This summer focused on history, which ironically may be of more relevance to me for my English classes than if it focused on literature (especially poetry). I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with some truly gifted bilingual Ph.D.’s, and for 5 years after my masters in English I swore off reading any dead white men, that is unless they spoke a language other than English as a first language. I came to the conclusion that poetry loses something essential in translation. It may still have merit, but the meaning is changed. Considering the difficulty in getting undergraduates enthused about reading poetry of any kind (heck I didn’t read it till I was a grad student), a class focusing on Chinese poetry may be a fools errand in an undergrad curriculum.
I dig memoirs though, and there are a ton out there with excellent translations. Content will be stored at the wiki, and likely at a Facebook page to come.
- My wikipage for all things Chinese and composition related.
- My page for East West Center links and notes.
- Facebook page for Chinese resources.(TBD)
