On the English Translation of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems--A Contrastive Study on the Translations of the Ci-Poem “To the Tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade”

Li Qingzhao (1084-ca. 1155?) is widely lauded as the most celebrated and talented woman poet in the history of classical Chinese literature. This study, with the theoretical guidance of Dr. Wang Feng’s “Harmony-Guided ThreeLevel Poetry Translation Criteria”, focuses on a comparative analysis of the collected renditions of the ci-poem “to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade” at the macro, middle and micro levels, to further promote the translation and communication of classical Chinese literature. This study aims to exert far-reaching influences on the process of Chinese literature going global, which has unprecedented contemporary significance.


Researches by Chinese Scholars
The English translation studies on Li Qingzhao's Ci-poems enjoyed a history of about 100 years. In 1926, Bing Xin (冰心) completed her thesis for a master degree titled "An English Translation and Edition of the Poems of Lady Li Yi-an"(《李易安女士词的翻译和编辑》), which was considered as the earliest work circulating in the English-language world achieved by a Chinese scholar, and was with great historical significance to open up the journey for the scholarly research and studies on the English translation of Li Qingzhao's ci-poems (Li, 2009). After that, Ch'u (1937), Lin (1961) and Hu (1966) included selections of the renditions of her ci-poems in their translation anthologies of classical Chinese poetry. In 1984, Xu Yuanchong initiated specialized translation research on Li Qingzhao's ci-poems with his published article "The Standards of Translation," taking her works as examples and proposing the standard for poetry translation with "three beauties": beauty of sense, sound, and form Xu Y. C. (1984). The English translation of Li Qingzhao's ci-poems was widely practiced at that time with the originally domestic publication of two anthologies An English Translation of Chinese Ancient Poems by Weng (1983) in 1983 and 100 Chinese Ci-poems in English Verse by Xu Z. J. (1986). Other scholars such as Xu Y. C. (1990), Xu (1996), Zhuo (1996), Gong (2000), Yang and Yang (2001), and Mao (2003) also translated her ci-poems for the general readers of poetry in their anthologies. However, the authors only found a scholarly research monography titled A Contrastive Study on the Translations of Tz'u Poems by Li Qingzhao, which has a detailed contrastive study of the English versions of Li Qingzhao's T'zu (lyric poems) based on a philosophical view of language and hermeneutic understanding of translation (Li, 2009).
Nevertheless, the dearth of systematically contrast studies on the translations of Li Qingzhao's ci-poems based on a specific literary theory with Chinese traditional culture is striking, compared to the steady studies in Chinese on the development of translation history and translation strategies and methods.

Researches by Western Scholars
The American poetry movement and the social-cultural contexts in the 1950s served as the backdrop for the beginning of the studies on Li Qingzhao's ci-poems in English literary scholarship. The American Imagist poetry movement, profoundly influenced by classical Chinese poetry featuring the brilliance of style and profundity of emotion, nurtured new trends in American poetry and poetics development in the 1950s and 1960s. The irresistible charm figured prominently by Li Qingzhao's feminine sensibilities and characterized by exquisite usage of poetic images in her simple colloquial language undoubtedly called up broad attention from the literary arena in the west. Lucy Chow Ho published a monograph More Gracile than Yellow Flowers: The Life and Works of Li Ch'ing-chao in 1968 and opened up a new possibility for general readers to access Li Qingzhao's life and works. The interest in Li Qingzhao in the western world turned to translate her song lyrics with two complete English translations published respectively by Rexroth and Chung (1979) and Cryer (1984). Selections of Li's ci-poem translations were also included in many important literary anthologies used for American college textbooks (Li, 2009). Liu and Lo (1975), Turner (1976) , Owen (1985) and other scholars translated Li's ci-poems as well during that period. Currently, a definitive book of superior scholarship and erudition entitled The Burden of Female Talent written by Ronald Egan and published in 2015 rights the balance in the heretofore-meager fare of English-language publications on the studies of Li Qingzhao's life, writings and reception history (Fong, 2015).
From the description above, western scholars' strong interests in Li Qingzhao and her works lead to a considerable amount of translations in all periods, which not only serve as concrete examples for the poetic transmission of classic Chinese literature but also are equally indispensable for providing impetus and insights on Chinese literary translation. However, in-depth researches are lacking and scarce on the overall analysis and comparison of them from a comprehensive and critical perspective.
From a historical-literary perspective, the studies on the translation of Li Qingzhao's ci-poems in China and western world have primarily resulted in abundant English renditions of her ci-poems included in anthologies of different renowned scholars as well as in different and scattered compositions. Additionally, due to the different focus and perspectives in standards, strategies, and methods, the translations have won both acclaim and disapprobation in a critical diachronic context. In this case, more efforts and attention are merited for systematically collecting and compiling the different versions of her ci-poems for in-depth and comprehensive comparison and analysis in both Chinese and English literary scholarship.
Thus, different translations of the ci-poem "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade" are comprehensively analyzed on the merits and infelicities under the systematic guidance of Dr. Wang Feng's "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria", aiming for a better refined translation well responding to the call of the times for advancing Chinese literature translation and communication.

