台灣文學英譯叢刊(No. 48):《台灣文學英譯叢刊》25週年回顧專輯

Kuo-ch'ing Tu (杜國清) and Terence Russell(羅德仁) 編

This book 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.

創刊於1996年的《台灣文學英譯叢刊》持續了二十五年,共出版48集。我們特地策劃這一紀念專輯,以示慶祝。我們特地邀請爾灣加州大學台灣文學教授古芃擔任策劃和執行的客座編輯。這一專輯包括兩個部分:第一部分是關於《叢刊》出版史的回顧、選譯作品的特色、對學術界的貢獻和評價、以及針對譯介作品的研究論文。另一部分是關於以英文翻譯和介紹台灣文學為宗旨的創刊者杜國清的詩作英譯和研究論文。

文學翻譯只是文化研究的基礎。《叢刊》的出版,只是為台灣文學走向世界鋪路的奠基工程。二十多年來的努力,多少已完成階段性的任務。希望這份學術刊物,今後能有更多台灣文學的年輕學者和譯者參與,大家同心協力,朝向台灣文學走向世界的共同目標,以新的面貌接棒持續下去。

【About the Editors】

Kuo-ch'ing Tu, born in Taichung, Taiwan. His research interests include Chinese literature, Chinese poetics and literary theories, comparative literature East and West, and world literatures of Chinese (Shi-Hua wenxue). He is the author of numerous books of poetry in Chinese, as well as translator of English, Japanese, and French works into Chinese.

Terence Russell is Senior Scholar in the Asian Studies Center at the University of Manitoba. He has an interest in contemporary literature in Chinese, especially the literature of Taiwan's Indigenous people. Dr. Russell has been a regular contributor to Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, and was the guest editor of Issue 24 on Taiwan Indigenous myths and oral literature.

Bert Scruggs is an associate professor in the East Asian Studies Department at the University of California.

【About the Translators】(in order of appearance)

Táňa Dluhošová is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute (Czech Academy of Sciences) and acted as the director of its Research Center at Academia Sinica (in years 2015–2017, 2019). She studies, among other things, the post-war Taiwanese literary scene by applying Digital Humanities methods; censorship; language and ideology; and Taiwanese elites.

Richard Rong-bin Chen is an assistant professor at the GraduateProgram in Translation and Interpretation, National Taiwan University. Chen received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Fu Jen Catholic University, and his research interests are literary translation of both Anglo-American and Sinophone Literatures, translation history, and translation theories.

Chia-li Kao is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies at National Chung Hsing University. Kao received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University at Bloomington. Her research areas include comparative literature, pre-WWII Japanese and Taiwanese literature, and Caribbean literature. Her recent research focuses on nature writing in Taiwan under the Japanese rule. She published Writing Tropical Islands: Empires, Travel and Imagination (2016), and coedited Crossing Southeast Asia (forthcoming).

Li-hsuan Chang is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature at National Taiwan University. Her research and teaching focus on the literary field in postwar Taiwan. Her current interests include the reculturation of Taiwan literature such as the production of board game “Literature Lockdown [Wentan fengxuozhong]” (2019), which spans the years from 1949 to 1992. She received her BA and PhD from National Cheng Kung University, which was the first graduate institute to offer Taiwan literature programs, in Tainan, Taiwan. Being the new generation after the institutionalization of Taiwan literature studies, she has been taught by Yeh Shih-t'ao and Lin Jui-ming, the pioneer scholars.

Yee Kwan Wong is a PhD student at the University of California, Irvine.

Howard Goldblatt is the translator of more than fifty works in Chinese, including the novels of Nobel laureate Mo Yan, for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. A former academic, his translations have won two Man Asia Literary Prizes. He has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sylvia Li-chun Lin has translated short stories and novels from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. A former professor at the University of Notre Dame, she is the recipient of a translation grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She co-translated Notes of a Desolate Man by 274 Taiwan Literature Chu Tien-wen, ALTA’s 1999 Translation of the Year, and Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu, winner of a Man Asia Prize.

Jenn-Shann Lin (PhD Linguistics, University of Alberta) is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada. Recently, his scholarly research has expanded to cover fiction, cinema, narrative strategies and gender studies.

John Balcom is Professor Emeritus at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. His most recent translation is My Village: Selected Poems, 1972-2014 by Wu Sheng, published by Zephyr Press.

Yingtsih Hwang is a poetry blogger and independent translator based in Monterey, California.

Hengsyung Jeng is Professor Emeritus at National Taiwan University. He specializes in linguistics, English teaching and testing, contrastive analysis of Chinese and English, linguistic approach to literature, Bunun (an Austronesian language of Taiwan), and taught these courses at NTU for more than 40 years from 1968 to 2011.

Chu Tien was born in Kaohsiung in 1983 and holds a Doctor of Arts (DA) degree in Chinese from National Chengchi University. He has taught at Taipei Municipal Nei-hu Vocational High School and the National Taitung Junior College General Education Center.

