Christopher Maurer Lecture & Reading Story of the Stone - from Suis

 I enjoyed Christopher Maurer’s talk on translating (or editing) poetry. Much of his lecture served as a reminder about how to approach translating poetry, that it is better to prioritize meaning over rhyme or rhythm, etc. He said that one “must hear the poet reading their own poetry” before one translates them. I thought that was very interesting. Although it could be useful, I don’t think many people have the luxury of doing that, especially when translating dead poets who have no recordings.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading David Hawkes’ introduction to his translation of The Story of the Stone. It’s a great investigation into the history of the writing and its authorship. I found it interesting that this story is compared to The Remembrance of Things Past because I initially saw the parallels between this work to The Tale of Genji (another work that is compared to Proust’s work.) The Tale of Genji has a similar form where the prose breaks off into poetry, or has a discussion of genre within the work to name a few similarities.

Upon reading the translation, I initially thought that the translator may favor domestication as I read what I’m certain are translated names of locations such as “Great Fable Mountains” and “Greensickness Peak” (47). A couple pages in, I noticed some foreignization with “the chou in a comedy” (50) and then going forward from there, the influx of the character’s names and proper nouns are all foreignized. It made me recall Julia Sanches’ lecture when she talked about how it could be overwhelming for the English speaking reader to see a large amount of foreignization on the first page and it’s better to ease the reader into the foreign world. I wonder if this technique is being used here? However, I still felt a bit overwhelmed with the long list of names that come up in chapter 2. Although I managed, it was a bit difficult to keep up with the characters.

In chapter 3, I noticed a peculiar use of foreignization followed by a domestication of a similar term on the same page. “Dai-yu kotowed” to her superiors while she “exchanged curtseys” with three girls (89). I had to look up what kowtow meant, and according to google, it's a term in traditional China that means “the act of supplication made by an inferior to their superior by kneeling and knocking their head to the floor.” This term is foreignizing the scene, while “curtsey” is a more western cultural term. I found the succession of these terms interesting.