The articulate Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-Shek)

This is how Churchill began his speech in the Joint Session of Congress on December 26, 1941.  The book of The Roar of the Lion is a gift from a lawyer friend of nearly 40 years.  It is about the stories of Churchill's wartime speeches.

“. . . I wish indeed that my mother, whose memory I cherish across the vale of years, could have been here to see.  By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own.”

Madame Chiang Kai-Shek made her famous speech in the Congress in February 1943.

She first told a story about an American pilot returning a bombing mission over Tokyo and bailed out in the interior of China.  The pilot, after seeing the Chinese people, felt like he had come home even though that was the first time he had ever been to China.   After explaining that she had been educated in the U.S. and felt that she had come home.

She and Churchill used the same technique telling their audience that the speaker was indeed one of you in your midst.

She brought the house down with her speech, “the chamber fairly shook with applause.”  You have to listen to part of her speech in the following YouTube before reading further.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlSMfF3hOJM

There is no better word than “articulate” to describe her speech in the Congress.  There are two meanings of articulate; one is “pronounce a word distinctly” (咬字清晰); the other meaning is “to express oneself clearly and effectively” (表達清楚). Soong Mei-ling was indeed “articulate” in the true sense of the word both ways.  She only stayed in the States about nine years (age 10 to 19).

I once said Churchill was not articulate and that brought forth the protest from my daughter, who didn’t realize I was using “articulate” as 咬字清晰.  If you watch and listen to the Godfather and you’ll agree with me that Marlon Brando was not articulate.

After reading Empress Dowager Tzu-Hsi (Cixi), I checked out The Last Empress (biography of Soong Mei-ling).  Nowadays I only checked out the print books when the Kindle ebook is not available. This book does have ebook version, which was not available at Carnegie Library.

No Last Rose of Summer in our garden: they charm us well beyond the summer

10/18/2015

Thomas Moore’s ‘the last rose of summer’ leads us to believe the roses faded when summer left us.  Our roses charmed us well into the late fall.  These photos were taken on October 18, the first severe frost came the night before, all flowers (zinnia, salvia, marigold and celosia etc.) perished except roses.

The faded flowers wouldn’t allow me to put their photo on Facebook unless I promise to also show them when they’re still blooming in full blossom.

10/18/2015



10/18/2015

What’s in a name in A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢)?

If one reads article discussing the many hundreds of characters, main or minor, of A Dream of Red Chamber, one may not read about Hongyu (紅玉) or better known as Xiaohong (小紅).  In fact, this post was written after reading why Hongyu (紅玉) had to be called Xiaohong (小紅).

又問名字。小紅道：「原叫紅玉，因為重了寶二爺，如今只叫小紅了。」鳳姐聽說，將眉一皺，把頭一回，說道：「討人嫌的很！得了玉的便宜似的，你也玉，我也玉。」
Next she was asked her name,
“I was first called Hongyu (紅玉),” she answered, “but because of the ‘yu’ in Master Bao’s name they call me Xiaohong (小紅) now. Xifeng (鳳姐) frowned and tossed her head.
“Disgusting! You’d think there was something special about ‘yu’ (玉), the way everybody wants that name.” ß English translation in book

My comment:
Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) has a penchant of playing the names of his characters, such as 賈元春 (first spring), 賈探春 (seeking spring), 賈迎春 (welcoming spring), 賈惜春 (treasuring spring). Even the last name of 賈 has a special meaning, but that is beyond the scope of this writing.

The three love birds (three major protagonists) in a “triangle love” (or so I thought?) are 賈寶玉 (Jia Baoyu) and 林黛玉 (Lin Daiyu) that shares the “yu” (玉); another couple is 賈寶玉 (Jia Baoyu) and 薛寶釵 (Xue Baochai) that shares the “Bao” (寶).  There is another character of  Miaoyu (妙玉), of whom I know little yet, other than she is a nun.

Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is aware that so many characters (male or female) have a yu (玉) in their name, thus we read this in Chapter 27, “得了玉的便宜似的，你也玉，我也玉。」”  It was translated as “You’d think there was something special about ‘yu’ (玉), the way everybody wants that name.” (the original says nothing “special” about “yu”).  It seems logical to say that, but a more faithful translation is “It costs nothing to have yu (玉) in their name, everyone wants it.” (Even Mei-Yu wants it.)

 

In Chapter 24 we began to know who is Lin Hongyu (林紅玉, Red Jade) whose family served the Jias (賈府) for generations, so she was sent to Happy Red Court (怡紅院) as a maid when she was fourteen (English translation says “sixteen”).

 

這小紅雖然是個不諳事體的丫頭，因他原有幾分容貌，心內便想向上攀高，每每要在寶玉面前現弄現弄. 只是寶玉身邊一干人都是伶牙俐爪的， 那裡插的下手去？

Simple as Xiaohong was, with her good looks (幾分容貌) she was foolishly eager to climb up in the world.  She had long been looking for a chance to attract Baoyu’s attention, but his other attendants were too smart to allow her to put herself forward.  ßEnglish translation in book

 

My comment:

This is fairly good and faithful translation, talking about the “ambition” of a maid with a good look

 

誰知寶玉昨兒見了他也就留心， 想著指名喚他來使用. 一則怕襲人等多心， 二則又不知他是怎麼個情性，

Now Baoyu (寶玉) had been so struck by Xiaohong the previous day that he would have liked to have her wait on him, but he feared this might upset Xiren and the others; besides, there was no saying how the girl would turn out.   ßEnglish translation in book

 

My comment:

This English translation author loves to use “upset”; he used it for “感傷歎息”; here he used it for “多心”, which is probably “worry or concern”.

