin-wai Style, Wit and Word-Play: Essays in Translation Studies in Memory of David Hawkes, Edited by Tao Tao Liu, Laurence K. P. Wong and Chan Sin-wai This book first published 2012 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2012 by Tao Tao Liu, Laurence K. P. Wong and Chan Sin-wai and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-3571-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3571-8 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................... vii Tao Tao Liu, Laurence K. P. Wong and Chan Sin-wai INTRODUCTION............................................................................................ ix “STYLE, WIT AND WORD-PLAY” – REMEMBERING DAVID HAWKES (1923-2009) Tao Tao Liu A TRIBUTE TO BROTHER STONE ................................................................... 1 John Minford WHAT IS THE POINT OF MAKING TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH OF CHINESE LITERATURE: RE-EXAMINING ARTHUR WALEY AND DAVID HAWKES ......... 15 Tao Tao Liu SURPRISING THE MUSES: DAVI D HAWKES’ A LITTLE PRIMER OF TU FU ...... 33 Laurence K. P. Wong MIND THE GAP: THE HAWKES-MINFORD TRANSITION IN THE STORY OF THE STONE ..................................................................... 115 Chloë Starr THE TRANSLATOR AS SCHOLAR AND EDITOR: ON PREPARING A NEW CHINESE TEXT FOR THE BILINGUAL THE STORY OF THE STONE ................. 139 Fan Shengyu TRANSLATION AS ACCESS TO UNFAMILIAR EMOTIONS ............................ 149 Mark Elvin ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE SHIJI: A PRELIMINARY STUDY............... 173 John C. Y. Wang vi Table of Contents SEARCH AND RE-SEARCH: TRANSLATING FAMOUS CHINESE SAYINGS QUOTED BY WEN JIABAO INTO ENGLISH .................................................... 187 Chan Sin-wai YU HUA’S FICTION HEADS WEST… OR DOES IT?.................................... 285 Allan H. Barr SUBJECTIVITY, TRADITION, AND TRANSLATION OF TAIWAN LITERATURE .301 Kuo-ch’ing Tu CONTRIBUTORS ........................................................................................ 309 PREFACE When we think of the translation of Chinese literature into English, many of us will call to mind certain outstanding practitioners in this art. David Hawkes (1923-2009) was one of them, a distinguished translator and interpreter of classical Chinese literature. To translate a literary work the translator must do more than understand the original work and its nuances; he or she must also be able to turn the original into what is virtually a new work in a different language, a new work that engages with a new set of readers within the culture and expectations of a different world. Few translators have been able to do this convincingly. David Hawkes was one of the few. He was steeped in the Chinese language and in Chinese culture, and was especially familiar with the texts of the Chinese classics. At the same time he was a widely read humanist, at home in the literatures and cultures of Europe. There is a growing interest in translated literature in the English- speaking world. When The Chinese University of Hong Kong decided to organize a conference on the translation of Chinese literature into English, we hoped that David Hawkes, who was then living in Oxford, might be able to join us in person. Regrettably, although he supported the idea and was tempted to come, he was already in poor health. He died before the conference actually took place. The conference which forms the basis of the articles in this book was dedicated to his memory. David was educated at the University of Oxford and was the Oxford Professor of Chinese from 1960 to 1971. He taught and supervised many students, some of whom went on to teach all over the world. When he himself resigned from the Chair in order to devote himself to translating the Hongloumeng, he was made a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College. In subsequent years he and his wife Jean retired to the hills of Wales. His outlook was tempered in the Oxford tradition of humanities. It was therefore natural that we should gather together for the conference several participants with an Oxford background. These included his collaborator in the Hongloumeng enterprise, friend and son-in-law, John Minford, who graduated from Oxford and has since moved on to other viii Preface pastures; Mark Elvin, who was once his colleague; Allan Barr and Chloë Starr, both of whom completed their doctorates at Oxford; and Tao Tao Liu, who was David’s pupil, colleague and friend. These and others formed the nucleus. To them were added a number of other scholars in the field, such as Laurence Wong and Fan Shengyu. Their first part of the book consists of articles on Hawkes’ translations, with especial attention being paid to The