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Listen to Shiny on her piece in conversation with Tian Tian and Hoiyan. (00:10:42)

Read Tian Tian’s translation-response to ‘思考侷限 Mindful Cage’

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Listen to Shiny Shuan-Yi Wu’s reading of New Media Art Worker below 

 

 

 

Read Haitian Ma’s translation of ‘New Media Art Worker’

Read Tian Tian Wedgewood Young’s translation of ‘New Media Art Worker’

Read Haitian Ma’s 问候

Titles are always powerful in that (in most cases) it jumps right in our view, and stays in somewhere in our mind for the rest of the reading experience. This was my encounter with Haitian’s 問候. It is only at the very end of the text that she inserted the two-character word again, without explicit mentions throughout the body. However, she did indicate the act of “問候” from time to time by narrating sequentially her writing mentality in different stages of her childhood. Each stage is a different 問候, a very carefully unwrapped process of her growth and self-understanding. It is a greeting to herself, structured in a similar way of a sincere email. That was why I chose to use “regards” rather than a simple greeting.

The trickiest part in this translating process was that the act very much mirrored the original context—I was also trying to find the balance between living with the form and living out my own free will and expressions. A large part has to do with the structured phrases such as the many four-word terms and other repeated phrasings. Those are “pretty” and less colloquial, meaning, more common in Chinese narrative writing. There was certainly no proper way to keep that because a word in English could have more than one syllable. Some strategies I used are keeping the sentence structure the same (ex. 「要么深涩难懂，要么奢丽矫情」to “either abstrusely incomprehensible, or extravagantly dramatic”); having the translated words start with the same letter (ex. 「又可爱又可怕」to “adorable and affrighting”); 氤氳 and other inherent subtleties. To some point, I wonder if I have cared too much about keeping the same sentence/word structures, and therefore have fallen into the trap of being 奢丽矫情. This has also been the first and only poem with as well the most structurally-wordy words I am translating this semester, so I am happy to be given the task, and to have developed some personal strategies in it.

The realization of the mirroring between the original and the translation during a new creation process is extremely satisfying, yet terrifying at the same time. Translation is not only a portraiture or representation of the original, but also a process of self-reflection—in this case, what do I write for? Am I myself intimate to the language I write in, to the words I choose, and in general, to the act of creating a translation, a new interpretation with “me” in it? As Haitian questioned herself, sliced herself open in eagerly checking the intimacy level between her and her writings, I am also sawing myself open, brutally yet openly. I am glad that Haitian pointed out the feeling of 「就像找到了走散很久的母语」that indeed staged clearly her situation. It was touching and relatable to my emotion of translating this piece. So last but not least, I hope that we both can all write “better” in our truthest ways possible.

《爱》          张爱玲

这是真的。

  有个村庄的小康之家的女孩子，生得美，有许多人来做媒，但都没有说成。那年她不过十五六岁吧，是春天的晚上，她立在后门口，手扶着桃树。她记得她穿的是一件月白的衫子。对门住的年轻人同她见过面，可是从来没有打过招呼的，他走了过来，离得不远，站定了，轻轻的说了一声：“噢，你也在这里吗？”她没有说什么，他也没有再说什么，站了一会，各自走开了。

  就这样就完了。

  后来这女子被亲眷拐子卖到他乡外县去作妾，又几次三番地被转卖，经过无数的惊险的风波，老了的时候她还记得从前那一回事，常常说起，在那春天的晚上，在后门口的桃树下，那年轻人。

  于千万人之中遇见你所遇见的人，于千万年之中，时间的无涯的荒野里，没有早一步，也没有晚一步，刚巧赶上了，那也没有别的话可说，惟有轻轻的问一声：“噢，你也在这里吗？”  

(原刊1944年4月《杂志》月刊第13卷第1期)

Shiny’s imitation of 張愛玲’s 愛 : An alternative perspective of the relationship, if it does exist. 

 

Listen to the conversation between Shiny and her 第一組 pals, Alex and Hoiyan, on original creations, translations, and imitations. 

Continue reading “不過也就過個幾十年：An imitation of Eileen Chang’s 愛”