Integrity and nostalgia are two important themes that are widely discussed in an ancient Chinese literary context. The original Chinese word in my mind for integrity is “气节,” which actually means aspiration and integrity. If you say someone preserves 气节, you mean this person is tough and insistent. For instance, plum blossoms, pine trees, and bamboos are called “Three friends of winter,” because they keep their color in the coldness. Chinese people usually praise their endurance as preserving “气节.” From this perspective, the word “气节” seems have more to do with integrity—an ambitious person does not necessarily insist in good virtues. Therefore, I decided to abandon the part of aspiration and keep integrity when I was translating and interpreting the word.
There is a more nuanced consideration when I was forming the idea of 情结. Actually, it was the English conception of nostalgia that first came to my mind. In English, “nostalgia” means a yearning for anything related to the past: hometown, childhood, a former period of life that you really wish to come back to…In Chinese, people usually take 乡愁 as the corresponding counterpart of nostalgia. However, this might largely limit the range of meaning that nostalgia has covered. I also thought about 怀旧, but it is a verb rather than a noun. Finally, the idea of 情结 came into my mind. Like nostalgia, 情结 means a special feeling that you have because of something that you experienced in the past. For instance, I could say that “I maintain a form of 情结 toward my teddy bear who has accompanied me since I was 4 years old (“我对从四岁开始陪伴我的泰迪熊保有一种情结”). Doesn’t have to be related with hometown, just as nostalgia, 情结 is an umbrella term that might conforms to many different meanings: past love, old memories…anything about an untraceable past. Interestingly, the character 结 means “knot” in Chinese, which symbolizes connection. Therefore, as in the teddy bear case that I mentioned above, 情结 can also be interpreted as a connection: how you now feel about the past. As writers in many countries, Chinese authors write about their past. Not merely expressing a feeling of loss, they reflect upon the past, compare it with the present, and endow it with a new meaning. In this sense, nothing seems to be better than the word 情结 to cover the theme in my mind. This is how I chose the four words (in both Chinese and Enligh) as my themes.
This website is an anthology about the works that I personally like and I believe could be categorized under one of the themes. It contains selected works from ancient and contemporary China. Through presenting the works from both of them, I wish to show the themes of integrity and nostalgia continue and vary through the passage of time. I hope my readers can get a familiar but also different sense, like I do, thorugh reading the writings provided in different time periods. This website is also a translation journal for me. It includes many of my “first takes”: the first time trying to translate contemporary Chinese poetry, song lyrics; the first time trying to translate ancient Chinese classics; the first time trying to translate ancient Chinese lyrics for a broader audience other than myself (which means that I have to do it through a more serious approach than before)...So let’s call it a "translated anthology" and I know that this "translated anthology" could not be perfect by any sense. Even so, I would never forget the joy and sense of accomplishment when I first finished my translations of some of the songs that I have been listening to since I was in primary school.
New to this journey, I hope I can continue on.
Amy
12/17/2022 21:38
Northampton, MA, the United States