Today I had a really interesting time (it is usually interesting, but today even more so) in my graduate course in American Literature and Culture.
We were discussing Ezra Pound’s poem “A River Merchant’s Wife – a Letter”.
This is not an original poem by Pound but actually a translation of a poem written hundreds of years ago by a Chinese poet named Li Po. Maybe you already knew that, but just in case, and because it is important to the rest of this discussion, I needed to bring that up.
There is of course some discussion among scholars, some heated discussions even, about the veracity, and accuracy of the translation. Pound said he was trying more for an image to image, ideal to ideal translation, but still he used some very literal translations in his version.
Keep in mind this was done in 1914 or so. Chinese was not a widely known language outside of China.
The places named were easy enough to verify and they do bring some additional understanding to the poem.
2 of my graduate students in this class are Chinese though, so we had a unique opportunity to discuss the original poem, which they were easily able to call up on iPads and compare Pound’s translation.
That was really interesting, but also interesting that one of the students knew the areas mentioned in the poem and had actually been there. He commented that the river mentioned is famous for being very dangerous as well.
They both were able to talk about the customs of early marriages and the way a wife would act which also shed some light on our discussions.
This class is usually interesting, but today, really interesting. Not the kind of class we usually have.
Here’s to next week and hoping it is still interesting as we move to one of my favorites, T.S. Eliot.