"Bygone Dreams" Revisited

 

In 1994, I wrote "Bygone Dreams".  At that time, most of my poems were in English.  

https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2013/06/bygone-dreams.html

In 2016, I started delving into Chinese poetry.  I came across it and did a faithful Chinese translation.  Reproduced below is for easy reference.

The heavy hand of Allah,                                    阿拉重手

Shifting the burning sands of the Sahara.         推撥「撒哈拉」炎沙粒

Where now, is the great Temple of Ishtar?       今時「伊絲塔 」女神太廟 - 在何 ? 

A thousand years of glory --                            千年榮華 --

Just in a twinkle of the eternal stars,              星星瞬目之間

Mighty forests once lushed with life in green 威武綠林生靈

Spreading afar...                                             廣洪茂 ...

Are now but underground tar!                       已今是地下炭

For the Chinese reader, it is adequate to understand what the English version is trying to say. However, there is no evocation of elegance, nostalgia or romanticism in the translated version.  This is mostly due to the disparities between the two cultures and how are things are viewed. To the Westerner, "You are my sweetheart" smacks of endearment but not "my dearest heart and liver"!

During the pandemic lockdown,  I have the luxury of once more looking my past compositions and like a dear old friendship twice again rekindled, I was able to create a version that the Chinese can digest easily - the same desert imagery but a theme expressed quite differently.

1 千年北漠萬里沙 The thousand year desert of the north and its endless stretch of sand,

2 曾經綠遍為誰家 Was once lush, dressed in green, but for whom?

3 今日落雁明朝去 Today's descending Anser, gone tomorrow

4 塞外風聲何人掛 Beyond the frontier pass, the sighing wind is for whom?

3 A goose like creature is viewed in the west as some sort of a silly thing. The Anser is a migratory bird that often seen in such areas.  落雁 can be an allusion to one of the four greatest beauties of China.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhaojun.  It was said that when she passed through the desert, a flock of Ansers were so smitten by her beauty that they forgot to fly and began to drop from the sky or to have a closer look at her. Her passing through is like an illusory transition.

4 Now that she was gone, who would be thinking of her? Perhaps the lovesick Emperor until some new beauty comes along!

Sunday, May 16 2021