Buyu, the Chinese Poetry Game

Poetry cannot be translated from one language to another without losing or distorting some essential aspect of meaning. This is especially true when the languages, and also the complex web of associations and rhythms and traditions, are as far apart as Chinese and English.

Not!

The Buyu game is about translating poetry from Chinese to English. Each of the following poems comes with all the meanings of every ideogram, and it is up to you—the translator—to produce beautiful English poetry. (See also John Searle's 'Chinese Room'.) I've asked friends to translate some of these poems, and I've collected some of their wide range of alternative readings.

These poems are all taken from a collection called 300 Tang Poems. The Tang period, 618–906 AD, is the golden age of Chinese poetry. In the eighteenth century an anonymous scholar, who signed himself 'the retiring scholar of the fragrant pool', collected 300 representative poems from 77 of the greatest Tang poets. There are many versions available online, e.g. chinapage.com, chinese-tools.com.

The poems, and our translations

  1. bai xin yue (RSJC, FJC, TP, TP, MAW, MAW, IW)
  2. ba zhen tu (MP, IW, CMW, TP, LJW, DJW)
  3. xun yin zhe bu yu (TP, JV, CO, MJH, PBG, MV+BZ )
  4. chang gan hang er shou zhi er (No translations)
  5. chang gan hang er shou zhi yi (No translations)
  6. chun si (DJW, MAW, CMW, IW)
  7. chun xiao (DJW, LJW, CMW, IW)
  8. dan qin (LJW, MAW, DS, DS, DJW, IW)
  9. deng guan qiao lou (No translations)
  10. deng le you yuan (No translations)
  11. deng you zhou tai ge (CO, PBG, DJW, JV, BK, MJH, MAW, SMS, LJW, IW, JEC, CMW, DJW)
  12. du han jiang (No translations)
  13. ge shu ge (No translations)
  14. hang gong (No translations)
  15. he man zi (No translations)
  16. jiang xue (No translations)
  17. qiu ye ji qiu yuan wai (LJW, SMS, MAW , IW , CMW, DJW)
  18. song du shao fu zhi ren shu zhou (No translations)
  19. song cui jiu (DD, IW, DJW)
  20. song ling che (IW, MAW, TDG, LJW, DJW)
  21. song meng hao ran zhi guang ling (DJW, MAW, MAW, LJW, IW)
  22. song shang ren (MV , DJW , TDG , SMS, LJW, MAW, JEC, DJW, IW, CMW)
  23. song xiong (DJW)
  24. su jian de jiang (MAW, LJW, IW, CMW, DJW)
  25. ting zheng (CMW, MAW , MAW , DJW , LJW , GS )
  26. wen liu shi jiu (No translations)
  27. xiang si (DJW)
  28. xin jia niang (No translations)
  29. ye si (PGT, ABD, OJB, MRHM, DD, SD, KH, DH, IW, DJW, CH)
  30. ye su shan si (TP, DJW, CMW, IW, LJW)
  31. you zi yin (DJW, S&A, MAW, CMW)
  32. yuan qing (LJW, MAW, CMW, IW, DJW)
  33. yu jie yuan (CMW, MAW, TP, DJW, IW)
  34. yu tai ti (No translations)
  35. zao fa bai di cheng (No translations)
  36. za shi (DJW, MAW, CMW, IW)
  37. zhong nan wang yu xue (SD, DD, CMW, IW, DJW)
  38. zhu li guan (S&A, LJW, MAW, DJW, IW)
  39. zi ye si shi ge dong ge (DJW, PSM?, RN?, DN?)
  40. zi ye si shi ge qiu ge (No translations)

How Chinese Works

Here are some absurdly simplistic things to remember when you're translating.

Note on viewing Chinese in your web browser

If these poems come out full of funny squares or question marks instead of Chinese characters, you need to install Chinese fonts.