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Dear Friends;

Li Ching Chao (1084-1151, CE) was unknown to me until I became involved in the Antioch University LA translation workshop led by the poet/translator Peter Levitt. Thus Li Ch’ing Chao is a gift outright for which I am in Professor Levitt’s debt. Peter Levitt, the recipient of many awards for his own 8 volumes of poetry, is also internationally acclaimed for his translations from not only the Chinese, but from the Japanese and Spanish as well.

I find it difficult to translate someone’s poetry until I know something of the person who set down the words and their circumstances. I found the barriers of culture, time and place, and in this case, gender, to be high.

Finally, I awakened in the middle of my night to realize that Li Ching Chao would in fact resemble in so many ways someone I met in on a glorious day in southern France some decades ago, wit, the elegant and profoundly intelligent Madame Chiang Kai Shek.

She was a Wellesley graduate, cosmopolitan, articulate in several languages. I was incredibly earnest man of 19, but very much a product of rural, red clay, South Carolina, and at that time of very limited educational achievement. To say that I was awed by this exquisite personage, articulate and lovely in a coral-colored raw silk suit that undoubtedly out of some upscale Paris boutique would be understatement.

The parallels between Li and Chiang, are too enticing not to recount here. Li Ch’ing Chao and Madame Chang both experienced a seismic reversal of their fortunes due profound political changes, in the case of Li, this was due to the flight and eventual demise of the northern Sung dynasty, and in the case of Madame Chiang, the end of the Sun Yat Sen regime and the ascendancy of Mao Tse Tung. Madame Chiang was also a writer who wrote many books of political commentary. Below is a picture of Madame Chiang and her Generalissimo. I can well imagine it be a representation of the author of evocative and poignant poem, “To the Tune of Like a Dream,” the notable Li Ching Chao and her spouse.

The photo is from the collection of the Lilly Library at Duke University, that institution being one of this translator’s alma maters.

Having established a personal frame of reference for Li, my translation flowed much more smoothly, the word choices evolving quite naturally from the references provided.

With Kindest Regards,

John R. Guthrie

Joy of Wine, to the tune “A Dream Song” Version I

By Li Ching Chao

I often recall the evening ,

As the sun set above the pavilion

Us too drunk

To find our way home.

Out ebulliance spent.

We took a wrong turn, entering

deep into a flowering lotus bed

How we struggled to row through,

Frightening a flock of herons

That suddenly took flight

Translated by John R. Guthrie

When she was eighteen Li Ch'ing-Chao married Chao Ming-ch'eng. Their marriage was one of equals. It was also a passionate union of hearts and minds. Some of her poems for him are overtly erotic. Others, such as the below, express her longing for his presence when he was away and her joy on his return.

Springtime’s Return: To the Tune “Small Hills”

Spring has arrived in the women’s quarters.

The Grass once more is kingfisher green.

The plum blossom’s bursting buds

Are soon to open.

The clouds are Jade dragons,

The fine dust of jade powder.

I embrace my morning dream;

The cup of springtime

I have drained and cast away.

Flowers are blooming at the garden gate.

Pale moonlight persists

In the glow of early dawn.

Three times in two years

My lord has traveled to the east.

Today he returns.

My Joy is already

Greater than springtime.

The Chickasaw Plum - Volume II - Number 8 - August 2005

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