Brian Skerratt is an assistant professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan literature and International Cultural Studies at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, where he teaches modern and contemporary poetry, comparative literature, literary translation, and ecopoetics. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at National Chengchi University.

Shu-wei Tu received his PhD from the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University, in 2021. Tu's main research areas are post-WWII Taiwanese modern poetry and contemporary Chinese poetry from China and Taiwan.

Foreword to the Special Retrospective on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series/Kuo-ch'ing Tu

「《台灣文學英譯叢刊》25週年回顧專輯」卷頭語/杜國清

Introduction: The Serendipitous and the Organic/Bert Scruggs

PART 1

From “Regionalism” to “Nativism”: An Introduction to the English Translation of Yeh Shih-t'ao's Taiwan Wenxue Shigang (An Outline History of Taiwan Literature) /Kuo-ch'ing Tu

Visualizing Bentuhua: The Recreation of Taiwanese Literature through Translation by Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series/Bert Scruggs and Taňa Dluhošova

“Worlding” Taiwan Literature, Rewriting Its History: Writing for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series. Richard /Rong-bin Chen

The Role of Colonial Literature in the Translation of Taiwanese Literature into English台灣文學英譯中殖民地文學的角色/Chia-li Kao

The Development of Taiwan Literary Studies in North America: Taking the Society for the Study of Taiwan Literature and Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series as Examples 北美臺灣文學研究的發展:以「台灣文學研究會」與《台灣文學英譯叢刊》為例/Li-hsuan Chang

Translating for Fun and Meaning/Howard Goldblatt

Sticky Rice Tamale/Sylvia Li-chun Lin

Hanami: Happy Moments with Professor Kuo-ch'ing Tu and Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series/Jenn-Shann Lin

Bringing Taiwan Literature to the World/John Balcom and Yingtsih Hwang

“The Three Musketeers” as the Second Generation of Modern Literature/Hengsyung Jeng

PART 2

Poems for Taiwan台灣詩情/Kuo-ch'ing Tu

Tu Kuo-ch'ing's Poetic Theory and the Seven Strands of His Poems 杜國清的詩論及詩作的七個脈絡/Hengsyung Jeng

Tu Kuo-ch'ing's Writings on Symbolism 以象示徵,與美同遊:杜國清象徵詩論研究/Tien Chu

Translated by Brian Skerratt The Construction and Transformation of Samadhi: Tu Kuoch'ing's System of Poetics and Aesthetic Practice 「三昧」的建構與轉化:杜國清詩學體系與美學實踐/Tu Shu-wei

Editors, Translators and Contributors
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《台灣文學英譯叢刊》25週年回顧專輯卷頭語
 
杜國清(美國聖塔芭芭拉加州大學東亞語言文化研究系教授)
 
歲月荏苒,創刊於1996年的《台灣文學英譯叢刊》持續了二十五年,共出版48集。我們特地策劃這一紀念專輯,以示慶祝。我們特地邀請爾灣加州大學台灣文學教授古芃擔任策劃和執行的客座編輯。這一專輯包括兩個部分:第一部分是關於《叢刊》出版史的回顧、選譯作品的特色、對學術界的貢獻和評價、以及針對譯介作品的研究論文。另一部分是關於以英文翻譯和介紹台灣文學為宗旨的創刊者杜國清的詩作英譯和研究論文,作爲他在聖塔芭芭拉加州大學任教四十多年的退休紀念。
 
關於第一部分,古芃教授在導論中,提出他的觀點和論述,值得特別强調的是:《叢刊》創刊以來以台灣主體性為核心的編輯方向,經過二十多年的努力,這一導向隨著台灣社會歷史的發展,更加明顯,也獲得研究者的肯定,一如古芃教授和捷克科學院研究員路丹妮(Táňa Dluhošová)合撰的專文,以《叢刊》為研究對象的電腦分析所顯示的現象和觀察,頗有新意,以及陳榮彬教授的論文所提示的,《叢刊》呈現出「台灣文學的世界視野」(Worlding Taiwan Literature)和「台灣文學史的重新書寫」(Rewriting Its History)。呼應「台灣文學的世界視野」,高嘉勵教授的〈台灣文學英譯中殖民地文學的角色〉(The Role of Colonial Literature in the Translation of Taiwanese Literature into English)一文,提議英語國家中,日治時期台灣文學作爲與世界文學鏈結的可能性。此外,張俐璇教授的〈北美臺灣文學研究的發展〉,有助於對本叢刊在九〇年代中期應運而生的本土文學觀及其歷史脈絡的瞭解。
 
