Kejia Wang
on translating Xi Murong
Xi’s poems are well-known and loved for their lyricism, references to ancient Asian (Chinese and Buddhist) philosophies, astute observations on life and love, and yearning for empathy and meaning. I tried to translate the poem literally before returning to try to restore some of the original Chinese lyricism; in the end, I stayed fairly true to the poem’s original structure but missed out on some of the rhyme. I particularly struggled with the third and fifth stanzas due to her rampant use of repeating Chinese characters. I am fairly proud of my translation of the sixth stanza, though, which is also my personal favorite from the original poem – I feel like I was able to capture what I loved from the original poem while giving it an additional spin of my own.
about the author
Xi Murong (席慕容) is a Taiwanese poet, painter and essayist of Mongolian ethnicity. Born 1943 in mainland China, she spent her childhood in Hong Kong before studying painting at the Belgian Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts. She now resides in Taiwan.
about the translator
Keija Wang spent half of her life speaking Chinese and half of her life speaking English. She graduated from Penn in 2016 with a BSE in bioengineering and a minor in English. She is now studying English and Science and Technology Studies at the University of British Columbia.
photo by Jamie Seah
