Chinese Portry

Chinese Poetry

Boudoir Thoughts of Alienation

The multipart poem, Boudoir Thoughts, was originally written centuries ago by Hsu Kan. It has since been translated into English by a number of other poets, including Ronald Miao and Herbert Giles. Apparently Miao's translation is closer to the text of the original than Giles, and the difference between this more-original translation and the later, very Western, sort of translation done by Giles is striking. Whereas in Miao's translation the speaker seems to be mourning the loss the beloved without blame or bitterness, in Giles' reinterpretation the speaker seems alienated from the beloved and filled with bitterness. This difference is embodied both in the general tone of the poem (the latter being framed with far more exorbitant and passionate words and the former with quieter, more resigned speech) and in three specific sentiment changes. The first two are the choice of pronouns for the characters of the poem -- Miao speaks of the clouds as impersonal third-person figures, and the beloved as a very personal "you," whereas Giles speaks to the clouds as "you" and of the beloved as "his;" additionally, where Miao speaks of a love that flows forever, at the end Giles speaks instead of a heart that bleeds forever! These differences -- the alienation of the lover and the focus on bitterness and pain, are central to the differences in the poems.

This difference begins when Giles addresses the clouds directly, as if they were human: "O floating clouds... bear on your wings these words... Alas, you float along nor heed my pain, and leave me here..." Giles looks at the clouds and sees them as cruel beings who will betray and abandon the poet. Miao, on the other hand, uses the silence of the clouds as a way to show the scale of the poet in relationship to the world, and to express not abandonment but distance. Miao translates: "The drifting clouds... I wish they could convey my message, Yet... they are beyond reach." Both Giles and Miao use the clouds as a metaphor for the relationship in question, but for Giles these clouds are leaving and not heading, and for Miao they are merely out of range. (as Miao's translation says in a different segment, the lover and beloved are each "in opposite corners of the world.") This precisely mirrors the difference in how they feel about the beloved.

Miao speaks directly to the beloved, saying: "You alone, sir, have not returned. Since you went away... [yet] My love for you is... how can there ever be an end?"

Miao translates more of the poem than Giles does, and one can see this accepting, though saddened, sentiment throughout the other segments, as when the poet says, "the hope of your return comforts me." That Giles does not translate that section highlights their differences. Giles never addresses the beloved, but refers to him in second-person, as if had been stricken from the mind of the poet and could not now be addressed but only spoken about. "For his coming shall not I too yearn? Since my lord left -- ah me unhappy day!"

It is not that Giles' speaker no longer is in love, but they no longer retain an image of the beloved as someone who can be addressed directly. It is easier for them to address the clouds than to address him. One may also notice a subtle difference between the speaking of his return as well. Miao referring to him as having "went away," and yet has also stated as a fact that "when people separate they always reunite" -- so it may be only a matter of time, which the final lines insist has no end. Giles, on the other hand, does not say that all those who leave return, only that "I see other dear ones to their homes return" but that the beloved himself has "left [on an] unhappy day."