The poems in this
collection have been recreated in Scots from versions in English of
ancient Chinese poems recorded as far back as the seventh century BC,
covering a period of well over two millennia. The English versions used as
sources were largely those of Arthur Waley, Arthur Cooper, L.
Cranmer-Byng, Kenneth Rexroth and David Cobb. The English neo-classical
poetic tradition was long preoccupied with abstractions, rather than with
the perennial concerns of living people. Thus, when versions in English
of wonderful ancient Chinese poems were first published early last
century, they were actually regarded with disapproval in England, because
they did not fit into this entrenched, sophisticated tradition.
English has now
developed into an international scientific and technological language
employed by hundreds of millions of people with many different cultural
backgrounds, living in different parts of the planet. It is sometimes
argued that, because it is not longer the language of any specific
community, and has lost contact with its original social roots, English is
no longer a suitable language for poetry, which is properly concerned
with the life (and plight) of Man as a social being. Although the Scots
language is certainly closely related to English, this argument cannot be
applied to Scots. Scots is an intimate social language which is much less
concerned with abstractions than English. It is specific to an
identifiable community and it has a very different emotional flavor from
English.
I believe that these
versions of Chinese poems in Scots have a vigor and emotional quality in
Scots which was not always evident in the English verions from which they
were derived. The Scots language can be powerful, tender, earthy or
humorous, and the best poetry reflects the sentiment expressed by Burns
that the hert’s aye, the pairt aye, that maks us richt or wrang.
The compatibility of the Scots language with ancient Chinese poetry is no
doubt due to the fact that this is usually straight from the heart. Scots
has its limitations, but it does not lend itself to pomposity or
affectation, and may therefore be a more suitable medium than contemporary
English for rendering these poems. Whether these recreations do justice
to the original poems in Chinese is a question for the judgment of the
select band of Chinese scholars who are also familiar with literary Scots.
Note: The links below are to .pdf files
