Eliot, T.S.

Eliot, T.S. Ezra Pound : his metric and poetry [ID D29165].
After "Ripostes," Mr. Pound's idiom has advanced still farther. Inasmuch as "Cathay," the volume of translations from the Chinese, appeared prior to "Lustra," it is sometimes thought that his newer idiom is due to the Chinese influence. This is almost the reverse of the truth. The late Ernest Fenollosa left a quantity of manuscripts, including a great number of rough translations (literally exact) from the Chinese. After certain poems subsequently incorporated in "Lustra" had appeared in "Poetry," Mrs. Fenollosa recognized that in Pound the Chinese manuscripts would find the interpreter whom her husband would have wished; she accordingly forwarded the papers for him to do as he liked with. It is thus due to Mrs. Fenollosa's acumen that we have "Cathay"; it is not as a consequence of "Cathay" that we have "Lustra." This fact must be borne in mind…
It is easy to say that the language of "Cathay" is due to the Chinese. If one looks carefully at (1) Pound's other verse, (2) other people's translations from the Chinese (e.g., Giles's), it is evident that this is not the case. The language was ready for the Chinese poetry. Compare, for instance, a passage from "Provincia Deserta":
I have walked
into Périgord
I have seen the torch-flames, high-leaping,
Painting the front of that church,—
And, under the dark, whirling laughter,
I have looked back over the stream
and seen the high building,
Seen the long minarets, the white shafts.
I have gone in Ribeyrac,
and in Sarlat.
I have climbed rickety stairs, heard talk of Croy,
Walked over En Bertran's old layout,
Have seen Narbonne, and Cahors and Chalus,
Have seen Excideuil, carefully fashioned.
with a passage from "The River Song":
He goes out to Hori, to look at the wing-flapping storks,
He returns by way of Sei rock, to hear the new nightingales,
For the gardens at Jo-run are full of new nightingales,
Their sound is mixed in this flute,
Their voice is in the twelve pipes here.
It matters very little how much is due to Rihaku and how much to Pound. Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer has observed: "If these are original verses, then Mr. Pound is the greatest poet of this day." He goes on to say:
The poems in "Cathay" are things of a supreme beauty. What poetry should be, that they are. And if a new breath of imagery and handling can do anything for our poetry, that new breath these poems bring….
Poetry consists in so rendering concrete objects that the emotions produced by the objects shall arise in the reader….
Beauty is a very valuable thing; perhaps it is the most valuable thing in life; but the power to express emotion so that it shall communicate itself intact and exactly is almost more valuable. Of both these qualities Mr. Pound's book is very full. Therefore, I think we may say that this is much the best work he has done, for, however closely he may have followed his originals—and of that most of us have no means of judging—there is certainly a good deal of Mr. Pound in this little volume.
"Cathay" and "Lustra" were followed by the translations of Noh plays. The Noh are not so important as the Chinese poems (certainly not so important for English); the attitude is less unusual to us; the work is not so solid, so firm. "Cathay" will, I believe, rank with the "Sea-Farer" in the future among Mr. Pound's original work; the Noh will rank among his translations. It is rather a dessert after "Cathay." There are, however, passages which, as Pound has handled them, are different both from the Chinese and from anything existent in English. There is, for example, the fine speech of the old Kagekiyo, as he thinks of his youthful valour…

Eliot, T.S. A note on Ezra Pound. In : To-day ; no 4 (1918).
Cathay is an absolutely objective work ; it depends upon nothing but its own value. Here, and in the 'Wayfarer' [sic], Mr. Pound shows a matured genius. He has gained in ability to set down an emotion, using images with greater austerity, only for their contribution to the total effect. Nothing could owe less to exotic charm, indeed, than 'The Bowmen of Shu' or 'The River-Merchant's Wife.

Pound, Ezra. Selected poems of Ezra Pound. Ed. with an introd. by T.S. Eliot. [ID D29133].
Introduction.
"As for Cathay, it must be pointed out that Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time. I suspect that every age has had, and will have, the same illusion concerning translation, an illusion which is not altogether an illusion either. When a foreign poet is successfully done into the idiom of our own language and our own time, we believe that he has been 'translated' ; we believe that through this translation we really at last get the original… His [Pound's] translations seem to be – and that is the text of excellence – translucencies ; we think we are closer to the Chinese than when we read, for instance. Legge. I doubt this : I predict that in three hundred years Pound's Cathay will be a 'Windsor Translation', as Chapman and North are now 'Tudor translations' : it will be called (and justly) a 'magnificent specimen of XXth Century poetry' rather than 'a translation'. Each generation must translate for itself. This is as much to say that Chinese poetry, as we know it today, is something invented by Ezra Pound. It is not to say that there is a Chinese poetry-in-itslef, waiting for some ideal translator who shall be only translator…"