Story of the Stone, his superb translation of Hongloumeng. The rest of the book contains articles on various other aspects of literary translation from the Chinese by John C. Y. Wang, Chan Sin-wai and Kuo-ch’ing Tu. It is fitting that the publication of this book should coincide with the establishment of the new Translation Archive at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. David’s own papers, his correspondence and working notes, will be deposited in the new Archive, which will be an important resource for all those interested in translation studies. We are grateful to the Cambridge Scholars Press for publishing this volume. We owe a special debt of thanks to Professor John Minford for going over the entire proof and making many valuable suggestions. We would also thank Rosaline Chan Miu Fong, Florence Li Wing Yee and other colleagues at The Chinese University who helped organize the conference and especially Miranda Lui Wing Man for her great efforts in the production of the manuscript for publication through all its stages. —Tao Tao Liu, Laurence K. P. Wong and Chan Sin-wai INTRODUCTION “STYLE, WIT AND WORD-PLAY” – REMEMBERING DAVID HAWKES (1923-2009) TAO TAO LIU INSTITUTE FOR CHINESE STUDIES OXFORD UNIVERSITY We remember David Hawkes as an outstanding scholar of Chinese literature and the translator of one of its classics, the Hongloumeng《紅樓 夢》, the novel that he named as The Story of the Stone in English, a translation in five volumes that he completed with John Minford. David Hawkes was not only a translator but an interpreter of Chinese literature. As a scholar, his career included being professor of Chinese at Oxford until he resigned to devote himself to the task of translating The Story of the Stone. The appearance of his translation of Cao Xueqin’s novel sealed his reputation.1 Much praise has been already heaped on this work, and studies have already been written about it. More appears in this book, so there is no need for me to repeat what has been said already. He was a highly cultured person, and his works show an understanding of Chinese poetry and the arts that was based on a deep knowledge of his own European culture. As one of the editors of this volume, and a former pupil and friend of David Hawkes, I now offer an introduction to him as a translator. Even before the publication of the Stone, Hawkes had shown interest in the translation of Chinese literature into English. Several of his essays, articles and book reviews, collected and edited as Classical, Modern and Humane by John Minford and another of his pupils, Wong Siu-kit, discuss the subject.2 They show that he had throughout his career thought deeply about translating Chinese literature into English, thoughts often expressed with wit and style. Two main ideas stand out, one is the eternal conflict between the production of “beautiful” translations by poets and that of 1 The first three volumes were translated by David Hawkes (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, Vol. 1, 1973; Vol. 2, 1977; Vol. 3, 1980). 2 Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1989. x Introduction philologists who know the language but may turn the beautiful original into “dross.”3 Hawkes’ own experience of thinking about and working on translations meant that he understood this quandary, and difficulties facing translators of literature. The other great challenge is how to convey in the translation of poetry some idea of the original prosody. He was always acutely aware of the importance of prosody to Chinese poetry, and how Chinese poets employed different prosodic forms and used them for different purposes. He was under no illusion about the efforts of many to translate Chinese poetry into rhymed English poetry. But at the same time he was saddened that many readers who knew nothing about Chinese had the impression that Chinese poets wrote in versions of vers libre whilst the richness and the skill of dealing with complex prosody passed them by. He felt that although vers libre is the default position for most translators of Chinese poetry, yet a good translation into rhymed English poetry, rare as that might be, takes the prize. His admiration for Arthur Waley was heightened by one of the few poems that Waley successfully translated into rhymed English poetry. He wished there were more.4 Hawkes not only translated the Hongloumeng from the Chinese, but had also published other translations: the ancient Chinese poem, the Chuci 《楚辭》 (1959);5 poems of Du Fu, A Little Primer of Tu Fu (1967);6 and a Yuan Dynasty drama, the Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess (2003).7 Although his publications in book form were not numerous, it is the quality rather than the quantity of his work that counts.