Thank you so much, dear author! For all I keep asking for it, I never really thought someone would write me this, and to be honest when I got the notification, I just sort of stared at the screen for a while, not actually reading it, because I was so pleased someone had written it but also suddenly worried: supposing it was terrible, or just disappointing? And now, having read it (twice), I'm staring at the screen again for different reasons, because I don't know where to start thanking you. I love the setting you've chosen, which is new and yet also has hints of the political context of the original; they way you've taken so many parts (the love story, abortion, the Taoist search for immortality) and examined them from a modern perspective; the tone of ... I'm not sure what to call it ... indeterminacy, perhaps - the way the story can't be pinned down to quite one meaning and one certain end, which is one of the qualities I love about Li Shang-yin's work; and most of all, of course, what you've done with the imagery, how brilliantly you've fit it to the space-age setting while also acknowledging the weight of cultural history the symbols have. And, look, I'm repeating myself, I know, but I have to just say again how amazed and thrilled I am that anyone wanted to write me this. I can't believe that you put so much care and detailed thought into making something this good just for me. (Well, hopefully not just for me - everyone else should read it and admire it as it deserves, but just because I asked for it. Really, thank you so much.)
Oh yay, you liked it. I was intrigued enough by seeing the fandom had been nominated to offer it and to not-so-secretly wish I was matched with it, but when I saw the request was from the giftor of Postcards from Kyoto I knew I had to write it as a treat. It was a interesting challenge, to say the least. FWIW, I already knew Li from Graham's translations (my favorite volume of translations) but the Liu commentary was extremely helpful -- I have not yet acquired that volume, but will Soonest.
It really is one of the delights of Yuletide that you can ask for something no one you know is interested in and find other people who love it as well. In this case, of course, I not only had the pleasure of find someone likeminded but also the pleasure of reading such an excellent story, so you made me happy twice over.
One of the qualities I especially appreciated in Green was the sheer care with which it was written, by which I don't mean in the least that it smelled of the lamp, but rather that each part of it - from individual word choices through to the overall shape of the piece and the weight given to each section - showed an elegant judgement and sense of balance. Now I know you were the writer, I'm not surprised, since it's a quality I admire in your translations also.
The Graham is wonderful, isn't it. I bought Poems of the Late T'ang many years ago, mostly on a whim, and fell in love: I suspect it was the root, or at least the seed, of much of my subsequent interest in Chinese Literature. Looking back, I was very lucky to stumble on something so very good by accident. (My subsequent purchase of Liu's translation and commentary was less accidental - I still have vivid memories of traipsing round what felt like every secondhand bookshop in London asking if the had it and begging them to get it in for me if it could be found. The internet does make things rather easier.)
Heh. I spent the better part of two weeks revising and polishing this, trying to make it as poetic as possible (while still prose). As it is, I still feel there's something a leetle bit off in the last third, something not quite in balance that I haven't put my finger on.
I keep returning to Graham as having some of the wisest advice on and practice of translation I know. That there's so much good poetry in there as well is, of course, a bonus.
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Quillori
Posted Sun 25 Dec 2011 10:48AM EST
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lnhammer
Posted Sun 01 Jan 2012 10:58AM EST
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Quillori
Posted Sun 01 Jan 2012 01:32PM EST
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lnhammer
Posted Sun 01 Jan 2012 02:20PM EST
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