Meaningful Poetry Translation

Why cute tricks just don't work

Meaningful Poetry Translation

I’m about to go off on another rant, so be warned.

The poetry of Dream of the Red Chamber is actually quite meaningful and significant. It’s something that you can’t just skip. In fact, the more you read the Chinese original, the more meaningful and significant the poems are.

This is one reason why it’s important to not play a bunch of textual tricks and be cute with them.

As you know, I prefer to translate poetry according to its meaning, not according to some preconceived rhyme schemes. And, as we’re about to see, I strongly believe that focusing on the meaning helps prevent readers from becoming absolutely confused about what the poems actually mean.

Anyway, let’s look at the two poems about Jia Baoyu one line at a time, comparing the original with my translation and the Hawkes and Yang translations.