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

Some of the poems are in this single file [pdf].
  1. Bai xin yue (RSJC, FJC, TP, TP, MAW, MAW, IW)
  2. Song cui jiu (DD, IW, DJW)
  3. Song xiong with translation (DJW)
  4. Xiang si with translation (DJW)
  5. Xun yin zhe bu yu with translation (TP, JV, CO, MJH, PBG, MV+BZ)
  6. Ye si (DD, SD, KH, CH, DH, IW, DJW)
  7. Ye su shan si (TP, DJW, CMW, IW, LJW)
  8. You zi yin (DJW, S&A, MAW, CMW)
  9. Yu jie yuan with translation (CMW, MAW, TP, DJW, IW)
  10. Za shi (DJW, MAW, CMW, IW)
  11. Zhu li guan (S&A, LJW, MAW, DJW, IW)
  12. Song meng hao ran (DJW, MAW, MAW, LJW, IW)
  13. Zi ye si she ge dong ge (DJW, PSM, RN, DN)
  14. Deng guan qiao lou
  15. Chun si (DJW, IW, CMW, MAW)
  16. Deng you zhou tai ge (DJW, CO, BK, MJH, PBG, JV)
  17. Zhong nan wang yu xue (DJW, IW, CMW, SD, DD)
  18. Su jian de jiang (MAW, DJW, IW, LJW, CMW)
  19. Chun xiao (DJW, LJW, CMW, IW)
  20. Yuan qing (LJW, DJW, CMW, IW, MAW)
  21. Ba zhen tu (MP, IW, CMW, TP, LJW, DJW)
  22. Song ling che (IW, MAW, TDG, LJW, DJW)
  23. Dan qin (IW, MAW, LJD, DJW, DS)
  24. Song shang ren (MV, DJW, TDG)
  25. Qiu ye ji qiu yuan wai

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.