change, change, change...

Ran into this one perusing a book of contemporary Taiwanese poetry, by the Hakka poet Zhan Bing (詹冰), born in 1921 in Zhuolan, Miaoli County, Taiwan. It was written on his 70th birthday, and published on August 18th, 1991 in the Taiwan Daily. I took a pretty freely interpretive approach to translating it - it gave me a kind of e.e. cummings feel, and translating several sections quite literally resulted in some cummings-like turns of phrase that I appreciated. Also of course a liberal sprinkling of parentheses (gotta go nuts every now and then, ey?) helps out. Conceit aside, I definitely like the idea of using very directly literal translation occasionally to give a satisfying "strangeness" to passages, so here's my first vague shot at that.

Also, I think quite relevant to this poem, Zhan Bing is one of those extremely interesting authors who grew up in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. His childhood education was entirely conducted in Japanese, and with the 1945 "liberation" of Taiwan at the end of the second World War he faced the daunting task of switching from writing in one imposed non-native language (Japanese) to another (Mandarin Chinese). Wow. 變 變，變，變，。。。。。 時時刻刻， 萬物都在變化 自己，社會，人類，地球，宇宙。。。。。 變，我有一則不變的原則： 要變，就愈變愈美好！ 象蓓蕾變成美麗的花朵 象毛虫變成漂亮的蝴蝶 象黑炭變成燦爛的鑽石 象凡人變成慈悲的佛陀 變成真，善，美，愛，是最美好的！ 我要變成追求真理的科學家 我要變成多行善舉的善人 我要變成創造美境的美術家 我要變成充滿愛心的詩人 不然，我的人生毫無意義了 今天滿七十歲的我 日日月月，繼續努力學習 變，變，變。。。。。 change change, change, change..... (time time moment moment), the innumerable things all now changing self, society, humanity, earth, cosmos..... change, I have one unchanging principle: want change (yes the more change the more splendid)! as bud changes to exquisite flower as caterpillar changes to grand butterfly as black coal changes to resplendent diamond as mortal changes to merciful deity change to true, good, beautiful, love, is the most splendid! I want to change into a scientist, in search of the true I want to change into a welldoer, hands held up in compassion I want to change into an artist, creating worlds of beauty I want to change into a poet, brimful of kindness (or else, my this human life, will without meaning become) today filling seventy years this I (day day month month) goes on with the struggle of learning change, change, change..... -Zhan Bing (詹冰), t. Rob Voigt