Foreword to the Special Retrospective on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series
Kuo-ch’ing Tu
It has been twenty-five years since the founding of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series (hereafter TLETS) in 1996.
To date we have produced a total of forty-eight issues. The years have slipped by so swiftly! This volume has been specially planned to both commemorate and celebrate this milestone, and we have invited University of California, Irvine, professor Bert Scruggs to
serve as guest editor to assist with its preparation and realization. The issue is divided into two parts: the first part is dedicated to a review of the publication history of the journal, its manner of selecting works to publish, as well as its contributions to the scholarly field. There are also research essays that consider the works chosen for translation themselves. The second part of the issue commemorates my retirement after more than forty years of teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The main objectives of my work have been the English translation and introduction of Taiwan Literature. We have, therefore, included articles that consider my poetry, English translation, and scholarly research.
With reference to the first part of the issue, Professor Scruggs discusses his perspective in his introduction. It is especially notable that since the founding of TLETS the journal has consistently placed Taiwanese subjectivity at the heart of its editorial planning. After over twenty years of hard work, and with the development of Taiwan’s social history, the value of this orientation has become more apparent, and this has been affirmed in academic discourse. The article provided by Professor Scruggs and Táňa Dluhošová of the Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, which employs digital analysis to examine the journal’s content, is highly innovative. Richard Rong-bin Chen’s essay discusses the journal’s role in the “worlding” of Taiwan literature, and in the rewriting of Taiwan’s literary history. It is nicely complemented by Kao Chiali’s paper, “The Role of Colonial Literature in English Translation of Taiwan Literature,” which raises the possibility that among Englishspeaking nations Taiwan literature from the Japanese colonial period may be a link to world literature. And Chang Li-hsuan’s “The Development of Taiwan Literary Studies in North America” helps us to understand the role played by our journal in the literary perspectives and historical context of the nativist movement which emerged as part of the general revival of Taiwan consciousness during the mid-1990’s.
As for the second part of the issue, when the journal published the “Special Issue on Tu Kuo-ch’ing” (No. 44) page limitations meant that we could not publish a number of items. With this issue we have been able to find space to publish them. Perhaps the most important of those pieces are Jeng Hengsyung’s “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Poetic Theory and the Seven Stands of His Poems” and Chu Tien’s “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Writings on Symbolism.” The former article is a far-reaching discussion of the correlation between my theoretical work and my poetry. The latter deals with my poetic theory and how my work elucidates the interconnection between Eastern and Western views of symbolism. It is a deeply perceptive engagement with my writing.
The essay, “The Construction and Transformation of Samâdhi: Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s System of Poetics and Aesthetic Practice” by Tu Shu-wei, who recently received his Ph.D. from the NTU Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, inquires into the modernity of my poetry as a “quest for the modern,” and seeks the classicism and translatability of the poetics in my “return to the East.” He also considers how my system of poetics and creative praxis as structured by “Samâdhi” [Sanmei] and the “Four Dimensions” [siwei] constitutes a way of compensating for the inadequacies of the introverted poetic theories found in the Bamboo Hat [Li] Poetry Society. He goes on to demonstrate how Tu’s aesthetic concept of “what makes poetry poetry” supplements the outward looking realist poetics of Bamboo Hat. It is a uniquely perceptive contribution to scholarship.
I also offer a selection of my creative writing in this issue deftly translated by one of the co-editors of the journal, Terence Russell. Since I am a Taiwanese poet, I offer the fifteen poems in the “Poems for Taiwan” series which describe the scenery of Taiwan.
“Poems for Taiwan” belong to my “travel inspired poems,” more about which can be found in the article by Chen Wei-lin of Tsing Hua University entitled “Moving and Crossing, Residing and Overlapping: Asian Imagination and Identification of Travel Poems of Tu Kuo-ching,” published in Issue 65 of Xingda renwen xuebao [Chung-hsing University Journal of the Humanities].
