Tag Archives: Translated Literature

BOOKS: “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling [Trans. by John Minford]

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Strange Tales from a Chinese StudioStrange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Penguin

This is a collection of short stories, almost entirely speculative fiction, dating from the Qing Dynasty (specifically, the late 1600’s to early 17oo’s.) Ghosts, folkloric creatures, and Taoist magic all feature prominently in the stories. The stories average about five pages, but with a wide deviation from stories scarcely longer than today’s micro-fiction to extensive pieces. The Penguin edition collects 104 out of a much larger collection of stories.

The best of these stories are clever and highly engaging, and there are many such tales. Being from Qing Dynasty China, the stories offer a perspective different from one’s typical horror and fantasy short stories. Many of the stories prominently feature eroticism, but not graphically so.

As for the weakness of the volume, even though it selects only a portion of Pu Songling’s original, there are many stories that blend together, failing to distinguish themselves. This is most notable among the fox-spirit stories, of which there are just so many. [A number of them are fantastically unique, but others are just variations on the same.] So, the book can seem a bit repetitive in that sense. However, before you get to the point where you feel you can’t read one more fox-spirit story, you’re quite likely to read a tale that blows your mind.

I greatly enjoyed many of the stories herein. Perhaps, the volume could have benefited from further abridgement, but it’s well worth the read.

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“Under the Trees…” by Ikkyū [w/ Audio]

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Under the trees, among the rocks, a thatched hut:
   verses and sacred commentaries live there together.
 I'll burn the books I carry in my bag,
   but how can I forget the verses written in my gut?

Translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and David Schneider in Essential Zen (1994) HarperSanFrancisco.

“Mulberry Picking” [採桑子] by Ouyang Xiu [w/ Audio]

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West Lake is beautiful from a small boat.
 Green water wends its way through the lotus,
 Sweet grass grows thickly all along the bank,
 Faint music wafts from unknown points ashore.

When the wind quits, the Lake is glassy smooth;
 The boat is perfectly still for a beat,
 Then its movement is betrayed by ripples
 And startled waterfowls' furious flapping.

Note: The title “Gathering Mulberry Leaves” was used by Xu Yuanchong for his translation. The Chinese title is: 採桑子 (Cǎi Sāngzǐ)

“Spring Dawn” (春曉) by Meng Haoran [w/ Audio]

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My Spring sleep is unswayed by dawn --
 Though birds are heard through screen, still drawn.
 Recalling night sounds of rain and wind,
 I wonder how the flowers have thinned?

Original in Chinese:

春眠不覺曉，
處處聞啼鳥。
夜來風雨聲，
花落知多少。

“Silk-Washing Stream” by Su Shi [w/ Audio]

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Stream-washed leaves are glistening.
 Someone is boiling cocoons.
 Workers gossip, I'm listening.

Dim-eyed man with a cane spoons
 Food into a bowl, bending
 To pass it before I swoon.

I ask when the bean leaves yellow.

“The Blue-Green Stream” by Wang Wei (Lowell version) [w/ Audio]

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Every time I have started for the Yellow Flower River,
 I have gone down the Blue-Green Stream,
 Following the hills, making ten thousand turnings.
 We go along rapidly, but advance scarcely one hundred li.
 We are in the midst of a noise of water,
 Of the confused and mingled sounds of water broken by stones,
 And in the deep darkness of pine-trees.
 Rocked, rocked,
 Moving on and on,
 We float past water-chestnuts
 Into a still clearness reflecting reeds and rushes.
 My heart is clean and white as silk; 
   it has already achieved Peace;
 It is smooth as the placid river.
 I long to stay here, curled up on the rocks,
 Dropping my fish-line forever.

NOTE: This version was translated by Florence Ayscough and adapted by Amy Lowell in the book: Fir-Flower Tablets (1921) New York: Houghton Mifflin, p. 123

“Above the blossoms sing the orioles” by Han-Shan [w/ Audio]

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Above the blossoms sing the orioles:
 Kuan kuan, their clear notes.
 The girl with a face like jade
 Strums to them on her lute.
 Never does she tire of playing --
 Youth is the time for tender thoughts.
 When the flowers scatter and the birds fly off
 Her tears will fall in the spring wind.

Translated of Burton Watson in: Cold Mountain: 100 poems by the T’ang poet Han-Shan, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 22

“I’m Happy to Be a Free Yogi” by Drukpa Kunley [w/ Audio]

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I'm happy to be a free Yogi,
   growing evermore into inner happiness.

I can have sex with many women
   as it helps them find the path of liberation.

Outwardly I'm a fool
   and inwardly I live a clear spiritual path.

Outwardly I enjoy wine and women
   and inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.

Outwardly I live for my pleasure
   and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.

Outwardly I'm a ragged beggar
   and inwardly a blissful Buddha.

“Tiantai” [天台] by Fēnggān [w/ Audio]

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I came once to Tiantai,
 And back ten-thousand times.
 Like clouds or water tides:
   Drift and flow, come and go.
 I stroll, free of worry,
  Buddha's Path - in no hurry.
 While the world's forked roads
  Lead men to fret and scurry.

“Spring Rise” by Fan Chengda [w/ Audio]

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In Spring, the waters rise --
 Shore grass sways with breezes,
 And geese drift right beside;
 Boats glide as the stream pleases.
   Yon pagoda looks far,
      but feels quite close.

Streamside, one feels a chill.
 Fields have yet to be plowed --
 Not while the torrents spill.
 Mulberry limbs are bowed.
   Soon we'll have a taste,
      and harvest cocoons.

NOTE: The title of this poem is 蝶 戀 花. Xu Yuanchong uses the quite literal “Butterflies in Love with Flowers” as his translated title. I chose differently because a wet Spring is the throughline of the poem and, well, there are no explicit butterflies (or flowers) in the poem [only their potential.] Of course, maybe that’s exactly why the original is a great title.