Translation and the Illusion of Transparency: A Case Study of ‘Culturally-Correct’ Chinese Re-translation of Ezra Pound’s “Taking Leave of a Friend” (送友人)

Abstract

Taking note that Chinese scholarship on Ezra Pound and Cathay, has been closely related to China’s state-led cultural propaganda, this paper first surveys the short history of Chinese reception of Cathay from the 1930s to the present in terms of the academic changes, embedded in China’s soft power project. In doing so, it sheds light on what Sui Pui-fei calls “a self-Orientalizing strategy.” Then, looking into Pound’s so-called mis-translation and Chinese re-translation, this paper discusses that Chinese efforts to produce a ‘culturally correct’ translation of Li Bai’s poetry make another case of what I call ‘the illusion of transparent translation.’ Ultimately, it aims to reveal the tension between de-historicizing impulses and de-mythologizing efforts in the complicated process of globalizing a local cultural heritage.