What is it about?
This chapter considers the challenges of translating 'the music' of lyrical poetry from one language to another, very different, language. Hugh MacDiarmid's short lyrics in Scots are famous for their musical quality. Several, including 'The Eemis Stane' have been translated several times, by eminent scholars and poets such as Wang Zuoliang. This chapter considers takes 'The Eemis Stane' as an illustration to show how the translators of MacDiarmid's Scots lyric understood the 'music' of his Scots language poetry and tried to reproduce this in Chinese.
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Why is it important?
"Poetry", it is unkindly suggested, is what gets "lost in translation". This is not always true, but it is the case that a literary translation can be considered unsuccessful if it focuses only on transmitting the content of a poem from one language to another. Since poetry, in traditional forms at least, is closely related to song and oral performance, it is important for translators to convey a sense of the 'music' of the source text. However, when the source language and target language are very different - as in the case of Scots and Chinese - the two literary systems also diverge considerably. Translators can learn from the relative successes and failures of those who have attended to the music of the source text in fashioning their translation.
Perspectives
As practiced Chinese translators, and translation studies scholars with a particular interest in literature, we found fascinating the attempts by our compatriots to render Hugh MacDiarmid's beautiful little Scots lyrics into Chinese. Translators who try to capture not only the sense but the sound of the original texts deserve close study and respect. They have a deep understanding of the poetics of the original text and their translations are not only learned, but creative in their own right. When they are successful, the Scots versions enter the literary canon of modern Chinese poetry.
Professor Li Li
Macao Polytechnic University
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This page is a summary of: Translating Musicality in Poetry: Hugh MacDiarmid’s ‘the Eemis Stane’ in Chinese, February 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004723832_014.
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