I like this translation because you've managed to translate so that the English rendition also seems more muddled and less elegant than the other works on the subject.
Thanks! It's not a deliberate translation strategy, I just couldn't find a clear logical line in this poem. When I translate, I'm trying to work on the level of the poem, so each sentence/line is translated in the way that best fits its context, and makes a clear whole. But with this poem, I'm not sure exactly how some of these references fit together. For example, when he starts talking about the Sui lands... I honestly don't know what that has to do with the rest of the poem. So for those parts, I'm just translating on the sentence level, and the result is inevitably more fragmented.
It's definitely possible that I've done Chen Tao an injustice here - that there are in fact good reasons for each reference which my research did not unearth. In which case, I look forward to the next translator doing a better job. It's a process!
The 'court style' comes through very clearly in this when you contrast it to the others, and I think your English version covers that too. I can see a coherent thread in the poem though - this too shall pass, all is dust in the wind, eat drink and be merry, (here's a hundred classical allusions to support my point).
I like this translation because you've managed to translate so that the English rendition also seems more muddled and less elegant than the other works on the subject.
Thanks! It's not a deliberate translation strategy, I just couldn't find a clear logical line in this poem. When I translate, I'm trying to work on the level of the poem, so each sentence/line is translated in the way that best fits its context, and makes a clear whole. But with this poem, I'm not sure exactly how some of these references fit together. For example, when he starts talking about the Sui lands... I honestly don't know what that has to do with the rest of the poem. So for those parts, I'm just translating on the sentence level, and the result is inevitably more fragmented.
It's definitely possible that I've done Chen Tao an injustice here - that there are in fact good reasons for each reference which my research did not unearth. In which case, I look forward to the next translator doing a better job. It's a process!
The 'court style' comes through very clearly in this when you contrast it to the others, and I think your English version covers that too. I can see a coherent thread in the poem though - this too shall pass, all is dust in the wind, eat drink and be merry, (here's a hundred classical allusions to support my point).