Du Fu

Du Fu or Tu Fu (杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; Wade-Giles: Tu⁴ Fu³), also known as Dù Shàolíng (杜少陵) or Dù Gōngbù (杜工部) (712–770) was a prominent Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zǐ Měi (子美).

Translation

There have been a number of notable translations of Du Fu?s work into English. The translators have each had to contend with the same problems of bringing out the formal constraints of the original without sounding laboured to the western ear (particularly when translating lǜshi), and of dealing with the allusions contained particularly in the later works (Hawkes writes that "his poems do not as a rule come through very well in translation" — p. ix). One extreme on each issue is represented by Kenneth Rexroth?s One Hundred Poems From the Chinese. His are free translations, which seek to conceal the parallelisms through enjambement and expansion and contraction of the content; his responses to the allusions are firstly to omit most of these poems from his selection, and secondly to ?translate out? the references in those works which he does select.

Related Topics:
Translation - English - Kenneth Rexroth - One Hundred Poems From the Chinese - Enjambement

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An example of the opposite approach is Burton Watson's The Selected Poems of Du Fu. Watson follows the parallelisms quite strictly, persuading the western reader to adapt to the poems rather than vice versa. Similarly, he deals with the allusion of the later works by combining literal translation with extensive annotation.

Related Topics:
Burton Watson - The Selected Poems of Du Fu - Annotation

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