Part 1 (Annotated Bibliography):
1.Chat, Bui, “One-Rhyme Poems” Giấy vụn , 2009, Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2010 http://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/en-7199#.VG0Oy5PF_-0
This source is a website in which Bui Chat recorded himself reading his own poems. It consists of many different poems, as well as their translations in both English and German.
“Đối & Chiếu” by Bui Chat seems to keep repeating the words “Chúng tôi” which when put into Google Translate, as well as the translation on the website, it means “we” however this word could also mean “our” as well as “us.” This makes the translation of the poem a lot more difficult for us, due to the fact that it does not stick to one translation, but gives us many different ones. This reminds me of Juliana Spahr’s, The Transformation. Her language is very metaphoric as well as poetic. She writes in the third person plural, and completely eliminates herself from the situation, exactly like Bui Chat, as he mixes all the multiple pronouns so that the readers can choose how they want to interpret the poem. She writes in a way in which her readers can visualize the situation of her characters, adding repetition within her text giving her story the literal meaning of their journey. This is exactly how I am interpreting Bui Chat’s poem and his different techniques; this is what I am taking from the poem.
This source is mainly for people who enjoy skimming through readings, rather than trying to receive a lot of information. This source only gives the reader a literal translation of the poem, without elaboration or analysis. There is only the translation as well as a recording of Bui Chat himself reading his poem in Vietnamese.
2. Binh Nugyen, interview by Margaret Siskind, Đối & Chiếu, December 1st 2014.
After a lot of searching, Margaret Siskind finally found a Vietnamese poet named Binh Nugyen that would help with the translating and interpreting the poem, “Đối & Chiếu” by Bui Chat. She briefly described the story of what was happening in the poem. A man meets a woman that he once knew. She is bruised, and a prostitute. However it could be interpreted in many different ways. He offers to buy a boat from her, but she declines and asks why he didn’t offer when she was young and pure.
Nugyen revealed the different themes within the poem. There is a sense of purity and light, but also dark pain; there are changes in seasons, and juxtaposing atmospheres. Meeting with her really helped my group and I understand the literal translation within this poem. Margaret’s interview with her could evidently be the story behind those Vietnamese words.
3. Fig.1. John Casablancas, Pho Grand, photography, 750×1000, Available from: Learning Portfolio, http://portfolio.newschool.edu/is1shiftfall14/2014/11/19/week-10-subs-alia-john-maggie/
Our group decided to go to a Vietnamese restaurant, to further investigate the culture, as well as have the waiters translate the poem for us in English as we hoped that they would be natives of Vietnam, similar to what Molly Weigel did.
John Casablancas took this image at the restaurant, and we decided that it would be fitting to use this image because it gave us all the opportunities to explore the food and culture. However as it turned out that no one in the restaurant spoke Vietnamese. The owner of the restaurant was Chinese, as well as the rest of the waiters.
This experience has a key connection with Spahr’s pronoun ambiguity in The Transformation. She writes in third person plural, and essentially describes herself as a separate person to eliminate herself from the equation. And that is what happened to us, we were stuck in a Vietnamese restaurant, however we were not able to locate a native speaker, and therefore we only received a sense of culture but could not receive a visual translation.
Part 2 (“Final” translation):
Written by the Vietnamese poet, Bùi Chát
đối & chiếu:
[1]trèo lên cây ổi [vô tư]
[2]hái huê [hớn hở]
[3]bươc xuống vườn huệ [huế]
[4]ngăt nụ xì tin [mực tím/tuổi mới lớn]
[5] nụ tì xin [mực xanh/tuổi mới ốm]
[6] thè ra mim mím [nhẹ nhàng]
[7] em bán mình rùi [cho ai, cho ai]
[8] anh… [?]
[9] tím tái thay! [dễ sợ]
[10] [ô hay] !!!!
[11] bao tiền một chiêc máy bay [du thuyền cũng đặng]
[12] sao anh không sắm [tậu]
[13] luc/thời còn nguyên [luyến tiếc]
[14] bi giừ em đã có tuyền [tiền]
[15] như con chim chuyền [khó nắm]
[16] như cá dưới sông [khó lội]
[17] cá dưới sông có khi còn băt [nói thăt]
[18] chớ cá dưới bể băt mần răng đây [nói thiệt]
[19] lại về trèo lên ngọn cây [hớn hở lần nữa]
[20] ngồi chờ huê nở [mong đợi]
[21] bàn tay rờ cành/& lá [ngậm ngùi]
nguồn: [trong bảng tra mục từ: o & r]. từ điển biểu tượng văn hoá thế giới (phụ lục) – nhà xuât bản đà nẵng, trường viêt văn nguyễn du – tháng 10.1997
Final Translation
Deception/Negligence
Climbs up, climbs down
Into the lily garden, thinking about youth
Plucking buds of “style”
Smiling in a controlled way
You’ve sold yourself? To whom?
Me?
Your body is bruised, frightening
What!
How much for a plane?
Even a yacht would do, splurge it
Why didn’t you buy it when I was still young and pure?
So no I have money
You’re like an unstable bird that flocks from branch to branch
Like a fish beneath the river water, finding it hard to swim
Fish in the sea are still possible to catch
But fish in the ocean, how can they be caught?
He goes back home to his tree
Sit and await the flowers bloom
He extends his hand to touch the branch.
Margaret Siskind met with a Vietnamese poet named Binh Nugyen to help with the translating of the poem; they had a very successful interview. After receiving the translation from the poet herself, I decided to mix it with my middle translation, because that was generated from Google Translate so I thought it would be a very interesting translation if I intermingled both the poets views and the translation of the poem as well as their literal meaning. There are a couple of similarities in the two translations, an example being that some of the words Google generated were the same as Nugyen’s translation. However the difference is that the poem is so vague that it is all left to the reader’s interpretation. Therefore Google’s translation is interpreted differently to Nugyen. So putting the different interpretations and translations together created a very interesting “final” translation.
Many larger abstract ideas emerge from my translation, because there are so many hidden meanings, and a very strong metaphoric language, therefore the whole poem is left for the readers to decide what they want to understand from the poem. My group and I coincidently all made a mock up studio book that was very structural that included hidden gaps and different pockets which symbolized our interpretation of the poem. When we were coming up with a final we decided to each come up with 5 pages worth of “something” that can symbolize the poem, in whatever medium we want, and therefore we will end up with a variety of different interpretations, and then we take everyone in the groups pages and put it together to create one big book. I think this is the best way of creating a book for this poem as the poem is written purposely for the readers to be able to interpret it in as many different ways as possible and so this book will have the interpretation in 4 different points of view, which could be extremely interesting.
The ambiguity of birds, they could represent prostitution, or freedom.