關於第二部分,本《叢刊》在44集〈杜國清專輯〉中所譯介的作品之外,當初因受到篇幅的限制,無法全部刊登,因此在本集中接續出版。其中重要的兩篇是鄭恆雄的〈杜國清的詩論及詩作的七個脈絡〉和朱天的〈以象示徵,與美同遊:杜國清象徵詩論研究〉。前者全面論述我在創作上理論與詩情的呼應,涵蓋面廣;後者針對我在詩論上,對象徵主義東西詩觀互相照應的闡發,思辨深刻。創作方面,由本刊英文編輯羅德仁教授精心翻譯,作爲台灣詩人,我所描述的台灣山水的系列作品〈台灣詩情〉十五首。
 
臺大臺灣文學研究所新進博士涂書瑋專論〈「三昧」的建構與轉化:杜國清詩學體系與美學實踐〉一文,以「追尋現代」探詢杜國清詩的「現代性」,以及「回返東方」探詢他的詩作的「古典性」與「翻譯性」,並認為「三昧」與「四維」的詩學體系建構與創作美學實踐,正好填補了《笠》詩論「內向性」的不足,且以「詩之為詩」的審美理念補足了《笠》外向的現實主義詩學,與鄭恆雄教授、朱天的立論有所不同,具有獨到的見解和學術價值。
 
此外,值得一提的是,我為葉石濤的《台灣文學史綱》英文版而寫的一篇導論,〈從「鄉土」到「本土」:以土地為依歸的台灣文學史觀〉(2009年12月),在此刊登,一方面是爲了闡發葉石濤的基本文學史觀的演進,同時也藉此印證本叢刊的編輯導向及其理論核心,基本上是這一史觀的呈現和實踐。隨著今後台灣社會和政治情勢的發展,台灣的主體性將會越趨明顯,是可以預料的。這一導向也呼應本叢刊開宗明義所揭示的出版宗旨:「在於將最近在台灣出版的有關台灣文學的聲音,亦即台灣本地的作家和研究者對台灣文學本身的看法,介紹給英語的讀者,以期促進國際間對台灣文學的發展和動向能有比較切實的認識,進而加强從國際的視野對台灣文學的研究。」
 
回顧二十多年來的努力,《叢刊》終於纍積如此豐富的成果,不能不對許多作家、學者和翻譯者的參與和合作表示由衷的感謝。他們對台灣文學的關心和支持、以及不辭辛勞、對台灣文學英譯出版的付出和投入,不論是翻譯或研究的心得或是對《叢刊》今後發展的建言和評論,都表現在特地為這一專輯所寫的文章中,令我十分感動。
 
台灣文學的英譯,是一項任重道遠的文化和學術工程。我曾在〈台灣文學走向世界,路有多遠?〉的一篇文章中强調,必須有長遠的計畫和永續經營的決心,才能克竟其功。其中最重要的一點是:選譯的作品能夠呈現台灣文學的主體性,表現出台灣這塊土地及其人民、社會、歷史和文化特色,才能在國際上以其特殊屬性獲得肯定和賞識。這一觀點呈現在擬定主題、選文翻譯、以及英文編輯上,成爲本《叢刊》一貫的特殊風格。
 
文學翻譯只是文化研究的基礎。《叢刊》的出版,只是為台灣文學走向世界鋪路的奠基工程。二十多年來的努力,多少已完成階段性的任務。爲了實現這一長遠的願景,不計現實利害得失,一起默默耕耘的道上朋友,讓我非常感念。緬懷過去,展望未來,非常感謝臺大出版中心的出版合作,羅德仁教授繼續擔任英文編輯,古芃教授參與編輯團隊,以及希望這份學術刊物,今後能有更多台灣文學的年輕學者和譯者參與,大家同心協力,朝向台灣文學走向世界的共同目標,以新的面貌接棒持續下去。
 
最後,作爲結語,我想借這個機會,與讀者分享我最近所寫的一首詩〈落花〉。 這首詩表達作爲詩人和學者的我、對退休的感懷,以及面對人生進入另一階段的心情,難免流露出個人的情緒,但也呈現出我對詩與人生在創作上的體會和領悟,以及對台灣文學永續發展的殷殷期盼。落花回歸故土,有心化作春泥,滋養下一代,但願台灣文學的滋長和翻譯,代代相傳,百花盛開。回顧之餘,展望未來,這一願景也呈現在這集的封面設計中:遍地芬芳,一點一滴默默耕耘,25年間播下的種籽,發芽生長,根植台灣,終將百花爭艷,成為一座迷人的花園。
 
 
落花╱退休感懷
 
過去 永遠回不去了
回顧 顧不回已去的青春年華
生命 只能被往前走
攀山越嶺之後 走下坡
一路抛棄 感情的負荷
回憶紛紛飄零 落花滿地
隨風起舞 幽幽舞出
晚年的心境 萬事不關心
棄情之歌 隨風飄落
不是無心惜落花
落花無意戀春華
決然 迎向宿命
回歸故土 化作春泥
人生 充滿美麗的誤會
喜悅 來自諦觀的智慧
眼看 落花飛回樹枝
原來是蝴蝶!
 
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!