Theoretical Foundation
Adhering to the philosophy of "harmony" deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture, Dr. Wang Feng creatively inherited and developed predecessors' theories, such as Xu Yuanchong's theory of "Three Beauties", and Peter Newmark's view on translation aesthetics, and finally surpassed them with his innovative "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria" (Wang F., 2015). It is a more comprehensive, scientific and practical theory for the guidance of poetry translation and its assessment from the macro, middle and micro perspectives for the better promotion of Chinese literature going global.

Introduction to Li Qingzhao and the Ci-Poem "to the Tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade" and its Versions
Li Qingzhao, alias "Yi'an the Lady Buddhist", is widely considered the preeminent Chinese woman poet. She lived in the Song Dynasty, a time when Ci as a literary genre had attained the acme of its perfection, with the emergence of two schools widely different in style and tone: the bold romantic style and the elegant restrained style to which Li Qingzhao's ci-poems undoubtedly belonged (Wang J. S., 1989).
"To the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade", a most typical one of Li Qingzhao's ci-poems during her early years of marriage, was composed on a Double-Ninth Day (on this festive occasion in ancient China, people missed doubly of absent dear ones) during the departure period with her beloved husband Zhao Mingcheng, who left home at short notice to take up a distant official post. As a unique master of poetic diction and literary devices, Li Qingzhao deliberately restrained from directly expressing her loneliness and persistent longing for her husband in this ci-poem. She ingeniously used a colloquial and straightforward language with rich natural images and phenomena drawn mostly from material things such as mist, cloud, incense, bed-cushions, wine, chrysanthemum, etc. for the readers to imagine, as an aftertaste, what was disturbing her mind.
The ci-poem "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade" in Chinese characters is as follows:

Version 1：
Veiled in thin mist and thick cloud, How sad the long day! Incense from golden censer melts away.

A Comparative Analysis on the Translations Based on the "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria" 2.3.1. Harmony at the Macro Level
At the macro level, translating Chinese poetry is often challenged not only by transforming a text between different languages and cultures but also by other contradictions or controversies with cognition, discourse, and action. Facing the duel between domestication and foreignization, the pursuit of formative elegance or language preciosity, and the conflict between loyalty and recreation, translation practitioners of Chinese literature should take the Chinese core value "Harmony" as the guidance and strive for a translation in aesthetic harmony to catch the spirit of the original (Wang F., 2015).
Taking "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade" as an example, the literary aesthetics of song lyrics is demonstrated in this ci-poem by the frequent use of poetic images and motifs located primarily in the poet's elegant diction, normative formality, and profound sentiments. Though Version 5 from Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung is in a straightforward language, it lacks the refined elegance and charm in sentimental profundity and rhythmed aesthetics. Version 4 from Xu Zhongjie, limited to a fixed number of characters in each line conforming to a strict meter and rhyme scheme, however, results in a lengthy text failing to accord with the original writing featuring simplicity and freshness. These two translations, both with dominant concerns on a specific aesthetics aspect, could not be considered as harmonious texts with aesthetical integration from the macro perspective.

