Roads to Cold Mountain: Translations and the Construction of Images of Han Shan
Abstract
Han Shan, a Chinese poet who lived during the Tang dynasty (618- 907), has become a major author today in the English-speaking world through a number of translations of his poems during the last sixty years. This paper investigates how translations contribute to the construction of the images of Han Shan. It explores the images of Han Shan as an educated Chinese recluse and a Buddhist master found in the most and least frequently translated poems in several English translations from the 1950s to the 1990s. Then, an examination follows of why certain images of Han Shan found in the most frequently translated poems have remained and why the images in the least frequently translated poems have been forgotten. The author argues that choices made by translators may have been unconsciously influenced by certain Chinese sources rather than by the poems per se. Moreover, the translations have constructed and strengthened one image of Han Shan instead of another. It is concluded that the construction of Han Shan images is shaped significantly by early sinologists and translators.
