Chinese Poetry Boudoir Thoughts of Term Paper

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" 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."

That the poet in Miao's translation is waiting lovingly and patiently for the return of the beloved and that in Giles' that poet is only wishing hopelessly and bitterly is obvious in the final word choice.

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Miao's final lines read: "My love for you is as the flowing waters, How can there ever be an end?" This clearly implies a strong and abiding love which, though it may encompass sorrow and tears, will eventually be resolved in the ocean and will not end or fail. Giles' final lines, however, read: "My heart, like running water, knows no peace. But bleeds and bleeds forever without cease." This clearly reverses the meaning of the river as a sign of constancy in love and instead makes it a sign of restlessness and discontent, and the idea that the heart is always bleeding (instead of always loving) does not show that the beloved would even be welcomed back.

The difference in these two translations cannot be accidental. One must assume that Miao's translation, being closer to the original, embraces the sort of Zen ideals which are common in Chinese poetry, and speaks of the acceptance that love and grief are both part of nature in harmony, and that all things return to their rightful place. There is a sense of peace in it. Giles' translation seems to put more of the translator's own experience into the poem, with a very Western-style approach to relationships, in which love more often ends nastily with betrayal and abandonment, rather than tragically with unwilled separation or….....

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