"Stylistic Resemblance, Connotative Accordance, Imagery Recurrence" at the Middle Level
Firstly, the stylistic resemblance. As the foremost exponent of the restrained elegant school of ci, Li Qingzhao's extraordinary ability lies in her ingenious use of refreshing and exacting language in most unadorned terms to convey the implicit sentiment and achieve a powerful effect. When translating this lyric, efforts should be made to strive for the catch of the original stylistic elegance and implicitly. Among the six translations above, five of them could be concluded with stylistic resemblance, only Xu Zhongjie's translation, to a certain degree, failed to be similar in style because the redundant illustrations of the poetic imagery for the target language readers' effortless reading and understanding, however, diverged far from the original elegance in simplicity.
Secondly, regarding the connotative accordance, the quality of the six translations varied greatly on conveying the original connotative meaning. For example, "Rui nao (瑞脑)" in the second line, alias "Long nao(龙脑)", is one of the chemical ingredients constituting a certain incense, while it refers to that incense connotatively in the original text; In the version of Mao Yumei, "Rui nao (瑞脑)" was literarily translated as "borneol camphor", two kinds of chemical substances, whereas the connotative meaning "incense" drifted away with this word-for-word translation. Conclusively, Xu Yuanchong's and Zhuo Zhenying's brief translation as "incense" seems to be the most suitable choice for the connotative accordance. Thus, more investigations and examinations are in need to figure out the accurate meanings of words in the ci-poem.
Finally, as regards "imagery recurrence," this ci lyric abounds in natural images and phenomena as well as human events to convey the exquisite and restrained feelings of the poet. For example, "burning incense in the golden censer", and "jade-like pillow and gauze-covered bed" pictured the interior layout of the lonely poet's inner quarter. "Thin mist, thick clouds", accompanied by "burning incense" consumed her long gloomy day. Drink wine alone by the chrysanthemum fence on a traditional Chinese festival "Double-ninth Day" has given rise to the poet's deep and strong missing for her husband in a distant place. When reading the original text, Chinese readers nurtured by traditional Chinese poetic culture from a young age could be easily left to limitless imaginations, and enter into the poet's innermost thoughts. Thus, the translations by the four Chinese translators reproduced the poetic images more accurately and exquisitely, which will be elucidated in detail with concrete examples below.

"Eight Beauties" at the Micro Level 2.3.3.1. Beauty of Form
Regarding the form of the ci-poem "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade," it is composed of two stanzas, both including five lines with a different number of characters. The translation from Xu Zhongjie has six stanzas, each consisting of four lines, adding up to 24 lines. Lucy Chow Ho's has 17 lines, while that of Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung has 14 lines. These renditions are far from conforming to the original length of 10 lines, while other translations are with ten lines approximately, better reproducing the beauty of form.

Beauty of Musicality
"To the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade", a typical ci-poem originally a melody tuned to folk music, contains normative musical aesthetics in rhyme scheme with the shared end rhyme /ou/ in "zhou (昼)", "shou (兽)", "tou (透 )", "hou (后)", and "shou (瘦)". The conscious use of rhyme and iambic pentameter common in English metrical poetry in the translations from Chinese scholars Xu Yuanchong, Zhuo Zhenying, and Xu Zhongjie significantly consolidate its musical aesthetics and refinement. Others adopted free verse style, which resulted in the dearth of "beauty of musicality."

Beauty of Images
The imagery that conglomerates a set of images in a poem enlivens it through reviving the imagination of its readers and bringing them into the perceptible world of sights, sounds, smells, and sensations. Thus, images are considered by some critics of poetry as its life and soul (Zhang, 2009). In this ci poem, "薄雾(thin mist)", "浓云 (thick clouds)", "黄花(yellow flowers)", "菊花(chrysanthemum)"， "黄昏(dusk)", "西风(west wind )" , etc., all these poetic images are loaded with traditional Chinese culture which English-language readers may find difficult to comprehend and associate with the emotions they could easily provoke in Chinese readers. When translating poetic images, cultural differences should be taken into consideration with more care and precision to preserve the original literary aesthetic. Taking the poetic image "西风(west wind)" as an example, Xu Zhongjie translated it as "violent blasts from the west," in which "the blasts" blew too strong and violent, not like the early autumn breeze at night conveying subtle melancholy, dismal or loneliness. Other translators all took the poetic image "west wind" from the famous English poem "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley to translate "西风" as an approximate equivalent in English though with nuanced distinction in symbolic implication, nevertheless not deviating too far. Hence, in this case, it seems a suitable strategy to find a similar equivalent in the target culture to convey the beauty of images.

