From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China

Li Li; Liu Aihua

doi:10.3366/tal.2022.0519

From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China

Faculty of Languages and Translation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	341-357
Number of pages	17
Journal	Translation and Literature
Volume	31
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3366/tal.2022.0519
Publication status	Published - 2022

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10.3366/tal.2022.0519

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@article{b39d6c2ef1d64ff5bd149cb79beab81e,

title = "From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s Poetry in China",

author = "Li Li and Liu Aihua",

note = "Funding Information: ORCID: Li Li https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3652-3498 Research for this article was supported by a research grant, {\textquoteleft}Translation and Scottish Literary Modernism{\textquoteright} (RP/FLT-02/2022), funded by Macao Polytechnic University. Funding Information: The second major Chinese translator of Hugh MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s poems is Zhang Jian, who published a bilingual collection, Modern Scottish Poems, in 2002. Zhang includes 143 poems by 26 poets, among them William Soutar, Sydney Goodsir Smith, and Robert Crawford; the seven poems by MacDiarmid are exceeded in number only by Norman MacCaig{\textquoteright}s. Compared with Wang{\textquoteright}s 1986 selection of Scottish poets, Zhang{\textquoteright}s treatment of the modern period is obviously more inclusive and comprehensive, both in terms of the number of poems involved and the number of poets translated. In an interview with the authors of this paper, Zhang recalled, two decades after its publication, the circumstances of his translation project.5 The edition was supported by the Scottish Arts Council, and Zhang was invited by Robert Crawford to the University of St Andrews to take up a visiting scholarship in 1998–9. There, his research into modern Scottish poetry informed the choice of poets and texts to be translated. Zhang consulted Professor Crawford and fellow poets such as Douglas Dunn and John Burnside who were also teaching at the University of St Andrews. He read Scottish poetry anthologies, aiming to produce a set of translations that would be broadly representative of modern Scottish verse. The poems by MacDiarmid that he selected are {\textquoteleft}The Bonnie Broukit Bairn{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Empty Vessel{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}The Eemis Stane{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Crowdieknowe{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Wheesht, Wheesht{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}The Watergaw{\textquoteright}, and the opening of {\textquoteleft}A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle{\textquoteright} (lines 1–120). Of these",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.3366/tal.2022.0519",

language = "English",

volume = "31",

pages = "341--357",

journal = "Translation and Literature",

issn = "0968-1361",

publisher = "Edinburgh University Press",

number = "3",

}

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T1 - From Scots to Mandarin

T2 - The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China

AU - Li, Li

AU - Aihua, Liu

N1 - Funding Information: ORCID: Li Li https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3652-3498 Research for this article was supported by a research grant, ‘Translation and Scottish Literary Modernism’ (RP/FLT-02/2022), funded by Macao Polytechnic University. Funding Information: The second major Chinese translator of Hugh MacDiarmid’s poems is Zhang Jian, who published a bilingual collection, Modern Scottish Poems, in 2002. Zhang includes 143 poems by 26 poets, among them William Soutar, Sydney Goodsir Smith, and Robert Crawford; the seven poems by MacDiarmid are exceeded in number only by Norman MacCaig’s. Compared with Wang’s 1986 selection of Scottish poets, Zhang’s treatment of the modern period is obviously more inclusive and comprehensive, both in terms of the number of poems involved and the number of poets translated. In an interview with the authors of this paper, Zhang recalled, two decades after its publication, the circumstances of his translation project.5 The edition was supported by the Scottish Arts Council, and Zhang was invited by Robert Crawford to the University of St Andrews to take up a visiting scholarship in 1998–9. There, his research into modern Scottish poetry informed the choice of poets and texts to be translated. Zhang consulted Professor Crawford and fellow poets such as Douglas Dunn and John Burnside who were also teaching at the University of St Andrews. He read Scottish poetry anthologies, aiming to produce a set of translations that would be broadly representative of modern Scottish verse. The poems by MacDiarmid that he selected are ‘The Bonnie Broukit Bairn’, ‘Empty Vessel’, ‘The Eemis Stane’, ‘Crowdieknowe’, ‘Wheesht, Wheesht’, ‘The Watergaw’, and the opening of ‘A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle’ (lines 1–120). Of these

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U2 - 10.3366/tal.2022.0519

DO - 10.3366/tal.2022.0519

M3 - Article

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SN - 0968-1361

VL - 31

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EP - 357

JO - Translation and Literature

JF - Translation and Literature

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From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China

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