Preface to Eliot's English Translation of Anna Bath of Joan of Arc Pace (Ancient Translation)

I hosted an advanced class on poetry studies at www.lakeside.academy in Canada, with the participation of poets from Canada, China and the United States. The theme of the second lecture is "Interpretation of Wide Dreams: Claudel, Schegland and Joan of Arc Pace", and the reading list is Guan Xiaoming's translation of Selected Poems of Joan of Arc Pace. The research theme of this part is: getting inspiration from nature and multiculturalism. In order to make students understand the expedition better, that is, Anna Bath, T.S. Eliot specially translated the preface of Joan of Arc Pace's poem for himself. It is worth mentioning that after my translation, American poet Sun seriously revised the translation. Thank you very much.

Postscript of translator.

I believe a poem like Anna Bath doesn't need a preface at all. It is better to read such a poem six times than to look at the order. However, when a poem is presented as a translation, people who have never heard of it naturally tend to need some recommendation and introduction. Therefore, I will explain as follows.

Anabas has been widely praised not only in France but also in other European countries. One of the best introductions is the preface of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's German translation. The other is the preface of Valery Rabe's Russian translation; Lv Xian Fables also published an informative review in the magazine New Literature.

For me, once I am attracted by a poem by a friend whose taste I trust, the preface is unnecessary. I read it again and found that the word "Arbanas" in question (5) did not refer specifically to Xenophon's journey or ten thousand mercenaries, nor did it refer specifically to Asia Minor, so it was impossible to outline its migration road map. The literal meaning of the word Mr. Pace is the same as Xenophon himself. This poem is a series of images about the migration and conquest of the vast deserts in Asia, and a series of scenes about the destruction and establishment of cities and civilizations of any race or era in the ancient East.

I believe I can borrow two ideas from Mr. Fables that may be useful to English readers. First, any obscurity in the first reading of the poem is due to the reduction of "connection in the chain" and the omission of explanatory and connecting things, but it is not incoherent or biased towards passwords. The reason why this abridgement method is adopted is to make a series of images focus on the strong wild impression at the same time. The reader has to let the images enter his memory in turn, without questioning the rationality of each image at present; Only in this way can the final overall effect be produced.

There is no confusion in the choice of this series of images and concepts, which is not only the logic of imagination, but also the logic of concepts. People who can't appreciate poetry always can't distinguish order from chaos in the arrangement of images; Even people with appreciation can't rely on those first impressions. It was not until I read it five or six times that I was convinced of Mr. Pace's imaginative arrangement. If, as I suggested, the arrangement of this image needs as much "basic mental work" as the debate; It is conceivable that readers of a poem should at least burn their brains like a trial lawyer when reading an important judgment of a complex case.

I call this poem a poem. If poetry is always a verse, it is convenient to express rhythm and rhyme based on stress, or to form a fixed rhythm with syllable length; But this is not the case. Poetry can be produced at any point within the scope clearly defined by one party and on the boundary between "poetic style" and "prose". Without any general theory about "poetry", "verse" and "prose", I might suggest a writer, like Mr. Pace, to write poetry in some poetic ways, sometimes using so-called prose. Reversing this process, another author can write outstanding prose in verse. There are two very simple but insurmountable difficulties in defining "prose" and "poetry". First of all, we have three terms, but we need four: on the one hand, we have "verse" and "poem", on the other hand, we only have "prose". The second difficulty follows the first question, that is, these two words mean evaluation in one and do not mean evaluation in the other. The introduction of "poetry" distinguishes good poetry from bad poetry; But we don't have a word to distinguish good prose from bad prose. In fact, there are many bad essays that are poetic; Only some bad poems are bad because they are plain.

But Arbanas is a poem. Its arrangement and logic of images are poetic, not prose; So-at least these two aspects are closely related-reading aloud, the rhythm and pause of stress are manifested in punctuation and rhythm, which is poetic rather than prose.

The second revelation I can borrow from Mr. Fables for English readers is to make a tentative outline of the development of the whole poem. This summary can give some guidance to readers who read for the first time; When he no longer needs it, he will forget it. The ten parts of this poem are as follows:

1. The conqueror arrived at the location of the city he wanted to build.

Second, an overview of urban planning.

Third, consult a fortune teller.

Fourth, the establishment of cities.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) is eager for further exploration and conquest.

A plan for the establishment and conquest of intransitive verbs

Seven. The decision to leave.

Eight, crossing the desert

Nine, the threshold to reach a great new country

X. Cheer, celebrate and rest. However, there is an impulse to start again, this time facing the ocean.

I believe that's almost all I have to say about Anabas in Perth. I believe it is as important as James Joyce's later works and as valuable as Anna Livia Prabel. This is really a high evaluation.

In addition, I would like to add two points. One is about the author and the other is about translation. The author of this poem is a real authority in the Far East. He used to live there as if he lived in the tropics. As for translation, it wouldn't be so satisfactory if the author didn't cooperate with me in translation. If there is any inaccuracy, it is because of my own willfulness, not my ignorance, which the author has corrected; Not because the author is ignorant, because I can prove that he has a keen and in-depth understanding of English, just like mastering his mother tongue.

eliot

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Translator's note:

? ① This preface was written in 1930 and first published in 1934. Later, Eliot added explanations in two versions: 1949 and 1958.

? (2) Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874- 1929) Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and critic.

? (3) Valery Rabo (1881–1957) is a French poet and writer.

? (4) Lv Xian Fabres? (1889–1952) French novelist, essayist and poet, paul valery once prefaced his poetry collection.

⑤ Original Greek:? ν? βασι? , which means "expedition", is a historical work by Xenophon, a famous ancient Greek historian, which records the story of his expedition to the Persian Empire with Greek mercenaries about 400 years ago. This work is the most famous of Xenophon's seven works.

A female character in Joyce's novel Finnegan Wake has the same name as a major river in Dublin where the story takes place. This novel is famous for its obscurity.