 

情 (sentiment) 性 (personality, character). Baoyu knows Xiaohong has a good look, but no way to tell whether she is a gentle and loyal or one with a hot temper and a railing tongue.  I don’t quite like “there was no saying how the girl would turn out”, but I cannot make it better.

The beauty of the language: Simple is Beautiful

While commenting on the English translation of A Dream of Red Chamber, I often lament the loss of the beauty of Chinese literary language.  But what is the “beauty” of the language?  Is the beauty of Chinese the same way as the English is perceived? I am afraid not.

Hemingway: A lion in winter

I am in no position to describe or define the beauty of Chinese language.  Florid and pompous language in Chinese is considered high class and magnificent or even beautiful.  This may not be true in English: simple and short words are welcome.  As Mark Twain would say, “Damn the subjunctive.  It brings all of our writers to shame.  As to the Adjective:  When in doubt, strike it out.”

The earth moved

Hemingway is a man of letter and also a man of action; he wrote using subjective and verb only.  We read in his For Whom the Bell Tolls, after Robert Jordan (played by Gary Cooper) and Maria (played by Ingrid Bergman) 雲雨巫山 (making love) 一番.

“But did thee feel the earth move?” Robert Jordan asked, and she says yes.

“And it is not thus for thee with others?” Maria asked him,

“No. Truly.”

“Thou hast loved many others.”

“Some, But not as thee.”

“And it was not thus? Truly?”

“It was a pleasure but it was not thus.”

“And then the earth moved.  The earth never moved before?”

“Nay. Truly never.”

“Ay,” she said. “And this we have for one day.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fourteen pages later, under pressure from one of the guerrilla leaders to tell what happened, Maria looks away and says only, “The earth moved.”

雲雨巫山 and 溫存了一番 are Chinese language to describe sexual intimacy tactfully and tastefully; Hemingway’s “the earth moved” reaches the “climax” of English language that simple is beautiful.

Churchill “mobilized English language” to fight Hitler.
I may not be able to define the beauty of English language, but when I see it I know it.  As I said it many times before that reading Churchill and Lincoln led me to discover the beauty of English language.  It should come no surprised that he was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

In his first speech in the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, after being appointed as the Prime Minister, Churchill said, using mostly short and simple words.

I said to those who have joined the Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against the monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.  That is our policy.  You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.  Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire; no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal.  But I take up my task with buoyance and hope. . .

Translating literary Chinese into English is a daunting task

When I lament I only know English and yet I long for to learn French deep in my heart, Janice always reminds me I do know Chinese, not as much as I should though.

The strength of Chinese language lies in its aesthetic quality, thus its literary beauty is unmatched by English.  But one should never learn science, especially chemistry or math in Chinese, which is inherently a bad tool for this task.

While writing about the English translation of “A Dream of Red Chamber” (紅樓夢), I wrote, “No matter how good a translation, the beauty of the Chinese language was lost in translation.”  I am not the only one hold this view.  In his The Importance of Living, Lin Yutang wrote ,“One is often forced to write bad English in trying to express such Chinese aesthetic ideas or notions, . . .”

Chapter 5 of the Dream is important in foretelling, through Baoyu’s dream in fantasy, the unfortunate fate (薄命) of the Twelve Beauties of Chinling (金陵十二釵).

寶玉喜不自勝，抬頭看這司的匾上，乃是「薄命司」三字，兩邊寫著對聯道：「春恨秋悲皆自惹，花容月貌為誰妍？」
Baoyu (寶玉) was overjoyed.  He looked up and saw on the tablet the name Board of Ill-Fated.  This is flanked by the couplet:

They brought to themselves spring grief and autumn anguish;

Wasted, their beauty fair as flower and moon?

 

My comment:

“Overjoy” is a very appropriate translation for 喜不自勝.  There is nothing wrong to translate 薄命 (“thin fate”) as “ill-fated”, but Chinese readers know that it is conventionally used in describing the ill-fate in a marriage or a relationship of a woman, such as the idiom of 红颜薄命 (a great beauty suffers ill-fate).

 

春恨秋悲皆自惹,   They brought to themselves spring grief and autumn anguish;

花容月貌為誰妍？    Wasted, their beauty fair as flower and moon? ß translation in book

                                    [For whom the delicate beauty wasted?] ß my translation

My comment:
花容月貌 is “as beautiful as flower and moon”.  妍 is elegantly pretty of women.  妍 is an adjective, but it is used as a verb here.  It basically says “nobody is around to appreciate such a delicate beauty, thus wasted.”

早有一位仙姬在內，其鮮豔嫵媚，大似寶釵，嬝娜風流，又如黛玉.
More amazing still, he saw there a girl whose charm reminded him of Baochai (寶釵, with whom Baoyu eventually married), her grace of Daiyu (黛玉)  ß translation in book

My comment:
豔 is gorgeously beautiful, dazzlingly beautiful, passionate, voluptuous (like Mae West ß Lin Yutang’s example).  媚 is seductive, enticing, beauty of softness.  It is fitting to translate 鮮豔嫵媚 into “charm”, which is so plain that the “great charm and beauty” of Chinese language was lost.  The same is also true for 嬝娜風流 as “grace”. (I’ll devote a post just talking about 風流).

騷 is poetic, sentimental; we call poet 騷人.  We have a friend well versed in classic Chinese literature, 出囗成詩 真是騷人一個. Although one has to be careful using 騷. 風騷 is amorous, lustful, passionate, more of sensual love, or in a way, “hot”. 發勞騷 is complain, grumble, vent.

It is imperative to know that our 騷人 (the one we know) does not 發勞騷, nor 風騷.