Maurer & The Story of the Stone - Audree

 Christopher Maurer Lecture:

I found this lecture to be extremely rich, specifically because we got to hear Belli, Maurer and Shapiro read out their versions of the poems. Christopher originally spoke of the importance of reading a poem aloud and when he played those recordings it really rang true. Reading can be such a solitary experience, with your own mind (obviously with much guidance from the writer) setting the pace, hearing your own voice in your own head. Hearing the way the author reads their own work is an indication of how they perceive it. Indeed, hearing Shapiro read out her translation was so indicative of how she perceived them, while Maurer's were indicative of how he understood them. Not that either one is wrong, just vastly different. I liked the use of cognates in Karl's translation. I did find it harder to read but also more interesting, more fun. 

The Story of the Stone: 

I find Hawk's discussion of colors and their various connotations to be very interesting. Indeed, while I know that red is a symbol of wealth, abundance etc., in Chinese culture, I simply do not find this intuitive because it is not my culture. Gold and green feel more right to me because that is what I'm used to. So to say that the book lacked a "redness" in the English translation just shows how important colors are and the associations we make with them. I was also thrown off by the different titles that the work had. As Rose said in her comment, they all give off very different impressions. It was also interesting to see the different translations of Dreams of a Red Chamber. Indeed, the French translation, Le rêve dans le pavillon rouge, does make it seem like someone is dreaming under an outdoor roofed structure, while red chamber evokes more of a bedroom, and the room itself is having dreams, or many people have perhaps dreamed in that chamber.