Xiao Qian is Instructor in modern Chinese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 1939 SOAS moved to Cambridge during the Second World War. College. He was invited to give talks on China. The topics included Chinese culture, literature, and the relationship between spiritual China with the industrial West.
1942-1944 Xiao Qian took a graduate degree in English literature at King's College, Cambridge, and started the Chinese news agency Da gong bao in London to report war news from England. He came into contact with the China Campaign Committee, Victor Gollancz (publisher and head of the Left Book Club), Kingsley Martin (editor of the New statesman and nation), Margery Fry (feminist and social activist), Harold Laski (Labour Party theorist) and Arthur Clegg (reporter on foreign affairs for the British Communist Party's organ Daily worker). Xiao became a principal speaker for the Committee.
Xiao Qian war invited twice to stay at E.M. Forster's family home West Hackhurst in Dorking, Surrey.
In his autobiography Xiao Qian notes : "Forster very generously provided materials and support while I was studying his novels at King's College from 1942-1944. He also gave me some of his essays and little booklets that had been published in Egypt and India, but never in Britain."
"A passage to India had been behind my mind ever since we met. To Mr. Forster, China may be a land with a great deal of personal relationship left ; to China, Mr. Forster would be an altogether different westerner, neither pompous like the admirals, nor complascent like the diplomats, nor nagging as the missionaries, nor patrionising like the connoiseurs, but a sensitive, humane, understanding co-man."
After attending a poetry reading by T.S. Eliot, Xiao Qian stated that he did not expect him "to be so affable and unassuming". He described him as being "of medium height and energetic, at first sight he seemed to have just reached middle age. But when he raised his very shortsighted eyes, his wrinkled forehead made him appear an old man. T.S. Eliot's voice is not very resonant, nor did he raise and lower it or pause like an experiences lecturer. Yet in a subtle way his recital brought out meaning in the verse. When each poem ended you felt you had been listing to a fountain flowing under ice".

Eliot, T.S. Christianity and culture : the idea of a christian society and notes towards the definition of culture. (New York, N.Y. : Harcourt, Brace, 1949). (A Harvest book ; HB32).
"In the literature of Asia is great poetry. There is also profound wisdom and some very difficult metaphysics ; but at the moment I am only concerned with poetry. I have no knowledge whatever of the Arabic, Persian or Chinese languages, and while I was chiefly interested at that time in philosophy, I read a little poetry too ; and I know that my own poetry shows the influence of Indian thought and sensibility. But generally poets are not oriental scholars – I was never a scholar myself ; and the influence of oriental literature upon poets is usually through translations. That there has been some influence of poetry of the East in the last century and a half is undeniable : to instance only English poetry, and in our own time, the poetical translations from the Chinese made by Ezra Pound, and those made by Arthur Waley, have probably been read by every poet writing in English. It is obvious that through individual interpreters, specially gifted for appreciating a remote culture, every literature may influence every other. The frontiers of culture are not and should not be closed."

Huang, Weiliang. Oulide he Zhongguo xian dai shi xue (yi) [ID D29001].
"The modernist school was established in 1956 in Taiwan with the following words as its slogan : 'Modern poems are horizontal transplantation and not vertical heritage'. Since modern Chinese poems aimed at horizontal transplantation, it is natural that the poets pay tribute to Eliot. In fact, the important belief of the modernist school when it was established – anti-romantic, an emphasis on intellectualism and a rejection of the moody, confessional style – was exactly what T.E. Eliot advocated in his critical works. So to speak, modern Chinese literature begins with the coming of Eliot's poetics."

Discussion of David Kuebrich with Zhao Luorui.
Zhao rejects the idea of a free translation in favor of being as faithful as possible to the original. Striving for a meticulous fidelity to both Walt Whitman's content and style, she revises repeatedly in search of a judicious blend of accuracy, fluency, and what she speaks of as 'idiomatic grasp'. Commenting on the relative difficulty of translating Whitman, Zhao says that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was 'easy'. T.S. Eliot lent himself to a rather literal translation ; Henry James was 'very difficult', but Whitman is 'impossible'.

Kenneth M. Price : Interview with Zhao Luorui.
Zhao, Luorui : I think the Chinese people, even the government, always considered Walt Whitman a democrat and a very good friend of the common people. T.S. Eliot was easier to translate, he could be done literally, word by word. It was not extremely difficult to translate The waste land. And I did some of Henry James's novellas, and I found them more difficult than Eliot – the sentences are so involved. But I found Whitman the most difficult. I had to know the man before I could translate him I didn't need to know Eliot to translate his poetry. But I did need to know Whitman as man – his habits of thought, his background, his idiosyncracies even – in order to be able to translate him.

Eliot-Pound Society formed in Dalian, Oct. 1995. Professor Lu Wenbin was elected president.
In : Newsletter / T.S. Eliot society ; no 28 (Spring 1996).
luc.edu of the society have decided to put both T.S. Eliot’s and Pound's works into Chinese and to write a series of books to introduce their works and literary theory to Chinese readers.