In this issue we are also including my introduction to the English translation of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s An Outline History of Taiwan Literature, which I have entitled “From ‘Regionalism’ to ‘Nativism’: A Historical Perspective of Taiwan Literature Rooted in the Soil” (December 2009). We wished to include this piece partially to demonstrate the evolution of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s basic view of literary history. But we also wished to show how the illustration and practical application of Yeh’s historical view have been the fundamental guiding principles and theoretical core in the editing of TLETS. As social and political conditions in Taiwan continue to develop, Taiwanese subjectivity will become more and more distinct. This is something that we can foresee, and it correlates with the editorial objectives that we stated at the very outset of the publication of our journal: “TLETS is published with the purpose of introducing to English readers voices from Taiwan literature from recent publications in Taiwan, namely, Taiwanese writers’ and scholars’ viewpoints on their own literature. This is to promote a better understanding and effective knowledge among scholars abroad of the current state and tendencies of literature as it has developed in Taiwan, as well as to enhance the study of Taiwanese literature from international perspectives.” (Foreword TLETS No. 1, August 1996).
Looking back on our hard work over more than twenty years, TLETS has accomplished so much that we cannot but express our heartfelt gratitude to the many authors, scholars, and translators who have participated in the work of the journal. I am deeply moved by the concern, support, and unstinting effort that these people have devoted to the publication of Taiwan literature in English translation, whether it be in translation work itself, in their scholarly contributions, or through their suggestions for the future development of TLETS as expressed in the articles that they have written specially for this issue.
The English translation of Taiwan literature is a demanding, long-term cultural and scholarly endeavor. In my essay “As Taiwan Literature Walks Toward the World, How Long is the Road?” I stressed that it requires long-range planning and a determination to ersevere if we are going to achieve our goals. The most important among those goals must be to select literature that reveals the subjectivity of Taiwan literature, as well as emonstrates the special qualities of the land that is Taiwan, her people, society, history, and culture. Only then will the unique attributes of Taiwan literature gain international recognition and appreciation. This conviction, which is represented in the formulation of themes, the choice of works for translation, and the editing of the English language texts, constitutes the constant and distinguishing style of TLETS.
Literary translation is only the foundation of cultural research. And the publication of TLETS represents only the laying of the roadbed for the thoroughfare along which Taiwan literature walks towards the world. During our more than twenty years of hard work we have made at least partial progress in carrying out our mission. In seeking to fulfil our long-range vision we have never considered personal gain or accolades. Rather, we have been a group of friends silently working toward our goals, and this is something that I cherish very deeply. Now, as I pause to reminisce fondly and look toward the future, I am tremendously grateful to the publication center of National Taiwan University for their
cooperation. Thanks also go to Professor Terence Russell for continuing to take responsibility for the English language editing, and to Professor Bert Scruggs for joining our editorial team. I hope that our scholarly journal will continue to attract the participation of even more young scholars and translators so that we can pass the torch to a new generation and, with unity of purpose and combined efforts, progress in our common goal of helping Taiwan literature walk toward the world.
Finally, by way of a conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to share with our readers a poem that I recently wrote entitled “Fallen Blossoms.” This poem expresses my feelings as a poet and a scholar about retirement and entry into a new stage of my life. It inevitably reveals some personal emotions, but also speaks of my experience and understanding of poetry and life in terms of creativity as well as my earnest hopes for the continued development of Taiwan literature. Fallen blossoms return to the earth deliberately wishing to change into spring mud to nourish succeeding generations. My only wish is that the growth and translation of Taiwan literature will continue for generations to come and that its many blossoms may bloom gloriously. After looking back we must look to the future. This notion is revealed in the cover design of this issue: fragrance redounds everywhere, and after twenty-five years of quiet cultivation the seeds that were sowed are sprouting and growing, deeply rooted in the soil of Taiwan. Eventually, hundreds of flowers come into full bloom, all contending for our attention in this fascinating literary garden.
Fallen Blossoms
Thoughts on Retirement
The past can never be returned to
Looking back I can never bring back lost years of youth
Life can only be walked forward
After scaling peaks and ridges we descend the slope
Casting off the burden of our emotional attachments
One by one our memories fall and wither fallen blossoms cover
the ground
The wind blows and they rise to dance serenely dancing out
The twilight of my life when nothing stirs my mind
My song of detachments flows with the wind
It isn’t that I no longer cherish the fallen blossoms
The fallen blossoms no longer care about the glory of spring
And resolutely welcome their destiny
Of returning to their native soil to turn into the mud of spring
Our lives are filled with beautiful misunderstandings
Joy comes from the enlightenment of scrutiny
I watch as a fallen blossom flutters back to its branch
But look, it’s a butterfly!