Club Translation Challenge
"Ama" by Samyak Shertok translated into Chinese by Haihan Bai and reviewed by Stephen Bokenkamp (Instructor)
阿母
吻其摑我掌，飢餧勝蜜漿。
汝生在牛歲，卻為雪鬃驤。
終年喪家犬，有日成神王。
天既因蝗赤，蟲豸因風翔。
所供唯唇齒，恨無雙肩強。
對此崖際牛，徒能自感傷。
歸家無赤手，使我足稻粱。
芥子與念珠，棘果亦穰穰。
花間吟噪鹃，火裏詠鷹揚。
慎哉双眸子，莫近皎月光。
為此歌荨麻，亦及石磨坊。
忽而幽夜裏，腓為汝狗傷。
如若種梨樹，焉能獲柿瓤。
河漢雖清淺，難以辨星芒。
重閂复靜立，直待烏夜吭。
豈有田舍牛，高崖偶徜徉。
枕下埋荊棘，眠時共一床。
他夜須仗此，鑷刺馬瞳旁。
牛乳飲太過，亦如啜鴆湯。
飢自難名狀，餓亦頗微茫。
吻彼婦人眼，其子體漸涼。
頓悟此中意，喉間落牛羊。
阿母留言語，虛恭在湖塘。
烏棲柿子枝，從此異尋常。
列列祖與宗，如牛出火場。
我今言在此，口銜蜂一行。
I translate the original poem into the form of Chinese “ancient-style poetry” (guti shi 古體詩). For the convenience of reading, the whole translated poem is listed first. Next, I also provide a detailed version with one-to-one correspondence by sentences, in which I also gave some footnotes to explain my translation choices.
“Ama” by Samyak Shertok
阿母 (Samyak Shertok)
Kiss the hand that slaps you.
吻其摑我掌，
Hunger is sweeter than wild honey.
飢餧勝蜜漿。[1]
You were born in the Year of the Bull, but you’re a snow-maned horse.
汝生在牛歲，卻為雪鬃驤。
Every year the street dog becomes a god for one day.
終年喪家犬，有日成神王。
When the sky is red with locusts, even the hoppers hurl themselves into the wind.
天既因蝗赤，蟲豸因風翔。[2]
You can offer only your lips, not your shoulders, to the bull on the edge of a
cliff.
所供唯唇齒，[3]恨無雙肩強。
對此崖際牛，徒能自感傷。[4]
Never come home empty handed: a mustard seed, prayer beads, a thorn...
歸家無赤手，使我足稻粱。[5]
芥子與念珠，棘果亦穰穰。
In blossom I sang koel: I sang vulture in wildfire:
花間吟噪鹃，火裏詠鷹揚。
to keep your eyes from becoming moon petals, I sang stone mill and nettle.
慎哉双眸子，莫近皎月光。
為此歌荨麻，亦及石磨坊。[6]
In the dark, your own dog will bite of your calf.
忽而幽夜裏，腓為汝狗傷。
If you sow a pear, you won’t reap a persimmon.
如若種梨樹，焉能獲柿瓤。
When you can’t tell star from star, bolt the house and remain silent until the crow caws.
河漢雖清淺，難以辨星芒。[7]
重閂复靜立，直待烏夜吭。
No bull wanders of to the precipice by accident.
豈有田舍牛，高崖偶徜徉。
Sleep with the thorn under your pillow:
枕下埋荊棘，眠時共一床。
one night you’ll need it to pluck a stinger from your horse’s iris.
他夜須仗此，鑷刺馬瞳旁。
Milk, drunk too much, becomes hemlock.
牛乳飲太過，亦如啜鴆湯。
Some hungers have no name.
飢自難名狀，餓亦頗微茫。[8]
Kiss the eyes of a woman who watched her child grow cold on her lap and you’ll know what it means to carry a falling bull in your throat.
吻彼婦人眼，其子體漸涼。
頓悟此中意，喉間落牛羊。[9]
Ama’s words: fart inside a lake.
阿母留言語，虛恭在湖塘。[10]
A crow perched silent on the persimmon branch is never just a crow.
烏棲柿子枝，從此異尋常。
Every ancestor is a bull walking out of the wildfire.
列列祖與宗，如牛出火場。
I’m speaking through a mouthful of bees.
我今言在此，口銜蜂一行。
Footnotes:
[1] To translate this English poem into a Chinese “ancient-style poem,” the most difficult thing may be that I have to add certain characters to keep poetic lines in five syllables, and also in the standard caesura of 2/3 of pentasyllabic poetry. Hence, I introduce a number of Chinese compound words to do that. I mainly used two kinds of Chinese compound words: 1) “tautological compound” 同義複合詞. Here, jinei 飢餧is an example. Although these two characters have same meaning, hunger, I need to add nei 餧 after ji 飢 to keep this line in five syllables and make the first two syllables united; 2) “semantically related compound” 偏義複合詞, like 唇齒 in the 9th line, although I add chi齒(teeth) after chun唇(lips), my intention is just to translate the word “lips”.
[2] Chongzhi 蟲豸 is a tautological compound here, translating the word “hoppers.”
[3] As mentioned above, chunchi唇齒 is a semantically related compound here, translating the word “lips.”
[4] This line 徒能自感傷, roughly “can only feel sad,” is added to meet the demands of Chinese verse prosody, otherwise, I have no other ways to translate this English sentence into whole couplets. In addition, this line is based on my assumption about the feeling when the person “cannot offer shoulders to the bull on the edge of a cliff”.
[5] This line 使我足稻粱 “gave me sufficient sustenance” is also complemented here to keep whole couplets. And this line is based on my assumption that this sentence is saying the author’s mother (or some other care-giver) tried their best to provide author with support. It adds the general idea of nourishment, but could be metaphorical, like the following images.
[6] I cannot understand the meaning or connotation of this sentence. In fact, I have no idea for all of sentence I highlighted in red color. I hope you can give me some suggestions, Professor.
[7] This line 河漢雖清淺 “although the starry sky is clear and simple,” is also intentionally added here as a background of “you can’t tell star from star.” And the main purpose is to translate the half sentence into a whole Chinese couplet.
[8] Again, in order to keep couplets, I have to translate this short sentence into two poetic lines. So, I choose to use two lines with same meaning. I think they can also function intertextuality
[9] Niuyang 牛羊 is a semantically related compound here, although I add yang羊(sheep) after niu 牛(bull), it do not influence that the main meaning here focuses on “bull.”
[10] Xugong虛恭 is a tradition Chinese euphemism of “fart”. Adopting this word is because I hope to keep my diction and wording in the style of classical Chinese.