[Eliot, T.S.]. Chuan tong yu ge ren de cai'neng. Bian Zhilin yi. In : Xue wen ; vol. 1, no 1 (1934). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Tradition and the individual talent. In : Egoist ; vol. 6, no 4-5 (Sept./Dec. 1919). 传统与个才能

[Eliot, T.S.]. Yi ge ren de tan hua. Shao Xunmei yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai yi wen chu ban she, 1934). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. The use of poetry and the use of criticism : studies in the relation of criticism to poetry in England. (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1933).
一个人的谈话

Eliot, T.S. Tradition and the individual talent. Xia Ji'an yi. In : Meiguo wen xue pi ping xuan [ID D29006]. Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Tradition and the individual talent. In : Egoist ; vol. 6, no 4-5 (Sept./Dec. 1919).
美國文學批評選

[Eliot, T.S.]. J.A. Pulufoke de liang ge. Ni Yu yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 24 (1965). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. In : Poetry ; vol. 7, no 1 (Oct. 1915). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Fu ren di xiao xiang. Du Guoqing yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. A portrait of a lady. In : Others : a magazine of the new verse ; Sept. (1915). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Shu nu de hua xiang. Bai Sha yi. In : Li ; no 16 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. A portrait of a lady. In : Others : a magazine of the new verse ; Sept. (1915). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Xu qu ji. Du Guoqing yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Preludes. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Feng ye kuang xiang qu. Du Guoqing yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Rhapsody on a windy night. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Chuang bian chen jing. Du Guoqing qi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Morning at the window. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Boshidun wan bao. Du Guoqing yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. The Boston evening transcript. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Hailun a yi. Du Guoqing yi. In : Xian dai wen xue ; no 27 (1966). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Aunt Helen. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Puluofolaike de qing ge. Qian Gechuan yi. In : Ying shi yan du. (Taibei : Kai ming shu dian, 1967). Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. In : Poetry ; vol. 7, no 1 (Chicago, Oct. 1915). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).
英詩研讀

[Eliot, T.S.]. Yi nu shi de hua xiang. Yu Guangzhong yi. In : Ying mei xian dai shi xuan. 1968. [ID D D29002]. Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. A portrait of a lady. In : Others : a magazine of the new verse ; Sept. (1915). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Eliot, T.S.]. Boshidun wan you. Yu Guangzhong yi. In : Ying mei xian dai shi xuan [ID D29002]. Übersetzung von Eliot, T.S. The Boston evening transcript. In : The Egoist (1917). = In : Eliot, T.S. Poems. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1920).

[Wilson, Edmund]. [Akeseer de cheng bao]. Cao Baohua yi. In : Beiping chen bao ; 4., 5., 7. Dez. (1933). Übersetzung der Einführung von Wilson, Edmund. Axel's castle : a study in the imaginative literature of 1870-1930. (New York, N.Y. : C. Scribner's sons, 1931). [Einführung über W.B. Yeats, Paul Valéry, T.S. Eliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Arthur Rimbaud, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam].
阿克瑟尔的城堡

Ailüete de huang yuan = Comprehensive study guide to "The waste land" by T.S. Eliot. Li Dasan [John J. Deeney], Tan Deyi zhu bian ; Zhou Zhaoming [et al.] bian ji. (Taipei : Xin Ya chu ban she, 1976).
艾略特的荒原

Peng, Haiying. Ailüete de xin ling shi jie. Yu Guangzhong deng zhu ; Peng Haiying zhu bian. (Taibei : Y age chu ban she, 1988). (Da shi de xin ling shi jie ; 4). [Abhandlung über T.S. Eliot].
艾略特 = T.S. Eliot 的心靈世界

[Ackroyd, Peter]. Aliüete zhuan. Bide A'ekeluoyide zhu ; Liu Changying, Zhang Xiaoqiang yi. (Beijing : Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si, 1989). ("Er shi shi ji wai guo da shi ren" cong shu). Übersetzung von Ackroyd, Peter. T.S. Eliot. (London : H. Hamilton, 1984).
艾略特传

[Moody, Anthony David]. Te Si Ailüete. (Shanghai : Shanghai wai yu jiao yu chu ban she, 2000). (Jian qiao wen xue zhi nan). Übersetzung von Moody, Anthony David. Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1979).
特斯艾略特

Eberle-Sinatra, Wendy Joan. East and West in dialogue : poetic language innovation in the May fourth and modernist movements. (Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 2000). Diss. Univ. of Toronto, 2000.
collectionscanada.gc.ca.

Jiang, Hongxin. Ying shi xin fang xiang : Pangde Ailüete shi xue li lun yu wen hua pi ping yan jiu. = New directions of English poetry : research on the poetic theories & cultural criticism of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. (Changsha : Hunan jiao yu chu ban she, 2001).
英诗新方向 : 庞德艾略特诗学理论与文化批评硏究

Laurence, Patricia. British modernism through Chinese eyes : Katherine Mansfield, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot. In : Laurence, Patricia. Lily Briscoe's Chinese eyes : Bloomsbury, modernism, and China. (Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina Press, 2003).