Beauty of Emotion
In this ci-poem, "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade," Li Qingzhao restrained from directly expressing her profound longing and missing for her husband, however, achieved a powerful effect by the ingenious use of colloquialism and guileless understatement of the refreshing natural images parallel with human events (Wang J. S., 1989). From Lucy Chow Ho.'s translation "my sleeves are perfumed by the fragrance of the plants," no words can be found to catch the meaning of "subtle or hidden," which refers to "暗" (hidden) in the original text. It seems to have portrayed a modern young girl with perfume on her, whereas a traditional Chinese woman with restrained sorrow and deep love in the original writing is not in the picture. The gracefully conveyed emotions implied in the original text are not reproduced in that translation. Similarly, from Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung's translation "auspicious dragon incense rises from the gold animal," readers could only imagine a simple scene that the smoke of the incense is rising up from a censer without any association to the poet's deep emotion. However, in the translation "In the golden censer, the burning incense is dying away" from Lucy Chow Ho, "dying away" could exactly express that the poet's spirit and mood are gradually falling down like the incense burning out and dying away with the consuming of the long gloomy day.

Beauty of Implication
Sikong Tu, a poetry critic in the Tang dynasty, defined "implication" in his work Shi Pin (The Critique of Poetry) as the character of using no lucid and forthright words to achieve the highest perfection of sentiment (Wang H. Y., 2002). In this ci-poem, obviously belonging to the elegant and restrained style, the poet depicted a vivid scene with exquisite poetic images, such as "thin mist", "thick clouds", "early autumn chillness", "sipping wine at dusk", "chrysanthemum fence", and "west wind" which were presented primarily in simple words without directly carrying the meaning of "missing" or "loneliness"; nevertheless, they have brought the persistent longing for her husband to its acme. In the translations above, the word "loneliness" could be found in Zhuo Zhenying's version, and "sad" or "sadness" occurred in the renditions from Xu Yuanchong, Zhuo Zhenying, and Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung. "The beauty of implication" could be lost to a certain degree, in the translations with those words explicitly conveying the poet's affections.

Beauty of Diction
Poetry is the best words in the best order, so should poetry translation be. "半夜凉初透(literally, half night chill begins thoroughly)" in the original lyric depicts the scene that the chillness of the early autumn and loneliness immersed the poet's body and soul in late night sleeping with a jade-like pillow on a gauze-covered bed. Among the versions, Mao Yumei translated it with the verb "seep" carrying the meaning of liquid flowing and leaking slowly. Comparatively speaking, it was not accurate and appropriate to describe the chillness entering deeply into and occupying the poet and the cheerful house. "Invade" in Xu Yuanchong's translation, "penetrate" in Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung's translation and "saturate" in Lucy Chow Ho's translation are better words to achieve the beauty of diction. Another example, the keyword "瘦(thin)" in the concluding line not only depicts the yellow flowers and the person sharing the similar physical appearance of "thin" but also is indicative of her emaciated and languished figure due to deep missing and longing for her husband. Xu Yuanchong, Zhuo Zhenying, and Mao Yumei all translated it with the simple, direct word "thin" to be loyal to the original; Xu Zhongjie translated it into "slim," Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung translated it with "fragile," and Lucy Chow Ho translated with "gracile." All the translations contain the meaning of "thin," nevertheless with different focuses. "Slim" and "gracile" are more frequently used to describe a person, usually girls in good shape in a charming and attractive way. "Fragile" is often used with the meaning "easily broken or damage." Thus, generally speaking, the literary translation "thin" is the most appropriate to well suit the spirit of the original with a faithful and exquisite diction.

