tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post9131386338715825396..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Relief that they had not fallen in - some 9th century Chinese monkeysAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-41899264150264805412013-12-01T22:41:38.623-06:002013-12-01T22:41:38.623-06:00Han Yu was a Borgesian, wasn't he? Wonderful...Han Yu was a Borgesian, wasn't he? Wonderful lines.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-61745924032255861762013-11-30T21:44:25.107-06:002013-11-30T21:44:25.107-06:00Han Yu is also the author of these famous lines:
I...Han Yu is also the author of these famous lines:<br />It is universally admitted that the unicorn is a supernatural being of good omen; such is declared in all the odes, annals, biographies of illustrious men and other texts whose authority is unquestionable. Even children and village women know that the unicorn constitutes a favorable presage. But this animal does not figure among the domestic beasts, it is not always easy to find, it does not lend itself to classification. It is not like the horse or the bull, the wolf or the deer. In such conditions, we could be face to face with a unicorn and not know for certain what it was. We know that such and such an animal with a mane is a horse and that such and such an animal with horns is a bull. But we do not know what the unicorn is like.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-21078010416192394342009-08-19T14:57:30.095-05:002009-08-19T14:57:30.095-05:00Yes--it could be just an overactive imagination, b...Yes--it could be just an overactive imagination, but I think it's something Han Yu observed and rightfully interpreted. <br /><br />I think it was Konrad Lorenz, the great German ethologist, who once said something to the effect that many people comment on how human many animals act, but the truth is the reverse--these similarities are signs of our citizenship in the animal kingdom.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-61706078295168504642009-08-19T11:15:56.213-05:002009-08-19T11:15:56.213-05:00Maybe it would be useful to mention that this tran...Maybe it would be useful to mention that this translator, A. C. Graham, is operating under the influence of Ezra Pound and other Modernists of that sort, and as a result his theory of translation almost inevitably results in a "Modernist" poem. <br /><br />And the handful of poems he chooses to translate, out of the many thousands in the Chinese canon, is relevant, too. David Hinton's translations, for example, seem more Buddhist because he picks the more Buddhist-themed poems.<br /><br />Fred, perhaps the interpretation of the monkeys' behavior is just a flight of fancy. But I'll bet it's real, keen observation, long before there was such a thing as a primatologist.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-36240038502647459032009-08-19T09:40:31.867-05:002009-08-19T09:40:31.867-05:00Remarkable...
Within the past 3 or 4 decades, pri...Remarkable...<br /><br />Within the past 3 or 4 decades, primatologists, those who study primate behavior, discovered, much to their surprise, that given sufficient exposure to mirrors, rhesus monkeys will recognize their own image.<br /><br />It appears as though Han Yu made this same discovery some 12-13 hundred years ago. <br /><br />By the way, I do like Chinese and Japanese poetry, haiku being my favorites.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-61006142816436456762009-08-17T23:36:28.975-05:002009-08-17T23:36:28.975-05:00What I especially like about this type of poetry i...What I especially like about this type of poetry is how surprisingly not old fashioned it is. This could be fairly modern or even the lyrics to some obscure indie song... It's quite nice.Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-47167658612492039392009-08-17T06:13:23.773-05:002009-08-17T06:13:23.773-05:00Love this kind of poetry. But it also makes me won...Love this kind of poetry. But it also makes me wonder what choices the translator had to make, I'm sure the original offered a series of amazing translation "issues"...verbivorehttp://incurablelogophilia.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-45994833526869222942009-08-15T16:14:58.166-05:002009-08-15T16:14:58.166-05:00Freaky poem - I really like it!Freaky poem - I really like it!Bookphiliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05155882653615842141noreply@blogger.com