Chinese and Western Civilizations in Dialogue (XII)

Speaker Biography

LÜ Ruyu, Lecturer at the Department of French, School of Foreign Languages, Renmin University of China. Her research focuses on French Sinology, translation theory, and French literary criticism, with numerous academic publications. A seasoned translator of French literature, she has published four translated works. Her translation of The Rejection Library earned her the 14th Fu Lei Translation Publishing Award (New Translator Prize).

Lecture Overview

Classical Chinese poetry, with its distinctive formal structures and aesthetic essence, presents seemingly insurmountable challenges when being rendered into another language. Yet paradoxically, these ancient verses continue to be translated and reinterpreted across linguistic boundaries, manifesting their enduring charm in foreign tongues. This intriguing contradiction invites our exploration.

The translation of classical Chinese poetry navigates diverse historical contexts and individual translator choices, while simultaneously confronting the fundamental boundaries and connections between languages and literatures. Through examining multiple English and French translations of "A Moonlit Night on the Spring River" (Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye), this lecture will illuminate the multidimensional nature of poetic translation. By juxtaposing and layering different interpretations of the same work, we aim to trace the textual afterlife of the original poem in foreign lands and explore its expanded interpretive horizons.

Event Details

Date: May 23 (Friday)

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Venue: Room 603, Lide Building

Preparatory Reading

Paul Ricoeur: "Ferrying Across: Translating the Untranslatable" in On Translation, pp. 97-109.