Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger (PDF)

Description

A new expanded edition of the classic study of translation, finally back in print The difficulty (and necessity) of translation is concisely described in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, a close reading of different translations of a single poem from the Tang Dynasty―from a transliteration to Kenneth Rexroth’s loose interpretation. As Octavio Paz writes in the afterword, “Eliot Weinberger’s commentary on the successive translations of Wang Wei’s little poem illustrates, with succinct clarity, not only the evolution of the art of translation in the modern period but at the same time the changes in poetic sensibility.”

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Essential reading for anyone interested in translation.” ― M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review”There is a great profusion of Chinese poetry in English, and this fact is significant. It suggests that, despite all the barriers, this poetry does communicate, even urgently, to modern Western readers. Both the difficulty and the urgency are elegantly demonstrated in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei. Weinberger collates and comments on a series of translations of Wang Wei’s famous poem ‘Deer Park,’ allowing the reader to see how even this brief poem―twenty characters, in four lines―contains endless shades of meaning and implication.” ― Adam Kirsch, The New Republic”Weinberger’s sensitivity to words and gift for clear thinking underlie nearly every page in Nineteen Ways…and he writes with erudition and charm. He sees lines of Wang Wei’s poems as ‘both universal and immediate,’ and he sees much else in human cultures in that same spirit, which I think is wonderful.” ― Perry Link, The New York Review of Books”Nineteen cheers to New Directions for reissuing Eliot Weinberger’s Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, first published in 1987 and hard to find since then. In this tiny volume, Weinberger examines nineteen different translations of a classic four-line poem by the eighth-century poet Wang Wei. The result is the best primer on translation…also the funniest and most impatient.” ― Lorin Stein, The Paris Review”Weinberger is like an ancient Chinese zither player, tuning lonely in the mountain overlooking the world.” ― Bei Dao About the Author Eliot Weinberger is an essayist, editor, and translator. He lives in New York City.Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City. He wrote many volumes of poetry, as well as a prolific body of remarkable works of nonfiction on subjects as varied as poetics, literary and art criticism, politics, culture, and Mexican history. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1977, the Cervantes Prize in 1981, and the Neustadt Prize in 1982. He received the German Peace Prize for his political work, and finally, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The original book — 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei is a classic — and perhaps the finest available introduction to Chinese poetry, the Chinese language, and the problem of translating Chinese into English. Anyone interested in Chinese poetry must read it. It’s short and profound. That said, this book extends the first by adding 20 additional translations of Wang Wei’s poem. The additional translations and Weinberger’s commentary are interesting, but don’t really add much to the basic book. You must read one version or the other. If you’ve never read it, you might as well read the latest version. If you’ve already read the first, then reading the second is of minor importance, but still a pleasure

⭐Used as teaching tool with creative writing students. easy to read and really opens their minds to the process of translation and what it really means to move between languages. Fascinating way to learn about the writing process and how we use language and expressions.

⭐I have studied the Chinese language for four decades. I studied it in University. I studied abroad. And I studied it as a hobby. I think that the author does a very good job in describing how difficult it is to translate Chinese poetry. This particular poem is probably even harder to translate then many others. There are 19 translations of this poem in the book. This author goes out of his way to dismantle and attack every translation. I wonder what fluidity and command he has of the Chinese language. I would think very little. I was very disappointed with his approach because it was destructive and not constructive. While I understand that some of the translations take poetic license that is the nature of the beast in translating poetry. Frankly I was appalled by the tone of this author and his condescending approach as to the efforts of the translators while trying hard to portray himself as some grand expert.

⭐Should be required reading for anyone interested in poetry in another language. It’s easy to find articles/reviews that compare two or three translations. Weinberger compares >20 different versions of a single Classic Chinese poem.

⭐A nice set of additions (the “with More”) to the original edition.

⭐A very interesting book for translators!

⭐I suppose I have to be the grinch who points out that Weinberger has no basis for his self-indulgent (and copious) judgments because he can’t read the original poem and doesn’t know anything about its context. So you wind up learning a lot more about Weinberger than Wang Wei. And that’s not how translation is supposed to work. When people call this book “a masterful introduction to translation” and what not, I simply have to laugh: you can’t translate a language that you don’t command.

⭐Everyone interested in translating or even just in language learning hears that there are multiple ways to interpret a text. This book takes this to a brilliant extreme, by re-interpreting a single poem in 19 ways, from phonetic, to literal, to the most free-form imaginable. What it really demonstrates is that there is no “right” translation – translation depends on what your purposes are, who your audience is, and what you are trying to accomplish. I think everyone interesting in translation or even just in language learning should read this book.

⭐I’m currently trying to learn Janpanese, just to while away the lock-down hours, as you do. Japanese is heavily based on Chinese. This was a real eye opener to me just how fundamentally different Chinese is from English (Japanese is more of a half-way house, and that’s different enough!). Chinese has no tenses, no plurals, no formal word order and the same sound can have contradictory meanings. The mat cat on sat the is just fine in Chinese (except there’s no word for “the”). It’s all in the context, everything is relative, you are not spoon-fed the meaning. Fascinating, as is all the different attempts to translate this seemingly innocuous little poem. This is the first book I’ve read by Weinberger. He is very good at giving an insight into the poetic art, what look out for, pitfalls to avoid. I’ll be reading more.

⭐A fascinating analysis of the variation in translation of one Chinese poem. An insight on translators and how readers can be misled.

⭐Enlightening . Can Chinese poetry be translated ? I learned I prefer to read the original text . Chinese poetry is very profound , layers of meaning

⭐fascinating witty and illuminating

⭐Das bekannte Gedicht Wang Weis ist in chinesischen Langzeichen, Pinyin und wörtlicher englischer Übersetzung dargeboten, so daß auch jemand, der wenig oder gar kein Chinesisch beherrscht, sich ein Bild vom Ausgangstext machen kann. Die zahlreichen, jeweils kurz besprochenen Übersetzungen und Nachdichtungen vermitteln gerade in ihrer Vielfalt einen Eindruck vom Zauber dieser Dichtung. Auch wenn unser Verständnis zweifellos ein produktives Mißverständnis ist und bleiben wird, ist es doch faszinierend genug. Ein großer Philologe hat einmal daran erinnert, daß die Weltliteratur ihre größte Wirkung gerade in nicht besonders guten Übersetzungen erzielt hat (z. B. Homer, Shakespeare), und deshalb sollte man sich ohne zu große Bedenken auch diesem schönen Büchlein hingeben. Schade, daß es nicht mehr davon gibt!

⭐

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