Beauty of Allusion
As a unique master of literary devices, Li Qingzhao also favored allusions in this ci-poem "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade." Yan (2012) investigated the origins of the allusions in his article: "佳节又重阳 (Happy festival again Double Ninth)" originated from Wang Wei's quatrain; "东篱(eastern fence)"could date back to Tao Yuanming's writing, and other poetic images come from the poems or lyrics written by other poets. In this case, we not only read one ci-poem titled "to the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade," but also appreciate a harmonious union tuned by several poems and lyrics. Even for native Chinese speakers, great efforts are in need to uncover and comprehend the poetic allusions. In translating these allusions, word to word translation strategy cannot be chosen to fully interpret and elucidate the poetic meanings hiding behind. For example, "东篱," originating from Tao Yuanming's famous line, means "chrysanthemum fence," while Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung directly translated as "eastern fence" without a note, partly losing the beauty of allusion.

Beauty of Gestalt
The seven beauties above, with other beauties not discussed in this article, result in a grand synthesis to attain the beauty of gestalt. Apart from the vivid poetic images, colloquial but refreshing languages, frequent use of allusions, normative formation and rhyme, other unusual features contributing to the consummate literary aesthetics in the original text could also be investigated. For example, Li Qingzhao, as a gifted user of figural languages, also showed a marked preference for simile, metaphor, and personification in the ci-poem, whereas Xu Zhongjie's translation pursues too much lucid description and elucidation, with the beauty of gestalt drifting away to a certain degree.

A Translation From the Co-Authors
Based on Dr. Wang Feng's "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria," a comprehensive analysis of the renditions from different scholars has been conducted above. Their excellent qualities, merits as well as inaccuracies and ambiguity could all be the source of inspiration for the translation below from the co-authors: To the tune of Tipsy in Flower Shade(Zui Hua Yin) Trans. by Li Yujie & Wang Feng Thin mist and thick clouds haze a long gloomy day, Incense in the golden censer is dying away, The Double-Ninth comes again today. Jade-like pillow, and gauze-covered bed, Along with the autumn night chill my bone. At dusk, by the chrysanthemum fence I sip wine alone, The subtle scents fill the sleeves of my own, Say not it's not soul-hurting in this scene, When the west wind blows up the screen, A figure thinner than yellow flowers will be seen. The co-authors of the presented translation do not strive for preciosity or brilliance in all aspects, but mainly pursue the catch of the original spirit and to convey it to the possible readers in most unadorned terms, which could suit the poet's attitude of relying on guileless understatement to achieve a powerful effect. From the macro level, "Harmony" is always taken as the guidance in the whole translation process regarding the strategies. From the middle level, the restrained deep emotion of the original is translated with the recurrent poetic images in a connotative, elegant style, which meets the criteria of "Stylistic Resemblance, Connotative Accordance, Imagery Recurrence." From the micro level, this translation consists of 10 poetic lines with a roughly normative rhyme scheme while taking into consideration different beauties, hoping to achieve the "eight beauties" at its best.

Conclusion
By combing through the development of the English translation studies on Li Qingzhao' ci-poems in China and overseas, it has been found that comprehensive contrastive studies on the translations of her ci-poems based on a certain poetry translation theory are quite rare. This study collected translations from scholars in different periods, and systematically analyzed their strength and weakness from the macro, middle and micro perspectives on the theoretical foundation of Dr. Wang Feng's "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria." Finally, a refined and more harmonious translation is provided with the wish to serve as a slender effort for promoting Chinese literature going global.
This study also served as a proof that Dr. Wang Feng's "Harmony-Guided Three-Level Poetry Translation Criteria," fully entitled "Harmony-Stylistic Resemblance, Connotative Accordance, Imagery Recurrence-Eight Beauties," is a systematic, comprehensive theory for guiding classic Chinese poetry translation practice and its assessment from the macro, middle and micro perspectives. The authors do hope that broader critical perspectives and constructive suggestions could be gained for the development and promotion of this literary theory as well as for the development of Chinese literature translation and communication.