In translating James Scruton’s “The Dream of Young Achilles,” I discovered just how challenging the act of translating can be. I learned a great deal of new vocabulary while translating and editing my translation of this poem. Since the poem contains a narrative that functions in part on the understanding of the myth of Achilles as well as language that plays on the concept of a river (presumably the River Styx), I needed to find and use the vocabulary and grammar that not only conveyed the literal meaning of the words that are present in the poem but also carried the creative symbolism of the original work.
After showing my translation to my Chinese advisor, Professor Tsao, I realized that there could be multiple interpretations that I had overlooked. I originally thought that the poem was about a dream Achilles has as an adult or teenager, predicting his future death in the Trojan War. Revisiting the second stanza, I found that it could also be interpreted as a dream of Achilles as a child or an infant after he is dipped into the River Styx and learning to walk. I chose to keep the words “入睡 rùshuì” and “睡醒shuìxǐng” in the first and second stanzas to emphasize the aspect of sleep and dreaming in the poem and how that blurs the line between prophecy or dreams and reality. While “入睡 rùshuì” and “睡醒shuìxǐng” use the same character for sleep (睡 shuì), 入睡rùshuì means to fall or enter into asleep and 睡醒 shuìxǐng means to wake up/to regain consciousness. By placing these words in the first line of the first and second stanzas, it frames the “dream” portion of the poem. My second advisor, Zhongxing Zeng, provided generous explanations on vocabulary and pressed me to think about how best to use grammar to convey the meaning of the poem. The lines, “he gropes/against a flood of skulls,/their jawbones working/the current,” were particularly challenging as I tried to preserve the original poem’s usage of language pertaining to the river while still ensuring that the Chinese made sense. Zhongxing Zeng helped me pick the vocabulary that utilized the water radical as seen in characters “洪流 hóngliú” and “游 yóu” which not only convey the meaning of the water-related vocabulary but also visually represent that aspect of the poem.
Translating this piece has taught me just how beautiful language can be and encouraged me to continue improving my understanding of both English and Chinese. I am grateful to both of my translation reviewers, Professor Joanne Tsao and Zhongxing Zeng, for their patience and guidance in this process. I am also indebted to Jacqueline Balderrama for the opportunity to participate in the Thousand Languages Project and for her encouragement, faith, and immense patience with me throughout this journey. Thank you.
About the Translator:
Andrea Yang graduated from ASU with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Chinese.
Translations:
"The Dream of Young Achilles" by James Scruton (Chinese)
With grateful acknowledgment to translation reviewers: Joanne Tsao & Zhongxing Zeng